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.  

We ended the meal with dessert pizzas (why I never thought of this before is a mystery no one will ever understand).  Coconut-chocolate-cheese pizza and chocolate mint pizza also came out of the wood oven and filled the tummies of all present. After eating, I played cards with my host brother, some of his friends, the other exchange student here in Catanduva, and her host sister.  They tried once again to teach me this popular card game here, and once again I didn't quite get it.  So we settled on poker and spent the rest of the evening there.