Sao Paolo to Atibaia (3/1-3/3)

i love the mornings in brazil. it's similar to taiwan in that you want to concentrate most of your activities during the day and night because the afternoons are too warm. for breakfast (i forgot to take a photo this morning!), i had coffee, oatmeal with condensed milk, bread with white & milk chocolate, and a "custard apple." it's this fruit that's very sweet, you need to scoop out the insides with a spoon, and spit out the seeds. very interesting. i get to try so many different fruits in brazil! :)
It's gorgeous to have the sun without the heat. :) churrasco, last night, was so. good. there's a salad bar where you can get unlimited vegetables, rice, some pasta, etc. when you're ready for meat, you turn this little sign to "green," signaling the waiters to come to you. different guys have different cuts of meat with huge carving knives. if you want the meat, you nod, and can even point to the exact part of the meat that you want him to cut for you. each person has a pair of mini tongs, and as the waiter cuts the meat for you, you grab it with the tongs and put it on your place. it. is. awesome. i got to try chicken heart, and i really enjoyed it! hahah :) we were a table of 9, 8 brazilians, and 8 asians (1 non-asian and 1 non-brazilian, yours truly). after dinner, we went to another relative's apartment to watch tv, eat pudding/flan, and just chill. brazilians are very fond of just being in each other's presence. i love that they value time to just sit and relax. :)

the next morning, i woke up to jackie chan adventures in portuguese on tv! i actually remembered the episode they were playing... omgness, such good times. JCA was followed up by spongebob... not nearly as enjoyable, but still funny to watch in portuguese. a lot of brazilian tv is american with portuguese subtitles. later in the day, we went to the paulista museum... omgness, gorgeous. and it was so cheap to get in! (about $5 or $2 if you're a student). unfortunately, i couldn't take photos in the museum, but it was interesting to see how most of the art, even though they were done by brazilian artists, are in the style of european art.

i also had my first encounter with brazilian supermarkets. pictures will explain the interesting differences i've observed ;) these past few days have allowed me to peoplewatch/observe brazilians. some things i've seen so far is that brazil is behind in fashion and technology. most of the electronics are less advanced than the U.S., and many fashion trends have not come to brazil. for example, their jeans are mostly light tinted (and for good reason... it'd be unbearable to wear black jeans). brazilians also seem very confident in their bodies because most of their clothes are very tight. also, brazilian bikinis and waxes are a REAL THING. omgness, i couldn't believe that people actually wear that in public hahaha. they also are fond of tattoos, piercings, and dying their hair. i'm interested to see if they'll have an effect on my wardrobe at the end of the trip ;) my style is differently not "brazilian," hahah (probably b/c i'm not a summer girl).
at night, i got to experience some japanese culture by folding origami with my great aunt Marina and Andrea. we spent the night folding cranes, hats, boats, and cubes while watching volleyball on TV. (ahh, volleyball is so popular in brazil! the only sport more popular is soccer. i canNOT wait to be able to play in fortaleza!!). marina was so happy that she put our origami creations in their apartment display case! they definitely were not works of art, let me tell you. she's just always so happy and positive; i love it. :)

today, i left sao paolo to go to my uncle's house in atibaia, a town about 1 hr away from sao paolo. before leaving, i had feijoada (a very typical brazilian dish, basically a bean and meat stew with rice). pictures will be on facebook, no worries ;) after lunch, andrea (my cousin) and i took the subway and a coach bus to arrive to my uncle's store. i've realized how dangerous it is to have money out. after paying for a subway ticket (and within 10 seconds of me putting money in my wallet), i was approached by a homeless(?) man asking for money. anyway, two of my uncles in brazil own stores! my uncle in atibaia owns a big "sports store" that carries shoes, bags, swim wear, and athletic wear. he forced me to choose a pair shoes as my gift -_- i've never had a time where i could pick anything out and just go to the stockroom to grab what i wanted. i felt so privileged and spoiled, hahah. i'm truly blessed to have such an amazing family that i just met :) my uncle married a taiwanese brazilian! she was born in brazil, knows taiwanese & chinese from her parents, and has studied english at school. i'd say she's the most talented multilingual relative yet, hahah. i'm still amazed by multilinguistic asians (and feel increasingly incompetent). before dinner, i got to try this AMAZING dessert... acai (native to brazil, news to me) sorbet, passion fruit mousse, and this sweet milk powder... oh my, so good. i forgot to take a picture, but i will definitely take a photo next time!

i'm currently at my uncle's house (andrea's house) with their golden labrador named "Mel," which means honey. she's super sweet, fat, 4 years old, and recently got surgery on her back leg b/c she fell on the spike of a fence in the front yard while waiting for her owners to come home! :'( she's so cute. photos of her will be up as well.

