Celia Tries to Be Serious for a Minute

This is a touchy subject, but one that I think deserves to be mentioned on a study abroad blog. Although the Ferguson situation garnered more coverage here in Brazil in August, immediately following the shooting, the protests going on following the Ferguson decision have been covered and discussed as well, and I've seen ramifications of these thought processes throughout my time here. I think it is worthwhile to acknowledge my uneasiness about this post. I really, really wish that I could be in the States right now; this is something that has saddened and angered me in a particular way, and watching the protests without being able to participate directly is hard. Since I can't participate, I've been observing from my particular context of being abroad in a country like Brazil.

Most of what I would want to say about the protests themselves has already been said. This is rightful anger about an unjust, oppressive, and racist system. What has been interesting to me, however, are concerns voiced within the States about how these protests are being viewed and interpreted abroad, especially in terms of ramifications on the success of US interventions. Raising concerns about how figures abroad like Putin are viewing the protests is a gross misdirection of concern. The protests, in both their violent and nonviolent forms, are happening for a reason. Don't address the manifestation of anger; when the anger is valid, so is its expression. Don't tell the Black community and their allies how to be angry. Instead, address their anger. Listen to them and make changes. 

Russia, for certain, is watching this situation closely, and I can tell you that Brazil is too. When Brazil experienced mass protests ahead of the World Cup this year, they faced criticism from the US about police crackdown; in turn, their eyes are on the mass protests now occurring in America. Brazil has already had to reevaluate some of its assumptions about the United States since the shootings in August, and in turn has had to look critically at itself. In August, one of my professors said to me, "I heard a Black person died in America. Black people die here all the time." Yes, 77% of all youths killed here are black. But the US is far from perfect, and its statistics are racially stacked as well. The same professor truly believed that slavery ended in the United States in the 1700s. Yes, slavery continued here in Brazil until 1888 and the hierarchical and patriarchal structure persisted even after this. But slavery ended only 20 years earlier in the US, Jim Crow persisted for another century, and the New Jim Crow, or mass incarceration and its related issues, continues today. A different professor made the assumption that the US boasted a 0% adult illiteracy rate. Yes, the functional illiteracy rate in Brazil is 27%, but it is 14% in the US, so not quite at 0%. 

I don't mean to imply that Brazil doesn't have problems, or that the problems in America outweigh the benefits, or even that the problems are comparable. I just think it is important to know that the rest of the world is watching the protests in the States, and that they are thinking critically about what these mean about America and about America's position in the world. In my mind, and from my perspective abroad in Brazil, there is no doubt that the system has to change radically and drastically, and that the protests occurring, now on a global stage, are the first step. The worst that could happen is that this prompts a global dialogue--about race, about power, about systematic oppression within and between countries. The best that could happen is that these systems begin to change. 

Celia Tries to See Other Parts of Brazil

Admittedly, this "Celia Tries" thing is getting a little hard, since I am actually, in real life, seeing other parts of Brazil. I spent the past week in the state of Bahia, including the city of Salvador, the area in which the Portuguese first landed when they arrived in Brazil. I had, suffice it to say, an awesomely incredible time. I went with a couple friends from my program, both from the States, and another girl who grew up in Haiti/DR and now goes to school in France. We spent the first few days at the beach, then went to Salvador for a few more nights. It was, basically, incredible. 

We rented a condo in a small beach town about an hour north of Salvador called Praia do Forte, one of the more famous beach towns in the state because it has a Tamar Project site, which is that thing where they raise teeny tiny baby turtles and then release them en masse into the sea and everyone can cry a little from joy. Or, if you're there on any of the other days of the year except that one, like us, you can hang out at a beautiful beach and spend a couple hours one day looking at some non-baby-size turtles. 

The beach town itself was very definitely set up for Brazilian domestic tourism, which was cool to be a part of. There were beach-front restaurants where you could order whole fried fish to share, and normal people shopping at the grocery store when you went there at 7 am to buy matches to light the stove to be able to make your coffee, and music in the small bars and restaurants at night. Our condo was adorable and the perfect size, and the beaches both in Praia do Forte itself and in the smaller and more isolated Praia de Itacimirim that we visited one day were stunning. We rode moto taxis from the beach to the highway to catch the bus to our beach town one day, and our "bus" back to Salvador at the end of the trip was a van filled to the brim with people that, for all I knew, acted as though they'd known each other their whole lives, despite being complete strangers. An incredible experience, but definitely made me want to visit smaller, more local beach towns as well. 

