Rainy Days

The month of March is known to be the rainiest month of the year, but it seems this year Florianopolis has been breaking records of rain fall. Basically it has been raining for the past 6 days strait here! (Luckily two of those days I was river rafting about an hour inland from here and it was sunny). The rain here is beautiful though, it's still warm outside so I can go for runs and have it rain (its more like a mist most of the time) and it keeps me nice and cool. Sometimes the a real storm will blow in and it will thunder and lightening so loud it sounds like gun shots! When the lightening crackles across the sky and you can see it's reflection in the ocean it is breath taking, some how everything is beautiful here. The only down fall about rain is that this island has mostly outdoor-adventurous  things to do, so when it is raining that scratches almost everything to do off the list, so you have to get creative if you don't want to be bored out of your mind. (But keep in mind this is for someone who has no job, and school is not very time demanding, I am sure Brazilians like the days off because they have more things to do than I do. Another thing to keep in mind it that Brazil is not like the US, people here like to do nothing, and enjoy free time to do more of nothing! lol they are very relaxed, slow moving, easy going people, who are never in a rush (also never on time) because time is not as critical as it is in the US, there are no DEADLINES, and people don't run around all stressed out, scrambling around like chickens with their heads cut off, it's simpler, easier, slower here, which honestly takes some getting uses to, coming from the busy fast moving US.) But I have been talking to Brazilians asking them what they do for run when it rains, and most of them say go to the mall, which makes perfect sense, because fashion and physical appearance are very important in the Brazilian culture. It is not uncommon to see most women walking around in high heals whether they are running arends, taking their kids to school, going to work, going to school, or just grocery shopping, they look their best to do anything and everything. They also dress "up" compared to San Diego standards to do most everything as well, and they love to shop, especially the ladies, and it seems shoes are their number one money maker here. They also like to go see movies in the movie theather, which is interesting because almost all the movies here are in English with Portuguese subtitles (which is very convienent for me) the movies and concessions are also a lot cheaper here, a movie in 3D costs $12, a regular movie costs $9 and if you are a student it costs $5. The large popcorn costs $3! and they have salted popcorn or sweat carmel popcorn to choose from (that's another interesting thing about Brazil, they LOVE their sweats!! almost everything here has some sort of sugar (acucar in portuguese)  either on it or in it, everything from their bread, to fruit juice, to nuts, to avocados). Other things that Brazilians like to do on rainy days is cook! They like to bake sweet breads and make soups when it is cold, for example the famous feijoada (a traditional brazilian stew). They also like to have traditoinal brazilian BBQs and play poker tourniments, they even have secrest poker rooms in a lot of the restaurants around where I live, I have not figured out how you get invited to those poker games yet though, I will keep you posted on that. But as for now, it is another rainy day here (this weekend it is supposed to be sunny again for 5-7 days which I am very excited about, so I will enjoy this rain while it lasts) and I have some shopping, movie watching, baking, cooking, and poker playing to do :D 

Just another day in paradise. 

Dinner & Breakfast with the Host Family

Every day I have breakfast and dinner with my host family, In Brazil the breakfast is very light, usually consisting of bread, fruit, and coffee, also cheese and ham are common as well. 

This fruit is local papaya, and the yellow fruit is called star fruit, it's citrusy like a lemon and an orange combined. 

I like to make banana sandwiches for breakfast, they bananas here have a lot more flavor and are a lot sweeter, so I eat them on some toasted fresh bread with canela  (cinnamon), yummy! 

