The word "accoutrements" makes me think of Mr. Burnett

September 27?? Oops. I let this get way out of hand. Well, I'm blogging today so that it doesn't make an entire month since my last entry. Speaking of months, Brazil and I are celebrating our two-month anniversary today! Yes, it's hard to believe that only two months ago was the first time I laid eyes on this beautiful country, ate my first pão de queijo (↑ check it out!), and... well, then slept for eighteen hours. But it was a beautiful beginning! Now we spend all of our time together and I think we have a very serious future. I love Brazil!

Ok, I don't really know where I'm going with this whole relationship metaphor, but I'm stopping now before it gets out of hand. I don't want it to get too mushy.

I hope you don't mind if this entry is a little more scattered than the others. It's been a while so I obviously have a lot to write about, and I plan on taking the train-of-thought approach. So here comes the first and most obvious topic: the climate. Yes, I'm starting to get used to the heat. It's not incredibly comfortable, but it's not relentless either. It's only spring, so for every few days of infernal heat, we have a day or two of cooler temperatures, rain, fog, or-- at night-- thunderstorms. By "infernal heat" I mean about 30-35º C (86-95º F) and "cooler temperatures" is just anything below 25º C (77º F). For a couple weeks we had REALLY low temperatures and it got down to 15º C (60º F). Crazy! My friends were all wearing scarves and gloves to school which seemed almost ridiculous to someone from Anacortes. But they all gaped at my bare arms and shorts as much as I snickered at their wintry accoutrements. Everyone says that I don't need to worry about it getting any hotter; I just have to say goodbye to those cooler temperatures. They say that by December or January, it's hot 24 hours a day, seven days a week. My mom (my Brazilian mom, Sandra) keeps commenting on how dry the heat feels, while I'm already feeling as if I'm drowning in the humidity. This cannot be a good sign.

But the weather isn't the only thing here that's noticeably hotter than the United States. I had my first night club-ish experience earlier this month and learned a little more about the warmth of the Brazilian culture (to put it delicately). The annual Festa Fantasia was put on by my high school, Colégio Singular. It was a huge costume party that took place in one of the gigantic party rooms at Aramaçan, the health club very near to my house. School dances here in Brazil are different from American ones in a lot of ways. For one, boys and girls don't go as couples which was such a relief to find out after I had spent a couple days fretting about who to ask, what I should say, and how I should do it. Creative homecoming proposals are fun in the Unites States, but the prospect of doing the same thing in a different country after being here for a little over a month was much more daunting. The other major difference was the sheer number of guests. Seniors were responsible for ticket sales (they got to go for free if they sold ten) and people came from all over the place. There were students from my school, kids from other schools here in Santo André, people who came from out of town, and people who don't even go to high school anymore. I guessed there were probably 2-3,000 people there, but I was way off. The number was actually closer to 5,000! The room was totally dark with flashing lights everywhere, a live band in the front, a DJ for between sets, and very little room to move around. It was great! There wasn't really any grinding going on. In fact, there really wasn't much of any "couples dancing" going on. Everyone just danced with everyone. It was so crowded that you just danced with whoever was next to you and once one of you got pushed elsewhere, you just start dancing with someone else. It was pretty crazy.

I said the dance was "hot" because of all the blatant macking. It's a difficult part of the culture to explain, but I'll do my best. Here in Brazil, teenagers can totally make out with each other at a party, and it doesn't have to mean anything. In fact, it rarely does. Many people ficar (literally that means "to stay" or "to be," but in this context it means "to make out," "to mack," or "to suck face passionately without any intention of a relationship or to even call each other the next day") with several people in the same night. The question I kept hearing was, "Kevin, quantas você já pegou?" which translates roughly to "Kevin, how many have you gotten so far?" I wasn't planning on "getting" anyone, but I eventually got tired of people trying to hook me up with someone, so I just lied and said I had ficared with two girls. Well, this was a bad idea, but a good lesson in honesty. By the following Monday at school, everyone wanted to know who the American kid had made out with. Dang it. I should've seen that one coming. So I just said I didn't remember their names (which is a sad yet completely feasible excuse). The next few days were somewhat of a hunt to figure out if the girls even went to our school and, if they did, to find out exactly who they were. I feigned indifference, and just hoped I wouldn't have to explain to everyone that I had simply been lying from the beginning. The funniest part was when one girl from my school actually stepped forward and claimed that one of the girls had been her, which was obviously impossible. The girl was either extremely confused, or more likely just wanted to be in the spotlight for a couple days. I was able to avoid situations in which I would've met this girl face to face, and after a couple of days, the gossip died down. Phew. So, by Friday I had learned two very important lessons:

1. Mom is right. It's always best to tell the truth; and
2. Teenagers are teenagers. Language and nationality are nothing next to hormones and a love for gossip.

