new home, new life

I've started what I've considered to be the second phase of my Brazil experience. I've moved out of the old lady's apartment in Leblon into an apartment in Ipanema with a Brazilian lesbian and another New Yorker that I adore named Eve. My neighbors are three other Brazilian girls that are awesome also. It's actually a funny story about how I came to find this new place; I was out at Lapa one night, a drunken mess, and I met this really cute, funny Brazilian girl who was trying to speak English with me. So naturally, we got to talking, and I told her that I was looking for a new place to live because living with the Senhora wasn't cutting it for me anymore and it was kind of expensive. She told me that she had a friend who was looking for roommates in the same building that she lived in and that I should go check it out. I went to check it out and when I did, I decided that this would be a good move to make. And since I liked Anna Maria (the girl from Lapa) and her roommates, and I would be paying substantially less than I was before, it would be well worth it to make the move, especially to such a famous street-- Farme de Amoeido (also known as the "Gay Street" of Rio Janeiro). So I did. And it's funny that it's called the Gay Street because the other day when I was leaving the beach and walking down Farme I ran into Carson Kressley, the guy who was made famous on that Bravo TV show, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. A little starstruck, I walked by him and screamed, "I love you Carson!"and he responded, smiling, "Thank you!"... hahahahah, funny, right?

The gays aren't the only things that are making my street fruity though. (hahahahaha did you like my pun??) We have on the corner of Farme de Amoeido and Visconde de Pirajá a Beach Sucos, which sells these little snacks called salgados (explained in another entry) but also juices of every type, made from fruits that they don't have anywhere else in the world except for Brazil. I've made it my business to try a different fruit every time I go by there. This here is a seriguela, one of my favorite Brazilian fruits. It's kind of sweet and tangy. Definitely has a little kick to it. Another one that I tried that I didn't like too much, called cupuaçu, was kind of strange because it really wasn't sweet at all, just really sour. I had to add sugar to it, and after I did that it was fairly more tolerable.

These two aren't so common even here, but they definitely have some common fruits here that we don't have in the States such as goiaba and maracujá (my favorite fruit everrrrr!!!, seen below). Oh my God, and the tangerinas here are so delicious. They're just so sweet and juicy and amazing.

Que gostoso!!

Beijos--

Anthony

fuck you globalization.

Being an American abroad in a place that has a high salinity of globalization kind of sucks sometimes. We travel the world to see new lands, experience new cultures, speak new languages, hear new musics, etc. and what happens? We end up being exposed to ridiculous amounts of American culture-- music, stores, language, food, television. And the worst part is, the Brazilians don't seem to mind at all.

If you turn on the TV, no matter what time of day, you're bound to find at very least one American television show that's dubbed. Subtitles are used, but are less common. Here they love "As Visões da Raven", or "That's So Raven", dubbed Bugs Bunny cartoons and the like, among others. They also have MTV here, which I find myself watching, and it's similar to the States because they dont't play very much music. I find the MTV here to be more activist/politically focused than the one we have in the States. They also have "Mix TV" in which music videos are played all day long. Maybe one in fifteen videos are Brasilian videos. The rest are American, usually with one or two European artists thrown in randomly.

In order to hear Brazilian music at most clubs here, you have to go on a specific day of the week. If not, you'll be doomed to old American pop or House, which I can deal with, but certainly not for hours on end. It's a shame too, because I really love Brazilian music. MPB (música popular brasileira), samba, funk... all this stuff is amazing. That's why I'm here! It just sucks that I actually have to seek it out.

