.... Hello Brazil!!

Hello from Brazil! I haven’t had too much time on the computer, but here’s what has happened so far. It’s gonna be long :P so I’ll try to break it up into sections:

Flights:

My flights were fine. Long, of course. It was really nice to be able to sit with Susan on the flight from Toronto to Sao Paulo. We talked about a lot of stuff and compare what we had brought. We both went to the Duty Free in Toronto and bought some Canadian booze. It turns out you buy it at the store and then they give it to you after you’ve gone through the gate and are about the board the plane. Sue and I were both very pleasantly surprised that they served us dinner! Which was good because I was a bit hungry. Not that I had eaten all my snacks or anything, but a hot meal (even airplane meals) are just better. Plus, international flights have free drinks! So Sue and I each had some wine to help us sleep. It worked for her, not for me. After we talked for an hour or two Sue fell asleep for about 5 hours. I tried really hard, but I just couldn’t. I ended up watching the horrible airplane TV show and movies. Well the first movie was Narnia, but I missed most of it because of dinner. The second movie was some old murder mystery from 1993 with Woody Allen. It was pretty bad…. But whatever. When the sun finally rose I was eager to look outside. There wasn’t much to see, just expanses of farmland. It could have been Saskatchewan :P We got breakfast around 8:30 in the morning, which was pretty good. Then, we started spotting some cities outside. The first few were quite small, but after a while we saw a larger one. ‘I wonder if that is Sao Paulo’ I said. It looked a decent sized city, and I could tell we were starting to descend a little. About two minutes later, we saw a BIG BIG city. This city went as far as we could see, had several clusters of skyscrapers and was just overall huge! THIS was Sao Paulo.

Things I noticed: There was a fair amount of English at the airport and most of the people who worked there spoke some English. The airport looked pretty much like any other airport.

Arrival:

Susan and I got off the plane and followed the crowd towards the exit. We had to have our passports inspected by an official, then we picked up out luggage and headed for customs… which ended up being just walking through a doorway. Then we turned the corner and I saw a whole group of hands go up, waving to me! My AIESECers!!! There was around eight of them and they introduced themselves and greeted me with the Brazilian kiss of the cheek. I was feeling a little overwhelmed and didn’t know quite what to say! They gave me a bottle of Cachaca, limes (which they called lemons) and sugar, all the ingredients for Caipirinha. Plus a box of Brigadeiro chocolates and a bracelet of brazilan flags!! Then Thays, my buddy, helped me find the bank machines and one that would work with my card. So I got a few hundred reais and then we headed out to the cars. They asked me where I wanted to go, but I really didn’t know! So they decided something and we split into two groups. I went in Rubens car and we headed downtown

Things I noticed: They told me it was “cold” but I was fine in my t-shirt. In Sao Paulo, the small compact car rules. There are very few trucks or SUVs, and most of the cars are not kinds I have heard of. They are similar to, say, a Toyota Camry of a Ford Focus kind of thing, but some if the manufacturers I have never heard of. Also, I have been in five cars now, and they are all standard. Automatics are very uncommon. The gas stations are interesting too, because the sign reads Gas: 2,34 Alcohol: 1,65. Driving is crazier than in Canada, but not as crazy as in Egypt. They honk sometimes but not all the time. Lane markings are more recommendations then rules and the motorcyclists just race between the cars, especially when traffic is backed up. Getting anywhere takes a very long time and people will sometimes try to sell you things at a red light. On the way downtown from the airport we also saw the flavelas, or shantytowns, that surround the city. In one spot, underneath a highway overpass, was a group of little shacks.

The Market:

We went to the downtown area and stopped first at a huge market. Apparently it used to be an abandoned building that was rebuilt. We left my suitcases in the cars, which they told me was very safe, and it was. We looked around for a while and then went to one of the food places and I had my first Brazilian food! It was dried meat and onions and cheese in a fried pastry, and it was really good! And I had a brazilian softdrink with it. All this would have cost probably $6-7 in Canada, but cost only R6, which is like $3. And they told me that was expensive!! The Brazilians really love their meat (sorry Metta). Some of the sandwiches the others had were just a bun with literally two inches of meat stuffed in it! I also had coconut water, which is, amazingly, the water from inside a coconut. It’s sweet and fruity.

