Out of place...

Yesterday I learned what it feels like to be a monkey in a zoo.  Surrounded by groups of people staring at you, whispering about you in an unknown language and waiting to see what you will do next.  Except I was not actually in a zoo--I was in a Brazilian public high school.


Let me preface this story by explaining that a few days ago while watching a futsal game I met a Brazilian English teacher who after speaking with me awhile asked if I would mind coming to her class, talking to her students and showing them some pictures.  I, of course, replied "yes," and volunteered Rachel along as well.


Yesterday morning Rachel and I motortaxied our way to the high school bright and early and were awoken by swarms of Brazilian teenagers.  The teacher met us and after thanking us about twenty times for coming, accompanied us into a classroom.  The classroom was much larger than expected and filled with teenagers.  As we took our spot in front of the classroom, teenagers continued to flood the room, well surpassing the fire hazard limit.  The students spoke about us in Portguese (although I didn't understand much, it's not hard to recognize the word "Americana") as the teacher tried her best to yell over the voices of the students.


The next twenty minutes consisted of the students staring at us and managing to successfully ask us five questions over the chatter of the other students.  1. What is your name?  2. Where are you from?  3. How old are you?  4. What Brazilian soccer team do you like?  and 5. Do you have a boyfriend?


After posing as a show and tell item, I proceeded to show the students pictures of the English speaking countries I have visited while they looked on in amazement. 


"I love you," one of the boys in the back of the classroom shouted to the front as the others burst into laugher. 


Once the class ended the students rushed to the front to take pictures with us.  As they lined up to take pictures with me, I couldn't help but wonder what exactly made me so special in their eyes.  Was it the fact that I had blonde hair and eyes just a shade lighter than theirs?  Perhaps it was the fact that I happened to be born in the same country as Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.


A group of students eagerly invited us to attend their dance class that began in a few minutes and Rachel and I took them up on their offer.  We watched on in awe as the teenagers partnered up and performed the most sexual dance I have ever seen.  Who knew that they practiced this in school?  I didn't want the dancing to end because it was unlike anything I had ever seen and because I had a gut feeling that they were going to make me try once they finished.


I was right.


The next four minutes were among the most tortuous minutes of my life.  Dancing with the Brazilian dance teacher in front of forty or so Brazilian students whose legs (and butts) were made for dancing, could quite possibly have been the most embarrassing thing I have ever done.  But also one of the most fun...

Only in Brazil...

The Brazilian phrase for "cheers" is "tim tim," pronounced "ching ching" like glasses clinking together. Unfortunately, this is very similar to "xi xi," the Brazilian phrase meaning "pee pee." No wonder everyone looked at me strange last night.

The pronounciation between "coco," the Portuguese word for coconut, and "cocô," one of the Portuguese words for "shit" isn't that much different either.

Getting lost in Lins is much better in the daylight than at 5am.

Homemade feijoada is delicious, but to be honest, some parts of the pig are a little too chewy for my taste.

Every Brazilian man claims that he does not know how to dance. But once you enter the night club, you realize that every Brazilian man is a liar. In addition, every Brazilian man assumes I can dance and doesn't believe me when I inform them that I can't. It doesn't take long for them to believe me though.

Last night Rachel and I took it upon ourselves to invite the teachers out for some drinks. The turnout was better than expected, and after hanging out a few hours, Rachel, two other teachers and I made our way to one of the two local bars. To make a long story short, the night ended with us puttering home in Gear 1 as Rachelattempted to drive stick shift. Despite the abrupt stalls in the middle of intersections, we managed to make it home alive.

Just outside of Lins, there are farms spanning in every direction for miles. I have wanted to visit a farm since I arrived, but despite the hints, I was never invited until this past weekend. It was nice to escape the confines of Lins and be surrounded by fruit trees and sugar cane.



The other day for lunch I made myself a overflowing plate full of a rice, corn, meat and beans mixture. I gobbled down the plate in a matter of minutes, and followed my typical trend of refilling my plate for seconds (my stomach has definitely expanded since I have been here). As I battled with my subconscious about why I feel the need to eat more, the doorbell rang and a man began speaking to me in Portuguese. "Dona Katarina nao aqui," I said, not understanding a word of what he was trying to say. "Nao falo Portuguese," I added to let him know that I didn't speak Portuguese. "Comida," he explained gesturing towards an empty plate. He was asking for food. I went back inside the house and took my warm plate and waited patiently as he engulfed it, secretly praying that Dona Katarina wouldn't come home and see me feeding random people in the middle of the street.

Linense game

Since the first day I moved to the small town of Lins, I have been asking about the professional soccer team. Yesterday I finally went to my first game. Linense (as the team is called) has been around since 1927, but has recently started to do very well, and compete in the first division. To be honest, I did not have high expectations for the red and white team with an elephant mascot, but I was shocked to find out how good they really were. Perhaps because almost every man in Lins plays soccer, they have a pretty large selection to choose from.

I 

I learned that the supporters of Linense is in proportional terms, one of the largest in Brazil. The team is known to regularly carry more than 15% of its population (about 12,000) to each game.

So you might be wondering, what makes a Linense soccer game different? Perhaps it is the $1 churros that taste like heaven in your mouth, or the women's bathroom with seats so large that it is impossible to sit down? Or I guess it could be the $5 tickets or the fact that at the end of the game the rival fans are let out of the stadium first while the Linense fans must patiently wait to be released.

Linense won the game easily by a score of 5-0 and moves on to the semi-finals which will take place next week.

pequenos petiscos...

Today I went to the doctor to get a yellow fever vaccine. The sign was written in magic marker and the doctor had braces. That was a first.

