Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the tradewinds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
~Mark Twain
Each week, my class learns four new vocabulary words. They have a quiz on Fridays. Last week, "independent" was one of the words they were tested on. The question read, "When you become completely independent, what do you want to do? Use independent in your sentence." I have to share some of my favorite sentences with you...
"When I become independent, I will take a nap and listen to music." "When I become independent, I will have a car and I will go everyday to my friend's house with my car."
"When I become independent, I will do a sky dive." "When I am independent, I want to make some cupcakes."
"When I become completely independent, I will be a soccer and electric guitar player." "When I become completely independent, I want to wash my clothes but I can't do it now."
"When I become independent, I will have my own life by choosing my own job, my own husband, my own kids, and house." (I added the underline, cause I laughed out loud at that one.)
On Sunday, I attended my first Brazilian soccer game: São Paulo v Corinthians. These are huge rivals (on par with Auburn v Alabama, I think) so we were hoping for a good (and safe!) game. Corinthians ended up winning, but that's not the random part. The game was sponsored by Kaiser and Brahma, two inexpensive Brazilian beers. There were Kaiser signs, inflatables, and Kaiser people walking around holding Kaiser flags. However, NO BEER WAS SOLD IN THE STADIUM. Because the soccer fans here are so aggressive, the powers that be have decided not to fuel the fire by adding alcohol into the mix. Soccer is not really my favorite sport, and that giant inflatable bottle of ice cold Kaiser (condensation drops painted on) was taunting me throughout the entire game. Stupid hooligans ruining things for everyone.
so after complaints of the last video being too dark and a bit creepy, i decided to shoot another video tour of my apartment. ;-) hope this one is to everyone's liking.
brooklin is a neighborhood next to moema that has a street party every october called "brooklinfest". it's like a tiny oktoberfest. while there yesterday, we came upon a pipe band. full on kilts, sporans, etc and playing classic celtic music on the bagpipes. who would've thought that at a german celebration in brazil, i would hear bagpipes??!
a couple of weekends ago, some friends and i traveled to blumenau for its annual oktoberfest celebration. blumenau was founded by german immigrants, and is the only place in brazil where you will see blond hair, blue-eyed brazilians (or so i'm told). the city has the largest oktoberfest celebration outside of munich. not wanting to miss this special event, maggie, sarah, jeff, josh, and i signed up for a tour package that included bus ride, hotel accomodation, tickets to the fest at night, a free t-shirt, etc.
THE BUS
getting from sao paulo to blumenau was going to take nine or ten hours. fortunately, the bus was an overnight ride, so we weren't going to miss much time in the city. it was supposed to take off at 10pm. also, we were hoping to pop some advil PM and get some shut-eye. every bus ride i've ever been on (even shorter trips) - people sleep. we were ready to get some rest after a long work week, and thought it was going to be like every other long bus/plane trip, where people mostly sleep. BOY WERE WE WRONG. apparently brazilians (even when on their way to a three day long nonstop party) want to start partying immediately. so there we were, the gringoes in the front of the giant tour bus, trying to sleep (thank goodness for ipods) while brazilians march up and down the aisle with a tamborine and singing, drinking beer, and passing around a fifth of vodka while a terrible brazilian pop band concert dvds play on the bus tv. i thought just this group of people must be really rowdy until we pull into a rest stop at 2am and get off the bus bleary eyed to see about 25 other tour buses spewing loud, drunk brazilians, laughing and yelling and BUYING MORE BEER. in the bathroom, women were reapplying and touching up their makeup like it was a party. josh said he didn't know whether to high-five these people because of their spirit, or punch them in the face for being obnoxious. either way, i knew the weekend was going to be an interesting one.
DAY ONE - SATURDAY
we finally arrive in blumenau and watch our driver do some fantastic maneuvering as we pull into our hotel. the hotel was great - more like a quaint european hotel than anything else. we get our rooms and change clothes and go grab a bite to eat. the boys go back to their room to take naps while us girls decide to shop for some supplies. we get our metal beer steins and straps to wear them around us like purses, and also a funny hat or two. at 4pm, there's the opening weekend parade, which was grand. children dancing, men in lederhosen, beer wagons, people pouring beer into cups as they walk by, crazy floats, polka music..the whole shebang. that night, we head down the road a bit to the oktoberfest area. think german-style disneyland for adults. sausages, beer, potatoes, more lederhosen all set against a german village background. we danced to german music, we toasted with our steins, we had a blast.
DAY TWO - SUNDAY
we slept in quite a bit and had a great lunch. then we spent the day exploring blumenau. we went into a tiny beer museum, we wandered the streets, we got frozen yogurt. back to oktoberfest that night for dinner and a photo scavenger hunt of epic proportions. we were looking for things like "biggest beer belly", "youngest child out past 10pm", etc. we also rode the bumper cars and started many conga-type lines of dancing to the accordion polka music. another top night.
