objects around the house

I think he doorknobs and locks are soo cute; but i am showing them because hey're not just specific to my house, i've seen them in several other places. in the bathroom, banheiro.

the button above the toilet is where you push to flush the toilet. i always see either this type or the one where you pull the string. by the way you CANNOT flush toilet paper/anything other than your own waste down these toilets because the plumbing tubes are too thin for that stuff . so throw everything away in the trash can.

canudos! these are the only type of straws i've seen around here. they're pretty long and thin. they always give me one of these when i buy a côco. mmmmmm..

language notes

noticing laguage stuff

i hear a lot:

everthing is "-inho -zinho": diminutives are a characteristic of Bahian portuguese because it's just a way of adding affection to everything you say apart from making things small.

devagar/devagazinho= slow or slowly. Bahians have several reputations and stereotypes and one is the preguiça bahiana, that they are lazy and slothful very slow and just have parties all the time. i can't say i have enough experience to know about this but my sister is a full time university student and does construction work almost every day too. my host father works a lot too, but there definitely is an air and way that people have of speaking kind of slowly and relaxing when they can. i must say i don't see anyone rushing practically anywhere. once i think my sister was going to be late to class but we walked super slowly to the car while conversing and what not. i'd be running may be or speed it up a bit but no...no.

Direito, direitinho "voce comeu direitinho? "

which is hard to translate but it would be like a did you eat well but with another connotation, because direito means right, directly, or properly soo..

"mesmo" sometimes used at the end of sentences to ask "really?"

For spanish speakers:

• Salada/salgada: salada is salad not salty; salgada=salty
• puxar not= push so don't be suprised if you're pushing and pushing and nothing happenss. puxar=pull. it more sense once you see empurre [rr=j] on the other side
• pastel vs. bolo: pastel is not cake, it's like an italian calzone kind of. bolo is cake
• vitamina in portuguese means licuado/shake
• assistir televisao, nao e ver televisao
• precisar=to need; necessitar isn't really used
• brincar doesn't mean jump. it is to play.
• legal=cool/chido
• can’t say "mais grande" or "mais pequeno"; it's maior and menor i kept saying "e mais grande .." and i kept bieng corrected because in no occasion is it okay. jaja. it's like saying "mas mejor" or something
• ps: mucho in spanish is muito by the way
• and older and younger is mais velha and mais nova even for people; it’s not rude to say "estas mas vieja"

Culture class

our culture class is divided into 4 modules as i said before
there is an the afro-brazilian experience in all of them

module 1: focuses on the history of brazil and bahia and the african experience
module 2: afro-brazilian religious tradition especially those developed more in Bahia and their relationship with african roots

module 3: Racial identities in music, literature dance, and the arts; cultural products
module 4: concerned with the black movement in contemporary brazilian society, and questions of race and gender ina political context

thre are a few homiork assignments in which you answer questions about half a page long. usually there are around 5 questions per module

then there are 4 , 3 -page papers; one for every topic/module
and it's open to whatever you want to write about some aspect of the afro-brazilian experience that was covered in that module. referencing at least 3 articles from that module

there is also a 2 hour midterm and final (at the end of each of the 2 sections of the course that i mentioned before)

portuguese class

portuguese class:
everyone has to be enrolled in one of the levels, i believe there are four levels into which you are placed through an exam.

the quarter is actually divided into two sections in which you can get different grades and then they just combine them for your final UC grade.
5 mini-testes 25 points
1 written test 20 points
1 oral evaluation 20 points
2 in class essays (450 words) 20 points
homework 15 points

section I total 100 points

the other half is pretty similar except you have to do a project to present to the class the last day of school.

the mini testes are pretty short and easy nothing to stress about as long as you do homework and pay attention in class, you get 20 minutes but usually people finish in like 10/15 minutes
the midterm is pretty easy too, but it's an hour long.

partido de futebol!

