New Photos!

Here's my third album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039165&id=1547790310&l=910fd5127f

New M.O.

So I was posting stuff pretty frequently there for a while, then things got a little crazy and I got behind and I couldn't possibly do justice to everything I've done in the past month via blog post. Plus it just would have taken forever to write. Thus, I've decided to simply post the album links for all the photos I've taken during my adventures and you can keep up with me that way instead. Picture's worth a thousand words right? Well I have about 400 photos to share so far. Let's call it even. Check back every once in a while for updates, and enjoy!

Album #1 Click here

Album #2 (work in progress) Click here

In the swing of things

The two month mark has come and gone, and I'm feeling more and more like I actually live here. It was especially apparent to me when George came to visit and I had to speak for him and navigate for us the whole time. A bizarre feeling, but I'm pretty proud of myself. I loved getting to show him around all my favorite places and some new ones. We had a rowdy good time, and I was very sad to see him leave. Sibling trips need to happen way more often. Side note: George may not have spoken a word of Portuguese, but hearing him speak Spanish was extremely impressive and sad. I really think I've forgotten most of what I learned. I can understand everything that's being said, but now I couldn't form a sentence without thinking about it for about 5 minutes first. And I studied Spanish for a long time. I guess you're not supposed to try to master them simultaneously, but still. I was really good at it for a while there.

I've recently begun a long process of trying to figure out what I want to do after college. There's work and there's graduate school, neither of which I am too sure about. I thought I'd start by volunteering somewhere in São Paulo while I'm here, to see what kinds of options there are in my area of interest. The problem with interdisciplinary majors is that I don't really have a focus. I know I want to work with Latin America in the realm of social and/or economic development. What I don't know is in what capacity--government agency, non-profit, for-profit, diplomacy, MNC, NGO, in the U.S. or down here... Feeling slightly lost and ignorant. Fortunately, I heard from some Manna friends about a microfinance/social enterprise non-profit that is working in Brazil now called Ayllu, so today I met up for coffee with it's founder, Melissa, to talk about volunteer opportunities. She's wonderful and what she's done is very impressive. Unfortunately, Ayllu is still super small (founded in 2007) and doesn't have room for volunteers, plus they are getting ready to move to Curitiba where there is more infrastructure and it will be easier and more efficient to support local businesses the way they need. I hadn't had to answer this question straight out until Melissa asked me, but I think what I really care about most is protection/development/improvement of education and the environment in Latin America. Good news is that Melissa's temporary SP office is at The Hub, a hotspot for really cool organizations like hers that are trying to change the world, basically, and she's going to send my information to all its members to see if they need volunteers. And she sounded like they did. Definitely excited to see how it turns out.

In other news, I've done a ton of stuff on my list of things to do in São Paulo! Went to MASP, ventured out more in Pinheiros, Jardins, and Itaim, ate Chinese and Japanese in Liberdade, went to some new restaurants/bars, bought my first Brazilian bikini, partied on Rua Augusta among SP's crazies, finally went to the jazz bar down the street, and had a lovely picnic in Ibirapuera. Sometimes I can't believe I'm getting school credit for being here.

So that's my status. Making plans for St. Patty's Day 2010, as I'm sure you all are. And then Thursday I'm going to be singing "Parabens pra você" (the birthday song) via Skype to the most wonderful, loving, beautiful, supportive, amazing mother in the entire world!!! Whom I will get to see in just 11 days!! Eeeeek!

But until then I get to spend this weekend in Paraty, a gorgeous beach town northeast of here in the state of Rio de Janiero, with the CIEE group. Major relaxation is in order. And lots of sunscreen. Can't wait!

