Beijos and abraços

Today is my last day in Brazil. I am getting on a plane this afternoon and flying to Argentina.



I've spent the last week saying goodbye to the friends that I have made during my six months here and finishing up final papers for classes. I just finished the longest paper of my life yesterday - in another language. Regardless of the quality of my paper, I consider that an accomplishment.



I think my grades will turn out pretty good during my semester at PUC thanks to my professor's gringo grading scale. It's much more forgiving than the normal grading scale and the more gringo you look, the more forgiving it is (and you can't look much more gringo than me).



It will be strange visiting another country and another culture after living in São Paulo for the last six months, but I am looking forward to it. Buenos Aires is South America´s version of a european city, and I hear that it is a lot more aesthetically pleasing than São Paulo. Of course, that wouldn't take much.



I'm leaving behind a lot of memories here. Just for fun, here are five experiences that were absolutely unforgettable:



1. Hang gliding in Rio. I had never been hang gliding before - let alone hang gliding in one of the most naturally beautiful cities in the world. I had the beach, the forest and the city all from a bird's eye view for an amazing 15-minute ride. Sure it was overly touristy and set me back a pretty penny, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.



2. Foz de Iguaçu. Just an amazing natural wonder. I cannot overstate the beauty of over 200 waterfalls side-by-side, including Garganta del diablo, which makes Niagra look like child's play. Standing at the mouth of Garganta felt like the whole world was being sucked down the drain. Now that's the power of nature.



3.JUCA. Definitely my most amazing weekend with Brazilians. Sports at all hours of the day. Beer at all hours of the day. Randomness at all hours of the day. Almost like being back in Bloomington. JUCA was supposed to be my opportunity to play basketball in this basketly-challenged country, instead, it turned out to be my time to be the token gringo. Eh, you win some, you lose some.



4. Seeing Protestors against the red, white and blue. When President Bush visited in March, there were some people who were not happy and took to the streets to prove it. It was a very interesting experience to see a bunch of people trashing the flag of your country and depicting your country's leader in a negative light. (Although the latter part you can get at home.) I think it really speaks to the prominence of the United States and the responsibility we have as a global leader.



5.Meeting people from all over the US. Not only did I get to chill with Brazilians here in São Paulo, but I also became friends with people from coast to coast back home. It was really interesting to see and debate about the cultural differences that exist right in my own backyard. Of course, I defended Indiana at every opportunity. Our highways rock.

JUCA and my last trip

Wow, my last month here is really flying!

If you'd like to read about my amazing weekend at JUCA with the cachorros loucos, click here. It was a very unique experience being the only gringo among a bunch of wild and crazy brazilians, and I doubt I will ever hear my name chanted again repeatedly like it was at JUCA.

Only thirteen more days in São Paulo. The 28th of this month marks my sixth in this country. To commerate this grand achievement of surviving outside one's country of origin for half a year my Brazilian travel visa will be expiring, and I will be getting on a plane for Buenos Aires.

I'm looking forward to exploring Argentina for about three weeks before returning to the United States. It will be fun to see another part of South America with a very different culture, and who knows if I will ever get another chance to revisit this continent.

For now, it is final papers and assignments.

Oh, and soccer. Soccer game tomorrow. But that's a given.

UPDATE: The soccer game between Corinthians and Parana was another scoreless thriller. If you're keeping track at home, that means I've been to three soccer games in São Paulo and witnessed one measely goal! What a sport, huh? I think soccer is the only sport where the fans cheer for narrow misses. Which is kind of like congratulating Charlie Brown for almost kicking the football. Good grief!

The end is near

Now that June has arrived, I can say that I am in the homestretch of my abroad experience. This month will be my last outside of North America for awhile. Anything that I had planned on doing in Brazil and haven't done yet better be accomplished in the next 30 days or so.

Actually, I don't really have too many unfulfilled wishes left. And now that the weather has turned for the worse (cold and rainy today), I am actually looking forward to a little midwestern sun in the states - but not before going on one last trip-to-be-named-later.

This week I felt as if I was starting to get a better understanding of the culture here in Brazil and some of the problems and contradictions that arise from this culture. Many people have predicted that Brazil will be a world power someday, but I can say with confidence that it will not happen in my lifetime.

If this nation is ever to become a world power, it will be completely unrecognizable from the society that resides here today. Too few businesses and politicians are held unaccountable in today's Brazil, and many of the interests of the common man are neglected. Despite being one of the world's leaders in agriculture and possessing ample resources, millions of people go hungry every day in this country. This is only one of many discrepancies that exist here.

