Map Alert!

Portuguese Words of the Day
- Aeroporto = airport
- Carregador = charger
- Quente = hot
- Céu = sky
- Moto = motorcycle

Red x's are the places that I visited. Joinville, SC,  Brazil is the yellow X.

I'm back at home, and I realized that after 3 months, I didn't include a single map in my blog. So here is a map of the places that I visited over my time in Brazil. It feels so weird being home, kind of like a Spirited Away dream. I probably will write one final post about the entire trip as a whole, but that's for another day. Now, Wii racing and A Very Potter Musical awaits me.

Saudades - Final Post in Brazil

Portuguese Words of the Day
- Mostarda = mustard
- Pinças = tweezers
- Espelho = mirror
- Toalha = towel
- Panela = pan

In my last post, I said that it would probably be my last post in Brazil unless something exciting happened, like it was sunny all week or something. Lone and behold, it was sunny and averaged a perfect 26 degrees every day of the week. But the sun isn't the real reason I'm writing a post (outside in the lovely weather, I might add). It's because it's such a strange feeling packing up my room.

Earlier in the week, I felt kind of ready to go home. But after having a farewell party on Thursday and saying bye to some people, I'm not quite ready. There are still a lot of people that I have yet to say tchau to, but I really dont want to. I've met so many great people who made Joinville exciting and enjoyable. I mean, what am I going to do without my americanos, Ruhy and Kevin? And which Frenchman will be there to have in depth discussions about dungeons, cats, and zombies? And awesome that buddy that always makes you laugh when he talks about prostituição. I could go on, but thats going to make me even sadder. It's also strange to think that I'll probably never see some, if not most, of the people that I have met. Even with the other Americans, it will still be hard to see them since everybody is busy with work, etc.

However, I do miss my family. I really can't take it anymore when I open my email and my sister sends me something saying "omg one more weekend...I cant wait to see you! And now here is the schedule of things that we are going to do as soon as you get home." I wish that I could just bring both worlds together.

On a more cheerful note, this week has been a week in good company. On Wednesday, Anthony from Nigeria invited a bunch of people to his house and made dinner for everybody. And on Thursday, Ruhy, Christophe, and I went to a Brazilian steakhouse, where they served us unlimited meat and sushi before attending the AIESEC farewell party for us. After sitting out last night due to some strange foods, tonight will be my last hurrah in Brazil!

Though this is my last post in Joinville, there shoulxd be another post or two once I get back. I mean I haven't even mapped my travels yet.

Next stop, home, via São Paulo and Detroit. 

Os gringos vão para Rio de Janeiro?! Not quite, just a weekend in Balneário Camboriú

Portuguese Words of the Day
- camundongo = mouse
- rato = rat
- regra = rule
- tecla =  key (on a  keyboard)
- sinaleiro = traffic light
- fecho = zipper

This past weekend, a group of twelve of us went to Balneário Camboriú, the touristic city of Santa Catarina. They call Balneário Camboriú a poor man's Rio de Janeiro. There is a statue of Christ that is similar to Christ the Redeemer in Rio, as well as a cable car, and plenty of beaches. It was kind of a strange city because everything there was planned--all of the buildings there are relatively new, and it was a calmer, more Brazilian Rio de Janeiro.

The group that went was basically all foreigners. There were three from USA, two from Italy, two from Peru, one from France, one from Germany, one from Nigeria, one from Mexico, and one from Brasil. It was really interesting since everybody has such different backgrounds. Everybody was here on some sort of exchange or a part of AIESEC. Since we spent most of the time together at the beach, it was a weekend of English and Spanish and Italian.

Once we arrived there, the trip as a whole was fun. Before that, we were supposed to meet at Terminal Norte at 18:15 to take the bus to the center terminal and then to the rodoviária to catch the 19:20 bus to Camboriú, of which some of us had already bought tickets for. (Pause, while I rant about how you need a CPF for everything in Brasil. So annoying. It always complicates everything, and you can only purchase a certain number of bus tickets per CPF. And not to mention how horrible the websites for a lot of bus companies are. As great as Catarinese is, they really really need to upgrade their website. Ok, rant over). Therefore, I planned to take my Canto do Rio bus, which usually comes at 18h to Terminal Norte. Since the Canto do Rio bus has a mind of its own and comes whenever it feels like it, it didn't arrive until 18:15, and there was traffic the entire way to Terminal Norte. Just fantastic. The bus driver kept on steeping on the gas pedal, but the bus didnt't (well, couldn't) move anywhere. Finally, at 18:45, I arrived at Terminal Norte, where just about everybody was waiting.

Since it takes some time to go from Terminal Norte to the rodoviária, we decided to exit the terminal and take a taxi from the "Ponto de Taxi," where there should always be at least one taxi waiting. Of course, when you most need something, it is never there. In panic, we called the number listed on the wall, and the telephone inside the wall started ringing. It's a good thing that I live so far away and chat with taxi drivers on that long drive to my house to get their cards (since there are so many independent taxi companies in Joinville). We called one of the cab numbers, and soon after began the race against time to get to the rodoviária. We made it with legitimately a minute to spare, and those who had previously bought tickets boarded the 19:20 bus.

After a quick hour and a half bus ride, we were in Balneário Camboriú. In finding ways to economize (as always!), we decided to walk from the rodoviária to our hostel, about a 3.5 kilometer walk at night. Though it probably was not the smartest choice, we made it there, only to see a sign that the owner of the hostel would be back in five minutes. We waited and waited, but nobody came. So we decided to go to the beach. All of a sudden it was 23:30, and we decided it was probably best to head back to the hostel to see if the people were back. And yes, the people were back, and boy, at first glance, they were pretty creepy. There were two guys from Argentina, one from Spain, and two girls from Portugual, who we didn't see until the next day.

Andrea (Italia), Priscila (Brasil), Andrea (México), Kevin (USA),
Christophe (France), Anthony (Nigeria), Magdalena (Germany),
Ruhy (USA), Francesco (Itália), me,  Fátima (Perú), Luz (Perú)  

On Saturday, the weather was about 28 degrees celcius and sunny, which was perfect for the beach. So, of course, we went to the beach, which was about a five minute walk. It's funny that the street right in front of the beach was called Avenida Atlântica because it was the exact same in Rio de Janeiro. We swam, played football,  took plenty of photos with and coconut juice from a coconut, walked on the beach, and just relaxed for the entire afternoon. Around 16h, the sun set to the west behind the large skyscrapers. Though that didn't stop us from just hanging out on the beach, I still wonder who's genius idea was it to build sky scrapers that block the sun when it's setting.

After the man whom we rented beach chairs was closing his shop and wanted his chairs back, we left to find food. Similar to Rio, I got a cheese salada (x-salada). However, unlike Rio, it cost twice as much, and I didn't get food poisoning from eating it. After dinner, we met the two Portuguese girls (who each had a bottle  of wine in their hands). Meu deusshhhh, they spoke such a strange Portuguese. We left to find a nice party and got super lost. Well, not really. It's just that nobody knew how to get there. Eventually, one of the Argentines was like we can either walk 30 blocks, or we can take a bus.

