5/24/08 10:30 AM
Day 1 Review:
Yesterday was amazing. I got into Brazil, messed around the Sao Paulo airport for a few hours in a daze from the lack of sleep the night before. When I arrived in Belo Horizonte, I was greeted by two adorable kids and a big hug and kiss. This was from the sister of my Portuguese teacher-who I had never met- and her two boys. They were so excited to see me. She even sent her husband to go buy me some Bavarian (maybe) nuts. They were really good!! Even the little boys were trying to offer me gum and water, they were SO cute too. They were 11 and 13 and already asked me to tutor English, which they have been studying for 2 years.
They picked up to take me to the apartment of my host family. They are incredibly nice and caring. My host mom has tried to feed me every food I could think of. My favorite so far was a cake she made from strawberries and dulce de leche, and also Guava jelly (which has the consistency of about beef jerky but tastes like strawberries and parsley… I cannot place the taste) in a sandwich of cheese. Apparently in this state, cheese rules. I found out last night that the girl whose favorite food is “anything with cheese” is now living in the cheese capital of Brazil. SWEET!!
My Portuguese is multiplying by the minute. Last night I went to my first Brazilian AIESEC meeting. It was a meeting for their leadership team, and they were reworking their structure. However, I understood… about 20 words total. It was so hard trying to keep up. I just do not think my brain was quite ready yet. I just smiled, looked interested, and laughed when everyone else did. After the meeting we all went to a bar to talk more. I swear the bars are even pretty here. It is just this really open really well lit place that spills out onto the street with the wonderful Brazilian breeze passing around. During this time everyone made more of a point to include me, which was nice. This meant for them either attempting English, or speaking very slow with small words and then leaving me a minute or two to process. The on going joke of the night was that I had to keep pulling out my pocket sized dictionary for EVERYTHING. They were all really sweet. None of the AIESEC guys seemed at all like the stereotype of the Brazilian guy. There was a friend of theirs that joined us that would NOT stop hitting on me. I finally called him a creeper and told him that I did have a boyfriend and that he was the kind of guy that my boyfriend was concerned about. I was not rude or anything, no worries! But, that did detour him for an hour or so! When we got home around 11 I went straight to bed and was asleep about 2 seconds after I took off my glasses. I actually have slept really well here. My room has a window that doesn’t really shut. It has slats that face down so no one can se in when that part is closed, but there is nothing to keep the noise out. I have actually really enjoyed getting to fall asleep listening to Brazil (I have slept twice because of my nap when I got here).
I still cannot get over being here! All week leading up to leaving all that I could ever say was “I am going to BRAZIIIIILLLL!! What?” now that I am here, all night I kept saying “Eu estou em Brazilllll! Que??? (I am in Brazil! What??), and also “Brazil e bella, tudo e bella!! (Brazil is beautiful, everything is beautiful). It is! The city is just so different than American cities, and there is a lot of things that are so much less than what the US would have. For example, all the car dealers are smooshed in a very small lot in the main area of town and are selling tiny, old cars, and there are bars on the whole thing. Also, one other thing I noticed is that there is a LOT of graffiti all along the walls of almost everything. If it can be reached, so many times it has graffiti on it. (It is not the pretty graffiti either, just symbols and words scribbled on in one color.) However, the feel is just wonderful. There are palm trees and another really pretty kind of tree growing everywhere and so many tall buildings that stretch up and have just really interesting architecture. What I think has made Brasil so pretty to me so far is just the attitude. It is so open and accepting and everyone has been so incredibly nice, it is just a wonderful feeling.
I am a bit nervous to start my job on Monday, because I have realized how much work I have to do with my Portuguese, but I am really excited to see what I will actually be doing. All in all, it is beautiful here and I am so happy I made myself do this. I am off to go stick my head out my window and try to take this all in!
PS: Last night I met a guy in @ who looks just like Jesus and another who is the identical twin of Ray Romano. Just a fun fact.
12:10 PM:
I have realized I have forgotten a few quite important things that I feel the need to mention. First, the family I am staying with has a dog. It is a wiener dog whose name sounds something like Shanna or Shannon… I call her Shannon, but I am pretty sure that is wrong. Also my host brother tells me that I am butchering his name every time I try. Speaking of names, I have been renamed. It is something between Maggie and Meggie. I tell most people to pick. I think they think they are saying Maggie, and it just sounds like Meggie to me. Basically my host mother didn’t even attempt Megan, and just asked if Maggie was okay. When I was a bit lost and told her it was actually Megan, but if she liked Maggie better then Maggie it was. She put up no fight to allow the renaming, so now I am Maggie. My mom will be thrilled. And, no mom, I have not told them that you wanted to name me Maggie because my great grandmother was named Maggie. That is far too complicated to try.