13/09/09

Futebol, pronounced /fuchi-bow/= soccer

So we went to a soccer game here in Salvador: Vitoria vs Palmeiras. And I knew that my family but especially sister and my uncle are huge Palmeiras fans and actually it was my uncles birthday which I didn’t know about when I got the ticket, but my aunt (his wife) made him a cake with the palmeiras flag all over it green and white. It was intense. I had the leftover slice. :)But yeah so I wanted to show my spirit and wore a green shirt.

We took a bus, although I think it would have been way faster had we walked because there were so many people out in the streets heading that way. we were going like 1 mile/hour and it took us for ever to get there even though it was pretty close. But so many people out in the streets and just the close we got there were just crowds of people walking up the hill to the stadium, I felt like I was going to a big Quidich match—but everyone there was RED and BLACK and their Vitoria jerseys! Dude I didn’t realize that Vitoria was the home team and Palmeiras is from like Sao Paulo. Oh man I felt so out of place. But the stadium pretty much filled , there was a little tiny green section. And I think I was sitting/standing behind two of the biggest Vitoria fans there with their jerseys, matching shorts and shoes and wrapped in their Vitoria flags and listening to a little radio to hear the sports-cast. Yeah and whenever Vitoria missed a goal he’d throw his flag on the floor and curse for a minute. But oh it was amazing when they scored because there would be fire works and big like 20 feet tall flags would go up, and they looked homemade too. Then the guys in front of us would turn and hug or give high fives to everyone around. It was actually pretty funny that the first time they scored and he high fived my friends all “eah! eah!” then came to me and hesitated like “oh she’s wearing green..” but then I put my hand up and he’s like “eah!” and gave me a thumbs up.

There were also these little fireworks and the side across from us-- all of them in the middle would be doing the wave and some other intricate choreography going back and forth it looked sooo cool from far away and when they would all yell out in unison it got so loud even though it was a good distance away. Sorry no pictures, but yeah I was not about to have my camera stolen already, a few of my friends took theirs and 2 got stolen. But it was an amazing game. They were selling acaraje and ice cream and popcorn and soda in cups. When it was over, it was another process getting out too. My friends and I just made a kind of elephant line holding on to each other’s hands to not get lost.

okay look at my dedication i got some pictures from my friend just now:

Mono Scare

14/09/09-16/09/09

[picture from jet-point ]

Okay so I was scared that I had mono or something because I’d wake up and after having breakfast I was tired, but since I had class I had to keep going, then I’d get home and really by like 3 I wanted to take a nap, just all of me felt tired: my mind and my body and I really wanted to sleep all day. If I sat down and closed my eyes, I knew I would fall asleep. and it wasn’t as if I am not sleeping like 8 hours a night.

I had/have no idea what was wrong with me. At first I thought it was jet lag, but when it went into the second, third week of being here. ..I started to worry. But it went away eventually, and I never really understood what it was. I think may be a change in diet and that I ate a lot a lot of food all the time. So like permanent food coma?

May be because I was consuming way more refined white sugar than I’m used to. I don’t use it actually, I use honey, natural maple syrup, and raw brown sugar once in a while, but I don’t need it ever really. Especially in fruit juice!

I miss my mommy

September 08/09/10 Homesickness.


I guess I started to miss my family and friends, pretty much as soon as I left. In the airport especially while just sitting waiting 7 hours for my next flight. But I don’t know if this is normal homesickness, because there was quite a lot going on back at home when I came over here so I was mainly thinking about mistakes that I’ve made and it was really hard for me. Homesickness and then adding culture shock is just not fun. The thing for me I guess was like comparing to my tiny 700 person town and my school town [I know it’s not good to compare but it happens subconsciously it seems because obviously coming to the city of Salvador I was not expecting to find my home town], I could always just walk around at night and didn’t have to depend on anyone to be able to go out at night. But here it’s just always risky to be out at night [even in the day sometimes]—but even more so alone—and as a woman—and as a tourist! It is pretty hard at first just having that kind of change. And also I guess I was missing my friends and partner too because I knew that they would have had similar plans as me, and being here there are so many things that I would like to do, but I feel like I’m dependent on having someone else-- for safety reasons--to come with me, and that pretty much makes my activities dependent on someone else wanting to do the same things, and yeah you have new peers to get used to. Luckily my group seems to be pretty cool and diverse like there should be someone with whom most people can relate. But it’s kind of hard to get together sometimes because we don’t always live so close and I don’t have a cell phon, and all those things just really affect my social life.