Salvador itself was, in the literal sense of the word, awesome. My time here in Brazil has been amazing, but São Paulo has not been at all what I expected out of Brazil, for a number of reasons. Salvador, on the other hand, fulfills what I had held as my mental image of Brazil. Without a doubt, I have experienced the openness of the Brazilian people and of Brazilian society here in São Paulo, but the people of Salvador and of Praia do Forte took it to a whole other level. Strangers on the street, complete and total strangers, are called "friend." Anyone else, people you've spoken to even once before, are called "brother," "sister," "tia," "tio," even me. 

The historical downtown, called the Pelourinho, is stunning, with its colonial architecture and vibrant music and dance scene, but it is very clearly set up for tourism, making the main street and square seem a bit jaded, a bit run down, a bit beaten up. Walk down the main street aways, and the colonial architecture is still perfectly preserved but, instead of tourist shops, they are real homes and shops of real people. The people around here didn't care if I was a tourist, that I was a tourist; they were so genuinely happy to see me and say hello. Walk down any of the side streets, and you'll begin to see what I thought of as more the real Salvador, and, as an extension, the real Brazil. My friend called the area a touristic favela; it was maybe not quite a favela, but without a doubt the area is beaten up. The "normal," so to speak, people are poor, compared especially to the people of São Paulo, but they are also happy and beautiful. Early one morning, I saw a line of perfectly coiffed women, in brightly colored dresses, standing in line to pick up their free bread with their state vouchers. The energy throughout the city was infectious; the city almost felt like a sensory overload, always so full of everything. Leaving the downtown and the small bit of the city that has tall buildings was, however, pretty shocking--it was, honest to god, as though the favelas would never end; they followed us all the way to the airport, a 45 minute drive. Favelas are interesting, because there are tin and tarp shacks set amongst solid concrete houses, but my view from the car didn't lend itself to any conclusions. 

It was nice, but also difficult, to return to São Paulo. It's too early to make any serious conclusions about my time here, but my general sense is that São Paulo is an international, cosmopolitan city situated in Brazil, whereas Salvador, had I gone there for my time abroad, would have been a truly Brazilian city. We met up with a friend of my friends' there, and he said he thinks it is an incredible place to visit and a harder place to live, so maybe my experience was colored. Without a doubt, the adjustment would have been significantly harder--the colors, the specifically Afro-European-indigenous-Brazilian culture, the people, the massive scale of the poverty are all overwhelming--but the payoff would have been different. Not better, just different.

It remains to be seen, in the end. I am so, so glad I got to see and experience Salvador; I wish I had gone earlier, I wish I could go back, I wish I could be living there. I do not wish to negate my time here. São Paulo is incredible, and I genuinely love it and could easily spend my life here. What I wish, I think, is that I were abroad for a year, half in São Paulo and half in Salvador. Maybe I'll be able to come back, and maybe I'll be there, but I am certain I'll see it again at some point in my life. 

A final PSA: read my latest GW blog about the elections here, something I have basically no authority at all to talk about, but I did it anyway! Also, some pictures: 

  

Beach shack with a bomb fried fish and people just hanging out, enjoying the beach together. 

So, so beautiful. 

More beautiful. We were probably the only Brazilians--and the people with the lightest skin color--on the beach. 

Incredible. Not pictured: the super rough surf. 

This is actually a neighborhood called Santo Antonio, less touristy but just as stunning as the Pelourinho. Up close, it's a little dirtier and a little more beat up than this picture would suggest, but beautiful anyway. 

What I can only assume is a place of Candomblé or something related, the Afro-Brazilian fusion religion that is distinctive of the region. 

More of the side streets, rather than the main drag, of Santo Antonio; more of what it actually looked like. 

The view from the Igreja do Senhor do Bonfim, the most famous church in Salvador; it is actually quite far from downtown, but we took a public bus there, giving us a sense of what the city was really like. We stopped in a market on the way back, and, although awesome to see, it was not quite the sort of place where you take out a camera, so no pictures from there. 