Back to School

Sorry for the super long delay in writing this post but I've been pretty busy. Anyway, Carnaval was a blast! Hard to believe it's already over. Florianopolis has some beautiful beaches and our hostel was a really cool place to stay. It's owned by a couple of really sweet girls who DJ at a club in town, so we got some VIP access one night. The music selection was one of the funniest things I've ever heard--including Spice Girls and Hanson? A few Aussies and Swedes were staying at the hostel too so we made some interesting new friends. It was so nice to wake up whenever, head to the beach, drink some caipirinhas, jump some waves, walk around, people watch (ooh so many thongs), and head back to get ready for the night. The Florianopolis Sambodromo was really fun, but, not surprisingly, the parade was not as impressive as São Paulo's. The Centro had some street parties going on, and we were bumping into and meeting tons of random people from all over. Unfortunately, I got extremely sunburned one day at the beach and have been recovering for the past two weeks. Sunscreen doesn't cut it here I guess. Hopefully I'll figure it out, because we have two trips to Paraty and Rio coming up and I cannot afford another burn like that one. Regardless, getting psyched for Paraty and Rio! This time it'll be the entire CIEE group traveling together as opposed to me and a few of my friends, so should be interesting. Also, George is coming to visit next week! Yaaayy! I can't wait to show him around. He has threatened to say nothing but "AMURRICA!" the entire time, so hopefully we won't get arrested or mugged.

Last Saturday I finally made it to the flea market in Praça Benedito Calixto, and it was awesome. Tons of antique silver, photographs, records, leather goods, old postcards, clothes, knives, sunglasses, jewelry, you name it. I could have spent all day there. Plus there's apparently some really great ethnic food in the middle of the square I need to try next time. I've made a running list of things I need to do around the city and it's pretty long so I better get cracking. One of my friends and I have pledged to get out more and explore the city, and we're starting this week with MASP and Avenida Paulista. My list also includes 39 different bars/baladas. It's a tough job but someone's gotta do it.

My first few classes have gone pretty well. I can generally understand everything going on. Four hours of one class is a lot, though, and feels even longer during a night class when you can hear hundreds of people partying on the street behind PUC. On top of that, I'm trying to concentrate in another language. Thank God I only have one night class. I've just tried to read my first assigned reading, and it's also extremely challenging. The workload wouldn't be that much in English, but it takes so much longer when I have to consult my Portuguese dictionary at least once every other sentence. I'm sure it'll get easier, but jeez. The Evolution of of Political Citizenship in Brazil? Not quite ready for this vocab.

My new language teacher, Laïs, seems great. We only have language class twice a week now, and culture class once a week with Wilson. No classes on Fridays! First time in my whole life.

Just discovered a couple of events coming to São Paulo I'm super excited about. Cirque du Soleil is performing Quidam throughout March, and I've heard it's amazing. I loved Alegria when I was little, so I'm interested to see how this one compares. Also, the world's largest rave is coming to São Paulo on April 17th! It's called Sensation, usually gathers about 40,000 people, really famous DJs, and everyone wears white. Never been to a rave, but I'm in Brazil, and this is as big as they come, and I like to party, so why not?

Also, my mom and Ellen are coming to São Paulo at the end of March! They're going to whisk me away to Manaus and then Rio right before Easter. Can't really believe it's happening... the Amazon and Ipanema in the same week... I think my life will be complete. I can already tell the next few months are going to go by way too quickly.

Oh! And my buddy Dillon's coming to SP this Thursday with some UVa students on some kind of service trip for 10 days. He thinks he'll have time to meet up, so could be an SJS reunion in the mix. So many visitors! Must. Remember. Go. To. Class.

Carnavalização 2k10

Spending my 21st birthday in Foz de Iguaçu was one of the best decisions I ever made. I actually turned 21 on a bus full of sleeping smelly Brazilians--without any alcohol--but it was definitely worth it once we arrived on the Brazilian side of the falls. It was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. There was a walkway that put us out over the water and surrounded on all sides by waterfalls, probably 300° of falls. There are several different levels of waterfalls, so we had some above and below us, which means we got pretty much soaked. Very refreshing after spending, count 'em, TWENTY hours on the bus (we thought it was going to be sixteen). Despite the length of the trip, it was really awesome watching the Brazilian countryside roll by. It's a huge part of Brazil that I'd never seen before and it's beautiful. The hills are covered with farms and dairy cows, and the sunset was gorgeous. Also, the bus driver put on a bootlegged Avatar DVD in Portuguese. Sweet. After hiking around the Brazilian side and taking in the views, we went back into town and got some dinner where I had my very first legal beer!! Woo!! Went back to the hostel and spent the rest of the night swimming, hanging around the pool, and meeting a bunch of fellow international travelers. That was one of my favorite parts, just asking people where they're going and why. We met Germans, Dutch, Britons, Mexicans, Argentinians, Spaniards, Australians, Isrealis... and they were all so nice.

