I think the honeymoon period with the yoghurt is over. I bought some graviola flavour yoghurt the other day cos there was no honey flavoured, but it tasted like bile. Or like that taste you always have in your throat after you’ve thrown up. The weird thing about supermarkets here, is the stock levels are always very inconsistent. One day you can go and buy honey yoghurt for example, and then for a week or two, there’s none. Then there’s thousands of honey flavoured but no strawberry…Neno, because he’s quite old (haha), lived through the time in Brasil when the currency was really unstable. He said you’d go to the supermarket one day and buy bread for $2.00, then the next morning it would be $5.00, then that afternoon it would be $11.00 and so on. Stories about what they had to live through here are hard to believe.
Anyway, despite the yogurt fiasco, I have decided that Brasil is definitely the place for me. I am going to live here forever. Apart from everything else that I love, I would live here solely for the fact that it’s considered beautiful to have a big butt and “strong” legs. At first, I was quite offended when people started commenting on my ass, but women here spend thousands going to the gym to bulk up their lower body. It’s just so strange to me. On Friday, a woman at work told me I look Brazilian because of this, and then me and Carlos were talking to a woman and her daughter at the hospital, and the mother started touching my legs and telling me they were beautiful. Wtf?!? And on Saturday night I was talking to this woman who works in Recife Antigo – a little crazy actually – and she did the same. Awkwaaaard. So for this reason, Brasil is going to be my new home J
This week at work I visited IMIP hospital (pronounced im-e-pe. Brazilians – in the northeast anyway – always add eeee to the end of all words…regardless of weather or not an e is present). It’s a hospital for pregnant women and infants. Although it’s a public Hospital, I was quite surprised at the quality of it…the building was run down and the waiting rooms full, the lines endless, but it seemed a way nicer place than the other public hospitals in Recife. Me and Carlos talked to a few different women, and I saw the cutest baby in the world, who was only 3 days old and couldn’t open his eyes, but was continuously smiling. Awwwwww. The main problem at this hospital was the lack of doctors and nurses, so people were still waiting for hours and hours and hours. But at least it was a nice end to my work at ADUSEPS.
There’s a man – Thiago – working at ADUSEPS now as the communications director for Renê’s election campaign and he’s a little strange. He shares the same office as me, and always wants to use my computer to search for information about god…then he writes big fact sheets up about weather there’s scientific proof of god or not. And every day he tells me he’s gonna miss me when I leave. This makes me angry for some reason. Actually, I think most people at ADUSEPS must think I’m some sort of psychopath, just yesterday, a woman who works with us walked past our room and popped in to say hi. After she left, Thiago asked if I liked her, when I answered of course I do, he said “but you don’t like me do you?” Haha…But as soon as I’m friendly with someone, they get all creepy, like the guy who sent me thousands of messages and stuff on Orkut and Facebook.
Apart from that, work has been pretty gay. I don’t have much to do now that I only have a week left. I think maybe this week I’ll just chill at the beach. And plan my travels to the Amazon.
But outside of work, I’ve been very busy. On Monday, Neno came to Boa Viagem and took me out for lunch for my birthday. That stretched my birthday celebrations to five days! We had macaxeira (the root vegetable kinda similar to kumara) and chicken Dona Maria. This is chicken that is cooked in chicken blood. It was so so good. Perfect, but this is one dish that I don’t think I’d have the stomach to actually cook, so it’s not going on my list. Neno gave me a birthday present (the only birthday present I got. Although Renand gave me chocolate, and Grace gave me a little cake thing cos she forgot it was my birthday). He gave me some earrings with little silver dragonflies on, and a keyring and some Romeo and Juliet chocolate. Then we went to the beach and played in the sand, and went for a long walk. (Remember the email I wrote before I came here and was being silly saying I liked candlelit dinners and long walks on the beach?? That was basically my birthday!! It was perfect).
We also met a famous Brazilian football player called Shampoo. He was so hilarious. He has the biggest head in the world, that’s emphasized by his humongous hair. He’s so famous because he plays for Ibis…the worst team in the world. Seriously. If you look in Guinness World Record, they’re there. They lost 70 games in a row. How is that even possible?? But they’ve canned the team now cos they were so awful, and so Shampoo now works as a hairdresser. It’s so perfect when you see his hair. Neno bought me a documentary about him and he signed it for me J
On Tuesday night I went to Burburinho’s with Julian and some of his friends. Actually, first I went to the bookstore and bought a book about travelling around Brasil and now I’m so so excited about it! I’m going to the Amazon for sure. But then I went to Burburinho’s and had a couple of beers, a couple of pastels and a couple of caiprioskas. Burburinho’s is my favorite place. Then me and Julian went and bought some more beer and went back to his place so I could visit Marcela, his fiancé. We soon finished the beer, so went to the petrol station and bought more. It actually turned into a long night, but they’re really cool. Then I had to stay over at their place cos the buses had stopped at midnight.