So right now I'm watching the Brazilian elections on the news, so I figure it's a good time to tell you all a little bit about this stuff. Brazil has elections every two years and they alternate between federal and municipal. This year it's municipal, so people are voting on mayors and other people to represent and lead their cities. They'll vote for federal and state politicians in 2010. Since the day I arrived, there have been all kinds of campaigning going on here. Some of it isn't too bad. I can handle campaign signs and people waving flags at the corners of every major intersection. What I find nearly unbearable are the giant amplifiers on top of cars plastered with images of politicians, blaring jingles that don't say anything except the candidates names and some nonsense about their policies. The same little jingles are all over the radio and TV as well. I swear, if I hear one more stupid little song telling me to vote for Siraque or Aidan as mayor of Santo André, I'm going to do something awful. But luckily today is election day, which marks the end of all that porcaria. Other interesting fact: it's the law that all Brazilians over 18 MUST vote. Cool, huh? I don't think that would fly very well in the US, but at least they're getting a true majority opinion here. And did you know that Brazil was the first country to use a completely electronic voting process? Again, I don't think that's going to happen in the US anytime soon, but it's really clean and simple, and all the results are in by 9:00 in the evening. Brazilians are really proud of their voting process and how sophisticated it is.

Well, that sure made for an easy transition into the topic of the American election. For those of you who aren't already aware, the entire world is watching our election with almost as much (and in some cases considerably more) interest as we are. People love to ask me which candidate I'm voting for and who I think is going to win. In my writing class at school, we've had a lot of good discussions about both Brazilian and American politics. Isa and I have to be sure to listen carefully to what's going on in the discussions because the class always asks us what the Mexican and American points of view are. Well, I don't know what everyone in the US thinks, but I can usually give them my perspective and tell them what I think the general American opinion is. Most people are relieved to hear that I'm not an avid supporter of President Bush and that I will of course be voting for Obama. However, I've spoken with others who didn't like Obama's words about the Amazon rain forest. I didn't hear or read his statement, but apparently he said that it's the world's responsibility to protect the rain forest against deforestation because it's a highly unique and integral part of the Earth's environment and, consequently, belongs to everyone. Well, the average Brazilian is all for protecting the rain forest, but they don't quite agree that it belongs to everyone. Afterall, it is on Brazilian soil. A few people are suspicious of Obama's intentions. Anyway, it's humbling to see our election from a foreign perspective. It makes me feel really privileged to vote in this election. I arranged for my ballot to arrive down here in time for me to vote and send it back before election day, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I'll probably be going to the American Consulate in São Paulo to cast my vote on November 4th. Cool!

Ok, I feel like this is getting dull, and I'm pretty tired of writing. So I'm going to post some pictures and call it quits for today. However, I'll post some more tomorrow because it's been a long time since I put anything up here and there's a lot more to say! Before I go, I want to tell you about a really weird dream I had last night. I was with a few Brazilian friends (I think it was Everton and Nathália? I don't quite remember...) and we were walking around my friend Sam's high school. Sam's American and lives on the Kitsap Peninsula, for those of you who don't already know. But anyway, it was passing time and we were looking for Sam, but we couldn't find him at all. So I went to the main office to ask the secretary (Cyndi Walters, the secretary at Anacortes High School) what his next class was. While she was looking it up, my fifth grade teacher, Ms. Sherwood, walked up and asked me in English how I was liking Brazil. I told her that I refused to speak in English as long as I was in Brazil (apparently Sam's school is in Brazil...) and that I was liking it very much. Then she started speaking Portuguese with me and asked me all the questions that people always ask me here: Where are you from in the US? What food do you like best here? What did you think about Brazil before you arrived? What do you think now? All those questions that I get really really REALLY tired of answering. Eventually she invited me over to her house to try some Brazilian pizza, gave me a hug, and mosied on back to teach her fifth grade challenge class. Weird. Then Cyndi told me which room Sam was in and I was heading there with my Brazilian friends when I woke up. Sorry I didn't get to hang out with you in my dream, Sam. But anyway, that's all an example of the weird culture mixing that's going on in my dreams. It was all in Portuguese (except for Ms. Sherwood's first line), but everything else was just majorly mixed up! I hardly ever remember my dreams, so I was really excited when I realized I had remembered this one. I would like to hear any dream analyses that you guys might come up with for me, because I have no idea what any of that is supposed so mean!

So I'm leaving for real now. Thanks for reading, and I'll provide another update tomorrow that includes some information about what I've learned to cook, my experiences at Brazilians bars, what exactly a churrasco is, and this cool German party I went to on Friday. See you then.

Muito amor!

Some of the exchange students in Santos!















My costume for the Festa Fantasia. Peace out.














My mom, Sandra, in my wig.















And my grandma, Paulina!
(Wigged as well)