Let me just tell you, the buses in Balneário Camboriú are so strange. They weren't like your normal transit buses. Instead, they looked like the touristic buses being pulled by a truck. To make a strange bus ride even stranger, we passed by Mario and Luigi. And as soon as we disembarked the bus, there was a fountain with a cow on a jet ski. Well, to be fair, we probably got off the bus because we saw the cow on the jet ski, and not the other way around.

Then Sunday was a day of laziness. When I woke up around 12:30, it felt like it was still 8h or something early like that. My friend Kevin came into the room shortly after and said that they were heading to the beach. So I went left the others sleeping and went with them to the beach. We played frisbee, did ballet, hung out, and found food. After awhile, we went back to the hostel since we  needed to leave semi-soon to catch the bus back to Joinville only to find the others still sleeping. It was 15:30.

Shortly after, we left by foot for the rodoviária and took the scenic route to get there. We passed the statue of Cristo Luz, or Christ Light. Compared to Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro, Cristo Luz is all right. It was still nice to see it though. We got to the rodoviária and quickly boarded a bus back to Joinville, where we had dinner at the oh-so-classy Angeloni Supermarket and eventually headed to our respective homes.

Cristo Luz in Balneário Camboriú

And now is my final week in Joinville, meaning that this is probably my last post in Brasil, unless something really exciting, like it's sunny for the rest of the week, happens. I think I'm kind of ready to go home. I do miss my sister, and I know that she misses me a lot as she has been emailing and gchatting me every single day letting me know how many days before I come home. I also need to brush up on my English. Today at work, I was writing my transition guide, and I could not express myself properly in English. Also, the word photograph in English is spelled with a 'ph,' not as foto. So I guess I'm excited to speak normal English with people again.

But at the same time I know that I'll miss the friends that I've made here. Over the weekend, Ruhy, the other American who is also leaving on next Sunday, kept on thinking "in exactly a week, we'll be on an airplane." We also spent a large part of the weekend talking about how much we'll miss each other. With the crew, everyday is a surprise, and you never know where the conversation/you will end up.

Looking back on my bucket list that I made about three weeks ago, there are the museums and running from my house to Univille and back, for a total of 10.2 kilometers. After having cafezinho after café da tarde and bolos everyday, I'm not sure how physically possible running will be. Maybe it is time to go home and then back to school, where I have no excuse not to go to the gym, considering I will be living across the street from it.

Sertanejo, Porco e...Gato?

Portuguese Words of the Day
- Bilheteria = ticket window
- Fita = tape
- Cola = glue
- Ilha = island
- Sul = south
- Pega pega = tag (the game)

I don't think I've hated sertanejo more than I did this past weekend. Sertanejo is kind of like Brazilian country music and has a lot of accordions in it. On Friday night, João Neto e Frederico were in town for the Joinville Country Festival, and we (Fatima from Peru and I) were supposed to go. However, we didn't end up getting tickets. Instead I went to another sertanejo party, where they, of course, played sertanejo for the entire night.

On Saturday I went with my hosts Daniel and Camilo to Daniel's parents' house to celebrate his grandfather's eightieth birthday. The first weeks of my trip I went to their house, and I didn't understand a word that Dani's family was saying. However, after two and a half months, I understood just about everything they said. We had lunch there, and during the afternoon Dani decorated the large 1/4 sheet cake for his grandfather (since he's a cake designer). After the cake was ready, we drove a short distance to Dani's aunt's house, where the family would eventually gather.

Dani's aunt's house was legitimately in the middle of nowhere. There was no cell service, no internet, and was surrounded by woods and the main street. It was kind of scary. Dani actually said that it almost felt like the movie Scream, where there was no access to communication and if you screamed, nobody could hear you because they were blasting sertanejo from the trunk of someone's car. However, it wasn't too bad as I was playing 'pega pega' with Dani's cousins. There was also churrasco, or Brazilian barbecue there, so the foodie in me was quite happy...until I thought I heard Dani's father ask: carne de gato ou de porco--qual gosta mais? In my head I was like cat meat? Oh gosh. I'm pretty sure he asked if I preferred beef or pork, but I really wasn't sure and didn't want to ask. So of course, I just said I like the pork.

On Saturday night, I was so tired and just wanted to sleep. Of course, the neighbors had some sort of party where they were blasting sertanejo. I thought that I would miss sertanejo when I left here, but after a day of sertanejo, I certainly will not.

On Sunday, the weather forecast said that it was supposed to be 26 degrees and sunny, so Ruhy and I thought that it would be a great beach day at São Francisco do Sul, about a 40 minute drive from Joinville. However, when I woke up, it was probably more like 16 and cloudy. Since it was cold, we probably should have just stayed in Joinville, but we hadn't been to São Francisco nor the beaches there, and we decided to still go. And then commence the day of hilarious fails.

I had heard that there was a bus company called "Verdes Mares" that would bring you from Joinville to São Francisco, so we tried looking on line for the bus schedule. It said that there was a 10:30 bus from the rodoviária in Joinville to São Francisco. We thought that it would be like the buses that we normally take and drop you off at the bus terminal, but it turned out to be an inter-municipal bus, making all the local stops. Since we had never been there, we didn't know when to get off (or how to signal for the driver to stop), as it was coach bus. We kept on riding the bus.

After we passed a small center with signs that said São Francisco do Sul, we were headed towards more undeveloped areas. A bit confused, I asked the driver where São Francisco was, and he said that we just passed it. Oops. However, we could ride the bus until the very end and take it back to the center. There was a nice couple sitting next to us, and they could very obviously tell that we were lost and offered to help us. They said that we could get off a the stop in front of the beach and hang out there, so we listened.

The wife said that the husband "spoke" English and could help us out even more. One thing here is that when people say that they "so-so" English, they really mean that they don't speak any English. We told him in English that we had been working in Joinville and were just in Sao Francisco for the day. And for the longest time, he kept asking us when we would go back to Curitiba. Anyway, we got off the bus when they did, since they live right in front of the beach.

Upon exiting the bus, they told us how to get back to the city center and how to take a bus back to Joinville from there. Then they said that they could hang out with us for a couple of hours at the beach (even though it was still freezing cold by 12pm). Since we didn't want to trouble them, we politely asked if they had anything planned. Then before we knew it, the wife was flagging down a bus that went to the center of town and asked us to get on.

So, to avoid awkward "we don't want to go to the city center yet" situations, we thanked the couple and got on the bus, only to realize that the driver of the bus was on the municipal bus (awk turtles). Since we were to get off at the last stop, we tried to duck our heads and avoid that driver. But then, I looked outside and saw a sign that said "Centro histórico: 18,0km." What?! Why was the city center 18 kilometers from where we were. We were so confused and had to ask the driver if it was really the case. It was. And it was about a 40 minute drive from where we were.

About 45 minutes later, we finally arrived in the city center. However, since it was Sunday, all of shops were closed. I'm sure that the center of São Francisco is very beautiful when it is sunny and the stores are open, but it wasn't the case. We were also freezing and starving from not having breakfast and sitting on a bus for nearly three hours. We found a buffet, which served semi-decent Brazilian homestyle cooking. I'm just glad that we were able to warm up and eat.

After lunch, we tried to explore the city center some more, but everything was closed. We took some really silly pictures by the dock of us shivering. I even put on a second t-shirt that I had brought with me. Since it definitely was not an ideal beach day and everything in the center was closed, we decided to take the bus back to Joinville.