For now, I am attempting to make it through my last month with three pairs of long pants, two sweatshirts and a light jacket. I've parted ways with the tropical paradise of January and February. It's a mental struggle to peel off the warm comforter every morning with the cooler air circulating the house.

Next week, I will be participating in a college sporting extravaganza for the communications schools of São Paulo called JUCA. Basically, a bunch of college students take over a small town outside of the city for four days and play sports, have parties and sleep on uncomfortable mats. I will be playing basketball for PUC and carrying the albatross of being the only American on the court. I will do my best to carry on the tradition of excellence created by exported American basketball players, but there's a reason we play overseas and not in our country of origin.

To business

I finally began my final research project today after two and a half months of procrastinating, err, brainstorming. It will eventually become a ten-page paper in Portuguese. I don't think I've written more than a five-page paper in college. Good thing I'm getting a headstart.

Doing any kind of academic work in Brazil is at least 10 times harder than in the US. Internet access is much harder to come by, and printing documents can be a slow and expensive process. All my assignments at PUC can be turned in handwritten. It's not even an issue. Obtaining copies of old newspaper articles, however, has proved trickier than I thought.

For my research paper on Brazilian athletes, I have to go to the Arquivo de Estado, a large, blockish building located on the north-side of São Paulo. I am analyzing sports articles that appeared in old newspapers, so I have to know the exact dates of the newspapers I want to see. Once I submit my requests (limited to three at a time), I sit and wait at a desk in a sterile, white room with other researchers and a couple security people to make sure no one steals/destroys any documents.

I wear rubber gloves when dissecting the stack of yellowing newspapers that arrive at my table and take care not to allow my elbows to rest on the table. This is forbidden. When I find an article of which I would like a copy, I place a white marker inbetween the pages and write the issue and page number down. When I'm finished with everything, I return the old newspapers in their binder and submit the articles I would like copied.

After I leave, the arquive people make microfilm copies of the pages I requested, transfer the images into JPEGs and put the JPEGs on a CD. Then they mail me the CD. I should receive my articles in a digital format in roughly two weeks.

If this process seems entirely drawn-out and complicated, that's because it is. In fact, if I were to try and invent a way to make something simple, like getting a copy of a previously published article, into something difficult, it would fall far short of the above-mentioned process.

This is one of the challenges of conducting research in a developing country. It's also why most of the leading academic people of Brazil work for universities and colleges in the United States - because in my country we have splendid devices called scanners!

Just when I was beginning to grow fond of the little guy...

He is gone.

Pope Benedict XVI hopped on a jet plane in Aparecida yesterday and made a bee line for the Vatican. For being 80 years-old, the man gets around like no other.

During his four and a half day excursion in Brazil, Pope Benedict brought the house down in a packed stadium of 40,000 youth with that creepy smile of his, canonized the first Brazilian saint (We knew you had it in you friar Antonio.) and slammed the media for being immoral (Yeah, he was probably talking about your favorite TV show.). The guy was like a rock star with better hygiene.

Still, Catholicism in this country is not what it used to be. The percentage of people who say they are Catholic in Brazil has declined nearly 20 percent in the last 25 years. And it ain't getting better anytime soon.

With God's permission (Thanks Big Guy.), I decided to grade Pope Benedict on his visit to Brazil - just for the heck of it.

Security - A+

I may not have laid eyes on the big papa, but I did see plenty of his bodyguards. Outside of the thousands of the policia militar, the Pope is protected by the Swiss Guard and helicopters follow him wherever he goes. I bet his personal assistant knows Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu too.

Transportation - A

Like I said, the guy gets around like no other. Of course, having those thousands of policemen clear the streets for you kind of helps. A quirky thing about the Pope is the papamovel or popemobile in which he travels around. It has a bullet-proof carriage in the back where the Pope can sit and wave to the crowd as he passes by. There's also the helicopters and personal jet. I wonder what opera music he enjoyed on his return flight.

Message - C

Don't do drugs. Don't have sex outside of marriage. And the E! channel is the devil. Have you been talking to my mother, papa? Oh, and something about finding fulfillment through the Church. No, he said some good things. And he said them in good Portuguese. Just for that I'm tacking on a + to that C.

Popularity - B

It's tough following in the footsteps of a legend like John Paul II, so I'll take it easy on him in this respect. Still, about half the number of people came to mass in Campo de Marte this year than in 1980 when John Paully Be Good presided. Then again, 800,000 ain't bad. And it was kind of cold outside.