The next day we set off on a bus with a bunch of other hostel guests to the Argentinian side of the falls. Our bus driver was CRAZY and would whistle the same 4 second song every 2 minutes. Without fail. For an hour and a half. His response to most things was overwhelmingly, "MAMMA MIA!" and he enjoyed referring to everyone by their country of origin. We felt apprehensive when handing over all our passports for him to take into the immigration checkpoint, but sure enough he returned with passports in tact. I officially have an Argentina stamp in my passport now! A slightly sketchy process, because no one on the bus ever saw or spoke to an immigration official, but we crossed over the border nonetheless. Anyway, we made it to the park and quickly (and sadly) realized we had forgotten almost all of our Spanish. Anything we tried to say came out a weird mix of Spanish and Portuguese. It was pretty frustrating/hilarious, but we managed, and started hiking around. Looking back, the Brazil side has more beautiful, panoramic views, but the Argentina side is more fun because we could get much closer to the falls, and there was also a short rafting tour that took us underneath one of the falls, the highlight of the trip in my opinion. The key word here is under, not behind, but directly under. We had been walking for hours (Iguaçu is the largest waterfalls reserve in the world), hot and sweaty and tired, and then we just got pummeled by tons of freezing water. I couldn't even open my eyes there was so much water hitting me from every direction. It was awesome! Felt like a new person after that. Then we took a little train to Garganta del Diablo, the tallest and biggest single fall in the park. It was amazing. We had to walk about half a mile on a walkway over the surprisingly calm river to get there, then we started to hear the rush of water, and the cloud of mist got bigger as we got closer. Then the river drops off into a massive semicircle opening--the the water was so loud you had to shout to be heard, and the mist was almost blinding. Just unbelievable (picture above is Garganta).

The people watching was absurdly amusing, the wildlife was adorable (see Coati pics left), aaand I got pretty sunburned even after re-applying sunscreen about five times. What are ya gonna do. On Sunday, we checked out of the hostel, and Alicia and I went to the Parque das Aves before having to catch our bus, while the other three lounged by the pool and waited for us. Totally worth it. The park is kind of like a zoo, in that all the birds have large but enclosed habitats, but then there are some habitats where we could go inside and be like inches from toucans and parrots and macaws. So cool! So many weird and beautiful birds. I know the females like their males colorful, but I'll never really understand how neon colored feathers survived evolution. They had birds from all over Brazil and South America, in addition to other places around the world. There was also a butterfly/hummingbird habitat, and a reptile section. Unfortunately, I had spent my camera battery the day before in Argentina, so I couldn't take more than 4 pictures before the thing totally died. Such a shame. Especially because we were lucky enough to witness the most bizarre, fear-inducing bird I've ever seen or heard of. It's called the Southern Cassowary, or Double Wattled Australian Cassowary (Casuar in Portuguese), and it's the closest thing I've ever seen to a dinosaur. It apparently feeds on nuts and fruit, but is also known to have KILLED HUMANS BY KICKING THEM TO DEATH. What. The. Hell. Just read this article abstract:  

This species is Australia's largest bird and holds a reputation for being dangerous. Cassowaries and ostriches are the only birds world-wide that have caused human deaths by physical attack. Incidents occur every year in Queensland; the incidence of cassowary attacks in Queensland is reviewed. Data were obtained for 221 cassowary attacks, of which 150 were against humans, 75% of these by cassowaries fed previously by people. The feeding of cassowaries appears to change their natural behaviour, making them bold and aggressive. Victims were chased or charged in 71% of the incidents, and kicked in 15%. Less frequent actions included pushing, pecking, jumping on, butting with the head and snatching food. The cassowaries appeared to be expecting or soliciting food from humans (73% of the incidents), defending food (5%), and defending themselves (15%) or their chicks or eggs (7%). Contrary to popular belief, jogging did not incite cassowaries to attack. Although cassowaries should not be considered dangerous, they can cause serious injuries. Seven attacks against humans resulted in serious injuries (puncture wounds, lacerations, broken bone) and subsequently one death, caused by cassowaries kicking or jumping on victims. In the single fatal attack, the victim was trying to kill the cassowary. Four of the seven seriously injured victims were crouching or lying on the ground.     Journal of Zoology (1999)

