Amor no tem edade

This entire week has gone by in a blink of an eye.

Segunda-Monday:
We went to the feira (market,fair) for portuguese class-it happens every Monday. I bought the most delicious morangos (strawberries) of my life. Tried so many cool fruits! Other than that, it was pretty platonic-class, a lecture on venture capital and privatization of companies in Brazil... muito chato (very boring). I slept a lot today because I was so exhausted from going out Sunday night.

Terca-Tuesday:
We went on a company visit to a Brazilian Real Estate company called Cyrela. We even got to meet the CEO of the company, which was pretty cool. We talked about Brazilian saving accounts and mortgage systems. To get an apartment in Rio, you need a CPF (like a SSN) and prove you can earn at least 1/3 of the mortgage payment… sucks to live in Brazil, financially…other than that- I’m all in!

I went to the lavanderia today, literally had not done any laundry the entire time I have been here. I walked along the beach while I waited for it to be done. Dad would be so proud at how much I conserved my laundry amount here because I have to go do it myself. When I got home, Alessandra was asking me how Americans like to eat avocados. I explained that we made it into guacamole! In Brazil, the only eat avocado as a fruit, with sugar. The entire family was astonished that guacamole is a mixture of salt, lime, onions, and garlic. Lesley, you would be proud because I made a great batch of guacamole for them to go along with dinner. I’m just so domestic, aren’t I?

Quarta-Wednesday:
My first Brazilian Churrascaria experience! We went to the Churrascaria as a class and let me tell you, I couldn’t eat for the rest of the day basically. Every type of meat, every type of food anyone could ever want in life. So crazy. Right after that, we all hit up the praia (beach) such nice weather! The waves were so intense they knocked me down and practically drowned me. Wednesday night I went out with a girl named Priscila. We ate at a cool noodle place on Farme de Amoeda, I could barely eat though…we then had a couple of drinks at a bar next door and then went to salsa night at Guimo’s pub just like last Wednesday. My friend Sandra from the plane ride was there again and of course our group of people! Too funny, I would make friends on a plane…

Quinta-Thursday:
Today we went on a company visit to H. Stern. If you don’t know this jewelry company, it was started by a jewish guy named Hans Stern who emigrated from Europe to Brazil after the holocaust. The presentation started off with a simple question. The lecturer asked, “does anyone know who the biggest seller of gold is in the world?” Answer: Wal-Mart. He talked a lot about maintaing prestige and the black box that their jewelry comes distinguishes them. The building was absolutely gorgeous. I loved the tour-lots of gems, I tried to get a few of my classmates to propose to me, unsuccessful. They showed us their specialty Alice and Wonderland ring collection which was the craziest things I have ever seen. Diamonds galore.

After the day learning about H. Stern, Paola and I went to get our nails done. We got a mani/pedi at a really small place nearby for 18 reales. This is equivalent to approximately 12 USD. That’s freaking ridiculous, best deal of my life.

Avo (Grandpa) came over for dinner, god is he a crazy guy…he kind of reminds me of Harvey a little bit. He talked about all of his girlfriends (they range between the ages of 45-65) because he said the older ones are better lovers. He asked me, voce vive para amor o ama para vivir (do you live to love or love to live?) Also, he said Brazilian women bicker with you all day…but if you really want to make them cry, all you have to do is say one word: gorda (fat). He is such a funny guy. He invited me on his sailboat on Sunday, so that’s going to be really fun!
I went out to Le Girl tonight…it’s a lesbian club in Rio. It was interesting…Paola and Ximena went with me and we made a friend there actually from Minas. In minas they give three cheek kisses apparently, cariocas (from Rio) give 2 cheek kisses.

Sexta-Friday
Today we all went out to lunch at a kilograma place with our professor, Jama and the director of IBEU, Lorena. Ana met up with us which was awesome because we hadn’t seen her in a while! We had the afternoon off from lecture but it was raining, bummer! Paola and I went to the mall, shopping leblon. We can’t buy anything though because everything in that mall is practically upwards of 100 reales. Jesus Christo its expensive here! We hung out for a while…went into some little shops on Visconde Pirraja and such, fun timess.

Right now, im getting ready to go out for a big Friday night in Rio! Tchau meninos!

Buzios!!!

