Week 2

Another week, another update.

Last weekend ended on a good note. Saturday night I went with my host family to get pizza and boy did I eat. The big thing here is pizza restaurants where you pay one price and then they walk around with pizzas and you get slices of whatever kinds you want! They even have dessert pizza! I wanted to try everything and I pretty much did. The next day, my host sister took Julie and me to a great park that has swan paddle boats and bocce ball courts! That night we went to an AWESOME sports bar that is completely decorated in jerseys and scarves of soccer teams from all over the world. My host sister and brother are big fans of Gremio and they know the owner and a lot of the people at the bar. It was a really cool atmosphere in which to watch a soccer game and I met a Texan in a cowboy hat who proclaimed Rio Grande do Sul the “Texas of Brazil.” He makes a good point—while I’ve never been to Texas, I imagine that the spirit of independence and the Gaucho culture here are similar to Texas.

This week has been pretty low-key. Julie and I have had most of our mornings free so we’ve gone running and lifted weights in the morning. If we have time before lunch, we then go wander around aimlessly. We’ve gone to the federal police a few times this week also because we had to register and get our fingerprints taken in case we go rogue. The federal police, like the bank workers and the post office employees, were on strike the first time we went so there was a lot of confusion, but I am now all set.

Last week we were at the ACM School and Sports Center, but this week most of our activities took place at the ACM Rua da Praia (which is within walking distance of the other ACMs). Julie and I attended an adult English class. We got to play a fun card game with them and they read a short newspaper article about a “haunted” hotel, so the students got to share spooky stories. Then it was our turn–we had our first Portuguese class on Wednesday! The nerd in me is really missing being in school since I like the structure of being forced to learn and so I was really excited to have homework!! And I think it’s helping a lot. We are speaking and understanding a lot more Portuguese—last night we spoke Portuguese the whole night and I wasn’t completely confused! It’s nice to be able to actually express some thoughts and aspects of my personality in Portuguese instead of just always being the confused foreigner (which I am 99% of the time).

Porto Alegre is getting set for the 2014 World Cup!

It’s election season here which means craziness everyone. There are posters and the walls are all painted. There are a lot more than two major parties here and it’s MANDATORY to vote. Candidates get a free hour on TV every night when their ads run, but they also have lots of volunteers handing out pamphlets everywhere on the streets. And my personal favorite thing is that they all have catchy songs that play in their ads and then they hire trucks that drive around playing that song all day long. I can now sing you about 3 of the candidates’ horribly catchy songs

I’m feeling right at home in Porto Alegre—the other day I found a bluegrass band that plays in the parks and in November, there’s a Mississippi Delta Blues Festival and Marquis Knox (a blues musician who I’ve seen a number of times in St.Louis will be there!!) Julie and I had a girls’ night last night with our host sisters and one of their friends, and then spent today looking around the mall. The shoes here are the best! I’m really digging all the studded smoking slippers and wedge-heeled kicks. We tried a Brazilian food called Xis last night—it’s a giant sandwich (actually the size of my head) that has cheese, egg, meat (I got chicken), olives, tomatoes and lettuce. It is delicious.

XIS!

Monday afternoon Julie and I are leaving for Canela (about 2 hours away). We will be doing English immersion camps there and getting to see some public health projects that one of the YMCA board members is involved in. I also hear that there is some awesome hiking around 🙂 It’s a little sad to leave POA right as we’re starting to get settled, but it should be a good trip–I’ll keep you posted!

A Brief Overview of Porto Alegre So Far

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, this post is even longer than the last!

Stairs in an alley

Bank workers are on strike.

All the banks look like this now.

Stained glass window in one of the big churches.

Old hotel / Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana

Photo exhibit at Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana

Garden at the Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana

Church.

The barbecuer in our house.

Capirinha

Becoming master of the grill.

Sunday barbecue day.

We went to the craziest pizza place-the food and dessert pizza just keeps coming!

Host family at dinner.

Church and statue in historic downtown.

 

 

Estou no Brasil!

Oi! (a.k.a. “hey!”)

