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Classes have not even started yet and I am already behind with this thing. Aye! I am sorry. I will do my best at updating this for you benefit and mine.
I have been in Brasil for a week now, but it seems like much longer. I will need to backtrack some to get up to date. I arrived safely to Curitiba last Saturday and my friend Pamela came and got me from the airport. I met Pamela at Tech my sophomore year when she was an exchange student. Pamela is awesome. We went to check out the place I was planning on living at. It was really nice, but my room was very small. I decided I wanted to look at my other options, which turned out to be not a whole lot. So, Saturday I stayed the night at Pamela's apartment and the next day we went out to brunch with her parents at a popular French shoppe. I tried pao de frances which is warm French bread with ham and cheese. I do not like ham, but I did not want to offend Pamela, so I tried it. If I did like ham, I think it would taste good. After we ate I decided I would just live at the one place because it is very close to my school, safe, and inexpensive. So, Pamela's family dropped me off there and that was really hard. I was very emotional because I knew her and then she had to go, so I felt really really alone. But it worked out alright because I met one of my neighbors, Susan, and she took me to the supermarket. Susan is a 27 yr. old from Sao Paulo, Brazil and she is also Italian. The one thing I noticed about Brazilian women, at least, is that they do not look their ages. I assumed Susan was around my age because she looks very young. Anyhow, we walked to the grocery store and it was about 6 blocks or so from our apartment. Susan was excited because she wanted to improve her English through me. And I was excited because she spoke English and could help me with my Portuguese.
The Brazilian grocery store...
It was so interesting experiencing the grocery store of another country. There are of course similarities, which is comforting, but the differences are really interesting. The name of the place was Mercador and it was a grocery store, but it also had clothes, household things, and such similar to a Walmart. The carts are not as big as in America and they are call carrinhos, which mean small cars. Haha. I forgot about being sad at the grocery store because I was so in awe of everything. Some interesting things I noticed were the milk not being cold and the fact that it could be bought in a bag. Apparently, they ultra pasteurize the milk so it is not necessary to keep it cold and it lasts for a long time when unopened. Also, the milk I saw in a bag needed to be mixed with water, which I guess is not unheard of in America with like the milk for babies. Also, there was no peanut butter. I talked with another American from my Portuguese class and she said if you do find peanut butter, it is not like our peanut butter, it is gross. They have many fruits that we do not have. Their lime is our lemon, called limao. Their butter is our margarine and their margarina is our butter. I did not see resealable bags for deli meat. They have nutella. They have Frosted Flakes and Hannah Montana cereal. They also have Ruffles chips and Pringles, but Pringles are R$8. The store had Nesquik, strawberry and chocolate, Trident gum, Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, Ginger Ale, and Nestle products. I did not think the liquid laundry detergent smelled good at all, but the dry powdery kind did smell appealing. And one other thing I noticed was that their cashiers stand on the right side when you check out, not the left. Some stores in America are like this too, but I think it is more for the 10/20 items or less lines. Now after paying for our purchases we called a taxi to take us home, which is very common. The taxi ride home was between R$8 and R$10, which is about $4 - 5. ($1 is about R$1.75)
After putting away groceries, Susan and I went to the mall by bus. There is a bus stop really close to our apartment, so this is very convenient. We went to two malls and they were huge in that one had 2/3 stories and used to be a train station while the other one had around 5/6 stories. Besides the stores being different, the idea of the mall layout and such is about the same as the one in America. There was a food court, movie theater, and indoor ice skating rink. The other mall was high class and it had just been remodeled to be high class because before it was not. It had an Outback Steakhouse and McDonald's. It was really awesome because there was a lady playing on a piano near this nice restaurant/bar and there were these other women who just came over to sing while she played. I do not think it was planned, which was really cool. They were singing some beautiful Brazilian songs and they were very talented. Susan and I took the bus home and that was the end of that day.
