Parties

Even though I haven't published anything, it's been more out of laziness than lack of material. A few weekends ago, we had a birthday party for my brother's fiancée.

Cutting the cake...

Then we had a party at my sister's house sometime later. My sister's like me, really interested in Japanese culture. She decided that we would have sukiyaki and have our dear grandmother help. Poor grandma :( But she did a great job, and I helped... eat.

Basically, sukiyaki is made at the table, so it's nice and fresh as you eat it. You fry up the ingredients in the pan separately - the meat on one side, the vegetables next to it, the noodles next to that, and so on. When you serve yourself, you pick whatever you want. Then there's also a sauce that you pour over it. There are many different ways, but that's the way my grandma does it.


We also had sashimi, raw fish, to go along with the meal. It doesn't look like a lot of food, but trust me, there was a LOT. My sister bought enough for like 15 people and there were 6 of us. Which means there was a lot of food (uncooked) left over... but I took care of that. Anyway, there was also leftover sashimi, but once I got home the next day, it was gone! I think my aunt ate it...


I'll be posting up more stuff from past weekends... I went to see a concert by a Japanese artist, and I also went on a trip to the south of Brazil.

St. Patrick's Day

This week was a lot more eventful than usual. I wish I had pictures to accompany it, but oh well. I did order my camera and a 8GB memory card (for $30!), and they're in Miami right now awaiting shipment. And when they arrive, I hope to take it with me everywhere I go and have illustrations to go along with my beautiful prose.

I'm actually trying to remember what has happened the past week, and you'll understand why in a second. I have no clue what happened last week until Friday - my brother and my uncle and I played cards to see who would wash the dishes. Obviously I won :D And that night, we had a few beers to go along with our game.

I just remembered, I went to see a live concert last weekend - a free Jazz and Blues concert right here next to my house. Really good sound, only a few hundred people, so I had basically a front row experience. Bass, keyboards, drums, guitar, sax, and trumpet... and they all had their individual solos. Very cool.

Ok, then Saturday we had a party at my uncle-cousin's house. It was my first time meeting him and everyone else, but after a few beers, we were all buddy buddy. We again played cards, this time for money. They kept saying my brother and I were cheating, which wasn't true at all. But on the first round, I did have an extra card (a mistake) and I didn't tell anybody :P Also, my uncle-cousin kept giving me more beers than I could consume - at one point, I had two unopened beers behind me, and I was drinking away. I don't even know how many I had :/

Sunday, I went running with my brother in the morning and then did some homework at night. On Monday, I thought I'd do more homework after school, but I wasn't expecting my oldest brother to have any plans for us. So I'm walking home and he calls me and tells me he'll pick me up. We go see some Japanese courses for me to take, and then when we get home, he tells me to go get ready. Get ready? For what? Apparently, yesterday was St. Patrick's day. So we (my 2 brothers and I) go to this one club, which is rather empty. We go to another club called All Black, and this one is so full, the waiting time is 2 hours. The line is so long, the last guy couldn't even see what he was lining up for.

So we head back to the original club, which is now pretty full. The entrance fee is US$30 :/ We go in there, listen to some live music, scout out the honeyz, have some beers. Then we go play pool upstairs, and these two (drunk) guys decide they want to play doubles against my brother and I. They were really bad, and so am I, but what they (and I) weren't expecting is that my brother is pretty damn good. Apparently, he frequents bars quite a bit and got rather good at pool. After they lost, we took turns playing against each other (my brother vs my other brother, and me vs each of them). At one point, this guy that was taking pictures for the club wanted to take pictures of us playing pool. Thankfully he only took the *before* picture, because we didn't sink any balls whenever he took a picture. Although people might notice that in every picture, the same amount of balls are on the table :P

Well, that was basically it. I need to start taking pictures so I'll remember what I did. Maybe I'll even write about my escapades at school.

Fun Brazilian Fact: Going to the market, it's so refreshing (and weird!) to see people being so nice to you! In Miami, most people that work are part-timers, making their money regardless of how they treat you. Here, the people know that they'll make more money if they're nice, so they treat you really well! But now that I think about it, even part-time workers seem nicer here... I think it's cause they know they're lucky to have a job and shouldn't slack off. In Miami, people don't give a crap cause they are spoiled, knowing they can get a job anywhere else.

Life in Brazil 4: School Begins

School finally started Wednesday, though it wasn't really a class - more like an introduction to the school. Thursday was a 3 hour test, and how our score is used to place us in a specific class (like a smart class and dumb ass class). I scored in the 72nd percentile, which I guess isn't bad, so I'm assuming I managed to avoid the dumb ass class for now.