YIKES. Here it is folks. Mid-attack. The ones we saw at the Parque das Aves weren't in an aggressive mood, but they were huge and scary. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. Just YouTube anything about cassowaries or cassowary attacks and you'll get it.

Anywho, the return bus trip back was actually TWENTY TWO hours due to the fact that we were stopped for a good three hours in middle of our drive at 3:00AM. The polícia randomly chose our bus to pull over, and it just so happened that some idiot had bought too much stuff in Paraguay and had his bags confiscated. The guy then gathered money from people on the bus to bribe the police, which made them even angrier. Subsequently the police decided everyone's bags needed to be searched. Also, a couple kids on the bus didn't have identification and were taken off the bus. This was several hours away from Foz, so my question is why didn't the bus company do something about these people before they let them on the bus in Foz. Would have avoided any problems if we were pulled over. You can imagine how much fun it was to sit on a bus in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night for hours, sleep deprived and cranky. To top it off, this particular bus did not have air conditioning. So add sweaty to that list. Yaayyy. This bus ride was most unpleasant and bizarre, but overall the trip was tons of fun and just beautiful. A relaxing retreat after being in a big, polluted, crowded city for a month.

This week has technically been the first week of classes at PUC. However, nothing actually starts in Brazil until after Carnaval. So we were advised to attend class to see if professors showed up, and if they did, to give them a letter from CIEE telling them who we are and about the exchange program. Out of the three classes I attended, only one actually took place. So we'll see how everything is after this week. When I showed up on campus on Monday, I was greeted by a sea of first year students who had been colorfully painted and given nasty haircuts by upperclassmen. People were drinking on the street at 7:30AM. And they continued to drink all day long, of course not going to class, and at night moved the party to the street behind PUC which is full of bars and restaurants where the students hang out. Pretty fun first week of school if you ask me. I didn't go to any big parties on campus this week, but one night I got some drinks with friends at one of those bars, and we met some PUC students. They were really nice, and it's always good to practice Portuguese with young people. We always end up speaking English with each other even though we know it's a terrible habit.

This afternoon kicks off the Carnaval celebration! The city as a whole stops working and starts partying. Carnaval technically ends on Ash Wednesday, but I don't think anyone goes to work or school next Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Most Paulistas leave town for Rio or Salvador for Carnaval. Tonight, I'm going to the Sambodromo here in São Paulo to watch all the samba schools parade from 10PM tonight until around 6AM tomorrow. Then I'm traveling with a few friends to a beach town called Florianopolis in Santa Catarina on a bus that leaves at 11:15AM. I'm packing my bag today and we're going to regroup at my friend's house briefly at some point before heading to the bus terminal tomorrow. This is going to be a crazy night to say the least. Some American students from the CIEE business program are staying at our hostel as well, so should be a pretty fun group. The hostel looks cool, too: http://floriparadise.com/home.html Hopefully the bus rides are less eventful than before. Get ready for Carnaval stories when I get back (Thursday)!

"Sou Fiel, sou Gavião"

My first ever live futebol game (last Saturday, 23/1) was tons of fun and really wet--it rained for practically the entire game. It was one of those times where you just accept that whatever waterproof device you're using will eventually fail and you will be soaked to the bone, but you're not going anywhere. Hypothermia and hilarity ensued. São Paulo beat Rio Claro 3-0, which seemed to please most of the fans (both are SP teams, but the losing team was less popular). Surprisingly, the stadium was on the empty side, and people didn't get too worked up. I don't think it was a very important game.

