Written on July 14th, 2009
So, it’s been a while since my last post and not too much has changed. I have definitely gotten more into the swing of things here. I now feel comfortable walking to and from the office, walking and running at the local park (a place that I know I will miss), buying ice cream from the local market, taking the cab, paying for the bus, and everything (well, maybe not everything) that comes from living in a small city. Last weekend I also got the chance to take a trip to Rio. I was fortunate enough that a daughter of a researcher in the office was eager to show me her birth city and visit her relatives that lived in Rio. I had told myself before I left that I would find a way to get to see Rio and I am glad that the opportunity came so easily and that I was able to experience the city with Juliana—an English-speaking native who is around my age.
Rio is worth the claim to fame that it has gotten. It is absolutely beautiful. My book said that the views from Sugar Loaf and Christ the Redeemer would make you believe that Rio is the most beautiful city in the world. I am going to have to agree with that and at both viewpoints I stopped and turned to Juliana and said, “Ok, let’s just spend the night here.” My pictures do not do the views justice. Everywhere you looked you saw beautiful shades of blue whether the ocean or the sky and buildings and forests of green. Christ the Redeemer is also one of the new seven man-made wonders of the world and I will admit that it is for good reason. And I have a secret dream to see all seven. (On a side note, I think Angkor Wat deserved to be chosen. Given a lot of the final seven had to do with voting and money. A lot of money went into the Christ the Redeemer campaign and President Lula told the people to vote for it and waived charges on text messages to the voting number, something that I don’t think people would be doing in Cambodia.)
Rio is worth the claim to fame that it has gotten. It is absolutely beautiful. My book said that the views from Sugar Loaf and Christ the Redeemer would make you believe that Rio is the most beautiful city in the world. I am going to have to agree with that and at both viewpoints I stopped and turned to Juliana and said, “Ok, let’s just spend the night here.” My pictures do not do the views justice. Everywhere you looked you saw beautiful shades of blue whether the ocean or the sky and buildings and forests of green. Christ the Redeemer is also one of the new seven man-made wonders of the world and I will admit that it is for good reason. And I have a secret dream to see all seven. (On a side note, I think Angkor Wat deserved to be chosen. Given a lot of the final seven had to do with voting and money. A lot of money went into the Christ the Redeemer campaign and President Lula told the people to vote for it and waived charges on text messages to the voting number, something that I don’t think people would be doing in Cambodia.)
It was also nice to hear some native English-speakers in Rio, something that I really haven’t been exposed to much in Vitoria. I got to hear accents from England, the Netherlands, and Australia, not too many Americans, but some nonetheless. Our few days in Rio were action-packed, but I am grateful that I was able to experience pretty much every neighborhood in the city and get a taste for what Rio is all about through the advantage of being able to take local buses and not a tourist bus. I could go on and on about Rio, but to put it simply it is a gorgeous city and one that was able to do magic—I suddenly had no stress in Rio and forgot about any problems or work that I once had been thinking about before. Although, I will admit that I did acquire a cold and now am on Sudafed (something that I thought I was insane for bringing, but one of my doctors told me to bring my medicine cabinet, so I did).
I have really learned a lot about myself during this trip. Not just about infectious diseases, which I have learned a good amount about and was just told yesterday to start putting our data together and rewrite the introduction and methods section to our paper. It looks like I actually may be an author on this study, an unexpected honor. But I have also learned about myself. Although I have kept in contact with many friends from home, I still feel separated from “that life.” I have also decided to separate myself even more by spending more time away from Facebook and AIM in the remaining three weeks that I am here. I really want time by myself: to read, to take walks, and to talk to the Brazilians that are here.
For one thing, I have learned that I really am not a big city person. This hadn’t been as clear to me before this trip. But now that I think about it, I really have never had a deep love for New York City. Sure, I love living near one of the most powerful cities in the world and I love that I can take easy and fun day trips, but New York City has always felt too big for me. Well, it turns out that New York City is about the same size as Rio de Janeiro and although I loved Rio and thought it was the most beautiful city I have been to with its long coastlines and great food, after the long bus rides I realized it was too big for me. I have liked other smaller cities. For example, I would love the idea of living in Xi’an in China, but not so much in Beijing. I love the idea of living in San Francisco, but not so much Los Angeles. And even in Baltimore, I at least feel like I know where I am and that other places are not that far away. Sure, people outside of Brazil haven’t heard of Vitoria, Brazil, but I realize that I really do like that I can walk to work and walk to a park and that the bus doesn’t take too long to get from one island to another (I realize now that Vitoria is more an archipelago city than an island city). The sea and areas of mangrove and marshland surround Vitoria and I love it. I think it may also be because it is less developed and less touristy than Rio, but I think it is also due to the size.