The six of us left for Buzios at 10am from downtown at the Estacâo de omnibuses. We had to take two different busses and a metro to get there and we were arrived one minute before departure. Gracias a dios. As good college kids that we are, we started partying early on the bus. There were a group of 6 Israeli’s behind us on the bus and it just so happened they were staying at the same hostel as us! We stayed at Hostel Nomad Buzios. The view was waterfront…absolutely gorgeous. We stayed in a 12 bed room and roomed with a guy from Scotland, a guy from Uraguay, and a girl from University of Georgia. The Israeli’s were right next door to us, and boy were they loud. Friday we explored Buzios and went to a few different beaches in the area. Friday night we all hung out on the pier for a bit and then had a few drinks at the hostel bar. That night we met a group of Brazilians that were there for a surgeon’s conference (so they said).

Saturday we went on a boat ride that we negotiated down to 20 reales (about 12 dollars) it was a booze cruise basically with all you can drink caipirinhas which is an amazing Brazilian drink that is straight cachaca, granulated sugar, and crushed limes. Needless to say it was a fun boat ride and we jumped off the boat and went swimming too! We met a couple from Chile that were on their honeymoon and they actually came out with us that night. Around 10, the hostel put together a bar crawl for us which was all you can drink caipirinhas for the first hour…very intense. Then we went to three different bars where we got a different shot at each bar and we ended up at this intense nightclub called Privelege. It was the fanciest nightclub I have ever been in. There were male and female go-go dancers on the walls of the club and the DJ was crazy. There were about 20 or so people on the bar crawl with us and we stayed out until…late. The next day was super-sunny so we spent the day at the beach and walking around the town a little. It was so beautiful outside. We left Buzios at 6pm, awesome weekend!

When I got back to Rio I met up with a girl named Vanessa from Rio. She doesn’t speak any English so it was really good practice for me...we went to a bar and walked around the beach.

Overall the weekend was really fun and relaxing! Love Brazil!!!!

Updates!

So I forgot to post this earlier, but here it is! I will try and write about this weekend as soon as possible!

Tuesday night was happy hour at Lord Jim’s Pub. I know, so Brazilian of us. Now that my Portuguese skills have gotten progressively better, it really allows me to put my all in to hitting on the professor, not that it’s going anywhere. Other than that, we visited pao de azucar yesterday (sugar loaf) yesterday, which is a huge mountain range that has a spectacular view of all of Rio basically. You take a lift up and there’s freaking awesome lookout points. Favorite part about it was that we saw wild monkeys; which were really cool-I’ve always had a propinquity for monkeys, so this really fulfilled my expectations. Here's a picture!

Afterwards, we went on a walking tour of the Centro-the downtown historical part of Rio, which was cool (We went into two churches, went to casa de moedas, and an art exhibition). Unfortunately, there was this really screwed up younger guy that kept following our group prodding us for money. He looked really high and he wasn’t wearing any shoes which was so sad. Finally, he left us alone after about 30 minutes of following us…

Around 5pm, me, Paola, Juan, Jessica, Blake, and Davis went to buy our bus tickets to Buzios, Brazil this weekend. It’s a really awesome peninsula with great nightlife. Friday morning (tomorrow) at 10am is the departure date. It’s about a 3 hour bus ride. That’s right, already packed my backpack.

Last night, me and Juan met my friend Sandra (the one I met on the plane) and her friend Jay at a Latin party. The party was in Copacabana and it was free entry for girls until 11 and free beer until 12. The night started out with a salsa lesson- one I needed BADLY. But after the lesson, I was a professional. We learned about 5 moves and then made 10 or so partner rotations. I danced with some weird guys, but whatever-I know how to salsa now! During the lesson, Paola, Gaby, Bonnie, Tony, Civel, and Ximena showed up! We all drank beer and I danced with a lot of guys to practice my newly made salsa moves. It was awesome because I met people from all over the world. (Ok, mostly south America) But still, very cool. I heard some girls speaking English so I started talking to them. They were English teachers in the Favelas that had both just graduated college. We made fast friends. One was Canadian, the other was English. We didn’t leave the club until 2:45 or so because it got that crazy in there.

After Portuguese class today, might I remind you is at 8:30, a few of us went out to an Italian restaurant where I had the best Gnocci (spell check?) of my life! Sorry Jen if you are reading this! It had four different types of cheeses and was baked. Cheese. Yum. After lunch, we went on a company visit to Petrobras, the energy company (oil, gas) here in Brazil. The building was huge and an economist talked to us about what Petrobras was doing here in Rio and around the world. They are looking to start oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and look to double production in the next 10 years. Carlos, the economist said that refineries are not as lucrative as oil discoveries so that is their main focus.