The word "pinto" in Portuguese is a slang word meaning "penis." I wish I knew this before I told my students how much I loved pinto beans.

Cachaca is a type of liquor found only in Brazil and made from the juice of sugar cane. It tastes similar to tequila in my opinion, and ranks up there with the unappetizing tastes of most liquors.



When women first meet each other, it is common to kiss both cheeks. For some odd reason, they always start with the left.

Apparently when a person turns 24 in Brazil the joke is that the person is "gay." This is because the word for gay (veado) is the same as the word for 'deer' and in a popular Brazilian lottery game (the numbers game), there are 24 deer. While on this topic, I will add that lesbians are nicknamed "sapatão" translating to "big shoe."


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According to one of my students, it is a common belief in Japan that folding 1000 paper cranes, or tsuru, will bring good luck. Thank goodness in America all we need to do is hold onto a rabbit's foot.

Pizza cones are delicious. Why don't we have them in America? And why is the one person who actually speaks English working at the pizza shop?

When Brazilians talk on the computer, they type "srsrsrs" rather than "hahah." This confused Rachel and I as we sat in our room trying to pronounce this and understand how it could possibly sound like a laugh. Yesterday we found out that "sr" is actually just an abbreviation for the Portuguese word "sorriso" meaning "smile."

When I told my class about my upcoming trip to Pantanal, they said, "Teacher, Pantanal is no good." To which I asked, "Why not?" and they replied, "There it is just water and green and a lot of animals." Hmm...

Yesterday in class I asked my students to make a guest list for a dinner party that they would be hosting in the near future. They were allowed to invite any six people living or dead. One pair of girls decided that they would invite a world famous chef, a famous Brazilian musician, their boyfriends, Beyonce and me, so that I could translate as they spoke to Beyonce. Interesting...

Rio de Janeiro...

So, I have officially reached my halfway point in Brazil, and Dan keeping to his word, came to visit.  After a ten hour delay and a ten hour flight, Dan arrived to Sao Paulo and was quickly hurried to the bus station to board an overnight bus to Rio de Janeiro.

Arriving to Rio at 5am, we were both quite tired and opted to take a taxi to our hostel rather than attempt to figure out the public transportation system.  We handed the driver our address and watched the sunrise as he drove us through the streets and up an inclined hill.  We repeated the number "trinta e cinco" as he drove along the street of our hostel.  "Vinte e sete (27), vinte e nove (29), trinta e um (31), quarenta (40)" the driver stated with a confused expression on his face.  He turned the cab around and drove up and down the street another time, coming to the conclusion that number 35 did not exist and gestured for us to get out of the taxi cab.

We paid him, exited the cab, and realized that we had no idea where to go. We wandered aimlessly for a little bit, passing groups of girls in high heels and makeup returning home from the nightclubs, wondering why two Americans with backpacks were walking back and forth without any apparent direction.

Dan's load must have been feeling a bit lighter than usual, because it took him a few minutes to come to the realization that he had left his bag with his passport, credit cards and laptop computer in the taxi cab that had left five minutes ago. Panic striken, but still half asleep Dan and I raced down the hill to find the nearest cab and headed back to the bus station, where his bag had been returned safe and sound. Graças a deus...

We eventually found our way to our hostel, which was hidden behind a grafitti painted door. The owner, Luis, was a friendly Brazilian man, who was excited to have two American guests. He gave us a tour of the hostel and walked us out to the roof deck where we had a view of the entire city.

"Down there is Copacabana beach and if you walk further you will hit Ipanema beach," he explained.

"Where are the favelas?" I asked, thinking of the warnings my students had given me about the favelas in Rio. My students had warned me to stay away from the favelas, or slums, where the drug violence is the most dangerous in the world.

"Take care," one student told me when I excitedly told him about my upcoming trip.

"Well," replied Luis as he gestured in a circular motion around his head, "these are favelas."

Apparently our hostel was in the midst of a favela.

After spending two days in Rio, I can confirm that the city lived up to my expectations. The beaches were not only beautiful, but also had the best waves and most activities I have ever seen. The beaches are lined with soccer fields, volleyball nets, racquet ball, tight rope walking, and even areas for European handball. I have a love of markets, that was definitely satisfied by the numerous markets scattered along the beaches. Not to mention the fruit juices and delicious pastry shops.

Dan and I finally tried feijoada, which has been recommended to me since the first day I arrived to Brazil. Feijoada is a bean stew, mixed with a random combination of pork and beef, and usually accompanied by rice. We learned that feijoada originated from the slaves of Brazil who would combine the leftovers of the pig with beans and water. Little did everyone know what they were missing. Nowadays, feijoada is one of the most popular dishes in Brazil.

On our last day, Luis took us on a guided walk through the favela to the top of the hill where we were able to overlook the entire city. The walk took us through portions of favela houses where we were able to observe the daily lives of the Brazilian people. It was amazing to walk along the steps that they used as streets and see things firsthand.

Sao Paulo

Interesting facts...



- Sao Paulo is known to have more cars with bullet proof windows than any other city in the world.

- Restaurants in Sao Paulo are surprisingly expensive.

- Despite being the third largest city in the world, the majority of people I encountered did not speak any English.

- Sao Paulo is home to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan.

- Frosted Flakes taste even better than normal after not eating them a long time (or any cereal for that matter).

- It is common in Brazilian weddings for the bride to be fashionably late (like 30 minutes).

- It is impossible to fall asleep standing up. Your knees will buckle and make you fall into the person in front of you.

i have always wanted to see a toucan...