3 October, 2004

Life has largely settled into a routine. What with a portuguese class (and homework!!!), the english class at Crianca Esperanca, capoeira, dance class, and a lot of time on buses going from one to the other, I've been rather busy. Which is exactly the way I like life, even if most cariocas (and brazilians in general, for that matter) think I'm crazy for it. I've still managed to hit the beach at least a couple times a week, so what more could I ask for? (A tan maybe?)

Saturday two weeks ago I went to a cello concert at the Teatro Municipal with Bruno's uncle, Mauro. It was very nice, although I have no way to judge the quality of the performance itself. My capoeira group invited me to a party, so after the concert I headed over to Ipanema to meet with some of the girls. Daniela did my makeup in a very 80's club style that was positively scary. The party was up in the favela, which was kind of exillirating. Interesting to note that the view from every single favela house is better than that of most of the expensive apartments in Ipanema. I had a good time despite the really bad american hip-hop music.

The next Friday I was dragged to the capoeira roda they hold on one of the main streets in Ipanema. Despite my feeling of inferiority after only two weeks of practice, people said I did okay, so I've been feeling a bit more confident. After capoeira I went to the beach with Andrea and some of the boys to play futebol, although we ended up mostly just juggling the ball. I got into a contest of keep away with Sonic (yeah, it's a nickname) and ended up flat on my back in the sand. Andrea chose that moment to invite me to a beach party with her church group that was happening just down the beach at Posto 9, after showers of course. It was already about 10:30pm, so I figured it would be fun. Spent the evening singing along to some beautiful christian bosso nova.

Saturday I went to a churrasco with Bruno and friends. Witnessed the Beer Olympics, and actually participated in an event (see commentary in previous post). Managed to resist a huge amount of pressure to get drunk from guys with "fourth intentions" (Bruno's phrase). Not that they would have had any better chances if I was drunk, but they didn't know that. After the churrasco I went to a dance at Carlinhos de Jesus. Bruno wanted to walk me there to make sure I was safe, but he was so drunk that I didn't trust him to make it back without my help, so I convinced him to drop me off at Margie's hostel, which was just around the block. Apparently that still wasn't good enough since he fell on his way back and managed to chip his front teeth and break his finger. He doesn't remember any of it, but his cousin was quite freaked out when he got back spitting blood. Milton and Mara tried to call me about five times in fear that I was wandering the streets of Rio as drunk as Bruno (don't worry mom, I wasn't), but I was already at the dance by that time and didn't hear my phone. They were relieved when I showed up later that night safe and sound. I had a great time at the dance (again see commentary in previous post).

Sunday went to a modern dance concert by the Debora Kolker (sp?) troupe. Pretty cool stuff. One of the routines was performed on a climbing wall. I can't believe how athletic those dancers are. One of the routines was almost entirely lifts. They were so smooth that if I hadn't actually tried to do a number of those kinds of lifts before I wouldn't have realized how _hard_ they are. Seriously impressive. Oh, and I finally figured out what that weird lift in the theater arts routine where we sit on the guy's hip is supposed to look like. Too bad it's a little late for that.

The weather changed mid week from sunny and excessively warm (it was 22C at midnight one evening) to cool and rainy. Feels like home! On Thursday I got tired of waiting for the little bus that goes to the top of the favela for capoeira, so I decided to take a walk in the rain. I know they say not to walk around favelas alone, or at night, or in the rain (prone to mudslides), but I think people are overly paranoid. It wasn't raining hard enough for a muddslide, just enough to keep people indoors, it was only just after dark (around 7pm) and besides I was wearing my capoeira clothes. People seem to recognize me as being associated with Crianca Esperanca, and they respect that a lot. I've walked up a couple of times and if people talk with me they ask how long I've been studying capoeira or if I would like an escort rather than whether I have anything of monetary value to give them. Maybe I'm being foolish, but most everyone I've talked to has agreed that as long as you don't get mixed up in anything to do with the drug traffickers, you're pretty safe, and I haven't even seen any. Oh, I did end up rather muddy though. My nice white capoeira pants are now gray at the hems fading upward into polka dot like gray splatters to white at the waist. It's actually kind of cool looking, but will hopefully wash out.

