Slipping by

So today was the last day of school, more or less. It's just all tests next week and Kris and I don't have to go. The scene found during the last class of the day was strangely akin to a 4th grade classroom. People were running around, throwing pieces of paper, one girl was crying cus a kid wearing a baseball cap turned around backwards had dumped a bag of crushed crackers in her hair. The mood was also strangely somber since a goodly chunk of the class is moving over the summer to Belo Horizonte. Walking home though I saw some humorous things on vehicles. The first was a car that had a sticker of some Rosary beads with the image of Mary in the middle and a few feet away was a sticker of a Playboy bunny. The other thing was a huge truck which had two big plush blanket things hanging on the inside back of the cab and the other on the dashboard so that if you were standing right in front of the truck (right before it hits you, if it's moving) you could read the words "Obrigado, Jesus" (Thankyou Jesus). I thought that was a little funny too. Oh, next weekend I got invited to go to one of the Rotarians' birthday party. It's out at his farm, which is right one this huge lake where he has a boat and a few jetskis. He also has a jeep (by this, I think he meant a 4-wheeler) and some horses. So that should be a hoot. Other than that, nothing to report.

Urban Ninja?

Ok, so last weekend I was staying in Belo Horizonte with one of the other exchange students and her host sister, who is in Rotex. They both had to go to school that day and their parents were working, so I was alone in their apartment that morning. They had loaned me a set of keys to the apartment door and I was just supposed to lock up and head downtown where I would rendezvous with one of them there. Things did not go as planned. Before I launch into the story, let me give you the general layout of a Brazilian apartment complex. First you have to go through a big steel bar gate, which is surrounded by a usually pretty tall wall, also usually with an electric fence on the top (without giving away too much, luckily for me this one wasn't). This opens to get inside with a key or outside with a buzzer (there is sometimes a security guard there who will let you in). That gets you into the courtyard area, after that is a big bullet-proof glass door with a fancy electronic lock that you have to have a key for to get inside. THEN you can go up and unlock the 4 deadbolts to your apartment. Back to the story. So I go out, lock up the apartment, all is going according to plan. I walk out the glass door, which is unlocked from the inside and step out into the courtyard. The door closes behind me and locks. There is no security guard here and the little room where he would be is empty of all electronic gadgets. I walk down the steps to the gate. The building is built on a pretty steep hill, so there are steps down to the street. I quickly discover that there is no buzzer near the gate, where it would normally be. Panicking, I run back to the glass door, only to see the buzzer in there and the door quite quite locked. I don't have a key for this glass door (or the gate) and on cue it starts raining. Knowing it'll be about 6 hours before anyone gets home, I decide I have to take action. The top of the wall is only a small climb from the top of the steps so I (cautiously, it is raining remember and the wall is made out of some kind of faux-marble or something) hop up there and look down. Well it's only about a thirty foot drop. I look up to see the guys working at the construction site across the street eyeing me curiously. Since I'm already inside, I guess they decided I wasn't up to TOO much trouble. I sit up there (again, very carefully) trying to plan what the heck I'm gonna do. I have no phone, no phone numbers anyways, no way of contacting someone inside (the buzzer for the apartments is on the outside and I don't know anyone else in the building or speak enough portuguese to explain my dilemna) and don't really wanna wait six hours out in the rain. Drastic measures are called for. About 3.5 or 4 feet from the wall are some palm trees. I reach out and give one a kick, it's no towering oak but I don't think it will snap under my bulk either. I look back into the courtyard, desperately searching for some other option and, not finding one, I turn back to the tree, stand up and LEAP to the palm. The construction workers have now stopped and are watching this with great interest and humor. Through some miracle, I reach the palm and wrap my arms and legs around it like I'm trying to strangle it. Somehow, I don't fall. I begin to slowly shimmy down, hindered only by the fact that palm leaves begin by growing out of the "bark" of the tree, pointing up and being very spikey. I scrape my ankles nicely, get a few well placed splinters in my inner thighs, put a few new holes in my shirt and with adrenaline shakes finally touch the ground and walk off as though nothing had happened.

Every time I breathe out...

Ok, it's hot. Like REALLY damn hot. It was in the upper 90's on Tuesday. And school requires us to wear pants as part of the uniform. That was miserable. However, I have discovered a new source of humor: Brazilian shirts with phrases in English. From these you get such gems as "Great Pleasure for Clever People"(and that's all it said. Just a white sweatshirt with that in the middle), or how about "Urban Streetwalker"(Abaeté is too small for a Red Light District so you have to get shirts that advertise it now?) or try this one on for size "Glorious Activity"(uhh....which activity is that, again?). I suspect the Japanese find such entertainment in those American shirts with kanji on them. Also, the title for the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho was translated as O Homem Que Matou a Própria Mãe (The Man Who Killed His Own Mother (A bit of a plot spoiler, don'tcha think?)). Anyways, nothing particularly wild or crazy has happened of late, just the usual trecking back and forth from school, swimming at the club, and going to the academia (gym) three times a week.

