Rio de Janeiro

After a 7-hour bus ride delayed by holiday traffic, I finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday evening. At the bus station I met up with Raquel’s friend Leo, who had offered to pick me up show me around the city. After a quick driving tour, Leo and his wife took me out to a great pizza place then dropped me off at my hostel. I am so appreciative of the incredible hospitality that I have received from so many people here in Brazil! My hostel is located in one of Rio’s best neighborhoods, Ipanema, one block from the beach. This is where the famous bossanova song Garota de Ipanema (The Girl from Ipanema) was written.

Praia Ipanema

Monday the weather was cold and a litle rainy so I opted to postpone my tour of the city and instead did a “favela tour.” The favelas are Rio’s infamous slums (read more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela). I was initially hesitant to do such a tour for a couple of reasons: 1) Favelas are notoriously run by drug dealers so they aren’t considered the safest areas 2) The idea of touring a slum seemed incredibly elitist. After being convinced that it was  must-do by the folks at the hostel, I discovered why it was such an incredible experience. After being picked up at the hostel, we arrived at the bottom of Rocinha, Rio’s largest favela with over 200,000 people. One by one we traveled to the top of the favela via local transportation, a 5-minute ride on the back of a motor-bike taxi. From the top, our guide led us down through the narrow streets of the favela, stopping along the way at a local artist’s “studio,” a small store with food and other products, a quick samba show in the street, and a non-profit organization that offers childcare to locals in the favela. Using my limited Portuguese, I spoke to a few of the people we met. All of them said that the tours were a great thing because it meant that people were learning about the problems faced by people in the favelas. Other than occasional stares from guys that apparently kept watch on behalf of the dealers, I never felt unsafe. Nor did I feel elitist, since everyone in the tour acted with great respect.

Rocinha Favela

Tuesday it was 80 degrees and sunny. In the morning, I went for a solid run along the beach. After lunch I headed out on a city tour. The first stop was the famous Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue, which is located at the top of a mountain called Corcovado. The statue itself (a realy big Jesus) was pretty cool and the views of the city were great. Next, we headed to the charming old-town neigborhood of Santa Teresa, then visited the enormous, and extremely bizarre, Catedral de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. After a stop by the famous Lapa Steps, we finally headed to the famous Pão de Açucar (or Sugarloaf) mountain. We took two cable cars to the top, which offered incredible views of the entire city.

Cristo Redentor

Catedral de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro

Lapa Steps

Pão de Açucar

Wednesday was pretty chill. I went for a run and hung out around the beach and hostel until the evening, when I went to a soccer game of Vasco da Gama, one of Rio’s top teams. The environment was really interesting. Despite the fact that nearly half the stadium was empty, the fans near us played drums, waved enormous flags, and chanted and sang during all of regulation. Unfortunately, Vasco lost 3-0 so the fans were not very happy. Thursday morning, I woke up at 6:30 to do a day trip to Angra dos Reis, a city south of here with a large number of beautiful islands. I basically spent the day on the boat, eating, drinking caipirinhas, and enjoying the views of the islands. We stopped a few times and I got in the water once, but it was pretty cold, even though it was about 75 degrees and sunny outside (such a harsh winter!). Thursday night, I met some crazy Brazilian guys from the hostel and ended up going with them out to bar on the beach in Copacabana then a great club until late this morning. After a couple of hours of sleep, I had to get up to check out of the hostel. Rio has been absolutely incredible. I will definitely come back here at some point.

Angra

The Brazil/Portuguese part of my adventure is coming to an end now. I’m headed off to Buenos Aires in a few hours. Hopefully when I get there my Spanish will come back to me and I won’t speak too much Portuñol!