I have also learned a LOT about the culture here and that brings me to next my section…
What I have learned about Brazilian culture or life in Vitoria…
-The country is indeed diverse. Just like in the United States, you really can’t tell who is a native and who is a foreigner. Supposedly regions are heavily different as well. Food and music is linked to different areas. Accents and looks are linked to certain areas.
-In comparison to the USA, people are very religious.
-Brazilians are usually late. My general rule is to add an hour to whatever time they tell you. Meet you at 11? Expect that to be 12. Life is slow (although supposedly it is not in the larger cities).
-Brazilians love American culture. They know our movies, TV shows, and definitely our music. Every night I hear American music playing out my windows whether it’s Frank Sinatra or Lady GaGa and yes, they have been mourning Michael Jackson like no other.
-However, they also love their own culture. They have quite a range of different types of music from country to funky and quite a lot of dance styles.
-Brazilians can dance and have inspired me to learn how to dance. Although, after a Brazilian guy tried to teach me the dance style forro last week, I don’t think I will be very successful.
-Be prepared to kiss. Forget handshakes; if you meet anyone be prepared to kiss. The proper way is to kiss twice one on each side of the cheek if you are unmarried and three if you are.
-Be prepared to see a lot of kissing. Brazilians are not afraid of PDA (public displays of affection) and it’s quite common to see some very romantic scenes on the beaches and in parks.
-The parties and festivals don’t seem to stop here. In June I was told about June festivals— a type of community festival usually hosted by an elementary school that puts on a show and is filled with square dancing and vendors. But then June became July and I was told about July festivals. Now, I have been hearing about August festivals.
-Brazil is in the Southern Hemisphere. It is winter here, so the people here like to pretend the winter weather is here by dressing in boots, scarves, and winter jackets. I find this hilarious, especially because when I was packing I made sure not to bring any of these items as I thought to myself, “They’ll think I am crazy if I wear this.”
-Watch out. Brazilian men love to flirt.
-A motel is not the same as a motel in the United States. Motels are found in all Brazilian cities and are places where you can rent a room based on an hourly rate. The rest is up to your imagination.
-Braces are more common in adults than in the United States.
-Don’t be surprised to only find one temperature of water in the bathrooms and kitchen sinks. In our kitchen the faucet will only give you one rather cold water.
-You can imagine that this makes cleaning hard for me. How do you wash dishes without hot water? (No, they don’t boil it). What about with no paper towels? How are you supposed to clean the floor without a mop? And how are you supposed to keep the 983483 very small ants away? The answer to the last question is you don’t.
-Be prepared to forget what a bathtub looks like and to instead expect showers with attached electric water heaters. I’ve been pretending that I don’t know what happens when water and electricity mix.
- Expect rooms to be simple. People don’t really own lots of books nor put up lots of photos. Rooms are meant to be simplistic and neat. You should see the reactions I got when I showed people a picture of my colorfully decorated dorm room.
-Don’t expect prices to be cheap. Most things cost about the same as they do in the United States and other things like imported clothing and electronics cost more. Taxes are very high here for anything imported. The cost of living is known to be relatively high compared to the average income, which I think results in the simplistic lifestyle mentioned above.
-Lots can be sold on the street from underwear to corn on the cob.
-Brazilians are not afraid to talk. I have been surprised by how open the Brazilians are about talking about things that I wouldn’t dare talk about so freely.
-Expect to be asked about Obama.
-Be prepared to defend the United States at times. Like anywhere, there are misconceptions. I have had people tell me that we don’t have a public health system in the United States (I was told that there are no publically-funded health program), I was also told that in the United States children don’t learn anything but American history, I was told that our government doesn’t provide insurance for the poor (not completely true), and even that our right to have a choice to vote and for it not to be mandatory is non-Democratic. I have even had to defend Republicans when trying to argue why people are not automatically Democrats.