The quote I remember from his presentation was “Life is like a bottle of water. You have to buy a new bottle or discover a new reserve.” Oh wait, in America you can drink tap water.

Leaving for Buzios agorra (that means right now in Portuguese)!

Food, glorious food!

Coffee is very very important here. It's called cafezinho which is a little hot espresso shot (very strong) and people drink it every few hours. They put in a full packet of sugar or a few drops of liquid sweetner (which i think it quite strange).

Fruit is very exotic in Brazil. Papayas, Mangos, Strawberries, Kaki (see picture!), Bananas, Oranges, Pineapples are what I usually eat for breakfast along with some french or arab bread and quiejo minhas (white cheese)also pictured which is fantastic!





For lunch, I usually grab a sandwich and eat on the beach or go to a kilo place (you pay for how much you get).

Dinner is usually the typical Brazilian meal which is rice, black beans, chicken, and a vegetable. Sometimes we have pasta or soup though…depends on the day! They also drink a lot of suco (juice) here! Especially since Rio drinking water is not safe.

On a sidenote, today we visited EBX, which is Eike Batista’s company (the 8th richest man in the world). The presentation was cool and its really awesome how fast they are expanding and hiring so many employees.

Going out for happy hour tonight! Tchau!

Weekend in Paraty!

Friday we travelled to Paraty, Brazil.. its about 2-3 hours away. The beaches were beautiful and the town was absolutely wonderful. We all took a van there which was quite the bumpy ride. Paraty is located in the mountains and needless to say, we almost killed a cachorro (puppy) on the way there. We were all scared for our lives. We stayed in a beautiful Poussada bed and breakfast type of place called Casa del Sol. Above, I posted a picture of the view we had from our waterfront location. Friday night we all went out to dinner and partied pretty hard at the Poussada, woke up the next morning to go into the town of Paraty. The town is an old historical town on the water. We went on a boat ride for 40 reales (pretty cheap) for eight people and it ended up being an hour and a half! We stopped at an island and did a little exploring, we ate lunch after…it doesn’t stop there. We went to a Distillery called Fazend Murycana and drank a lot of cachaça, and don’t worry, I bought a bottle to bring home! We tried like 8 different flavors each! It was a great day and we went out for dinner when we got back to the possada and did some boozing and pool playing when we got back that night.

Sunday morning Paola and I went on a run on the pier. I could say I kept up, but she runs cross country and showed me up big time. The group went to Angra dos Reis which is also in Paraty, we went on a 5 hour boat ride that stopped at three different islands throughout the trip. The boat was huge and it was a lot of fun! There were a lot of foreigners on the boat. Some guy from Finland was talking to us and when Gaby (my friend) tried talking to him in English he responded, “Sorry I don’t speak Spanish”. Poor girl has a heavy Venezuelan accent! The islands were beautiful though and we got back to Rio about 7pm!

When I got home, me and Andrea (Alessandra’s cousin, 34 yrs old) decided to go out to a bar nearby…she doesn’t speak any English so I got some good practice in! We had a lot of fun, and after 5 beers we came back sufficiently drunk. Oh, and Alessandra told me about this guy she’s seeing who is 26 years old, why do I always get the cougars!?!

Monday we went to the beach for 3 hours in between class. And I’m now officially conversational in Portuguese. That’s all folks!

Quinta-Thursday!

Yesterday was our first business visit (BNDES) Brazilian Development Bank. On our way there, we stopped by the Military base of Cocacabana-we took a few pictures because there was a really good view. BNDES was a huge building in downtown, right across the street from Petrobras! BNDES is the main financing agent for development in Brazil and has played a fundamental role in stimulating the expansion of industry and infrastructure in the country. They promote sustainable and competitive development in the Brazilian economy, generating employment while reducing social and regional inequalities, something that Brazil is stricken with. They are socially and environmentally responsible and even have an Amazon fund to help the Amazonian people live in a sustainable way that does not harm the rainforest. The presentation was pretty interesting so it made it pretty enjoyable.

Last night, we went out in Leblon, another part of Rio. We first met up at a bar called “Devassa” where we all pre-gamed for about 2 hours and then went to a “funk” discotek called “Melt”. We went with our friend from Rio named Ana. At Melt it was 25 cover for girls and 60 for guys but Ana talked them down for it to be 15 for girls, 25 for guys thank god. Melt was crazy, there was a bachelorette party there, so many beautiful women. I can’t explain to you that every woman in Brazil has a perfectly proportioned body, tan skin, and long hair. It is amazing. Anyways, we made a few friends, one of them named Gabi who says she is going to take us around to all the sights in Rio…people here are so friendly! We left the club around 3:45am, people literally party here until 6am…intense. We didn’t have school this morning so I slept until 12.

