Two Thumbs Down for Brasilian Insomnia

Ok, so apprently I have developed some sort of insomnia lately. This is the third time in a week and a half that I have just sat awake for damn hours. The first two times I woke up at almost exactly 3:30 after being asleep for a few hours, then was awake unitl about 7 in the morning. The only difference this time is that I haven't even been to sleep yet :( Not exactly sure what the reason for the refusal to sleep is...cause I sure am damn tired. Damn tired but wide awake. I think that one possiblility could be that now that I have class every day and things to do for it every night I spend all of my waking hours in this state of utter confusion. Once I try to wind down and go to sleep, my brain tries to use the down time to make sense of it all..therefore it is definitely working well into overtime. I have these crazy dreams in portuguese, but in the dreams I think I know less than I really do, and I'm trying to talk, but I've forgotten everything.

When Stefan had his cold here, our friend Silvino promptly told him to go down to the Hortti Frutti (local produce supermarket), buy exactly four acerola berries, mash them up, mix them with honey and enjoy...and this should make him better. However, the next day when the market was open, Stefan was already feeling much better and didn't get a chance to try this little home remedy. Being a bit skeptical as well, we searched acerola on the internet and found that not only is it my favorite juice (and has been since my visit last summer) but is also well known worldwide by health food companies as a great source of tons of vitamins and natural healing!

So I will definitely be putting the word out here for any kind of neato Brasilian remedy for insomnia, but any suggestions on the US end would be appreciated as well. D. Cleyde has suggested when I have trouble sleeping to make myself some nice hot tea that she has in the kitchen. But any of you that have seen my clumsy butt around a stove know that tired Jess plus ancient gas stove in middle of the night equals way bigger problems than insomnia. So please keep any suggestions on the safe side :)

Meu Deus!

Hey everybody. This is gonna be a short one today. Not a ton of stuff going on becuase this is my first real week of school. And let me just say that I liked it better when the professors didn't show up! My portuguese has definitely improved since our arrival, but I might as well have just learned German for all the good the portuguese is doing me in class. My poor brain just can not keep up with a professor speaking 97 miles an hour! Wow. After my first class I just sat there in a shocked silence, my mind struggling to explain any of the previous hour. So such is class. All of them. Each class, I stare down the professor, concentrating so hard I could probably shoot lazers out of my eyes. Sometimes I can at least discern the gist of the lecture. Sometimes I'm lucky if I get three disjointed sentences. My anthro 1 professor is a little easier to understand. She's very nice and funny (or so I gather from the laughter). I still don't get all that much, but I understand a little more than I do with the others. By the way the professor is Tania Neiva [thanks Jacob =)] Anyway, I'm doing my best, reading every word of the assignments, looking up and studying words I don't know etc. It can only get better, or so they tell me!

On a lighter note, we went to the beach the other day (Pria de Camboinhas) and it was super fun. Beach raquetball + sun + muitos cervejas = always a good time. Thought these guys in the pics were cool too. I have a four day weekend (again!) this weekend, so we're hoping to do something interesting. Until then,

Tchau tchau!






P.S. To the six or seven of you reading this blog that speak portguese: sincerest apologies for all the horrible mistakes I've made. I am learning, and be assured that I think I have caught them all so far. Not that there aren't many more to be made...

First day of class...

...was a bust :(

Today was the nastiest day we've had since we got here! It was seriously monsooning outside, and super windy. My first class (Rituals and Symbolism) was supposed to take place from 6-8. So Stefan went with me to help me find my classes, etc. From our apt. to the bus stop, about 10 minutes of waiting for bus, and walking from campus stop to my building, we were both head to toe drenched. It was just too windy for our guarda-chuva (umbrella) to be of any help at all.

When we arrived there was a big party going on. The liberal sciences consist of two buildings, one of which has a huge overhang in the front. There were about 100 students crammed underneath drinking beer, listening to music, and checking out the text books for sale. (Screw the bookstore, each college dept. had a simple table stacked full of books set up outside.)

To make sure I had the correct building for my classes, I asked a woman who worked in the anthro dept. She assured me it was in Bloco N, and also told me that class probably wouldn't begin at 6...more likely 6:15, 6:20-25. "It's part of the local brazilian culture," she said. Ok, so Stef and I were prepared to arrive a little early and wait. We found the room and did just that. Waited. And waited. And waited. Other students would come up the stairs, glance in the general direction of the room...which remained dark, and go back downstairs to the party.

By the time 7:30 rolled around, we decided the professor either A) did the sane thing and stayed indoors, or B) was so busy downstairs drinking beer that he forgot class. We were just getting up to leave when... Jess's luck (or lack thereof) strikes again! All the lights on the entire campus went out! And I mean all. Brazil doesn't have the same safety codes as the U.S., so the buildings don't have any kind of emergency lights. The party peeps outside thought this was fantastic, and yelled even louder. Meanwhile, Stef and I used his lighter to find the stairwell and felt our way down the stairs (luckily the class was only on the 2nd floor). Being wet and actually extremely cold (yes Brazil gets cold!) we opted out of the pitch black party and made our way back across the dark campus to the bus stop.

