Copacabana

I arrive in Rio this morning and have already hit the beach and explored downtown. Tomorrow, another beach and another part of the city!

Details and photos coming with a better internet connection.

MUCH LOVE

COPA BRASIL

Corintians just won Copa Brasil and the city EXPLODED. I feel like I'm in a war zone. For the last 45 min- air horns, car horns, people yelling out of their apartments, firworks that sound like distant bombs. Crazy crazy crazy.

Its fun to know what happens in a game without even turning on the tv. Even better when you do and share in the excitement. The two goals were beautiful, espcially the frist my J. Henrique. They've had a great year, winning lots of tournaments and now the biggest trophy in Brazil.

I'm happy for São Paulo!

"its been so long"

This blog business doesn't seem to be my thing. At least not putting my personal life on blast on the internet. This got so complicated after carnaval, which is when I was first confronted with my own expectations of what my experience would be like here. I was incredibly excited to participate in the desfile, and after it happened, I realized everything I had to say about it was not exactly what people wanted to hear. I think to a certain extent I felt like writing how I truely felt about it would dispoint everyone, ruin their own dreams of carnaval and Brazil. A lot of my life here feels that way- not exactly what everyone would tune in to hear about. Also, everything moves so fast. I've been here six months now- SIX!- and I feel like I haven't done anything!

Not true at all. I've had an amazing time, with a lot of self relfection. This trip overall is everything I needed it to be, and I am ready hit the groud running when I get back to the states. Currently, I'm in this awkward phase adjusting to life in São Paulo without all my friends from the program (friends for life, hopefully) and making plans to go to Rio. With so many good-bye partys this last 9 days, my body is exhausted. My fever this morning definetly dampened my enthusiasm for my trip to Rio in couple of days. But I trust I will get better soon, and I'll have the energy to start this next adventure--which I plan on documenting a lot more than my frist six months here!

Well, typing can be exhausting, thus I conclude this short post! Much love to all my family and friends!

DESFILANDO EN CARNAVAL!!!

I can't believe I haven't posted this yet, but I will be participating in Carnaval 2009!

Feburary 21 there is the annual parade in the sandrodomo (yes, women in big feathery costumes and huge flamboyant floats with everyone Sambaing and singing) where all the Samba schools perform their song for the city. All you have to do to participate is learn it and pay for the fantasia (the costume). Sooo, I'll be dancing with Escola de Samba Pérola Negra who's theme is (get this) INDIA! After the novela "Caminho das Índias" -which is my favorite (my comments on that later). The website gives you an idea of what the costumes will look like, but I have no idea which one I will get (I hope its the white one). I'm sure it will be spectacular AND I get to keep it! WHAT A DREAM!

Please click on the link below to view pictures from Paraty through Picasa!

http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahmercado/Paraty?authkey=5P0Js9kTM4g#

Dancing n Paraty

A few updates since the last time I posted:

I cut my hair, so now its about shoulder length.

I start classes at the University next week. I picked my classes, although don't know yet which ones I'll actually get into. So far its two Geography classes ( Public Policy and Territorial Management, and Analysis of Transportation and Logistics) which to the non-Geography major sound lame, but I'm am really excited about. The third one is a toss up between Economics of the Public Sector, The Body in Science (dance theory class) or Geopolitics.... I'll let you know. In addition I have two mandatory classes through the program for Language and culture. I've worked out my schedule, though, so that I have a four-day weekend. That way it will be easier to travel.


I went to the beach! Paraty, in the state of Rio de Janiero. Great time. I'll probably never get to vacation like that again. We stayed in a posada (old colonial house turned into an inn), and I lucked out with the best room- big bed, high ceilings, nice bathroom. We left Friday morning and on the way there we stopped at a beach called Ubatuba, where we swam for a few hours before moving on. I felt like I was five agian... I had so much fun with the waves! When we finally got to Paraty (the whole bus ride was only 5 hours) we had a tour around the colonial center of the city, which was smaller than I expect after talking through Santo Domingo in the DR and Antigua Guatemala. But beautiful. It was drizzling while we were walking around, and I thought that the water in the streets was from the rain earlier, but apparently the town doesn't have a plumbing system to take care of rain water. Instead all the streets are lower in the middle and are at sea level, in order to let the high tide come into the city streets and the rainwater to drain out into the ocean. It’s been that was since the 1500s.

On Saturday we went for a boat ride, beach hopping. About 25 of us on a boat all to ourselves. We stop and jump out into the water to swim around or snorkel. I didn't see that many fish, but held a few starfish and a sea cucumber (which looks like a big slimy turd and feels like one too). It was so relaxing to be on that boat, with the sun out, the breeze in your face. Saturday night, we walked around town and had some ice cream at the local sorveteria. I know my dad would have loved it, because it was self serve and you pay by weight, not serving. Basically I have coconut ice cream whenever I get the chance. Later, we stopped in at Galeria Zoom -->go to Exposicoes (on the left), then click on the picture at the top) and saw an exibition called "Brasileiros" by Araquém Alcântara. You need to click on the link and see it for yourself.