Things I noticed: They have so many different kinds of fruit at the market! And mountains of different kinds of cheese. They also have a lot of hanging meat, which they told me surprises most foreigners.

Downtown:

We then headed downtown. Parking in Sao Paulo is very different. They have the bottom floors of buildings which are just empty and you pull right in off the street, after the people who work there flag you in, and park like you would on the ferry. But then when you come back, you might be boxed it, so you have to leave your keys there and they move the cars out of the way so you can get out. So we parked in one of these (there was only one car of us now, the other had gone to drop my stuff off). We walked down a street full of little stalls, not unlike the market in Victoria, except a lot of these vendors were did not have permits, I was told. We went to a large Jesuit church which was where Sao Paulo was founded. Rubens is really interested in the history of Sao Paulo and he knew a lot about it. The church is now half church, half museum, so they had some displays. One of them was the femur of a priest who used to preach there. I had told them, when they asked me what I studied in anthropology, that I had studied bone, so they made sure I saw it, and I told them it was a left femur ;) Then we headed over to a huge cathedral, which had spectacular gothic architecture. It was much more ornate than the Jesuit church, which makes sense. We then went to Renata’s school, which is part of USP (University of Sao Paulo, pronounced uspee) but was build much earlier as a monastery before becoming a school and is therefore downtown instead on the campus. She showed us her classroom, which was well over a hundred years old and had these ancient wooden desks with tablets to write on that had graffiti from years and years of use. I couldn’t imagine having classes in there, it was so cool! And she has all her classes there, she doesn’t move around. We had a look around the rest of the building and she told me a lot of the history, like how one of the paintings was shot and how it might be haunted. She also told me that on the school grounds, the police and military are not allowed to enter. So the school has been the site of many rebellions and protests. Much of the art outside was stolen from other places by the students, but the police can’t come take it back!! After the school, we went to the stock market, which has an observation deck. It was odd to watch the people yelling and screaming and waving their hands around. I had not idea what they were doing, so Rubens explained it to me. Also, there were only men in the stock market. Then we went up the cities tallest skyscraper which also has an observation deck. If you go up Mt. Doug in Victoria, you see the city, some farms, the ocean, the mountains. Here, it was only city for as far as the eye could see! HUGE!! And this from 37 or so stories up! The city goes on forever. I asked Rubens how long it takes to drive from one end of the city to the other and he told me 2 – 2.5 hours. So you can easily drive from Victoria to Nanaimo faster than across Sao Paulo. After the skyscraper it was time to head out of downtown.

Things I noticed: There are a LOT of people walking around downtown. The sidewalks are always packed. Also, there are crosswalks but the cars don’t actually stop, so you have to wait for a break in traffic to cross. A lot of the buildings downtown are really rundown. Rubens told me that, rather like Nanaimo, the downtown core had become really ugly and there is a campaign going on to fix it up. They had a new theatre (haha, like the port theatre) and some other nice new buildings. The sidewalk is not flat, especially downtown, so you have to watch where you are going. I tripped a few times already :P Another thing I noticed was that I was really stupid to have packed my camera in my luggage so I couldn’t take any pictures! But I’m sure I will be downtown again, and I’ll take pictures then.

