"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?