 

last week in São Paulo (next stop: Rio)

Tuesday was fun. After class, I went to visit the São Paulo office of Bain & Company, for which I will start working in Atlanta in September. I was given a tour of the entire office by someone in the recruiting department and had the opportunity to speak with a few different employees, including an American that had been transferred there. I was surprised to hear as much English being spoken in the office as Portuguese, and I was excited when they told me that I already speak enough Portuguese to possibly do a transfer to that office one day. That night I met up with Rachel, a fellow southerner who studied at my school the past week, and we explored the nearby Shopping Bourbon (a mall). There we found a Portuguese-English dictionary for her, saw clothes and other items that were twice the price that they would be in the U.S. (thanks to some ridiculous import taxes), and had a good dinner at an Italian restaurant.   

Wednesday was my last day of school, since Thursday and Friday were holidays. In addition to helping console my somewhat distraught teachers, I went with two of them Poliana and Bartira, to a pasteleria for lunch to celebrate my last day with a delicious meal, including a heavenly white chocolate pastel for dessert. I left school early to take a taxi to the Policia Federal to register as I had been instructed to do by the Brazilian Consulate in Atlanta when I got my student visa. After I stood in line for over two hours amid total chaos, the lady told me that I did not need to register unless I plan on reentering the country, which I do not. So that afternoon was not ideal. It was unclear why the consulate told me I had to go in the first place. I was not pleased.

Thursday was Dia de Corpus Christi, a religious holiday here, so most everything was closed. I went with my family to the Clube do Palmeiras, a sports club to which my host parents belong that has one of the major soccer teams from São Paulo. It was kind of like their version of a country club or Lifetime Gym (though much older), complete with numerous pools, playgrounds, gyms, etc., not to mention an enormous soccer stadium. We walked around the club and got a hardy lunch there.  Thursday evening, I went with my host parents to the apartment of their son, his wife, and their new baby, Alice. Again, I was just another member of the family along with baby Alice’s aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents that were there visiting.

Friday, my host parents took me to the city center to the Rua 25 de Março, which is home to the busiest shopping area I have ever seen with 1400 stores in the general area. Around there we visited an incredibly large market with all of the meats, fruits, and other food products you could possibly imagine. Friday night was my despedida (goodbye party) with teachers and students from the school at the same pizzeria we went to a couple of weeks ago. It was a good way to say finish things up in São Paulo.

just an idea of the madness of 25 de Março

Saturday, I had a three hour adventure via public transportation to the bus station and back so that I could buy my ticket to Rio de Janeiro. Apparently foreigners are not able to buy bus tickets online. I spent Saturday packing and preparing for the next part of my journey and enjoying my last dinner with Gati and Cidinha. Then I went out for a beer with Bartira to a really cool bohemian bairro called Vila Madalena, which reminded me a lot of the Virginia Highland area in Atlanta.  Tomorrow morning I’m off to Rio.     

playing tourist in São Paulo

This past week has been busy. I can’t upload any pictures because I don’t have my camera cord with me, but I’ve uploaded some I found online so you can get a feel for what I’ve been seeing. After being here for two weeks, I’m finally playing tourist a bit.

For my Wednesday afternoon class, my teacher took me to the Museu de Futebol (Football Museum), which is located inside the Pacaembu soccer stadium in São Paulo. The museum itself is fairly new and very hi-tech. It basically gave the entire history of soccer in Brazil, helping its attendees to relive the glory days of Brazilian soccer, of which there are many. Brazil has won the World Cup five times, more than any other country. On Wednesday some friends of my host parents, Carlos and Yvette, arrived to stay with us until Sunday. At dinner that evening, Yvette casually mentioned that I have very nice facial skin. Thanks?

Thursday evening I got to share a very special moment with the family. We all went to the hospital to see Alice, my host parents’ new baby granddaughter, who was born on Monday. She was really small and very cute (like any newborn I suppose).

