Ready to go home?

The Festival MIX Brasil in the Palácio das Artes. I got a poster for it! -->

I finished school on Friday, July 7th, so since then, I've been going out with friends, especially Katrina and others who make up the group of Americans taking the intensive Portuguese program at UFMG - some of them will stay to study for the semester, others, like Katrina, simply return next Monday. There was a Sexual Diversity film festival (MIX Brasil) at the Palácio das Artes, and I saw about 4 feature films and 4 sets of short movies, all for free. Since my last posting in late April, I've gone to Florianópolis and São Paulo in early May. I thought I'd be spending 6 days in Florianópolis, but I met an American girl in the hostel there who was studying in São Paulo, and she implied I'd be able to stay at her house were I to come there. That impelled me to visit, as I also have a good friend, Arian, there, who I hadn't seen in 4 years - I met him when he was finishing up high school in the US and then moved back to Brazil in 2003. I changed my flight back to Belo Horizonte, and spent 3 days in São Paulo. I loved it. It really was what I was needing, after 2.5 months here in Belo Horizonte, what many people call the roça, or countryside, I needed some citylife. My last night in São Paulo, there was a Virada Cultural, a day of programming from 6pm to 6pm, going all night; I went to the museum of the Portuguese Language, saw some musical performances, a mural making, and got my groove on. Like in most cities, we ended the night at a McDonalds.

At the gay parade in São Paulo: "Kiss our friend" and "Kiss me, only women" are the signs held up. -->

Then I spent the next month here in Belo Horizonte, working away at school - writing my first big paper towards the end of May, which was due in like April. We had another short vacation, Corpus Christi, around June 7th, so I went to São Paulo for the Gay parade, and it was splendid. I mean, lots of gay guys + lots of Brazilians = lots of Brazilian gay guys - what could be any better. Interestingly enough, the day before the parade I saw a rally against the Israeli occupation, in the same place (Avenida Paulista), and there was a Palestinian woman dancing, and a play to sort of reenact the formation of Israeli, and the occupation. I got a sticker from there, so I'm happy. I went to a club the night before the parade, Danger, and met a guy with whom I made out extensively; we exchanged numbers and emails, and he didn't respond to any of my calls the next day to hang out, as I'd be going out the next night. However, about a week ago, he finally said hi on MSN, saying he was without Internet access for a while. He's from Florianópolis, so it's not really worth pursuing anyway, only a 22 hour bus ride away!

My American friend Mindy, with whom I made palha italiana, a chocolate cookie type thing, which ended up being mean to me since it got really hard and so to take pieces of it, I had to use a knife. Since I'm a dumbass, I was cutting, cutting, and drove the knife into my hand. For the last week, I haven't really been able to move my left ring finger independently of the others. --->

I'd say the biggest development has been that I've been dating a couple, starting in late May. One of them had seen me on the internal bus at UFMG, and then later on Orkut in a gay community there. When we started talking on MSN, he said that what caught his attention was that I was awkward (atrapilhado), lacking the swagger of the Brazilian, and, in sum, that I was different. He and his boyfriend have had a relationship for 2 years, being open in a way, to them hooking up with other guys. So the 2nd time I met him, we hooked up in the bathrooms at the university. Afterwards, he had told his boyfriend about me, and I started talking with him. Slowly we developed a discourse on polyamory and developing a relationship of 3 ways, being more than simply a menage. They affirmed that they'd been looking for something new in their relationship, and here I was! To date, we've collectively hooked up (sex) only twice, and hung out maybe 10 times. This weekend, we're going to Ouro Preto for the weekend, staying in the house of a cousin of a friend of theirs. Recently, though, my temper flared with one of them, and it really surprised him. He later said that I'd have the remainder of my time here to reconquistar him, redoing in 2 weeks what I'd done in 2 months. On one hand, I try to defend myself, explain that my temper flares from time to time. (All that simply happened was that I was talking about our trip together, and he didn't understand. When he didn't understand, I got a little irate. He then put his hand on me and asked me not to get mad. It was precisely at that moment that I got mad, pulling his hand off of me, and then making a kicking motion with my knee at the level of his stomach. I didn't hurt him or anything. But, my attitude was certainly a flared one, one that shattered the image he may of had of me being sweet and docile.) On the other hand, I have a total of 10 days left around Belo Horizonte, as I'm travelling for 2.5 weeks starting next week -- therefore, I feel it's not really worth overthinking too much. That's been my attitude while I've been going out with them; it's better to keep things light so I don't get in over my head and then go nuts when I leave.