Celia Tries to Understand Free Time

Brazilian culture is not like American culture in a lot of ways, but one of those is the focus on taking things slow, on appreciating the little moments, on spending time with family and friends instead of working all the time, and also, as far as I can tell, on watching TV. This is hard for me because I am not super down for free time usually; I like to be busy, I like school, I like working. Here, I super genuinely do nothing a lot of the time, and it's pretty sweet. 

This also means that, for the first time, my focus is on my friends and my (host) family and all the other super dope people that are around me. This is not to say that I didn't love my friends and family at home, just that here, it's different. The entire focus of Brazilian existence is other people. I don't do anything by myself, which is new for me, and I'm never really alone except when I sleep. Social ties are truly the most important thing here, and this has been awesome to experience. 

Things that I've been doing instead of schoolwork: 

• Okay, I still do schoolwork. I will never not love school and even though it's not very serious here, I do love the content of my classes (they still merit their own blog post…it'll happen. Maybe). 
• Go to bars (sorry to all of my parents/grandparents reading this). Part of the social experience here is meeting people for a drink, after class, on the weekends, whenever you feel like it… Aside from the infamous PUC bars that are across the street from my school, my favorite place to go out is Vila Madalena, and not just because it's walking distance from my apartment. The neighborhood is filled with galleries and cool little bars, and on weekend nights the main street is filled with people and music and beer of varying quality. 
• Look at art. Art galleries are everywhere, and always free. Highlights: 
• An exhibit of street artists that were recruited to make small-scale, more conventional pieces. Now I recognize some of the graffiti around here!
• An exhibit called "Feito por Brasileiros" that was vast and overwhelming, filled an old abandoned hospital, and, I think, had a tree theme. But maybe not. The pieces were incredible; each room had a different installation, and, even though it was heavy on the video installations, it functioned as a dope overview of contemporary art here. 
• A Dali exhibit at one of the most famous galleries here, Instituto Tomie Ohtake. Dali doesn't need description. 
• Eat. Another list of highlights: 
• My host mom is a killer cook, especially in terms of desserts. We are never without a cake in the house and I am not exaggerating in that statement. Since I arrived, we have literally never not had dessert. 
• There is a weekly food truck fair in the Praça Benedito Calixto, a little square in Pinheiros, a neighborhood close to me and with similar (hip) vibes to Vila Madalena. Once there was a truck just for coxinhas, these tiny little pastry things filled with chicken or cheese or both (!); there are trucks just for wine, and just for beer, and just for fancy hot dogs, and there are always lots of burger options. Basically, my dream foods. 
• Brazilian barbecues are called churrascos and they put American barbecues to shame. So. Much. Incredible. Meat. 
• Always with the açaí. 
• Also they just opened a Ben and Jerry's!!!!!!!
• One time, I volunteered. Oops. I've been working with an NGO called Instituto Construir, or Institute Build (sounds not so great in English), to conduct an analysis of their programs, so, appropriately, I went with them to see a program in action. They made huge vats of soup and then took them to a place called Crackolandia, or Crackland, which is more or less what it sounds like: an outdoor roaming community of homeless crack addicts. I've volunteered around drug addicts before, as they make up a portion of the homeless population in the Bay Area, but this was something else entirely and shocking to see. 
• On a lighter note, CIEE just took us to a soccer game, my first here (!) and, coincidentally, one of the most serious rivalries around. It was between Corinthians and Palmeiras, two of the three SP-based teams, and played in the Palmeiras home field. More highlights: 
• Palmeiras' fan base is traditionally/still almost entirely of Italian descent (someone once explained to me why but, tbh, I forget now) so the mascot of the fans is a little dude that looks like Luigi from Mario Cart. 
• Bob Marley is massively popular throughout the country, even at soccer matches. There was a banner that said RASTA, but, knowing that the Palmeiras fans were Italian, I assumed, for a long time, that it said PASTA. 
• The Corinthians fans were in this tiny little section of the stadium and, honest to god, were louder than all of the rest of the stadium combined. So cool. 
• There is a movie called "The Wedding of Romeo and Juliet" about a Corinthians and a Palmeiras fan who fall in love. Self-explanatory. 
• My host mom was worried about my safety, the rivalry is so serious. I am, obviously, safe. 
• Sleep. I probably haven't slept this much since elementary school. It's great.
• Not take pictures, but who is really surprised about that. 

