Day 13 and 14: Graffiti

Day 13 and 14: Graffiti

On Monday, I did not do much because I was finally able to get my glasses. My head hurt so bad that I decided to stay home from school until I finally able to get my glasses around 4 pm that day. They are rimless Raybans, and they were expensive.

In class we discussed the people of the sertao, which is like the Brazilian desert. It is dry, and poor, and harsh to live in. it has a very rich culture, because the culture stays in the sertao. There are multiple books, movies, songs, all dealing with the sertao. The people who live there are cowboys, but they are not like what American cowboys would be like, they are more like cowboys during the 1930’s dustbowl, if that makes sense. We are going there soon, I am really excited to see it, since I have read so much about it.

On Tuesday we went to Peixinhos, which means little fishes, to talk to CCJ, the director of the program we are working with. We are having a hard time really starting to discuss how we are supposed to serve them. He is really interested in helping us understand art. Thus, today we painted on walls and learned to use spray paint for graffiti. It started to smell bad so I left the room, I hate fumes.

There were children playing outside. It was adorable. The girls were bossy, and the boys were funny. There was this beautiful little dark girl, with light brown hair and green eyes. I am completely amazed at the fact that there are so many people who look like that here. 

Day 11 and 12: Weekend Updates

Day 11 and 12: Weekend Updates.

The weekends are far more relaxed than the week itself so I decided to just sum the days up in one post.

On Saturday I woke up eager to finally go to the beach, but I lost my glasses in the ocean. Waves here are vicious. Once again I saw the Brazilian jeitinho at work, as my host mom called in “favors” to try to get me new glasses, unfortunately it was a holiday so most people were out of town.

At night we went to celebrate Sao Joao with my host families’ real family. They were adorable. The grandmother was very feisty and I liked her a lot, she made me laugh so much. Although during this holiday people eat a lot of corn based foods, we really didn’t have that much, which was fantastic because I was tired of corn. There was a little black kid there, and since the family wasn’t black I asked who he was. Apparently, he lives in the favelas, which are slums, and the family really likes him because they are so sweet so they take care of him.

,My host mother took us to a super nice resort in the middle of nowhere for lunch, and you can’t say no to a Brazilian, no matter how bad your eyes hurt. It is a Brazilian thing to be very obliging, people do not use the word no. they simply agree to everything, and then don’t follow through later if they really don’t want to do something; I think it’s kind of funny.

After the nice lunch we went to a Porto Do Galinhas, port of chickens. When the slave trade was abolitioned, and people were still bringing slaves to Brazil, the sellers would say that the chickens were here, so that people did not know it was actually Africans. Even though it has a sad history, it was a truly gorgeous beach. My host mom did her graduate work in marine biology, and she talked to us about the reef and the water there. She was really sad about the trash on the reefs. I love walking with her, she knows everything.

Day 10: Recife Temple

Day 10: Recife Temple

We went to the Recife Temple today. All temples are gorgeous, all temples are special in their own way, yet I learned a lot from this particular visit to the temple.

The temple grounds included a hotel. Many of the people who were at the temple that day travelled from far and the Church provides a place for them to stay. It is amazing that people are willing to travel long distances to go to the temple, and for many who have the temple so close, it is almost an afterthought. It really made this opportunity more special, to know the sacrifices members in other countries have to go through, to do what we in Utah can do every day.

After the temple we attended A Casa Da Cultura. It was an old prison that they turned into a small shopping area. Every cell of the prison is a different store. All the stores sell hand crafted wooden things, but all of them sell them at different prices. We were told to bargain, but I feel incredibly bad doing that. It is beautiful to see how gorgeous Brazilian artisan crafts are. They are colorful and truly show the life that Brazil has. It was also decorated for Sao Joao so it was very festive and fun.

We later went to another very old church, gorgeous, as they all are.

Day 9: Bouguereau

Day 9: Bouguereau!!

Today we went to a medieval castle in the middle of the city. It was called the art institute of Richardo Barnand. Barnand was a Brazilian millionaire, who used his money to buy a ton of art work. He show cased it in a beautiful medieval-like castle, which he tucked away behind about a quarter of a mile of palm trees in the city.

