Asha and I at Bohemia!
The past 4 days have been pretty action packed! We have all officially been in Brasil for a week, and have done a lot of things in just one week. This first week went by so fast, and I keep thinking how fast the next three weeks are going to go. Unfortunately this week has been raining EVERYDAY, ALL DAY! There have only been a couple hours here and there with no rain. I really hope the next three weeks have better weather because I have been in Brazil for 8 days and have only been to the beach once!!!
After our lecture I went to have lunch at Asha and Christelle's house. We had omolette's with beef inside, and the eggs also had some sort of grain mixed in that I have eatin on top of the beans here. They were AMAZING! we also had rice and beans, fish (which I did try and sort of liked!), and for dessert we had ice cream and flan. The meal was very good! Luckily we had the afternoon free because of the weather, and to our surprise the rain ended up clearing for the afternoon so a group of us went shopping for our outfits for the Brasil v. Holland game. The shops we went to were all VERY cheap, and a great place to bargain as well. Every single shop had plenty of things to buy for the game the next day. In Brasil, everywhere you go seems to be so prideful of Brasil. Everything you see is in green, yellow, and blue. We bought Jerseys, and horns for the day. Some people used the opportunity to start buying gifts for people back home. We shopped pretty much all day and got back home around 6:00.
All of us decided that we wanted to go out that night, and would be leaving around 8:00. Because I live further away from everybody I decided to stay over at Asha and Christelle's that night so I had to call my mom, and her know what was going on.... This was pretty difficult. I had Christelle help me figure out what I needed to say, but unfortunately my mom wasn't home when I called, so I had to figure out how to tell the maid to let my mom know I wouldn't be coming home that night. The conversation was a little bit choppy, but I managed to get my message across. We ended up going to a karaoke bar near Barra. I was a little skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a great time! The girls went up and sang Maria Maria, and the boys sang Roxanne. I think the Brasilians thought we were a hott mess, but they cheered us on anyway! There were about 10 birthdays going on that night. A cross dresser went up to the stage at midnight to pull all the people who had birthdays up on stage to sing happy birthday and dance. She was HILARIOUS, and a very good dancer! After the Karaoke bar we walked around on the beach, and got some fried cheese from a vendor on the street. Maybe it wasn't the healthiest thing to be eating at 1 in morning, but it was delicious!
Asha, myself, Sara, and Christelle at the German bar before we headed out to the Karaoke bar.
Shannon, Katie, Christelle, myself, and Asha at Bohemia!
Dancing Foho before the birthday recognitions!
The next morning I got up bright and early to head home and get ready for the game that started at 11:00. This day, Friday July 2nd, was Salvador's Independence day. There was supposed to be a parade at 9:00 in the morning, but because it was raining, like every other day this week, the parade was postponed until later that night, but on my walk home there were men racing along Campo Grande. I am not sure exactly what the race was about, but it was interesting to see. At 10:30 a group of us headed down to Barra to watch the game on the big screens by the beach. Unfortunately it was POURING! not just a small drizzle, or a quick shower. More like a giant monsoon! Everybody was soaked! We were standing on the bleachers for about 45 minutes getting drenched to the bone, and finally decided to go find some shelter. We tried to walk into a bar where some of our friends were, but the bar owner wouldn't let us in, not to our surprise, we were dripping wet. We started walking down the road some more, and a group of guys let us come in to the entrance of an apartment complex. The guys were very funny, and charismatic to say the least. It is very true when people say that men in Brasil are very forward..... We watched the rest of the game with them, and even though Brasil lost there was still a concert back at the beach when the game ended. The rain had let up by then so all of us, including our new friends, headed down to the beach for some music and dancing. Brasil is great, even when they lose there is still a party somewhere!
That night we all decided to go out to Bohemia. I told my mom right before I left where I was going and I got a big thumbs up and a smile so I assumed we were going to a really fun place. We all managed to get there pretty dry despite the pouring rain. It was pretty expensive to get in, and the drinks were expensive as well... The place was very nice, but there weren't too many people there. We all figured with the combination of rain, and a big loss to Holland that most people stayed in that night. Around 11:00 the place started to be a little bit more fun because the live band started to play. We also made friends with people who had a VIP booth and hung out with them for a little while. Again, the men here are extremely forward! They go for the two kisses on the cheek and try to sneak in a third on the lips. SAFADA!!
On Saturday we left at 8:30 in the morning to go to Praia do Forte. Again, the weather was terrible, and it was pouring the entire day! Our first stop was an old fort. It was very pretty and had the most amazing artwork up. I wanted to take every painting home with me. We also tried this fruit whose juice is supposedly alcohol, but all I tasted was nastiness. After we all succeeded in getting drenched we headed back on the bus to go see the turtle project. The turtles were pretty cute, and the project was right by the beach. The area had little shops all over the place, and would be absolutely beautiful on a warm sunny day, but because there was a monsoon, we were all pretty miserable. We got back on the bus, and some people were ringing out their shirts in the isle of the bus. Even those of us who had umbrellas got soaked because the wind was so strong.
The painting of this little girl was my favorite out of all of the paintings. I am not really sure why, but the artist seemed to have captured some sort of look in these girl's eyes that captures my attention.
For lunch we ate at Clara, the program director's house. The cooks started making us homemade pizza with a wide variety of delicious toppings. They would make the pizza in a matter of minutes, and literally every two minutes another pizza was ready. We were all like scavengers trying to grab for pieces of pizza as soon as they were cut into pieces. What we failed to realize was that the pizza was just the appetizer! After about 15 minutes of gorging ourselves with pizza we all sat down and got ready for the actual meal. They served us rice and beans, beef, lasagna, fish, coleslaw, and cashew juice. For dessert we had passion fruit pudding things with cocoanut bread on top, watermelon, and of course a cup of coffee! Everything was wonderful! We were all trying to figure out how we were going to tell our parents we wouldn't be able to eat dinner!
I got home and took a nice hot shower, and changed into my pj's. I thought I got it across to my parents that I wouldn't be eating dinner, but maybe my portuguese is even worse than I thought! My dad asked me if I wanted wine, which of course I did! I asked him if we were drinking now, and he laughed and said "Calma! Calma!" That means easy tiger in portuguese haha!. About 30 minutes later my mom comes in to my room and brings me out to the living room. She had dinner set up on the table and a movie ready to watch! It was very cute and sweet. I could not resist, especially when they started piling the food on my plate! It was a very nice relaxing end to my long, cold, and wet day!
Sunday we finally got some sun! Asha, Shannon, Shana, Dezie and I all laid out by the pool a couple apartment buildings down from Asha's. It was wonderful! What a relaxing, warm, and SUNNY day to end the week!
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