. . . .and the Rest of the World (R.O.W.)

Sometimes it's when you leave your own country that you have the time to reflect on what your country really means and stands for. This time in Brazil has been no exception. Right before I came to Brazil, I was visiting my sister who was studying in Paris. There's no doubt that Brazil retains more of a continental European influence than the US, and it's extremely tempting to group all these similarities into "the Rest of the World." Here's the short list of things that people in ROW (and by ROW I kinda mean Brazil and France) seem to love, but Americans are pretty oblivious to.

Things loved in ROW:
- Soccer (football)
- Yogurt
- Vacation
- eating dinner late
- staying up late
- paying for the bus at the back
- waiters
- English as a second language

Things loved only in the US:
- Baseball
- early to bed early to rise
- English as a first language
- self-service at the counter

Falla portugues? Week 1

Falla portugues??? I learned this phrase about 3 years ago when a friend of mine who liked soccer mentioned his trip to Brazil. It's the one phrase any American seems to know in Portuguese, and it's the first question every Brazilian asks me!

Do I speak Portuguese? Ugh. . . not really. Despite studying intensively for two months with Dona Dyla da Souza in Daly City, now that I find myself in a PT-speaking country, I find that I really can't speak it! (But I can read and write ok, I think.)

And why? Cause it's soooooooo hard! PT is like pig latin. D's can sound like G's (Bom dia = Bom Geee-a!), T's can sound like CH's (the word for tip, 'tipo' is pronounced "cheep-o') and R's can sound like H's or they can all sound completely normal! Words that are the same in Engligh, like . . .get transformed in Portuguese! And I get lost!

This is so frustrating for me, cause portuguese is seductive! It shares so much vocabulary with English and French and between the two I can read a lot and logically see how sentences are put together. But with all these different pronunciations I have no idea what people are actually saying! (and they say it so fast!)

Everyone at work speaks incredible English. I'm so impressed! And so frustrated, cause everyone can speak English with me! I could see how people could leave here for a loooooong time but not pick up any portuguese.

Getting into town

So I went to Brazil with a healthy sense of apprehension. Everyone says it's a pretty dangerous place. One Brazilian advised my co-worker when she same to São Paulo to always leave her laptop in the office, and if she walked around only go with a group of 15 people.

So when I got off the plane, I was completely disoriented. I had to stand in line for like an hour and a half at customs, baggage claim, and finally at the exit. While in line, I stood out like a sore thumb. But not because I was a foreigner, but because of my age and because I was a woman. I guess I'm not the typical business traveler to Brazil. My Sunday night red eye was filled with middle aged bussiness men (I saw one savily dressed woman) and there were definitely no young backpackers or hippies. I guess this bodes well for Brazil's economoy? And yeah, there werew certainly no other young online-advertising-coordinators arriving in SP on this Monday morning. It really makes me stop and say, wow, what a crazy opportunity this is!

Anyway, I was completely relieved that someone was waiting for me at the airport. I don't think after that flight and with my Portugues I would've been able to find my way into the city very well, without maybe getting ripped off. My driver was a nice guy, 30 years old, who spoke great English -- having only learned it here in Brazil (which I'm always really impressed with.) I told him I was learning a bit of Portuguese and we spoke a little bit.

It took about 45 minutes with the traffic to get into the city. From the outskirts you can see the skyline of SP. It's very impressive. I've never seen an stretch of skyscrapers that wrap around almost like a panorama. São Paulo is a city with 12 million people in the city, and 20 million in the metro area. This is bigger than the American metropolises in NY or LA. And it's fascinating! SP feels like a combo of those two -- it's got the verticality of New York and the horizontal breadth of LA. So far, I love it.