A máquina de lavar está quebrada

Check out our laundry facilities. Right now it’s all hand wash. The washing machine is broken but I have a feeling it's been broken a while. Either way I've developed a new appreciation for washing machines.

The fruits of our labor

Brasil: Onde os homens cozinham tudo!

This past weekend in Rio Grande was great! Rodrigo, a student at FURG, is acting as our liaison to the university. He invited us to a churrasco (a Brazilian BBQ) to commemorate one of his friend's graduation. When we arrived, there were 15+ people milling about.

Greetings in other cultures are always daunting to me. In almost every country I’ve been to besides the US, greeting every person in the room is the norm. So Rylee and I exchanged ‘tudo bem’ and kisses on the cheek with all 15 people in the room. Nothing gets you comfortable with someone like rubbing cheeks.

The following day Luan, one of Rodrigo’s friends, invited us over. Our day began at 9:30 when Luan arrived; Rylee and I were still rolling out of bed. We walked to Atacadão, the Sam's Club of Brazil, to do our grocery shopping for lunch. Our ‘lunch’ ended up being 7 hours total and the boys did all the cooking! yay! We listened to some forro songs, music typical of the Northeast of Brazil. Good food, good company, and good music!

The boys cooking - serious biz

Lunch buddies!

Gaúcha

Rio Grande, our host city, is 4-5 hours from a major airport so I spent a night in Porto Alegre. I forced myself to be social and hangout with people at the hostel. The first week of moving to a foreign country I find especially exhausting. I usually get cold feet and spend the first week regretting my move. This happens every time I travel, I think, because I'm secretly a homebody. I made some friends while I waited for Rylee to arrive. They educated me on the important futebol (pronounced fu-chee-bawl) rivalry in my new state of Rio Grande do Sul: Grêmio v. International.

The following day our host professor, Rossana, picked us up in Porto Alegre and we headed South to our host institution, FURG. Our driver maybe set a new world record for pulling the riskiest shit I have ever seen. The road to Rio Grande from Porto Alegre is two lanes all the way and our driver was weaving between semis traveling in both directions and driving God-knows how many km/h.

Upon arriving in Rio Grande, Rossana turns to us, kind of giggles and says 'ha you came to a village!’ This is perhaps the best way to describe Rio Grande. It’s a lot more rural than I had imagined. It’s not uncommon to see horse-drawn carts alongside the road with Peugeots & Citroens (French cars are big here). It’s both a beach town from the months of November to March and one of the largest ports in the country. It’s the oldest city in the state, Rio Grande do Sul, and an old Portuguese trading post. The population is 200,000 though it feels more like 20,000. I haven’t been here a week and I’ve already run into people downtown. The placement is perfect for me though as I’ve never been crazy about big cities.

Here's some of the scenery - check out this tree!

Eu Cheguei

I have arrived! The other ETAs and I had our Fulbright orientation in Brasília. It's difficult to describe Brasília. It's unique from anywhere else I've ever been. Unlike most cities, it didn't develop organically; it was planned. In the late 1950s in a kind of phase of national development and general optimism, the then-president Juscelino Kubitschek had all three branches of the federal government moved from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília, and he contracted the planning and design of public buildings out to Oscar Niemeyer. Brasília's climate and location weren't ideal for a metropolis (it's a savanna with an extended dry season), so there were several giant man-made lakes dug around the city. Brasília was supposed to represent a new phase of economic prosperity and its urban planning and architecture reflect that. The city was built in the shape of an airplane with different sectors (the hotel sector and foreign embassy sector, for example) in the wings. The buildings had a modern/futuristic look to them in the 1950s. But that's what's interesting about futuristic designs: we don't actually know what the future will look like so the buildings are just completely different from anything you've EVER seen.

Fulbright orientation was a lot of fun. It was kind of like speed dating; there were many ETAs and from all over. Most of us were outgoing and everybody wanted to make connections and build up their couchsurfing network. We’ve got ETAs all over Brazil from the state of Acre out near Peru/Bolivia to Belém in the North to my city, right next to Uruguay. At orientation we met the American ambassador to Brazil. She’s a Tulane grad from the School of Public Health!

Here’s some of Oscar Niemeyer’s famous architecture: Top: is A Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida. 2nd: Inside of the Cathedral. 3rd: I call this one the cereal bowl but it's the Brazilian National Congress. 4th: The President JK (Juscelino Kubitschek - the president that decided to build Brasilia) Bridge is supposed to mimic skipping stones. This one wasn't designed by Neimeyer but by Alexandre Chan.

Rylee, my co-ETA, and I are off to Rio Grande tomorrow. Até mais!