Public Persona - B+

He looks pretty good for going through eight decades of life. He still has a twinkle in his eye and that sly grin. I was actually disappointed when I heard him speak on TV. He didn't sound anything like the emperor in Star Wars like I had hoped.

Overall - B+

The Pope coming to Brazil was quite a phenomenom to witness. Catholics from all over Latin America (and beyond) flock to see this guy. But I don't see any mass conversions taking place because of this visit. A lot of changes on both sides need to take place before Catholicism makes a rebound in this world.

Papa-mania

He is here.

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in São Paulo yesterday afternoon. He stepped out of the plane to see gray skys and spittles of rain. The temperature was a very unwelcoming 10 degrees Celsius. He flew by private jet from Italy earlier in the morning and listened to opera musica while sipping orange juice en route to São Paulo.

Today the Pope is meeting with President Lula and will address the youth of the church at o estádio do Pacaembu. No word yet on whether the Pope found his breakfast agreeable or not. Stay tuned.

The amount of coverage dedicated to the Pope's visit this week is bordering on insane right now, and rightly so because people go crazy for this guy. According to one report, people began congregating at five in the morning today outside the monastery of São Bento where the Pope slept last night hoping to catch a glimpse of his holiness.

I'm not sure if there is a word for people who awake in the wee small hours of the morning to peak in on 80 year-old men, but allow me to suggest one: Popaphiles.

The traffic has been ungodly today and three of my classes have been canceled because of Benedict's visit. It's like another holiday.

Yesterday, I tried to get a slice of Papa-pie for myself, waiting outside of São Bento for an hour and an half in the cold. Published reports said the Pope would be arriving at 6:45 in the evening. The helicopters hovered above, the police were out in full force and a good crowd had gathered outside the monastary. The TV crews were firmly entrenched, and I saw the flags of Argentina and Chile in the crowd along with a giant-size version of Nossa Senhora Aparecida. There was even a small balcony with a bullet-proof bubble for the Pope to gaze off.

"Queremos ver o papa!" (We want to see the Pope!) was the cheer of choice along with sporadic bouts of singing, but o papa never appeared.

I left at 8:00 cold, hungry and Pope-less.

Many of the Brazilians I have talked to said they prefered John Paul II over the current Pope, but you wouldn't know this guy had detractors by attending the rallies. His visit is obviously meaningful to many people here, but I'm not even sure if the people who stood outside in the cold at 5 AM could tell you why.

But they might be able to tell you what the Pope had for breakfast.

UPDATE: I watched most of the Pope's youth gathering on TV and was actually pretty impressed. 35,000 jovens from all over Latin America were in attendance to address concerns such as the lack of jobs for college graduates, child slavery, prostitution and the environment. I haven't seen much evidence of empowered youth in this country, so it was an encouraging event.

The division between church and state can get a little hazy in countries that are predominantly Catholic. That makes changing the world a bit more confusing on this level.

Baby, it's cold outside

Things have been real chill as of late.

Not just as in I-haven't-done-anything-worth-mentioning chill, but also as in it's-starting-to-cool-down-around-here chill. That's right folks, the Earth's axis is tilting to my dissastisfaction. The sweatshirt has joined the umbrella on the list of Things I should take with me when leaving the house but don't.

With the weather going to crap here and things warming up back home, I've been going through a bit of a Hooser-nostalgia phase. The "moonlight on the Wabash" and all that junk. Then I realize I've never even seen the Wabash at night. I've got two more months to rock out in Brazil.

Today, I had my first in-class test of the semester at PUC. It was also the first test in my 16-year history of test-taking where I felt the urge to leave a disclaimer note at the bottom:

Dear Professor,

Excuse my poor grammar and rudimentary analysis. I have yet to understand a single joke that you've told this semester.

Sincerely,

Your beloved class gringo

It went something like that.

I actually felt pretty proud of myself after handing the test in. English is a walk in the park compared to this Portuguese thing.

To break up the monotony of "fall" in São Paulo, Sampa will be hosting Pope Benedict XVI next week. That's right, that means the US President and the Pope will have visited São Paulo within two months of each other. It's just the city to visit these days.

What happens when the leader of the Catholic church comes to visit the most Catholic nation in the world? In the words of Terrence Man, "People will come, Ray. People will most definitely come."

In the millions. Once again, I will be on the outside looking in.