brazil is random #3

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. 

another apartment tour

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.  

 

brazil is random #2

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??! 

OKTOBERFEST

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. 

a day in the life...

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.  ;)  

brazil is random #1

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. 

party in paraty!

Paraty

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!