Megan's Blog

More Brazil and general thoughts

2008-07-11T07:14:00.000-07:00

So due to some family stuff, I will be leaving Brazil in exactly 10 days. Holy crap. There are days here where I am so ready to come home and have all the things I am used to, but when it really comes down to it I am going to miss this place like crazy.

First and most importantly, I am going to miss the people. I have never been so proud to be a part of AIESEC (well... we will get to that in a bit), as I am when I am around these people. They remind me every day why AIESEC is so amazing and should be availible to all! To come to another country was terrifying, I will not deny that. I am an only child born and raised in a small southern town. I can never thank my parents enough for making sure to teach me that the world was not just Wilmington, but to leave the safety of a small southern town for more than a week is still a seriously scary thought. However, because of my @ers here in BH, I have never felt so at home. I know I have said that a million times but it is so true. It is amazing to leave home and be so far and be surrounded by such different cultures, different everything! BUT, you still feel safe and right at home. It is totally corney and so overused, but I do feel like I have family here. AIESECers around the world are all the same. They want to make it a better world. They are people who are insipired, people who believe in change, people who are amazing leaders and can communicate well what they want and need. The @ world may be a little bubble, but it is an amazing one. I truely hope that everyone in this organization gets a chance to have an exchange like mine, and that people not in @ can find it and (see previous hope). I could go on all day about how amazing the people have been, and how willing they have been to go out of their way to help me and make sure that my time here was nothing less than perfect.

Just a few other observations about Brasil. The traffic here sucks. I have to take a bus for around an hour each day to get to work. The public transportation is great here, like most countries other than the US, and I have found I can use a bus to get just about anywhere I need to go. However, riding the bus is a whole other story!! Traffic here uses the traffic laws more as suggestions rather than acutal laws, especially at night. At night, stop signs and lights become mere hints to slow down or honk as you fly through. Dear Lord. It is terrifying!! I am actually a little woried becuase after the past 7 weeks, I have actually adjusted and am no longer scared when I am a passenger in Brazil. I think losing this fear may be a bad thing. About avoiding the traffic, one thing I have really started to enjoy is walking home from work. About 3 days of the week I take the bus about half way to my apartment and then get off either at the city center or in Savassi (a neighborhood a few miles from my house) and then walk home. It is a really safe walk and it gives me a good feel for the city. This has become one of my favorite times of the day because I just get to absorb the feel of the city and think about my day and the future and all that important stuff.

hmm what else... some strange foods from Brazil: chicken heard on a stick (not that bad, usually the guys eat them like there is no tomorrow!), farofa (a powdery stuff made from maniok flower, butter, oil, other spices, and anything else people feel like putting in. You eat it with your meat... reallllly good), maniok (a root from the Amazon usually eatten fried or with butter and cheese... it is similar to potatoes but I like potatoes better), and... hmmm... oh! of course! Cachaça! The Brazilian rum that is made from the sugar cane juice so it is sweeter and better and WONDERFUL!!!

Ahhh sorry!

2008-06-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

Okay so I have been a bitttt back logged on the blog. Quick summary of my life thus far. Kept working, continued hanging out with AIESEC kids, I went to Lake Pampulha with Andres, worked some more, Firdaus came to visit, Andres left for a 5 week road trip across south america, Firdaus and I went to Salvador and chilled at the beach, Firdaus came back to BH and chilled here, worked a bit more, barely got my Brazilian ID and almost had to go to jail, Soraya the new trainee from Peru came to work with me at CasAzul, found out that it is illegal for foreigners to teach in Brazil so had to stop teaching, got a cold.

Now to elaborate, yea work has been good but last week I found out that I have been teaching illegally and now I have to stop. That has thrown a bit of a kink into the work that I was doing, but I will keep working. I was doing other things other than just teaching so I will just keep working on those things just doing it more now.

Firdaus coming was AMAZING. I was so happy to have someone here who knows me and I can just not think around. Salvador was a nice change, but I didnt feel as secure there as I do in BH, so that was interesting. They have a much stronger culture there because Salvador was the head of the slave trade back in the day, so the Afro-Brazilian population is much stronger. They did have more roots then here in BH, but I am still sticking to my BH love. I was really happy Firdaus got to meet all the @BH kids! I think they were ready to take him in as our newest trainee!! It was really nice to have him here, but I think it made me miss home more. I am really missing home now that I have a cold and feel like CRAP.

So because I am feeling icky I am done blogging for now, but I will include a list of things I want back home:

-2 trolley stop "surfer" dogs
-1 PT's 4oz burger with fries
-Kraft Mac and Cheese (spirals)
-Carpeted floors
-tap water
-Driving around with Lauren at home
-Franklin Street Pizza Pasta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Carolina pasta
-Pink sauce on penne
-Meatball sub
-Tomato basil bisque
-the bread
-the people that work there that know me by name
-My really fluffy bed
-Watching movies with Firdaus
-Shopping at Olivers
-Sunrise biscuits
-Terrazzo's Lasagna
-my mommy and daddyyy
-my car (generally American safe traffic)
-target
-Harris Teeter
-no extra fees for just spending money
-my closet
-washing machines
-beans and rice NOT being part of my daily diet

There are more... but I cannot think of them right now; however, this does not mean that I want to go home. I only make the list of things I miss because the list of things that I love about Brazil would not even be possible to make!!!

I cannot decide if I like the people or the food in Brasil better...

