The days of this week really just blurred together. Nothing exciting happened until the weekend (another possible thesis paper). Saturday we took a late start, meaning we slept past breakfast and almost past lunch. Then took the subway to Paulista Avenue. Paulista Avenue is like wall street in New York. It is where all the super commerce happens it is the business center of the city. The street is massive, extending for several miles or in the metric system hundreds of kilometers. My roommate showed me around the city. We visited the public square under the museum of Brazil where every sunday they have a massive artist market. It was saturday so the square mostly consisted of pigeons, the local hoodlums, ne'er do wells, and homeless, but it was still really cool to see.
Then we went to the city park. much like Central Park in New York this was a park filled with what used to be Sao Paulo before it paved over everything. this was pretty cool. I especially liked it because some of the trees had name cards. This was great so I could now identify and butcher the names of trees that were once totally foreign to me. I took a ton of pictures. we walked around the park for a while. on one particular section of the loop we were walking I saw close to six or seven gay couples cuddling making out and generally PDAing on benches. At first I was shocked and a little surprised. when I got back to my computer I did a little research. As of May of 2013 Brazil legalized marriage among same sex couples. About 8% of the population of Sao Paulo are self identified along the LGBT spectrum. Also the Sao Paulo pride parade would happen on that very same avenue that Sunday. I was a little thrown back. I had expected Brazil to be far more conservative, I was honestly a little embarrassed to be from the USA where LGBT rights are still an issue.
We also visited the Olympic museum. that was really cool getting to see the history of the summer games. Many a picture was taken, and an information sign read. However, the most exciting news was that Rio will be hosting the 2016 summer olympic games. I finally had an excuse to take my family to Brazil we would go to the olympic games (hint hint). My mom had been not so subtly telling me that it was her expectation that I would be taking the family back to Brazil in the future. It was good to finally have that whole issue figured out.
Later that night we took the subway to a friend of my roommate's house for a little get together. They live in a really cool neighborhood. The area originally was almost exclusively industrial, filled with warehouses and factories, and had long since been run down. Now it is being redeveloped into a residential neighborhood. Tons of super nice apartments and condos are being built in the area. Their house (because I'm not sure if it was a condo or apartment but it was a house in the sky), was really nice. they lived on the tenth floor and had a balcony that had a charcoal grill built into the wall. Their house was really nice by both Brazilian and American standards. We ate a ridiculous amount of cheese and meat, drank some beer. I tried to explain to them about the beer culture in the Southern Appalachians and failed. I listened to them talk about Brazilian football (soccer) and I tried to explain American football. I answered the standard why are you here questions, and mostly just took it all in. Sunday was one of my many moments of awe inspiring clarity. Where I realize just how amazing what I am doing is, and just how profound of an adventure I have, and most importantly i was already a third of the way through this adventure.
I sort of expected to have already formed some bits of life changing wisdom when I hit the one month milestone. However, I don't really have much aside from that gem about hide and seek. However, I have officially raised my language level from limited to functional. I realized that I am now one of those people who speaks another language. Not just in the, I had four years of spanish in high school since, but in the I communicate with people in a language that is not my native tongue, profound stomach dropping kind of sense. Thankfully I have a regular conjugation, gender, pronunciation, or vocabulary fuck up to keep my ego in check. now I can officially tell other people that I speak portuguese without that feeling just a little bit like lying in the back of my mind. I would still say I am far from fluent, but, each day I get better.
This week was a great time for me to stop and do some reflection on this grand adventure I am undertaking. I feel truly and profoundly blessed, by whatever celestial thing you choose to name. I am doing something that not many americans or Brazilians will ever get to do in their lives. I get to live in another country, not just be a tourist in it but truly live in Brazil and see the quiet details that get run over on a tourbus. I get to work in environments that most people will only ever see through a magic TV box with some british voice from the sky narrating. I get to work with kids who are living lives of intense poverty, and give them an experience that most people in America and Brazil will never get to experience.
And when I come back to School I will have the ultimate summer experience trump card. My life is booming, crashing, thunder.
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