Claudia, my Argentinean friend, getting ready at the dorms as we go to Confessionário, a gay club (2 of the 3 times I've gone, I ended up taking a guy home) -->

In general, Brazilian gay guys are pretty flaky. And it's still even hard to develop something with the two of them. Of course, the fact that they have been together for 2 years significantly changes the dynamic. They're both quite busy boys, working and going to school, so the schedules don't always sync up for us to always hang out, and during the last month of school, I was pretty busy too, so even the hour-long dinners I had done at times with one of them proved difficult to arrange.

Whatever. I'm mostly looking forward to being back in the US with a new head, as my friend Lucas says. I want to be back with people I know, and people i don't know, and treat them better, be more outgoing, warm - I don't know - simply apply the lessons I've learned on interpersonal relationships. I'm also looking forward to my upcoming travels, and the inevitable hookups that should result should I go into bars or really just about anywhere.

My travels are going to happen after the gay parade here in Belo Horizonte, which I've been looking forward to for months. I'm going to Salvador, Bahia, in the NE of the Brazil next Tuesday, and I stay til the following Tuesday. I have a friend, Roberta, who I met in the hostel in Rio, who is now working in a hostel in Morro de São Paulo, and I plan to either stay with a friend of hers for a few days, or stay in her hostel at a discount she'll give me.

Then the following Tuesday, 31/7, I fly to Buenos Aires, where I'll be until Thursday, 9/8. I have two friends there, and another who will pass through from 2-4/8. Also, a bunch of exchange students are from Tucumán, in the north of Argentina - only 18 hours by bus away from BA! - and I'd like to go there for a couple days.

Andrea in the stripes, Argentinean, at an exhibit of her and others' artwork at the UFMG Cultural Center -->

I deliberately scheduled my return to BH for a Thursday, so that that weekend I can have fun with my friends and the next semester of exchange students. Friday and Monday, also, there will probably be capoeira training, and I'd like to go to it, like I did last night for the first time in 2 weeks. (I'm not sure if I'll continue capoeira when I get back in the US, it's been sort of a pastime, and not something that I really fell in love with.)

Then I finally leave the roça on Wednesday, August 15th. I want to go to dinner in Philly on Friday, August 17th, and then see Elayne, my foster mom, in the hosptial after she enters for surgery on the 20th to remove a growth in her spine which is making her left hand weak. I do hope she doesn't become a something-plegic. :( Then I start training for my 3rd year of helping out with NYU's Welcome Weeks (freshmen orientation) on Wednesday the 22nd.

I.e., I feel like it's already September, as I already have every morsel of the rest of my summer planned out.

You're probably wondering (as I am myself) what I've gotten out of my time here. The principal lesson would be that people are really the same all over the world, the same desires, hopes, failings, vices. Of course, people do have their differences. In Brazil, I would agree that the people have more fun, and are more friendly towards other people. Here, if you're eating something, and don't offer it to someone around you, it's seen as a lack of education, so everyone always offers what they're eating or drinking to others ("aceita?") - I'll definitely try to do more of that in the states, though I'm sure it'll freak some people out. People touch each other more, and I don't mean just like in the private parts, I mean when I'm talking with someone, they put their hand on my shoulder. I do that, but usually only with like boyfriends, not with just anyone. I'm starting to loosen up though. In general, people seem to be more flaky. I think when cell phone service is absurdly expensive, it comes from that. People just don't put as much emphasis on, well, any sort of time-related committment, which is somewhat admirable. However, people throughout Brazil see the inhabitant of São Paulo as overworking and hurried, the same vision Americans have of New Yorkers. I think most differences in the US and Brazil can be linked to a rural-urban distinction. It's just interesting that here in Belo Horizonte, it's a big city, but with quite a rural sensibility. I often think BH has a lot in common with Philadelphia.

I'll try to update more throughout my upcoming trips to Salvador and Buenos Aires.

Beijos!