Breakfast is usually eaten early in the morning before people head off to work or school. We eat breakfast every morning at 7:00 am before our host mom Clausa (Clay-ooza is how you pronounce it) goes to work. On the weekends we usually have breakfast around 9:00 am. In Brazil lunch is by far the largest meal of the day, they eat a lot of rice, beans, meat, and a little veggies (not much), but I don't eat this meal with my host family during the week because I have class and that meal is not included with the ISA trip. Then we have dinner together every night usually around 7:30-8:30 at night, which is pretty early for Brazilian standards, they usually eat dinner around 9:00 or 10:00 pm here, and they usually don't go to sleep until midnight or even two in the morning. Here it is common for kids to stay awake until midnight or later, and people on average only sleep about 6-7 hours a night. For dinner we have had a lot of different meals so far, we had pizza on the first night which was very good, very different from US pizza, but there is a very large Italian influence in Brazil because a lot of Italians immigrated here during WWII. There are even cities through out Brazil that look like Italy in the architecture and the way the people look and they speak Italian there, there are also cities like that with a German influence. The pizza we eat the first night was half "Calabrese" which was a type of sausage on it with onions and bell peppers, and cheese, and the other half of the pizza was "portuguese" which was hard boiled egg, ham, onions, olives, and cheese. 

They both were very good, the crust is thin but not crunchy. Some other meals we have had are clams! which were very good, they are caught right off the coast of the island and my host dad cooked them in a light sauce, and they eat it with a Brazilian lime that is orange on the inside, they were really good. 

Another one of my favorites was when he made a pot roast/veggie stew, he put carrots, potatoes, two types of pumpkin, a brazilian squash called chayote, onions and beef. It was very very good, I really liked the pumpkin (which tasted like yams) and the chayote. 

Praia do Inglese

On Thursday some people from ISA and I went on another adventure around the island. We decided we were going to go check out a new beach we had not been to before called Praia do Inglese, it is on the north side of the island, about an hour bus ride from Centro (where I live). So we hopped on the bus and headed up north to check it out. On the way there while we were waiting at the bus terminal for the second bus, I got some pao di queijo, which is a brazilian classic, it's bread (pao) with cheese (queijo) and it so to die for here! (my two favorite things combined!)

They bake it fresh at the bus terminals, they also have empadas here which are to die for as well, these will be two food items I miss a lot when I am back in the states, so I need to learn how to make them! Empadas are like Mexican Empanadas (from what I have heard from the people on the trip from Mexico) but they are these things that are made of bread dough and the roll it out thinly and put some type of either meat, cheese, or both inside and bake them. I really like the empada de frango, which are the ones with chicken in them.

Once we got to the beach, we walked around the little town area a little, then sat down on the sand and enjoyed the scenery, it is so beautiful. There are little islands scattered off the coast of Floripa and the view of them from the beaches are stunning, they look like a post card! 

Laundry

 In Brazil people wash their clothes differently than in the USA. They wash their clothes either in a washing machine or in a sink made specially for washing clothes. They use soap and fabric softener just like the USA, but they are very water conscious and use the lest amount of water as possible. They are very conscious about everything they consume, from water, to food, to electricity, I think it is because everything is more expensive here (utilities wise) and also because they are so connected to their environment so they are more aware of their effect on their surrounds and want to preserve the paradise they live in. In order to save electricity, it is very rare to see dryers here for clothing, most people hand their clothes up to dry on lines like this one. It is very common for houses, apartments, and condos to have lines like these built in to the laundry room. It is kind of fun to hang up your clothes for them to dry, but the only thing is you have to hide your underwear and bras between your other clothing... hahah.

Island Tour

On Saturday March 2nd, ISA took all the students on a tour of the island. They showed us some different cities and beaches to give us a better idea of how the island is laid out. First we headed to the mountain behind where my host family lives. The mountain is called Mirante do Morro da Cruz. It's beautiful up there. You can see all of downtown (Centro) Floripa and also the main land. I have used this mountain as a beckon to find my way home when I was desperately lost.

   

Me, Paula (from New Jersey), Angela (from New Jersey)

Part of the ISA group that went on the tour. From left to right (Thomas, Greg, Diana, Angela, Grace, Paula, Carmen, Jordan, Guillermo, Peter, Steven, Viniqak, Stephen, Zack, Crystal, Gabrielle, Ricardo)

Cross on the top of the mountain

Story about the mountain. 