and now, i'm just reading (still need 180 pages by monday), blogging, and relaxing ;) i could get used to the brazilian life, hahah. oh, one thing that i need to adjust to: ants. there are mini ants everywhere! not a lot (they're not swarming the place), but it's a common sight. i guess it's similar to summer in the U.S... i just haven't seen insects in a while, hahaha. okay, enough rambling for now. we're going to the beach tomorrow (beach nearby sao paolo), then monday morning, i leave for fortaleza! i can't wait to meet my homestay family and the people on my program (although my portuguese REALLY needs to improve). i'm so thankful for andrea; she's so pacient and attentive to my terrible portuguese, hahaha. we love to use my dictionary, and look up things for each other and point to the definition. ;) it's going to be so hard to say goodbye on monday... i can't believe that i won't see them again. even though it has only been 3 days, i feel like i know so much about them already. my great uncle (grandpa's cousin) keeps asking me more questions, like if i'll marry a taiwanese guy, if i've had a boyfriend, why we broke up, if my brother has had girlfriends, and if i would listen to my parent's advice about boys... hahaha it's been an interesting trip. i wish i could spend more time with my relatives here. :( i hope to keep in touch with them by skype! :) speaking of which, my skype name is joanne26li. add me, fools! okay that's all. until next time

Chegar - arrival in Sao Paolo

after a 10 hour direct flight from newark, i am in brazil! it's surreal how i'm actually here... and actually writing a blog. it's probably because i finally got my internet to work and because i need to finish a book by monday... but it's all good! i'm currently at my grandpa's brother's apartment in sao paolo with his wife and my cousin. sao paolo is SUCH a huge city... when i was coming in from the plane, i literally could not see past the city limits... it's overwhelming and breathtaking. awesome, awesome.

it's been really amazing being with my relatives from brazil... it's such a different feeling to interact with asians not in the u.s. or asia! my uncle, Will, knows mandarin, taiwanese, and portuguese; his daughter, my 19 year old cousin (andrea) knows portuguese, taiwanese, and a bit of english; my great uncle (daniel) knows mandarin, taiwanese, portuguese and a bit of japanese; and his wife (marina) knows japanese, portuguese, and a bit of taiwanese. it's quite incredible how i'm getting around these family conversations with my broken portuguese, mandarin, and english... hahah. it's really fun and is inspiring me to be multilingual. i love my grandpa's younger brother! he's such a joker... and really good at portuguese. he's been in brazil for 37 years! when i couldn't get my internet to work for a while, he kept saying how my laptop (3 year old macbook pro) was too old and no good, and that i should just leave it in brazil. he has also asked how to say my name (we settled on Joana), if i have a boyfriend, and if my parents cried when they sent me to the airport. also, daniel walks around the apartment in a white tank top and basketball shorts spouting fluent portuguese and taiwanese... so bauss. marina is also so great! she's a brazilian japanese, so she was born and raised in brazil. she's first generation brazilian, and has been able to keep japanese going for her children as well. so proud of my bilingual/trilingual relatives :') she's also an AMAZING cook! for lunch, we had this steamed tofu/egg seafood soup (SO. GOOD.), humongous grilled fish, bitter vegetable (koo gwa... lol), spicy cucumbers, and brazilian salad (whose dressing is a combination of a vinaigrette and taco bell sauce, hahah). it was all topped off with acai soda :) i feel like i can really get used to this fresh fruits, veggies, and seafood here. :)
and men, daniel knows what he's doing; a japanese wife can result in amazing, homecooked japanese food ;)

ALSO, it is so hot here, omgness! my body has been so lethargic all day, and it's only 80 degrees now... fortaleza is supposed to be much hotter and sunnier. it's incredibly bright and sunny here. i really can't believe it. as soon as i left the airport, i was hit with sunny 80 degree weather... unreal considering that when i left nj, it was snowing. i leave for fortaleza on monday, so i hope my body adjusts to the heat by then! we're getting churrasco (brazilian bbq) in sao paolo for dinner tonight; i. am. excited. onwards to reading, dinner, and attempting to keep cool.

oh, & a side note: i met my first brazilian newark resident on the plane ride here! carlos is an electric guitarist and has been living in newark for 20 years; he's born and raised in curitiba. we had really great conversations about music and life on the plane (occupying 4 hrs out of the 10 hr flight), and we'll be sure to meet up over the summer so i can practice my portuguese and swap music with him. it's so sweet because he's playing a gig at his hometown and visiting his daughter, who's 22. our conversation was so truly genuine and enjoyable, and he was so helpful in enforcing the generalizations that brazilians are so friendly, open, and have big hearts. :) my family has been great so far, and i can't wait to meet more brazilians once i'm in fortaleza. TTFN; beijos e tchau!