White people problems

http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/white_problems/
These guys have no idea. So…

1. The catcalls and honking is ubiquitous. On the one hand, it makes Galina all nostalgic for Uganda. On the other hand, its getting more difficult to pretend that they are saying “welcome to Fortaleza” every time.
2. Why didn’t anyone warn us that it’s likely that a white person could get a ridiculous sunburn on the equator if they don’t reapply their SPF 30 every hour? What do you mean common sense?
3. This morning we got freshly squeezed açai juice for breakfast. No amount of energetic value and slimming properties could make up for the fact that it looks like mud and tastes like olive brine.
4. The little ants are everywhere. It was unpleasant but tolerable when we’d have to spend the first 5 minutes of opening the laptop on killing the little ants that crawled out of it. But this morning we found some baked into the bread. Ant toast and acai brine is not exactly your dream breakfast.



5. Whenever we go anywhere with our host family, Wilson, our host mom’s boyfriend drives. We really like him, he is a sweet guy and is a police officer. But he is a crazy driver! Whenever we hit a pothole or he breaks in traffic, it feels like at least one of us is about to fly out of the window. Oh, and there are no seat belts.
6. The bus drivers are also intense. But on the upside we are getting a great upper body workout just trying to hold on every time we ride a bus.
7. Went to a samba party with our new girlfriends yesterday. The caipiroscas are very strong. Coctail=vodka+lime+sugar. No water, unless you count the water in the fruit. That is all.

São João

Its São João festival! While there is a religious element to the festivities, it is also a time for huge parties! On Friday, we went to Ana Flavia’s São João celebration at her school where every class put on a dance performance. Apparently, in Brazil, São João is the time to wear pigtails, so that’s what we did… for the first time since we were old enough to realize how ridiculous we look with pigtails.




On Saturday, we went to Ceara’s equivalent of a fair. There were many dance quadrilhas that competed for the title with themed 30-minute performances. Our favorite was a dance routine that told the story about the end of slavery in Brazil. How many years will it take for the US to have dance teams performing similarly themed acts?



In her infinite wisdom, Galina wore a dress to the festival. Naturally, we arrived late and had to stand on the top of the bleachers. We quickly realized that male dancers preferentially crowded under our portion of the bleachers and a performer in a priest costume gave Galina a thumbs up. Thank God for hair clips that can also be used to pin a dress.

Ehhh Macarena!

We must be completely immature because last night we had a ball at a 10-year-old’s High School Musical-themed birthday party. Birthday parties in Brazil are a BIG deal, everyone is invited and not going may be seen as an offense. The birthday girl was Ana Flavia’s classmate so naturally the whole family (sans grandma) went. It was the most lavish children’s birthday party we’ve ever attended. The Brazilian version of a kids venue has the downstairs area with video games, trampolines and such, and the upstairs has a sitting area for dinner and a dance floor (although the place has other rooms for yet more birthday parties but sans the dance floor).

Apparently we never outgrew 7th grade because the spherical-shaped appetizers and deserts were infinitely amusing (Fried balls? I’m all over that! – Anonymous). The desserts were also of a spherical shape… Joana was mature enough to liken some of the samples to certain body parts (OMG! It’s a butt!). Later on in the evening, we joined the mothers dancing to 70’s hits. A highlight was YMCA. And yes, we did the Macarena and had a ball doing it (although both of us were a bit rusty…).

G & J

Pictures...

... can be found at

http://picasaweb.google.com/jperd114

Ever tried drinking guacamole?

Monday. 

One of the best things about Brazil is the cheapness and availability of tropical fruit. Every morning we have a bowl of fresh fruit and freshly squeezed juice from a varie

ty of fruits: some of which are staples (passionfruit, banana, pineapple and others that defy translation, such as graviola, cupuaçu and makashira. However, this morning we were presented with abocataba, which is basically blended avocado with just a smidge of milk, and some sugar. It was one of the strangest tasting drinks we’ve ever had (although

 its thickness may be outside of the “drink” category). The day ended with some canjinca (corn powder, milk, cheese and cinnamon), which tasted surprisingly better than it looked (yellow and lumpy). 

Our breakfast also consists of Brazilian coffee. Be warned that Brazilians like their coffee as strong as the devil, as hot as hell and as sweet as love (thanks to liquid sweetener that looks like eye drops). 

Ônibus: our favorite mode of transportation (not for any hint of comfort, but adventure).  Today we ventured out to Praia do Futuro, supposedly the best city beach (according to Lonely Planet). We spend the hold day working hard on our tans and drinking agua de côco (coconut juice), which is supposedly high in electrolytes and is valued for its hydrating properties. The bus rise there was rather painless and uneventful. However, the bus ride back was an adventure. The first bus was packed but there were only two women in the crowd: us. Clearly men are from Mars is a lie, they all come from Fortaleza’s east-facing coast. The second bus had more of an equal-opportunity crowd but it took forever to get to our stop in rush hour with no ventilation and no room to move. The third bus was uneventful compared to the first two, except we learned that some people have some magic IDs that allow them to ride for free and use the front/exit door as the entrance. So yea, we love busing! 

J & G

10 am caipirinas? Of course!

Sunday. Sayonara and a few of her friends took us to the beach at Barro Preto in Iguape, about an hour out of town. It was exactly what we imagined a Brazilian beach to be: white sand, warm water, beach-side restaurants in little huts serving fresh seafood and cheap caipirinhas (cachaça, sugar, lime and ice). Ironically, the Brazilians felt that the water was shivering-cold (its winter here), however in our opinion it was the warmest beach water ever and it was WAY warmer than our shower.

