One of the many beautiful streets in Pelourinha.
I just thought this looked nice!
my favorite wooden carving of the Gods from the Orixas religion
Description of the Gods.
Our first day in Salvador was a wonderful success! We got to see so much in one day, but we had so much more to see and experience. Monday morning we had an orientation with Clara Ramos, who is the foreign exchange coordinator for ACBEU, which is the school that we are studying at. Clara was hilarious! She made all of us feel so much more comfortable, and at ease about our home stay situations. She also went over a list of do's and don'ts for us to keep in mind while in Salvador, and with our families. She also told us a bunch of very interesting stories about some experiences previous students had while living with home stays. To say the least, she made us feel like no matter what happened our family would always do their best to make us feel welcome and safe.
Right after the orientation we went outside to meet our new mothers for the first time. Clara gave us each half of a postcard, which we then had to take outside with us to walk around and search for our mothers who would have the other half. My host sister found me, and at first I thought she did not speak English, but it turns out that she was a student from Texas enrolled in the same program as the rest of us. She would be staying in my home with me until Friday because her program was coming to an end. I tried speaking to her in Portuguese, but it didn't really work out and I got really excited when I found out she spoke English. Anna, my host sister, brought me to my mother who came up to me and welcomed me with a big hug, and a kiss on both cheeks. Meeting new people here is very different from when you meet new people on the United Sates. Everybody here is very affectionate, and even when you speak with a person you stand much closer, and your faces are much closer to each other during conversation. When you meet somebody for the first time, say hello to somebody, or goodbye it is always a kiss on each cheek. I like that way of greeting much better than the way a formal greeting in the United States is done.
We ate lunch with our new families before we left the hotel to go to our new homes. My host sister warned me about how Brazilians eat compared to people in the US. Clara also told us about this, but it was interesting to hear it from my host sister as well, and how much she emphasized the importance of eating properly here. You do not eat anything with your hands! Even bread and sandwiches are eaten using a napkin told hold the food with. You tend to eat slower, and smaller portions. Even the utensils are smaller here in Brasil! It was very difficult to have any form of communication with my mother. Everything we said to each other had to be translated through my host sister who speaks Portuguese very well. Having Anna there did make things a lot easier, but it was definitely awkward. After lunch my new father came to the hotel to drive us all home.
When I walked into my house I was pleasantly surprised. The first thing I saw when I walked in was a huge entertainment center in the living room. To the left of the living room was a balcony, and then you walk to the back of the house passing the kitchen, and computer room. My room was very nice! I even had my own bathroom, but the best part was that I had internet! I was not expecting to have internet, and I even had a plug in my room that could use American electronics! Such a pleasant surprise! I didn't spend more than 20 minutes at home before Anna brought me to Porto de Barra, the beach near where we live, to watch the futbol game with Brazil v. Chile. It is almost impossible to explain this event. Right next to the beach there is a stadium for concerts with a huge flat screen television to watch the game. When we got there all I could see was thousands of people all dressed in yellow and green with horns, whistles, hats, etc. People of all different shapes, colors, and sizes all together in one place dancing witch each other, talking, singing, and cheering. The only thing that comes remotely close to this sight in the US would be the celebrations that happened in different cities after the election of Barack Obama. People in Salvador seem to have a much stronger connection to each other, family, and culture than in the US. They all seem extremely proud to be from Brasil, which is more than you can say for many people in the United States. After the game was over there was a concert. Everybody was dancing all over the place! Even when it started raining people continued to dance and celebrate the win. I can only imagine what the next game will be like! The game also takes place on Salvador's Independence day so it will be like a double celebration.
After the game my mother had a birthday party for Anna. A lot of people came from her program as well as some students from Northeastern. It was so much fun to interact with a lot of different people with different levels of speaking Portuguese. Anna's friends also told us a lot about what to expect while we are here, and also great places to go out and have fun. The party was full of dancing, and eating, but around 1:30 I could barely keep my eyes open and headed to bed.
Tuesday we all took a tour around Pelourinha which is a historical center in Salvador. Unfortunately it was raining which made walking around the center cold, and wet, but I guess it did add to the experience. The center is very beautiful. All of the streets are cobble stone, and very narrow. The building are very colorful, and there are a lot of people around selling things on the streets, and there are also a lot of shops around where you can buy just about anything. My favorite part of the tour to Pelourinha was the exhibit that had huge wooden carvings of the different Gods from the Orixas religion. All of the different Gods have their own story, and significance in the religion. I am very excited about the lecture coming up about this religion.
That night a huge group of us went back to Pelourinha to go to a Salsa club. The club was so much fun, and when everybody left there was a gathering of people right outside of the club doing capoeira. It was a great night to spend in the culture with our group as well as some people from UCLA and Texas.
Wednesday was our first day taking classes at ACBEU. In the morning we had a two hour Afro-Brazilian, and Samba dance lesson. That was so much fun, and a great work out! I noticed that here in Brazil as well as other Latin American cultures, or African cultures, dancing is a huge part of life, and everybody dances! In the United States you often see guy standing on the wall while the women dance. If you go to a club in any Latin American country EVERYBODY is dancing together, both men and women. I love dancing so being here is great for me! After our lesson we all went home for showers, and lunch. I ate lunch with my dad who speaks English pretty well. It was very nice having lunch with him because he would tell me how to say things in Portuguese that I would then repeat back to him. we talked about the difference between Brasil and the US in terms of family meals. I asked him if he always came home for lunch, and he explained to me how lunch is a big and important meal in Brasil for the whole family to be there for. We also talked about the difference in food. I explained to him how I liked the food here A LOT better than in the US. It is more fresh, and better for your health. This was the first time my dad and I really sat down for a conversation, and it was very nice to be able to make a connection with him.
After lunch it was back to ACBEU for the first Portuguese class! We were all very excited about our first class because we could finally start understanding more Portuguese and hopefully communicating with our families. The lesson was great! We are all beginners of course so we learned the alphabet and common phrases that we will need for the class. It was a lot of information at once, but very fun, and helpful. Our professora can speak in English, but teaches the entire class in Portuguese except for some moments. I wasn't able to go home and speak to my mother like I hoped, but I think that overtime I will be able to have simple conversation with her, at least I hope!
This was a boy in Pelourinha who was doing a little show for us hoping for money... There were A LOT of people in this area asking for money. After I took this picture he practically ran after me begging for reals.
There are street vendors like this all over the place in Salvador.
A beautiful church in Pelourinha
Our tour guide Freddy. Such a funny guy! Here is showing us the popular music in Brazil. My favorite was an artist called skank!
So, this is one of many statues right by the beach in Salvador. These statues represent the ideal body! Too bad the US can't appreciate this kind of beauty!
We all thought that was pretty cool! When we made it back to the hotel, most of us were extremely tired, and burnt out at this point. There were very comfortable red couches in the lobby of the hotel. About 8 of us all passed out for about an hour, perfect power nap! Finally our rooms were available and we could all take showers, change, and relax! My roommates and I walked into our room, and it was pretty much perfect for me! Orange EVERYWHERE! We also had a beautiful view of the ocean.