The next day, a group of us went to a Samba school, which is more like a Mardi Gras krewe than an actual school. The show was extremely impressive--like a miniature Carnaval on a Sunday night. Escola de Samba Mocidade Alegre is one of the best schools in São Paulo, so I was really glad we got to see them. The whole performance is composed of a large drums/percussion band off to the side, some guitarristas on stage, several costumed sambistas--either in pairs or solo--dancing in the middle of the floor, and then a few other organized dance groups on the periphery of the floor. The audience is surrounding the dance floor, dancing of course, and also standing/dancing on second story platforms, where our group was. All the Brazilians knew all the words to the Mocidade Alegre song, and everyone just danced and sang for hours. A conga line formed on the floor and a bunch of people from our group went down to join in, so it was pretty funny watching them mix it up with all the dancers, whose costumes, by the way, were outrageous. I've never seen heels so tall, or feet move so fast... I don't know how they do it. The whole performance made me super excited for Carnaval in a couple weeks.


SP B-Day 2k10 (last Monday) was a great day, and more relaxed than I anticipated. I went with a group of friends to Parque Ibirapuera for a Jazz Sinfônica concert with special guest Ray Lema, a Congolese pianist and songwriter. It was absolutely beautiful. So beautiful in fact that I fell asleep in the sun and got an extremely unfortunate sunburn on the lower eight inches of both my shins, the only place I did not put sunscreen (damn you, leggings). Anywho, I've learned that Paulistas don't really fit into the party-all-the-time Brazilian stereotype, so you don't just stumble upon parties in the street every day, not even on a holiday. It's very common that Paulistas will go out of town on holidays so the city is actually a little calmer.

After the concert I went to Avenida Paulista with some friends to the Livraria Cultural, a great bilingual bookstore, where I picked up some bird books for my bros and some Brazilian cookbooks so I can make brigadeiros and feijoada for all of y'all when I get back. Nom nom.

This past week was really fun and full--did some shopping, chose the classes I'll take at PUC, took a language quiz, went out to some really fun bars, paid a visit to the Policía Federal to have my temporary residence approved, and had my first night going out solely with Brazilians! My friend Débora picked me up on Saturday and took me to her friend's house party a little outside the city, and it was pretty different than what I've been doing so far. The party was nothing unusual--grilling outside, playing cards (a game whose rules I will never learn)--but to have to speak Portuguese for an entire night with actual Brazilians... exhausting and interesting and hilarious. I learned a lot that night because I was forced to get comfortable listening and speaking and keeping up with multiple conversations at once. The main problem is that there is so much slang I don't know yet. It can make understanding really difficult. Hopefully once PUC classes start I'll be spending more time with locals and picking up more language like that.

Also, my second ever live futebol game occurred yesterday, and it could not have been more different than the first: Corinthians vs. Palmeiras, the craziest, most aggressive rivalry among São Paulo teams. It was insane. The Corinthians fan-base has a reputation of being especially rowdy, and they lived up to it. I've never heard so many Portuguese cuss words in my life. Fortunately we were in the middle priced section, which meant the rowdiest people were nowhere near us, nonethless everyone around us was screaming profanity and singing the fight songs and jumping off the walls nonstop. It was an exciting Sunday afternoon to say the least. The game was played in Corinthians' home stadium, so I was relieved to find out that the purple shirt I had worn was actually in accordance with Corinthians colors (black, white, purple). The Palmeiras visitors section was a sea of solid green, and even from a distance they seemed just as loud and rambunctious as the Corinthians fans. In the end Corinthians won, 1-0. There was much rejoicing. Ana Paula said it was good that I went to a Corinthians/Palmeiras game so early in my stay, because as the games get closer to the finals, they get rowdier and more dangerous and it's less likely that she'll even let me go to them. The picture shown above/right is one of several MASSIVE Corinthians banners that unrolled out over the crowd during the game. This one says "Gaviões da Fiel," (Loyal Hawks, or Hawks of the Loyal Torcida) which is not only the Corinthians Sports Club fan organization, but also a Samba school, and I read somewhere the largest fan organization in the world (?). Apparently, Ana Paula's oldest brother was the first white person to join back in the 80s. Crazy. (Torcida, by the way, in this context means something like "supporters" or "fan-base." The actual word means "twisted." You can make of that what you will.)