On Wednesday I went to Burburinho’s again – just to meet Neno there this time – although we did have a drink or two, then we went to Marco Zero, the square in front of the sea in Recife Antigo, and just chilled out really. On Thursday we went to Burburinho’s AGAIN, and had a few drinks. All the staff there knows me, and the manager in particular is such a sweetheart and always comes and chats while I wait for Neno. After a few drinks I went home and Neno went to work.
On Thursday afternoon, a new trainee came to Brasil from England, called Steph. She moved in with us and a few of the AIESECers came and we all went to the local market for some food. Steph is so cool. I’ve only known her for about four days, but already she’s by far my favourite trainee ever! She’s so happy and easy to talk to and has the most awesome English accent. Apart from one very large exception, all of us trainees have got on really well, but I wish Steph had been here since the beginning…it would have been way more awesome.
On Friday, I got to work quite early and then took a really long lunch and went shopping. I walked to Casa de Cultura which used to be a prison. It’s a huge absolutely beautiful building…high ceilings, cast iron railings, rickety stairs…and each prison cell has been converted to a cute little store selling artisan crafts and products. I bought a few little presents and a necklace for myself made from acaí seeds…beautiful red beads. And I was feeling a little sad so they cheered me up J On my way to Casa de Cultura, I passed this road with lots of little kiosks that sold fish and aquarium stuff. It was weird cos there was maybe half a kilometer of aquarium shops. Do the people in this area have some strange shopping-for-fish addiction? And wouldn’t it be more profitable for the venders if they spread out over the city? I guess the thinking is, if you want a fish, you know where to go. Anyway, all of that aside, it was so beautiful because they had the fish inside little jars and inside little bags, and they were all strung up on the fence. It was a little cruel, but still beautiful.
Then, on Friday night, I met Neno at Burburinho’s again. Haha. We had one quick drink, then went to Renata’s house. Renata is an old friend of Neno, and I’d heard lots of stories about her from several of Neno’s friends, but I thought she was lovely. We had a few drinks at her house, and then we all went to Downtown, the nightclub where Neno works. I had lots of fun…dancing and talking and drinking. The only problem was, Renata can really hold her drink, so I was struggling to keep up. Also, I didn’t pay for any drinks at all, so that wasn’t limiting me either. Eventually I had to stop. She’s the first person I’ve met who can drink me under the table. At about 4am, the club was emptying, so we all left and went down to Garagem. It’s the pub/bar that is a mechanic’s in the daytime, but on Fridays and Saturdays they play sweet as rock music and sell beer. It was an awesome place, although the clientele is a little on the dodgy side. Also, when I arrived I smacked into a piece of steel hanging down and cut my forehead open. Haha. Then Neno got me some ice from the bar, and I held that in place, which gave me ice burns…so now I have a cut and lots of red ice-burned skin.
Renata had paid for a taxi for the whole night…she has her own personal driver. So he stayed outside the bars while we were inside, then drove us to the next place, then drove us home. It was quite cool, but sad when you think how this highlights the problems of Brasil – the rich-poor divide.
I got home at about 7am and slept a bit, then had some lunch (including a litre of yogurt) and just chatted with Steph. Then I had another small sleep and went to Burburinho’s with Neno. Haha. There’s a joke going now that this is my house. We had quite a few drinks this time, and were joined at various times by people walking past that we knew. This is another thing I love about Recife. All the bars are outside and really laidback, and everyone’s so lovely, that you usually meet loads of people you know, or just make friends with random people going past.
Afterwards, I went to Downtown again. There was a band playing covers of Coldplay, which was awesome, then, after a break, they came back and played songs from The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel. Even though I was by myself, I had loads of fun. Neno was working in the upstairs bar with two other guys, and although they won’t speak to me, they always keep an eye on me, and I see them talking to Neno all the time about me. I think I passed the test though, cos some guy came to talk to me, and I told him I didn’t speak Portuguese, then, when he kept harassing me, I told him to leave me alone. And so they told Neno that I’m a “good girlfriend”. It’s a bit awkward actually, but some of the other guys who work there are cool. One guy in particular – Albert – is crazy but I really like him. I went to his birthday party this one time, which was full of more crazy gay men (Albert is gay also). And every time I see him he kisses me hello, either on the hand or the top of my head, but instead of actually kissing, he sniffs me. It’s very odd.
And another guy who works there is really funny. He thinks he can speak English, so whenever English people come in to Downtown, he talks to them. He’s always like “Don’t worry, I speak English. Leave it to me.” Then he goes and spews out random English phrases. He has no idea what they mean he just says them. They have this bell in Downtown behind the bar, that they ring for fun sometimes, and this one time, at band camp, he spread his arms out wide and shouted “My people!!” Then he rang the bell, spread his arms out again and shouted “Please don’t go!!” Man that was funny. But he’s too ashamed to talk to me in English cos he knows I know. Haha.
But, good times. When we left, me and Neno spent about an hour on the beach in Boa Viagem, just being silly and taking pictures, and talking about life in general. Everyday he surprises me more. I got home at about 6 or 7am and slept until 1pm J So I’ve had another nice week. But I feel like I have to go out all the time and see everyone cos I’m leaving in only nine days now!!