After having a 10 am breakfast of fresh crab and caipirinhas (yea, be jealous), we took a dune-jumping buggy out to a distant part of the beach, where the Bataque river flows into the Atlantic. We spent a few hours at the river and even caught little fish that were swimming upstream. Galina named her fish Piranha (we took a picture and let her go). Leticia, who is around 10, had all of the adults catching her the little fish and placing them in a plastic coke bottle. Joana delicately described this as fish murder. (Leticia did eventually let the fish go, although most of them died.) In the end, both of us left the river with the same thought: please, God, don’t let us have parasites.

Neither of us has ever eaten crab using the little wooden hammers before, so it was an adventure. The best part was when we were told to put some yellow stuff (manioc flour?) on the inside of the crab and eat it with the crab organs. Galina’s face on the picture roughly sums up that experience. Joana was too much of a wimp to even try.

In order to get to the beach, we had to walk thru the erotically themed barraca. Our guide, a self-described Ph.D. in sticks, was a trip with a knick for word play! While most of the “exhibits” were amusingly painted sticks and pieces of furniture, one in particular was disturbing. They had two space heaters side by side with plastic baby dolls and toy planes sticking out of it: the twin towers. Once the guide heard that we were American, he made a point of pointing it out as an entertaining piece. In our opinion the display was not in the best of taste, but the residents of Iguape must not have been affected by 9/11 to the same degree or maybe it was a very effective piece of propaganda, since it’s the only display we are still thinking about and writing about in our blog.

Tapioca! On the way back we stopped by the Tapioca Central. That’s when we found out what tapioca was (Brazilian take on the crepe) and that it can be eaten with anything from bacon to coconut. It was tasty!!!

J & G

Even the mannequins here have bigger boobs

Day 3 in Brazil. Empowered with out new bus knowledge (enter and pay in the back, exit in the front, push the red button to exit), we ventured into a bigger and better mall. First, we had to take a bus up (down?) Av. Jose Bastos. Naturally the magic red stop button didn't work and by the time we figured out that we had to pull on a string, we passed our parada. We walked back 2 blocks and found the other bus stop on Rua 13 de Maio near the Rectory of Universidade Federal de Ceara (UFC). After waiting for bus 75 for at least 30 minutes, we were on our way. Once the bus crossed an overpass, we suddenly found ourselves in a new Fortaleza. This Fortaleza has tall building and stores bigger than a garage, hospitals and specialty clinics, and of course it had the biggest mall that Galina had ever seen (Mall of America is still bigger although not as pretty - J), complete with water fountains, tricked-out elevators and a food court on every floor (complete with diet coke aka coca cola litsch (sound it out)). So an average neighborhood (like ours) doesn´t have hot water and the favelas often don´t have proper sanitation, but a world-class mall is readily available to those who can afford it. Is there something wrong with this picture? Nontheless, walking into the mall, we instantly felt a lot better about spending the next 2 months in Fortaleza (yea, yea, we are snobby Americans and we like diet coke). We ended up making 2 valuable purchases: hot dresses and a Fortaleza street guide). Now we just need to go back to those huge shoe stores. The only down side of the mall was that even the mannequins had bigger boobs. We shouldn´t have to feel inferior to the mannequins, too!

This adventure included one other amusing detail: a man at a bus stop asking Joana for her cell number. It was the first time in history that an `I dont have one´ excuse was actually the truth.
Raj, he was quite a catch, he was wearing pants AND a shirt, he even provided his own paper (borrowed from a girl standing next to us on the bus stop).

G

Welcome to Brazil!

This is day 4 in brazil. We miraculously made it here after having our Cville-Atlanta flight delayed by an hour and were literally the last ones to sprint onto our Fortaleza flight. Imagine our surprise when not only did we make it to Fortaleza without further adventures but our luggage was waiting for us by the time we got out of customs.

Brazil where we are staying is very residential and NOT AT ALL white beaches and cute poolside restaurants. Stupid google images are a lie! Our host family is awesome and we have an amazing new adopted grandmother. She keeps feeding us, hugs us when we leave and gets upset with us for walking outside after dark. In 2 days we had 3 meals that consisted of red meat. Joana and I both do not eat red meat or pork but we felt it would be impolite to turn it down. Sorry, cow.


We took a bus out to the center on Thursday, which was crowded and sketch. I guess our idea of Brazil was a nice beach with cute waiters bringing you caipirinhas, instead we walked past the center and encountered a sketchy half-naked (seemingly homeless) man who told us leave because the area is full of thieves. So we went back to the center. Overall we saw the beach from a distance but still don't know how to get there without walking thru the sketchy areas. Kai and David have been helpful, tho and I think we'll try to figure it out again next monday. Until then our host family has big plans for us, shopping on saturday and beach on sunday.

Our mentor, Monica, asked us to sit thru a 2-day class on the research methods that we are using in this research. Obviously, its all in Portuguese so you can guess how much I´m getting out of it. But from what I can gather from reading the power point (Portuguese looks a lot like Spanish in writing), its pretty common sense. At the end of the second day, we got certificates recognizing our successful completion of the class. I am planning to frame it as a reminder of the class I understood the least in all my 17 years of school.

G