It's funny because as we were on the hour bus back to Joinville, the sky began to clear up slightly. I'm not sure it was much warmer, but I would have been happy with blue sky there. When we arrived back in Joinville, you'd think that we (perhaps I, having to take multiple buses to/from work) would get on the right bus to go home. But somehow the bus that I normally take to get from the bus terminal to Terminal Norte went to Terminal Sul, all the way across town. Eventually, we got back to Terminal Norte, where I was greeted by the only win of the day. As I got off bus, the bus that I take to go home was about to leave. After sprinting across the entire terminal, the bus driver opened the door, and I was able to get on the bus and finally go home after a strange, yet rather hilarious, day, where I was greeted with a homemade meal of chicken and potato pancakes.

Esqueci "the Portuguese Words of the Day"

Quick update: At work a girl from Germany started, and now we speak Portñol-glish at work. It's funny. And confusing, but mostly funny. Speaking of English, I'm beginning to teach English to my co-workers. Finally we'll be able to say more than "very cold."

In my excitement in recapping last week's adventures, I forgot to mention the Portuguese words of the day. Here are as many words as I can think of:

- Janela = window
- Saída = exit
- Copo = cup
- Mesa = table
- Estatua = statue
- Colher = spoon
- Sacola = plastic bag
- Bolsa = bag
- Caixinha = box
- Balada = dance
- Catarata = waterfall
- Ponte = bridge
- Areia = sand
- Quente = hot
- Garrafa = bottle
- Estadio = stadium
- Unhas = nails
- Arco-íris = rainbow

São Paulo - Take II

Why does it seem that every time I am in the largest city in southern hemisphere, I am so sleepy? The first time I was in São Paulo was my first day in Brazil, after 14 hours of travelling. I slept sixteen hours that night. This time I arrived in São Paulo at 8:30, after catching a 2:30 bus from Rio de Janeiro.

Upon arriving in São Paulo, we took a cab to the apartment of Natalia's cousin, who lives in the Pinheiros neighborhood of São Paulo. We dropped off our luggage there, and head out to explore the city. We took the ônibus to the center of town to see the theatre and Praça Ramos. As we were about to take the metro to Avenida Paulista, which they say is a street you have to visit while in São Paulo, we all legitimately were falling asleep standing up. I was too tired to take pictures and don't have any pictures from this trip to São Paulo. So we took the metro back to Natalia's cousin's apartment and all slept until 20:30.

To top off the preguiça (laziness), I also had a minor case of food poisoning. We had been economizing with food during the trip, and I probably ate too many R$4 (2 USD) lanches and sandwiches. We had a running joke that every time we saw a very expensive item, we would say: why would I buy that? I could buy "x" hamburgers with that...At the time the burgers tasted good because you are so hungry and they are so cheap, but your body can only process so many of them at a time.


Therefore, on Saturday night, instead of having more lanches, we went to have sushi. With the large Japanese population in São Paulo, sushi is something that you must eat while there. Somehow we found the only place in São Paulo that didn't serve normal sushi, but I'm just happy that it some sort of Asian food and not lanches.

On Sunday morning, I said goodbye to Natalia, who was heading back to Colombia, and then I took the 8 hour bus ride back to Joinville. After sleeping 6 of the 8 hours and getting a good night's rest, I think I've recovered from the really great time exploring and cheap meats that from last week.

And now back to work in Joinville! 19 days left in Brasil.

Beijos!

Rio de Janeiro was quite exciting - long post!

Ruhy and I arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Monday night, after a short hour and a half flight. The flight was originally supposed to be over two hours, but I'm not going to complain that it was so short. We went to the hostel in Copacabana, which was a completely different experience from the Timbó Posada in Argentina. First, you could feel that it was a business as the people at the reception were not very nice--or they were overly friendly. Secondly, when your bed is next to the only female bathroom in the entire building, you don't get very much sleep.

However, one good thing about the hostel you meet a lot of people from all over world. In our room the first night, there was a woman from Argentina, one from the New Hampshire, and two Brazilians. We eventually met people from Venezuela, Ecuador, Israel, Germany, and a lot a lot of Colombians. It certainly was a mix of cultures and languages. I remember having to say the same thing three times in Spanish, Portuguese, and English for people to understand.

Day 1 - Tuesday
The first day we were planning to go to the center of the city and to the Christ the Redeemer statue in the afternoon. But since it was a beautiful day in the morning, we decided to go to the Christ statue first. We waited in line for about half an hour only to realize that the train that we needed to take to the top of the mountain wasn't for another two hours. Of course, to pass the time, we went to look for food (what else, really?). We found a churrascaria close by, and we ate there. All I can say about that place is that don't judge a restaurant by its looks from the outside. Between Ruhy and me, we probably ate twice our weight in meat, so it was a good thing we walked a lot afterward! Eventually, it was our train up to the statue, and we took way too many touristy pictures there.

View of Rio de Janeiro from the Statue of Christ the Redeemer

Christ the Redeemer

After exploring the Christ statue, we headed to the center of town and walked around the little streets. There were way too many cafés/confeitarias, and we legitimately wanted to stop in every single one. After taking the afternoon cafezinho, we walked tried to find the famous Praça XV de Novembro in Rio de Janeiro. At the time, I didn't know what it was, but I thought it was really cool since the Lonely Planet book kept on mentioning Praça XV. I later found out that it was the plaza where the two emperors of Brasil were crowned. In Rio, there are police officers on nearly every block, so I literally asked the officer(s) on every corner "onde está praça quinze?" I don't think any of them knew where the plaza was because I kept on getting different directions each time.

Very accurately sums up the city of Rio de Janeiro --
fruit stands and police on every corner

In the end, we gave up and found ourselves by the port of Rio. We saw that there were boat trips (in reality they were ferries to bring people to/from work) for R$3 and really wanted to go. However, it was 16:57 and people were legitimately running to the port. We thought about what Paraguay being dangerous after 15:00 and decided it was probably best to go home.

At the hostel we met up with Natalia and began to plan what to do the next day. Unfortunately the weather forecast predicted rain all day, and therefore we had to plan accordingly. As a side note, finding (touristy) things to do in Rio de Janeiro is very difficult, and we spent two hours searching for things to do without any real success.

Day 2 - Wednesday
We originally were going to go to the lake located in the middle of the city but decided that it wasn't worth it if it would be raining all day. So instead, we found a tour of several favelas. Going to favelas was one thing that I really wanted to do in Rio de Janeiro as it pertains to what I'm studying, and I wanted to see first hand what it was like. Unfortunately the tour that we went on was designed for people who had no clue of what a favela was (and in my opinion, had never seen poverty before). The people on the tour were rich Europeans. Anyway, we only went to the outside of Rochinha, one of the largest favelas in Rio and walked inside another that had been pacified, meaning that the government is taking an active part in improving conditions there.

