In São Paulo

Wow, I'm traveling alone! I've never done this before!

I've just arrived in São Paulo after spending a few days in Campinas (a suburb of São Paulo) with my friend Juliana from Vassar. It was great to see her, and lovely to relax in the luxury of an upper-middle class home, family meals, swimming pool and doting parents included. I've been enjoying reading, which I haven't really done in a year or two (just audiobooks). I read Hannah Arrendt's On Violence, and now I've started Freire's Pedagogy of Freedom. I'm remember how fun it is to read great books, and it's surprisingly easy to get back in the swing of it. I feel like I'm training a bit to get back in shape for school next fall!

Arriving in São Paulo this evening, I realized that only once before in my life have I been alone in a city where I don't know anyone (and that was just the happenstance of being caught overnight in Las Vegas when I didn't make my connecting flight). I'm staying in a youth hostel for the first time in years, and it's sweet to hear all the languages washing over me as I write this. I'm planning to do some museum visiting tomorrow. I'm particularly excited about the Museum of Sacred Art, housed in an old monastery.

I'm still trying to figure out the difference and appropriate uses of tudo bom and tudo bem (which cover a wide range of english phrases such as "how's it going" "everything alright?" "it's all good" "what's up" "you cool?" etc). They are unfortunately not interchangeable however, because I've been corrected more than once. If anyone knows, please tell me...

I'm not sure my next plan. I may go to a beach town to spend a couple more days with Juliana and her family on vacation, or I may go Santos to crash a few days of the Warriors without Weapons training conference. Or, I may head straight back to Rio. The uncertainty feels fun tonight, but it may feel scary tomorrow. I guess once it feels scary, I'll just need to decide. :)

Well, I'm hungry so I'm going to see if I can find some food before everything closes. 

Beijos,

Marcus

p.s. I've really enjoyed hearing from people, so thank you so much. Please keep it coming...in two sentence comments here, in short or long emails, or telepathic messages if you can manage. Also, I've got a Skype telephone number now...it allows me to make unlimited calls to U.S. landlines and cell phones, and to receive calls to an east bay phone number. Lemme know if you want it.

I could talk about...

I realized that I’ve been delaying posting because I want to convey something deep and meaningful about my experience here, and it’s quite hard to do that. I keep imagining titles for pieces, so I decided to take a page out of the interplay playbook and let you know all the things I could write about, without actually writing in depth about them. Maybe sometime I will...

I could write about kids sleeping on the streets.
I could write about people partying every night in Lapa.
I could write about humidity, and what it does to cars, to houses, to people.
I could write about the Rio dialect, and turning every s into sh.
I could write about couchsurfing.com, the nature of friendship, social awkwardness, and loneliness.

I could write about climbing sugarloaf, and watching the sunset.

I could write about the most dangerous city and the largest urban forest in the world.

I could write about depression.

I could write about fireworks on Copacabana beach.

I could write about not kissing anyone on New Year’s Eve.
I could write about setting up a hammock on the deck.
I could write about half-broken internet connections, and skype calls that keep getting interrupted.
I could write about hopes for tomorrow, and next week, and next fall.
I could write about playfully covering my face when I confess that I am an American.
I could write about old men telling me I’m like God, and about being told I can be a Brazilian because I speak eight words of Portuguese.

I could write about telling myself what I should do, and promptly proceeding not to do it.

I could write about the three kids who tried to steal my friend’s purse because we didn’t give them money when they asked, and about the eyes of an eight year old as I glared and made him run away.
I could write about waking up sweating every morning.
I could write about an idealized version of myself, who is excited by every new experience.
I could write about the German consol who lives next door.
I could write about lying on the beach reading Hannah Arendt.

I could write about the signs telling us how many people died or were injured on a street.

I could write about rituals, a sea-goddess, wearing white, and all the reasons to drink alcohol.
I could write about a dread-locked artist on the beach who made me a guitar bookmark and told me he wanted to be friends before asking for a donation.
I could write about collecting cans that are thrown onto the ground.
I could write about the botanical gardens created by the Portuguese royal family.

I could write about wondering whether to take a bus at night.
I could write about the price of an apple laptop, and the average wage in Rio.
I could write about emails that never get returned, and emails that I never return.

I could write about the largest image of Christ in the world, arms spread open and uncrucified, visible from every part of the city.
I could write about the way you walk to look tough and aware, and the way I walked before I turned twelve, and before anyone told me to walk differently.
I could write about wanting to adventure and missing home.