and thus I am adapted

** there are lots of pix below, sorry though for the screwed-up order of them - blame Blogger **

Yeah, I disappeared...e daí? (so what?) I've been busy abrasileirando-me. It's been an interesting month. I went to Rio with the exchange students in the beginning of April, and I'll be going to Florianópolis, a city in the south, where there are 2 students at NYU (Laura and Jimmy) studying at the Federal University there. Unfortunately, Laura was going to be able to put me up, but there's some drama with the building's landlady, so I currently have no where to stay - I'm possibly thinking in cancelling and going to a city in the interior of Minas where I have a friend, but I should take advantage of the fact that I already bought the ticket, and that I miss travelling alone. As you can imagine, traveling with 12 other students and staying in a hostel in Rio can be a bit difficult at times.
The first night, I went to a soccer game at the Maracanã stadium. I never saw people set off fireworks in a stadium, but aside from that, it didn't seem too unexpected or crazy. It might have felt that way since I was among a group of foreigners, and we were surrounded with people from this one company named something like "Don't be a gringo!" Still, in front and behind me were some actual real live Brasilians (no shit!) and hearing the kids launch all kinds of curses at the field was kinda funny. Sure, our kids do it too, but hearing kids curse curses that you learned as a sort of essentialization of the banalities of Portuguese is different. Vai tomar no cú! was a standard (take it in the ass!) - when I got back to the hostel, Roberta, the girl who was working there, and who now has transferred to work at a hostel in Bahia, told me someone told her they heard a kid say Vai tomar no cú até sair feijão! - Take it in the ass until beans come out! I use that with some of my friends now. Quaint, huh?
We went on the trolley that goes through Santa Tereza, a neighborhood full of beautiful houses, and also makes certain routes that provide wonderful views of the valley. That felt typcially Brazilian - it was completely full when we went there, and so maybe 3 of us (not me for long, since I'm kinda of a wussy), were hanging on the outside, along with 30 other people, aside from the 40 or 50 people seated within the trolley. Certain stretches of the ride had no railings or anything on the bridge/overpass - it definitely makes the Brazilians more agile. I also remember seeing here in Belo Horizonte, a kid hop on the backend of the bus I was on, and put his arm in the door to hold on, while staying on the outside, and he rode for about 10 blocks, sneaking inside when the bus would stop so the change-man (who looks back to make sure everyone's gotten off and then tells the driver to close the doors) wouldn't see him. I couldn't stop smiling when I saw that, but noone else seemed especially amused nor pissed. The Brazilian, I'm told, is accustomed to being passive, and that's why even amidst such grave social disparities and governmental corruption, popular mobiliziation is minimal. Brazilians have been told that they shouldn't complain, and that Brazil is tranquil, with samba, and beautiful women, and beautiful beaches, so just chill - ever since the colonial period - this is what a friend in History tells me. I'll return to protest later.
We went to Copacabana beach that first day, and I surely proceeded to burn myself, as I put on SPF 15 only, and then laid about 2 hours on both sides - thankfully mostly on my stomach, so my back is what got roasted. Walking around shirtless in the hostel for the next few days was a trip, as everyone felt my pain on seeing me, especially the other whities from say, Australia, the US, the UK. I got some blisters on my shoulder, and Lucas, my friend I made from Araxá, in the interior of Minas, who was staying at the hostel, went with me to buy a cream to help them heal. By the end of our stay there (about 5 days), they had almost all healed.
I walked around the Lapa neighborhood alot, and on Saturday, it was just with Claudia, my friend from Argentina, who last week was among the group of people with whom I went to a gay club here in BH. Lapa is full of 1800's buildings, and quite beautiful. Claudia and I found a spectacular street fair full of antiques and retro things. One man passing by a stand was a casting agent, and gave me his card, thinking I'd be a good actor, so if I ever find myself in Rio again, and with the intention to get into acting, I have who to call. I think he gave a card to Claudia too.
Of course, we saw the Cristo Redentor (Christ Redeemer) on Corcovado Hill - see the correlating pictures..
One day we were all together, we went to a pizzaria, and summarily got sickened by the tomato-sauce-less pizza. Apparently, the base of pizzas here is just cheese, not sauce and cheese as we Americans, and also my Italiana friends, are used to. Benoit, from France, is a bit lactose-intolerant, so he asked for a certain pizza (chicken and mushroom, I think), and told the waiter he can't eat cheese. Benoit asked, can you make it without cheese? / No, that's how the pizzas are made, but sure, you can take it off with your hand, it's not that much. Bullshit - it must have been a half inch thick of cheese on the entire pizza. So Benoit complained, and the manager agreed to make a special serving of pizza without cheese for him, which was very nice, and Benoit liked his special pizza. As he was still hungry, he went to the nearby McDonalds, where we had all considered going if we hadn't been able to find another restaurant. I ended up wanting to try an apple pie, so I did - it was probably R$2.25, about $1, for aone pie (for Brazilians, it's quite expensive, whereas for us Americans, it's the cheapest of the dreck). It tasted just about the same, and a few days ago, when I mentioned my having bought an apple pie, the person I was talking to recoiled, considering it kinda slimy. But I liked it. :)
Near that McDonalds (yes we're still in Rio), I bought a Charlie Chaplin-type straw hat, from an Uruguayan artisan, for R$10. After that, we went to the Museu da República, where a large part of the exhibits are devoted to former president Getúlio Vargas, who was almost a cult figure in the 40s and 50s. He committed suicide, and the gun he used, the shirt he was wearing, and even the bullet that found itself in his body, are on display. The building itself was formerly the Presidential Residence, until Rio ceased to be the capital in 1960 (giving way to Brasília), so the room he slept in is there too. IT was a bit eerie. My camera was dying, so I only managed to take one picture of the shirt and gun.
Orlando and Alan, who I had befriended here in UFMG, as they were working for Itaú, a credit card company, selling student cards, visited me in the hostel - they had wanted to travel, so they decided to come to Rio and stay in the exact same hostel where I was staying (with my help telling them where it was, and that iwas cheap of course - this wasn't exactly a surprise. Nevertheless, it was quite refreshing to wake up Friday morning and see them in the living room of the hostel. Story behind them: a few weeks earlier, I was in UFMG, and with Leandro, a friend of a friend- this was the first night I'd met him. The boys stopped him in the Letras cantina, and I was sticking around cuz I had nothing better to do, and I wanted to continue to be around cute boys. Alan, Leandro, and myself went outside, continuing the conversation. Alan said that if Leandro filled out a form (they have a certain quota of forms to get filled, even if someone doesn't want a card), he could kiss their friend, Wiverson, who was sitting at the table. Leandro, who was becoming late for some dance class I think, eventually ceded way once Alan invited Wiverson outside. The two of them went up a staircase to a nook outside the building, and invited me, so I figured I'd go along. At that moment, Orlando, who had also been sitting at the table, and also works for Itaú, appeared - until that point, I hadn't really seen him or thought of him much. Leandro and Wiverson started making out, and so did myself and Orlando. Brazil is fun.