Want McDonald's? They have that too. And they just opened a Burger King. The kids love "Mackie Donalds".. haha that's how they pronounce it. In the States, I'd say more people hate McDonald's than love it by far. And I don't hate McDonald's here for the sheer fact that it's American. I just hate it because it's the worst part of American culture. It represents everything that's wrong with America. The gluttony. Hyper-consumerism. It's a big corporation that pays its workers nothing, but has a bullshit philanthropy to try to promote a positive image. If they really gave a shit about humanity, why not sell healthy food and pay your workers the right amount? I've refused to step into a McDonald's since I've been here (oh wait, I met a Brasilian friend in one ONCE but didn't buy anything) so I don't know how much things cost, but from what I hear, Big Macs are like R$8 or 9 (like US$5). Um. Gross. And people here are buying it. And "loving it." Oh, and get this! I was walking by a McDonald's and in big letters I see "30 de agosto-- Dia de Comer Big Mac! ( August 30-- Big Mac Eating Day)" and then in tiny, tiny letters, "Day to help kids with cancer"... so small that I could barely even see it. If the cancer was what they were really trying to prevent, wouldn't that be the main part of the ad?

The readings in one of my classes are exclusively in English. Yeah of course, it makes my life easier, but the Brazilian students who can't read English very well are basically fucked. In order to succeed in their class in their very own country that's verbally taught in their own language, they have to speak English. For someone who's trying to learn Portuguese, the language of a different culture, it hinders my opportunity to learn the new language.

The strength of American culture for me, a curious American, is a problem, but for the Brazilians I've spoken with, young and old, is not a problem at all. They like that they can listen to Usher, eat Big Macs, while watching That's So Raven, and reading the texts for their classes in English. Go figure.

Anthony

update o rama

Life in Rio is going to be expected, I guess. Nothing too amazing going on in life right now to be quite honest with you. I'm still really familiarizing myself with this city and the people in it. Trying to understand this culture more and more every day. It's funny how learning a language works. Some days I think I've learned so much up to this point, and then other days I feel like I know absolutely nothing and I should know a lot more for the time I've spent here already. The situation is this. I have a lot of friends that are non-Brazilian, and if they're not Brazilian, chances are they speak English, and for this reason, I haven't been speaking enough Portuguese. But honestly, it's not easy. Imagine sitting in class all day-- 5 hours a day or more-- listening to lectures in a language you really only started learned 6 weeks ago? It takes such a toll on my mind at the end of the day I can't speak any language... instead I just smile and nod. OK, I'm being a little dramatic, but it really is super difficult. Honestly though, the Portuguese I know so far has been pretty rewarding.

The Brazilian people I've met here, the friends I've made, seem to be amazingly loyal, fun people. They're constantly calling me and texting me and messaging me letting me know about plans that they've made or plans they want to make and I absolutely love it. Of course I have conversations with them and we laugh and do stuff, but I want to be able to communicate with them even more. That's why I really am trying to spend some time each day learning vocabulary and asking questions and just putting myself out there.

In other news, I'm starting to plan some trips throughout Brazil for the next few months I'm here.Definitely want to go to the South of Brazil (Florionapolis, Blumenau, and Porto Alegre) and Sao Paulo, and the Northeast.

Classes are in full swing. Hoorah. Not.

Love-
Anthony

classes commence

As exciting as classes should be in a new country-- they're not. I like my classes, don't get me wrong, but having to spend time in a classroom when the sun is shining and the beaches are so close to school is just a tease. Miami-itis, anyone? Anyways, I'm taking Antropologia da Arte, Intro a Economia, Educacao e Sociedade, Portugues IV, Musculacao (gym), and maybe a couple of others that I haven't decided on yet. I was thinking of also taking a new language, like French or Hebrew, but we'll see about that. I also want to join some clubs to do some volunteer work so I'm going to look into that as soon as possible.

Classes are pretty much the same here as they are in the states-- except all of mine are in Portuguese. I had the option to take some in English but I honestly didn't see the point. When the time comes to start handing papers in that's going to be fun.

Something different here that I like is that students don't spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks. They have these little kiosks that make copies of the readings we have to do and we just pay something like R$.10 per page. It's pretty amazing.

In other news life is fine...

