Last Day at Mangueira

This is way late, but I'd be upset if I never blogged about it!

My last class sessions at the favela were actually the sweetest things in the world, pt. 1 and 2. Deciding Wednesday morning to get on a plane Friday at 1pm, I panicked on the way to work and said that though Wednesday would be my last afternoon I would go in Friday morning. Wednesday afternoon, we did the usual then danced and played games for two extra hours with the elderly who also hang out in the library at that time. They served a three-course snack and all the kids stayed until 5:00. They all said very upbeat goodbyes and ran out the door, which is a huge contrast to my farewell to the morning class.

I was questioning my decision to go in Friday morning (I was afraid I wouldn´t get a taxi from the favela, and that I might be late to the airport.) I told them on Wednesday that I would be in from 9-10 to say goodbye, keeping in mind we usually don´t start class until 9:45 so expecting them a touch earlier than usual. All the kids were there AT nine when I got there, before the coordinators with the keys, waiting outside the locked gate. They sat in a circle around me and asked to hold my backpack for me and played with my hair and asked me how to say flight in English and basically broke my heart. Then we went inside and ate the cookies I had brought while they all gave me their email addresses. When I had to get in a taxi, they all hugged and kissed me about 6 times and waved from the gate. One of the girls gave me a towel with her name on it as a present.

Now I have to start thinking about how to present about the experience for Carleton. There's so much to say! Also I kind of want to really continue communication not only with the kids but with the library and project. I got the address of the it so that I (or you!) can send letters or postcards or books or supplies (they literally have nothing but white paper and crayons) when I get back.


I can't believe I leave tomorrow. I'm back from BA and it's about 35 degrees warmer and I had my last dinner here and am getting ready for my last caipirinhas and last night out. On the plus side, talk to you all so soon! Will blog tomorrow if I get wifi in GIG/JFK.

Alt64

I don´t think I´ve ever become so enamored with a place so quickly. I love Rio with a deep gritty love because I lived there and my kids are there and it has warmth and beaches and familiarity but Buenos Aires has an incredible charm that makes me want to pack up and move here ASAP. Today I saw Evitas grave and watched a couple make out in Recoleta cemetary. I had Dolce de Leite and medialunas and a toastada. I talked to like 8 really friendly people and bought art from a street fair. I took pictures but am too lazy to post them. The post about my last day at the favela will come as soon as I figure that out.

In love with this city,
Leah

Also a man in the internet cafe told me the way you do the @ sign is to hold down Alt then press 64 on the number pad. DUH!

Hey from BA

Quick notes about Buenos Aires:
1. This is the hardest keyboard I have ever had to use. Good thing James shitty laptop helped me not to use quotation marks, I don{t understand how here. Also no at sign makes it hard to log into the facebook and the question mark is in a crazy spot.
2. It is only like 60 degrees outside, which is colder than Rio (I know right who am I going on vacation somewhere cold), but the people here are big fat babies and wear down jackets and coats with fur and mittens and scarves and rub their hands together like it is frigid. Also EVERYBODY EVERYBODY is in boots and all I have is flipflops which induce stares galore.
3. I went to the best restaurant of my life. For $50 pesos which is like maybe $17 you get unlimited bread fries, fully stocked buffet, and meat meat meat many kinds of meat, dessert, and your own bottle of wine.
4. Nights out here don{t start until about 2am. We went to this really hilarious club where everyone had really dumb jagged hipster haircuts and wore sunglasses and danced jerkily. The place itself was ENORMOUS three huge rooms four bars and a huge outside area with beds (like remember that Sex and the City episode where they go to Bed the bar and Carrie tells whats his names friends that he was bad in bed? that one?)
5. I am in a really good hostel. The guy at the computer next to me just gave me m and ms and everybody is friendly and they arrange so many things for the young folks. Also, the way to get in the door is with your FINGERPRINT how cool is that? Like your computer, Pieh!

Tomorrow I am going on a bike tour maybe or seeing the grave of Evita. IT IS UP IN THE AIR!

I had my last day of work this morning and cried on the taxi on the way out of the favela. I will blog about it tomorrow when I have more time and can load pictures maybe. I am going to miss those kids like crazy.

Night darlings, I am going to go join the singalong downstairs (maybe they will play Closing Time?)

GUESS WHO'S GOING TO BUENOS AIRES

Me. It's me.
I booked a flight for Friday - Wednesday on a whim this morning.
Exchange rate 3 Argentinian pesos to 1 USD. You're all getting cheap wine.