I took my final language exam this afternoon (not bad at all), and I turn in my final culture paper tomorrow. I can't believe this first month is over already! I'm super excited for Wednesday especially because a few friends and I are taking a little trip--Foz de Iguaçu, here we come!! It's a small town about 660 miles west of here in the state of Paraná, on the border between Brasil and Argentina. Sixteen hours by bus. Yikes. But it'll be worth it--275 waterfalls along 1.67 miles of the Iguaçu River. Garganta do Diabo (Devil's Throat) is the tallest fall: 269 feet. I can't waaaiittt. Pictures I've seen are absolutely beautiful, and we can go on both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides of the falls. Plus there is crazy good wildlife spotting to be done. 450 species of birds. Jealous, Matthew?

Observações

During my 13 days here, I have noticed some weird/cool/noteworthy things that have become part of my daily life. Here are a few of them:

1. Cafezinhos. I always drank my coffee with plenty of milk and Splenda back home in either a large mug or thermos, but these little bad boys have converted me. Cafezinhos are tiny cups of super strong coffee and people drink them outside sitting at cafes or, in my case, as a break in the middle of a three and a half hour language class. I end up having two or three so the size of the cup is kind of irrelevant, but they are so cute! I was walking around a mall last week and people were sitting at Starbucks drinking from teeny weeny little Starbucks mugs. I'm pretty sure they don't have those in the U.S. Anyway, I've come to enjoy strong black coffee as a result. Whodathunk.

2. Power outages. I endured a few of these in Ecuador, but I was only there for four weeks. The first one I experienced here was unfortunately one morning before class when I was about to take a shower. Aaaaand the water heater is electric... I shiver just remembering how cold that shower was. Of course, the power turned on the second I stepped out of the shower. There's no air conditioning here, so it really sucks when the power's out at the apartment because our little fans turn off. Today, the power shut off in the middle of culture class with a deafening thunderous boom. The projector turned off so we continued without PowerPoint and in the dark. No big deal.

3. Daily rain showers. These are pretty consistent during the summer. Usually every night, but sometimes they start in the afternoon. Everyone here has an umbrella on them at all times. If the rain starts during the day, it's likely to pause again before nighttime, and the funniest thing happens. The majority of people do not whip out their umbrellas. Instead they just stop whatever they're doing and wait. Dozens of people just standing under awnings or inside buildings watching the rain. It doesn't matter if the rain lasts 15 minutes or an hour, they will wait. Actually this lax attitude about time and schedule is pervasive. Unless it's in a more formal context, people show up for meetings or get togethers any time within about a two hour window of the previously planned time. It's amazing. It can be confusing when you have no idea when to leave to show up places or when class might end, but it's also nice that there's no pressure to be anywhere soon (especially because buses are so unreliable).

4. Grafite. There is so much graffiti here, it's hard to find an undecorated surface. But it's different than in the U.S. The majority of it is not meant to deface public or private property. It's funky art or poetry or political dissent or someone confessing their love for someone named Marcela. And it's everywhere. Some of them are extremely impressive paintings which look like they took days or weeks to complete. I've been trying to take pictures of them whenever I can, but I don't like taking my camera out much as it screams "I'M A TOURIST."

5. Staring. If you make eye contact with someone walking on the street in the U.S., it can be uncomfortable and one of the two parties usually averts their eyes quickly. However, in Brazil, people don't feel this discomfort. They will stare at you for way longer than necessary. I think it's part of the machismo culture, because it's usually men who are constantly checking out women this way, whistling, honking their car horns. It's apparently totally acceptable and unoffensive. Or, if people are offended, they don't act like it. There was lots of horn honking in Ecuador as well, but there are SO many more people here that it feels more frequent. So interesting, because it's like people have fewer inhibitions about expressing their approval of someone's appearance. In fact, it's encouraged and expected. Image is huge to Brazilians. I think that's why there are so few overweight people here. It's customary for people of any type of relationship to greet each other with complements on eachother's physical appearances. Que linda, que elegante, que bonita!