DAY THREE - MONDAY
today our bus was taking us out of blumenau to a beach town a couple hours away called balneario camboriu. we arrived at the hotel in the afternoon and immediately changed into our swimsuits and headed for the beach. it was a lovely day, but the wind was a little chilly. we spent the afternoon on the beach, and then got a snack at a restaurant right on the street parallel to the beach. we decided to have dinner and then go to a small local festival celebrating portugal. unfortunately, dinner was not good, and the festival was pretty disappointing. it was more like a country fair, and paled in comparison to oktoberfest. the hotel was also a disappointment, as they did nothing to calm down another tour group that was staying there, being really loud and obnoxious into the wee hours of the morning. i was ready to be back in my own bed at this point.
DAY FOUR - TUESDAY
back on the bus. we left early and actually played movies (with english subtitles for us!) instead of terrible brazilian pop concert dvds on the way home. however, as soon as our tour director guy fell asleep, the next movies didn't have english subtitles, so it was back to ipod mode and sleeping. fortunately the brazilians slept a lot too, so there were no tambourines. we got back into sao paulo around 7:30 and took a cab to moema so i was home around 8:15! felt great to be home, especially because my maid came on monday, so i came home to a nice clean apartment.
all in all, it was a great weekend. crazy, but also amazing. i am glad i got to experience the brazilian oktoberfest.
my days are BUSY! there are so many things going on all the time, and most of the time, it's so much fun. here's what a typical workday looks like for me:
6:05am - hit the snooze alarm once or twice before getting up and getting ready for work. 7:03am - catch the bus that takes us teachers to school every morning from the little corner cafe. 7:30am - arrive at work, prepare for the day 7:55am - in come the students, and there's no stopping until... 3:15pm - dismiss the students to their families/drivers/etc 3:30pm - this varies depending on what day it is:
Monday - faculty meeting then exercise
Tuesday - work in my classroom
Wednesday - Portuguese Lesson then exercise
Thursday - Portuguese Lesson
Friday - Math Club (i'm in charge of 8 third graders who need extra help with math)
4:40pm - take the teacher bus back to moema (unless it's monday or wednesday, then maggie and i work out and take a taxi home) so i usually get in about 5:15pm (later on the days i work out). then, depending on how everyone feels/weather, we may go out for a few beers and dinner, or just eat in at our apartments. then i'm grading papers and/or relaxing on the couch until bedtime.
thank goodness for the weekends when we get to slow down a bit.
who am i kidding? the only day we slow down is sundays. ;)
we go out to karaoke/videoke friday night in the asian neighborhood and a random couple sings "most beautiful girl in the room" by the flight of the conchords. would've never thought a japanese karaoke bar in brazil would have that in their songbook! my two friends who know fotc and i pretty much went nuts.
so because of brazilian independence day, we had a four day weekend at the beginning of september. eight of us took off for paraty, a small city on the coast in rio de janeiro (the state, not the city). we took a cab to the subway, then the subway to the bus station, then a bus to paraty (and the green grass grows all around, all around...)! we arrived at the hostel in the wee hours of the morning, only to make up our beds and get some sleep.
our boat
we woke up early enough on saturday to hire a boat for the day, captained by ricardo. the boat was a crazy pink and red love theme, only adding to the hilarity of the trip. we sailed (our own private cruise) from cove to cove, beach to beach, swimming, listening to music, and having a few beers. we swam onto a beach for lunch at a restaurant right on the water. got some sun, had some great conversations, and generally felt like the luckiest people in the world.
Trinidade
the rest of the weekend consisted of nighttime concerts, good restaurants, beginning to film a movie, playing cards, eating churros, and dancing. on monday we went to trinidade, a hippie beach village about 30 minutes away. we spent almost all of tuesday on the bus in the rain slowly inching our way back into são paulo. what an excellent weekend away!
I'm settling into my new apartment here, and slowly adding things that make it feel more like home. Putting away all the suitcases a few weeks ago was the first step in that direction, and the obtaining of cable and internet was another! It's funny how little touches, like a hamper or a bit of tupperware for leftovers make one feel so much better.
My kitchen the first day (see the gift basket?)
My kitchen now
Other side of my little kitchen
Dining area
Having a maid is a wonderful luxury of living in Brazil! Sandra comes once a week for a very reasonable fee and cleans my entire apartment from top to bottom. Washing dishes, doing laundry...it's amazing!
My "office" in the spare room
Main bathroom (shower is to the left)
My room!
I'll post more pictures of the entire place (and my balcony!) soon. Speaking of settling in, there are so many shops and restaurants that look interesting in our neighborhood, and we only know our way to and from specific places so far. So this weekend, we plan on getting lost in Moema!