Weekend trip!

So the internet in my house was not working today and I wrote a whole post about yesterday! Ill post it sunday if I can!

Basically we all went out hard last night because there was no school today. This weekend we are going away to Paraty, Brazil. Theres really beautiful beaches and I am super excited! Until then, tchau meninos.

Favelas of Rio

Today we went to the favelas, which are the slums of Brazil. Favelas are located on mountains in the city of Rio and there are some of the best views of the city from there. Favelas are very dangerous, not many tourists visit this area so we had a guide with us. The guide said that you may not see the danger but favelas are known to have highly dangerous military weapons, gangs, grenades, and poverty. The most astounding thing about this place was the kids that live in the filth of the favelas. One street is very rich and wealthy people, and the minute you step into a favela it is like being in a ghetto. The water is unsafe, the wires are loose, theres trash and feces in the street, and theres smiling kids everywhere. It's a very interesting experience. Davis bought a coke while he was there and he asked the Director of PUC where he could throw it out, she replied.. "Really it doesn't matter, you can put it anywhere it all ends up in the street." I thought that was a really sad response for a Brazilian. You would think that Brazilians would want to help out these areas not trash them even more.

To end on a good note, i'm definitely getting better at Portuguese (I think). I can have semi-conversations now!

Tchau my friends :)

Muito caro

LIVING IN RIO IS EXPENSIVE.
Reale is the currency in brazil ( 1 reale=approx .66 USD) A decent lunch costs anywhere from 20-30 reales in Rio...obviously, things can get pretty costly. A beer is abour 7reales. However, we did find our way around this! At the PUC campus, lunch at the cafeteria is 6 reales, muito barato (very cheap). So we decided we will eat there as much as possible! Dad if you are reading this, I am trying but its really expensive living here!Taxis, buses, food...drinks...it adds up!

Last night a group of us went out to Mud Bar in Copacabana. At night, we have to take taxis everywhere as safety precautions...that's Rio! We all drank Skol, a type of Brazilian beer but I also tried one called Bohemia which was tasted pretty good as well.

In other news, we found out in class today that our professor has a boyfriend-there goes that hope!

It was raining this morning and me and Juan had to walk 7 blocks in the terrential downpour. We ended up being late to class at IBEU because of it. Portuguese classes are 8:30am-11:30 am every day with a 15 minute break...fun stuff.

After class we took the bus over to PUC (Pontificial Catholic University)where we have a business seminar from 2:30-5:30pm three days a week. Its actually a really cool program because we are lectured by a different person about a different business subject every time.BUT THE LECTURES ARE BORING AS HELL. We also go on business visits like to Petrobras etc. Today we have a guest lecture on bringing Starbucks coffee to Brazil, who are said "coffee conossiers". Tomorrow we are visiting a favela (the slums in Brazil).

Going out tonight, Tchau!

Portuguese?

Communication issues:Right now I’m the only one home except for the maid. Unfortunately, I tried to talk with her about what time I should eat dinner, but she didn’t understand what I said. I attempted speaking for at least 5 minutes. I feel very stupid after a two hour Portuguese lesson this morning. Last night Bruna had me read her bedtime stories but i couldn't pronounce all of the words right. Good thing the five year old can correct me! We also played barbies last night, long time favorite around the world.

Old lady alert:There are 12 of us, including myself on the “UF in Rio” program. One of my classmates sticks out to all of us however. Her name is Lori, and she speaks Portuguese very well. This could be attributed to the fact that she’s probably nearing SIXTY years old. I really hope she isn’t reading this blog, but I had to tell someone because I just don’t understand who the hell goes on a study abroad program at 50 something years old, aren’t you supposed to be entering a retirement community by then? It just makes things very awkward…like we have a chaperone or something. #STRANGE

Hot topicz:I have a crush on my teacher. Whats new? Her name is Jamaina, and she has the best smile, we all know that won’t happen-she’s thirty, and my teacher…but I can dream.