Also, I am really not that funny in Portuguese! I know I am not funny in English, but in Portuguese I am a serious flop when it comes to being funny. I have made an art about cracking really good jokes in English that no one gets except me. I find that amusing.
Honestly, when I woke up today, I was pretty shocked I was actually here. I was at first really really excited, then I remembered that when I woke up everyone here still speaks Portuguese and I still do not. 68 to go until people understand me again!!! Right now I feel like my life is a giant game of charades (called juego mime- mime game here).
I have been awake less than 2 hours and I think I have already learned at least 20 Portuguese words at breakfast alone. My brain may very well explode, but I love it here!!
Sunday, May 25, 2008 3:00 PM
I love Brazil!!! Last night I had my welcome party. It was actually a surprise party for me! They all planned a surprise party for me!!!! There has to be at least 20 AIESECers there all to meet me. I also got to meet some of the other trainees. I met V from Finland. Her actual name is Vilhemina, but she got renamed too! Then Victor from Romania, he is a hoot!! He has been here 6 months and just is hilarious! He has jokes with everyone and was already trying to get me on his side. There was also Jin Jin (that is his full name) from China. All 3 of them spoke NO Portuguese before they came here. None. And they are just fine! They said that I would have a great advantage because I already studied some Portuguese, because it only took them a short time to start learning and now they understand a good deal. V works for another NGO where they speak no English, and she speaks no Portuguese and she said it was just fine! Gah!!! That was amazing to hear! I have to admit that I was pretty nervous to think about my Portuguese at my job and me doing a horrible job because I could not communicate with anyone. I think that I had the most Portuguese knowledge coming in of any of the trainees I met and they are doing just fine. I just felt really special last night. That is what AIESEC is all about!! I feel so welcome here.
The party was basically perfect and just really great! It was really special because the bar we went to was a nicer bar, and like everything here had a section that was kind of open where we sat. Basically, the front of the bar and a long section that had all the walls, but no ceiling so you could see the night sky and feel the breeze. Everyone go there early so that we could have a table that spanned this entire section. It was so pretty!!! One of the best parts of the night would have to have been when I realized that the former LCP and the current VPTM knew a few AIESEC dances that I did too! It was so @y to be doing Tunac tunactin (I know my spelling is wrong there but you get the idea) in the middle of a bar in Brazil. Okay only 3 of us were doing it everyone else was just watching in confusion… but still. The entire night just made me feel welcome and a part of the whole, again this is what @ is about and why it is such an amazing organization!!!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 5:30 PM
Wow. Two very very very very busy days. Sunday night we had a recovery party from Saturday night. We just went to a really simple bar to watch Gallero play another team. It was a really nice night of just joking around and swapping stories of American culture. I have come to learn that pretty much everyone here is really interested in American culture. American cartoons are huge, and we even had a discussion how even in Brazil everyone still feels sorry for the kid who is “heart” in Captain Planet because his power sucks and he is shorter than everyone else (which is totally true). During the night, @BH also found out that their newest trainee has a miserable laugh. I swear my laugh is miserable. They even resorted to taking a video of me laughing and tickled me until I squealed. Also, I got to know more people in @BH including my buddy, Natalia. She is a hoot! I will go on more about her later… After we decided to start heading home from the bar since we were all exhausted from the night before we had to make a pit stop. We went to McDonalds for a late night snack. Like everywhere else in the world, McDonalds is open late. With the help of Natalia I ordered my burger (spelled burguer here). Come on, McDonalds is an American thing! We get mocked for it internationally, yet my Portuguese is not good enough to order a burgUer?!?! Gah! Anyways, my burger was a little different than what I am used to in the states. It had molten, orange cheese like substance with sautéed onions instead of the yummy tiny McDonalds onions. I have to admit it was a little creepy. One of my favorite moments of the night was when John (the VPTM here… imagine Hurley from Lost and make him Portuguese and cooler) started going on about me and Firdaus. Earlier in the night the kids were asking about him and discussing inter-@ dating and marriage, and, of course, they decided that we are destined to get married, because that is what @ couples do. It was official when I told them we had been dating 6 months already and were still together while I am in Brazil… ummm yea. ANYWAYS, so John starts going off about how an @ marriage would work. He applied all the @ terms to bringing up a family. I almost peed in my pants I was laughing so hard. He was going on about how the kids would be at the taking on responsibility stage at 5 and for activities there would be an OCP (organizing committee president) and OCVP… this went on for a few minutes with all of his funnier than the ones I can remember. I love that the kids here are just as big of @ nerds as me!!
@BH really does have their work together. I have been to a few of the meetings and they really have a system down and it pays off! So many of the members are really committed, and from the point of view of a trainee, I could not ask for more!
I have more to tell but I just got internet so enjoy what I have so far... more to come!! Brazilian hugs and kisses!