Tudo joia,
Anthony

Vacation's all I ever wanted, vacation happy to get away

In light of the ending of the month-long intensive Portuguese class I took in Rio, Sarah, Lauren and I decided to take a little vacation before the actual semester starts. At first we were planning on going to a tropical little island called Ilha Grande, but changed our plans at the last minute to go to Itatiaia National Park... this beautiful place in the western part of the state of Rio de Janeiro. We took 2 buses to get there and 5 hours later we arrived. The first night was hard because we were hiking through the forest at night time looking for a cool pousada (bed and breakfast-type thing) to stay at. We did find one, but it happened to be a little bit outside of our budgets so we kept on looking. Luckily, the women at that pousada pointed us towards a cheaper one a little bit outside the national park.

The next day we woke up early and went exploring through the forest. Itatiaia is known for its beautiful cachoeiras, or waterfalls, so we made it our priority to see them. The nearest cachoeira was about 8 kilometers into the park, and we decided to take the bus-- but that didn't quite work out because we missed the only one. So, we decided the only thing we could do-- walk all the way through the forest on foot. After about an hour we decided that this idea may have been a little ridiculous because we still weren't in the park after all that walking. So we went to Plan B-- hitchhiking up the mountain. Within minutes of devising this fabulous idea a pick-up truck with plenty of room in the back picked us up and drove us up the mountain to the place where the bus would have dropped us off. Pretty lucky, huh?

After that we enjoyed the beautiful flora and fauna of the tropical park and had a pretty amazing day. When Sarah posts pictures I'll put them on here but it was pretty amazing.

After spendig the day in the park we decided to move on to a place that I read about in my guidebook called Maromba. I read that it was a hippie hangout with cheap lodging so I knew this had to be a pretty cool place. The bus ride there was absolutely terrifying because of the fact that we were hugging the sides of mountains for almost two hours on a gigantic bus in the pitch black.

On the bus we met some pretty cool dudes who showed us to a really cheap pousada and chilled with us in Maromba. The day after we arrived we ended doing some more hiking and enjoying being outside in the mountains. Maromba literally ended up being on road with about 30 buildings in the middle of the forest with artists and musicians living there. Really, really cool. At night people took out their instruments and played guitar and stuff... some people had wooden flutes that they were playing.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend that I needed before school starts, errrr.... tomorrow :( .

Robbery is reality... very juicy.

Rio is a place of opposites and contradictions and for this reason it's easy for people to be disillusioned about reality. I live in Leblon, one of the richest neighborhoods in all of Brazil, and it's a pretty safe place. No crime, during the day at least, and beautiful apartment buildings and shops and banyon trees, and dogs with bows and shoes. Everything you would expect from a rich first world city. However, in the same city, about 10 miles away, is Santa Teresa. Santa Teresa used to be really slummy and crappy, but over the past few years, it began to be revitalized, and now is home to artists, students, and musicians-- very bohemian. After finding out about this awesome sounding place, I knew I had to go. So on Sunday, I dragged a bunch of people with me up the mountain to Santa Teresa. Since I was coming from the beach, I had my sunga, or speedo bathing suit that everyone in Brasil wears, under my jeans, a cool shirt on, and a bag with my camera, phone, and keys in it. I also had bought this really cool hippie bag for R$4 that was with me.

On the way into Santa Teresa, we had to ride this cart that drove above the city that let us see breathtaking views of the city, and since it was just about dusk, the sky had a beautiful blue color with the sparkling lights of the city all around us. On this bodinho ride, we met 3 brasilieras and 1 American girl, who was visiting her friends that she was with. After talking for a little bit, we all decided to go eat feijoada at this place in Santa Teresa called Bar do Mineiro, which was on a pretty well-lit block right near a police station. After eating we were ready to hit the bars, so we left the restaurant and decided to walk. Before we even got to the end of the block a black car stopped next to us 3 men with guns got out and started waving their weapons at us. At this point I gladly handed over my bag, but one of my friends, Mary from Miami, tried to run, but one of the guys put a gun to her and said something like "I will shoot you." Needless to say, she gave up her bag, as did the others, and we all ran to the police station one block away. Some of us were crying about their material possessions, but I could only think about how happy I was to be alive. People in Latin America get shot all the time for LESS. For no reason. I wasn't ready to lose my life for a stupid camera and cell phone.

After the incident the cop did nothing except for send a squad car to drive us home, but it never came. So one of our other friends paid for our cab.

