cant go wrong with hippies

So, last Sunday I went exploring a new city nearby, Arambepe, with a friend from UFBa and a couple of her friends that I met for the first time. Those of you who know me well know how much I love touring in international groups, and we were: one american, one german, and two norwegians..excellent. and i have NO idea what the norwegian girls were saying between them but it was cool to listen to! Anyways, early Sunday morning I met up with all three of them in front of the Colégio Antônio Vieira which is a high school right next to my building where my host dad works and therefore my two host brothers get to go to for free (it's a private school = good school = I'm so glad they get a better opportunity at a good education!!) and from there my host dad brought us to where we could catch the bus for Arambepe! It was a fairly short ride, about 1 1/2 hours and since we got on in the beginning of the trajectory, we all got seats unlike lots of people who got on later.
When we arrived it was still kind of cloudy and well, 9am, so I suggested we tour around the town a bit to see what was there, and I had heard that there was a sea turtle refuge project much like there is in the Praia de Forte, so when we discovered a sign with a little hatchling turtle on it, we kind of figured we had struck gold. The sign pointed down a red-dirt road lined by a river on one side and not much else on the other except for occasional glimpses of the ocean and a couple worn-down houses. As we walked, another group of kids passed by us, and we eventually came to the reserve where there were a couple of sea turtles in tanks, which was sad to see, just like it was in the Praia de Forte, but what is important is that there were nests there made by the people who run the project, gathering the eggs and placing them there so that they can assure the hatchlings' arrival into the sea. I didn't take pictures because I had left my camera at home so it wouldn't be stolen (I didn't realize the Norwegian girls would be coming and thought it would just be me and Bontje), but they all took pictures so when they put them on Facebook will tag me and you can see!!
After our fill of sea turtles and the CUTEST hatchlings, two of which were locked in a ´pushing war with one of them clearly winning as his little flippers pushed the other one across the pool, we walked a little farther and found the famed Hippie Refuge that Janis Joplin used to hang out at in the '70s where we spent the next couple of hours touring one of the COOLEST, chillest, most artistic house i've ever seen where the second floor was pretty much imperceptible from the first, mostly because you got to it via a ladder propped against the wall and got from one side to the other by walking across a wooden plank, but it led out onto a sheltered ledge where you could admire the ocean and, I'm sure, smoke many a few too joints..yes, the whole house did smell of marijuana and the girl who was showing around was extreeeemely mellow, but it all made for a musical, relaxing morning.
When the sun came out a little while later we headed back to the other side of the town and found a few of the natural pools that are created by the coral in the water where it is much safer to swim, especially since winter just ended when the riptides are the strongest, and what else is there to say? We spent the rest of the day swimming, eating a FABULOUS lunch of clams, salad with fruits and veggies, and fried yams (they make them like french fries!!) that only cost..$6..and swimming one more time (just me this time) before we got back on the bus to Salvador. I would definitely go back to spend the weekend, but I think I'm travelling to Irará this coming weekend and the one after that I may be going to the São Francisco river - we'll see!
lots of love, micha

