5/5/2010 - Game Nights

So I don’t even need a Television or radio to know the score of the soccer games here. Just leave your window open, and listen to the different cheers and chants from the bars each time a team scores.

AQUI TEM UM BANDO DE LOUCOS! LOUCO POR TI CORINTHIANS!

Awesome fight song…I’ll sing it for you when I get back!

4/30/2010 - Busted by BIBI

One of the most beautiful days we’ve had here in São Paulo! We decided to go to the park and watch the ducks and drink some wine. Afterwards, we wanted to go drink at my apartment, and we weren’t quite sure how my host mom felt about it, so we decided to just be secretive about it. Well, little did I know that the neighbor's dog would be over. Her name is Bibi. Bibi is the cutest, most obnoxious thing in the world, and I think she knows I talk shit about her sometimes. Thus, she decided to steal the vodka bottle top and bring it in to my host mom. Haha. Busted. Luckily Solange wasn’t upset.

4/13/2010 – 4/23/2010 – SPRING BREAK

I think the best part about my program is that I have a two-week spring break. Thus, I decided to fly to the northeast of Brazil, where the beaches are supposedly pristine. I was packing up on Saturday night because I had to catch a bus at 11:30pm to Rio de Janeiro in order to fly to Salvador. It was already ten o’clock, but I decided it would be a good idea to call Expedia (“dot com”) in order to try and change my flight to an earlier time (I would have to wait in the airport for twelve hours if I didn’t change it). Little did I know that the customer service people are completely incompetent.

Expedia: “Hello Mr. Grandelis. How are you today?”
Me: “I’m doing very well, thank you”
Expedia: “How can we be of service for you Mr. Grandelis?”
Me: “I have booked a multi-city flight, and I was wondering how much it would cost to change my first flight to tomorrow morning instead of at 6:45pm?”
Expedia: “It looks like you have a multi-city flight”
Me: “Yes I have a multi-city flight, and I want to change the time of first flight and keep the other two flights the same.”
Expedia: “Ok, hold on one moment please Mr. Grandelis……….Ok it appears that you have booked a multi-city flight.”
Me: starting to get frustrated “Yes, and I want to change the time of my first flight and nothing else.”
Expedia: “Ok Mr. Grandelis. Let me check with my supervisor.”
Me: “Ok please hurry, I have to catch a bus soon.”
……..
Expedia: “Ok Mr. Grandelis, which of your three flights would you like to change?”
Me: “THE FIRST ONE”
Expedia: “Ok just one moment please...........................”
Me: “Excuse me, are you able to change my first flight.”
Expedia: “Just one moment please…………Ok, yes we can change your first flight to 10:30 in the morning. It will cost you thirty dollars.”
Me: “Ok. And my other flights will remain the same?”
Expedia: “Yes. Would you like to change your flight?”
Me: “Yes I would. Thank you.”
Expedia: “Ok we have changed it and your credit card will be charged thirty dollars. Please check your confirmation email and call back with any other questions. Thank you for choosing Expedia Mr. Grandelis.”

I wait for a couple minutes and finally receive the email. My first flight has been changed to 10:30am, but of course, my other two flights have been cancelled. It is now 10:30pm and I still have a forty-minute ride to the bus-depot…

For some reason I decide to call back…

Expedia: “Hello Mr. Grandelis. How are you today?”
Me: “I’m doing very well, thank you”
Expedia: “How can we be of service for you Mr. Grandelis?”
Me: “I just called to change the time of one of my multi-city flights. The woman I was speaking with was able to change the times, but she cancelled the rest of my flights.”
Expedia: “One moment please….yes, it looks like you have booked a multi-city flight.”
Me: “Yes…”
Expedia: “Your flights appear to have been cancelled. Did you want to cancel your remaining flight as well?”
Me: “No I didn’t want to cancel my flights. I need you to re-book the two cancelled flights.”
Expedia: “One moment please. I need to speak with my superviser…………Ok Mr. Grandelis, it appears as if your remaining two multi-city flights have been cancelled.”
Me: “I KNOW! Can you please re-book them for me.”
Expedia: “Ok, I think I now understand your situation. One moment please Mr. Grandelis.”