Favela Rochinha

The tour as a whole was an interesting experience. I can't say that I learned too much after those three hours of bizarre and completely unrelated questions, but it did give me another perspective on favelas. I didn't realize that there was such a sense of community in the favelas. I'm sure that this isn't the case with all favelas--many of Rio's 950 favelas are still run by drug gangs or the militia, and the tour obviously was designed to shed light on the misconception that all favelas are slums without any electricity, water, etc. After visiting the favelas, I think that given the current situation, there is no way to remove them from the city. The only way is to integrate them and help the favelas develop infrastructure in order for the city to prosper.

Ruhy and me at the Corinthians x Flamengo
game

At night, we went to a Flamengo versus Corinthians football game at Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, the stadium where the 2016 Olympics will be held. They say that normally games are held at Estádio Maracaná, but it's under renovation now in preparation for the 2014 World Cup. For me, I was rooting for Corinthians, but I didn't want to show it there, since all of the Flamengo fans were so scary. For those who don't know, the Flamengo-Corinthians rivalry is equivalent to the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. I now know why they don't serve alcohol at many football games in Brazil. So I just sat quietly in my seat, quietly cheering every time Corinthians scored a goal. The score was 3-0 Corinthians.




Day 3 - Thursday
On Thursday, we tried to go to the famous "Escadaria Selarón," a tiled-stair case made by a Chilean dedicated to Brasil in Rio, but didn't end up finding it. So we went to the center of the city to find "Confeitaria Colombo," a cafe that, as Natalia said, "we must have to go to." Unfortunately, it was packed, so we kept on walking around the center and found a Starbucks, where we just lounged for the rest of the afternoon. After enjoying a nice hot mocha, something I hadn't had in weeks/months, we went to the dock and just relaxed there, watching the boats pass by. As the day was clearing, we decided to head back to the beach in Copacabana and just relax there.

Day 4 - Friday
Friday was the first and only day when the weather was clear all day. That meant that we must had to go to "Pão de Açúcar," otherwise known as "Sugarloaf" in English. It is a famous hill in Rio de Janeiro where you take cable cars to the top of the mountain and can have a great view of the entire city. Like the waterfalls of Iguazu, you just need to see the pictures (below).

View of Rio from Pão de Açúcar with cable car

View of Rio de Janeiro from Pão de Açúcar

Pão de Açúcar

Since we were again economizing and didn't want to pay more money to stay one more night in a not-so-great hostel, we took a 2:30 bus from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo. However, since we didn't need to be at the bus station until 2 in the morning, we decided to go to Lapa, where Carnaval is held, and stay there until it was time to head to the bus station. We had gone there on Thursday, but it didn't seem that exciting. However, on Friday night, it seemed as if the entire city was there and ready to have fun. There were people of all ages, children included, in the streets eating, drinking, and dancing.

Despite the unfavorable weather, Rio de Janeiro is a beautiful city that I would very much like to go back to and get to know better. The culture in Rio is completely different than the culture in the south of Brazil. That being said, I'm also really glad that I was first in Joinville because it's a quieter city in which the people only speak Portuguese. If I had gone directly to Rio, I probably would have been lost, and might not have picked up Portugese as quickly as I did in Santa Catarina. I guess now I'm ready to tackle the North of Brasil!

Tríplice Fronteira, La Triple Fronteira, The Triple Frontier

Oi gente, tudo bem?

I'm back in Joinville and more or less rested from my trip to the Triple Frontier (where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina meet), Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. I'm going to split up the trip into the three posts so that one post won't be obscenely long. And now we begin with the Triple Frontier.
-----
On the night of Friday, July 13th, the two Colombians Natalia and Daniel, Ruhy, and I took a night bus from Joinville to Foz do Iguaçu, the town in Brasil. Our bus was supposed to leave at 20:45, but it didn't arrive at the terminal until 21:30 (side note: if you're travelling by bus in Brasil, I'd reccomend Catarinese, where the buses leave right on the dot...Pluma arrived an hour late and we arrived there almost two hours late, which is understandable since we took a half hour pit stop shortly after leaving the Joinville rodoviaria). The only good (?) thing about the bus arriving so late was that there was more time to say goodbyes with AIESECers. Natalia and Daniel just finished up their internships and wanted to travel a bit before returning to Colombia.

I'd highly recommend Timbó Posada.
Foi muito legal.

We arrived in Foz do Iguaçu around 9:00, and took a cab to the Argentine side of Puerto Iguazu. Unlike entering Brasil, the immigration in and out of Argentina was very easy.We checked into Hostel Timbó Posada, which is the nicest hostel ever. Before continuing with the day, I need to describe how beautiful the hostel was. Every morning, the wonderful people of the hostel served us breakfast that included coffee, bread, orange juice, fruit, and even chocolate cake. They were more than helpful and helped us plan each part of the trip. Furthermore, the hostel's decor had a homey feeling and featured a swimming pool and hammocks.

Since we arrived during mid-morning, it was already too late to visit the Argentine falls (not to mention that the entrance fee was 130 pesos for foreigners). Instead, we decided to try to cook. We went to the grocery store and bought ingredients for pasta with meat sauce. I believe we were economizing as we bought one kilo of ground meat for 10 Argentine pesos, which is equivalent to $1 per pound. There was another option of buying one kilo ground meat for 40 pesos...Anyway, we bought the really disgusting meat and returned to the hostel to (attempt to) cook it. It just smelled awful and we hid the smell with tons of garlic and black pepper. I would like to thank the invention of hot oil for killing the unknown bacteria in that meat and not getting food poisoning. In short, after two hours of failed cooking and really good laughs, the lessons learned are:

a) Don't buy meat that is not meant for human consumption
b) Don't let people who don't cook convince you that it is OK to throw a whole tomato into meat that is cooking
c) Too many cooks in the kitchen can be a really bad thing
d) In times like these, it's probably best to go across the street to buy something that won't kill you.


After lunch, we wanted to try to go to Paraguay, but apparently after 15:00 (seriously, 3pm?! ), all the stores close and it is very dangerous there. So instead, we walked around in the center of Puerto Iguazu, when we learned that the point where Brasil, Argentina, and Paraguay was only a ten minute walk away. We walked over to the river, and watched the sun set over the Paraguayan side.


On Sunday, we woke up early and took a bus to the Argentine side of the waterfalls. There isn't too much to say about the waterfalls, except that they were absolutely divine. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are pictures describing our day at "Las Cataratas del Iguazú"(It's better if you view them in a large screen!).

At the top of La Garganta del Diablo

View from the upper passage

Rainbow in the lower passage

View from the lower passage

View of La Garganta del Diablo from a distance

La Garganta del Diablo

La Garganta del Diablo

On Monday, it was pouring buckets, but we still had to visit the Brasilian side of the waterfalls and Paraguay. However, Ruhy and I had to catch a flight to Rio de Janeiro at 18:00, meaning that we could only do one. Instead of going to the Brazilian side of the falls, for some reason, we decided to go to Paraguay. That made no sense as the Brazilian falls were about a five minute drive from the airport and we had to cross the entire city of Foz do Iguaçu to reach Paraguay. We still ventured on and took a bus to the border where Paraguay and Brasil meet. Then we went by foot across the 'Puente de la Amizade," which is possibly the ugliest bridge ever. I think it may also be representative of Brasil's relationship with Paraguay.