6. Ambiguous words. I've come across what feels like millions of Portuguese words that have at least 5 different meanings. For example, brigadeiro: a) a rank in the army in between colonel and general, b) someone who fights or quarrels in general c) a delicious chocolate truffle d) the name of the chocolate shop in my neighborhood, e) any one of the many streets with names like Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima or Avenida Brigadeiro Luís Antônio, f) Hotel Brigadeiro, or g) the neighborhood called Brigadeiro. When people say this word, it could be a person, place, or thing and I have no idea. Second example, chato: a) flat or level, b) boring, c) annoying, d) generally bad, e) rude. And the feminine version chata could mean any of these, or barge. It's tough because when I'm trying to say someone is annoying, I may not want to imply they are also rude. Or if someone is rude, they are not necessarily annoying. And if I say a girl boring, am I also calling her a barge?

7. Water, water everywhere... no wait, not really. No one drinks water here! They drink juice, beer, or coffee. That's it. Public water fountains are a rarity. You can buy water bottles but I think it's similar to that European thing where no one uses ice, and if you get water, it may or may not be "com gas." Also, when served a canned soda or bottle of beer, it always comes with a glass. It's evidently more appropriate to drink from a glass than anything else.

Those are my random musings for right now. In terms of news, my language quiz last week went well, I got a 96! Yay. And I don't have homework tonight because instead of class we're going to the Museu da Língua Poruguesa tomorrow. Yay!

I met Ana Paula's mother last Sunday. She's adorable. Ana Paula, her brother, her mother and I went for pizza last Sunday and Senhora could not stop petting Ana Paula's hair and hugging her and cooing and telling her how much she misses her (she lives 20 minutes away). It was really sweet.

On Tuesday, my friend Liz invited Ana Paula and me over to her apartment to have dinner with her and her host mom, Marisol. Our friend Elena came too, and it was sooo much fun! Girls night in but in another language. Marisol is hilarious, and I think she and Ana Paula really like hanging out; they met at a host family meeting before we got to Brazil, and Liz thinks Marisol had her cook just so she could have an excuse to have Ana Paula over. Either way, we were thinking about making it a tradition.

Earlier that day, I finally made it to Parque Ibirapuera with some friends, and it was gorgeous. It's the park in São Paulo most often compared to Central Park. It's huge and has tons if different outdoorsy things to do including several theaters, I believe, a few lakes, basketball courts, lots of people jogging, etc. I didn't have much time because I had to get home to get ready for Liz's dinner, but I sat in the shade reading my book while amigos Matt and Frank played soccer with some locals. It was super relaxing. I need to go back when I have more time (and when I don't have to be the soccer mom).

Good news! I'm becoming comfortable/confident in my bus riding abilities. I actually had two days this week where I was able to get to class and back without a single trip-up. More independent = happier Elizabeth. I also know the area better now so I've been going to the market for things, running around the neighborhood, checking out shops. Kinda freaked out about it there for a second, but thankfully it's feels less intimidating now.

Tons of stuff on the agenda for the weekend because it's São Paulo's 456th birthday on Monday. Which also means no class on Monday, woop woop. I probably won't blog again until next week so here goes:
Friday- Museu da Língua Portuguesa with the group, then my friend's 22nd birthday party, then there are two different music shows I could go to... not sure what we'll do
Saturday- Hopefully check out the Saturday flea market near my house, then my first Brazilian soccer game! São Paulo vs. Rio Claro
Sunday- Going to a samba school with the group, Escola de Samba Mocidade Alegre

There are also things going on all weekend that I really want to do but I can't possibly do all of them... a rock/ska/samba show at Ibirapuera, two art exhibits, a play, a documentary about São Paulo cinema, a contemporary dance performance, and on Monday there's a huge 30-hour festival in Centro, a jazz orchestra concert in Ibirapuera, and another play put on by a famous theater company.... oy. Wish me luck.

And happy birthday Paul Nugent!