-Expect to be thought of as crazy if you are vegetarian. I don’t think the concept of vegetarianism really exists here. I have been told I am crazy for not eating meat and have been able to resist the opportunity to bring up an environmental or ethical argument and have just politely declined.
-Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. Everyone gets a nice long lunch break. Students come home from school and you can expect the offices to be completely deserted.
-Guarana is one of the biggest types of sodas here. I was told I had to try it the first week I was here. I tried it and loved it. However, then I started reading about it online and learned that the Guarana fruit contains about twice the amount of coffee as in
a coffee bean. You wouldn’t think this since all the kids seem to drink it. Needless to say, I have reduced my consumption.
-Speaking of fruit. Expect to be overwhelmed by the fruit here. Expect to never have seen half of them.
-Milk is mostly sold in non-refrigerated boxes (which can also be found in the US). It tastes different, but it is the norm.
-Beer is the alcoholic beverage of preference. The national cocktail is caipirinha made from cachaça, an alcohol produced by the distillation of fermented sugarcane juice.
-Meat and cheese is not expected to be refrigerated 24/7. In Rio we went to a fair and the girl I was with bought cheese to bring back home on the bus. I thought this was strange…shouldn’t it be refrigerated? I guess not.
-Expect people to be amazed by baking. People were very surprised that I was able to use the oven to make cookies and brownies from scratch.
-Automatic cars are unheard of. (Dad and Matt this is your hint to try to teach me, again.)
-Forget your seatbelts. I have been trained to always put my seatbelt on no matter where I am sitting. Well, let’s say there have been numerous times when I have sat in the backseat, tried to buckle in the seatbelt only to find that there is no buckle. Although the cars have seatbelts, no one uses them in the backseat, so no one has bothered to take the buckle out from under the seat.
-Forget your helmet. I have seen no bicyclist with a helmet, but a ton of motorcyclists.
-Some stereotypes about Brazil are true: they love soccer, they love coffee (but black and hot coffee served in the smallest quantity), they love their soap operas
-Hoop earrings, nail polish, and high heels are the norm for most women here even if the sidewalks are not well-paved.
-Long bathing suits are worn as shorts for many guys here and at the beach the normal bathing suit gets a bit shorter for the men and the women to say the least.
-Bob’s Burgers is one of the most popular fast-food chains, however most people it
seems don’t realize that it is a Brazilian fast-food chain and assume that it is American.
-Potato chips that are in the shape of short french fries are put on hamburgers and served with rice and beans. People think that this is an American thing.
-I supposedly dress and have the body of a Brazilian. I don’t know exactly what this
means, but I will take it as a compliment.
I think that is all I have time for now. I should be getting some sleep and sleeping off this cold. I have quite an aventura next week. On Sunday morning I am leaving to Manaus, the capital city of Amazonas, for a four-day trip. A lot of the research that is done by the university occurs here and the professors constantly visit. Manaus is about the same distance from where I am as the East Coast is from the West Cost in the United States. This trip to Manaus has been planned since we originally wrote the proposal and I am really excited to see the “other” Brazil. I will be there at the same time as two professors from the university here who are preparing to give me a better understanding of how research and the health programs are run in a city that I expect will be completely different than any I have seen. I have been warned for bad internet, hot weather, no English, and mosquitoes. Sure, some of the Brazilians think I am crazy for wanting to put myself into a non-glamorous city and to stay in the dorm rooms in the hospital. However, I have been told and read about how Brazil is a diverse country and I think I may need to find a better word than “diverse” when I get back from this trip.
So, with that I will say good night. I don’t expect to write another blog until I get back home and am able to reflect on everything that has happened. As I mentioned before, I would like to get the most of these last three weeks and to spend time away, as much as possible, from the outside world. But be sure to check back in August for information on the final part of my trip including pictures of my birthday party! (We are planning to have a second 20th birthday party for me on my last day here. Why? Well, my birthday is February 8th, which on all my identification reads 2/8. However, if you show this to a Brazilian they read it as August 2nd. So, I think we’ll easily be able to get waiters to sing me happy birthday and maybe even a free dessert.)