After crossing the bridge, we were on the Paraguay side, in the city of Ciudad del Este. Ciudad del Este and Paraguay as a whole is a place where you can buy cheap (replica) items. And it appeared like Chinatown or any city in Asia. However, once comparing the prices with the US, the prices were the same or even more. For example, a sweatshirt from Aeropostle cost $75. The sad thing is that we hiked in the rain all the way to Paraguay for cheap shopping but didn't even buy anything, except lunch.

Overall, Ciudad del Este was an strange experience. Paraguay is a Spanish-speaking country, but they spoke to us first in Portuguese, then in Spanish. Our lunch there was also interesting since it was a Brazilian restaurant, serving Brazilian food and accepting payment in reales. Secondly, it was funny to see globalization at work. We all bought different types of Coca-Cola, and they were all processed in different countries. My 150ml bottle of Coca-Cola was produced in Brasil; Natalia's can of Coca-Cola Zero was produced in Paraguay; Ruhy's can of Coke was produced in Argentina.

After Paraguay, we returned to the airport, and Ruhy and I headed to Rio de Janeiro. Natalia and Daniel took the next flight to Rio and were going to meet us there on Tuesday afternoon.

Só Falta Um Mês

Portuguese Words of the Day:
- Garfa = fork
- Sobremesa = dessert
- Senha = password
- Greve = strike
- Porta = door

Não posso acreditar que já passei mais de sete semanas aqui. Eu vou embora aos Estados Unidos o 12 de agosto. Então só falta um mês aqui no Brasil. Um sentido estranho.


It's best to live in the moment and keep on looking forward, but it's still important to look back to see where you've been. Therefore, this post will be to reflect on the past two months (54 days, to be exact) and how much I've learned since the 19th of May. And now, you have been warned: this is going to be a long reflective post. If you want something exciting, then wait about two weeks when I write about the Triple Frontier (on the Brazilian and Argentine side--I need a visa for Paraguay) and Rio de Janeiro.

When I came to Brasil, I was hoping to make a difference on the community, but I think people that I've met have changed me more than I've changed them. I recently read a blog entry that talks about "20 Things I Should Have Known in My Twenties," and advice number seven was: have as much contact as possible with older people. You will learn from the experiences that they have had. Here, I'm on the younger side. I would say most of the trainees and AIESEC students are between 22 and 25 years old. It's kind of funny that when people ask how old I am, they are expecting that I am 24 or something like that. I guess I'm flattered, but I digress. Let's begin:

Myself/Life
1) One very important life lesson that I've learned here is that it's impossible to do everything--that you should do what you can, and let the forces of life do the rest for you. I am currently planning a conference at GWU for the next year, and it's been difficult. The only thing that I can do from Brazil is send emails and ask for help. I really do believe that everything happens for a reason, so you should always make the best of each situation; and in the end, things usually turn out for the best.

To me, this screen shot is
absolutely hilarious.

2) The most memorable stories in life are your funniest and/or stupidest moments. Here in Joinville, there aren't that many main streets, so everybody takes the same streets day in and day out. The work days seem to blend together, and rain never seems to stop. Well, to be fair, it was about 24 degrees and sunny each day of last week. Only when we wanted to go to the beach did it start raining again...However, I will always remember the trip to Floriánopolis, which was a great bonding experience for the seven of us who went. I definitely will not forget the traumatizing experience on the Ônibus in Curitiba, when the bus driver hit a man, and then the man started kicking the bus. And one last story that is really funny now is Festa Junina. I guess with all of these stories, there's only meaning to those who were involved--no matter how long I try to re-tell the story to anybody, it won't have the same meaning as it does to me.


3) People, girls in particular, are the same everywhere you go. When we first were in Floripa, Ruhy and I were trying to figure out what to wear. We also went with Priscila, a Brazilian girl from São Paulo. At the time, we didn't know much Portuguese, and it was hard to communicate with her. But, it seems that all girls speak the language of clothes, make-up, etc--better known as "o idioma das meninas."

4) No matter how hard something appears to be, you will find a way to overcome it and feel great about it. This is especially prevalent in my work at Instituto Amar. When I first arrived in Brasil, I literally knew nothing about Portuguese and was completely unable to communicate with my co-workers without the help of Google Traductor. But now, I've made videos and documents in Portuguese and can joke about eating McDonald's for every meal when I'm back in the US.

Portuguese
My Portuguese has improved immensely. After seven weeks here, I can honestly say that my Portuguese is at least at the intermediate level. The only Portuguese that I knew when I came here was my friend Gordon randomly teaching me "olá," "obrigada," and "como vai." Now, as I was saying, I can have a conversation in Portuguese and do all of my work in Portuguese. It's one thing to learn a language in the classroom, but it's another thing to have to use it in everyday life (and learn it just to survive in general). When I am at work and at home, I only speak my version of Portuguese, which is good enough for people to understand me. With regards to writing, I've been writing my work in Portuguese and having people read it over before publishing it online. I've also been trying to write emails and chats in Portuguese. It's especially helpful when the people of AIESEC want to practice their English and you want to practice your Portuguese, and you can mutually correct each other's work.

It definitely helped that I've studied Spanish before. Instead of feeling like I've been dropped into an ocean and not knowing how to swim, I feel like I just jumped into the deep end of a pool and can doggy-paddle to shallow water. Spanish and Portuguese are so similar, and I get confused a lot of times. It's especially confusing when I'm on chat with the Spanish speakers trying to plan a trip and talking to another friend in Portuguese in another chat box. I guess I can say that languages are like different windows in my mind. It's like seeing the word "falar" on the Portuguese screen, and the word "hablar" on the Spanish screen. However, oftentimes, when I try to speak Language A, Language B comes out. This past week, this Spanish/Portuguese confusion is getting a little better.

I've definitely been soaking up Portuguese like a sponge, and I definitely want to continue to learn as much as I can in the next month. Well, actually, in the next three days. Ruhy and I are flying to Rio de Janeiro alone the day before Dani is, and I speak much more Portuguese than she does. She makes fun of my Chinese (??) accent, which, in my opinion and asking the Brazilian, is much better than "eu kero frengo," but I still have to translate and give directions for her. Então veremos.

Brazil
Brazil is a lot different than I imagined. When I first came here, I don't really know what I was expecting, but I definitely wasn't expecting the industrial town that Joinville, Santa Catarina is. It's fair to say that I thought that there would be more beaches, and as horrible as it sounds, more poverty. Most of my time in Joinville has been spent at work, the Garten Shopping center and universities, and at the center. On Thursdays, I go with the Institute to the poorest neighborhood in Joinville, Bairro Morro do Meio, to deliver food, but we only stay there for the morning.


Yesterday, I was able to go with Dilamar, the president of Instituto Amar, to other parts of town to deliver food and toys on behalf of "Amparo à Criança," another philanthropy in Joinville that Dilamar is part of. This was one of the first times in Brazil where I've spent time in the really poor neighborhoods and gone into the houses. At the bottom of this post are a few photos from yesterday's visit to o Bairro Paranaguamirim.

I have also learned that the Brazilian government is highly involved in all sorts of matters. It takes ages to get proper documentation, and you need a CPF, which is like a tax ID, to do a lot of things. When we tried to buy the bus ticket to Foz do Iguaçu, we needed to enter a CPF to create an account. In the end, I asked Dani to create an account. According to Rodrigo, there are also a good number of strikes (greves) here.