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Then we headed south to a spot where we could see a beach call Armação . The south of the island is less inhabited and very beautiful. It is harder to get to this section of the island because the buses don't travel there as often, hopefully I will be able to see more of it later with my host family because they have family on that part of the island on the beach. 

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Then we headed to Joaquina which is an island near the lagoa ISA apartments. I had already been to this beach the day before with all of the ISA people, it is very nice, there are bars and restaurants on the beach and white sand and warm water, it is a smaller beach compared to others on the island. 

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Then we headed to Baja de Lagoa, which is an awesome area! We had lunch there at 2 irmhoas (two brothers) it was delicious seafood (the meal was R20= $10 and you get your choice or fish or steak, and then unlimited french fries, white rice, beans, and salad (which is lettuse , cucumbers, and tomato plain). The beach is the longest on the island, over a mile long with just white sand. It is also connected to the cannel that leads into the lagoons on the island. It is stunning on the canal, it looks like a gypsy village! I want to go back with my sketch book (that area is by far my favorite area I have been to so far!). There are secret passage ways and little beaches called parrainas (which means literally little beach) which are hidden and locals go to escape the tourist crowds. There are a lot of beach front hostels there too, and at night fisher man fish on the warf, and during the day fisherman go out into the ocean on these really pretty colorful boats and when they come back locals can buy their fresh clams, shrimp, mussels, and fish for dinner that night. 

Pitanga: a fruit that grows in brazil, it is very good a cool mix between a bell pepper and a mango is how I would describe the flavor, they are very high in vitamin C so people will snack on them through out the day just picking them off trees because they taste good and because of the vitamins in them. 

people like to play soccer and this game on the beach, it is a game where you hit the rubber ball back and forth with wooden paddles. 

These are the jelly fish that live around the island, they do not sting you they simply float around and eat different types of algae. They are a strange gelatin texture, if I didn't know what they were I would think it was a smashed gummy worm. 

Locals like to perform and listen to music by the beach, bands come and play for money and just for the pleasure of the beach goers, here not everything is about earning a buck. 

This is the canal that goes from the ocean into the lagoons around the island. People swim in the fresh ocean water, and ride the current into the ocean for fun. People also fish in these canals and drive their boats from the docks in front of their houses in the canal out into the ocean. 

My host dad and host mom on the bridge crossing the canal. 

Local fisher man boats (that I want to sketch and eventually paint) park in the canal when they are not out fishing in the ocean. 

Secret path past hostiles to the mini beach the locals go to when the Baja de lagoa beach gets too crowded with tourists. 

The mini beach only the locals go to. 

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Then we headed up the road past the beach called Mole, which I have not been to yet but need to go soon because it is a very cool local beach that tourist don't go to. We headed to a very wealthy area called Passar pela avenida das Nações, where there is a beach called Jurerê. This area is very nice. It looks like Miami in the US, the houses average between 2-5 million dollars. This is where they crazy expensive night clubs are where cover could be anywhere from $100-$200 on a regular night, and $7,000 for bottle service on new years. This is the neighborhood where the professional brazilian soccer players have vacation homes, where the victoria secret angels have vacation house, and a whole bunch of other millionaires. 

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Then we headed to a very traditional Portuguese part of the island called Santo Antônio de Lisboa , where the Portuguese fist inhabited the island and some of the buildings are the oldest on the island. There is traditional Portuguese food here, as well as traditional souvenirs, such as a special type of tapestry made of lace that the people of Portugal brought with them. It is a dying art so the tapestries are very expensive, they take months to make. 

one of the oldest buildings in Floripa, was built in 1600s and used when the Portuguese princess came to the island. 

The story about the town, (I will translate this once I learn more portuguese) 

There is a japanese influence on the island as well.

This is a shrimping boat, common around the island

beautiful place to have lunch in this town. 

That was the last stop of the day, I learned a lot (I have videos of these places as well, I can't upload videos to this blog for some reason though). I can't wait to go back to these places and spend more time exploring ! :)