Next week, I'm traveling up north to Salvador da Bahia, just in time for summer to almost start and the heat to become unbearable! Hooray! Expect a blog complaining about the heat in the near future!

Celia Tries to Travel A Little

My goal here in Brazil was to travel more or less once a month; although it's been sporadic, in my three months I have, actually, taken three trips, all to the beach--because where else would I go while in Brazil? 

Disclaimer: this is hecka long. 

Beginning of August: Maresias, on the northern coast of São Paulo, since apparently the coast is so vast of this single state that it needs to be divided into north and south. Although, I suppose it was helpful to know that my bus was going north, not south.

Maresias is supposedly heavy on the nightlife, except that when we were there it was not, which was confusing. The beach was perfect, though, during the off-season, because the beach drink-service people could devote full attention to my personal (açaí) needs. We hired a guide, who was hysterical, and hiked to a waterfall through the semi-rainforest, if that is in fact what the tropical coastal forest is called here. It looked like the coastal rainforest in California, except not at all, really. 

Maresias was my first encounter with the infamous Brazilian Bikini. I was still wearing an American-style bikini bottom, (un)affectionately called a diaper by the locals. It is 100% the mark of a tourist.

Mid-September: The incredible staff of CIEE SP took us Liberal Arts kids to Paraty, a colonial town on the coast of the state of Rio. It was about 5 hours away by bus, and we stopped, under the clouds, in Ubatuba for lunch. For some reason, all of the beach towns end in "tuba." Actually, I'm sure there is a reason and I'm also sure I'm exaggerating that statement, but it's amusing nonetheless. 

The town of Paraty is adorable, as the colonial architecture is perfectly preserved. It was a major port until things like trains and cars were invented, when it fell out of favor, because until 1950 it was impossible to reach the city by anything other than boat. You still can't drive in the historical downtown, keeping the streets preserved. 

We got to go on a boat tour of the islands, of which there are so many that somehow told us that people used to trade their literal islands for things like refrigerators and canoes. It would appear from the 500 tagged pictures of me on Facebook that I am living a lavish life on a yacht. That would be true, except that it was a schooner with fake cannons as an inexplicable decorating choice. I, however, forgot to take a single picture from the boat. Oops. Except I took a few the next day, from the beach town of Trindade. We walked to the a natural swimming pool...and then took a boat back because who wants to walk all day long. 

Basically, this trip was perfect and the coast was beautiful. 

Last weekend: I went with some of my program friends to Rio de Janeiro. I had high expectations from the Cidade Maravilhosa, but it rained, and when it wasn't raining it was cloudy. So, I guess, I will have to go back. We did, however, decide to hike up to the Cristo Redentor instead of taking the lazy-person van, which was 100% worth the strain my poor legs experienced from, quite literally, scaling a rock while holding onto a chain (which I for some reason kept calling a metal rope). The view from the various stops along the way were incredible, rivaling the view from the top, with the city and the sea and the mountains framed by the trees. Also, I saw a sloth. Let that sink in: a literal sloth. 

Isa was not happy to walk up the mountain, until we saw a sloth.

My experience in Rio was, overall, interesting. Obviously, with the weather it was hard to judge the natural beauty of the city, but it was easy to imagine how stunningly beautiful it can be. I was there with my friend Isa, who lived there for five years when she was younger, so I had what was effectively a local's perspective. Compared to SP, it seems much more like a Latin American city; São Paulo is safe, for me, because it is cosmopolitan and international and I don't stick out like a sore thumb. I've never felt like a target here. There, I did. I had to change how I acted on the street--I had to actually speak in Portuguese--and, of course, I was safe, but I was much more conscious of my safety than I am here. Also, the favelas are really in the actual middle of the city. I never was in one, but they are right up there next to some of the nicest areas. Crazy. 

Celia Tries to Remember to Post the Few Pictures She Has

!!!!!!!! I have some !!!!!!!!!! Real pictures of real things that I've been doing !!!!!!!!!!