Politickin'

Last night was the big city elections deal. I don't know what positions were elected or who won but this means that all those people driving around in cars with huge speakers either hanging out of the trunk or strapped to the roof blasting songs about candidates won't be around anymore, which is definitely ok with me. The weather broke 100 degrees today too. That was FUUUUUN. Not. I went to the gym anyways. Oh, and I'm a little over two months into my exchange and I just figured out how to change the temperature of the shower. I thought the little switch on the shower head would effect the pattern of the water or whatever but it actually is there because there are only three temperature options. #1: Scalding hot #2: Pretty cold and #3: This setting is for cryogenicly freezing things, I don't know why they would put it where some poor confused American might accidentally switch it on and damn near give himself a heart attack. I felt like Han Solo in Return of the Jedi. Also attached are pictures from my trip last weekend (mostly of us in Araxa, a city famous for its sulfur springs and huge hotel), some of people burning stuff in the streets, one of my host dad and brother and I at 2 in the morning after he dragged me out of bed and insisted I sing with them (I've mentioned the Rod Stewart obsession, right?), some graffiti of...Brazilian words of wisdom and finally cashew fruit (cashew nuts grow on top of a cashew fruit, which is like a cross between a mango and a pineapple). Ok, they aren't uploading. They'll be there soon though. Just use your imagination and Google Image Search for now.

The Weekend

Well, on the verge of another weekend. You see, here, the weekend starts on Thursday with Rotary meetings. These are more or less a party. Then tomorrow I'm going to a costume party, despite my lack of costume. I think a group of girls were discussing painting my face like a squirrel, as my nickname here is Esquilo (squirrel). Also, starting tomorrow (Friday), there is a weekend long motorcycle show in the middle of town, which I've been invited to attend with a number of crowds. Should keep me busy. On a slightly different note, if, when it comes out in February, anyone can get me a copy of the Max Payne movie, legal or illegal, I would love you forever. That, my friends, is a lot of commas in one sentence. These are the updates from your humble narrator. *Edit* Of course, all these plans were viciously karate chopped out of existence when my host father told me we would be spending the weekend in some small town outside of Uberlandia visiting his parents.

Pics

Ok, so I was gonna go back and just insert photos at random into other posts but that's a pain so I'm just gonna throw them all into one fell post and do my best to deal with layout issues. At the top, we have my host sister and her boyfriend and I at a lake we went to. We didn't swim. We didn't really do anything. I don't know why we were there. It was a long, hot and dusty car ride though. Then is the firebreather/juggler/trick bartender/general party enhancer guy from the anniversario (birthday) for one of the younger girls who goes to my school. It was a pretty formal event, I had to wear a suit and have a ticket to get in. I didn't have a ticket, I wasn't invited, I don't really know how I got in...I totally brought the party though. Then are the bathroom signs at the Rotary building. I thought they were funny and maybe provided a little insight about the Rotarians here. Below that we have a stray puppy who followed me home from school one day. Next, we have Virginia, Chrys and Yara (in that order (Yara, wearing my hat which she proceeded to steal)), my classmates. And the final is photographic evidence of Yara wearing my hat. Or...I guess Adam's hat if you wanna get technical. I don't have any pictures of my host family yet but I'll get on that. I'm sorry if these labels are all out of order but I figure you can more or less piece together what I'm getting at. I declare jihad on the layout editor for this site.

Move along, little dogey

So no real major updates here, just a funny story. So Chrys and I are walking down the hill to the club when I hear a rumbling sound behind me. I turn around to see a small herd of cattle charging down the hill towards us, being chased by two dogs and a guy on a motorcycle. Well Chrys doesn't look TOO phased (relatively) but I'm a little nervous and pick up pace a wee bit (understatement, I took off) and just when they seemed to be a little too close for comfort, they veered off into the field next to us and the motorcyclist who is herding them gives us a thumbs up. Then we went to the pool. And the picture is of a horse drawn cart, which are not at all uncommon.