On Friday for class, one of teachers took me to the city center for a solid few hours of touring. We walked around the center then went to the Banespa building, which, at a mere 35 stories, is one of the tallest buildings in São Paulo. The top has an observation deck where we were able to see some incredible views of the city. From there, I really got a feel for how enormous the city is. Interestingly, there are no skyscrapers, but there are buildings of 10-20 stories as far as the eye can see. We then got some lunch at the famous Cervejaria San Jorge (St. George’s Brewery), which has murals and pictures of famous Georges (from W. Bush to Costanza). Later, we walked by the Brazilian Stock Exchange but it was unfortunately closed, then we headed the Catedral da Sé, where the official center of the city begins.

The Banespa Building

Catedral da Sé

On Saturday, the five of us went to visit my host family’s daughter Priscilla and her husband and two young kids. Later, we went to Libertade, which has the greatest concentration of Japanese people outside of Japan in the world. It is basically the Chinatown of São Paulo, with immigrants from many different Asian countries. The five of us ate lunch at a great Chinese Restaurant in Liberdade and walked around some to explore the neighborhood and the street market there.  Saturday night, I went out again with Lucas to a balada (club). The night ended with a hot dog at Black Dog (pronounced Blacky Doggy), a 24 hour-Brazilian version of Cookout. I’m not sure if a hotdog at 6:00 AM counts as breakfast… 

Liberdade

      

A final thought: Brazilian Portuguese has imported many different words from English. In Portuguese, words that begin with r make an h sound. In addition, words don’t end in hard consonants, so imported English words get extra vowels at the end. The result is usually amusing, but nothing more so than the pronunciation of rap and hip-hop, both of which exist as genres of music here. Imagine a strong accent saying happy and hippy-hoppy.

I now have one week left in São Paulo before I head to Rio.



Week 2: aula, happy hours, and my first churrascaria in Brazil

The second week of class was pretty standard. I’m back alone again which is nice because I basically get to move at my own pace and learn exactly what I want to learn. I’m definitely pleased with the progress I’m making as a Portuguese speaker. There are two other foreign students who study at the same time as I do in the mornings but are in a beginner course, Janghun (a.k.a. Korean Jay) and Carina, a German girl here studying and working for EADS, the company that owns Airbus. I usually get a chance to chat with them in between classes, which is nice. For the most part, I’m sticking to my routine of a quick bite to eat and some time to read from noon-1:30. On Wednesday, I wandered to a park near the school. I was expecting a standard green area with grass, trees, and benches, but it had a lot more than that, including chickens just running around freely. I was really hungry, so I didn’t stay to explore everything, but I will at some point this week. I recently discovered a solution to my aforementioned Spanish problem. One of the teachers in the school is from Mexico and she works the front desk during the afternoons as I am on my way out. I try to speak some Spanish with her every day to practice transitioning from Portuguese to Spanish (and back). It’s harder than it sounds, but I’m getting better at it. It’s just something I need to practice.

My afternoons/evenings are still pretty chill. I’m proud to say that so far I’ve completely kept up with my P90X schedule, which is not too hard when you have a lot of free time. On Wednesday and Friday, I went for a nice run in the neighborhood. There’s a long busy street called Sumaré that has a median area with trees and a running path that quite a few people use.

Thursday evening, I met Lucas at a shopping in the nearby bairro of Higienópolis. We explored the mall a bit and saw the new X-men movie. This time it was in English with Portuguese subtitles, so that was ideal. The movie itself was surprisingly really good (Does Dick W. Schulz agree?). On the way back I took a cab. On my behalf, Lucas negotiated the fare with the driver, explaining that I was American, before I got in. On the way, the driver looked at me and said in Portuguese something to the effect of “You don’t understand a damn thing I’m saying, do you?” When I responded, he seemed pretty surprised, and we ended up having a solid conversation on the way back to my apartment.

Friday night, the school had a “happy hour” at a pizza place in the neighborhood with professors and some students. It ended up being more of a happy four hours from 8-midnight with good food, good beer, and a lot of good laughs (It turns out that it’s a lot easier to make jokes in English than in Portuguese).