Once Cindy and Jeff found out it was my birthday last Tuesday, they promised we would celebrate during the weekend after the first few days of school. And celebrate we did!
It started on Friday evening as we got off the bus from school and walked to a local watering hole that both Cindy and Jeff knew called Frederico's. Joining us were Richard and Bridie, and our collective thirsts for cold beer. We ordered a round, a little food, and began a nice conversation. As the night closes in, I notice that as the waiters bring more rounds, they keep a running tally on a small yellow pad. The math teacher in me sees that it's a 10 x 5 array! I point out that we've had 26 beers so far, and I wonder if any table has ever filled that array of 50 beers. Seeing as how we'd already gone more than halfway, why not go for the whole enchilada? That was the opinion of the others at the table, and the challenge was on! The waiters must have eventually figured out what we were doing, because they stopped asking if we wanted more, and just took away our empty glasses and plunked down new ones before we could blink. We also played some cards, betting packets of condiments (and small amounts of money) to make it more interesting. We filled that card up, and were even given some complimentary beers by the waiters for our bravado. Of course, I was credited the idea for the challenge, and blamed for any decisions thereafter.
Richard and Bridie went home, but we picked up Maggie and headed to Rhino, a pub just down the street from my apartment. Great atmosphere, and a live band, though everyone insisted that the bands are usually better. These guys were a bit hit-or-miss, and I remember thinking at one point, "how are we supposed to dance to a Creed song?!" All in all, a great night.
Saturday was supposed to be a day where a few of us were going to go to school to get some work done, but when we went to pick up Jeff and Josh from the restaurant where they had lunch, they ordered two more glasses for us to help them drink the giant bottle of beer they'd ordered. The weather was lovely, and the invitation too good to pass up, so we put off our work and had a great afternoon sitting in the sun while chatting.
Later that night, we meet up at Jeff's for some darts and cards before going out to a club. Flavia has put our names on the list for a place called The History, where the music changes to a new decade every half hour, and the floor lights up like Studio 54 (or what I imagine Studio 54 was). After the craziest entrance into a bar I've ever experienced (men dressed in all black, people handing you cards, taking your cards, opening doors, closing doors...I felt like a celebrity), we checked our coats and proceeded to dance for three hours straight. No stopping (there was a bar right on the dance floor), no sitting, no resting. The music was really fun, and team America definitely showed the Brazilians a thing or two about dancing (people were looking at us like they'd never seen The Sprinkler before! Imagine that!). I got home around 3:30am, and we left a few of us there to continue on the night!
What an awesome (two day) birthday celebration and introduction into Brazilian nightlife!
I don't know exactly how to describe the last two weeks, but I'm going to try.Life in São Paulo has been incredible. I arrived at my new apartment around midday on Saturday, July 31 and haven't stopped going since. The building is lovely, and the space even better once I was able to unpack everything and put away the suitcases a week later. I'll post pictures soon!
On Sunday (August 1), the expats got on a bus with our principals and superintendent for a trip out of the city to a village called Embu, where there is a market every Sunday selling everything you can imagine. We were looking for things for our apartments. Most of the other teachers had been in the city for four or five days, so they knew of some things they wanted. I'd only been in town for about 24 hours, so I was not prepared to purchase any furniture! I did buy a lamp for my bedside, however, along with a colorful rug and a couple pictures from a local artist. Maggie and I were even able to negotiate the price on the pictures - pretty good for the second day! One of the best things about my new life is the people I've met. Getting to know the other foreign teachers has been wonderful, and a few of us have already formed a fairly close bond. There's some Aussies, a Brit, and several Americans, though this isn't the first international teaching job for many of them. It made me feel fairly intimidated in the beginning, but not at all now. And Cindy and Jeff have been here for a year already, so they've been great taking us newbies under their wing.
I find I am really enjoying life in a big city. It really helps that I'm in such a great neighborhood with shops and restaurants on every corner. And the restaurants are fantastic. I haven't been disappointed yet. When the weather is nice, you can sit outside for hours, on the sidewalk, just enjoying the company you're with.
I like taking an elevator down to the lobby, waving at the doorman, and walking down the street. It feels like I'm in a movie! The sounds are totally different, of course. Not only are there cars honking, occasional sirens, and airplanes flying overhead, but loud fireworks after a soccer match. I find it all really exciting. Only ever having visited big cities before, staying in them for maybe a couple weeks at most, I have no frame of reference to how life here in São Paulo compares to life in another large city. But I can compare it to the life in suburbia, and I find the change very refreshing.
Now that I have internet and cable tv, I find myself feeling much more settled and at home. I hope to post more specific events and happenings now that I'm connected to the world again, but wanted to give a general update of my mindset after two weeks. tchau!