After being put on hold, I hang up. I have a bus to catch and it departs in forty-five minutes. So without my flight situation resolved, I catch the subway to the bus-station. I arrive at 11:31pm. Luckily the bus hasn’t left without me. Great start to my vacation.

We finally arrive at the Rio Airport around 6:30am, and talk to TAM airlines in order to reinstate my flights. They are able to figure everything out for me without any extra charge. Little did I know that in three days I would receive another email from Expedia saying my flights had been cancelled again. WTF?

Anyways, we arrive in Salvador on Sunday afternoon, and proceed to take a taxi to our hostel. Our taxi driver gets lost on the way, and somehow cannot find the street that our hostel is on. After what seems like forever, he finally gets correct directions from a man on the street, and we arrive at our hostel. It is now apparent why the street was hard to find. It is two blocks long without any street signs, and it is at the bottom of a favela. Lovely. Aside from that, the weather has been horrible for the past week, and the forecast for the next several days looks even worse. Thus, without hesitation, some of us decide to catch another bus to Chapada Diamantina, a National Park about six hours away.

Chapada Diamantina: For two days we did a lot of hiking and jeep touring of the national park and the neighboring city; a small, quaint town called Lençois. We climbed mountains, hiked up rivers, walked under waterfalls, swam in lagoons, and toured massive caves. It was a beautiful place!
Upon arriving back at our not-so-nice hostel in Salvador, we decided to go visit the historical city center, and the infamous town market. The market is a tourist trap, with thousands upon thousands of cheap souvenirs, and the pressure from the local salespeople is so incredible that it is literally impossible to leave empty-handed. One of the sneakiest sale tricks employed is when the locals offer you a “free” wish ribbon. If you’re stupid enough to take it, they hound you until you buy one of their other small trinkets. And believe me, it is impossible to shoo these people away. They will follow you all the way back to your home if they have to.
They next day is finally sunny, but unfortunately everyone has gotten food-poisoning, except for me and one other girl. I think I have a resilient stomach because I have not been sick from food once while I have been here (knock on wood). Anyways, I’m not going to let other people get me down, so me and Paulina decide to go to Praia do Forte, a beautiful beach about an hour and a half away. The beach and neighboring village are so awesome that we decide to spend the night there. Also, Praia do Forte is known for its population of sea turtles. We were not there at the right time of the year, but there is still an aquarium-like exhibit where we could see the massive turtles (along with their little babies). Oh and I also got to feed a shark.

The next part of our two-week northeast tour consisted of a trip to Natal. In Portuguese, Natal means Christmas, and let me tell you, what a perfect name! I felt like a little kid opening presents the entire week we were there. The weather was gorgeous, the scenery was breathtaking, and the company was fantastic (shout out to Anna and Jasmin). It was a perfect time of year to visit because it was not that busy, and there were not that many tourists there.

We came to Natal without any plans about where to stay, so our cab driver drove us around until we found an opening at the Laranja Hotel. It was a relatively cheap, but a very nice place to stay, with a pool, breakfast, our own room (as compared to the twelve person rooms in hostels), and only a two minute walk to the beach!
Make sure to check out my facebook album to see some pics of Natal! We took a dune buggy tour, which had thrills equivalent to a roller-coaster, laid on the beach, bought souvenirs, had delicious food, ate disgusting food, drank some beer, did some other stuff, drove past camels, went on a speed boat, saw some dolphins, spoke with the locals, rode a zip-line into a lagoon, etc.

Overall, this spring break was fantastic. Although the weather was not always perfect, I made some memories to last me a lifetime. And despite leaving the beach, it actually felt good coming back to São Paulo because we know the city so well now. Also, our Portuguese has improved so much to the point where we can ask directions on how to navigate the bus and metro system to get home from the airport for only 5 reais, instead of taking a 100 reais taxi.

