Magia!

Today is a very proud day for me.  For the past two months I have been trying to read the first Harry Potter; the Portuguese version that a friend from school lent me.  The first pages, or chapters to tell the truth, went by painfully slowly as I stumbled through the words and foreign grammar conjugations.  At first it was very difficult, one page would take me ten minutes to read, painstakingly looking up every word that I didn't know or couldn't understand with the context.  But about when Harry got to Hogwarts I started picking up the pace and enjoying the familiar story.  But the time Hermione almost got killed by the troll I noticed that I wasn't translating the words back to English in my head anymore, instead I was just reading and understand them as they were on the page.  When I realized that, I jumped up and did a little dance.  As the characters developed I continued to flip the pages faster and faster, learning more words every day.  Not only did I learn "bruxo" -witch- and "corujas" -owls-, but also vocabulary that I have started using in everyday conversation.  And today, ladies and gentlemen, I completed my first book in Portuguese, an accomplishment that I feel is blog-worthy.

Pizza

Last weekend, my family and I celebrated my brother's birthday by having a pizza party at our house.  I was anticipating this day all week, so excited for Saturday to come.  My host sister who lives in Sao Paulo was home for the weekend, and Saturday morning a few more family members were in the house already, eating breakfast with us, relaxing, and just talking.  

 I went to downtown with my mom that morning to a breast cancer awareness event.  She is a dentist and so she and a few other people that she works with had a booth there, spreading awareness about oral cancer.  We spent the morning there, watching a dance demonstration, talking with the community, and enjoying the already scorching hot day.

 

When we went back for lunch everyone was pretty tired so almost everyone decided to lay down for a nap before the party.  The party was to start at 7 o'clock and it was only 2 o'clock so we had plenty of time.  I was exhausted because I had gotten back late the night before and hadn't had much time to sleep so I went directly to my room and turning on the air conditioner, falling asleep easily.  I woke up around four o'clock and got up to see if people were getting up and ready for the party yet.  It appeared that no one was awake yet so I headed back to bed, enjoying how common naps are in this culture.  I woke up again at 6 o'clock and hurriedly got up and got dressed for our party.  I got out of my room at 6:15 and expected to see everyone there, already ready for the party.  But, to my surprise, it seemed as if everyone was still sleeping.  So I sat on the couch and read my book, Harry Potter (in Portuguese of course), waiting until it was time to get ready for the party.  6:30 passed and no one awoke... 6:40... I was starting to get worried that people would arrive with everyone but me sleeping and considered going back to bed.  But around 6:50 my dad got back from the store with all of the ingredients for pizza  and my mom woke up from her nap and came out into the living room.  We started getting everything ready, setting up tables, grating coconut for the sweet pizzas, and no one seemed to be at all concerned that the party was supposed to start 10 minutes ago and we still weren't ready! What I failed to realize is the huge difference in our cultures and the fact that no one was going to arrive until 8 o'clock or later.  

So after we were all ready and had the pizza toppings prepared, people starting rolling in.  Everyone from family to school friends to colleges came to celebrate and eat some pizza.  My dad made the pizza in the wood fired oven that had been heating up for two hours prior to the time we could make the pizza.  My brother helped out as well and everyone else sat around and laughed and talked together.  It was dark when our meal started.  One pizza at a time we had 5-cheese, palmito, eggplant, zucchini, 5-carne, and margarita for dinner.  The crust was thin and like all Brazilian pizza I've eaten here (and I've been here for two months so rest assured that I've sampled my fair share) this pizza had an ample amount of cheese.  Their pizza here generally has less tomato sauce than I am used to which is something that took me awhile to get used to because I'm the kinda pizza eater that dips my tomato-sauce-covered pizza in more tomato sauce!  Here instead of dipping it in red sauce, they have containers of extra virgin olive oil on the table for people to add on top of their already melty-cheese-dripping-olive-oil pizza.  And trust me, this   way is pretty damn good too.  My personal favorite was the eggplant pizza (the last picture on the left), which was covered in cheese, tomatoes, soft eggplant, and a few spruces of basil.  

The atmosphere was so casual, as the pizzas came out my brother went around to each table and passed out the slices.  It was cooler out, the sun had set, leaving the night to cool down a little and give a little relief from the hot day.  The hum of everyone talking and laughing together was so beautiful, the sounds of their language so different from the sounds of mine.  Everything was so different.  But at the same time, I saw how they were all gathered together as a family in such a graceful way, as I have seen so many times in this culture, and it reminded me of the countless times my friends and family have gathered like this, to share food and stories.  The only difference is that here the stories are told in Portuguese and there, in English.  But the smiles, the kindness, and the shared love of family are the same. I am here, in this beautiful, foreign country, so far away from home, but I am with my family.  

Dia das Crianças

 All around the world, people celebrate "Children's Day."  Some countries celebrate this in June, others in November, and Brasil celebrates "Dia das Crianças" on October 12th.  To commemorate this day, my city had a mini festival in the park and royally invited all of the young-ins for a day of free games and food.  I went with my Interact club to help out.  Interact is a group of people, all minors, who are associated with Rotary and hold the same objectives, but mainly focus on community service.  Although I wasn't able to participate in this group back home, I am a part of the club here and am loving all of the events and opportunities it has led me to- as well as the great people I have met.








