Latin American's happier than Europeans?

21 oct 09
Today when I was eating lunch at home they were saying on the Brazilian news that there is a genetic predisoposition for Latin Americans to be happier than people in, say, England.
That there is a gene that makes you produce more serotonin. I don’t know how true it is because it was on the tv news, and I don’t like to jump to genetic explanations to things too much.
However, I have to say that the people I have met in Bahia and comparing my family in mexico to others in California too, seem to be so happy just sitting out on the side walk playing dominoes and just chilling with their friends. So I guess my experience definitely confers! my family is a bunch of jokesters. And just looking at other people, in say, England ...jk. but really that was very interesting and I am happy to be of Latin American heritage!


Shoot, these are our normal faces.

Esssay #3

17 Nov 2009

ESSAY #3

So it was great that we went to Cachoeira right before this essay is due, not.
But this part #3 is usually the most enjoyed by students because it is the one on popular culture and music and all that sort of stuff.
I wrote my essay on the implications of having Carmen Miranda be the international spokesperson of Brasil, but also for the Whole of south America--from a feminist perspective.
People love to bag on Carmen Miranda, but i decided that the issue is much more complicated.

I have to say I am really rather proud of this essay, the most I have been with my papers so far, and I think it's because I am the most passionate about this one.

How is studying and doing homework here?

Oh my gosh! it is really an effort. I'm not going to lie. Not only because there are far more distractions here than I'm used to because of course I want to go out and explore, but also I usually live with all other students and haven't studied around a family in a really long time. But I get my stuff done.
I am somewhat picky about study ambiance, and organization and usually everything has to be in a particular order. The desk cleared my laptop, an area where I can spread out all my sources, i have to feel comfortable, I need to have a glass of water, and really prefer when it is quiet.
Oh man and the process of writing a paper for me. First I have to transfer any relevant quotes into word, then categorize them into patterns for how my essay might flow, it's just super organized in detail and I honestly think it's just busy work procrastination. but again, that is my process and I manage.

However, the biggest struggle for writing papers here, for me, is the whole sleepy thing. I get sleepy and tired around 7PM and want to go to sleep. (still don't know if it's the weather, food, my imagination, all of those) That really only gives me like 3 hours a day of homework time when I account for classes, then eating times, and shower. And reading exacerbates this problem because it makes my eyes so hard to keep open even though the material is interesting.
(TIPS)
But I think that by now I have gotten better. I can stay up longer and I just close my door, put my headphones on and turn it up--to stay awake, it really helps. I also have to keep drinking water to keep having to go to the bathroom. Open the windows sometimes because it gets pretty windy and it flutters around all my papers and the blinds that keep falling out.
Anyway, I can control how much i let external distractions get to me, but not bodily functions and I want to sleeeeeeeeeeeeppp. Sleeping feels so good.
And I wake up early too because my room faces east and I get the bright morning sunshine through my window at 4 o'clock in the morning. I wake up at 6, the latest.

More of my home meals:

This is some more food I've been eating so you get an idea of my everyday food. Mind you thought my momma likes to change things up all the time. She had a calendar for the first month just to make sure that she didn't repeat anything :) That is how she is.



This is one of her kind of shepherd's pie-type-dish. It has the mashed potatoes and meat (plus some little vegetables and herbs/spices) in the middle but it's mainly mashed potatoes and it has cheese on top. Muito bom!
A regular meal for me is a little bit of leftovers with new things, usually I finish all the salad of one day so it's fresh every day. And I requested salad every day but my mãe also eats is every day too, YES! Chicken, some spaghetti; in the upper right there is a food that has like a semi-crusty texture at the top that tastes like it has some of that dried shrimp going on, and in it some ground meat and little peas and corn kernels and herbs. I don't know what it's called.

This is fish with olives and slices of potaters.

This is a plate with a fried omlette, so good but I'm sure my heart was not too happy after 2 and a half of these. Rice with carrots and corn with some shredded chicken. Then the little pile beyond the rice a little darker brown was a soy salad. And of course: BEANS! Beans are a staple my pai loves them, so do I. So these are black beans, we'll have black beans, pinto beans, white beans, white beans with the little black dots on them, soy beans and more. But black and pintos are more common.
Here is another version of that shepherd's pie. However this one has more meat in it and has tomoato and cheese on top. I really enjoy it.
Can you tell?

Yes I ate this much.

This is some pork chop with some of that shredded chicken and corn and a little tiny bit of white rice cause remember it constipates me. And then the black beans with sausage. This is the sausage that I liked a litle better than the one that was put in the pinto beans regularly. I don't konw why but I developed an aversion to that taste. This sausage is good though.
The above is a typical Sunday Lunch or dinner, big servings of meat with some cooked and raw vegetables, beans, rice, and farofa. --Except for the chips in the back. My mom--my real mommi sent me some tortillas in the mail! And the organic flour ones were moldy because 1, it was over a weekend so the postal people weren't working, then it was a holiday and then the workers went on strike so it took extra long. But the corn tortillas were great still, and we made some chips. They liked them :)

Do you recognize this? jaja, it's a pizza from the ones that my housekeeper makes to sell on the side of her housekeeping job. The one on the left has tomato sauce, cheese, shredded chicken and corn. The right has that tomato sauce and cheese and sausage rounds. And I put the mustard and ketchip on top. It's actually Catsup not Ketchup.

If this dish looks like rice with hotdog and gumdrops in it...it's because it IS! It also has some tuna in it. My mãe oh my mãe. So I had told her that I like to balance my salty and sweet and I can't have all sweet or all really salty, and this inspired her to make this. It was actually not bad but even she didn't expect that she would ever make something like this; it seemed like she thought it was more of a joke, but it wasn't bad.

Customs: Greetings

Sorry this may have been very important at the beginning but..

Usually people kind of lean in a bit and kiss both cheeks starting with the left one. That’s the one I always go for unless it’s the huge hug for people like Morby and Clara who I know better.
Guys do that but usually only with women. Otherwise they just do the handshake or a slap on the back if they’re really close friends. For example my host father does that with my host sister’s boyfriend a lot. If women don’t want to greet men with a kiss then they extend their hands out first to just shake hands.



[this is the only picture I found no idea what's going on it looks like Rio carnaval or something, but anyway they're finishing up the double kiss-start on the left!]


This website has a good short summary of important information but yeah do research on this sort of thing before arriving:
http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Brazil.html