I’m here in Brazil! I got in last Sunday evening after a couple of long/delayed flights. Our “boss”/internship coordinator Matheus met us at the airport to take us to meet our host families. Julie (my co-intern) is staying with Cristiano, the youngest board member of the ACM-Rio Grande do Sul (where we are working) and I am staying with Matheus’ dad, stepmom and sister. His sister, Mairana, is 25. She goes to law school and works part-time. His family is very, very nice and has been wonderful about taking me around the city. It’s been a bit hard to communicate though and because even the most basic conversation requires immense concentration and hand gesturing to get my point across, I’ve been pretty tired.

When our plane landed in the city, it was super rainy! It stayed grey and rainy for the first few days. The roads were a bit flooded sometimes and it was actually raining so much that some of the students didn’t come to school some of the days! (woooot rain day!!) We spent the first couple of days getting to know the ACM (YMCA) here. We went to the board meeting, visited a couple of branches, got set up for a membership to the athletic facilities, and met people who work at the ACM. The older students have classes from 7:30-1:30 during the day so Julie and I spent a couple of mornings go around with the English teachers giving our spiels, asking the students questions and answering some of theirs. The students say my accent is hard for them to understand so I’m trying to mumble less and speak more slowly. The students are well informed about current events and were very curious about the anti-Muslim video sparking outrage across the Middle East. Julie and I explained that the video represented the extreme views of a few Americans, not the beliefs of the general public many of whom found the video disrespectful to that extreme, and that in an ideal America, there were be not only tolerance, but respect for differences in religious beliefs.

On a more positive note, Julie and I got here just in time because Thursday was a holiday here! Back in the day (unclear exactly when due to my less than competent grasp of the Portuguese language) Rio Grande do Sul, which is the state I’m in, tried to separate from Brazil. The culture here is a little different than other parts of Brazil due to Spanish influence. People here can sort of understand my broken Spanishguese, but in other parts of the country I’m told that people would be even more confused. Rio Grande do Sul shares with Argentina the “gaucho” cowboy culture that flourished on the open plains. For the month of September, one of the parks downtown becomes filled with small wooden cabins that people live in for the month of September. There is tons of barbecue, dancing, drinking lots of chimarrão (mate) and pilchos (???gaucho clothing) (fun fact: the gaucho shoes are basically much cheaper and oftentimes leather versions of TOMS!). It’s pretty common right now to see men and boys in gaucho clothes riding horses on the sidewalk!

Gauchos in the street!

So that state holiday is the reason that the students had Friday off school and Matheus is out of town setting up some things for the camp we will be working at in October, so Julie and I had Thursday and Friday free. Our host siblings decided to take us out Wednesday night and show us how to party the “Brazilian way”. We picked up some of their friends on the way to the club. It was my first experience getting mistaken for a Brazilian! 4 days in and already blending like a natural! (It actually may have been mostly due to the fact that it was dark and all I said was “nice to meet you” but still, so proud. And Brazil is actually a pretty easy place to blend in (apart from my American clothes and consistent use of English) because people here have such a broad range of looks. Matheus told us that there is actually a big black market for Brazilian passports because “anyone can pass as Brazilian.”  So anyway after some parking adventures (topic for future post: the driving here), we get to the club they are taking us to and there is a HUGE line. One of the girls we were with comes over and Julie’s host brother explains that we are going to meet the band because they love to practice English. Julie’s host brother, Mairana and another girl get in line while Julie and I are taken to a nearby room to meet the band and take pictures. We stand around for a bit and then are told it’s time to go. “Keep your heads down” we are told as we walk past the huge line with the band to get in the club. It turns out that the girl who introduced us to the band is the sister of the drummer. We stood in a SUPER crowded room to watch the show (which was super fun!). It turns out that the band is pretty popular in the south of Brazil (everyone was singing along) and had just gotten back from playing in New York! It was a pretty cool experience to have my first night out in Brazil. I felt like a rockstar! The clubs here don’t close early, that’s for sure. We danced and chatted until well after 5AM when we finally grabbed food and headed to bed. I can now say that I have “partied” until sunrise. It was fun, but super exhausting and not something I would want to do often!

The next day, I somehow managed to rouse myself from bed before noon. We went and got lunch at a restaurant and then my family drove me around to show me a bit of the city. It was beautiful! The rain and wind had finally ended and the sun was shining something fierce. Porto Alegre is nestled between some mountains and a huge lake. The city is hilly and colorful and full of beautiful architecture and I love being so near to the water. We went to the beach where people were kitesurfing. We walked along the beach which was lined with peoples’ summer homes, adorable looking cafes advertising crepes and palm trees. It was a bit of a contrast to the part of the city where I live and work which is full of taller building, makeshift homes, lots of hustle and bustle and more temperate-climate dwelling trees. I can’t wait for the weather to warm up and to go back!

