Pamonha!

The people I live with made pamonha for their sunday family lunch. It's a traditional brazillian food made from corn. You can make it either "salgado"(salty)or "doce"(sweet)...I preffer the salty. I like to call it brazillian corn bread. And here's Heloisa preparing it!

First, you boil corn and milk and make sure to have some corn husks handy. Fold it, pour the mixture in. After, fold a second corn husk over it. Wrap it with a rubber band or tie (if you don't like that wierd bitter taste boiled rubber bands give off...ick). Also,if you are cooking both salty AND sweet, make sure to mark the sweet ones with somethign different. Some people do different rubber bands, Heloisa tied a peice of leaf in between the cloth tie.

I don't know why it's putting all the pictures at the top... it won't let me move them. I'll edit this post when I figure out how to change the format (sorry guys!)

When it's done boiling, cut open & enjoy! Pamonha is one of my all time favorite brazillian foods. A Sunny afternoon, some pamonha and uma lata de guarana and i'm good to go!

Macaco

I was eating lunch on campus one day, and this monkey tried to steal it! They love any & all human food, especially coke, orange juice, and anything with sugar. Which is exactly why they have started having a campaign to try to get people to not feed the monkeys, because they are getting sick (some of them have diabetes).

The problem is, most the food they get is because they stole it from someone, not because it was given to them.

Blog backup

Since my last post I've been to Palmeidas de goias, Brasilia, and Florianopolis. Each place is so different from each other , I'll be posting about them over the next few days. After that I have a more cultural/language based post... I LOVE portuguese expressions used here in brazil!Where else can I say "estou na mundo da lua"?

But I'm not going to get ahead of myself and my lack of updates, I'm just going to try to keep better track of updating this blog from now on. I've settled in now and things are way less hectic, allowing thoughts about the experiences of the past 3 months to gel and be presented into blog form.

So... Brasilia!

My art dept. at the Universidade Federal de Goias took a bus load of students from Goiania to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, for an art exhibition. There , I saw works by Brazillian artists, as well as a neat post-revolution Russian exhibit they had.

Besides being the capital of Brazil , Brasilia is an attraction unto itself because the amazing contemporary Oscar Niemeyer architecture...space age and a stark white against a backdrop of flat for miles "cerrado" terrain and city buildings. One of his main architectural accomplishments in Brasilia is the Cathedral-Basilica of Our lady of the Aparecida( pictured above).

I didn't only visit exhibits in Brasilia, I walso visited the Central Bank of Brazil, akin to the USA's National Federal Reserve. I saw a currency museum, and a special museum dedicated to Brazil's historical involvement with gold. For the gold part of the tour, you walk up a tiny case of stairs to find yourself in a dounut shaped cement structure that is carpeted floor to celing with gold carpet! That exhibit definitely had some flair. The pictures don't do it justice. I'm having problems with my camera and I tried to google it and couldn't find any good pictures. Just imagine if Elvis were brazillian, and that is the gold room.

Making the most out of this exchange program

I have heard several students back home in Montevallo voice interest in applying for the program I'm in to come next spring semester. One word of advice: Fully commit to wanting to learn Portuguese! It is not a given that since you will live here for six months you will be fluent by the time you get back to Alabama.

I know the semester before coming here, Portuguese tutoring was very important to me but I did not study near as much as I should have due to my other classes & time. And I do not know about the participants placed in Vicosa, but here at UFG the "letras" ( literature) department is fairly large and you will not have much trouble finding people who speak English on campus. However, if you want to connect with someone other than English speaking students and see a broader view of Brazil, Portuguese allows you to fully submerse yourself in this culture instead of being a passenger on a six month ride. It is necessary to fully understand the classes, and showing interest in Portuguese shows respect for the people of that country that you are trying to learn their language instead of hoping that they know yours.

I regret not spending more time learning Portuguese back in Montevall0, and with only four months to go I have a lot to learn in a short amount of time. So, future applicants...study, have fun with it don't worry, and be ready for the experience of a lifetime! The Brazilian students who come to Montevallo have to do a very expensive and difficult test (TOEFL) to test their language ability, all we are required to do is a one semester tutoring program so it is the least we can do. I highly recommend this exchange program, being a student here at UFG has allowed me to experience Brazil in such a beautiful way that six months is going by quicker than I could have ever imagine.

Good luck to the future applicants!If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.