He show cased a fast collection of swords, many of which had names and where they came from attached. There were also many Asian art pieces; ivory work from China, and gold and ivory work from India. There were many pieces by Brazilian artists that were Pre-Columbian and very interesting because they depicted the views of what early European settlers thought Brazil and the locals looked like.

Some of the most interesting pieces in the museum consisted of a few Rodin’s. Rodin was the only impressionist sculpture; many may recognize his work, The Thinker. The institute had a Rodin the Thinker. What some may not realize is that Rodin would make molds of his pieces and fabricate the same piece multiple times, so there are many Rodin’s, but you can’t do that with paintings. That leads me to the Bouguereau.

They had a Bouguereau. He was a French academic artist, meaning he dealt with the nude female body, almost neo-classical but not quite. The point is that at the turn of the 20^th century he was one of the most famous artists in the world. Yet, when impressionism started to gain notoriety, his popularity declined. Much has not been written about Bouguereau and his work because of the shift from academic to impressionistic art, but art historians have recently been re-captivated by his works.

The only disappointed I had was the lack of information concerning many of the other paintings, most did not have plaques. Overall it was a very interesting place and I highly recommend visiting.

Day 8: Olinda

Day 8: Olinda

Olinda is a gorgeous city that we visited today, June 20^th 2012. It is located just outside of Recife. And it is amazing.

The most interesting part about Olinda is that it was founded by the Dutch. They cultivated the community, and made it a large exporter of sugar. Well, the Dutch were protestant and the Portuguese were Catholic, and eventually the Portuguese kicked them out of the city. Yet, they left behind incredible structures dating back from the 1500’s, which clearly have amazing Baroque and High Renaissance elements to them.

The churches had great alter-pieces made out of wood and gold leafed, very traditional of old catholic churches. Most of the old churches were inrestoration to preserve them as tourist attractions. Most of the people are catholic by tradition, but many do not attend church regularly.

The houses in the cities are bright colors. That was done to tell which house belongs to who. It is a different way of addressing a home, but it leads to a neighborhood full of rich color and tradition.

The city of Olinda sits on multiple hills. Walking down a street, and turning a corner may lead you either uphill or downhill. If you are lucky, like we were, you would go uphill (we went up a huge hill). From there you can see all of Olinda and Recife, and it has a spectacular view.

The city is full of tour guides who wear yellow shirts and are willing to give tours for a fee. It is a very important city in Brazilian culture, because it was the first capital of industry. I was so excited to see it because it seriously was breath taking. 

Day 7: Art for Art's Sake

Day 7: Art for Art’s Sake

Cristina and I did a fantastic job at catching the bus; we only were 1 stop away from the actual place we were supposed to stop. That was a win for us.

We did not do much this day in class; we spoke about the jeitinho again, which is the Brazilian way of cutting through corners.

The best thing ever happened. We went to one of the poorer communities, named Peixinhos, which means little fish in Portuguese, which is outside the city of Recife itself. We met up with a guy named CCJ, who is an amazing leader in his community. He runs an organization where he takes children and adults who have an interest in the arts and helps them develop their talents in order to keep children off the streets, and educate them in the importance of recycling.

The people were humble, and sweet, and amazing, and their stories were so sad. One boy, about the age of 21, said that he was so poor, that he used to borrow his neighbors left over materials, to make homemade kits in his house. He would then sell them on the beach to support him and his wife, because all their family lives in Sao Paulo. Because of the program, he does not have to sell kits anymore because his interests have now turned to the arts.

There was a boy with beautiful curly hair, who told me that the reason why he partakes of the program is to help his community and help get his friends out of crime. It is amazing the things these people do with so little resources.

We later went to the ruins of an old slaughterhouse, where the artists have graphitized interesting paintings on the wall. They also have art installations dealing with recycling in the community. The sad part is that no one knew how old the ruins where, who owned them, why were they so big, nothing. Its like a big chunk of their history is missing.

The best part was that the children they take care of where there and we playing with them and they were adorable. Black kids with green eyes are my new favorite thing ever.

It was an exhausting day, but I love every minute of it. 

