The good, the bad and the ugly

A lot has happened since my last post, which was over a week ago. Internet problems left me without an online outlet all week, so I´ll try to cover all the happenings of the last few days in this post.

Since last Friday, I have undergone the CIEE Orientation at the Ceasar Business Hotel on Avenida Paulista, met a whole slew of students from all over the continental United States (there are over 60 of us total) and began the Intensive Language and Culture Program at Pontifica Universidade Catholica de Sao Paulo (or Poo-Kee as they call it). I´ve also witnessed and participated in more dancing over the last seven days than any week in my whole life. They really do love the samba in Brazil.

For your reading pleasure, I´ve organized the last ten days into three categories. First off:

The Good

Orientation went really well. I felt like my early arrival in Sao Paulo served me well as I already had figured out the general layout of the city as well as how to navigate the metro. The first priority for most of the students was getting a cell phone, of course.

The CIEE staff kept the program moving with sessions on Brazil´s history and racial issues as well as lectures on transportation and safety in Sao Paulo. We all took written and oral placement tests in portuguese to gage our language profeciency and spent our downtime eating good food (the fresh fruit is really good here), draining our money on Internet access, walking up and down Avenida Paulista and exploring the night life.

Several student moniters are part of the CIEE staff, and they organized optional activities for everyone at night. One night I went to a bar/club-type place and got my first taste of Brazilian samba. Another night I went to a movie - Brazilian, of course, although most of the movies here are from Hollywood.

The students in this program come from all over the United States. A large contingent go to school in Washington DC. It seems like many of them are more used to urban life and life abroad than I. They either consider themselves to have grown up in a city or have spent a summer in another country or have studied abroad elsewhere. Some of them grew up in bilingual homes, some of them are part Brazilian or have family in Brazil. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. Over half of the students participating in the ILCP program will be leaving for Bahia at the end of the month, but for now they are here with the Sao Paulo kids (which includes me).

Our first three days of class took place this week at PUC. I have two and a half hours of Portuguese in the morning and an hour and forty-five minutes of Brazilian culture in the afternoon. My language teacher, Fernanda, is very enthusiastic, and the students in my class seem far more comfortable with the language than I. I think this can only help me improve.

This weekend we visited some cultural and historic sites in the city. We also hit up a samba club on Friday night. The live music was impressive and some of the dancers were too. I haven´t quite figured out the footwork yet - unfortunately my high school years in show choir did not quite prepare me for this level of dance - but I can shuffle my feet with the best of them.

This morning I attended mass at the Sao Bento Basilica in historic downtown Sao Paulo. The art and architecture were really amazing and the place was completely full - although many of the people were there more to take pictures than worship. I stood in the back understanding even less than I do on Sunday mornings when the preach speaks my own language. The whole Gregorian chant thing sounded great though.

The coolest thing by far this week was our visit to the Sambodromo last night. Right now, preparation is in full swing for Carnaval which takes place in less than a month. The Sambodromo is the place where the famous parade competition takes place in Sao Paulo. In the parade, the fourteen schools of samba - comprised of thousands of participates for each school - have fifty minutes to pass through the Sambodromo with their jaw-dropping floats and exquisite costumes, singing and dancing the whole way through. Our group crashed one of the practice runs and actually got to participate with Mocidade Algre, one of the samba schools.

Although we didn´t know the words to the song (we carried the lyrics in our hand) or any of the choreography, it was really an awesome experience. Hearing all the people singing in unison and seeing the people above in the stands makes you feel like you are part of something special. And this was just a practice. We moved to the beat in lines and sang to the skies till our throats were sore. By the end of the thing I was dead tired. An hour straight of singing the same song over and over and moving to the beat will really wear you out.

The Bad

Getting to PUC was a real challenge this week. Most of the other students had their host families to physically take them to class the first day or two using public transportation. Since I´m living with a friend, however, I had to figure out how to get their on my own using guide maps and sifting through bus schedules.

The first day of class I was an hour late due to a mix of bad directions and confusion. Luckily, I didn´t miss anything since the first hour of class was spent dividing the large group into smaller classes. I have about a 35 minute commute every morning to PUC which involves taking the metro and then catching a bus. The third day of class, I overslept by an hour due to a faulty alarm clock and had to rush to get to class on time. I actually got their with 15 minutes to spare. Maybe I am getting the hang of this public trasportation thing.

Modern living did not treat me well this week. Not only did the Internet not work here, but the washing machine starts shaking like its possessed if you load more than three pairs of socks in it, forcing me to wash my clothes one article at a time. (I exaggerate, but not greatly.) And I accidently destroyed the glass cover of the kitchen stove when I was trying to heat a pot of water. Glass does not cool gently. I am currently treating all modern appliances like they are active land mines.

Today, we ate lunch at an oriental sushi-type buffet in Liberdade, the japonese neighborhood of Sao Paulo. The food was really good. I tried to avoid most of the raw things, but couldn´t help myself when I saw a tentacle wrapped in seaweed on a block of rice. I mean who can resist? It wasn´t terrible, but octupus doesn´t have much flavor and it´s kind of chewy. I think it would be better as fishing bait.

The Ugly

Riding the metro one morning, a little girl rushed in on one stop, sat right next to me, hunched over and promptly deposited her breakfast on the floor. Luckily, I was in the process of getting up to give her mother a seat and avoided getting spewed on. Sometimes being considerate pays off.

At the Sambodromo, I went in to the restroom and saw several groups of men doing lines of coke in the middle of the place. Drugs are easily accessible in Sao Paulo for those that want them, but it was kind of shocking to see that kind of thing in such a public place. And I wondered how all those old men made it through the parade without collapsing...

And since I like to end these things on a positive note, NFL Radio has saved my life this month. An Indy-Chicago Super Bowl would make me numb.