Coco v. Cocô

Brief rundown of what I’ve been up to:

This week has been wonderful. I’m starting to settle down and feel at home here. I’m also kind of learning my way around... slowly but surely if you know me ☺ My intensive Portuguese class started Monday and it’s going very well. I’m learning much more than sentence structure, vocabulary and verb conjugations, but also customs, music, slang phrases, culture, history, and much more. Although it’s nearly five hours each day (8:30-1pm), I still have all afternoon/evening to sightsee or just relax on the beach (which I have been doing a LOT of ☺ ).

In my neighborhood there is a little strip of outdoor restaurants and bars that is always full of people. After a long day at the beach, me and two other girls from my program got sushi and capirinhas (Brazil’s national drink made of sugar cane alcohol and fruit juice), and talked for hours. It is so cool to talk to people who have had the coolest experiences and who have interests and goals. By being so far removed from your typical environment, you can really look at the big picture and see all the opportunities before you.

Last night, Jenny’s host brother Daniel, who is our age, showed us the ropes on the public busses and we went to Copacabana (a 20 minute bus ride up the coast) to meet up with a bunch of international students and interns. Again, I talked to people from Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, and of course Brazil.

Some fun cultural facts:

Food:
-For breakfast I eat a typical Brazilian breakfast which consists of bread, cheese, juice, and fruit
-Lunch is really big and typically is rice, beans, farofa, salad, some kind of marinated meat, juice, and jello or pudding. It is usually eaten around 1 or 2pm.
-Lanche is a midday snack that might be a piece of fruit, popsicle or a roll.
-Dinner, if they even have it, is usually something very small. Sometimes a piece of fruit, a small sandwich, or a piece of pizza and is eaten around 10pm.
-Juice bars are on EVERY corner and people hang out there all day long
-Tap water is not safe to drink so families have water dispensers or filters in their houses

Beach Culture:
-Cariocas (residents of Rio), spend all weekend at the beach with their families. However, they don’t bring anything with them. No towel, water, or clothes.
-Everyone rents chairs and umbrellas. Rarely do you see someone laying out on the sand like most Americans do. I think it is because the sun is so strong here.
-Brazilian bikinis and Speedos. Everywhere. Enough said.
-Soccer games everywhere
-Strong undertow and large waves so you can’t swim out very far, but its fun to play in!
-Vendors sell food, drinks, swimsuits, sunscreen, and everything else you can think of walk the beaches. I’ve had a coconut milk almost everyday that I’ve been here!! But you have to be careful to order a coco, not a cocô or else you might get “poop” instead of “coconut!”

Customs:
-VERY laidback, never worry about being late and walk slowly
-When women greet other women or men, they kiss each other once on each cheek, and when men greet other men, they hug. When you are greeting a group of people at a party or something, you must greet each person with a hug or kiss when you get there and before you leave
-Restrooms in Brazil have bidet and a trashcan for toilet paper
-When parking your car in the city, you pay a man to watch your car so it is not stolen or vandalized. Although this is not an official law, if you don’t pay, the attendant might vandalize your car himself
-Time and distance are VERY relative here. I went on a hike that a Brazilian told us was supposed to be 20 minutes and it was actually 2 hours! Another time, a Brazilian told us it was a 15 minute bus ride and it was 40 minutes. Also a “5 minute walk” is more like 20 minutes. When a party or something starts at a certain time, no one comes until 2 hours later. It’s just expected here.
-Brazilians are very indirect. They consider it rude to answer “no” to any question. For example, if someone invites you somewhere and you don’t want to go, you say something like “yeah maybe that sounds good.” Confusing!
-However, although they are indirect with some things, men are not indirect at all when they like a woman. Catcalls, and remarks are common. Also, at bars or clubs, it is not unusual for a man to approach a woman and just start kissing her. I’d say that’s pretty direct!
-They also want to be helpful at all times. This means that if you are lost and ask someone for directions, they will give them to you, whether they actually know where somewhere is or not. If you ask four people, you will probably get four completely different instructions.


I will add more as I come across them! Ciao for now!

PS- I don't have wi-fi so I've been "borrowing" internet access from "Beto," whoever that is, so its pretty spotty.. I'm working on a more permanent solution so that I can video chat with friends and family :)