Classing it up at the H. Stern

FINALLY today it was sunny again. So even though we went to bed at 7 this morning, Sally, Danielle and I dragged our butts up to go to Ipanema at 11 and work on our taaaans. It was a really lovely day at the beach (I listened to that mix CD I made last year with t.A.t.U. and that cover of Sigur Ros) and we got quilo lunch/dinner after from this place called New Natural. Walking around Ipanema, we decided to stop by the H. Stern museum. This may have been the most surreal museum visit of my life. We were ushered in, asked our names and nationalities, and given fancy nametags. They showed us a table with free caipirinhas (com alcool!), juices, fancy crackers, or chocolate. A man then escorted us to the elevator and took us up to a floor where we got individual headphones and a narrated tour of the gem process. When we returned the headphones, a well-groomed woman named Huckadee (something like this, it was really strange and ended in -dee) took us down a different set of stairs to a private table and brought out this huge selection of expensive emerald, topaz, amethyst, and diamond rings. Even after we said we weren't interested in purchasing anything, she still insisted that we try them on. When we were finished, she disappeared again and returned with lush black boxes that when opened revealed three different gemstones, our gifts for visiting the museum. Huckadee or whatever then escorted us to the showroom, where we were offered another drink and shown the "classic" and "contemporary" collections. Meanwhile, we were still wearing bikini tops under our dirty t-shirts, covered in sand, and sporting R$2 street jewelry. Danielle still had unblended sunscreen on her arm.

I guess they had to give the benefit of the doubt as potential buyers, but it was pretty obvious that none of us would drop 6,400 on an emerald necklace. At the very end of the tour, we were ushered into a waiting room with glass doors facing the street outside and told to wait for four minutes while they prepared the shuttle back to our hotel. So for absolutely no price whatsoever, we got a museum tour, alcohol, authentic gemstones, and a free ride home. It was a long ride, though: while a cab can drive from Ipanema to Catete (our street) in about 10 minutes, this van decided to travel through Copacabana, past the Botanical Gardens, around Corcovado, and through the neighborhoods of Gavea, Botafogo, and Flamengo before dropping us at Largo do Machado. (That sentence was mostly to show off how well I know the 'hoods of the city by the way. You don't really care how far the van drove.) Also at one point the driver stopped and hopped out for 10 minutes to meet someone in a dark street. At Largo do Machado we got waxes at the salon and churros on the street. GOOD DAY.

One of the dumbest/best things about this country is the forward men. I was told I was beautiful on the street seven different times today. My self confidence is going to plummet when I get back to the U.S. When I lose the last of the tan, I don't know what I'm gonna do. By then, though, I should be so heavily buried in schoolwork that I won't give a care. SPEAKING OF, everyone, I'll be back at Carleton at or around the 27th. You know what that means. I'll be in America with phone access again beginning the 22nd. That's nine days away. Good heavens.

If I ever join a dating service this will be my photo.

These are those dudes that tan standing up all day. At first I thought they were so unnecessarily many lifeguards. Also it feels really good to see white people at the beach that I'm darker than (aka the couple on the right.)

Best compliment

Last night on the street at Lapa I was talking to this Brazilian man, who began the conversation with the usual "you are verr beautiful whererrr you from?" I told him America, and he asked me questions for about two more minutes in English before interrupting to tell me "your English, it is very good."
Aww, thanks dude.

RioGym // So many masks

Oh man, so after months (weeks, I just unwittingly exaggerated) of passing RioGym, I decided to pay the R$10 daypass fee last night and go. My leg's being kind of a pain (HA good one am I right?) and getting really sore when I run or do anything high-impact, and I figured a foreign gym would be an experience in itself. I was right!

I stepped into a spinning class, something I've never done. It turned out to be THE most intense fitness class I've ever taken. Harder than Russ, harder than Shelly, harder than crazy cardio-kickboxing lady. It was additionally confusing trying to comprehend instructions beyond the pulsating music (it's easier to push when you know the end is coming but I had no idea). Also, the instructor turned out the lights to add to the intensity. And I didn't have a towel. But Sandstorm was on the playlist. Anyway, I felt like throwing up several times which is an effective workout, and my leg didn't hurt while I was biking AND the class was next to a thai boxing class with a lot of attractive men so it was worth the pain. Mounted on the wall of the weight room were large sculptures of ideal torsos: a front of ripped abs and pecs for men, and the backside of a woman with a HUGE butt. Also everybody wears spandex here to work out and the music was far better than Jack.fm (they played Lil' Wayne!).

Today I made masks with the children. The morning class took their time, spending the entire two hours adding intricate details to theirs. The afternoon class threw glue and glitter everywhere and kept asking for more masks (each left with about four).

Kassia decided she needed two masks at once.

His was actually quite scary. It looks like Squidward from Futurama or the Elephant Man.

The one without a mask sticking her tongue out is my new co-volunteer, Danielle. She's 27 and from South London and has a forreal Cockney accent.

I know this is blurry but how cute right?!

Also we watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics in the background; I didn't realize how long it was. Or how awesome. And I'm sorry, Project Runway, but not all the costumes look "athletic." Would the Japanese women really compete in those dresses? Brazil's athletes had really stupid hats, and you could tell some of the younger competitors were a little embarrassed because they took them off and waved them.

