Back in the US of A

Well, I'm back safe and sound in the U.S. It's still kinda weird. I expect people to address me in Portuguese and I'm still tempted to reply in Portuguese as well. I suppose it will take a bit to adjust. I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't happy to be home. (God, how I missed my bed, my shower, air-conditioning, driving my car, my family/friends, etc.) Living in a gigantic city has certainly taught me a lot. I feel confident that when/if I ever live in one in the U.S., I'm prepared. It's amazing the sense of peace I have being back in a small town. I didn't realize how stressed out the city makes you. You have to worry about: catching the right bus/subway, finding your destination without getting horridly lost, checking the clock every few minutes to not be late, and watching all the people around you in case they want to rob you, hassle you for money or just slam a shoulder into you because you're in the way. Not to mention the noise and the smell. Thousands of cars, bums, strong designer perfumes, food vendors and trash cans makes for quite an interesting mixture of aromas. At the same time, it was a really exhilarating experience. There are endless things to do at all hours of the day and night and the people and places can be quite glamorous.

Brazil as a country, aside from the city aspect, was wonderful. It's a beautiful place (as you've seen from the endless pictures we snapped) and I must say the people are extremely nice. Being a lost little foreigner with a Spanish (not American) accent did not seem to impede people from talking with me. Though they apologetically said, "What?" at least 5 times during every conversation, communication was successful. People have certain ideas about Latin America, if not Brazil, in general. Some of them are true but most of them are not. The public services sector in Brazil (waiters, store clerks, bus drivers, etc.) are SO incredibly friendly and helpful it was amazing to me. They were always willing (in fact, wanting) to chat and almost always went out of their way to do whatever I needed. Brazil really put America to shame in that way. More than anything, being in Brazil made me motivated to know more. Seeing all the things that needed improvement or help and were so close to being wonderful made me very sad at times, though. I could tell lots of sob stories about poverty and violence but that's not what I want people to think of when they imagine Brazil because, in all fairness, those things exist here as well.

I guess I'm just really pensive right now. The flight back was stressful (we missed our connecting flight to Pittsburgh and had to take a later one) and ridiculously delayed so, I had a lot of time to think. I miss Brazil and I regret not doing more, seeing more, talking more but I suppose people always feel that way when they return from a trip. I has changed me, I think, for the better. Traveling and seeing more of the world (REALLY seeing, not just getting a stamp in your passport) is a very valuable experience and I look forward to doing it again. (Felipe and I have been eyeing up Peru.) I'm ready to move on with my life. I look forward to teaching and taking classes this year, graduating and starting my PhD wherever destiny takes me. This will be my last blog entry. I don't believe my life to be so interesting anymore to warrant publishing it online. I will continue writing, in the more traditional, hard-copy sense, about this trip but my voyeuristic period has ended. I leave with a song (Bob Dylan) that sums it up well....
The Times They Are A-Changin'

Movin' Right Along

Felipe got his VISA!!! Yeah! Phew, what a relief. Many of you don't know this story so, I'll give the brief version. Part of the reason that we came to Brazil this summer was that Felipe needed to renew his U.S. VISA. So, we got here and he went online to pay his fees and print out the necessary forms. While doing this, he noticed that the process had changed slightly since the last time he renewed. The American Embassy now requires an "interview" with every single applicant. Only the "interview" isn't really an interview; they are finger-printing everyone who comes into the U.S. So, since EVERYONE must have an "interview" the Embassy is overwhelmed with scheduling such a huge amount of people. (Previously, only new applicants were required to be finger-printed.) As a result, they have a "required waiting period" which ended up being longer than the entire time we were going to be in Brazil---quite a pickle. Luckily, there were still a few ways around this and Felipe was granted his VISA today. He only has to pick it up tomorrow and we're set to return.

Late-Breaking News

I passed the exam! Woo-hoo-- actually, I should say I kicked its booty; I got a 96% out of 100%. So, now I have a nice little certificate that says I passed the highest level of Portuguese IBEU offers. In other news, in case anyone is wondering, Brazil is and has been out of the running for the World Cup. They were eliminated by France--quite justly, I must admit. So, now the final game will go down Sunday between Italy and France. Each are already 3 time World Cup winners so, it's anyone's game, as they say. Also, my baby bro has a birthday coming up on Monday:) (If anyone knows his shoe size, please let me know ASAP!!!) Less-than-sweet 18, haha. He will be joining me at college in the fall and if he somehow manages to sneak into my Spanish class I will have to beat him up (I don't care that he's 6'00", I can still scratch him pretty good).