Playing with Coconut on my Birthday

(longer, richer post coming soon)

A Lagoa e a feira hippie

Well, yesterday the internet went out (it's a bit fickle and quite devious), so I didn't have a chance to post these pictures that we took at the lake. It's like Lake Merritt, but with a lot more street vendors and crazy two person bike-carriages for rent, which I completely forgot to get a picture of.

Dominic talked about imagining what it would have been like to come upon this sight before any development. Basically you would climb a hill, and then see a huge lake with beautiful mountains on either side, then a strip of forest, then the ocean. You'd really need a panoramic view to visualize it, so you'll just have to make it down here sometime. Here's his daughter Alice.

And, of course, what good would an urban lake be without paddleboat swans?

Today I made it to the Hippie Fair (literally, "a Feira Hippie"), which I've been excited about since I got here. Sadly it was no better than any other street fair in any major city, and there weren't any real hippies in sight. Well, much worse than some, I guess. I think the really fun fair happens in Copacabana, so I'll have to find that one next weekend. I was successful in purchasing a great rug though! It, combined with some of Dominic's boxes covered with Indian silks, has moved me a great deal further in my room transformation.

Learning Portugeuse is incredibly difficult, but I think Pimsleur has paid off, because I've been much complemented on my accent (even if Alice corrects everything I say). 

Today I also found out about an organization called Circus School Pequeno Tigre (Little Tiger), where I could potentially volunteer by teaching theater with kids. I'm planning to get in touch tomorrow, and I'm really excited about the possibility of doing some theater with kids.

Boa noite,

M

I got an acceptance letter!!!

Really, all of Brazil is overshadowed by receiving an acceptance letter to Starr King tonight. I'm a little amazed because I wasn't expecting to find out quite this soon. I'm completely thrilled, and wishing I could celebrate with everyone in the bay area, but I'm sure I'll find a way to celebrate here. :)

Anyway, that really is the most exciting news, and I'm off to bed now. Dom has a big day of fun planned for tomorrow it sounds like, which will be great, but I think we're waking up fairly early.

Saw Ipanema, didn't find the girl

I took my first (and second) bus ride today. I'm feeling more and more comfortable here each day. Today I even managed to get around, order food, and buy a beach cloth without helplessly telling everyone I saw "eu não falo muito portuguêse." With Martina's help the beach cloth has transformed my room, which we had begun referring to as gitmo due to the loose cut wires and stark white up, down, and all around.

Anyway, while I was Ipanema, and Martina had a meeting with some video producers here for the project she's working on, I took a walk down the postcard beach. I made sure to get a tree in the picture that I took from on top of a big hill at the end, so it would be clear it wasn't a postcard. I guess the cloudy day helps too...

I drank fresh coconut water, and lay on the beach for an hour or so when the sun came out. We ate at a quilogramara, a buffet restaurant where you pay by the weight, and although the food wasn't great, it was cute little place. Martina asked me at one point if I had thought at all about staying here (for a long time), and it was sweet to realize that the main reason that I know that I don't want to because of the incredible amount of community I have in the bay area. I feel so close to so many people, and I can't imagine giving any of you up to live in another part of the world.

I also realized that I've been a bit stressed about what I'm doing here exactly, and meaning and purpose and all, especially because I don't speak portuguese and Martina and Dom are so focussed on what they're doing. I'm looking forward to making some Brazilian friends, and I'm going to call the Theater of the Oppressed center tomorrow and see if anyone speaks english. I know I will find meaningful stuff to do, so I think I just need to relax a little, mostly, while pursuing the things I want to do at the same time. As Dom wisely wrote to me, things tend to work out quite late in the day here, or not at all, it's part of the charm of the place.

We finished the day by visiting praia vermelho (the red beach), and it wasn't red at all...I guess it's a different light you need to see it by. From the beach you can see Pão de Açúcar (sugarloaf mountain) from the "other" side. 

Well, I'm going to study a bit more portuguese before we have our nightly ritual of watching last night's daily show and then go to bed.

Boa noite!

Marcus

The Housemates

In a minute I'm going to write a bit about today, but first here's the addendum to yesterday's post...

The lovely porch...

...And the view from the porch (if you squint you can see Christ...he's much bigger in person)

I networked our computers so that we can all use the internet from Dom's "dongle," which is a device that gets good broadband speeds from the 3G cellular network. Now, of course, we don't do anything else. Here's Martina,

and Dominic,

and me :)