On Monday, I had to take the bus to my Portuguese class. I had written the name and the streets nearby the school on a notecard and I just went to the bus stop and asked whoever walked by if they knew how to get there.The second person I asked was an older gentleman and he could tell by my accent that I was not Portuguese. However, it was not so bad that he assumed I was American. He actually asked if I was German, which I took as a compliment. lol. He was so nice though because he got on the bus and had me follow and then he walked me all the way to my destination. I think he said something about dangerous and me being a foreign girl, but I am not exactly sure. It was so awesome though that he did that because I am sure it was out of his way. Come to find out, though, it was the wrong destination. I had to talk to two more people in my little bit of Portuguese to find the right place. I registered for class and then had 4 hours to kill. I went to a park near Universidade Federal do Parana. At the park I was approached two times by two different groups of Asian people who wanted to convert me or share the message with me. I told them I was American and that I spoke very little Portuguese. They continued to talk at me for a while and I kept saying I don't know, I don't understand. They finally were like ok and left me alone. After the park I went into a couple stores and went to eat at a Japanese/Brazilian buffet. I walked in and went to the front desk and the man was just looking at me. I realized it was a seat yourself kind of deal, so I sat down. I was looking around and had no idea what to do next. Thankfully, a couple came in right after me and I just copied them. There are two options at a buffet in Brazil, you can pay per kilo or you can pay an all you can eat price. I just paid per kilo and got rice, noodles, pineapple, mango, and chicken and veggies. I did not like the rice and I found out that I do not like mango in fruit form. The pineapple, however, was the best I ever had. It was so juicy and just melt in your mouth amazing. The chicken and veggies was very delicious too. It may have been how they cooked it or the spices, but it was so good and it was just grilled chicken with onions and peppers.
After I ate, I went to class and it was great. I am in a basic Portuguese class and I should probably be in basic 2 and not 1, but I really like my teacher and the people in this class. I met other Portuguese students from Ireland, Australia, Russia, England, India, Montenegro, and the US. The other Americans were from LA Cali, Ohio, and NC, but the one from NC is my friend Roman that I met through the exchange program. He will be taking Biological Enge. courses at PUC, which is the university I will be studying at come Feb 22. The class is good because the teacher mostly talks in Portuguese, which I need to get used to, and we have homework. Also, the class is small, so I am able to speak more and get my questions answered. It was fun trying to get home that day. Roman helped me find the right bus stop for the bus I needed, but then while I was on the bus, one of the stops was a large bus stop with lots of different stops next to each other and the bus people made me get off the bus. I told them where I needed to go and asked what bus to take because I thought maybe I got on the wrong bus after all. But no, I had to get off the bus and get right back on the same bus and pay again. I was really upset about this and did not really understand. Oh and an interesting thing I noticed about the buses in Brazil is that there is a bus driver and a cashier. You get on the bus and there is this thing you go through similar to an amusement park ride entrance. You have to push it to go through... Yes, so at this thing the cashier takes your money or scans your bus card, and then he presses a button so the thing can be pushed so you can get through and get a seat. Also, there are three types of bus stops: regular sign ones, shelter ones, and tubes. These tubes are really cool because you pay the cashier in the tube and then the bus comes up to the tube and these doors open of the bus and the tube, and then you can get on/off the bus. It rains in Curitiba everyday, so these tubes are really convenient.
I had Portuguese class Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs from 2 - 5:30PM and besides class I figured out the right bus to take so I would not have to pay twice, I went to some music shows, and went to the movies. I went to a free orchestra concert at UFPR with my friends Roman, Knsenia, Keri, and Carlos. It was done by college students and they were very talented. They played Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and some Brazilian music. I went with Susan to the other show and it was at Teatro da Reitoria and it was a smaller Brazilian orchestra. It was composed of a pianist, violinist, 4 guitar players, and this musician who played four or five different reed instruments. They were all very talented. As for the movies, I went with Ksenia one day after class. We went to the mall and saw Sherlock Holmes. The movie was in English with Portuguese subtitles. At the movies I had delicious popcorn (pipoca) and I tried Guarana for the first time, which is Brazilian soda. It tastes sort of like cherry Ginger Ale. It's really good.