USP:

After downtown we headed to the university, which is quite far! It was nice to drive around and look at the city though. We arrived at the university, which us set up rather like UBC. It’s a huge area like it’s own city with buildings all over. Each faculty has a building or two and there are some nice gardens. The first place they took me? The archaeology museum! :P Haha, which was actually really cool! It was focused on the Brazilian aboriginals and it was interesting to see how many similarities there were with Canadian aboriginals. The basketwork was similar and some of the tools as well. After the museum, we headed over to the AIESEC office, which I was really looking forward to seeing. I had been told that there is almost always people there, and it was true. The office is HUGE! Like 6 or 7 time the size of our office in Victoria, and Diogo, the LCP, apologized that there were only three computers and said we would be getting more soon. Ha! Considering AIESEC Victoria’s closet and lone computer, it was amazing! There’s tables and desks and out the windows (yes windows too!) there are palm trees! There were several members there that I got to meet. The only downside about the office is it is very plain and there is nothing on the walls. I think a nice Canadian flag will look great! The office is where I had my first, I dunno… negative culture shock? The others had spoken in Portuguese before, but because they were showing me around, most of it was English. In the office, people were doing work and they were all speaking portugese. I mean I understand that it’s easiest for them, but I felt a little out of place not being able to understand anything. So I hopped onto one of the computers and posted on the @ Vic blog and checked my e-mail. The computers were against me too! All the windows buttons are in portugese :P. I just had to work from memory, which was fine. The keyboards are awkward though, because they have the accents on them which means some of the buttons are in different places. If you see me doing a ~ instead of a ‘ it’s because those two are backwards and I have to make a point of doing the apostrophe. Eventually I just butted into the conversation and they kind of realized that I was being left out and started using some English. We also joked that I have to use the AIESEC hand sign for “speak more slowly” for “speak ENGLISH!”. Occasionally they would switch back without realizing it and then laugh and go back to English. People stayed in the office until very late, and then some of them went to class! At 7:30 pm! Odd. Diogo then said he would drive me to Izabella’s where I would be staying. I asked him lots of questions on the way and he asked many of me. We are going to have a meeting on Monday to go over what I am to do.

Things I noticed: The main university campus is a lot more modern than the law school downtown. Some of the buildings are very new. Also, the washrooms have strange flushes, just in case you wanted to know ;)

Home: Diogo and I stopped off at a “shopping” (they are called shopping centres but most people call them shoppings, he told me) which looked like a Canadian mall, and went to the food court. They had lots of different food, but I opted for a brazilian buffet. After more driving (everything is far away), we got to Isabella’s house. Her house is in the north end of the city and USP is in the east (I think). I met her and her parents and sister, Tatianna. She also has a brother, Paulo, who I met the next day. They welcomed me and asked me some questions. The parents speak some English and the kids all speak it quite well. They have had international students before and, amazingly enough, Izabella’s parents have been to Victoria before! The even have a little plate with a picture on the parliament buildings on the counter. And Paulo (and perhaps Tatianna) has been to Egypt. Their house is very nice, almost like a Victorian house (not as in from Victoria but from the Victoria era) because they have a lot of heavy furniture and picture of the walls. My room is the TV downstairs which has an extra bed. That’s where I am right now, writing on my laptop. When I arrived they were just finishing dinner, pizza in a round box! We talked for a while and then I headed to bed. I was just a little tired, having not slept for a good 35-40 hours!

Things I noticed: When I first entered, the first thing I did was take off my shoes, and Izabella gave me an odd look. I also thought it was weird that there were no other shoes. I guess at Iza’s house you wear your shoes indoors, because they all had sandals on inside. Another interesting thing, Iza’s house has a lady who comes to clean and does all the laundry too.

So that was Day 1! Pretty amazing, eh? Here’s Day 2:

Morning:

I got up and had a shower and joined the rest of the family for breakfast. Breakfast was tea (herbal), milk, a banana and yogurt. So a nice big breakfast. The milk tasted different than Canadian milk, I’m not sure why, and I found it very amusing that it’s called “Bom Gosto” which I was told means “Tastes Good”. After breakfast Iza’s parents left to go to the beach for the weekend. I was to go to a barbeque at 2:00. Ha! Pei-tien wasn’t kidding about being late! I got a ride with Tatianna, Iza’s sister, and her boyfriend.

Things I noticed: almost everyone has a cell phone, which they call mobiles. Most of the cars are very nice and quite new as well.