This weekend I went to Carlinhos for the friday night dance. My samba instructor was the DJ, so I chatted with him a bit. Kind of difficult with the noise and since he doesn't speak any english. Saw him dancing later, and it turns out he's damn good at samba gafieira too. So after the song I went over and jokingly asked if he was married (you know, my own quirky way of giving a complement), and was surprised to discover that he actually was. I'm not sure he realized I was joking, but it was about the nicest rejection I've ever gotten, along the lines of "I am married, but you are very pretty and dance samba well." Awwww. Always nice to be told you are good at something by someone you know full well is a whole lot better.

Both co-owners of the hostel Margie stayed at have invited me to come by to hang out at any time, so when I didn't manage to make any plans for Saturday night I figured I'd check out the scene there. Most brazilians I knew decided to stay at home due to the rain. :-p So I went to the weekly bbq at the hostel. Met several of the people who work there, including Marta who is from Salvador and promised to put me in touch with her family to show me around when I visit. Yay! There is a german girl who also stops by to hang out once in a while, and so I chatted with her while we helped cook. Fun discussion about why Rammstein is more popular in the US than in Germany. She also translated part of Du Hast for me. Apparently in German "you have" and "you hate" are synonyms. Kind of unfortunate, but makes for some great punning in the song. Most of the clientele were british, but I also met a self-described kangaroo and a hippy-girl from CA. I love listening to british accents, even if I do understand portuguese better at this point.

Today I went to the Sao Cristavo fair with Nick (english co-teacher) and his wife Nisse. It was still rainy, but we had fun wandering around. Lots of really good food, and I think if it wasn't raining that would be a good place to learn some forro, but today there weren't many people out. I got some queijo minas, which is a tangy white cheese I've fallen in love with. After stuffing ourselves we went back to Nick and Nisse's apartment for a little while, and over to visit her cousins. Nisse absolutely adores young children, so it was cute to see her cooing over them.

This evening when I got back Mara taught me how to make cake. The cakes here are so much better than just about any cake I've had before. We made a chocolate cake and banana coffee cake, both delicious. I finished my homework and embarked on this excessively long update. :)

7 October, 2004

Places people are most likely to guess I'm from:
1. England
2. France
3. US
4. Germany

The only time I've been asked if I'm german is while I was talking to a german girl the person knew, so that is understandable. However, I have no idea why so many people seem to think I'm french. Maybe it is just considered more polite than asking if I'm american?

Looks like it is about time for me to write a newsletter. Don't think there is all that much new to report, but people would probably appreciate a shorter letter anyhow. :)

I have a ton of homework to do this weekend, which means it is probably good that I haven't made many plans. Yesterday in my portuguese lesson we went from page 25-46, which is about four times the normal amount. Makes me feel like I'm learning faster though. We also skipped from chapter 4 to 12 and back again when I was silly enough to ask how to use the subjunctive tense. I think it may be better to wait on that one; I'm still trying to get down the two types of indicative past tense with all the irregular verbs!

I was lazy and didn't go to capoeira on Tuesday. I've been really tired all week, and I felt vaguely ill when I woke up this morning. I'm feeling much better right now though, so hopefully I was fighting something off and won. At least I'd like to think I felt so tired for a reason and not just because I really am that lazy. Doesn't so much help that the weather turned cool and drizzly so it feels good to stay inside with a mug of tea and read all afternoon. Unfortunately, I think I've already spent about as much as I budgeted for the whole year on books. They are rather expensive here, and I seriously doubt there are any english language libraries around interested in loaning me books. I've been reading guidebooks a lot and every so often making another stab at Harry Potter in portuguese. If anyone wants to donate to the keep-Tara-addicted-to-scifi cause I can give you my address. :D

10 October, 2004

*I did try to post this Sunday night but couldn't connect to the internet. Sorry!*

Well! I had an exciting weekend. On Friday I heard back from the Watson foundation, and they approved my trip to Chile! So in about two weeks I'll be heading to Santiago for a month, then back to Brazil. I hope to visit Salvador for about three weeks when I get back. It is supposed to be the home of capoeira and forro, so definitely a place I have to go before I leave.