My internet and TV went out the other night because it was raining and so obviously I had nothing else that I could possibly do except go through all my pictures and edit them into these nice themed collages. Enjoy!

This is what the center of São Paulo looks like--a sort of disorienting mix of European-style architecture, but mainly built in the 20th century (don't quote me on that, I 100% just made it up), with concrete-boxy skyscrapers ranging from functioning to completely dilapidated. 

Some of the empty/extremely dilapidated buildings have been taken over by various movements--this one is called the Luta Popular por Moradia, or the Popular Fight for Living (whatever, doesn't translate exactly, sounds nicer in Portuguese but you get the gist)--that effectively take over these buildings as homes for families that otherwise would be on the streets. Someone somewhere still owns the building, and they have water and electricity, but are being effectively permanently occupied by families. 

I cannot stress enough how awesome I think this is. Like, maybe the implementation could be disputed, but I am in love with the idea. People deserve homes, goddamnit!!!!

And they have nice banners. 

 There is lots of art on buildings here. The art is very cool and another thing I think is incredible, social/public art, worked into the everyday, part of a collective pursuit...also, elephants. 

 Uh, I just thought this was funny. 

 More art. Graffiti is legal!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

There is also art in museums, not just on the walls of other peoples' homes. Like, for example, this baby bottle with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in it. Um... wat

There is also art in galleries. Yes, I am art. Also those things behind me. Wow look I photograph so nicely!

 There are also fairs. Lots of food. 

 There are also beaches!! This one is called Maresias and is in the northern coastal bit of the São Paulo state, it has nightlife (supposedly...) and beaches and waves and also hikes to waterfalls and also sunsets (go figure). 

There are also birthdays! Namely, mine! My host family threw me a party (middle) with holy shit so many desserts I ate them for breakfast the next two days oops don't tell anyone, and also went to a food truck festival and found myself an IPA, no more bad beer for me! until this weekend, and also just ate some incredible appetizers on a rooftop bar and only took this one blurry picture it's whatever. 

Generally, I will probably be avoiding these picture-y blog posts but, like I said, I realized I had some pictures and basically wanted to prove to everyone that I'm actually here. And also, some of them were nice pictures. 

P.S. I wrote a very serious and discussing-my-real-thoughts post over at http://gwblogabroad.wordpress.com/ so if you want to know what I actually think about various things, read that as well. 

Celia Tries to Volunteer

I think I've said this before on this blog, but I never considered studying abroad in anywhere except Brazil. Yeah, I wanted my 4 semesters of Portuguese at GW to count for something, but it also made a lot of sense for me. My concentration in my International Affairs major is International Development, and Brazil is a developing/developed/doesn't-fit-into-either-of-those-categories country. I'm interested in understanding the work done by NGOs and non-profits in a range of contexts, and there are many that exist here. I do a lot of work with urban non-profits in the Bay Area and DC, and there is a heck of a lot of urban poverty here that I could be looking at. 

But, I'm not. 

I just finished my third week of classes, and I've been here for over a month and a half now. I have not started volunteering, I have left the city only once, and I do not yet have a posse of Brazilian friends with whom I spend my time exploring the city. I go to class, I do my homework, I spend time with my (largely American) friends, I watch TV (no Netflix, which almost made me weep at first). It doesn't really feel incredibly different, unless I sit down and I think really hard. 

In my last post, I wrote about finding the cultural and the academic in everything around me, instead of traditional forms, and that's something I've thought a lot about lately. For example, I really, really want to begin volunteering. I've done some research, but there is really only so much I can do on my own, especially when people don't return my emails. But, as my friend pointed out, that is a cultural fact and it has a cultural explanation. Even though people, even those running the non-profits that coordinate volunteers, genuinely care about the problems that they are working to address, they have other priorities. They care about spending time with their friends and family, and making sure that they hold their presentations at a time that works for everyone interested, and a whole host of other things.