Orlando, Alan, and myself, realized that in the hostel, there were some other gay guys, so we created our own little gang of homos. Jack (Jacolino), Luiz, and Lucas were the others. Later that night, we went to Le Boy, apparently the most well-known gay bar in all of Rio, and for good reason. It's just like the club in Queer as Folk, huge, and pulsating to the beat of silly gay electronica and Madonna, etc. (or bate-cabelo as they call it, hairbanger, technically). I met another guy there, Carlos, who lives in Juiz de Fora, a town in Minas about 3 hours from BH, in the direction of Rio. He hasn't returned my messages though. Go figure.
So that's Rio. The bus ride was 7 hours. For Florianópolis, there's a trip from UFMG that's going, for some library sciences conference, but they're going by bus, and I don't think I can handle 20+ hours each way, though I'm sure it'd be an adventure. I'm taking an airplane, with a total flight time of about 2.5 hours, and a cost of R$550 roundtrip ($275), whih I hear is typical. There was an offer going around of GOL giving yo ua flight to Floripa for $50 each way, but it's nowhere to be found on the website. I was going to be accompanied by Mindy, from Wisconsin, but she had trouble buying the ticket with her credit card (as did I, but thankfully, I have an American Express, just about the only card the website accepts that's foreign).
I went out with Orlando about 2 weeks ago, and he was supposed to call me to invite me to a handball game he was playing at, but he never did, and I asked Alan about it, who told me the game wasn't gonna happen. I've called Alan (Orlando's phone is on the fritz), emailed and left Orkut messages for Orlando, but to no avail. Pooey. Also, about a month ago, I went to COnfessionário, a club here in BH, for the birthday of André, one of the guys I met the first time I went out at night in February. There, I met Oziel, who André referred to as, oh, you're taking advantage of the sabor da terra, huh? (Flavor of the earth), just cuz he's quite dark. I thought Oziel was maybe 21, 23, 25 - turns out he's 33. Brazilians conserve themselves well here - I joked with Oziel that it mut rain formaldehyde here. I've been seeing him every once in a while. Still, I'd prefer Orlando get back in touch with me. It helps that he's 19, more my age range, and more my life stage.
Everyone says I speak Portuguese so well, and when they ask how long I've been here - 2 months, I tell them - they are amazed -- and you can speak Portuguese so well? Well, I tell them, I took classes in the US. They have Portuguese classes in the US? Noone thinks that anyone learns Portuguese outside of Brazil, which isnt a totally invalid assumption. I think I'm almost fluent - I often find myself talking faster than I'm thinking, not really realizing that i t happens to be Portuguese the language I'm speaking. Last night, Natália, a friend who studies English at UFMG, invited me to an English phonology class, sayig the the teacher says wrong things sometimes. (She has the right to comment as she went to an English international high school in Saudi Arabia for 4 years.) Heert for heart, cayterpillar for caterpillar, but it wasnt like that. I wasn't able to mess with her like some friends said I might be able to, especially if the teacher were Thaïs, an especially disliked teacher for being so pompous about her English prowess. Still, it was interesting,and at times a bit over my head since they use the International Phonetic Alphabet, which I learned a bit in my one linguistics class at NYU, but still it's all IPA to me. Most of the pronunciation was correct, or at least as correct as Brazilians can speak it with their accent, which I must say, is a cute accent. :)
So that's my life here. I'm putting off writing some papers that I need to do - one for my Criminality class, about the Subculture theory of why crime happens - one for my Political Resistance class on how uprisings in the UK in the 1700s over the price of grain relates to the economic situation - and another on some articles for my Sociology of Education class.
Speaking of Political Resistance, there's a movement at UFMG to try to lower the price of entry into the cafeteria. For me entry is R$2.50, as it is anyone who doesnt have the economically disadvantaged student card (or the poorcard as my friend Vinícius calls it), while for the lowest level it's only $0.75. The movement wants the price for everyone to be $0.75, since eating lunch and dinner at the cafeteria (bandejão) can become expensive once done everyday, and may mean that some have to go hungry, or spend less on other things (like the damn expensive copies that you have to get constantly here). So a group of students decided to jump the turnstiles at the cafeteria, as their pleas for the administration to bargain with them were ignored. Of course, the univ says they offered to bargain, but the students continued being intrasigent (the word used here, which even in english i dont entirely understand). Last Friday, they closed the cafeteria. The posters affixed by the movement say that the univ refused to bargain. Each side says shit about the other side, as usual. The cafeteria was reopened on Tuesday, but the movement is still continuing, trying to get the administration to talk with them about lowering the entrance fee. Wednesday during my afternoon class, there was a truck going around with a loudspeaker, making announcements to rally up students. There have been protests, but they keep happening when I have capoeira at noon. Oh yeah, speaking of which, I went to a berimbau workshop on Sunday - that's the instrument used in capoeira - it looks like an archery bow with a gourd towards the bottom, and you hit it with a stick, while holding a little rock to and away from the wire. So I made one, though with a lot of help from Meque, my teacher, since the workshop actually started Saturday, but I didn't get there since Friday night, I went to Confessionário with all of my gay friends and faghags (including Claudia, as previously mentioned), and we didn't get back to the dorms until 6am. And, no, I didn't pick up any guys. :-P
The berimbau will be an interesting thing to bring back to the States. Probably customs'll think it's a weapon, but other people say that they must be accustomed to tourists coming back from Brazil with strange things. I probably can't bring back a cute boy though.
So I really like this atmosphere of protest at UFMG, though a lot of people are fed up with the political drama nature of it. I'm fed up with the fact that there are so many other things that students could be caring about in society, but neveryheless, the limited timespan of university studies (all over the world) makes students think, oh, I don't have to complain or protest, since I'll be out of here soon, so I'll just accomodate myself to it. Meh. Nevertheless, it's certainly fascinating.
OK it's 3am and my papers are due, like, last week, so I should get to work.


