A Rant and a Sunday Night Rave

Well, that didn't last long, did it? I said I was going to be updating every Sunday and here I am on Wednesday night, writing the blog entry that should have been written three days ago. No excuses, just laziness. But here I am, ready to describe a few details of my ever-changing life down here. Let's get started.

There are countless English words that have seeped into the Portuguese language. There are many words like sanduíche, picape (pickup), site, internet, email, business, marketing, and flyer, not to mention countless mispronounced titles, names, places, and greetings. But of the innumerable English words that we use here in Brazil, none stands out as glaringly as the word shopping. I partly say this because it is so clearly NOT a words of latin descent, and partly because it is used outside of its original English context. Here the word means "mall". It means "the mall". As in "I'm going to the mall," in normal English. But in Brazilian Portuguese, we say "I'm going to the shopping." All the native English speakers I know here find this as amusing as it is confusing. I find it a little irritating because it's a constant reminder that English is and always will be inescapable. Here I am, minding my own beeswax, trying to learn an exotic new romance language when BAM! Here comes the ol' English-mobile, throwing out linguistic treats for all the little girls and boys. Seriously, half the television shows are in English with Portuguese subtitles, nearly all the names of the stores inside the shopping are in English (Surf Shop, Authentic Feet, China in Box), over 80% of the movies in the cinemas are imported from the US, AND everyone is dying for an excuse to practice their English on a real live natural born speaker. Gah! Leave me alone, you wretched, invasive language of mine! I'm seeing someone else for a while! Her name is Portuguese and she's way more interesting than YOU ever were! I feel like Wayne Campbell sitting in that diner while his ex-girlfriend, Stacy, keeps making eyes at him and eventually comes over and gives him an entirely useless gun rack for their would-be anniversary. Just leave me alone you intrusive wench!

Alright, where was I going with that? Oh right. Shopping. So I went to the Shopping ABC last Wednesday with a few of my exchange student friends, since there isn't really a good place to just hang out around here. A couple of my Brazilian friends came too because they heard there were going to be a few Mexican girls there. Well, they weren't disappointed. We didn't know what to do for a while, but in the end, the girls just went around shopping for bikinis and shoes while the guys sat around on the couches that they have in the hallways. It all seemed a little pointless, but it was really fun. The whole thing was a serious mental workout with all the switching from English to Portuguese. Plus, I'm always thankful for something to do in the afternoon. Brazilians don't really get the concept of hanging out-- just going somewhere to do nothing in particular with some good friends-- so it's hard to know what to suggest when you want to hang out with your friends.

That night I went home and got really sick. It only lasted for about twelve hours, but I was seriously shaking and cold when I went to bed, and then woke up burning hot with a terrible headache and aching all over my body. I just lay there for the whole night, sleeping 20 minutes at a time. When I finally managed to drag myself out of bed to ask my mom for some good pain medicine, she insisted I was feeling so bad because I had eaten next to nothing the day before. I was irritated because all I wanted was a pill and some mass sympathy. Plus, as confirmed by my American mom, you can't get sick like that from just skipping a meal. But Sandra is Brazilian and knows everything, so let it be. Afterall, she takes good care of me, even if she's a little too pragmatic at times.

By Friday, I was feeling well enough to go to my last day of school. It was really chill, with minimal lectures and a heightened amount of conversation. My math teacher walked the classroom through their weekend leading up to their test on Sunday and I got nervous even though I wasn't even going to be taking the test! He made it a big dramatic event that included special diets, an altered sleep schedule, and literally smacking the test on Sunday to show it who's boss. In the end, we all got in a circle, held hands, and he led us in a shouted prayer about our futures. It was seriously hilarious.

I skipped my last class with all my friends to play around on the athletic courts. It was my class, 3C2, against our friendly rival 3C5. First we all played capture the flag, which was full of creative tricks. At one point, about five of our guys crowded around the flag and then ran off in separate directions. Most of the guys were caught, but none of them had the flag. Then Artur crossed over to our side and pulled the flag out of his shirt, gaining another point for our team. Apparently, anything goes in Brazil. Unfortunately, the next time Artur tried to get creative, he ended up falling about ten feet onto his back. He grabbed the flag, and then scaled the wall to a metal bar that ran parallel to the ground. After shimmeying for a few seconds toward our side of the court, the bar just broke and he came tumbling down with it. The game stopped and just about all of us were crying with laughter. That's when we decided to switch to dodgeball. Well, we should have stuck with capture the flag because 3C5 finally got the best of us, winning 2 out of the 3 games. But it was still some of the most fun an intense dodgeball I've ever played.

That evening was a fun night of barhopping with some of my best friends. We started at a birthday party, and then worked out way down the main social strip of Santo André. The last bar was the funnest, with endless toasts to my nationality, my president-elect Barack Obama, and my pullover. I had chosen this night to make my self-conscious debut of my awesome argyle sweater vest, and it was noticed by all my friends. No one here wears sweater vests, so I stuck out a little more than usual. Luckily, they all just thought it was cool and American, so all the comments were impressed. Phew. We got home at about 2 AM and I had a lazy Saturday while all my friends were studying for the test of their lives that would be on Sunday.

After the test on Sunday, I went to a party put on by my school for all the seniors that were finally done with the Fuvest. It was at a pretty cool club in neighboring São Bernardo. There were a ton of people from all over the city, and the dancing got really fun and rowdy. Most of the music was played by the DJ, but the main headliner of the night was a band of teachers from Colégio Singular. There were five of them. Three of them I didn't know, but my math teacher, Marco Polo, would be playing drums, and my exceedingly dull and adored history teacher, João, would be on vocals and lead guitar. I thought it would be interesting, but apparently my expectations were low, because it ended up being the best part of the night! They played all kinds of music, and everyone was so excited to see them perform. And they were actually really good, too! João freaking ripped it up on the guitar and his voice didn't resemble his normal drone at all. I got some fun photos, but I had to leave early. I was getting up really early the next day to take a day trip with some other exchange students. But more on that next week. I'm supposed to be posting these on Sundays remember?

Anyway, here are a few photos for you to enjoy. Please excuse any terrible typos or spelling errors for now. It's past midnight and I don't feel like going through and editing my work right now. Maybe I'll get around to it tomorrow. In any case, Happy Thanksgiving! Eat some delicious turkey and pie for me.

Love you all.

Kevin

One of the numerous Christmas displays at Shopping ABC. It's been up since October!
My friend Lucas juggling a soccer ball during the break at school.
My friends Camila, Renata, Eliza, and Flávia from school
Capture the flag! (Pegue bandeira)
Some guys from 3C2 with our beloved João. The chalk represents the cigarette that he always has in hand when he's not in the classroom. I was actually a little cold that day. Weird...
João playing his guitar and wailin' his sweet voice on Sunday night. This was awesome.
And the crowd goes wild!
Me, Everton, two girls I don't know very well, and Bia on the right. Don't mind the weird look on my face.