Minha familia brasileira

Last week my Brasilian family took me out to eat sushi. I never knew sushi existed in Brasil. I should have known. The event was to celebrate my 8 days here. Awww!

From left to right is me (duh), my tia Rosa Maria, minha mãe Terezinha, a friend, of Vanessa the daughter of the family, and Brian who is another student of the family but the filho of the best friend my minha mãe, so he´s like my Brazilian cousin! Don´t worry US family, you´re still my favorite!!

Rosa Maria hates sushi, but I couldn´t help taking of pictues of her and the maki.

Terezinha, me, Rosa, and Brazilian beer. YUM!

Vanessa minha irmã, me, and minha mãe (the nh is the same sound almost as ñ in Spanish).

Having a family here is very nice. It surely brings a sense of security to know that there´s someone here watching over me as I meande around this unknown place. Every morning, minha mãe is waiting for me to have coffee and freshly blended fruit juice (I feel like I´ve talked about this already). It´s a little ritual and nice to start my day with some easy conversation, a recap of the day before, and a "vá com Deus" as she waits in the doorway for the elevator to come get me. The urban middle class in Brazil live in high rises,
while the filthy rich (there´s not too many of them) live in gated and guarded estates. The poor live in slums--favelas--or on the street. It´s pretty shocking. It´s hard to know when you´re in a rich or poor area because everything is pretty dirty and rundown. The nice middle-class buildings still have dirty and worn facades and the streets are always full of trash, no matter what area of the city you´re in. At least in the actual downtown part. Graça, where I live, is known to be a very nice part of town but one wouldn´t necessarily know it visually.

I come home every afternoon from school to have lunch with my family, and minha mãe is a pretty good cook. She and Rosa and I all eat together. Rosa is a writer and interested in politics, so our conversations are usually pretty interesting. Many people here are involved in the democratic nominations, and Obama is a phenomenon here. It´s a relief for the whole world I think that he´s winning the nomination.

I have my own room and bathroom so I have some privacy and piece of mind. However, I don´t think anyone in Brazil actually ever sleeps. The streets are always really noisy, people yelling about futebol games, the latest novela (the soap operas here are a national phenomenon: they only last about 6 months but Brazilians get very involved in the stories. The lastest one--Duas Caras or Two Faces (Two-Faced??)--just ended. I saw my mãe and tia in tears over the ending. The new one started yesterday, although I can´t remember the title), just having a beer in all the local bars that line the street, barely more than a few plastic chairs, a couple of long-necks (about 1000ml), and some conversation.

We´re off to see a house of Candomblé. I´ll tell you more about it later.