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!