A praia e o oceano, uma supermercado, bonito laranja, e minha familia fala portugues!!!

Oi, meus amigos e minha familia!

I am home alone tonight, as Henrique is with his girlfriend and Lena and Jorge have just left for the birthday party of a friend. It feels strange to be typing in English, because I have been speaking Portuguese all night J I am learning quickly, though, and future/past tense is not as difficult as I once assumed it to be. Jorge, my host father, returned home tonight from Rio de Janeiro and he is as friendly as the rest of the family. We all had a wonderful discussion over dinner, and afterwards we all sat on the couch and talked about music, the United States, politics and Portuguese/English. I speak Portuguese to Jorge, and he speaks English to me. That way we can both practice a new language. It is the same with Lena; we speak the other’s first language.

Today, Lena and I went to the Supermercado, and it was strikingly similar to Sam’s club. Everything was in bulk, and relatively cheap. Lena goes shopping once a month so we had more than one shopping cart filled completely to the top, which was quite the sight. People in Brazil are very friendly, and it is common to have a conversation with a person you do not know J I love that about Brazil. If you sit down next to another individual, a conversation will arise and it is generally a very good one and not awkward in the least.

Before the Supermercado, Lena took me to the beach and it was absolutely breathtaking. I took incredible amounts of pictures today, so I’ll post those soon. Its only that they take FOREVER to load, which is never fun to wait for, ha. At the beach, there are vendors who walk around with boards and food on a big stick, selling their products. I wanted to buy a pair of earrings that were 3 Real, but I only had a 5 and the vendor did not have change. It was probably for the better, because I didn’t like them that much anyway. The ocean was at high tide today, when we were out, and it brought in a lot of seaweed. It felt funny and was sort of cool, but mostly gross, ha. After swimming and sunbathing (which was done with generous amounts of sunscreen, a hat, and sunglasses) we came back to the apartment and washed off the sand in the shower at the bottom of the building, outside. Its public, and obviously we wore bathing suits. It is sort of a public bath so people don’t track sand into the building. Oh! Another thing! Brazilian bikinis leave little to the imagination, especially the bikinis for men....so...yeah. Generally, the biggest men are in the smallest bikinis. I’m talking 250 lbs squeezed into hot pink size extra small. There were a few hotties in skimpy clothing, but the whole male bikini concept isn’t attractive for me so their attire (or lack thereof) sort of ruined it for me. Lol. We also went to a hut looking place, just off the beach, and drank coconut juice straight from the coconut. It. Was. Delicious.

After the Supermercado, we went to pick up Azis (their Schnauzer..so cute) from the vet where he had been washed, and then went to the salon. In Brazil, everybody has a manicure and if you don’t its considered a statement of class, or something like that. It is what I’ve gathered on the concept, anyway. I got neon orange, because apparently all the girls my age get obnoxious bright colours, ha, and I want to fit in when I go to school on Monday. I was sitting, patiently waiting for Lena, when a woman came up to me and started speaking in Portuguese, which to me, sounded like she was speaking in tongues. I explained that my Portuguese was not yet good, and that I was learning, but could she please speak more slowly? She laughed and repeated herself, except I’m pretty sure she said it even faster. Lol I was convinced that if she were speaking in English it would still be too fast for me to understand. Pretty soon 5 or 6 women who worked at the salon were simultaneously shooting questions at me, and I just thought, where the heck is Lena when I need her, ha. One of them must have spoken broken English, because she kept asking me “Cough? Cough? Cough? Voce quer cough?” I’m sitting there thinking, I want cough? I want cough? Nao, porque eu querinda cough? Finally, she said “Black cough?” And the light bulb lit in my head enough for me to say “sim, sim! Obrigada!”. She meant “Coffee”, or “cafe”, if she had just said it in Portuguese :D Coffee is a cultural thing in Brazil. There are miniature cups of it EVERYWHERE, usually with warm milk and sugar. This was black coffee, though, and it was delicious. I’ll be addicted when I come back.

While my encounters at the salon may not be evidence of improving Portuguese, I promise it is getting MUCH better! I had two hours worth of conversation in Portuguese tonight with Lena and Jorge, and while some of it was about Portuguese, much of it wasn’t and Jorge estimated my fluency arrival at 3 weeks. THREE WEEKS!!! MUITO BOM!! He said that because I have been here two days, and I already know everything that I do, he thinks I will be able to understand and speak everything by mid April :D THAT IS FREAKING AWESOME! I HOPE HE IS RIGHT! School should help a lot, too. Speaking of, we went to the school today, which is nice and open, and big, called Collegio do Boa Viagem. I picked up my uniform, which is a white polo shirt with a logo on it and some funky designs on the shoulders. I will post pictures of that, too. Monday is my first day of school and I am so excited!!! I just want to meet people my age so I will have something to do on nights like these. I hope people will show me around and take me cool places. Jorge said that we will probably go to Olinda on Sunday, which would be FANTASTIC!!! It is known for its artists and painters, so he decided this after he learned about my interest in art.

I have to apply for a temporary stay licence, or something like that, but I don’t know the details yet because I don’t have the paperwork with me. I emailed rotary about it, though, and they should be getting back to me soon. God, the ocean is so beautiful. I tasted it today.

OOOOOHHHHH MMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYY GGGGGGOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDD THE TOILET WATER SPINS IN THE OPPOSTIE DIRECTION!!!

“Love in the Time of Cholera” is on the TV in English, so I am watching it with Portuguese subtitles and it is a nice break from the translations. The left hemisphere of my brain hurts. I need some creativity!!!

Tomorrow we are all going out for Lena’s brother’s birthday. I am super excited because it is at a restaurant with a DJ, and dancing, and well, we’ll see what it is like. I hope her family likes me :D

I suppose that is it for now. I listened to jazz today and told Jorge and Lena about Grandpa Bill and his jazz collection. Jorge said he liked New York because of the music, and the jazz, so that’s how that discussion started. I experienced saudade (a Portuguese word for an intense longing, or missing) for jazz, and jazz band, and my friends and my family today. If I stay busy enough, though, that goes away. Henrique is home now, and I guess he was out for dinner with Deborah (his girlfriend).

Eu tea mo, Brasil! Voce e muito bonito!

Suas,

Madeline