The Jardim Botânico

11 nov. 2009

The Jardim Botânico is the Botanical Garden. My friend Debbie did an internship there for the whole stay. It has a lot to do with what she studies I forgot if it was like environmental with bio or if it was botanical something. But anyway, she brought me here finally and I got to meet a whole bunch of her super cool colleagues, like Arivaldo in this picture:

They all taught me a little more about botany and plant names and history. These people were really really knowledgable. Oh by the way a culture note: when I got there and started talking to the researchers and botanists etc, and at seperate times like 4 people told me "você fala português bem melhor do que ela...ela fala bem puxado" and I thought it was really funny and unexpected that people would just straight up tell someone "you speak way better than her", right in front of the other person and talk about how she speaks with difficulty.
I guess that's not really rude, I mean I don't think I'd be very offended but I am just not used to it and I think it could be percieved as something rude to say in California by most people. But anyway we thought it was funny especially cause Debbie was like "Yeah it's cause she speaks Spanish too". Anyway....


We went through a section where they're growing little Pau Brasil I think it was
oh right so this garden although it has a part of of in-pot growing plants, there is also a huge section that is meant for no touching nothing by one of the botanist students there, I think he's going to be writing a dissertation on this project of trying to remake a section close to what the forest would have looked like before colonization.



Oh I was having a blast with all the trees and plants. I love all this biodiversity and learning about the origins. For example the picture below is a Jaca tree!
Otherwise known as Jack Fruit in English. The Portuguese brought it from Asia (Malaysia area). And Jack fruit is super popular in a lot of Asian food and drinks. It's really quite delicious.
Baby Jaca
They opened one up with the machete that Arivaldo was carrying around. This is a very unripe one but nonetheless id kind of looks like that except the pulp is more of a bright yellow. However, apparently my mãe likes it a little green. But the researchers like it nice and yellow and sticky.
Growth to me is an interesting phenomena, and concept.

Then we went into this area in which they are growing a lot of the most commonly used herbs and plants in candomble ceremonies. It is interesting to note that most of the plants used in candomble have healing properties.

I totally forgot what the uses were of each one particularly but I know I took a few leaves of the one for stomach ache. You make a tea out of the leaves. Then there are some for headaches and a lot of things, I'm so sad i didn't write this down.
This one however is poisonous if consumed. Its colloquial name is "nobody can with me"

The jesus christ crown




This bright flourescent, fuchsia tree is around Algebra's house too, and I love how it spreads a bright fuchsia blanket all over the lawn and anything under it. These pictures are anything but exaggerating the color, my camera couldn't really capture it well but it's super bright pink!
Then I was about to go home when there was a huge traffic jam, we never found out what happened possibly a crash but people just decided to get off the buses and walk to wherever they were going. So I decided to wait a little longer there. --I stayed till closing.

The image that this garden uses on their logo or whatever is this pendulum tree. It's really really cool it looks like a tropical Christmas tree really. These little spheres just hang off the branches.


they showed me around the various steps they work on to archive the plants they're working with. Those wooden rack things are used to dry out the plants.
Check out the Nescau! researchers gotta have their chocolate milk, you know.
What they are working on now is collecting various parts of a plant, like the seed, the flower, the other things that are indicative of their structure.

They also showed me around the record room. And I apparently thought archiving was bloody hilarious. But what they do is they have a large part of the plant with the roots preferably and in a bag in the corner they have to include the seed, and I never thought about it but the flower is super important too; without the flower the plant can be indistinguishable from another apparently. There is also a description there too. There were soooo many archives and the room was cold so we didn't stay very long.
Arivaldo and his girlfriend were going to a concert near where I live so he offered to take me home but we had to pick up his girlfriend first...to be continued

Quote: 3 year old

10 Nov. 2009

There is an independent school nearby for children of a certain "underpriviledged" community in Salvador, and I go there and play with these super energetic and bright children. Oh they always seem so excited. Anyway when I asked one of the girls (she is apparently very fond of me and sometimes can't let go of me--literally she'll hold on to my leg for a really long time even if I'm trying to walk) what she wanted to be when she grows up and she said:

"um..lavar pratos...lavar pratos e limpar casa"

wash dishes and clean houses.

then I asked what she thinks her sister wants to be and she said the same thing.
This isn't a super surprising response though considering the class and gender relations. Over 90% of the domestic workers in Bahia or all of Brazil I can't remember are poor Black women. And this is involved with the politics of being a woman and their assumed qualities and also because of the institutional racism and sexism that makes it almost impossible for Blacks and women, and especially Black women to see upwards mobility because of course domestic work is not paid to the level of work and skill that it takes.

And this supports that children are really astute to perceiving situations--but of course I could just be reading into this, and assuming that may be washing dishes and cleaning houses is something someone she cares for a lot does, and looking up to that person, she would like to do the same.

Oh I managed to find a picture of us. That's her on one of such occasions (and that's me, the taller one :).
I know it makes it awkward with the faces out of the picture, but oh well. She's so adorable like all the other kids I've had the opportunity to work with. They have such great energy and that's why I like being around kids.

ps. I work at the on-campus day care at my university and miss them--oh the movie BABIES is coming out!! I can't wait

Oh right some vocabulary I learned from the children:
macaquinho=piggy back ride, they LOVE those

They also all called me Tia, although I am not their aunt. So I guess it can be used as a form of respect of elder but not super formal like "a senhora/ o senhor" which is very formal.

It's so funny because on my way to class the other day I was trying to get past one of the bancas (newstands) and there were like 7 teenagers getting stuff there and I was saying licensa, licensa, and then one girl said "deixem a tia passar" and I am only like 4 years older but they still called me Tia, and I laughed.