Fingernails:In Rio, every respectable woman has a nice manicure and pedicure. Last night, Alessandra made me take off my left over nail polish because she said I’m not going to meet a nice boy with nails like that…oh well. She also told me that she had a guy “friend” that cared about no aspect of her except for one thing, her nails. She always had to have them painted red for him, how ridiculous is that? Never would I do something like that!

Going out tonight, Tchau!

Dia de Mae

Here's a picture of me and Bruna (my little sister in Brazil!)

Literally, this house is always full of women…it’s actually pretty funny.
Yesterday, Alessandra took me out to a late lunch (around 3pm). We ate at a natural buffet. They have a lot of these in Rio, everything is organic. It was really good and healthy. According to her, all of the cariocas (people from Rio De Janiero) have an obsession of being thin. After eating, we took a walk along the beach.
I napped and went to bed early because I was so exhausted from traveling all day. Camila and Chia (Camila’s mother) were watching novelas when I went to sleep, and they were still here when I woke up this morning. There are always visitors in this house.
For breakfast we ate bread with a white cheese, which Camila said was very good for your figure…and melon. Alessandra said Brazilians eat French bread because of how soft it is.
Today we (Alessandra, Bruna, Chia, and I) walked to the beach, we live 2 streets down from it-so convenient! We walked up and down the strip in Ipanema and there were huge ondas (waves). Alessandra told me I must take pictures because the ocean is never like this.
Since its mother’s day, we had lunch with Alessandra’s mother and aunt came to have lunch. We went out to a nice restaurant (they made me wear a dress) and then we walked around the hippie fest. Every Sunday there is a hippie type fair in Ipanema which is a whole bunch of vendors (jewelry, art, crafts)…don’t worry, I bought some souvenirs for you guys at home.
I uploaded photos from the beach today on facebook!  Tchau

First day!

I am in Brazil! Finally!
I left from Miami yesterday the 6th at 4:30 pm, had a connecting flight in Lima, Peru and arrived in Rio de Janiero, Brazil at 5:30am this morning. I had to wait around in the airport until 10:00 though for the rest of my group to arrive! The alternative was to take a cab, but I really don’t trust myself to be able to do all that in Portuguese yet…so here I am, waiting in the airport.
The airport is such a funny place. Everyone is in transit. I talked to so many people but I’ll probably never see anyone again except I did make one new friend! Her name is Sandra and we sat next to each other on the flight to Brazil. She’s from Columbia (thank god she spoke Spanish) but lives in Rio while she is studying for her doctorate in genetics. We chatted for a while and we drank some vino (wine) on the plane, because I can do that in Brazil! She helped me get through customs and baggage so that was a huge help. She gave me her phone and e-mail so we’ll definitely meet up in Rio which is exciting!
I discovered that I can’t speak Portuguese worth shit. Literally, I went to get some juice from the “Casa de Pao” (A little café in the airport) and I felt like a dumbass. I ordered suco laranja (orange juice) and when the server asked if I wanted jello I drew a blank…I guess jello means ice in Portuguese. Who knew?
I could only hope that I was in the right place because I tried asking for directions but no one understood my half-spanish half-portuguese phrases. I was literally a lost puppy for a good hour and a half wandering around Rio’s airport…it’s huge by the way; I think I walked a few miles.
Something interesting about women in Brazil is that breast-feeding in public is absolutely normal. I’m not complaining at all, trust me…just simply informing y’all of the culture. When I was waiting in the airport there was a group of women standing in a circle chatting with each other, when I glanced their way, I realized that they all had one breast sticking out holding their baby in the other hand to breast feed. Interesting site, completely normal I guess haha.
Leonor met us at the airport and took us to our families! I live in a really hip neighborhood called Ipanamea. It looks like a more health-conscious Key West. When I first got to the apartment a woman name Camila answered the door, she is my host-mom’s cousin. Camila made me breakfast and talked with me for about an hour in PORTUGUESE before my host-mom got home, it was tough, but I did it! This apartment is so freaking awesome. Right now, my “mai” (mom) is blasting the song Tik-Tok throughout the house at a ridiculous volume. Her name is Alessandra Reinoso, she’s 40 and she has a four year old daughter named Bruna, whom I haven’t met yet. This afternoon I ran errands with Alessandra, we walked around the streets and we just happen to be perpendicular to the “gay street” hahahah, lucky me. Alessandra speaks English pretty well, which is good for me because I need lots of translations. Alessandra’s other cousin is living with her now, Andrea; she’s about 35 and she wants to come party with us tonight, so that should be exciting. We’re going to have lunch soon, Tchau!