I'd have pictures, but my brother's camera is one of those SLR cameras... quite large. I'm gonna order a slim camera, so whenever that arrives, you guys can see more pictures. Here's the leading candidate, Casio Exilim z77:

In any case, the classroom is basically a mixture between a movie theater (with stadium seating) and economy-class airplane seating. The room between you and the seat in front is so small, if you drop something, consider it gone... don't bother trying to reach it. Another thing is that passing by people is damn near impossible - my brother says when he was taking the classes, with some of the rows it literally was impossible. Excusing my way out through the row during a break, I think I stepped on this girl's foot; I turned around to apologize, and she just scowled at me.

I planned on going to "Japantown" today, but... I still may, it's only 5pm right now. I'll see if I can take pictures, but it'll be so much easier when I have my own, pocketable camera.

By the way, I read The Body In the Library by Agatha Christie... great book. I plan on reading all of her books.

I basically spent all day today perusing Danny Choo's website. He's the guy who does the dancing stormtrooper videos online... if you haven't seen it, you haven't lived.

Anyway, that's been basically it. My first day of actual class was Friday, and it was pretty fun. I didn't talk to anybody, obviously, but the teachers were really funny. The only problem was that the math classes are still in the very very beginning, so it's very very boring. What is a line? Sigh.

Anyway, I'll get more pictures up, especially once I get my camera. Oh, and speaking of getting new things, we're trying to get a new TV, but the taxes Brazil places on electronics is incredible. The TVs here are outrageously overpriced, and to bring one from America, you have to pay US$450!

Fun Brazilian Fact: I may be exaggerating, but I think the PDA level here is 30000x higher than in Miami. You see people making out everywhere... and it's usually the girl being the aggressor! Oh yeaaah...

Life in Brazil 3: House Tour

So another week has passed, and I again haven't done much to deserve a blog. I did take pictures, though, so you guys can see what my house looks like, what I see if I ever decide to step out of the house, etc.

Well, last week was again rather uneventful. I read more, I made plans with my sister to teach her English, and I got a cell phone. I also found out that school starts next wednesday, not friday as I had been told. Well, let's go to the tour, then...

That's my bed. See, I even keep it in relatively good shape. My brother's bed would be to the left, but he was asleep at the time I took the picture, so I thought I'd do him a favor and cut him out. That little grey thing is a chair-like addon to the bed, so I can sit up and I even have arm rests. And no, I did not choose the little flower theme....

This is the view outside my balcony. It's actually rather big, but really underused (the balcony, Lucia, the balcony!). As you can see, I don't live in the slums, and it's actually a really nice neighborhood.

This is the view down from that same balcony. Whenever someone rings the doorbell, I can see them from up here... a nice, safe distance away.

Same balcony, right side. If you look closely, you can see the electric fencing that my neighbor has employed. We have some in the back of the house... we figure those spikes will take care of the front... that and our dogs.

Speaking of dogs, here's Thorpe! Named after Ian Thorpe, one of the fastest swimmers of all time. Thorpe the dog is really fast, and really hyper... and when he wants to be, really mean. Although one time he was barking at a cat and the cat didn't even blink, just stared at him. And another time, he barked at a dog bigger than him and the dog slapped him in the face. He's only two years old, after all. We taught him to sit, shake hands, then shake hands with the other paw. Awww...

Going downstairs, this is the dining room. It's not a huge room, but it's comfy enough.


Same room from another angle. You can see the stairs and also the TV room on the left.

This is the kitchen. I spend a lot of time here. That penguin is a message board of sorts, where my aunt leaves messages no one else reads.

This is the computer room. That door leads out to the little garage/front yard.

This is our junk food cabinet. No, it's not that full, but that's cause we've attacked it already. From left to right: Dulce de Leche + Jam mix; fruitcake; Ades is a Soy-based drink with different flavors, like Watermelon, Strawberry, and Grape; and Lacta is a variety box of chocolates. Not pictured: our lifetime supply of fresh brigadeiros. Just kidding, Lucia. But there IS one thing that I want to tell you - at the local bakery, it's literally like 2 blocks from here, they sell every sweet imaginable, including brigadeiros! Yumm... Oh, and they sell Guarana popsicles. Yep.

This is the view out of the window behind the dinner table. You can see we have a third floor below us. It's not really being used much, but if we wanted to, we could even rent it out to another family, it's got everything. The only thing is that it doesn't have an entrance of its own. I want to organize it and make it into a game room... I'm already looking into buying a ping pong table :D

This is the downstairs. It's got a pretty wide outdoor area, where they had barbecues and family gatherings before I got here. Weird how there's never a party when I'm here... well, I'm here for a long time, so they can't avoid me now.