Once back home we took hot showers and decided ordering in would be the way to go (especially as it was still pouring.) We got our favorite: garlic and olive oil pizza from across the street and called it night.

At least this whole experience did teach me one thing...

...if it's still raining tomorrow, I'm staying in bed!

Hooray Spontaneity!!

Because I am me and when I get it into my head that I want to do something, I go out and do it, today I did the one thing I swore I wouldn't do while in Brasil...
trust someone with my hair. (horrible run on sentence, I know)

So I decided that my layers were annoying b/c in humidity central they friz up. I told D. Cleyde I wanted to cut my hair, and we went right then to her salon.
And...
I am very pleased with the results. It only took 10 minutes and I think it'll be much easier to fix. Now the hair color is a different story...I've seen some pretty scary 'do's.



What do ya think? Me likey.

Informacoes para voces

Oi Everybody!

Just a little update to let you all know how we're doing.

First of all: I am mad at the beach. We have been warned time and again by everyone
here not to swim in certain beachs, such as the one we live on, because they aren't clean. So instead everyone takes the bus to the other side of Niteroi to swim in the clean beaches. Well this past week we visted the very most popular beach here...Itacoatira. It's gorgeous, set between two mountains and has huge waves and lots of surfers. This is the second time I've been there...the first time, no problem. But oh, this time. We had a great time: laid around, splashed in the waves, played beach tennis. But the next day Stefan had a terrible cold. I just assumed it was mere coincidence and it's probably cold season. But no, then I developed a HORRIBLE cold sore...big, painful, and mean...I mean the thing screams at passersby! We went to the farmacia to get medicine and the first thing the pharmacist said was 'you've been at the beach?' Aaaaarrrrgh! Beautiful beaches should not cause this much pain and suffering! All I have to say is it better be gone by Monday cause it's my first day of school. It's already bad enough being an estrangeira, but one with a very cranky lip is just too much!

Enough of my rant...

So my classes:
Antropologia 1
Antropologia Urbana (urban anthropology)
Rituais e Simbolismo (rituals and symbolism)

All sound interesting, but I couldn't really tell you any more about them than the name. No catalog or description of classes...i picked them off a list the wall. We like to be adventurous! Classes begin on Monday so I'll update more about them later. For now, I am simply terrified.

We're loving living here. Some things are very different than at home, but some are just the same. The scenery is gorgeous and the beach is tons of fun (usually...grrr). The neighborhood is nice, and we're liking the change of actually living in a big city. It's cool to have a bakery on every corner and not have to worry about owning a car. They would think we were insane for going to the grocery store and spending $150 on three weeks worth of groceries. Here they just pop into the little markets and paderias (bakeries) every day or so for the next day. That way everything is always fresher and more yummy!

Other interesting tidbits:
-->Hmmmm....the other day in a buffet restaurant in Rio with our friend Matheus I tried some sort of dish that looked like gumbo with sausage and some white meat that looked like fish. I had plopped two pieces of white meat on my plate, and after cutting off the first slice I tried and tried to chew it but to no avail. It had the consistancy of rubber and tasted like trash. Only to find out it was stomach! Of what sort of animal I do not know. After further inspection, I believe the other piece of meat was tongue. Ewwwwww!

Don't get me wrong the food here is wonderful! Our favorite is the mosserella pizza covered with fried garlic at Grill Pizzas in Sao Francisco. And the desserts are to die for. But you gotta watch those soupy things at the Minas buffets...ick!

-->We did have dinner at Outback the other night b/c we thought it be funny to see if it was the same. It cost us about a billion reais but it was pretty close. We got a bloomin onion and big ole steaks...and Stefans favorite? it's the only place we've found in the country with free refills. I think they thought he was insane after he drank about 9 cokes.

-->The other afternoon in Rio we saw an orthodontist on wheels. It was a small minivan parked at the curb with one dentist chair in the back, where they would give you braces right there on the street! For all you that wish you'd gotten the braces, Rio is the place to be! They'll slap em on ya and have you back out on the street before you can say 'health codes!'

Anyway, just some little things going on around here. For the most part we've been leading a really hectic life...wake up, eat, lay around, eat, hang out at the beach, go out for beers, beach again, eat again, dubbed over American movie on SBT, bed. We're just worn out, really we are.

Photos Are Here!!!

Hi everyone. We're finally posting some pics of our lovely surroundings here in Niteroi. So far we really like the new place. Dona Cleyde (our landlord) is a supernice grandma who makes us breakfast every morning and is very patient with my Portuguese. We live on the 13th floor of an apartment building directly across from Icarai beach.

Icarai, Niteroi

Yesterday, we finally went to Rio de Janeiro for the first time. We decided to be tourists and visted the Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf). It's a big 'ole mountain that sticks up out of the ocean and has the best views of Rio. It was complicated...took us a bus, then a boat, then another bus to get there, and we had to ask directions like 15 times. But we finally made it, and the retracing of the steps was much easier!

Rio de Janeiro

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