On Friday, I met Roman, Ksenia, Keri, and Carlos at the mall. Carlos and Keri, boyfriend and girlfriend, brought Carlos's 4 year old nephew and we took a tourist bus around the city. It was really awesome except for the rain and then the heat. We stopped at a couple parks and we ate at a Churrasquieria, which is a place that serves all you can eat pasta, Brazilian food, salad, and meat. There was all kinds of meat too, such as lamb, pork, chicken hearts, and very good steak. I tried picanha and it is the best steak at these restaurants. It is a Brazilian cut beef with special seasonings. It was very good. That was the most I have eaten since being in Brazil. I am so glad we went walking afterwards. Before we left from the restaurant to go to another park in Santa Felicidade, which is an Italian neighborhood, I finally tried some Brazilian coffee and it was absolutely amazing. I am not a big coffee drinker because I do not like the taste. I always add flavor to coffee when I make it. Brazilian coffee though, all I added was a little bit of sugar and that was it. I did not need to add anything else because it already had so much flavor. It was wonderful. I just hope I can bring some coffee with me back to the states, but I am not sure if this is possible.
At the park in Santa Felicidade, I saw monkeys (macacos) and capybaras (children call them Ki-kis). It was awesome.The pictures are on Facebook. They just live in the wild at this park. Also, I really liked the workout equipment they had at the park. Instead of getting a gym membership, you could legitimately just go to this park because they had equipment to workout arms, legs, abs, etc. There was even an elliptical type machine. It was really cool. Also, at the park there was a vendor selling sugar cane juice. It was so good. They have stalks of sugar cane and they just cut off part of it and our the contents into a container and add lime or pineapple juice. Its very sweet and very good. I really enjoyed being a tourist. Once I got home I took a nap and then went out with Susan, Ksenia, and Marcello, Susan's ex-boyfriend, to two shows and a German bar. The first show was a Brazilian vocal group consisting of guys and girls. They were spectacular. They were paying tribute to a Brazilian composer who had died last year and I believe a lot of the music was from the 70s and 80s. It was so great with their energy and talent. After this show we went to a German bar and ordered drinks, fries, and sausages. I tried a popular beer and was not a fan, so then I ordered my first alcoholic beverage, a rum and coke, which was really clear rum and pepsi. It seemed very strong to me, but maybe it is normal. The french fries were so simple yet so good and the same with the sausages. The french fries had Parmesan cheese and green onions on them, and the sausages were like a mix of bologna and hot dog with mayo, mustard, and green onions on them. So very tasty. After the German bar, we went to another theater to watch a horror comedy production. It was amazing even though I really did not understand what was being sad. Again the energy and gestures were great. There was a lot of sex jokes and the main girl was a boy in real life. The gist of the plot was that there were these scary monsters who needed to give a sacrifice to their master, the devil, and the sacrifice was a virgin. So, they went out to find one. Two different groups brought back two different girls. One of the monsters slept with one of the ladies and then the other girl was very eager to have sex, so she kept intensely flirting with and making passes at the monster, vampire, who brought her to the house. Then, there were these two men who broke out of jail and wanted to steal from the nice house and they dressed up as a son and mother. One of the monsters was gay and he was very funny with his gestures and speech, and there was a poodle dog who was actually a midget. So, the eager girl ends up meeting the jail runaway "son" and they have sex, but no one knows. The monsters then go to give her as a sacrifice and then devil rejects her and they are confused. Then, they find out she slept with the runaway. Susan and Marcello, Brazilians, said there were a lot of jokes about current events and related to life in Curitiba, which is really cool.
Now that the past is cleared up, today I cleaned my room and went to the grocery store with Susan. Tonight we are going with Ksenia to a birthday party of a friend of Susan's and it is at a disco. It is not the American version of a disco, but rather a dance club from what I understand. I think it will be fun to see more Brazilian night life. So that is all for now and I will try to write again sooner rather than later
Tchau Tchau
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