This is the inside of the downstairs. Yep, I said it needs organizing. But it's pretty spacious - there's probably twice that much room, I just took a picture of half of it.

This is our beloved TV room, where my brother and I spend most of our non-studying time. We don't have a great TV :( but we're looking into upgrading. HDTVs are so expensive here, so we're trying to import one... we'll see.

A closer look at our entertainment center. To the left, my PS2. To the right, my PS3.

This is the garage/front yard. We have a sort of amazonian slice theme going here, no idea. But it's nice, as long as the mosquitoes aren't allowed to breed.

This is a look outside the gates into the street.

Same, but other way.

This is our front neighbor. Quite a nice house. And if you look up at that fencing up at the roof... that's a tennis court. No joke.

So there you have it. I wanna see tours of everyone's houses now!

Fun/Aggravating Portuguese Language Fact: Whereas English has Would, Should, Could, etc, Portuguese verbs have different conjugations for each of those forms. It's not as easy as would be, could be, should be. There are literally three different forms of be, and then you have to conjugate that form for I, Tu, You, He/She, Us, Vos (a sort of plural Tu, I believe, or a very formal plural You), and Plural You. I'd give an example but I have no fuckin clue.

Update: Not five minutes after publishing, our beloved TV passed into the ether. May it rest in peace. And may our search for a HDTV be quick.

Life in Brazil 2: Doing Nothing

So this is the second weekly update of my life in Brazil... I decided to make a blog out of it to make it easier on everyone. I used to have a blog before, but then I gave up after three entries... I have a tendency of getting bored quickly (for full details, see My Entire Love Life). But hopefully I will keep at it with this one for a whole month.

So last week I talked about... I don't even remember. Did I talk about my flight? Well, if I didn't, here's a quick recap: very long, lots of reading, no interesting people sitting next to me, no problems through customs. Oh, and I saw the sun set while I was in Peru... that was cool, I don't think I had ever seen a sunset that clearly, with no buildings obstructing my view.

So fast forward to this week. I got a 40% scholarship on my prep school tuition based on my test score. It's definitely better than nothing, and it'll be a lot more affordable than I thought. I enrolled and I start school on March 7th. I'm actually really excited, I can't wait. Meanwhile, I've been reading some books in Portuguese to get to practicing, and I'm currently on my third one. It's a classic called A Cidade e a Serra, translated to The City and the Farmland? I'm obviously not an aspiring translator. But anyway, it reminds me a lot of reading Shakespeare, what with all the footnotes and constant head-scratching. But it's required reading for the entrance exams I will take at the end of the year, so I might as well get it out of the way now.

I went to my sister's new (to me) house, and it's beautiful. One thing that I kept thinking the entire time I was there is that I want two rooms in my eventual house - a wine cellar and a library. It could be a roofless shack that's nearly underwater and made of cardboard, but I want a wine cellar and a library. And I want to put all of my books into a computer system where I can find out which books I have, which books I've read, loan books out... you know, I think I should just become a librarian. A drunk librarian.

I've spent the majority of my time here inside the house. I have yet to leave the house on my own, but I'm hoping to do that tomorrow. I'm not thinking about it, just hoping. But I don't mind it at all. I've been reading, playing videogames, watching funny videos, playing videogames... in fact, I've been doing exactly the same thing I used to do back in Miami. What a waste of a blog.

I guess I should start taking pictures to make this thing worthwhile. I'll try getting out more and taking pictures so you guys can see what life is like in Brazil. Basically, São Paulo is a big city, so I don't think it represents Brazil very well. It does have a huge Japanese population, and there are mountains everywhere, so it's not uncommon to see streets on a 89 degree incline. And here, everyone honks all the time. To warn people that are coming too close, to warn pedestrians that I will not be responsible if you walk in front of my car, to inform pretty girls that they are attractive... oh, sir, it's not just a horn. It's so much more than a horn!

Anyway, I have run out of filler. Let me know what you guys are doing in the response section or just make your own damn blog! I swear, if I'm the only one writing I will be pissed... and blog about it endlessly.

So yeah, I'll try to post pics and stuff, maybe even videos. I'll show you guys how we lock all doors even when we're at home, and how we have electric fences and two huge, mean dogs... not at all different from life in Miami :D But it's not really that dangerous, they're just precautions.

Fun Brazilian Fact: Did you know the King of Portugal's brother was the one who liberated Brazil? And I thought my family was messed up...

Another Fun Fact: After being called Chinese in America for years, it's sort of refreshing that here, they refer to all orientals as Japanese. Or pikachus.