Minha vida, minha história, meu amor- Corinthians

One week? Really? It's only been a week? I can't believe it! It feels like I've been here a month. Brazil is fantastic and I'm having a really difficult time deciding the best way to tell everyone about it. I guess I'll just do it chronologically...

The journey was long. The three flights combined took about eighteen hours, but I was not without adequate snacks (thanks Mom!). During my first flight, I sat between an intimidating teenager about my age and a really lame businessman who made a few pathetic attempts at chipper conversation. I don't much like plane-talk. I prefer to wait until the very end of the flight before I ask any personally invasive questions. But L.A. was the last place I had to worry about awkward small-talk because on the next two flights, I had three seats all to myself. Yeah, both flights. Weird, huh? Oh yeah, and in Lima I got to walk on the tarmac, just like in the movies. Way cool.

My resolution to speak only Portuguese didn't last long. Daniel, my host brother, speaks English really well and has spent the last week showing me around and introducing me to friends. He was my first and best Brazilian friend! I say "was" because he left Sunday night for Canada. Very sad, but I know how exciting (and scary!) it must be for him. Good luck to you, Bassani!

Sandra is my mom, and she is absolutely wonderful. I don't always know what's going on, but she does her best to explain everything to me. She speaks English pretty well, too. But we've mostly been speaking in Portuguese. She's a psychologist and she works from home. Paulina is my grandmother and she doesn't speak a word of English. We have a really difficult time understanding each other's accents, so we just end up laughing together a lot. She's particularly interested in all my "girl"friends at home. Every time I show her a photo with a girl in it, she asks, "É sua enamorada?" No Paulina. That isn't my girlfriend. But she usually doesn't believe me.

I live in what I think is a pretty typical house for Santo André. It's one story, has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a good-sized kitchen, a nice little courtyard, and a T.V. room out back. Our little dog, Snoopy, stays in the courtyard most of the time and when he misbehaves (usually by dashing between our legs into the kitchen) we put him up on the dryer as punishment. He doesn't seem to understand that he could jump down safely if he wanted to.

Last week was extremely busy. On Wednesday I went to the cursinho with Daniel to meet his friends. It's a school that exists to prepare high school graduates for the huge test they have to take in order to get into college. There are about 150 kids in each class, and it's all lecture style. However, some teachers are definitely more interesting than others. I met a lot of Daniel's friends and met some people he didn't even know. Everyone is pretty anxious to meet the American exchange student, and so far, everyone is extremely friendly and helpful. Brazil is a very warm and hospitable country.

That evening, Daniel and I went to his music conservatory to say goodbye to some of his friends there, and I had some of my first completely Portuguese conversations. Legal! Then we went to the Rotary meeting at a very upscale restaurant-- Restaurante Baby Beef. I know. I thought the same thing. "Baby Beef?" But the names of lots of stores and restaurants here are in English, and I'm getting used to some of the weird phrasing. Daniel and I were hoping to score a free dinner at the meeting, but they were only serving cocktails and h'ordeuvres. We were pretty starving when we returned home at about eleven, but Sandra made sure we were well taken care of. She and Paulina are GREAT cooks, and they always seem to have something ready to serve.

On Thursday morning, I went to school with Daniel again. Sandra suggested that I stay home to catch up on some sleep, but I hate to be at home sleeping when I could be making friends and bettering my Portuguese. Plus, the sixteen hours of sleep I got when I arrived seemed plenty enough to last me the next few days. When we got home, my exchange counselor called the house and told Sandra that he was going to pick me up at 7:00 in order to attend a very formal and exclusive party. The only jacket I had was my Rotary blazer (complete with dozens of pins from different countries, as is tradition), so I felt a little like a clown, but people were as friendly as always and it just served as a good conversation starter. It was a very fancy party with lots of important business people and elected officials. We "mingled" for a couple hours, then they presented some awards, and we had dinner. We left at about 1:30, just when people were getting out of their seats to start dancing to the Brazilian rock music. Overall, the whole party was difficult and pretty awkward, but very fun and great for my Portuguese skills.

Friday was the real party. Daniel's friends convinced him to throw a going away party in the cabana of his friend’s apartment complex, so Sandra bought us some pizza and drinks, and we had an all-night party with 30+ of Daniel's best friends. Hands down, this was the highlight of my Brazilian experience so far. I had some really great conversations in both English and Portuguese and formed a lot of meaningful friendships. One of the main topics of discussion was, of course, futebol. Here, everyone talks about soccer. It really is the national passion. When we have nothing to talk about in the United States, we talk about the weather. In Brazil, we talk about soccer. It's something that everyone has in common.

My friends had spent the week explaining all the different teams to me, and now they demanded I choose a side. I chose Corinthians (which sounds like "Corinchas" in Portuguese) becuase I knew they had the most supporters. Selfish, I know, but I'm trying to make as many friends as possible here! Corinthians recently moved down to the second division, so their loyal fans take a lot of crap, and their jerseys are black and white, so the players and fans are often referred to as gambás. Skunks. Apparently, lots of criminals support Corinthians because their fanbase is notoriously... well... in jail. A lot of people say that the safest time to be on the streets is during a Corinthians game. But every team here has it's quirks. I started supporting them out of necessity, but now I can honestly say I have a passion for the team, which is ridiculous because I haven't even seen them play before. Here in Brazil, a lot of people start conversations by asking me which team I support, and I either have to defend my opinion against endless trash talk (which I'm getting pretty good at dishing back) or people get all excited and start yelling their heads off. And when I say "people," I'm including myself.

So at the party, we talked (screamed) a lot about soccer and my friend Dino taught me one of the Corinthians team songs (so far it's been a great trick to perform in the middle of large groups of people). We also sat around and sang a bunch of songs to the guitar. A few were in English, but most were in Portuguese. I was completely lost most of the time, but it was still really fun. I learned some of the words and was able to sing along a little, to the great enjoyment of all my new friends. At about 4:30 in the morning, I fell asleep on a table and we all left about half an hour later. A perfect night.

The next couple of days I spent hanging out with Daniel and observing him cope with the prospect of doing exactly what I had done less than a week ago. All his family came on Saturday night and we had a really roudy dinner. It's hard to know which I liked more-- listening to Daniel's god father make jokes about Corinthians, or eavesdropping on all the old people talking about hospitals, doctors, and medication for two hours. Both were sources of great amusement.

Daniel's departure was a sad one for the whole family, but he called us when he arrived and said he made it okay and was doing well in Canada. So we've officially switched places, and neither one of us will see our home until next July. Weird? Yes. Exciting? YES!

I started high school yesterday. It's a little scarier without Daniel there to introduce me and help me with my Portuguese, but I've made a lot of friends already and I like school a lot. There is also another Rotary exchange student in my class named Isabel. She's been here for a month and speaks Portuguese really well, so I know there's hope for me!

So I'm going to go now, because I've been writing for a ridiciously long time. I hope you've all enjoyed hearing a little about my life here. I tried to make this post worth the wait. And thanks to all of you who have sent me e-mails and messages with good wishes. It really means a lot to me.

Thanks for tuning in!

Kevin

PS: Here are a few photos of my life here. The first couple are of my room, and the others are from the party. Enjoy!