Went to the weekly dance at Carlinhos de Jesus. It's a lot like the dances Zajj used to go to at U of Oregon, I think. They have salsa and forro downstairs, and a mix of bolero, swing, and samba upstairs. I didn't have a great time, but it was good practice at least.

Saturday I explored Laranjeiras, the neighborhood I'm living in, and found a nice park and environmental preserve. Rio has at least half a dozen wildlife preserves within the city, as well as the huge Tijuca forest along the boundary. Pretty cool, although they tend to be slowly swallowed by favelas.

I also went to the Museu Indio which has all kinds of information about the indigenous tribes of the Amazon. It was pretty interesting and reminded me of the ethnobotany report I wrote back in 9th grade. Because of that I actually knew more about a lot of the religious ceremonies and food types than the brazilian friend I went with. He tried to act as my guide at first, but after the first couple of times I corrected him, he stopped. I was able to understand most of the object descriptions, so I didn't need much translation. As usual, my reading ability is far exceeding my ability to converse.

After the museum I went by Margie's hostel (the name of which I need to remember at some point) for the weekly bbq. One of the owners, Zer, had actually called and officially invited me this week. Helped cook and learned how to make farofa (they have a particularly good recipe). Met some quite interesting people this week. Akela is a climber who works as a freelance guide and teaches language classes on the side. I asked him how someone would go about learning how to climb with no gear and very little money, and he told me about a climbing club that offers a free course and gear rentals to members for about R$15/month. Definitely have to look into that! He explained to me the system for rating routes in Brazil and I think I figured out why Flavio tried to take Margie and I up a route that was slightly beyond our ability. Apparently I was supposed to tell him what level I could lead climb, and instead I told him the maximum level I could make it to the top of. Oops. There is also a distinction between "technical" and "athletic" climbs that probably added to the confusion. Akela sounded kind of impressed that I made it up the first pitch of the Italian route though, so perhaps I'm not as bad as I think?

I also met another american girl, Robyn. She's a professional break dancer, and at one time worked in Las Vegas. Which isn't nearly what it sounded like at first, because it turns out she was working for Cirque du Soleil! She was in Mystere as some sort of queen character, I think the Black Widow. I haven't seen the show, but I'm automatically impressed because it's Cirque du Soleil. I showed her what I know of samba and she offered to teach me some hip hop and break dancing moves if I come visit her in Sao Paulo, where she currently resides. Can't lose there.

Went to Salgueiro (escola de samba) with a group from the hostel. Learned that the director of the school was involved in a mofia-like group that runs the Jogo do bisho (a gambling racket) and was killed two weeks ago. Kind of dampened the normally upbeat spirit of samba rehearsals during the warm up period. However, it was the semi-final round for choosing this year's samba, so the competitors put a lot of effort into energizing people. At first I felt a little weird standing around in a samba school with a bunch of gringos (an affectionate term in brazil) who weren't even trying to dance, but after a while we got pulled into the maelstrom and I had a great time. By the end of the evening (or perhaps morning...) I had to kiss half a dozen new brazilian friends (who I will probably never see again) goodbye.

Today I went to another dance at Carlinhos de Jesus. It was supposed to be lunch and several hours of dancing, but I got there quite late and found it fairly deserted. However, that actually had advantages because the floor was much less crowded and since many of the instructors were still there the concentration of good dancers was high. I had more fun than Friday at any rate. Got to talking with one of the instructors, Chris, after dancing a bolero (which I've mostly mastered) with him and he offered to exchange samba lessons for lindy and cha-cha lessons.