Other
I know there are a lot of other things that I have learned, but it's hard to list everything. So instead, I'll use this remaining space to list the plausible things that I have to do, but haven't planned, before leaving Brazil in a month:

- Visit São Francisco do Sul
- Visit Balneario Camboriú and its beaches
- Go to Joinville's Museu Sambaqui
- Go to the Bolshoi Dance Festival
- Take touristy pictures in front of "a Rua das Palmeiras"
- Actually make the run from home to Univille and back: according to Google Maps, it's 5.1km each way
- Go to Museu Nacional da Imigração e Colonização

View from the Second Floor of a House, where the family lives.
Taken 2012.07.11 on an iPhone.

Woman in a Window of Paranaguamirim
Taken 2012.07.11 on an iPhone

Fatima and Dilamar delivering food
Taken 2012.07.11 on an iPhone

An Update

Portuguese Word of the Day
- Copo = cup
- Janela = window
- Camisa = shirt (T-shirt)
- Nordeste = northeast
- Graus = degrees

To be honest, this is a entry is just a post to post. Nothing particularly exciting has happened since I last wrote an entry, about a week and a half ago. I think the best thing that happened was going for a 3-5 kilometer run three times this week without dying. By dying, I don't mean out of breath--instead, I mean getting hit by a car/motorcycle/bicycle, falling into a hole, or simply tripping over rocks. It is so difficult to run in my neighborhood because the majority of the streets are paved with asphalt, with concrete sidewalks, which isn't great for running. I try to stick to the unpaved dirt streets, but those tend to have lots of holes and pebbles, which is also a homemade recipe for a sprained ankle. On top of that, I usually go after work (around 17h), right when the sun is setting, and people are heading home for work. So, therefore, I would prefer to go to the university and run on the track there. Plus, it's also fun going there with the other American, Kevin, and beating him at running! (true story)

At work, I have been working on social media, flyers, and videos. So far, I've made two videos (which you should all watch!). The first one is promoting the classes that Instituto Amar offers, which can be found here. The other video is a scrapbook of Dia da Feijoada, which can be found here. Now, Fatima, the other trainee at Instituto Amar from Peru, and I are working on a proposal for Instituto Amar to work with Univille, the private university of Joinville, regarding "Projecto Esperança," a plan to bring proper dental care to neighborhoods in need.

This past week I was feeling a bit homesick and missing the USA. It was the Fourth of July, and I don't think I've ever craved a burger as much as I did that day. Actually, I think I was craving anything but rice and beans, which I have everyday for lunch. Lunch at work is good, but it's more or less the same everyday. One thing I miss about the US (and I was thinking about Taiwan this week too) is the variety of food. Even on GW's Foggy Bottom campus, there is still a large variety of cuisines--from Thai to Indian to (fake) Chinese food to Italian. But here, there isn't as much of a variety. The Fourth of July was nice because I celebrated it with the other Ruhy and Kevin, the other two Americans here, and the French and Tunisian as well, and we made "as-real-as-you-can-get-American-burgers" with bacon and cheese. I'm pretty sure I gained three kilograms from that meal, which is probably why I felt the need to run so many times this week.

Speaking of things back at home, I've learned that it is rather difficult to plan a conference while abroad, but that is another story. I also just finished a video for Delta Phi Epsilon (DPE), the professional sorority that I am in that promotes the participation of women in foreign service, for potential new members. You should all click here to watch it!

On the weekends, we still try to travel as much as possible (since, let's be real, there's not much to do here in Joinville). This weekend we were planning on going to São Francisco do Sul, which is a beach town about forty minutes from Joinville. However, given that the weather forecast was "frio e chuva," going to the beach was not the best idea. Instead, we stayed in Joinville this past weekend. It was also Fatima's birthday. We celebrated by having dinner at Mango, a Mexican restaurant in the center of Joinville. Mango, with the Mariachi band and tequileira, never disappoints.

I believe those may be the most exciting things that happened this week. I'm sure next week will be far more exciting. Dani and Natalia (the Colombians who are going back to Colombia at the end of the week), Ruhy, and I are going to Foz do Iguaçu/Puerto Iguazu in Argentina then taking a flight to Rio de Janeiro for the week. Speaking of which, we really do need to book the bus from Joinville to Foz do Iguaçu...oh Brazil, why do you require a CPF for booking a bus ticket?! We probably should book a bus/plane ticket back from Rio de Janeiro via São Paulo as well. Or just staying in Rio de Janeiro is another option. More details to follow.

Beijos!

Eu Acho Que...

...preferia o metrô do Washington DC que o ônibus daqui. Sempre estou esperando no Terminal Norte. Hoje, cheguei nesse terminal às 15h34. Meu ônibus saiu às 15h30.

That is all for today.

All Washingtonians can relate to this.
(English translation of the above link: How I feel when I am running late, and I hear the metro arriving at the station)

Portuguese Words of the Day:
- Cedo = early
- Computador = computer
- Quarto = bedroom
- Cabeça = head
- Olho = eye

Uma Convenção

Portuguese Words of the Day
- Luz = light
- Canudo = straw (in Brasil-apparently there is a different meaning in Portugual?)
- Lata = can
- Morro = hill
- Tempo = weather/time

On Saturday morning, there was a "convenção." When I first heard about it, I thought it was going to be some sort of meeting--or a convention. However, that was not the case. The convenção was a political rally held by the PSDB, or the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira, for Marco Tebaldi. Marco Tebaldi was the former mayor of Joinville and is running for re-election. He is also the husband of Dilamar, the president of Instituto Amar. My understanding is that the election is in November.

On Saturday morning I got a carona from Cris to the convenção. The convenção itself was a lot different from political rallies in the US. There was a band, dancing, and even vuvuzelas. It felt more like a football (soccer) game rather than a rally. The band left before Marco and Dilamar arrived, and they were greeted with cheers from all-around. I must note as well that the culture here is a lot more lax than back in the USA. Instead of wearing a suit, the guests of honor were wearing normal clothes.


There were several speakers who spoke before Tebaldi, including one of the senators of the Santa Catarina region, about why you should vote for Tebaldi. Then Tebaldi spoke about the changes that needed to be made to Joinville and how to make it better. The most important aspects were about the health and education of Joinvileses. 

At the end of the convention, everybody joined hands to pray. I believe praying at the end of an event is quite common here, and they did a similar prayer at the wedding that I went to. I don't think anything of that sort would happen in the U.S.--not even at Tea Party rallies. They asked for God's support for the best result. After the prayer, they started playing "Eu Quero o Melhor, Eu Quero Tebaldi Já" again, and the crowd began to disperse.

Eu quero o melhor. Eu quero já. Eu quero Tebaldi já

Trabalho, Aula de Português e Natal?

Portuguese Words of the Day:
- Futebol = football (soccer)
- Batata = potato
- Chave = key
- Doaçao = donation
- Cadera = chair

Oi gente! Tudo bem? For this post, I am going to write it in all Portuguese (without the aid of conjuga-me.net or Google Traductor). This is mainly for myself to see how my Portuguese is, and when I reflect back on the trip, I want to be able to see how far I've come. This "test" for myself is because I wrote an email to a friend in Portuguese a week ago, and I've already realized that my writing is better now than it was a week ago.

