Oh, men

As can be expected, last week I had two men, and now I have none. I was supposed to meet Vinícius one day and he never showed up, so I thought he was no longer interested in me. Later that day, with friends of his, I met Bruno, and ended up staying at Bruno's that night. Turns out that Vini and Bruno are friends, so for a while, both wanted nothing to do with me, then Bruno did again, and now he doesn't. It's kind of confusing. Singleness can be freeing, but having someone to cuddle with is nice too.
The classes I'm in are the following:

FAFICH - Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Sociais (School of Philosophy and Social Sciences)Student Number: 2007550479

Departamento de História (History Department)
HIS031P - Tópicos em História Moderna: Formas de resistência política na Europa, Amêrica Espanhola e Amêrica Portuguesa (Topics in Modern History: Forms of Political Resistence in Europe, Spanish America, and Portuguese America)Friday, 2pm-5:40pm, FAFICH 3044, 4 credits
HIS032K - Transição democrática e Relações Civis-Miltares no Cone Sul (Democratic Transition and Civil-Military Relations in the Southern Cone [of South America])Wednesday, 2pm-5:40pm, FAFICH 3044, 4 credits

Departamento de Ciências Sociais (Social Sciences Department)
SOA071A - Tópicos em Sociologia: Sociologia da Educação (Topics in Sociology: The Sociology of Education)Monday and Wednesday, 9:30am-11:10am, FAFICH 3042, 4 credits
SOA071F - Tópicos em Sociologia: Sociologia da Criminalidade (Topics in Sociology: The Sociology of Criminality)Monday, 7pm-10:40pm, FAFICH 3040, 4 credits (most of the class is conducted on the Internet)


You probably think that it's difficult to comprehend a class entirely in Portuguese. It is. But I'm making my way through it. The teachers I understand, since they take the effort to usually enunciate a little better. When fellow students talk though, most of it usually goes over my head. In the case of the Transition class, for example, we've spent the last 2 weeks talking about sociological theory about the military. It's very abstract to me, and even if I understand all the words, it doesn't always coalesce to a coherent thought in my head; even if it were in English, wouldn't make any sense either. I hear that teachers are usually somewhat lenient with exchange students, and I think my language ability is someone better than most of the other exchange studets, so I'm not really worried.

By now, I've gotten quite comfortable with the university, and with the downtown here (where I shop, and transfer to my second bus to-and-from school). I still feel like everyone looks at me funny, cuz I'm just about the whitest person I ever see, aside from the exchange students who are French or American. I can pretty much get whatever I need done done, but I wouldn't call myself fluent, and certainly not comfortable in every situation. One challenge that makes itself apparent everywhere, is my lack of knowledge of the snacks here. They all look the same; fried balls or pockets, which on the outside give no hint of their contained goodness (such as chicken, ham and cheese, corn, beef, etc.). So I constantly have to say, "Oh, what's in this? Oh, ok. Can I have the triangle-y one? Thanks!" I'm getting better though.

I was in a 1.99 store the other day (our dollar stores, and full of cheap crap from China, of course), and I wanted a can opener, since I recently got a can of tuna with no finger-pull-handle-opener thingy. I saw plenty of kitchen tools, but no can opener. So I asked one of the people working there, if they had can openers. "Ah, I see. But in the U.S., where I'm from, we have this kind of can opener with two arms, and you put it on the can, and turn the handle... / Oh, well you guys are a First World country! You could find something like that in (insert fancy store name here), but not in this store. / But the American stores like this, with cheap stuff, we have that kind of can opener. / Really? (genuine surprise on her part)..."

I didn't get a can opener. But Lara did point out to me these metal things she has that you put on a can rim and wiggle it all around, do the hokey-pokey, and the can opens. Tada! I'll try using it eventually, when I want tuna again.

Speaking of cans, it's damn near impossible to find canned beans here; they're all in bags. I hate cooking beans, so anytime I want beans in the house, it's been imported lentils, or I think once I was able to get some sort of pinto beans. I'm sure I'll have to crumble and cook beans eventually. Usually, I make pasta, with tomato sauce, and cut up pepper and onion and add that too. It's quite filling, quite easy, and probably quite healthy.

And, there's almost never soap in public bathrooms. The water's always cold. And more often than not, there's one toilet paper dispenser above two stalls, to be shared between the two, or what I saw in some bathrooms, the toilet paper is outside the stalls, so you have to go and gather a wad before you go in. It makes sense, and just requires a little more planning, but it is different. And annoying when you poop and don't know how much you're going to need.

Returning to feeling comfortable with the university, I've met so many gay guys, it's kind of scary. I hear there's no official gay group, so people just kind of informally meet, and really that's how it works! If you go to any neutral hangout area, be it grass, a Diretoria Acadêmica (basically a student lounge), or benches - an area with no explicit purpose to be there except just to be - you will find gay guys and their faghags, and the requisite lesbians as well. It makes sense, but it just seems so much more explicit here to me. Maybe the society is less accepting, or what's most likely the case is that it's just a different society and I'm still not quite capable of interpreting all the attitudes that people have. The fact that just about everyone of the gay guys I've met here greets and says good bye with a kiss on the cheek (with guys), certainly indicates a different norm here. I like it, of course.

Sunday, the Pet Shop Boys are playing here. I may buy a ticket from a friend if I can meet up with other friends of hers that are going; I don't want to go myself.

According to a 12-step guide to studying abroad, missing home starts at a certain time. I think I kinda miss New York about now. But I'm looking forward to meeting more Brazilian hotties enough that the homesickness isn't taking too much of a toll on me. I buy boxes of assorted chocolates from time to time (like I did yesterday) to establish the continuity of orgasmic chocolate in my life here. I ate 4 already today, I think; I better stop.

And for all of you curious critters out there, the time difference is now only one hour ahead of Eastern Time now, since we here in Brazil stopped Daylight Savings Time, and you Americans just started.