Raquel, during her contortionism show at Confessionário

Thiago (Jimmy) and Raquel, in Pampulha, near the dorms, at a pet store

Chilling at the dorms
Me peeling the pole for my berimbau

Getúlio Vargas' shirt, gun, and bullet of his suicide

On Ipanema Beach during our last night there - we would end up spelling Ipanema with our bodies - Andreas (Greek) has a picture - after having realized that there's no samba in Ipanema, no matter what someone was told

On Ipanema Beach during our last day there

Sambaing with Carla and others at a party at UFMG

Jimmy and Silvio in the dorms before we went to Confessionário

Back: John (from São Paulo), Claudia (Argentinean) , Alan, me, Orlando
Front: Andrea (Argentinean), Luiz, Jack, some Chilean guy

Claudia, me, Florent, Fabien, Benoit (all French), Laura (Italian), Nico (Fr.), Valeria (Uruguayan) at Corcovado

Claudia taking pix at the Cristo

Hmm, take a guess

McDonalds in Lapa

El Misti Hostel - note they do favela tours - how disgusting...

At a jogo in the Maraca stadium

Walking in downtown Rio

Walking in Lapa

The Santa Tereza bonde (trolley)

Below: Getting to Rio, seeing a woman wearing fio dental (buttfloss), and the subway in Rio