I spent most of Saturday relaxing and exploring the neighborhood some. Saturday night, I was supposed to go to a party at a club with some friends of Bel. At around 8:30, three hours before I was supposed to meet them, I was at home, in bed reading and just trying to stay warm (Have I mentioned there’s no heating here?). I rested my eyes for a second and the next thing I knew I was waking up to a text at 11:32. I guess my body was exhausted from waking up at 7:15 every morning for the past week, so I decided to just go back to sleep. Even though I missed the party, sleeping for 13 hours wasn’t too bad.

I woke up this morning feeling very refreshed. At noon, I was picked up by Raquel and her husband to go to lunch. I met Raquel at an HBS info session when I was interviewing there a month ago. She was a Brazilian there for a month studying English, basically doing the same thing in Boston/Cambridge that I was about to do in São Paulo. When I told her that I was headed to São Paulo to study Portuguese, we exchanged information and ended up getting a burger at the famous Mr. Bartley’s. She and her husband are a few years older than I am and just moved to São Paulo, where they work for Kraft.

Today they took me to a famous churrascaria here called Jardineira Grill. It is one of Fogo de Chão’s main competitors (Yes, Fogo de Chão is actually from Brazil. There just happen to be more of them in the U.S. than here.) It was one of the best meals I have had in a long time. For those of you who don’t know, a churrascaria is a traditional Brazilian “barbecue” restaurant. Waiters come around with different skewers of different cuts of meat and you take what you want. You get a little circular card that is green on one side and red on the other. Green means I want food. I tried so many different cuts of beef, lamb, pork, and sausages, not to mention fried potatoes, fried corn meal, and fried banana. In addition, there was a buffet of salad, bread, meats and cheeses, all of which were of the highest quality and absolutely delicious.  It was so good! It’s been 5 hours and I’m still stuffed. Afterwards we all went to Parque Ibirapuera, São Paulo’s version of Central Park, and walked around for a while, before they drove me home. It’s been a great day.            

primeiro fim de semana

The rest of the first week of class was fine. Thursday and Friday, a Korean student also named Jay was in my classes and as a beginner he kind of slowed things down, but he’s going to be in a different class this week. I’ve basically developed a comfortable routine for weekdays: wake up at 7:15 to get ready and eat breakfast with Cida before walking over to the school for class at 8:30; class from 8:30-10:00, 10:30-noon, and 1:30-3:00; and lunch in between classes at a nearby café where I read The Economist or Harry Potter y el cáliz de fuego on my iPad. After class, I head home, spend an hour or two in the gym, eat dinner with Cida and Gati, then hang out reading or on the computer for the evening. Not a bad way to live.

Friday evening, I went with Cida and Gati to the apartment of their son, Luciano and his very pregnant wife Patricia, who is scheduled to give birth this week if I understood correctly. I had a mildly horrifying experience when I met one of Patricia’s Argentine friends there. I tried to speak Spanish to her, but for some reason only (bad) Portuguese would come out when I tried and I got totally tongue-tied. Hopefully it won’t be too much of a problem when I head back to Buenos Aires in July. Later the five of us went to a pizzeria for a late dinner. São Paulo is actually famous for its “pizza paulistana,’ which was in fact delicious.

After sleeping in for the first time in a week, I hung around the house during the day Saturday. Saturday night, I met up with Lucas, a friend of a friend. I went with him to a birthday party of one of his friends, which consisted of pre-gaming at an apartment complex then heading to a club. We ended up staying there until about 6 AM (pretty standard here), and I made it home in time just to see the sun rise before I went to sleep. Everything here is ridiculously expensive, including clubs. The one we went to last night had a minimum charge of 80 reais (approximately $50), which got me 5 drinks throughout the night. After meeting a lot of new people, I’ve noticed that everyone is very surprised to meet a gringo American like me in São Paulo. Usually tourists head for Rio de Janeiro. I wanted to live and study in São Paulo because it’s the major business center in Brazil, and international business is the reason I’m studying Portuguese in the first place.  Anyway, the weekend was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to the week ahead.