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.