Studying abroad can be taxing on your mind, it can throw off your body and - as I have found out the last couple weeks - it can wreak havoc on the ample few things you brought along for the journey.
Case One: My two and a half year-old laptop computer died on me last week without warning. If you have ever witnessed the death of a computer then you know that helpless, I-had-no-idea-this-was-about-to happen feeling that I experienced when painful whizzes and beeps began emanating from within my Dell. It's kind of like watching a train wreck develop in slow motion. Turns out my hard drive turned into JELL-O and I will be laptop-less until I return to the States. (I actually had only been using my laptop to listen to music and watch DVDs as of late, so really it's not a huge loss...except in my bank account.)
Case Two: I finally found a place to play tennis that won't cost me an arm and a leg - infact, it won't cost me anything. My PUC mentor (her name is Sarah, and I would be so lost without her) got me in touch with a tennis-playing law student named Aquina, who gave me my first "small world" moment in Brazil. Turns out Aquina was an exchange student in northern Indiana in 2002 and actually recognized the name of my high school! We talked about this as we met for the first time and drove to a tennis lesson in São Paulo, Brazil. There is just one moon and one golden sun...
But back to the "Things Fall Apart" theme. I haven't played tennis in four months, and I didn't bring the proper shoes or a raquet or anything, so I knew it would probably be a long lesson. That and it felt like 95 degrees on the court. Within the first ten minutes of the lesson I was sucking wind and my shoes had split at bottom so it looked like they had mouths or something. Anyway, I survived the lesson (and spent the next two days walking around like a 60 year-old man), but my sapatos - one of two pair I brought with me - were in bad shape. The thought of looking for size 14s (size 44s here) in this city seems a little daunting right now, so I took my kicks to a sapataria to be repaired today. Things fall apart, yeah, but most things can be salvaged.
Last Wednesday, I officially felt like I had joined the Circus when I visited a public school located outside of the city. Our group of 25 American students took a small bus to visit a couple public Brazilian schools as part of our Brazilian Culture class. The facility was nothing to brag about at the first school we visited, which was located near some favelas, or Brazilian ghettos, but the kids were enamored with my stature and obvious foreignness. After our group took a short tour of the place we stopped for a few minutes in a cafeteria-like room where kids were having lunch. First a couple kids came up to talk to me, which was nice. Then a couple more wandered over, and a few more, and a few more, until I was completely surrounded by little Brazilians that looked at me as if I was from one of Jupiter's moons or something. I was slightly embarrassed by all the attention - especially considering that I was in the same room as a couple dozen other Americans and very few kids were approaching the other Yankees.
It could have been the blonde hair, the blue eyes, my towering stick-like shadow, whatever the reason, the children came - and they came with questions. How tall are you? What's your shoe size? What country are you from? Do you play basketball? Some little girl put her foot next to mine and ran away giggling at the desparity in size. And then it dawned on me: This was my best chance to pose as a member of the IU basketball team. I left those kids thinking my name was D.J. White.
Which brings me to March Madness.
Yes, I spent about five hours today watching NCAA college basketball on ESPN. It was simply glorious. My first glimpse of March Madness today came while chowing down on tuna pizza (I don't recommend it.) at a nearby pizza place. Then I high-tailed it home for a that once-a-year b-ball marathon. I didn't catch IU's win. but there is a possibility I will be able to watch their game against UCLA. The Hoosiers will go as far as the streaky shooting of Rod Wilmont in this year's tournament, yes sir!
On a studious note, I decided on a topic for the 10-page paper I am required to write (in Portuguese!!!) for Brazilian Culture. I am going to take two things I know a lot about (sports and media) and unite them into a single paper that analyzes the portrayal of beloved Brazilian sports figures in the media over the last five decades or so. I am not a big Formula One racing fan, but I fell hard for the late, great Ayrton Senna after reading up on his life on Wikipedia. (Check out his notable quotes.) I think I might visit his grave in Morumbi.
Case One: My two and a half year-old laptop computer died on me last week without warning. If you have ever witnessed the death of a computer then you know that helpless, I-had-no-idea-this-was-about-to happen feeling that I experienced when painful whizzes and beeps began emanating from within my Dell. It's kind of like watching a train wreck develop in slow motion. Turns out my hard drive turned into JELL-O and I will be laptop-less until I return to the States. (I actually had only been using my laptop to listen to music and watch DVDs as of late, so really it's not a huge loss...except in my bank account.)
Case Two: I finally found a place to play tennis that won't cost me an arm and a leg - infact, it won't cost me anything. My PUC mentor (her name is Sarah, and I would be so lost without her) got me in touch with a tennis-playing law student named Aquina, who gave me my first "small world" moment in Brazil. Turns out Aquina was an exchange student in northern Indiana in 2002 and actually recognized the name of my high school! We talked about this as we met for the first time and drove to a tennis lesson in São Paulo, Brazil. There is just one moon and one golden sun...
But back to the "Things Fall Apart" theme. I haven't played tennis in four months, and I didn't bring the proper shoes or a raquet or anything, so I knew it would probably be a long lesson. That and it felt like 95 degrees on the court. Within the first ten minutes of the lesson I was sucking wind and my shoes had split at bottom so it looked like they had mouths or something. Anyway, I survived the lesson (and spent the next two days walking around like a 60 year-old man), but my sapatos - one of two pair I brought with me - were in bad shape. The thought of looking for size 14s (size 44s here) in this city seems a little daunting right now, so I took my kicks to a sapataria to be repaired today. Things fall apart, yeah, but most things can be salvaged.
Last Wednesday, I officially felt like I had joined the Circus when I visited a public school located outside of the city. Our group of 25 American students took a small bus to visit a couple public Brazilian schools as part of our Brazilian Culture class. The facility was nothing to brag about at the first school we visited, which was located near some favelas, or Brazilian ghettos, but the kids were enamored with my stature and obvious foreignness. After our group took a short tour of the place we stopped for a few minutes in a cafeteria-like room where kids were having lunch. First a couple kids came up to talk to me, which was nice. Then a couple more wandered over, and a few more, and a few more, until I was completely surrounded by little Brazilians that looked at me as if I was from one of Jupiter's moons or something. I was slightly embarrassed by all the attention - especially considering that I was in the same room as a couple dozen other Americans and very few kids were approaching the other Yankees.
It could have been the blonde hair, the blue eyes, my towering stick-like shadow, whatever the reason, the children came - and they came with questions. How tall are you? What's your shoe size? What country are you from? Do you play basketball? Some little girl put her foot next to mine and ran away giggling at the desparity in size. And then it dawned on me: This was my best chance to pose as a member of the IU basketball team. I left those kids thinking my name was D.J. White.
Which brings me to March Madness.
Yes, I spent about five hours today watching NCAA college basketball on ESPN. It was simply glorious. My first glimpse of March Madness today came while chowing down on tuna pizza (I don't recommend it.) at a nearby pizza place. Then I high-tailed it home for a that once-a-year b-ball marathon. I didn't catch IU's win. but there is a possibility I will be able to watch their game against UCLA. The Hoosiers will go as far as the streaky shooting of Rod Wilmont in this year's tournament, yes sir!
On a studious note, I decided on a topic for the 10-page paper I am required to write (in Portuguese!!!) for Brazilian Culture. I am going to take two things I know a lot about (sports and media) and unite them into a single paper that analyzes the portrayal of beloved Brazilian sports figures in the media over the last five decades or so. I am not a big Formula One racing fan, but I fell hard for the late, great Ayrton Senna after reading up on his life on Wikipedia. (Check out his notable quotes.) I think I might visit his grave in Morumbi.
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