Parque Pituaçú

07 Nov. 2009

Today we set out for the Parque Metropolitano de Pituaçú!
Again we took a bus the big yellow the one that ends up going to Praia do Flamengo. It was about 1 hour and if i'm not mistaken is somewhere nearish Pituba (in Salvador, BA).
And as we were walking a long the beach to cross the road, we ran into Lean's pai! Her host dad was out ...churrascando? making churrascos. Well, Brazilian barbecuing with his friends and family. He apparently does this almost every weekend.
The churrasco is the method of barbecue of putting the meat on a stick and then putting it in a fire oven.

Of course he offered some to us, so we snacked a bit. I must say this family had some of the best sausage ever! I've eaten a few times at Lean's house and I have to say I like their meat better. :)
So we stayed
The entrance of the park.


These people were feeding some fish that were in this pond and there was a lady selling little bags of food to give to the fish.

Oh yeah the reason we were there was that we had plans for some party like a late halloween party but it was cancelled and I'm like 'what should we do?' That's when I went over to Algebra's house and...I think i ate there again :) so sneaky. But we decided to go to a park, and there was one on the tourist map that Clara the coordinator gave us on the first day that had little bicycle figures on it so we decided, it was meant to be! And we got together with another friend of ours who was in town.
When we got to the park, we had gotten there too late to go to the park by then, so it was actually not meant to be. :(
But...

Then we saw there were swan boats! And my friend and I decided to go together. Just me and her in a swan boat, on a pond, surrounded by tropical forest, as the sun was setting.--it was ridiculously romantic. I mean once Algebra finally managed to get the boat out of dock hahaha. Oh I we teased her about that. She actually somehow turned the swan boat around as soon as we were given a push off and crashed into the dock, then we finally got into reverse a little and then we crashed into other swan boats--which were parked. It was great. I'm really glad I let her drive because she has a license.

This seems to be quite a popular park. There are so many children in certain areas. And here some more street food, popcorn is a super common street food around here. May be important for you to know it's called "pipoca"
horsey. I'm not sure why this horse was here, it was a lone, I mean this park is not a horse ranch, but here it is. WEll I'm not going to complain.

Português class part III: quarter grade

29 Oct 2009

So we were getting our grades for this quarter since our Portuguese class is split up into two parts. And everyone was so kind of shocked in my class after hearing what the grades were.
So our professor called us in one by one while the rest of us were waiting anxiously by the door and seeing person after person come out saying "well it's not what I expected" some looking really down, others with mysterious smiles.
Then I went in and the grade the professor gave me was a B-. And again as a straight A-of-some-sort student I was also surprised just because it didn't seem to add up to the grades I had been getting on quizes and homeworks and oral exams. I'm not quite sure what happened. And almost as the last person was called in some peers had redone the math and realized that the professor was counting the 10 point exams as 5 points! yay!
then everyone's grade went up more than one grade point. So yes!
Some people really struggle in class, so I will say it's not just a class you don't have to worry about because it is intensive learning but it's definitley doable as long as you're in the correct level. If you feel it's going to fast you can ask to change classes. that's my suggestion.

Português class part II

25/09/09

Studies: Portuguese class is really fun. Our professora is always trying to make up little games for us to play, always super competitive and some students really get into it. Overall it’s really fun; stuff like pictionary and then each group guesses in Portuguese what word the drawings are depicting.
We also played gestures…in Portuguese of course, my words were way to easy though: hair, eat, cake and stop. (cabelo, comer, bolo, para) but other words were harder like shirt collar and sweater vest, bat. I don’t think all the classes necessarily did this, because our class was the more advanced one so there might be some different activities in each classroom.
But we read articles and debate them in class (in Portuguese). The topics include things like sexual harassment in the visa process, castration for rapists, whether the rich in Brazil are actually the poorest because of how badly they’re seen by the rest of society and how they live in fear. Another time we read news report about this one girl who was expelled for wearing a short dress and 1,000 students were offended by this and were talking about it online or something. Then one day they decided to harass her all day calling her names, and she was expelled for not dressing appropriate to the university environment.

We also listen to songs while filling in the blanks of incomplete lyrics for the song. The songs are really great too. We’ve done skits in class, and current event reports.
I think that’s the difference between my experience in Portuguese back at my UC campus and ACBEU here. The class I feel is less structured and more filled with activities in which you get to interact with everyone in your class, while in Port back at the UC we usually got to practice a little at the end or beginning of class with our neighbors. So I like the structure of class back in California but I like the activities we have here. If they were combined it would be perfect.

Many students feel that they really needed more structure for a better sense of direction and preparation for the mini-tests. So we told our professor and most of us felt there was a big improvement. But my concern is I'm not sure if I’m learning as much as I would like to.

There are mixed feelings about classes some students feel like they aren’t learning anything in some classes and feel like class time is wasted on peers’ questions about curse words. However, there are people here who came not speaking ANY Portuguese and are really falando muito bem now. It’s amazing to me how much progress many of my friends have made from not speaking any Portuguese or even any romance language before to the level they are speaking now.

this is our book.



I think it's okay but we aren't going in order we're jumping around alot, but I like the pictures :). I'm doing pretty well though the mini-testes aren't hard for me at all and I am not the one to study a lot but I pay really close attention in class and ask questions until I understand things, but I know it's not like that for everyone. those are just my habits, but like i said it this course isn't necessarily super easy for everyone and it requires a lot more time for them.

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"