Electricity

One of the first things I noticed when I got here to Brazil was the lack of air conditioners. At first, I chalked it up to my student budget one room apartment, but after visiting many people's houses I realized it is very uncommon to have one. First of all, after import costs an air conditioning unit is extremely expensive. And if you do have the money to buy one, it is rarely turned on due to cost of electricity. Some apartments that are not built as open as the Brazilian houses have started to get air conditioners.

Now, imagining 80 and 90 degree weather without air conditioning seems like torture at first!However, Brazilian homes are built much more open, with the outer walls consisting mostly of windows allowing the breeze to do a pretty good job of keeping you at a non boiling temperature. Houses here are also generally enclosed by a wall/gate all the way around, allowing for the outside area of the house to be covered and used as additional living space (chairs, hammocks, maybe a bar) on extremely hot days ( January and February get insanely hot!).

And another energy waster I had to get used to living without was a clothes dryer. They are extremely uncommon here. Even in well above middle class households, a clothes dryer is seen as an expensive and unnecessary waste. And laundromats only have washing machines. Houses and apartments have hanging clothes racks that can be lowered to hang clothes on, or on especially sunny days they can be line dried. In the sunnier afternoon, all except a thicker pair of jeans dried just as quick as they would have in a dryer AND it didn't cost a dime.

However, in the rainy season, it's a gamble to line dry outside. 15 minutes after this photo was taken it rained so hard there was practically a river in the street! I got my clothes down in time though...aguas de março! The waters of march.

Sunday means vegetable fair

I moved in with a Brazilian family, a professor and her husband(pictured above left at the cheese stand). Every Sunday they go to the local vegetable fair and buy a weeks' worth of fruits and veggies! There are many types of fairs in here in Goiania: Feira do Sol, Feira do Lua, Feira Hippie and so on. You can find anything from clothes, shoes, pets, vegetables, crafts, or necessary household items like pots and pans depending on which fair you go to. They normally have a designated day of the week. They have produce sections in grocery stores, but it is a lesser quality and not worth the cut in price for most items.

Haggling/bargaining with vendors is not very common, maybe at the end of the day (which for vegetable fairs is around 11 am, 7am people get the best picks) when produce is not as fresh. They normally have a set price per kilo or per quantity (for example: 6 ears of corn, 1R$). You put it in the basket or bowl and they weigh it ,bag it, and you pay.

Generally at fairs , no matter clothes fair or a vegetables one, there are some standard snack stands. I would say the most common street vendor foods from what i noticed are sweets stands, coco water/juice, pastei and popsicles. Today I tried a new one, sugar cane juice with lime(just under 2 R$)!

The end of tutoring, beginning of classes!

It has been so busy, I've taken trips to Pirinopolis, and Rio Quente! More on that later. The first thing on my mind is that today was the last day of classes with Camilla, my portuguese tutor.

The semester back at The University of Montevallo has been in full swing since January, however here the semester does not start until monday. Today was our ( Devin, West, and myself) last day of Portuguese tutoring with Camilla(pictured left), a student at UFG. We will have an official
Portuguese for foreigners course, as well as start our courses within the university Monday. Today we had a farewell party , which included reading and watching a popular Brazilian children's comic/cartoon which is entitled "Mônica", and eating homemade fruit salad (the picture above shows Devin & I eating some of this!)prepared by Camilla's mother. It is hard to believe that we can barely read comics, yet we will be taking college classes in this language in less than a week. Baby steps, we are all learning so much every day!Learning a new language takes more patience than I had ever imagined.

This comic strip is known by everyone here, it is a very common and favorite comic of Brazilian children. The main characters in this comic strip include (from left to right):

Magali: she eats enormous amounts of food and is always looking for more, has a cat who's name Mangau translates to "Porridge"

Cascao: a little boy who has never taken a bath and is afraid of water

Cebolinha: speaks with a speech impediment and often replaces "L's" with "R's". Cebolinha means little onion, a name attributed to by his hairstyle!

Mônica: a pudgy buck toothed girl who gets teased a lot by the others, but who is very endearing and takes revenge via hitting people with her stuffed bunny who's name is Sansão, translates to Samson

Goiás velho!

About a week and a half ago I visied the first capital of the state I'm in. I visited Goiás, Goiás Brazil.

The trip included Brazillian professors, students, as well as African exchange students and the group of three American students I'm a part of. This small UNESCO historic city was gorgeous, and the view of the cerrado landscape on the two hour trip up there was breathe taking! I learned alot about how Goiania was founded, and got to go to many small museums that the buildings have been converted to.