Back to our regularly-schedule program....

Yesterday, Felipe and I spent the whole day in Downtown Rio. We saw the church where the Emperor Dom Pedro was coronated, the Paseo Real (Royal Passage--tunnels where the royal family used to sneak around so as not to mingle with "common folk"), o Museu da Bellas Artes, o Teatro Municipal (SOOO beautiful---I was in heaven; I love the stage!), and the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library), which was fantastic and happily smelled just like all other libraries in the world :) Unfortunately, most of these things didn't allow any photographs or just a few in very select locations so, the documentation is a bit spotty.

Today, I will probably just laze around on the beach and sip on a coconut or two. Oh, just as a note: I have recently discovered a channel that has the Gilmore Girls (subtitled) and so I've been catching up on the back-episodes.

It's good to be queen

Yesterday, we visited the Palacio/Museu Nacional de Quinta da Boa Vista. It was the royal palace for Emperor Dom Pedro II and Empress Leopoldina and then, when Brazil became a republic, it was converted into a natural history museum. It has exhibits that include: shrunken heads from Africa, pre-Columbian pottery, ancient Egyptian mummies, ancient Roman vases, native Brazilian crafts, entymological charts for Brazil/Latin America in general (pinned butterflies, etc.) and so much more. Not only that, the building itself (as well as the surrounding royal gardens) has such an interesting history. For a history nerd like myself, it was paradise. By far, my favorite display was ancient Egypt. They had mummies, stellae, pottery, jewelry, and a few sarcophaguses (sarcophaguae? What is the plural anyway?). It's a little sad to see someone's coffin but it really makes the imagination run wild--wondering who they were, what they looked like, how the died, etc. Unfortunately, like most museums, we were not allowed to take any pictures. Afterwards, we went back to the last portion of the zoo--which was free and right next-door--and took the pictures we had wanted to a few days before.

Also, today was my last official day of class at IBEU. I take the comprehensive exam tomorrow and if I pass I will receive a certificate of "competency" in my given level of Portuguese. If I don't pass, I will still receive a certificate that asserts my completion of a certain number of hours of Portuguese instruction. Either way, it works so, I'm not worried. Here's a photo in front of the building that houses IBEU---->
My time here is almost up, only about 2 weeks left. After tomorrow, I will start doing research interviews like a crazy person and also traveling around like a crazy person; I want to squeeze every drop of time out and accomplish as much as possible. It goes soooo fast...before I know it, I'll be preparing lesson plans and cooking for myself again...que pena!!! (what a shame!!!)

Let's go to the zoo and see the wild children!

As you can probably guess by the title, we went to the zoo today! It was a lot of fun though it was packed with less-than-perfectly-behaved children. The zoo is set up like a jungle paradise--with coconut trees, palms and various other exotic ground cover. So much so, wild birds of all kinds, butterflies, cats, etc. freely choose to make it their home. Everywhere you went birds were flying overhead and random animals were roaming the walkways. There were a lot of animals native to Brazil; birds in particular--there were hundreds of rare birds. We tried to get pictures of as much as possible but then the camera battery died so, we had to just commit everything to memory. The national bird of Brazil is the blue macaw (arara azul) and we got a nice picture of him...


Later in the evening, we also went to the National Planetarium and saw a show called "Ceu: Mito e Realidade" (The Heavens: Myth and Reality). It basically looked at the major constellations (the zodiac, etc.) and what the story is behind them, in particular how they were named.The place is huge and super high-tech; it made us a bit homesick, though--we go to the planetarium in Morgantown regularly even though it is significantly less impressive.

Below is a photo of a lion-monkey, which is native to Brazil and highly difficult to photograph. While there we had the typical zoo experiences: 1-paying WAY too much for snacks and water 2-getting spit on by at least one animal 3-seeing at least one monkey spread-eagle and playing with himself 4-seeing a pair of something getting it on in front of 50 unsuspecting children 5-baking alive in the heat 6- taking lots pictures that no one will care about but you 7-seeing some unlucky person get pooped on 8-seeing one child have a complete meltdown over ice cream or something like it 9- Ahhh! smelling that "natural" air and 10-watching everyone (kids especially) learn a lot about our furry, feathery, scaly, slithery, slimy friends :)