Que legal! Eu sou um brasileiro….quasi;-)

3/26/2010 - Criança Esperança

Today we went to a favela in a part of São Paulo called Brasilandia. For those of you who don’t know, a favela is equivalent to “the ghetto” in the United States. São Paulo is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, so you can imagine how nervous we were to be going. The reason for our visit was to explore a local NGO as part of our Government and Civil Society course, and the NGO we decided to visit was called Criança Esperança. Basically, this organization provides a safe setting where children from ages 8 to 20 can participate in extracurricular activities while learning critical social skills. Some of the activities include soccer, capoeria, dance and music classes, and graffiti lessons. I found it very interesting that graffiti is promoted as a type of art rather than a form of vandalism. I guess they would rather have their vandalism looking pretty than just a bunch of cuss words. I really enjoyed this field trip because we have a lot of theoretical discussions in class, so it was finally nice to see civil society in action.

After our visit to Brasilandia, I hurried back to FGV to get ready for our first volleyball match of the season. I was really excited because I actually got to start, but the downside to this was that I was playing middle blocker. Haha. For those of you who know anything about volleyball, you know that middle blockers are generally the tallest players on the team, and for men’s volleyball that means you are usually taller than 6’4’’. Along with being too short, I also had never played middle blocker even in practice, so I am sure it was quite amusing watching me and my gringo self trying to figure out this position and rotation.

3/12/2010 – 3/14/2010 - Paraty = Puppets, Pranks, and Cheap Red Wine

This weekend CIEE took us to a historical town called Paraty, located six hours away in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On our way there, we stopped for lunch at a Ubatuba beach, and unprepared for the intense sun, many of us got sun-burned instantly. Even my Italian skin cannot put up a fight against this Brazilian sun.

Upon arriving at our pousada, which is like a bed and breakfast, we got showered and headed out for a tour of the small historic center.

See here for history on Paraty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraty

After our tour we enjoyed some drinks and a big meal at one of the local restaurants. I of course ordered pasta because I have to take any chance I can to eat it, seeing as it has gluten in it and my host mother cannot eat it. The night ended (or began), with some cheap bottles of wine, and a hysterical prank. Well, not everyone thought it was funny. My friend Anna and I thought it would be funny to hide the mattresses of some of our friends, so we did. Apparently not everyone in our group has a good sense of humor, and they got kind of upset. Whatever.

Haha it sounds like I’m kind of upset probably. Well, actually this small CIEE group of only nine people is giving me a lesson in patience and tolerance. It is getting hard to spend more than a couple days with the whole group because some people get on my nerves more than anybody I have ever met. They are however, still my friends, so I just need to keep cool and realize that I probably bug the shit out of some people too. There will always be people that you do not get along with all the time, especially in work settings, but it is up to you to figure out a way that you can still make a pleasant environment out of some interpersonal tension.

The next day, we woke up early and headed out to the pier. Little did we know the next five hours would be a tour of paradise! Basically we climbed aboard a large schooner, and sailed around the waters of Paraty, snorkeling and touring several beaches. Also, a live guitarist accompanied us on the trip, and provided very appropriate background music for the entire ride. I would give anything to go back and do that again.

At night, we went to a very strange puppet show. I think they chose a puppet show because there was no dialogue in Portuguese, which means we could all “understand” it.
However, I did not quite grasp what was going on, for there were just a bunch of different scenes that were not related at all. The puppets were very real looking, and they actually became kind of creepy because the actors moved them in such realistic ways. It was a very interesting show (and kind of uncomfortable at times) to say the least.

For those who are interested: http://www.ecparaty.org.br/

Also, I love the street dogs here. I know they are probably pretty dirty and some may have rabies, but I just can’t help but be friendly with them. I sometimes think I should be a veterinarian, mainly because I just love dogs so much. Here is a picture of me with Madonna Bonjo (sister to the infamous Michael Bonjo).

It was a great weekend in Paraty, but the end of it meant I had to get back to São Paulo and do all of the homework I neglected over the weekend. Until next time Paraty

Notice how I figured out how to use the ˜ accent: São Paulo…yay!