Field of pain is where I graze

So I've been working out. It hurts. I have never had much upper body strength and the trainer guy picked that up almost immediately and set me up with an intense upper body workout (or it seemed intense to me). I've been doing this for two weeks now and I'm improving slowly. Anyways, today I went and did my workout and was pretty exhausted. As I was about to leave, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go check out the Brazilian jiu-jitsu class that was being taught downstairs. Needless to say, I did, and we went downstairs to watch. Well right off the bat the instructor asks if I'd like to join today and I said sure. So we stretched out and started practicing a pretty basic maneuver, which I got pretty quickly I'd like to think. We went over it a couple times and started on another. It was really warm in this room, by the way, and everybody was really sweaty, so not the most pleasant conditions along with being exhausted already. So we finish practicing the second move and the instructor motions for everyone to leave the mat, then selects two people who come out and spar. It was pretty intense as all the guys there were taller than me and REALLY ripped. What really threw me for a loop was when I got called to come out and fight. I know NOTHING about ground fighting (wrestling) and these fights were strictly ground fights. So I got my ass whooped. And again. And again. We continued rotating for 2 hours. Nothing is worse than having to pick someone elses armpit hair from your shoulder. It's just no fun. But I had fun anyways, in a way that only a practiced martial artist can appreciate. The kind of fun you have when getting your ass kicked. So I came home two hours later than usual and my host mother asked me if I was hungry and wanted a sandwhich. I trounced. This sandwhich was two chunks of steak with a slice of cheese in between and a fried egg on top in between two pieces of this tasty potato bread. Also had an apple. With all those endorphins flowing it was amazingly good.
On a slightly less violent note, I got in trouble at school today. One of my teachers was in a foul mood (I have a sneaking suspicion she got busted sneaking out of a class to go smoke, school is like that here) and we were waiting for her to get to the class (teachers rotate, not students) and we were waiting outside the classroom. She finally got there, clearly not a happy camper and we all turned around to follow her in when she slammed the door in our faces and locked it. So myself, the other exchange student (a girl named Chrys) and half of my class were given a detention for that period. We all together got hauled into the principals office and lectured (lightheartedly) and then all sent to the gym to wait for the end of the period. Basically, he turned us loose in the gym and we played music from cell phones and played tag for 45 minutes. Hardly an effective punishment but I'm not complaining.
Oh, and I registered in the country on Tuesday. I went up to Belo Horizonte Monday and we stayed there with my host brother and in the morning went to the Policia Federal. We left around 6 in the morning since my host father had some work in another city. We hiked up this really steep street to the PF, where we found out it didn't open til 8:30. We hiked back down the street and ate breakfast. Back up the street where we got started with the paperwork, only to discover that I needed a bunch of photos taken. Unfortunately, the bank was closed til 10:30. We didn't have that much time so we went back down the street and payed 10 reais to have a lady at a copy shop take them. Back up the hill to find out that rather than the $60 tax that Rotary forewarned about, it will actually cost more around $150 (198 reais, to be exact). So my host father payed it and we got to run all over the building getting more pictures taken, getting fingerprinted, all that fun stuff. Finally they gave me a little strip of paper with my name and picture on it and said that my ID would arrive in the mail. I still don't know if I'm gonna have to pay that tax or if Rotary is gonna cover it. I guess that would be why there is a $200 difference between the amount of money Rotary in Oregon told me to bring and the amount Rotary here told me to bring. If I do, I can just dip into that money and I'll have it covered and still be in the clear with my emergency money for Rotary here. So all is well and good. No major worries except for a nasty letter from Uncle Sam saying that if I don't register for the draft mighty quick that they'll be sending someone to the airport to (as my dad put it) "Escort me on an all-expenses payed 12 year vacation to Club Fed" Either that or my US citizenship will be revoked. Don't know where that leaves me but I guess I better get on it.

Owwww

So some of my classmates saw a picture I had of me running on a wall in Bandon and insisted that I try it at school today. Well it wasn't that much to ask so I sprinted across the courtyard and lept up onto the wall in my usual fashion. What didn't go according to plan was my footing. You see they coat the walls with this stuff here that makes them easier to clean, it also makes them slippery. So my foot slips, my knee hits the wall with a loud crack and my head hits the ground with a distinct thud. Howls of derisive laughter, Bruce, howls of derisive laughter. Keep in mind, most of my class is watching this. Virginia walks over and admist her hysterical fit of giggles says "You are going to break a bone like that." I wasn't entirely sure I hadn't at that point. So my knee is hurting and I limped around a bit the rest of the day. I'll survive with just a few bruises on my knee, skull and ego.