It's not about me and what I want, and that's cultural--because it's not about the individual. In one of my classes we spoke about "the individual" versus "the personal," in part of a larger conversation about why the concept of "modernity" in the Western sense of the word is difficult to apply here. This, and, as an extension, Brazilian culture, appears everywhere--in how extremely social everyone is, in the way classrooms and the university are organized; it exists in the prevalence of graffiti and other forms of social/collective art, in the number of people out on the streets and in the bars every day after classes, in how much time people spend watching television, in the incongruities between investment in infrastructure and investment in people themselves. Brazilian culture is everywhere around me, and there is an explanation for every single thing that I do here. It's interesting, but also really hard, to think about. 

Here are some of the things that I have been doing instead of thinking about this: 

1. Class. I love school, I really do, as anyone that knows me knows. I'm taking three classes at my university here: The Sociology and Society of Brazil; Interamerican Politics; and Identities, Culture, and Tourism. They are all incredible, basically, and merit a post of their own. 

2. Watching The Mindy Project, at least until Project Free TV wouldn't let me anymore. 

3. Watching Disney movies dubbed into Portuguese. 

4. Watching various other things. 

5. Not really eating out, because I, for some reason, keep forgetting to do that. 

6. Not really looking at art, which I am bummed about, except the graffiti, which is everywhere. 

7. Not really taking pictures. Oops. 

But I have some, so here. As always, no people. Suck it up. 

 Some art on a building. 

 Some art on a wall.

Some art in building form--Niemeyer, whose work is hecka rad and just like ah so rad.

 Some art on my school, PUC, where it always smells like cigarette smoke and you can graffiti anywhere.

Celia Tries to Remember Her Camera

Ugh so travel blogs or whatever are supposed to have a lot of pictures on them, I think, or at least I have gathered from (obsessively) admiring the blogs of others. I'll get to that, I really will try. I'm just so terrible at it! It never occurs to me to pause to take a picture of anything, and I only remember that I should be taking pictures when, for example, I try to write on a travel blog. So I have a few, but you will notice that a continuing trend is that they never have any people in them (lol).  

Today seemed like a good time to write a blog because, um, I haven't yet (oops) and because, um, classes start tomorrow (oops). Although it is of course way too early to tell, I've been thinking a lot about what this trip is going to mean to me, mainly because I was expecting it to be more of an academic and more of a cultural experience than it has been so far. In the ~cultural~ sense, I usually travel via museum, park, and coffee shop--these are the places I usually spend most of my time. Here, I have been to one museum and one exhibit, no parks, and only the coffee shops close to where my classes are. On top of that, if this was the academic experience I thought it was going to be, I would be volunteering my ass off all of the time, forever, and learning interesting things about the Brazilian approach to things like development and politics when, in fact, I have mainly been doing grammar exercises. Maybe I have to find the cultural and academic in the everyday. Maybe I have to suck it up and start volunteering. Maybe I have to take my ass to a museum. Oops. But on the other hand, much more than I was expecting, it doesn't feel like I'm visiting; it really feels like I have moved here and now my life is here. Cool feeling. 

End rant. Some things: 

1. People here as way social as heck. They really like markets and fairs and birthday parties. 

2. My Portuguese has not really improved. By that I mean, I am still as mediocre as ever. 

3. There are a heck load of buildings in this city. 

4. The nightlife is not a joke. If I come home at 2 am, my host mom thinks I'm ridiculously early and lame. Probably an extension of being social as heck. 

5. I went to the beach this weekend and it was ugh freaking incredible. The swimsuits were really tiny, so I did not fit in at all in that respect, but the community was really, really nice. Everyone staying at the hostel was nice, the hike we took to a waterfall with a random guide we hired was nice, the temperature of the water was nice, it was all really nice. It was also really nice to come back here. It is not so nice that right now there is construction outside my window. 

I also have some pictures (!!!!) so enjoy (would like to reiterate, !!!!). 

 My host mom's rad living room. Even though it looks like this because she values cleanliness and simpleness because of a range of cultural reasons, I think it looks like a Swedish design mag and she is really just the hippest of them all.

Graffiti is legal here, which I think is the coolest thing ever because of what it says about art as a collective pursuit and as an expression of social ideas and yadayada but also results in incredible things like this. 

The (very large) city at sunset.  

The (very large) city at not-sunset. 

Açaí, the best thing that I never in a million years thought I would like.  

A person on a beach. I say "a person" because it is truly amazing that I took a picture with human life in it.