--
Esta semana eu fiz um vídeo para o Instituto Amar dos cursos que tem. O Instituto tem cursos de cabeleireiro, de manicure/pedicure, de economia doméstica, e de camareiro. Com os cursos, a gente terá nova oportunidade de buscar o trabalho. Depois eu vou fazer um vídeo do Dia da Feijoada.

A terça e quarta-feira eu e Fatima, a menina de Perú quem também trabalha no Instituto Amar, pegamos o Ônibus para ao aula de português. Tentamos de falar português, mas no sabemos se estamos falando português o espanhol. Acho que aprendo mais português no trabalho e falar com ela que no aula de português. Mas é bom ir a classe porque posso aprender a gramática e conversar com outros trainees.

A quarta-feira tevemos uma proba de português. Não queria ir, mas a terça-feira, nosso professor, Rafael, diz que tiveira dolces típica do Brasil. Por isso, fui a classe. Também vimos ao partido de Espanha e Portugal do Eurocopa durante a proba. Queria que Espanha ganhe, mas todo mundo queria que Portugal ganhe. A proba não foi tan difícil, só as conjugações dos verbos. Tinhamos que conjugar todos os verbos em qualquer forma.

Este postagem se chama "Trabalho, Aula de Português...y natal?" porque hoje parece como o Natal. Quando estava no convey com Josmar e Fatima para coletar doações, estávamos falando das tradições do Brasil durante os meses do verão e o Natal. Depois, um miembro de AIESEC me enviou um mensaje e escreviu que eu tinha uma coisa no CL de Soraya (VP de OGX em AIESEC DC). Por isso, fui a Univille. Também fui para Univille para ver o partido de Italia e Alemanha em Cold Beer e comer um X-salada com Guaraná. Estava muito feliz quando vi a alguns Skittles, Snickers, e uma cartez de AIESEC DC. Depois, cuando chegue a casa, vi a caixa que meus pães me enviaram. Agora tenho uma loja de dolces en meu quarto!

Apparently Mas, the girl from Thailand in Portuguese class, took a photo of us watching the game and captured the spinning wheel of death as the live stream was buffering.

--
Phew! That was much harder than I thought it would be. Usually, when I write anything in Portuguese, I have google traductor and conjuga-me.net open to verify that I am correctly conjugating verbs, especially when it comes to the past tenses. I am positive that there are errors, and it definitely will be interesting to look this over in the future.

Tchau for now!

Que Frio Em Curitiba !

Portuguese Words of the Day
Marancujá = Passionfruit
Caixa = cashier/ATM
Mãos = Hands
Presunto = ham
Molhado = wet

Last weekend, I went to Curitiba with five other trainees--Daniel and Natalia from Colombia, Fatima and Luz from Perú, and Ruhy from the USA. Curitiba is the capital city of the state of Paraná, the state above Santa Catarina (and fun fact, the state where Michel Teló is from). We left Joinville Friday night after work from the Rodoviária, a word that took me way too much practice to be able to say, on the 8:35 bus to Curitiba. We arrived in Curitiba close to 11pm and took a taxi to the hostel.

Let me say that the taxi ride was one of the most horrific rides in ever. It was late at night, and the taxi driver had no idea where to go. The hostel was located on Rua Nilo Peçanha (Pecanha and Peçanha make all the difference in the world as well), and the cab driver kept on passing the street and circling around the same street. To make matters worse, none of us spoke very fluent Portuguese. I kept on telling him that "você tem que dar a volta. Isto não é a rua." I don't think he understood us, and we didn't understand his mumbling. And as he made ever single circle around the same street, it was evident that he was getting more and more frustrated at us. After an unnecessarily long time and way more money than it should have cost, we found the hostel and met up with our friends.

On Saturday, we spent the day doing touristy things around Curitiba. We first went to Museu Oscar Niemeyer. The museum is famous for being shaped as an eye. We went through every single exhibit. By the time we made it to the top of the eye, I was slightly disappointed that there wasn't a café located there (brincadeira!). Overall, it was a really interesting museum--having all sorts of artwork. We then took the "Ônibus Turístico" to a park and a Theatre located within nature and took plenty of photos there. Unfortunately, I did not bring my giant camera with me, so the photos that I post here are borrowed from Natalia and Director Daniel.

The Tourist bus that we took was a double decker bus that went around the entire city of Curitiba. It woud have been really nice on the top floor, except for the fact that it was 11 degrees and windy. Therefore, everybody was freezing, and I even caught a cold from sitting up there for so long. Everybody was bundled up in jackets, gloves, and even hats in the form of lions. On the bus, we also met a couple from the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area who were in Curitiba for a concert. The Portuguese that they spoke was much easier to understand than the Portuguese in Santa Catarina since they spoke much slower and relaxed.

My favorite part of the day was going to "Santa Felicidade," which is the Italian part of the city. It is one of the centers for good culinary eats. There were Italian restaurants, and the most famous attraction of the area was the winery. It is one of the largest selections of wine, cheese, and chocolate (seriously, what other foods do you need?). There was also a man dressed in mariachi clothes, singing "Ai Se Tu Pego" in Spanish.

On Saturday night, we returned to the hostel and met one man from Buenos Aires, Argentina by the name of Juan Paulo. He was travelling alone, since he wanted to move to São Paulo. He spoke English, Portuguese, and Spanish with a typical Argentine accent. With the Peruvians and the Colombians, we mainly speak in Spanish, so I think my Spanish improved over the weekend. However, Juan Paulo's Spanish was so difficult to understand. But since he was alone, we invited him to go to the balada de funk with us. I once thought that I liked funk music, but I don't. I'm not sure how I feel about funk music being so popular in Rio de Janeiro, a place where we are planning on visiting (details to be planned out and discussed soon).

On Sunday, we continued our touristic travels of the city. Sunday was a beautiful day, and a (heavy) jacket was not required, except for on the bus. There was a fair in the center of the town, selling local and handmade crafts. After a brief time there, we took the touristic bus to another park and the botanical gardin.

The most memorable event of that evening was almost missing our buses back to Joinville. We went to famous park called Parque Tangüi. By the time we arrived, it was around 6pm and getting dark. So we walked around a bit and decided to head back by the Tourist Bus to grab our items from the hostel. As we were heading to the bus stop, there was already a bus leaving, but we didn't worry too much after it passed since there was supposed to be another bus within the next twenty minutes. However, we waited for almost 40 minutes, and there was still no bus. Finally, a young couple with a child in a stroller came up to us and started asking where we were fun. As soon as Daniel said that he's from Colombia, the bus pulled up, and hit the man with the rearview mirror. Since (I think) the man was under some sort of influence, he was extremely angry and started kicking the bus and yelling at the driver. We were all worried that the driver would just leave, which would have been a big problem as that was the last tourist bus of the day. Finally, after five minutes, the man's wife calmed him down and the driver opened the door. After that experience, I don't think I've ever been so happy to make it back to a hostel.