One down, 50 more to go

Ok, so the first week is over and it felt like the first month. Dozens of funny situations, hundreds of trials overcome, lots of adapting and enduring, and crazy amounts of nodding and smiling. Though I realised, when it was done to me, how totally irritating it is to have someone nodding, smiling and saying yes to you and you know they have no clue what you're talking about. It's worst when it's something important that you're trying to communicate and you might get in trouble if there's a communication breakdown and the other person is doing that to you. I'm not at school today cus we are taking my host sister to Belo Horizonte to fly out for Polonia (Poland). One of her friends stopped by to see her before she left and the mood is pretty somber. Last night, at a party, someone told me I was too cool to be American and that I must be Brazilian inside, which was awesome. I played some didgeridoo music the other day and it was pretty well taken (Xavier Rudd, for the record. Thanks for that cd, dad) though no one seemed to understand the concept of a didgeridoo. The craisins I brought with me weren't too popular, til one day when Chamilla and some of her friends were making "chocolate" (was really hot cocoa powder mixed with condensed milk and flan...stuff) and at some point decided to try dipping the craisins in the chocolate, which was a hit. As were the brownies, which I made the same night, and the mango (in Portuguese: manga) licorice, which I hadn't even intended to share but they went berserk over it when I did. I think I already mentioned my host father's obsession with this Rod Stewart song. He plays it at least two or three times a day. Friday night he put it on repeat and catterwhauled along with it til he fell asleep. He's pretty funny. I've been invited to a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu class as well as to go rock climbing with my host sister's boyfriend, Fabricio. So yea, that's about it for now, no particularly good stories for the time being. I'll keep you posted.

Que es "toilet paper"?

