Oi galera!
Sorry I have been sort of MIA the past couple weeks. First classes started, then it was Carnaval, and then I came down with strep throat! All of these things were as overwhelming as you might imagine. Except maybe the classes.
1. School
2. Carnaval
3. Sick and Confused
1. School
So I attend a university here called Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, also known as PUC-Rio ("Pooky He-uu"). Yes, it is a Catholic school. And yes, they do have a large crucifix hanging in every classroom. But no, I do not believe that most of the students are even Catholic. We started classes a couple weeks ago, but we've really only met a couple times because Carnaval was right in the middle there and the whole country has vacation during Carnaval. Soooo we aren't even really technically starting up for real until this week. Anyway I'm taking three classes, and I only have class three days a week. One of the classes is a Portuguese language class - basically a continuation of the intensive language course I was taking before. Did I mention I got an A in that class? Yesssssss. Anyway I'm learning a ton of Portuguese inside and outside of the classroom, but the class is also very essential. Another class I'm taking is a Brazilian literature and culture class. I have a feeling this one is going to be my hardest class. So far we've just started reading
The Masters and the Slaves by Gilberto Freyre (heard of him?), which is called
Casa Grande & Senzala in Portuguese. My only contribution in the class so far has been my observation of the difference in titles between English and Portuguese versions (according to Wikipedia:
The "Casa-Grande" (big house) refers to the landlords residences in sugar plantations, where whole towns were owned and managed by one man. The "Senzala" refers to the dwelling of the Black working class, where they originally worked as slaves, and later as servants. - For me, there's a big difference between broad "The Masters and the Slaves" and the specific "Casa Grande & Senzala"). Anyway I tried starting to read it in Portuguese but could only understand verrrry little of it, so now I'm resorting to reading the English version online and comparing it with the Portuguese version. I'm not sure what I'll do when we get to readings that I can't find in English. Learn Portuguese, I guess?? My last class is a community involvement class that is composed of half Brazilian and half foreign students. We'll be working together to compare experiences and ideas about our differing cultures and communities, and then actually going to communities here in Brazil and doing some sort of social work. What kind of work that will be I have noooo idea. It seems like it'll be a good experience though so I'm excited about it. It's also an easy way to make more Brazilian friends. I've already made some PUC friends through social events, but I think it's definitely worthwhile to make PUC friends who are a little bit more devoted to learning.
2. Carnaval (!!!)
Ok, so before carnaval I had absolutely no idea what to expect. If I had, I might have done a few things differently. But anyway I had a good time and it was definitely an experience. I didn't go to the Sambódromo (where the samba school competitions take place), which is the location at which most of the stuff you may have seen on the news took place. I was under the impression that tickets were impossible to get and way too expensive, which I'm learning just now was not actually the case. Oh well. Anyway what I did do was go to street
blocos. At these blocos, samba groups play music and either stay in one place or move around like a parade. Huuuuuge groups of people congregate around this music and dance and drink (very disappointing beer, popsicles made in little baggies with fruit juice and alcohol, or various other forms of beverages). It's not a huge drunken mess with people fighting and getting sloppy, however. It's actually a lot more pleasant than that. People come dressed in various costumes (most notably men dressed as women) and throw confetti in the air, play jokes on people, etc. It's pretty cool, actually. Two things, however, that were hard for me (personally) to see through: 1. waste 2. crowds. The beer and the plastic and the confetti and everything else just littered the streets during and afterward. Granted, they have teams of city workers come pick it up later so the city stays pleasant, but just seeing all of that covering the ground made me realize just how wasteful it must be for these miiiiiiiiillions of people to be wasting so many things allllllll over the city for an entire week. Sure, beer cans can be recycled. But recycling is way less effective than many people like to think. And as far as crowds - some of them were unbearable. At one bloco we got stuck in a crowd and couldn't get out for what must have been 45 minutes. This was 45 minutes of being shoved by everyone surrounding you in an opposite direction. And since I already have a weird stupid fear of crowds, I especially didn't like it. Stuff like that definitely makes me understand why some of my carioca friends leave Rio for Carnaval. Anyway I don't want to dwell on the negative because Carnaval was actually a lot of fun. I just don't want to romanticize it like the whole world likes to do. One day of Carnaval that was especially fun for me was when we took a boat over to an island nearby called Paqueta. There was a very comfortably sized bloco there and even though it was raining and muddy it was really really fun. After the bloco we went to a friend's family's house and had a delicious feijoada. It started pouring while we were there, and most of us stayed out of the rain but some of the guys jumped into the pool. Some of them, who had been dressed as ladies all day, even went in wearing bikinis. Very memorable.
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| This was a moving bloco with a sound-truck and a band in front. And this one wasn't even considered crowded! |
3. Sick and Confused
Another reason that I think I was on the pessimistic side for Carnaval was because I started feeling sick half-way through. I certainly wasn't dying, but I also wasn't enjoying myself. When I started feeling even worse a few days later, I knew I was actually sick with something. I've had strep throat various times in my life and after analysing my symptoms and looking at my throat in a mirror, I was 100% sure I had strep. The weird thing is, they don't really have strep throat here. They just have "sore throats." So when I went to the doctor (which is not very easy to do during Carnaval - I had to take a bus across town to find a doctor whose office was open) he barely even looked at me and just wrote up a prescription for some antibiotics. I'm used to the whole strep-test and everything, you know? Anyway I've been taking my medicine and am feeling worlds better, but for those few days that I was feeling really sick, it was noooot much fun. It just feels that much better to be feeling healthy again though :)
By the way, I'd really really love to hear from you. I'm not sure who actually reads this, but if you're reading this now please send me an email. Being in a foreign country can get lonely at times, despite how much fun it is! And I'd love to keep up with friends and family back home. My email is: megasike@gmail.com.
Beijos!!