However, that does not conclude the bus dramas of the night. We arrived to the Curitiba bus terminal at 20:45, and there was a bus to Joinville that was leaving at 20:50. However, it was impossible to make that bus since we took two cabs and still needed to purchase tickets. There was a bus that left at 21:15, so we figured that wouldn't be a problem, until we learned that the 21:15 to Joinville was full. With no other choice, we waited until the 22:10 bus. For some reason, nobody was paying attention to the time and they just didn't announce our bus. Or, rather they did announce our bus, just to tell us it was leaving. It was 22:11 when they announced it and the bus had left. Luckily there was a bus that left at 22:35 that would stop in Joinville, and we took that bus home.

By the time I arrived home, it was almost 1:30, and I still had to work the next morning. I woke up the next morning sick at 7:15, showered, and dragged myself to work, where I finished my video for the Instituto Amar regarding the courses that it offers, which can be found here.

And today is already quinta-feira, which means that it is almost the weekend again! According to weather forecasts, the weather is supposed to be beautiful this weekend--25 degrees and sunny. Hopefully they are right. This weekend, I am going to another feijoada to benefit an organization.

Dia da Festa

17 de junho de 2012
Joinville, SC, Brasil

Portuguese Words of the Day
- Chapéu = hat
- Tesoura = Scissors
- Agulha = needle
- Toalha = towel
- Lixo = trash
- Tirar uma foto = to take a photo

On Friday night, we had a farewell get together for one of our friends that was leaving to study in France. A group of five of us (Christophe, Kevin, Othman, Leandro, and myself) went to Mango, a Mexican restaurant in the center of the city. There was a mariachi band there that sang all sorts of songs--from Juanes' La Camisa Negra to Michel Teló's Ai Se Eu Te Pego. Later, one of the members of the mariachi band came to talk to us, and he was from Mexico. I wish that I could have stayed longer, but I had to be up at 6:15 on Saturday morning to meet my co-worker Cris at 7:00 to prepare for Instituto Amar's Dia da Feijoada.

Feijoada

Feijoada is a typical dish consisting of beans and meat. When we arrived at the Institute, there were already a number of volunteers there cooking and setting up. Apparently Josmar, one of the employees of the Institute, stayed there last night. For the day, I was the official photographer, and I took hundreds of photos of the event. There are photos of the preparation, the interviews, the food, dancing, and legitimately everything else in between.



There are more photos from Feijoada on the Institute's Facebook page, found here.

Most of the team from Instituto Amar, plus Marco Tebaldi
and the Tebaldi's daughter

In taking photos, I was also able to walk around and talk to the attendees. It is always slightly intimidating to talk to people for the first time, and much more in a language you are just learning. But after four weeks in Brazil, my Portuguese has improved immensely. I kept on telling everybody that I spoke to that when I arrived in Brazil, the only phrases that I knew were "oi" and "obrigada," and they didn't really believe me and told me that "você fala muito bom português," which made me really happy. It's great how welcoming that Brazilian people are because in the U.S., if you speak with an accent, people look at you funny.

The event itself was supposed to last from 11h-14h, but nobody showed up until 12h, very typical of any party. When I left the Institute at 16h, there were still guests there. In attendance at the event were the president of Instituto Amar's husband, Marco Tebaldi, who was the former mayor, and is now running for mayor in the October election. I don't think I've ever taken that many photos in one day.

Ariane and Jussara Preparing Food for Festa Junina

After Feijoada, I walked across the street to Giovani, the vice-president of AIESEC Joinville's incoming exchange's, house for a general meeting of AIESEC and Festa Juninia. First, the meeting was to discuss and update everybody on AIESEC Joinville's progress over the past month. There are so many AIESEC traditions that I don't know about. Then, it moved to Festa Junina, the June Party. The June party is a party in June (or July) that (according to Wikipedia) celebrates the inactivity of Saint John the Baptist. To most other Brasilians, it means a party where you dress up in country plaid and eat and dance a lot.


During the party, there was a jail, "correiro," a caipira wedding, and Jeca awards. The jail was that you could arrest somebody for one real, and the money raised would be used towards starting an educational project. The idea of the mail was that you could send mail (anonymous or with your name to anybody there. The Jeca awards were the best dressed awards.

Food from Festa Junina

Bus Rides with My 100 Best Friends

Semana de 11 de junho-15 de junho de 2012
Escrito o 16 de junho de 2012

Portuguese Words of the Day:
- Trabalho = work
- Gravidez = pregnant
- Cunho = stamp
- Caqui = persimmon
- Menina = girl

This week at work was the nothing out of the ordinary. My daily schedule here goes as the following:

Wake up at 07:30
Leave for work at 08:00
Work from 08:30-15:00, with breaks for cafezinho and lunch
Take the bus to Univille/home/center around 15:15
*On Tuesday's and Wednesday's I have a Portuguese class at Univille

At work, I am doing marketing and coming up with fundraising ideas for Instituto Amar. My current project is creating a video highlighting the classes that Instituto Amar offers. Instituto Amar has manicure classes on Monday afternoons, hair styling and how to be a waiter on Tuesday mornings, home economics on Wednesday afternoons, and another manicure class on Thursday mornings. These classes are free to people who sign up; upon completion of the course, the participants will receive a certificate stating that they have experience in that area.

On Wednesday, I went with my co-worker Fabricia to teach a class on home economics in a poorer neighborhood within the city. The drive from the Institute to that neighborhood took over half an hour, and at one point I thought we had left Joinville. But we made it there, and Fabricia explained to the ten participants, mainly middle-aged women, about how the Institute can help them improve their lives and find a job. Though the place that we went to is "muito longe" from the Institute,  I really enjoyed going there, and will return there on Monday afternoons with Fabricia.

Near the end of the week, we were preparing for "Dia da Feijoada." Feijoada is a typical Brazilian dish consisting of beans and meat. We were expecting about 500 people to attend the event, and so on Friday, the Institute was filled with boxes of plates, utensils, and everything else in between. More details to come in my next post about the weekend's Dia do Feijoada and Festa Junina (June Festival).

The reason why this post is titled is "Bus Rides with My 100 Best Friends" is because after work, I take the bus everyday after work to either Univille, home, or somewhere in between. The buses to Univille isn't so bad since I usually walk to center to take the "Tupy-Norte" to North Station, and then "Bom Retiro" to campus. Since those are more popular buses, they come more frequently (except when you're in a rush. Then it feels like they don't ever come). However, the "Canto do Rio-Circular" bus that I have to take from North Station never comes. Well, it does, but since it is going towards the outer parts of the city to more residential areas, it mainly comes during rush hour.

On Wednesday, I went directly home after work, and there actually were one hundred people on the bus. I was the last person to get on, and the doors shut as I walked in and my bag was stuck (so embarrassing!). The boys that were sitting on the seats by the door had yell for the driver to open the door. But since they were in the very back, the bus driver did not hear them, and I was awkwardly standing over the trash can with my bag stuck in the door. Finally, the other passengers in the front heard the boys yelling and asked for the driver to open the door. However, the doors on the bus open inward, and though I was able to get my bag out I was awkwardly squished between the door, the trashcan, and another woman. It was not a pleasant bus ride to say the least. I really do love living here, but it is so far away from everything. I received a ride from a friend one day, and he made the joke that I live essentially in Curitiba I live so far away from the city center and work. I honestly am considering moving to somewhere that is closer to work.