So how to cope with it? Well I always keep in mind that 3 months go by really really fast. But also my host family is oh sooo welcoming and I feel cared for and my mãe is just extremely affectionate. Once in a while she’ll grabs my face “oh soninha!” and kisses it. The first few times I didn’t know how to react really so I just kind of laughed and smiled.

me, my host sister, and her namorado having ice cream together. like invite me out with them and it's really super cool we have good times.

this is the famiily and part of the namorado's famly at their house in arembepe. just chillin'. i just don't have their permission to show their faces and, although i think that eventually i'll end up showing my face 'cause it makes pictures look awkward but...whatever. for not this will do.

But apart from that having skype really helps. [it’s a program that works pretty much like a phone over the internet and it’s free between computers and cheap if you’re calling from computer to a landline; you can download it for free at skype.com] but I can only chat right now because my computer won’t connect to the internet and my sister’s laptop (which she’s so nice in letting me borrow) doesn’t have a mic, camera, or functioning speakers. But regardless it helps. And just keeping in touch with family back home--even if it’s just through email, is very soothing. But these would just be flows of home sickness, that happen usually when I am by myself at home, especially when my plans were changed due to other people’s plan changes. But of course while you’re out seeing the city and especially on the tours, and traveling, or just hanging out with your peers having a bowl of acai, and you let yourself enjoy what you’re living at the moment, it’s all good.



I heard that usually by the second and third week your homesickness just goes away. And by the 3 week if you have culture shock, I think around this time it’s pretty much over too.



possibly helpful links for homesickness:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2058286_deal-homesickness-during-study-abroad.html



http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0405/combatting_homesickness_abroad.shtml

http://www.shelteroffshore.com/index.php/living/more/dealing-with-homesickness-living-abroad-10290/

first meals

29/08/09- 02/sept/09

29/08/09; our first almoco together awee... it was really good. we had panqueca, beans, chicken, lamb, rice, some pasta with tomato sauce. and a saladPanqueca

above: it's like these rolls of crepe-like food with filling. in this case it was ground meat and cheese and a tomato sacue wth oregano and garlic, and also that melted cheese on top. but the filling can also be shredded chicken or even sweet fruit panquecas that are more like pancakes with finely chopped fruit and yogurt on top

Pavê

I'm pretty sure that when i had this above [i love those little cups] they called it pavê, but i don't know if the traditional pavê is a little different. to me it was like dessert that's made with 3 layers with ice cream, condensed milk, and a pie-crust type thing, possibly a little chocolate in it.

peixe, fish. it was delicious but you can pretty much see everything in the picture. the head is my mãe's favorite part.

Mousse de Maracuja

oh this is one of my favorites! Maracuja is really popular in Bahia, i believe most of Brazil and according to my Portuguese friend, also in Portugal. Passion flower! and it's really amazing, his was kind of like an icecream it is frozen but creamy however not as creamy as ice cream. if you haven't had passion flower, it tastes really sweet and a little sour kind of like how strawberry is a little of both but if i had to compare it to somethind i'd say the taste is like tangerine,strawberry,peach, and a little bit of grapefruit, but something else too. i don't think it's really comparable but it's delicious. i have a lot of maracuja juice . i'll write a blog on just the juice though later.

"Salada"

In my family pretty much anything that has vegetables is considered a salad. When my mom was saying she was going to cook some chicken she was going to cook it with salad, as in she put some potatoes in it and carrots and tomatoes and cooked it. Whatever though i'm really glad that i'm getting veggies. and look at this eggplant! i love beringela *

Quiabada

Quiabo (okra) soup. i really like okra and it actually plays a really big role here in bahia with all the acaraje and caruru parties.

