Vida da Brasileira! Life of a Brazilian Women

It has been a crazy past few days! I have had classe na manha e na tarde (have had class in the morning and in the afternoon) and it is very mentally exhausting. On sexta feira (friday) i went to the outdoor market with my host and her friend. Again, I bought more fruit! Look at those abacaxi (Pineapple) in the below foto! I also bought pipoca (popcorn! and one of the most fun words to say ever) and some delicious suco de abacaxi. Friday night I went to Bar de Boni for Samba. It was very fun. Much harder than I thought. I just kept smiling the whole time and an older Brazilian gentleman said I Samba with my smile. I will take it!! What is interesting is when you buy a cerveja (beer) you can get it in a 40, it comes in its own giant coozy-type thing, and you can get a mini glass or two. Much more economical! All of that cerveja for $3USD or 6Reais! Eu estou feliz (I am happy!!)

Saturday, I went to Praia Mole. Very beautiful beach meaning soft sand. Now, I absolutely love Brazil, but Chicago has one major leg up on Brazil: our CTA system. It took my 3 hours to get to the beach. I had to take one bus to a terminal, a bus from that terminal to another terminal, and finally a bus there to the beach I wanted to go to. Granted, I took longer than most as the system is a bit hard to figure out, but still. For a point of reference, I went to the same beach today and it took around 2 hours. I still think 2 hours is a bit crazy when you live on an island very close to the water. Apparently, the bus runs much much more often during the week when there are workers. My host informed me this is a way to keep the less fortunate financially away from the beaches as wealthier Brazilians will be able to drive. This makes sense as similar things are going on in Rio with their van system. I will not get into all of that now.

A random fact for you: Brazilian children go to school for 4 hours a day! They can go in the am or pm. I found this fascinating.

Anyway, today I ran in the Ecological Parque near minha casa (my house) and saw an alligator. After that I went back to the beach to work on my tan. It was a very nice day at the beach. The sun was shining and I was able to enjoy the company of some other Brazilians to practice my Portugues with. Right now, I am eating a papaya, drinking some sparkling wine and finishing my homework. Later tonight, I will attempt to read Brazilian Cosmo with the aide of my dictionary.

Tomorrow the plan is to go to class, get a phone and attempt to a salon to get a basic service. We shall see how those tasks go since I will be trying to speak Portuguese!

Tchau!