So now I've finally started making these fantastic contacts for dancing and climbing and I'm leaving in two weeks! Such terrible timing. Hopefully I can stay in touch and pick up where I left off when I get back in December. Heh, I've picked two activities that should by all rights be mutually exclusive- climbers get up at 6am to hit the rocks before they overheat, and dancers stay up until dawn most weekends. Maybe I can start sleeping in the afternoons.

11 October, 2004

Woke up randomly at 6am. Decided to try connecting to the internet again and succeeded this time, so I uploaded the previous posts and chatted with some Mudders who were still online at 2-3am on a Sunday night/Monday morning. Fewer than I would expect.

Was sleepy by the time I got to Portuguese class. My teacher, Cirena, has apparently decided to push me as fast as possible, and I'm starting to have trouble keeping up. Lots of vocabulary to remember, in addition to everything I pick up on a daily basis.

Milton and Mara hosted a feijoada since tomorrow is a holiday and most everyone has today off too. Just Milton and Nerval's families, but they filled the apartment. Everyone had a nice drunken time and I learned how to cook parts of the brazilian national dish.

Had an exciting night. After my dance class at Carlinhos de Jesus, I went to the hostel and met up with Robyn. We went to a hip hop festival in Lapa, and I got to see her breakdance. She's definitely good. They put together a guys vs. girls battle, and she almost single handedly won it. Of course, breakdancing girls are pretty rare, so there was no way they were going to lose, even if they weren't as good as the guys. Throw in a hot american girl who is as good as the guys, and the poor boys didn't have a chance. Luckily, we left soon after the battle (it was already 3am), because all the boys started trying to show off for Robyn and looked like they were going to kill themselves.

12 October, 2004

Today was "dia das criancas" or, "kid's day," an official holiday in Brazil. Everything was closed up, so I slept most of the day. Got to talk to Zajj in the evening, which was awesome. I really miss having friends close by to rely on. I'm making Brazilian friends, but it takes a while to build that kind of trust, even if you don't have to worry about language barriers and cultural differences.

13 October, 2004

After portuguese class I spent most of the morning trying to make worksheets for the english class at ECE (abrev. for Espaco Crianca Esperanca from now on). It's a lot more work than I realized. Didn't finish, but I got enough for a day or two and was able to print them out at ECE, but then I couldn't find a copier. So no worksheets yet. The class was pretty much deserted anyway what with the holiday the day before.

Learned a bit about what to do with my upper body during samba. I keep getting all kinds of different and confusing instructions, so hopefully the lesson will help. Started leading bolero. One of the assistants in my danca de salao class, Amanda, is still learning the leads as well, but since we both learn about twice as fast as they teach, we just switched off leading. Strange to feel like there are too many guys in the class, but I have to fight them off to grab a girl and practice leading.

14 October, 2004

Spent most of the day wandering around the Flamengo area. Realized that I was pretty much out of cash, but it was too late in the afternoon by then to do anything about it. Went to capoeira as usual. I really enjoy playing in the roda, but I wonder if I'm annoying people by jumping in too often. Whenever I get shy someone practically pushes me in though, so I think I must not have crossed the line quite yet. I think my kicks are okay, but I really need to practice dodging. I always seem to get caught going the wrong direction.

15 October, 2004

Worked on the english worksheets some more. Went downtown to pick up traveler's checks and exchange money (just in time- I had R$1.50 left). I had been planning to go home with Alejandro and go to the samba school tomorrow, but he was sick, so that didn't happen.

Was late getting to the ECE, but discovered that it was closed for "teacher's day" anyhow. Two holidays in one week- crazy. Carlinhos de Jesus was still open though, so I went to the friday night practice. My samba gafieira seems to have instantly improved! It was great- I could actually follow most of what some of the better dancers led. I had a really good time.

16 October, 2004

Went to a capoeira batezado, kind of like a belt test ceremony. I didn't realize that it would be so formal, so I forgot to wear my group shirt. Felt like I stood out even more than usual, but nobody commented on it. Everyone who was being raised a level went in the roda with a higher level player, and I noticed that they always ended by being thrown. In between rounds they had a couple of performances, one of drumming/dancing, and another of maculele. It was very interesting, and watching the mestres play was fantastic. For them it really does more closely resemble a dance than a fight.