If i get a name for this i'll post that up but this was like a coconut cake, it was really gostoso too. it was very moist and a little tiny bit chewy with a semi-crusty outside which is a textural favorite for me.

first days with my host family

30/08/09

it helps a lot that 1.) I speak Spanish, and 2.) I studied a bit of Portuguese before coming because, although it’s a bit choppy, I can interact with them right away and learn and tell them about myself. I was in “Advanced Beginners Intermediate” funny title but I had a really good professor and since it was Portuguese for Spanish-speakers, I feel like I got a lot more out of because we didn’t need to spend a lot of time learning certain things. And I got the hang of the differences which helps me guess a lot of Portuguese words so I’m not just speaking Spanish like a lot of my peers were. (not that it’s bad and it seemed like the families didn’t really mind, I just personally prefer not to). So comparing it to Spanish many l are substituted by rs (blanco=branco), and hs substituted by fs (hacer-fazer; horno=forno) and -cion or –tion turns to -cão (revolution/revolución=revolucão). but a lot of words are different and I learned the basics to not just be speaking Portanol. But one of my first impressions I find it easier to understand women I’ve met than the men. Like when my sisters namorado and the dad speak to me I can just barely catch a few words, I don’t know why that happens when I can understand pretty much everything my mom my sisters, my professors, ladies on the street say. It seems like the men I’ve met talk faster and the consonants are less pronounced and words flow into each other more. My host mother (I will from now on refer to her as mãe; it’s faster) so my mãe is the clearest and easiest for me to understand, but possibly because she was used to using motherese with her children teaching them to speak; so, she just treats me like a child as to the pace and clarity? Maybe.

About personal space: I noticed that they don’t really close the doors to their rooms, so I keep mine open too. Although I’m really not used to it, my instinct is to close it—well I do when I’m going to sleep, they don’t usually. But anyway, yeah so it’s all good for them to come in to my room without asking permission, not in a bad way though, they’re just things that stand out to me. and well it’s really their room anyway, so naturally they’ll come in looking for a book or something in the closet, as they also have some stuff in the other part of the closet.

Manners: According to Clara, the director who gave us some tips for living with Brazilians, Brazilians are way more watchful of manners such as eating manners and blowing your nose in public, and coughing or whatever. But I don’t think that is so in my family, possibly because this is in their house and not public—I don’t know but they seem to be comfortable doing those things, [not burping but..] my father as soon as he gets home takes of his shirt. And to me that’s pretty much representative of how my family just gets home and feels comfortable—except for eating etiquette! They will still always use knives and forks for their sandwiches and fruits. They cut up their bananas and strawberries on their plates and take them piece y piece. And I am feeling very conscious and trying to just eat like they do, because I know I’m not the representative Califronian, but I eat with my hands/chopsticks sometimes, and I have not eating with a knife in….i don’t know how long, but if I use it I’ll just use it like once and put it down, but they eat with a fork in one hand and a knife in the other, the whole time! And I should do that because I’ll forget and seriously use like a finger to get some food on my fork, but usually it’s like stuff I would have eaten with a tortilla/tostada/naan=my hands. So I’m trying not to do that. Although the other day my sister did ask me “you don’t like to use the knife do you”[obvio in portuguese] when I was like cutting something up with my fork I think it was like…a potato—no!: meat J ooops.