Beach!

My host family keeps joking with me that TV here is all football and Telenovelas and in their house, it’s definitely true. Football is serious business here. There are two big soccer teams here in Porto Alegre-Internacional and Gremio. You’re either a fan of one or the other and whichever team you support, you HARDCORE support. My host sister and Matheus are fans of Gremio so I’ve started taking a liking to them (also, in terms of jerseys: baby blue, black and white >  red.) We were going to go see a documentary on the history of Gremio on Wednesday night, but it got very windy because of a cyclone in Uruguay so the showing was cancelled.

Julie and I were both dropped off at the ACM Friday morning to meet up. We walked to the edge of the ginormous lake where there is a running trail and we ran for a wonderful 45 minutes. It was so nice! I’ve been driven around a lot and that’s no way to get to know a city properly (or to get any exercise). Julie and I are both active which is great because we’ve been making time to go to weightlifting classes at the gym or run once in a while. They have these very neat outdoor exercise areas that have some basic elliptical and weight lifting equipment that are strategically placed around the city and have great views.

Start of the running path along the lake

People here have been so nice and friendly! Sometimes when I travel, I feel uncomfortable speaking  English, but people have been so kind and understanding about our difficulties with Portuguese and I have never been made to feel uncomfortable for being American. We are taking some Portuguese classes next week with the English teacher which I am very excited for! I came with unrealistic expectations of my speaking ability because of my Spanish background so it’s been super frustrating that I can’t really communicate and I am ready to learn some grammar!

Okay. I have a lot more to say but this is getting criminally long so I’m going to stop! Miss you all immensely!

Beijos!

The End of a St. Louis Summer and the Start of a New Adventure

The Arch (is not our favorite place)

The end of my summer ended up being much busier than I thought and what little free time I had was mostly spent running, seeing friends or trying new places or breweries (often times combined). During the freshman orientation program I helped put together, I had the chance to go up in the arch again! It seemed like a fitting end to my time in St. Louis as literally the first thing I did on my first visit to St. Louis 6 (???!) years ago was to go to the arch, buy a ton of beef jerky at the gift shop (con of travelling on Easter = no restaurants open) and then sit in a tiny little blue egg as it moved slowly to the top of the Gateway to the West. I think I may have overly exaggerated how dramatic the ride was  in my memory because when students asked me, “How long does it take to get to the top?” I kept saying like ohhh “15, 20 minutes.” Well, that was a blatantly false number. Oops. But anyway, I got to spend a few minutes at the top, looking out at St. Louis which was much more interesting when I could look out and find my apartment!

So the end of summer came must too fast, but when one door closes another one opens (or so they say. I guess if another one doesn’t open you are hopefully not claustrophobic or have a lock pick or something.) But my wonderfully open door at the moment is an internship with the YMCA in Rio Grande do Sul. I’m heading to Brazil tomorrow for what I’m sure will be an adventure, but….

Before I go I promised a wonderful person who let me crash at her place for an extended period of time a list of things to do in St. Louis so here’s a list of a few of my favorite things I did (most likely to be amended as I remember more things!):

Megan’s Must Sees and Dos:

• Whitaker Music Festival
• BBs Jazz Blues and Soups
• Big Muddy Blues Festival
• Saturday runs in Soulard (obviously this must include a route around the Anheuser-Busch Brewery)
• Bocce ball at Milo’s Tavern
• Free Friday special exhibits at the art museum
• Open mic nights at Venice Cafe
• Free in-stores at Vintage Vinyl
• Eat Vietnamese food on South Grand
• Order off the cellar list at Three Kings.
• See Chuck Berry in the Duck Room (bonus points for playing fooshockey afterwards)
• Picnic under the Arch
• Drink alllll the beer at allllll the microbreweries.
• And for goodness sake, go to the Basilica or get a book from Left Bank!
• I didn’t do this, but go hiking at the park where they got all the stone that WashU is made out of! (Name is escaping me now)

Downtown at Laclede’s Landing (Always better with a good friend!)

Ciao for now! See you in Brazil!