This festival was one project we did.  We went to help however we could and I found myself stationed at the ice cream stand- not the worst job I could have gotten!  The kids were tired and hot from the games and of course EVERYONE wanted ice cream, so the mad rush that came when they announced that ice cream was now available was amazing and chaotic!  Our flavors were chocolate, uva (grape), abacaxí (pineapple), morango (strawberry), and limão (lime).  It was an adventure to try to decipher which flavor each kid wanted, what with the loud music, the sound of the crowd, the kid's timidness and therefore quietness, and the fact that it wasn't English, all against me.  But I managed and found delight in being one of the people to tell each kid that yes, you can have one strawberry AND one chocolate if you'd like.

Graduation/Formatura

June 2013 I graduated from Genesee Valley Central School.  It was a day I had been looking forward to and dreading simultaneously for my entire year.  But it arrived, I walked across the stage, got my diploma, gave a speech, sang our Alma Mater and finished my time as a High School student.

















Só que não.

I find myself here again, fundraising for graduation, packing my own vegetarian snack for school, and getting yelled at for talking during Biology.  I'm doing my senior year over again, with a few differences.  First off, Biology isn't as easy as it used to be because the teacher isn't speaking English like Mr. Liberto did.  Second,  my grades don't matter because, as previously stated, I already have my diploma safely stowed away back in my home country.  Because of this, it's okay that I don't understand biology and I don't have to worry about re-memorizing all of the different names of the elements on the periodic table in Chemistry class.  And last, take a look at the graduation attire!  Although there are some fundamental similarities, the two are still strikingly different.  I am personally a fan of the robe I wore for graduation in the United States, simply due to the feeling of true pride when I wore it and carried on the tradition.  However, I am loving the cape on my new robe.

This year I will graduate again, in December 2013.  Except this time it'll be my formatura and I hope to god I won't be giving a speech in Portuguese.

Muay Thai Continued....

To satisfy the curiosity...

*Pow*

My sister and I believe that Muay Thai is great for our relationship...

Pão do Queijo

 

I'd like to take a moment to talk about one type food here which I believe to be sent from the heavens.  Called Pão do Queijo, it is really high up on my list of my favorite things in Brasil. My first encounter with this delicious cheese-bread was in the airport in Sao Paulo, during my eight hour layover.  I went up to a little restaurant in the airport and tried my best to explain that I was a vegetarian and wanted to know if there were any vegetarian sandwiches sold there.  There was of, course, a menu, but in all honesty I understood almost nothing written on it.  The woman working there looked at me strangely and shook her head.  I scanned the menu again and say "Salada de Frutas" and figured that was a safe bet.     When I ordered she asked if I wanted something else and I said no, but then she pointed and this innocent looking piece of bread in the display case and asked if I wanted this.  "Umm, sim!"  Why not, right?  Little did I know that she was introducing me to my new best friend.

A week or so later, my first host family discovered my love of this perfect piece of heaven and we made it many, many times in large quantities.

It appears harmless, just your basic bread.  But then you take the first bite and the hot, crisp outside gives way to a steaming, cheesy-doughy middle and you fall head of heels in calorie-filled love.

After I expressed my concern to my host sister about what I was going to do when I got back to the United States and was left without (one of our solutions was to buy a thermos bag and take a huge stash), my first host mom taught me how to make it.  I now can sleep in peace.

Just Dance

One aspect about this culture that I am absolutely loving is their shared love of dancing.  Nearly every event I have gone to here has included a time for dancing.  I went to a weekend event with my Interact club in another city this past weekend.  There were games, presentations and of course a festa in the evening.  But this incredibly animated and lively dance party was not enough dancing.  We had a meeting in a large auditorium and in between the speakers dance music would start playing and nearly everyone at the event got up on the stage, or just below it, and danced.  It was amazing.  At the festa that my friends threw for me to welcome me to school we danced.  The radio is constantly playing dance music, among other types.  I went to a going away party for a girl bound for Germany and we all played Just Dance on their Wii.  But I think that my favorite demonstration of the amazing amount of dancing here is a Rotary meeting I went to last week.  It was held in the house of one of the members and as usual a good thirty plus people attended.  The house was beautiful, big, and was decorated with a older, almost victorian feel.  It was very fancy, in my opinion.  I entered in my dress and Rotary blazer and greeted everyone with a kiss on the cheek and a hug, as is customary here.  The people in the club are mostly all older than me, late 30s.  We ate outside on the patio, served delicious food by a paid staff.  In the beginning of the meeting I observed a DJ set up in the corner of the patio, prepared with a disco ball and big speakers.  I thought that was kinda of strange since the music he was playing was songs like Hotel California or She Will Be Loved, and didn't need the grand set up.  But I pushed that aside and proceeded to talk with a lovely young woman who did a smaller exchange to Switzerland and had amazing stories to tell.  About halfway through dessert I learned why they rented the disco ball.  After the plates had been mostly cleared the DJ cranked up the volume and blasted I Will Survive by Diana Ross.  Everyone got up from their chairs and started dancing away.  I was in disbelief for a second, seeing all of the Rotarians busting a move, but quickly got up from my chair and joined in.  This is my kind of Rotary meeting.  This is my kind of culture.