what to do when in a foreign country with an unnameable rash that just keeps spreading? hydrocortisone cream? check. try and forget about it? ohhh check. doctor's visit. check. SCABIES LOTION?!?!.....check check.
yes, that's right, i now have the right to say that i had scabies in brazil. and my host family had to do 2 loads of laundry every day just for me and check to make sure that they weren't itching..yet. i'm not really sure how i contracted the little mite, but i remember that it started when i was still with my other host family - i wonder if they have scabies now, too..hmmm. it started with a small harmless itch in my armpit that over the past couple of weeks spread to my chest, the other armpit, my back and torso. eeks! so i finally did go to a doctor with the help of one of the girls who works in the CIEE office here and whose mom is a doctor, although my own google searching helped more than her words, but seriously don't type "scabies" into the image search, you'll get the most disturbing images. you've been warned.
what WAS fun was my first experience with anti-histamines. they can seriously mess with you. you've been warned.
what happened was last tuesday i bought the scabies lotion that you have to rub allll over you and leave for at least 12 hours at a time, doing this for 4 days, but you're supposed to buy an anti-histamine to counteract the itch! oops. i didn't. the ENTIRE tuesday night i was itching so bad it was like i could picture little bugs crawling all over me..needless to say i only slept about 20 minutes and was OUT the door wednesday morning at 6am to see if any pharmacies were open yet. as soon as i bought those babies i popped 2 instead of the usual 1, and then another at 11 when my first class started. oh, overdosing on anti-histamines. during that class the teacher asked us to form little groups and discuss what our impressions were about the black woman in brazil, and all i could do was give a glazed-over look to my friend, amy, and oh no. i just noticed what i think are new red bumps. man, if this wasn't scabies i'm gonna be so pissed off.
oh and WEDNESDAY night the CIEE group brought all of us exchange students to go see a play in one of the theaters here that was a piece from the absurd genre, starring 3 men and 3 women all dressed in the same purple spandex dress, lamenting the arrival of a refrigerator in their living room, courtesy of his/her mother for a birthday present. apparently it's supposed to be a monologue about a woman who was raped by her father and blamed for killing him, but, well, it was absurd. at one point i was really feeling the anti-histamine groove, feeling kind of warm and fuzzy, when i realized that the "warm" part was because there was a big bright spotlight shining. over me. just me. and ALL of the actors were staring me with this look on their face daring me to do something. do what?!?! oh no oh no oh no i was soooo not paying attention but they JUST KEEP STARING. so i got up. and walked forward a little. and ran back to my seat. i think they figured it out after a while because they just continued on with the play, but my friends explained to me afterwards that they had said, "go open the window". ooops! lesson learned: when drugged out and in a theater of the absurd...sit in the back row, not front and center.
this week also concluded the most popular novella in Brazil, "Paraíso Tropical", that i did get kind of hooked on, i'll admit it. i was really happy that it had only just started when i got home from capoeira - which is SO much fun to play!
This afternoon i'm going to my host brother's (Matheus) soccer game to cheer him on with my grandma! he's 13 but really cool but it's funny because i can see why ben called me a punk at that age. he can be a punk sometimes. as for my other brother, gabriel (17) he went out with me to a club/bar last night to meet up with some friends and dance, and i was SO proud - i got the jeitinho brasileiro right! (quick translation: "jeitinho brasileiro" = sweet-talk your ass off and you can have anything your heart desires...) that is, when we got there the doorman asked him for his id and i was like, "ohh you have to be 18 to get in? but see, he's my brother, i'm on exchange and he's my family here, and my other friends are inside...i promise he won't drink, i'll keep an eye on him, we just want to dance..." doors: opened. the only thing that was missing afterwards was a club rodrigo (AKA dancing downstairs with rod's kick-ass soundsystem that would shake the entire three-story house until the sky started to get a little lighter..even if rod,himself, had already passed out and gone to sleep).
well, that's all for now. lots of love.

Bike-riding and beading

hey hey!
sooo it's been a while since i've written, and clearly a lot of things have happened, so i'll catch everyone up to speed!
if you don't feel like reading everything, feel free to skip to the last paragraph.

SCHOOL: pretty cool, i've definitely realized the difference in levels of both the classes, the professors, and the students in my classes which is really different from what i'm used to. for example, in my class in UFBa, the public university which is free and harder to get in to and therefore only attended by students who went to private high schools (did you catch the irony in that situation?) the students are all pretty motivated and really on top of the subject. Even though we have to be there bright and early at 7 am - and this professor truly DOES show up on time lol - people are always asking questions, comparing the notes with other things they've read, etc. And the professor is amazing! He was definitely one of the brighter colors in the crayon box..Which is the complete opposite of my political economy class in UCSal which, while also being a good school, is in the Social service department. the professor is really nice but mumbles so much even the brazilians can't understand, and while it might be ok if he could write, at least, to make up for it, his handwriting looks like he's drawing cyclones on the board. i'm not really sure how he communicates, to be honest. anyways, last class we were handed a sheet with a bunch of questions about the readings we had done and about the charlie chaplin film we had watched during the previous two classes..we have 3 classes to do it. ummm i think i'm going to get an A in this class :D. as for my history class, the teacher is really sharp, just like my economics one, but it's hard for me to follow because it's a lot of class discussion so while everyone is presenting their theses about the latest readings i'm either wildly scribbling in an attempt to keep up with these history buffs or doodling as i've given up for the day lol. my classes with ciee are cool, i really like my portuguese class and we've started a blog as part of our class project so for anyone who speaks portuguese, it's on this same site: "boca pra fora"