No a computador AGORA

(That means online NOW)

Guess what: we have a rat in the house! which should be in no way surprising as it's next to a huge garden and is over 100 years old. This rat has provided far more entertainment than it probably should. Sally thought she saw a tail disappear behind the old-as bookshelf in our computer room when she was drunk on Saturday morning, but she wasn't sure. Then someone else saw it run behind the bookcase Tuesday evening, and last night in the kitchen, another volunteer and I saw it run from the hallway under the oven, then again from under the oven to a different part of the kitchen. What makes this lil' retelling amusing is that one of the grown men in the house freeeeeeeaked out when he heard about the rat and ran to his room. This prompted Sally and I, sick of the sheer boredom of going from a house of 30 to a house of 9 and desiring to take advantage of Brian the semi-pervy Irish guy, to run to the store, buy some random vegetable whose name I don't remember in English much less Portuguese, and fashion a fake rat to leave random places around the house. PROBLEM IS now they think we never had a real rat and are calling off the exterminators. OOPS I feel like a sheepish nine-year-old.

In other news, I'm working with someone new at the project, who's so much easier to work with than my previous co-volunteer it's almost unbelievable. Yesterday we played bingo for the full two hours and they loved it; turns out I'm actually working with elderly Americans. The bus stops by police have become a regular part of the trip home. I've been questioned every time but have only had to get off the bus that once. I've started bringing my ID.

My Portuguese somehow became somewhat proficient; I had a full conversation with a cab driver last night and can now understand my kids about 75% of the time. They call me one of four names: Leah (very rarely), Mia (again for some reason the translation of my name), Tia (sounds like "chia," this one means Aunt and is what I get the most), or Profesora (which rolls together like pfffessssra) when they really need my attention. I still get confused by no, the Portuguese word for on and in, which makes every billboard look really negative. NO Rua do Catete, no sua marcado local, no casa, etc. (Nao means no but sounds like "now" so you see where the confusion ensues?) Also, I recently learned moro and morro mean live and die, respectively. The children asked me vai a mora em Rio? and I was all like "NO what are you suggesting?!" For the most part, though, I'm maintaining a tenuous grasp on the language, preparing for my week outside the city when I won't be with English-speaking people and I'll need all the communication tools I can get. I THINK I MIGHT GO BUNGEE JUMPING during that time. But I'm not sure yet. XTREME Rio?!

Oh here are some pictures of things:

This is Flamengo Beach, where I run every day (or did at least until I did something silly to my leg).

A gorgeous picture of Luara, the 8-year-old love of my life. I let her win twice at bingo.

This is a random picture from my birthday. Fist pumps are big in Rio.

Too many parentheticals?

Hi,
The past few days have been really eventful in ways that aren't really interesting to blog about. (I know about the preposition-ending but it would have been more awkward to switch the wording, no?) I don't want to get behind, though, so I'll give the update on the birfday etc.

Thursday night was the celebration of my birthday/most of the group's last night/PARTYTIME. The group of 16 that I came with all went out to PizzaKilo (that's not the real name, it's not even a kilo restaurant it's a buffet, these waiters bring around pizzas and you can take a slice of whatever you want, I had two beef stroganoff pizzas among others, they also have dessert pizza which tastes just like when you put bread in chocolate fondue), then to Casa de Matriz, acclaimed by guidebooks as the most hipster of Rio's clubs. The last night activities were really sweet, two from our group organized an award ceremony with joke awards for everybody. I got made fun of for running the stairs to the beach for exercise. You all can be comforted to know I haven't changed much.

Anyway, a birthday in Rio allowed me to start drinking well before I actually turned 21, and drinks in Rio are STRONG, and my friends were generous so I definitely had the 21st birthday experience one is supposed to have. I got in from the club (I'm not really sure how many hipsters were actually there, I remember seeing a waify model but nobody here wears American Apparel so it's hard to tell. The DJ played some old Clap Your Hands Say Yeah I guess, but probs its label was a misnomer) at 6:45 and had birthday cake for breakfast.

Everybody left Friday, which made for an emotional, kind of hollow actual birthday. Anna and I went to the beach, and I had an acai, and in true August 1st birthday fashion it was hot as hell (WINTER IT'S WINTER HERE) but saying goodbye sucks. Living and working in a strange city with few people that speak English bonds people in a really unique way, and as much as I anticipated falling in love with the city and being indifferent about the housemates, I lucked into getting the best of both worlds. Also, the new people seem pretty cool and I'm fully intending to make the most of my next two weeks (ONLY TWO MORE WEEKS) in Rio. Then it's one week of travel (Paraty/Buzios/Iguassu/I dunno yet) and then HOME. I need a new drivers license.