Later on I went to the weekly bbq at the hostel. Met a couple of guys from Victoria, Canada who thought it was great that I am from Seattle. It was fun to share my impressions of Rio with them, especially the guy who had never been further from Victoria than Seattle. Bowed out of going clubbing at some ritzy place in Ipanema and went to bed early (ie before 5am) instead.

17 October, 2004

Woke up fairly early and had breakfast with Mara. We all cleaned house for most of the morning and afternoon. I worked for quite a while on portuguese homework.

I decided to go to the roda in Ipanema, but I thought it started at 5pm when it actually started at 4pm. So I was half an hour late instead of early, but still got to play a bit. After it ended I got dragged off to the beach with the kids. There is a place near the Arpoador where the beach gets fairly steeply slanted, and it is great for practicing flips. One of the girls appointed herself my teacher and I learned how to do a standing back handspring, sort of. I'm always paranoid about hurting my wrists, so I don't brace my arms enough. Chickened out of doing a roundoff into a handspring, even though it is supposed to be easier. The kids are funny. They are a completely wild bunch, and seemed to enjoy terrorizing passers-by, but once they got to the beach they collected a crowd of admirers. I think I am exactly the sort of person they would love to pick on if they hadn't decided I am _their_ gringa and thus under their protection. Twas fun. Doing more homework when I got home was less fun. :-p

18 October, 2004

Accidentally set my alarm for tomorrow so I woke up an hour late. Ran to portuguese class. Discovered that it is "dia de comercio," yet another holiday. As a result, all the stores are closed, so I couldn't go to the grocery store.

Finally did some serious hotel searching for parents. Most of them aren't accepting reservations yet (if ever), but I found one that seemed reasonable and nice. Well, nice for a budget hotel, what do you really want? It has air conditioning and in suite bathrooms.

Thanks to all the shops being closed I still couldn't make copies of my english packet. *sigh* I keep adding to it, and it is pretty long now. Too bad I'm going to run out of time to cover any of the material! The ECE organizer said she could make copies for me and give them to me on wednesday.

19 October, 2004

Went to Alejandro's office to make sure I got my tickets to Santiago. Leaving this weekend! The tickets are ordered and I will pick them up tomorrow. Ate lunch at the Confetaria Colombo, which is a 100+ year old cafe. Absolutely beautiful. I think it would be fun to have tea there with Mom and Mara.

There is a kids capoeira class just before mine, and one of the girls had a birthday, so everyone was there (after all, they get cake at the end). I took my camera with me, but discovered that trying to take pictures induced absolute chaos as everyone tried to squeeze to the front of every picture, thus making it impossible to get anyone in the frame. Had to put it away during class because of the disruption. In the adult class we worked on learning how to play the instruments. Got to play a berimbau for the first time. It's really rather complicated for an instrument that only makes about five notes.

The guys were being much more intense in the roda at the end of practice. Scared most of the newer players and girls from going in. I think they usually work off the excess energy during practice. Afterwards Ricardo (one of the quasi-instructors) made some joke about me that I actually understood, so I play kicked him and it turned into a game. So despite the lack of roda I still got to practice a bit.

20 October, 2004

Last portuguese lesson until I get back from Chile! I asked Cirena if she normally goes through material so quickly, and she said "oh no, you're setting records." So that explains why I have so much homework! Apparently I've been going about three times the normal pace.

Picked up my tickets from Alejandro's office. Ended up waiting there for a while and left late, so I didn't get to the ECE until after my english class was supposed to have started. Most everyone was still there though, so we had class. The organizer hadn't been able to make copies though. I think my worksheets are doomed. Realized that there is an american guy in the capoeira group, and he said he might be able to teach the class after I leave. The students seemed excited about that.

Said goodbye to everyone at Carlinhos de Jesus. People were really sweet. Especially Gracie and her daughter who gushed about how much they would miss me. Makes me kind of sad to leave, but I'll be back in about a month. February will be harder.