FAMILY:
i have a new family! and they're AWESOME!! bc i realized the reason i had wanted to go home sooo badly after only being here for a month was because all my family did was watch tv and eat, which was only exciting for about the first two days and then i started to get very very lonely coming home and sitting alone in my room because everyone else was in theirs with their tv on. oh, and i realized that my host brother and sister kind of wanted nothing to do with me. so, i moved!
my family now is two boys, matheus 13 and gabriel 17, a dad, gil, and a grandma (!!!!!!) angelina who is staying with us for right now. actually, the boys' mom is in texas right now bc the parents are going through a divorce, but i'm totally in love with this family and angelina and i always stay up talking and she loves that i'm here because i always make the boys go out and do things with me and get them distracted. what i mean is she was telling me how gabriel has spent a lot of time on the computer and not doing much anything else, but he IS my new best friend! he's seriously so cool. last week he started playing capoeira at my school with me, which he had done for a little bit as a little kid but hasn't done in quite a few years, and he's so cute, a tall awkward skinny kid with glasses (those of you that knew me in junior high know why i identify on this one), who's quiet at first but once you get him talking, he's really fun to talk with! he loves going out with me and my friends, even going over to our neighbor's house the other night to watch the nightly "novella" (=soap opera that is on on EVERY tv in brasil at 9pm)! and my family DOES things! saturday i spent the whole afternoon playing with my grandma's other granddaughter ;D, playing with legos on the floor and then making a necklace with beads that i had brought with me from the states. she's 4, marianna, and is the cutest thing. at first she was like, grandma you only have ONE granddaughter, but now we're tight. yesterday i went bike-riding on a bike trail (15km) with my dad and brothers and we go to ALL of the bahia games. speaking of which, my little brother plays soccer, too, and i'm going to go to his game this saturday. THIS is my type of family. and i cook with my grandma! and she gives me hugs! and makes food just for me! I HAVE A GRANDMA!!! lol ok i'm done. anyways, i'll try to send pictures soon. oh and on saturday i met one of the uncles, gilson, who supposedly has a wife..that's been in france for the past two years..and is more than slightly effeminate..and came over with his male friend from são paulo for dinner..anyways. he's cool. i just think my grandma may have a couple illusions about that one. and apparently there's another uncle, the one that's marianna's father so i will be meeting him sometime soon.

other stuff:
i got mugged for the first time yesterday! i've earned my way into the group that combines just about everyone in brazil, but i have to say, i'm a little disappointed in today's muggers. i had been in a movie theater nearby in one of the museums that shows foreign films, when, after about a 1/2 hour of the movie, all of the power went out. apparently someone had been playing with the power lines in the street and cut the electricity for the entire street. walking out, my brother and i didn't even see this guy coming up to us - i thought he was just going to ask for money - when all the sudden he was saying, "i just want your cell phone. just want your cell phone" and patted my jean pockets and my brother, too. i just kept walking since it took a second for me to realize: "oh i get it. i'm being mugged" and was like "i don't have one, i don't have one" which he believed bc my tiny little purse was on my shoulder underneath my sweater that i had slung over it, so he didn't even see it, nor did he even take the wallet out of my brother's pocket, which he DID feel up. seriously, people, let's get a little more serious if we're actually going to mug. needless to say we crossed to where there was light as soon as possible to avoid ACTUALLY being robbed.

LAST PARAGRAPH:
so, in brief, life is sweet. it's getting hotter, ben is coming for carnaval!!! and i hope anna will!! and my parents are coming in january!! and i'm making friends! and i've had a rash for the past couple of weeks but i think it's clearing up...

love you all!
micha

Bom dia, gente

So! I think I'm starting to get used to this living-in-Brazil thing...about 4 weeks after having arrived, but it's cool, better late than never. Anyways, I have a few minutes now before class and even though I want to write about everything I've been seeing, doing, meeting, loving, questioning, I'll stick to a them to cut down the time limit. Today's theme: capoeira.
For those of you who have never heard of it, it's Brazil's answer to kickboxing. You may see it in street demonstrations in large cities, composed of a large circle of people clapping and singing while two people perform flowy, dance-like moves with a martial arts flair. You might think, wow, how cool, that would be so much fun! I could do that, no problem!
Fast-forward to when you decide to go with a newly-made Brazilian friend to HIS capoeira school:
it's a crowded high-rise tucked back behind one of the small praças (plazas) along a cobble-stone road that is just wide enough to fit a small weight room on the first floor with a tiny winding blue staircase that leads up up up to the third floor where tattooed TOUGH-looking Brazilians are pounding away on a little weight bag while you gawk and try to be polite by interesting yourself in the pictures of past competitions and expositions on the wall. People gradually trickle in, greeting each other with a handshake that seems a little different but you're not sure just yet what makes it different..until you try to do it and get your fingers all twisted up because you have to interlock them to get it down right. Some guys start doing break-dancing like moves, and all of the sudden everyone has arrived at the top floor, the trap-door leading to the staircase is shut, and it's ON. And actually, it's kick-ass.
We started out just by stretching and limbering, doing some typical stretches then segueing into movement by "ginga"-ing: getting into a stance with a bent leg forward, the other behind, with one arm up to "block" while the other hangs loose, swithing arms and legs at the same time by stepping up and then immediately stepping the other leg back.
AH! CLASS!
to be continued...:)

So this is how this works!

Oh! I've just created a blog..didn't know it was so simple. OK, I will actually post a message later :)