To learn more about the history go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A1s_Velho

Brazil, a walk in the "Parque"

Boa Dia!

Thursday after Portuguese Tuturing on campus I went with a few people to go walk around downtown Goiania. I visited the park, went bargain shopping, and admired the gorgeous flowers that were everywhere!




At Parque do Buritis they had an amazing walking trail through the forest, as well as turtles that live in the man made lake. This park is known for the small monkeys (Marmocets) that live in the trees, but I wasn't able to spot one today. But I will! There are also monkeys on my campus, a larger species, and one hopped in the window durring my tutoring class that day! They inhabit the forest next to the school.

















Also, durring the Walking trail I saw a metalic three inch long beetle fly and land on a tree!

















After that, we went walking (pictures in a different post, those one is getting very image heavy!), and went to camelódromo to try to find a cheap alarm clock, because the adaptor to fix the voltage difference I bought fried mine ! This place is basically a huge alley entrance warehouse with rows and rows of vendors selling anything amazingly cheap . It's crowded and hot, and looks like a fire hazzard waiting to happen! But when buying electronics in Brazil you have to find the deals wherever you can. Anything imported (most electronics) here carries a huge import tax that is included in the price. My small fan for the my apartment from Correfour ( a large chain store like wal-mart, possibly bigger) cost 70, almost 80 Reals (pronounced hay-eyes) when the same fan in the United States would cost about 20-25 USD$ .

Tchau, até mais!

A crazy few first days

This is my fourth day being in Brazil, and things are so hectic and new!
The plane ride over went without a hitch, however the last stop at GOL airlines they tried to charge Devin, West, & I an exhorbant amout of money for our luggage being over weight and they wrote us a bill for all three of us combined, and would only take Brazillian currency. We almost missed our flight because checking in baggage took forever, but we got there. Also, the climate change was very very hard to get use to. Going from 20's in Alabama to 80's in less than 24 hrs was uncomfortable. Howver, since then it's rained some (also annoying since i have to walk to school and it generates mud) it has cooled down and the temperature is nice.

The first 2 days I spent at Karina Costa's house (she was a foreign exchange student from brazil at Montevallo in Fall 07). She's been helping me to adjust to the immense culture shock and language barrier. Just trying to buy something at the store is now a semi-complicated event, i've been taking it granted the simple act of being verbally understood! Karina and her sister Valeria helped me buy things for my apartment and took me out to eat(the later a little more difficult considering i'm a vegetarian, and as in the U.S. most restaurants cater to meat-eaters, but here i couldn't fully read the menus.). Her parents were also very helpful and kind in a way that the language barrier didn't hinder. I am very thankful for all the help they give me while i'm in such unfamiliar territory.

I am in a small apartment that's about a 7-10 minute walk from campus. It is walled in, like all the houses & apartments here (pictures later) , and in a very rural area. The landlady is nice woman who is very patient with my limited portuguese. It seems so far that any conversation involving portuguese with her also involves hurridly tracking down words in my english/portuguese dictionary, exagerated hand motions and charades, as well as laughter and an understanding smile at the end.

It doesn't always go so well though. When I showed up at the the building I was to go to Portuguese tutering at, i couldn't find anyone who spoke a word of english as well and i generated alot of confusion to a few secretaries repeating over and over "Oi tudo bem, Fala ingles?"... strange looks, wondering why this girl is asking so many questions. My hair color ,facial features ect is i guess very common here, so many many times i've been mistaken for being fluent in portugese, and people will start talking and i have no idea what they are saying! I am just another person in the crowd, until I open my mouth and everyone starts staring at me (there are very few americans in Goiania. I have yet to come across another that's not in the exchange program).

After the receptionist told me classes did not start until march and to come back then , i saw my tutor in the hallway and everything ended up fine.

So, today I will go again to tuturing and learn this vary valuble skill of speaking portuguese. I can't wait until my conversations are less akward and frustrating!Francisco ( a professor here, one of the profesors responsible for us while we are down here) is planning to take us to the Goiania zoo if it doesn't rain to much, and later tonight I'll be going to Karina's sister's concert(she is a singer, and locally known. She was stopped by someone at the mall who recognized her because of her cd).

I still can't belive I am calling this city with 1.2 million people home for the next six months. Wonderful, fun, scary, lonely to be without pretty much everyone i know, different, and exciting. I'd have never guessed the first time I lived in my own apartment it would be in Brazil!