Day 6: Back to school, hear the bells…

Day 6: Back to school, hear the bells…

It was the first day of class. Cristina and I had no idea how to take the bus, everyone is so nice, and everyone tried to help us. There was a nice man, who stopped the bus for us. You basically have to jump out in the middle of the street for the bus to stop. We saw another boy from our study abroad there and we tried to go to school together. If you are standing, people who are sitting offer to hold your bag for you, at first we thought it was sketchy, but it seems to be very normal. Basically it took 45 min to get to the area, then we got lost for another 20 mins. It was awesome.

The school is pretty basic but cute and charming. We didn’t do much the first day, just introduced ourselves. Then we went to the mall to get SIM cards for our phones, and that took like 3 hours. I was tired just watching everyone waiting. Well the most interesting thing is that we decided to walk home from the mall.

I told everyone it was a far walk but no one believed me. We walked along the beach for a while, and it started pouring rain, it was super fun. But then walking on the sand is hard so we walked on the street. We stopped for a coconut. Eventually it was 1 hour later, and we were still ridiculously far from where we lived. My feet started to blister because I wasn’t wearing walking shoes. Another 30 mins later, I was on the verge of tears because my left foot hurt so bad. We got home 30 mins after that, but it was pouring rain again. I was so soaked and tired when I got home. I showered and put on pajamas at 7 pm.

It was an adventure, but I hope never to do that again. We told our host family and they said that was a 12 km walk, or about 7.2 miles!!! It wouldn’t have been that bad if it wasn’t for the rain and my left shoe. My legs are not even tired at all, it was just my left shoe.

Day 5: Sunday-Funday

Day 5: Sunday-Funday

I woke up early to go to church by myself. It is about 10 or so blocks down the street, but from my window it looked really close. I was not that scared because it was really light out. The sun comes up super early in Recife, like 4 am. Church in Recife is just like anywhere else: people make weird comments, people have strange opinions, children are sweet, mothers are motherly, and the Stake President’s wife has an Ipad: just like any other ward in America.

When I came home I started to take a nap but Cristina finally came! She is super awesome and I love her. We ate lunch, and then the family decided that they wanted to take us to the mall. Shopping Recife, I think, is the largest mall in this part of the country.

The stores are crazy. They are super fancy, and really expensive. Most of the brands are European or high class American. It really was a beautiful mall.

In the center of the mall there were men playing traditional instruments associated with Forro music. It was pretty fun, there were games, and rides for the children. Almost all the stores were decorated in order to celebrate O Dia De Sao Joao, and it was awesome, super colorful and fun.

I also got my first reais - Brazlian money. Also my host mom bought us ice cream of all sorts of weird flavors, I had Tapioca, and it was great. 

The family took us out to a nice dinner. The restaurant was like Tucano’s where people walk around and give you food, except it wasn’t meat, it was just pizza! They said they also have ones where they only serve sushi.

It was a really fun day! I need to go shopping again and buy something legit.

Day 4: Bar Hopping

Day 4: Bar Hopping

On Saturday I finally went down to the beach/boardwalk. It reminded me A LOT of South Beach. It has big beautiful buildings and sexy men in speedos with amazing bodies walking around. There were also people jogging and puppies, but what was really important were the men in speedos.  

We walked the puppies for a bit, and then we had a coconut.  Every, like, 15 feet there are huts, and they all serve coconuts, and basically the same stuff, like drinks and cigarettes. I think it’s weird that the huts are so close together, but whatever.

Later that night the younger of the sisters and I went to a restaurant with her friend. It was really fancy. The lights were dim, and there was a live band, and the waiters were super attentive. They both had a few beers and they ordered an appetizer for us.  When the other friends showed up, they decided they wanted to go to a bar because there were no hot single guys at the restaurant.

A bar in Brazil is different than in the United States. It is more like a family hangout. There were children running around and such. The girls ordered feijoada, which is like a bean and sausage soupy thing, very traditional very delicious. Alas, there were no hot men either, so we went home.

That was a really fun night. I got to see what real Brazilians, my age, did for fun. I was so shy still. I need to get over my fear of meeting new people. It’s not just a Brazil thing; I am always very quiet around new people, or in very large groups.

It was a super fun day and I enjoyed it a lot!  