Sunday we rode Jeeps to two waterfalls. I had a good time... would have been a great time if the snorkeling the day before hadn't turned into a Coppertone commercial... it was a rough ride. But when we finally got there, I was more than happy to jump into the icy water. It felt as satisfying as taking a hot shower after a long day. The ride back to São Paulo was difficult as well, but I got through it.


Since Paraty, we've been wrapping up the end of the month of Intensive Language courses. I've had a few tests, and wrote my first academic paper in Portuguese. Our last day was Wednesday, and since then I've been out dancing every night. I learned how to dance Foro, which feels like a mix of Salsa and Bachata. Last night we went out to this Caribbean club called Conexión Caribe. It was really good for me : )

First Week in Brazil in Pictures

Here are a few pictures of my time in Brazil thus far.

~ ~ ~

Welcome to São Paulo

The view from my bedroom window. What a great place to write papers on urban geography : )




The night view... as best I could capture with my camera.




This is looking down into the Mercadão (fruit market).




At the Museo de Linga Portuguesa they had an entire hall way with a screen showing film and pictures related to the exhibits.

One of the exhibits at the Museum of Portuguese had parts of poems illuminated on the black floor. This one stuck with me:

Who does not see well
ONE WORD
Cannot see well
ONE SOUL

Playing with an interactive word game. I'm with two friends from Macalester who are doing the same program in São Paulo. They are wonderful and we are having a great time : )

One of my favorite pictures I've taken so far, this is another exhibit at the Portuguese Language Museum.

As in most big cities, graffiti is all over the place. What I didn't expect was elaborate works of art/murals like this. I snapped this picture quickly, but I'll have more examples up soon.

Maracatu deserves a lot more of an introduction than I can give it. Basically, this group of people meet every Saturday at this school and play a type of music that originated in the Northeast of Brazil. You have muscians, dancers and spectators... and if you want to learn how to play something new, just walk up to someone and they will hand over their instrument before you can open your mouth to ask. Not only that, but they stick around to teach you how to play. In my case it took a long time to learn how to play a simple beat on one of those big drums, but it was worth the effort. I will definitely be back.

Escola Mocidade!! Sunday night we went to a carneval rehearsal with one of the best schools in São Paulo. So many people and so much energy! Incredible! I can't wait for carneval!

YES!

We all got to try one some of the head dresses from past carnevals. The one I am wearing is HEAVY. I can't imagine samba-ing for an hour with this on.

The Arrival, CIEE and Host Family

I arrived just fine on thursday morning, no issues, I was even picked up by CIEE (which I wasn't expecting). The only thing was that after arriving at the airport in São Paulo, I had to wait a few hours for others who would be riding with us. Although it gave me time to meet the other people in the program is was really hard to just sit there when São Paulo was riiiight outside. I was so anxious and exicited to go into the city! But that gave way to exhaustion after the first hour. I ended up falling asleep on the bus ride to the hotel (missed our first tour through the city, basically!) which is located on Avenida Paulista, a very important street in the city. I think that stat to know is that 3/4 of São Paulo's money is on this avenue (lots of banks and major commercal activity).

Speaking portuguese was scary at first but I am proud of myself for putting myself outhere and speaking as much as possible, even though my proficiency isn't that good. We have monitores (students at the University that work with CIEE) who have been increadibly helpfull and kind. And fun. We've gone out a few times now, last night to a small concert, and its been great. Lots of Brazilian funk. Some samba.

I met my host family for the first time on Friday and we hit if off right away. I think my parents would be very happy to know that they have hosted many times before and expect to take of my as part of their family. They picked my up this morning (Sunday) and brought me home where I have wireless (and fast!) internet access and my own room. So if anyone would like to keep in contact using skype, it would be very easy (my skype username is simple: sarahmercado).

I'm pretty tired at the moment, so I'm going to take a nap. From now it'll be easier to update this blog (with WiFi), and I'll have more comments on life here and my impressions of the city. Just want to let you all know I'm doing great and not to worry!!

Firt step... get out of the house

I am surprisingly calm about this trip, although I am very aware that the feeling wont last past the security check point at the airport. So far everything is planned, packed, accounted for, under control, so there is nothing left to do other than eat these Cheerios and invite you all to this blog where I will update everyone on my trip to Brazil.

I leave today, January 7th, arrive tomorrow morning, January 8th. My return flight (if there are not catastrophes) is scheduled for August 11th. So between now and then, I'll let you know how it all goes!

Wish me luck and don't worry too much, I'll update this as frequently as possible so that you don't inundate my mother with worried phone calls about my whereabouts.

Much love!

Sarah