2008-06-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

...I think I only give up my love for food here because I had one lunch today that was just okay. I have a feeling that tomorrow I will go on continuing to love the food here!! But seriously, I cannot get over how amazing the people here are. For example, last night we were going home from hanging out with a bunch of @ers. Because it was dark we all piled in Philipao's car (yea not easy for 6 people to fit in a small Brazilian car. We were headed home (me, Japa (I think that is his nicname is short for Japanese... but that is just a theory) and Guilherme) when Philipao decided that we had to go to Praca de Papa (Pope Park). This is a park with the most beautiful view of the city for when the pope comes to BH (said Bay-Ahgah). He decided that we had to go tonight, because I will probably go again, but just in case, it was not right for me to not get to see this view. It is true. Doing something like that always gets put off because it is so easy to go, but then you never do and you really miss out. ANYWAYS, so we went to Pope Park. My word. It was brilliantly amazing. I love looking at the city from the hills as it is. Andre (Colombian who I work with) makes fun of me as it is because I gasp at how pretty BH is every time we pass this one spot in the favela where you can see the city. The view last night put it all to shame. It was so incredibly beautiful to look out and see so many twinkling lights spanning out over these huge mountains. The sight of it could inspire poetry from me.. and we all know I do not do poetry. I cannot say enough times how beautiful it was! BH is a really large city, but I stay in one little area most of my time and the only time I leave is go to work and that is just spacing out on a bus for an hour. From so high up, you could really see how enormous the city really is. I felt like such a small dot on the globe. If one city could be so big, what am I in the big scheme of things...? We wont go there for now though...

Last night was amazing, nights like that when I cannot get my camera to work to capture the beauty, it is when I really really hope I never lose that memory for the rest of my life. I cannot decide what I liked more though, the view, or the 3 @ friends all working to show me the city, to get my camera working, to keep me from getting frostbite, etc... Yea, I love Brasil!

Oh! Speaking of awesome @ friends... I almost forgot my afternoon! Sunday afternoon me, G (my host who will be G from now on because his name is too long and takes too much thought to spell right), V (trainee from Finland), Victor (Romania), and Jin (China) and I all went and played around the city some. We went and walked around the big park here for a bit. It was really pretty... a bit trashy but nice. It reminded me a bit of the lake at peidmont park but trashy. Like the water was nasty and you held your purse close, etc. Oh! funny: there were amusement rides in the park too! It still struck me as very interesting because in its basic structure, it is like an american park, but when you look closely, it is tropical and wonderful!

Okay I will return to blogging in a moment after yelling at facebook for a few moments. Thank you for your time.

my brain hurts...

2008-06-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

Yea... my boss speaks no english. At all. Seriously, none. It is a bit difficult because I am still trying to understand what the NGO does exactly, and that is hard when he cannot really understand what I am asking. Also, I think he may be the one person who can talk more than me. That makes understanding what he is saying very difficult because he says so much that I cannot get an idea as to what is being talked about!!! I know he is well meaning and there are people to translate between us, but its just frustrating! Anyways, I am learning very quickly!!!

Working in the Favela is like nothing I have ever done. It is one of the better favelas and I actually feel really safe there because I have been walking around a lot with Andre (the colombian trainee who has been there 4 months) and Luis (the boss) and people know me as someone who is there to help. It is just so sad. It is nothing at all like any poverty in the states. The houses are just made with what ever materials they can find, the streets are unpaved, clothes are worn and old, and shoes are a maybe (which is NOT okay because there is dog poop and broken glass all in the streets). They do have some infrastructure, like some running water and electricity but it is just a different world. I feel so lucky for everything that I have every day when I go there. One thing that really struck me was that Luis was telling me about the culture there being not reading for leisure. No one does... I will elaborate more later. Right now, time for lunch. Yay!

A bit of back log...

2008-05-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

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!

I made it

2008-05-23T07:03:00.000-07:00

not quite yet, but close enough. Right now I am sitting in the Sao Paulo airport. I just finished my empanada- I now remember why I left the US. Meaty Pastries. Seriously!! In England they have "pasties" and they were my food of choice over spring break. Now, I get here and I can order this delicious, warm, fluffy, MEATY thing. Alright, I admit I am a fat kid at heart... moving on from food.

I am feeling a lot better now about me surviving here. I am thinking my Portuguese is better than I thought. I have survived the baggage claim (just barely!!) in Sao Paulo and have ordered food and drink in Portuguese and have made it so far.. Yay!

And my laptop is going dead... more updates as soon as I get to BH!!

t minus 7 days

2008-05-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

Today is Thursday. That means I will have left my house for the airport next Thursday. Woah!! The whole visa process has been a bit of an ordeal. I had to move my flight back 2 days so that I can leave myself some time for something to go wrong. It takes 12 days to process it when you mail it in, and that does not even include shipping time. Luckily, I finally realized Ron lives in Miami (where the Brazilian consulate for North Carolina is located) and he has turned it in for me! That saved me a lot of stress. Without him, I have no idea how it would have gotten in. I am still a little worried they are going to find something wrong, but I have time to fix it! (I hope!)

What I get to deal with in the next 7 days is finding my room at home. Since I moved out of the dorm, everything is still in their boxes and just lined up in my room. It is a miracle I can still get from my bathroom to my bed when I take out my contacts at night- without any broken bones so far! Usually, it is not so hard to pack everything back up because I can just put all the winter stuff away. It is going to be in the 60's in Brazil (it will be winter there), so I have to do a bit of packing for Brazil while I try to find my room too. I am packing for Brazil. Packing. Yea, I know it is crazy. So in summary, I am packing now which means I am really going. It is starting to feel real and I am really excited! (Honestly, I am still a little terrified, but that is the whole reason I am doing this)

So for those of you planning to go abroad: START VERY EARLY WITH YOUR VISA, and then avoid packing for as long as possible ;)

Alright, I really need to work on this whole finding the floor thing!!

Let the insanity begin

2008-04-24T04:30:00.000-07:00

Okay well I just wanted to set this up to get one more thing crossed off my to do list before I leave. I am procrastinating right now like it is my J-O-B! Back to post colonial drama. goody.