Day 3: Culture

Day 3: Culture 

I did not do much on Friday the 14^th, , because I was so tired from traveling, so I will write about cultural differences.

To being with Brasilian are really laid back. They are not in a hurry to get anywhere, things wait for them, events wait for them, people wait for each other, life is in the front seat of the car, and random stuff is in the backseat. I love that, it’s so chill.

Also, my host family has a maid, two maids; one for cleaning and one for cooking. They are really nice. In most Latin countries, there are usually maids. This is because it’s customary for the women to have help around the home. It is like this in Nicaragua too, so that did not surprise me much.

One thing that is cool, is that they are NOT Mormon. I am the only person who is Mormon in my family, so it is just like being at home. I told them that I don’t drink coffee. It’s very common for people to drink coffee with their meals, and even just during the day. The host family is really nice about everything though, and I think they see it as a learning experience for them too, to see what other cultures are like. They travel a lot so they love knowing other people’s live styles.

Also people in Recife are helpful. Everyone is willing to help you. If you look confused or lost, people just are always there to answer your questions.

Overall  I think this is a fantastic culture, and there is just so much to learn. I am still a slight bit overwhelmed with everything I am learning and doing. Yet, my host family speaks English so they are helpful and when I am confused or don’t understand, they just say the words in English. 

This is a picture of one of their cute puppies

Day 2: Meeting My Family

Day 2: Meeting My Family  

After I got out of the airplane, my family was waiting for me.

They are absolutely adorable. They are so hilarious and so gorgeous. It’s true what they say about Brasilian women, they are just so pretty, and they take good care of their appearances.

Erlane is super cool and really nice. Erline is the younger sister and she is so funny, I almost die every time she talks. The mom’s name is Gracia, with an accent over the first a. She is so sweet, and so smart. She knows everything about Recife, she has a Ph.D in Marine Biology and teaches at the university.

They live in the 4^th floor of an apartment building on the beach. It is beautiful. The living room overlooks the ocean, and you can see along the coast. They also have the cutest puppies ever.

I barely had walked through their apartment door, when they invited me to a Festa for Sao Joao. In Recife during the month of June, they celebrate John the Baptist by throwing parties every weekend. The parties consist of listening to Forro music, which is like a Brasilian version of country music. They also eat multiple dishes made out of corn, to celebrate the harvest.

It was really fun, but I was really tired, and still super shy because I was in shock of being in Brasil.

I came home, and the first thing I did was look up the HEAT game. They have a giant flat screen T.V. but I don’t know how to use technology well so I just watched it online. They won, duh.

Day 1 and Day 2: Travel

I am keeping this blog to chronicle my time in Brasil. So far I have been here for 4 days. I will try to summarize my days in order in which they happened.

My friend Cristina took me to the airport. She is fantastic, she is also my roommate in Recife. I was really worried about the weight of my luggage, but to my surprise, it was actually only 44 pounds. I took a flight from Salt Lake to Chicago on the tiniest airplane I have ever been on. It was pretty uneventful.

When we landed on Chicago, I wanted to update my facebook status but there is no free internet in Chicago. That was really annoying because it’s a huge airport, what the heck Chicago, lighten up. I waited there for a while with a ton of Brasilian. They were loud and crazy, and I thought my flight to Brazil,of about 10 or 11 hours, was going to be awful.

To my surprise the airplane was the biggest airplane I had ever been on. And it was super quiet as well. We had personal TV’s, so I did what any girl would do, and I watched LOTR but then I watched UP to lighten the mood. Then I fell asleep, and when I woke up I was about 2 hours from Sao Paulo, which is where my next stop was. So, again, I did what anyone would do and watched episodes of PHINEAS AND FERB.

The Sao Paulo airport was interesting. It is one of the largest cities in the world, and no one spoke English. Good thing I knew enough words regarding airport stuff to get around. Eventually I found my gate and sat down and got online. I talked to Seth Doughty, he is adorable.

The airplane was like 15 mins late, and when we were going to board, they told us that we were all in the wrong gate and we had to go downstairs. Well, let me tell you, that airport is freaking crazy. We had to get on a bus and they drove us to the airplane, where we boarded. Then I was FINALLY on my way to Recife. About 3 hours later, I was in RECIFE.