My first "fim de semana" and other thoughts

This is the entrance to our apartment building - Edificio Cirandas. There's a 24-hr guard who knows everyone's faces, but if you don't live there, you need to get permission to enter. We are located in Vila Ema, which is apparently a nicer part of town. There's a pool, which no one swims in during the "winter" (it's 80 degress), a foosball table, and indoor soccer field. Yes, the stereotype that everyone in Brazil plays soccer and loves soccer is overwhelmingly true. Too bad I know nothing about the sport. I'm really happy today because Andrè started talking to me and asked if I wanted to play foosball. I have to keep asking him to speak slowly, but keeping score helped me to practice with the numbers, at least up to 54. By the way, I kicked his ass. Ha.

About race...
I always knew that Americans were a bit overly concerned with being politically correct. On my first day, Sylvia (the mother of my host family) asked if I was Japanese. But when she said it, she did that hand gesture that my third grade classmates used to do to pull their eyes on the sides to make them squinty. We've all been told how offensive this is, but here it is obviously not something that people are sensitive about. I was a bit shocked at first, but after about 10 instances of this, I accepted this as one of those cultural differences....That being said, the US and Brazil have some very obvious similarities racially and ethnically. Brazil is a country that was colonized by Europeans, even though there were natives already here. When the Portuguese arrived, they brought slaves from Africa, and although I'm not aware of the explicit history of racism in Brazil, I think that the treatment of blacks here is comparable to that in the US. Blacks are the minority, they are descendents of slaves, and most of the poorest living in the favelas are black. When I asked Perna (the father of my host family - his nickname "leg") about the racism in Brazil, he said that people here are very accepting of other races. However, when I spoke to a mulata girl at a party, who could speak English very well, she said that she participates in an ONG that works to support upward social mobility for blacks and give them the confidence to succeed despite prejudices against their skin color. She asked if I could come speak (she would translate) and talk about the situation in America, regarding race. I think racism here is pretty similar, except that there are more mixed race people, so in that regard maybe the racial divides aren't as palpable. The more affluent whites - like Perna - say that racism is not a problem. I read on some websites that most people would say that racism is subtle and unspoken. It's the same way that most whites in America would deny the existence of white privilege or xenophobia because it's not really talked about explicitly, unless we're talking about some crazy people in the KKK. A major difference here is that there's no real sense of being politically correct, so they're not afraid to talk about race or make gestures to indicate certain features.


Festa
On Friday night we went to Rebeca's boyfriend's mother's birthday party. The photo above is Perna, who fell asleep while he was waiting for everyone to get ready. Those older Brazilians love their disco music. There was plenty of Gloria Gaynor and Village People, and the DJ kept repeating the songs, as if we hadn't heard enough "YMCA" and "I Will Survive."

Churrasco

Brazilian BBQ is really good. If you haven't had it, I highly recommend it. It's salty meat on kabobs - you can't really go wrong with that. However, there is one type that I just could not eat: the queijo (cheese). It's literally a solid block of cheese that was fried and then char-grilled...it's super salty and....well, cheesy. I took a bite, and thought, "wow, this is an entire block of cheese on a stick," but Brazilians have no problem eating it, so it's obviously something I'm not accustomed to. I have noticed that Brazilians love their cheese even more than Americans and Italians.


Here is Daniel blowing out the soccer ball candle on his chocolate cake. The cake consisted of layers of fluffy chocolate cake and some gelatinous chocolate with big chocolate shavings on top.

Anexo....
On Saturday, Priscila (another American girl in the same exchange program) and I went out with one of her friends from Capoeira class. Priscila has convinced me to go with her so I'm going to try it soon. Anyway, we went out to a club/bar called Anexo. It was a bit bizzare because they had a rock band that covered the Black Eyed Peas and Justin Timberlake....I was confused for a bit, but just went with it. By the way, Brazilian couples really enjoy making out in public, which involves a lot of tongue. And that's an understatement.

Caraguatatuba: my first Brazilian beach experience
We drove an hour to the closest beach, which is Caraguatatuba. The drive was nice because we had to go through the countryside and over the mountains. I guess we were high because I one point we were practically in the clouds. The fog was so thick that we couldn't see 5 ft. in front of us. Also, since everyone here drives stick, the car ride was rough and I got pretty nauseated.

Then, all of a sudden the fog disappears, the sky is clear and you can see the ocean. Caraguatatuba is a vacation town, and since it's the "winter" here (nope, still hot) the town was pretty empty since they're mostly beach houses. The beach was nice, but I was surprised because the way the water looks is how it looks on the east coast (like the Jersey shore and VA beach), but a little greener and cleaner. There were palm trees (which we also have in Sao Jose), and mountains bookending the beaches. It was kind of like Hawaii + VA Beach...good times. The water was cold and I was a pansy, so I only dipped my feet and lay on the sand with my embarrassingly white butt.