BBQ:

I arrived at 4:00 for the 2:00 barbeque and I was the first one there! The next person arrived an hour later an most people didn’t come until 7:00!! I know AIESECers and always late but that was crazy! Since I was there early, Marcelo, who was hosting the BBQ, played some brazilian music for me and taught me how to samba! It’s actually not that hard. After Koge arrived, we talked about some AIESEC stuff. I learned a lot about AIESEC USP yesterday, more to come later. For dinner we had these things that were like sausages but not sausages. They were really tasty! You eat them with bread. And we had some caipirinha as well. There were a lot of new members there and some other internationals. There was a group from Columbia, one from Sweden, I think, Alexandra the trainee from Switzerland, a guy from Germany and probably a few others. Apparently the house we were at is the USP AIESEC house. The first LCP still lives there, as have several AIESECers over the past few years. They have signed flags up on the walls from past trainees.

Things I noticed: In Brazil you don’t have “your” drink, there is only “a” drink. People share everything!

AIESEC USP:

I learned a lot about AIESEC USP from the people I spoke to at the BBQ yesterday. AIESEC USP has only been around for 5 or 6 years. At first it was going very well, but then after a couple years, they were down to a very few members. Right now they have only 4 or 5 experienced members, and some of those “experienced” members, like Koge, have only been in AIESEC for 6 months. Some haven’t even been to a conference before. So basically, what @USP (@=AIESEC for you non-AIESECers reading this) lacks is experience. So my two years in AIESEC is going to help me a lot. A lot of them just need to know exactly what AIESEC is all about. And they are very eager to learn. I was already talking about AIESEC dances and they wanted me to teach them right now! The conference will be a great experience, so I’m glad we are the fourth largest delegation at 23!! (with hopefully more to register soon). It will be a great way for the members to realize what AIESEC is and to connect with AIESEC nationally and internationally. I talked to Koge, who is the head delegate, about the plans for CONADE. Since we have such a big delegation, he wants to have a really exciting opening plenary roll call to prove to both @Brazil and to ourselves that we are here to make an impact! So I told him I would try to think of something. Koge is also getting some t-shirts made and I really like the concept. (not telling yet!) @USP is also project based, so I will have to learn exactly how that works. And I think the first part of my job will be to talk to the new members and share my experiences and tell how @ works and how to do @ work. Which is fine with me!

Things I noticed: @USP has a pretty good alumni base. Almost all the former LCPs (all 4 or 5 of them) are still around and still help out with @ work when they can, so they do have that resource that we don’t have in Victoria. Some of the former VPs and around too.

Balada Japa:

At the BBQ, Ju Japa (The Japanese Julianna) convinced me to go with her, Koba and Victor to a Balada Japa, which is a Japanese club, after the BBQ. Of course, there were mostly Japanese people there, so I guess I was an honorary Japanese, Actually, I was told that I know more Japanese than a lot of the Japanese Brazilians! And I don’t know much! The club was at a big house and the music was WAY better than in Canada! They played actual music and not just boom boom boom boom. And they played some old stuff, like the Beach Boys! (a dance version, granted) It was fun. And when you are hungry and need a snack, what do you get? Meat on a stick of course! And it tastes so good! Once we got tired, Victor drove me home.

Things I noticed: When dancing, everyone sings along to the music, and when I say sing, I mean yell! Sometimes the DJ would stop the music and the song would keep going with everyone singing. They sung in English, in Spanish, in Portuguese and made up words when they didn’t know them. I dunno.. but there is something very amusing about watching a bunch of guys singing “Let me be your sunshine” at the top of their lungs!

Some of my AIESECers!!

Ok, there’s Day 2. And it’s now Day 3. Not too much happening today. I slept in (nice…..) and had breakfast and wrote this (hey, it took a while!) They have internet at Iza’s house, but not wireless so I think I will just save this on my memory stick and upload it tomorrow at the office. Tomorrow I have my meeting with Diogo and I get to learn all about where everything is in the office, where the keys are and other very useful things to know!