Haha, oh boy. Where to start? The plane ride was miserable. But that was to be expected. Especially Saõ Paulo airport. I didn´t sleep at any point during my previous travelling. My flight supposedly left from gate 1ABC. Yea, as you may have guessed, that´s three gates. So I asked a guy there which one, he said it was actually gate nine. So I run down to gate nine. Gate nine says go back to gates 1ABC. They say just kidding, it´s really gate seven. Gate seven says "Oh, it just changed, it´s back at gate one" So I get back there and sit and try not to fall asleep. Pretty much failed. Two hours later when we loaded into the plane, I fell asleep before we even took off and woke up after we landed. Although some of the views from the plane to Saõ Paulo were really nice. We were still over the ocean, soon to be in Brasil when the sun started to come up. The ocean was black and the sky was still black, but in between, on the horizon, it looked like a rainbow, with all the reflections of the sun on the water and in the sky. In fact, it was a perfect rainbow.
My host family is really great and I´ve been accepted pretty quickly. My host mother is an awesome painter and her paintings are all over the house. She does these really cool impressionistic stuff along with more abstract style things. I´ll post some pictures later. My host father plays guitar (supposedly everyone in Brasil does to some extent) and was really psyched that I play harmonicas (in Portuguese: gaita (gah-yay-ta)). I played a Bob Dylan tune (Hey Mr. Tambourine Man) and he went berserk. Bob Dylan seems to be pretty big down here.
On Sunday I was introduced to a few of the Rotarians at a sort of impromptu Rotary meeting at the club (a combination of a bar and sports club (three guesses which part we were in)). At some point I used the phrase "sort of". I didn´t really think that much about it but they went WILD. That phrase blew their minds. I have no idea why. They spent a good 45 minutes arguing about what it meant, despite my explanations.
Oh, and let me tell you a bit about driving here. They go fast. Like...taking ninety degree turns doing 50 mph. There doesn´t seem to be any sort of speed limit and there´s no one enforcing it anyways. Needless to say, I was wearing a seatbelt. The road signs say things like "Sharp turn, slow down". I noticed they go especially fast in areas that I think would be described as "favellas" (slums). Which makes sense there were people standing in the middle of the two lanes who looked like they had trouble in mind. So, with all this speed, you don´t stand near the road unless you have quick reflexes. No one enforces the road laws and no one is ever going to slow down for you, much less stop. If you got hit (which you would) no one would do anything about it for a goodly amount of time. And my second or third time out of the house, on day two (Sunday), we did actually slow down since there was a feral horse in the road.
My first night, rather than go to bed at a reasonable time, I went with my host brother to a party. I hit it off with everyone there and learned one thing. If the bathroom door is closed, it´s not cus someone is using the toilet. If someone is using the toilet, the door is left open and it´s not at all absurd for someone to come in there with you and start peeing in the sink. If the door is closed, there´s a drug deal going on and you don´t wanna be there. Although, after making this mistake, all the people involved were still really friendly, so I don´t think it was that big of a deal (issue, that is).
I started school yesterday as well. They only have a school t-shirt for uniforms and all the schoolwork is done out of these notebooks. I don´t have either and I don´t think I´m going to be getting them. My going to school (at least for this year) seems mostly for show. It´s almost the end of the year and I don´t have any clue what´s going on anyways. It´s a little frustrating though, for trying to learn Portuguese since all the girls cluster around me and chatter to themselves and ask me about music I like and all the guys try and teach me stuff that....may not be usable in day to day conversation. And what should be applicable, they are lying about. But that´s no different from what I´d expect in the states, so no big deal. Plus they are way nicer and funnier. So Sunday night I was thinking "Hey, maybe I won´t end up needing that Ciproflaxin after all." Yea, spoke too soon there. Right about 2nd period on monday, my light stomach cramps gave way to...a certain urge that needed immediate satisfaction. That is to say, it was gonna satisfy itself whether I was prepared or not. I´m sure you can infer my meaning. Well this all hit right about the time the new teacher (the teacher´s rotate rooms, not the students) walked in and locked the door behind her. Well I tried to hold it for as long as possible but resistance was futile. Fortunately, someone came in and started talking to the teacher and I was forced to ask the only person in the class who spoke enough English to help me. This happened to be this wired, peppy girl who sat next to me. But rather than use any subtlety and discretion, she stood up, interrupted the teacher´s conversation and explained that she was going to show me where the bathroom was. So we both left and she pointed it out and off I went, in quite a hurry. So I go in there and the bathroom is pretty dilapidated but no worse then most american bathrooms (there were some funny streaks on the wall but in my school in Bandon they used the same material to write things) and I noticed a few things. Thing #1: Only one stall has a door and it´s on the verge of falling off Thing #2: No toilet seat, you´ve gotta hover (no small task, I might add) Thing #3: No toilet paper. A necessity in this case. So I walk out of the bathroom and start to look for someone to help me. The only person out there is the principal, who speaks no english. He must have psychic powers cus he looked me in the eye, smiled and walked into a room and came out with a roll of toilet paper. My entire digestive tract emptied itself in about 30 seconds and I went back to class. Oh, and just for the record, they don´t flush toilet paper here, they just use baskets next to the toilet. I don´t know what happens after that and I didn´t ask. And due to those stomach cramps I previously mentioned, I´ve lost most of my appetite which I´m trying to convince my host mother is the reason I eat very little, that it´s in no way a comment on her cooking or Brasilian food, as both are awesome.
The music preferences among students here is pretty interesting too. Most guys seem to like stuff in the rap, country, and reggae veins. Things like heavy metal, hard rock, etc. seem to be restricted solely to the preference of the girls. This is pretty much completely backwards from the U.S. and I have no explanation for it and I´m trying not to show my true musical preferences and thusly alienate myself from the guys.
That´s about all I can think of for the time being, but keep checking back as I´ll probably be updating this as often as possible. I don´t know what kind of access I´ll have to the computer so we´ll have to see.

An Article in the Paper About Me

Just the Beginning

This morning I received word from the travel agency about my flight plan. I'll be flying out on the morning of the 15th at 11:25 from PDX to Atlanta, GA. I'll be arriving there at 7:15, next flight is at 8:20 from there to Sao Paulo, arriving 6:55 the next morning. Then I'll have a 5 hour layover and I'll be flying out at 12:10, arriving in Belo Horizonte at 1:15. I'm meeting up with a few Rotary friends in Sao Paulo during the layover. That's the plan. Oh, and as per request, I uploaded a map detailing my journey. As you can see, I'll be living in the town of Abaetè, population 30,000. It's in the state of Minas Gerais, the capital of which is Belo Horizonte. It was a German settlement, the name of the state means General Mines, Belo Horizonte means Beautiful Horizons. Due to the German influence it has a lot of Baroque architecture. A lot of really nice churches, especially in the city of Ouro Preto, which translates Black Gold. I'm gonna be just South West of Rio Paraopeba, which I don't think shows up on this map but it's that big river in the middle of Minas. I thought it was a lake the first couple times I looked at it. Minas is best known for its food, which is supposedly really good. Brazilian cuisine focuses on a lot of beans, rice and beef. I'm only repeating stuff that I've read here, I'll keep you updated when I've found out first hand. And here's the link to my friend Madisyn's blog (http://www.diasbrasilieros.blogspot.com/). She's from Eugene and she's going to Salvador. She has a better map than mine. As my friend Junior Nardaccione pointed out, my cities are slightly off by like...800 kilometers or so.