What I really love is how accommodating my family is, and my mãe makes all her food from scratch! Talking to other people from the program not everyone really makes such complex full-course meals, but my mãe tends to. And she makes these cakes that I swear look professionally made with layers and filling and frosting and nice little designs of fresh fruit on top.
And they have a little canary that goes crazy singing once or twice a day, and there’s this little turtle named Sofia who just goes around the house, she doesn’t really have one place where she stays, but I just see her when she comes out to be fed.
Overall, I really am glad I’m in a homestay program because I can learn so much from my family. Also I don’t have to worry about cooking, looking for a place to eat, or having to pay every time. I can count of having 3 meals a day and can snack any time of the day. And that’s really important to me.
It seems like this family is really trying to make this stay the most pleasurable it can be.

my sisters and one of the boyfriends. in the kitchen they're just really fun people. and we're always teasing the namorado although it seems like he almost likes being the butt of the jokes

on the way to arembepe where they have their second house. i realized at some point that my sister and i were sitting the same. and it's just so amazing how much we actually look like sisters and have sooo much in common, i think this picture of certain habits captures it. i'm so glad about how well we get along.

the passaro, no name yet, they told me to name it, any suggestions? i'll ask if it's male or female

our cagado Sofia, she's a carnivore, i don't know if that's good for her

ACBEU

Okay, so here are some pictures of ACBEU in
it's a school specifically for language exchange so Brazilian students go there to learn English and other student's go there to learn portugues and about brazilian culture.
Four days a week I study Portuguese for two hours, and two times a week lectures on brazilian culture. We also have a section as in most UCs once a week.
the culture portion covers: history of brazil, afro-brazilian religion, music, art, and contemporary brazil (as to social issues, race and class relations etc etc). And we are taught by different local professors who have extensive knowledge on the topic.
The school is a very simple building you can't get lost, i believe it just has 3 floors, and there is a stage in the back for school productions.

This is the gated entrance, and the ticket booth for the shows, to the left thre is a little patio-type thing with a coffee and pastry/cake/snack stand. I keep my food in their fridge when there isn't time for me to walk all the way to my house, eat, and come back in between classes.

this is in portugues class, we were learning about body parts and that is my professor using the sensory white board that is synchronized with the computer which is being projected onto the white board. you can control the computer with that little stylus she's holding. it's amazing. jk

But i really have liked the classes so far. The professor is really understanding and doesn't leave us too much homework especially on days we have excursions programmed. We do have mini tests every week, and once in a while in class essays, take home essays, presentations on current events, and oral exams as well.

I realy like that every class has only about 10 students so you really get to know everyone in the class, and the professor gets to know you well too. It's very comfortable. oh and another thing: our coordinator is so concerned with our doing well that she customizes the tests and makes up questions with our names at least once in the test and in contexts that are relevant to our real lives and what is going on.

Boi Preto after the tour

still 03 sept

Boi Preto is one of the best restaurants of Bahia, and I would believe of the whole country if someone told me. It is a buffet-style churrasqueria, which is like a barbecue /steak house but in the buffet they have all sorts of typical brasilian dishes but also a Japanese sushi bar, and lots of gourmet food in general. The barbecue part is actually brought around every once in a while by the waiters on a stick and they slice it for you on the spot if you want. The whole time i was feeling bad because the people would come by and they'd skip over me and i would have to get their attention, and look very interested ever time they came by with their ribs, and some awesome tender sirloin, but they'd still pass me and I was just wondering why, but then at the end of the meal. After having 3 different desserts I was playing around with this little round paper on the table, and then I actually read it and it said
"nao obrigada/o"
and "sim por favor" on the other side, and then it all made sense. So if you go there and want meat remember to put the green "sim por favor" side up.
But it was amazingly delicious food. I had plenty of lobster and 3 of their 10 different cheeses , and moqueca, and oh eel and raw salmon. It's a little on the more expensive side, about 54 reais (US $30 or less) but for what I ate there I felt I was ripping them off. I say it is totally worth it.
another tip: dress somewhat formally, this is a kind of fancy--i mean they have floss and heart-shaped toilet seat covers so...

Part of the sushi bar. They actually had some sushi with eel and strawberry! which i heard was really good but they had something different by the time I got to it.

CULTURE NOTE:

We ate for about 2 hours and our professor was really proud of us; he said we were the first group who ate like brazilians, because we actually took our time and went back several times for more. According to him usually people from the US would fill up their plates and be full after half an hour and decide their done.