I tried to understand this mugging from a sociological perspective, and doing that makes it easier to accept and understand. These people who robbed my things are victims also. Obviously I'm not happy about what happened and I don't think that I deserved to have my shit stolen and held at gun point, but these people are victims of a different type of violence-- structural violence. These gangsters from the favelas have no access to resources, or education. They're stuck in a system that completely excludes them. They're poor, their parents were poor, and their children will be poor. These strong forces of racism and classism in Latin America (and pretty much everywhere else in the world for that matter) are what drives these people to do what they do. They can't get caught by the police, because if the police follow them into the favela they will all get shot with the loads of armory and weapons that are kept there. Also, these robberies happen to rich North Americans all the time, so what vested interest do the police have in what happens to my fucking camera? They don't care and to be honest, they have no reason to. These criminals aren't thinking about how bad they feel that some rich* boy from the states doesn't have a camera, maybe they're thinking that this is the only way they can support their families due to a faulty public education system and the fact that people in this country and even the states find hiring darker people less desirable.

I don't know if I would have been killed if I fought over the bag, but it wasn't worth it to me and I know I made the right decision.

But don't worry, I'm fine!!! I'm fine!!! I promise. I went today to get a new phone but I have to go back tomorrow to pick it up. I dont't have the camera, and I don't think I'm gonna get one because they're soooo expensive and I've already had 3. But hey, c'est la vie. If you'd like to make a donation to the Anthony's Stolen Camera fun, feel free!!

Anthony

generalities

Classes have begun. Whoooo hoooooo! There are five levels that international students can be placed in, and I was placed in the third level, after having only taken a single portuguese class. I am excted about being placed higher than normal, but the other people in my class are pretty good at portuguese and I feel kind of like the weakest one. Everyone else has taken at least a year of Portuguese or is a fluent Spanish speaker, which are really similar languages However, I feel my self improving more and more every day. I wouldn't go as far to say that I'm 100% fluent, but I can definitely get by and accomplish daily tasks.

Life has been pretty ridiculous. Everyone drives really small cars here, which is good for the environment, but can be pretty dangerous sometimes. The other day I was walking to school, which is 15 minutes away from my house in Leblon, and a car was coming down the street and made a quick left turn without stopping at all. I suppose he didn't see the other car that happened to be coming through the intersection but the two cars crashed, and one of the cars actually flipped completely upside down BEFORE MY EYES. All this before 8 AM. Not normal. Not normal at all. The guy in the flipped car said something in Portuguese about his back but luckily both drivers were alive. I was so stunned I could not stop walking nor my hands from shaking on the way to class.

Aside from that crazy experience, I've just been hanging out with some amazing people, to name a few names, a PhD student from Miami named Mary, a Portuguese-American girl from Boston area named Monica, some New Yorkers Laura and Stacey, some other cool gay guy Martin from England, two cool dudes from Massachusetts Bryce and Felippe, Ramon from Mexico, and Heidi from Germany and this crazy girl from Cali that I adore named Sarah. I spend my weekends on the beautiful Ipanema beach at posto nove, or Post 9, which is the coolest place on Ipanema beach.

Another thing that is amazing about Rio are these salgados, which are basically pieces of heaven in food form. Since being in Rio I've renounced my vegetarianism and picked up an addiction to this amazing snacks. Imagine this: cheap sandwiches with every possible combination of meat and cheese packed together and fried. Put a little bit of ketchup or pimienta and call it a day because these babies are what's up!

The living situation is still chill, the guy that lived there when I moved in has moved out since I last updated, so it's been just me and Dora. She helps me with Portuguese and included in my rent is café da manhã, or breakfast, so every morning she basically just rattles away in Portuguese whatever may be on her mind. Haha, she's cute though. I'm in the process of the looking for another place, but unless I find something cheaper, Rua Bartolomeu Mitre, 380/404 may be my address for the next 5 months.

I'm happy here. The views are breathtaking and the people are amazing. I miss home, but not enough to want to go back just yet.

Tchauzinhos,

Antônio