Today is my 2nd month here
Brazil is very DIFFERENT... Okay so ive decided to write about things here in brazil so you could read about it. Starting with the people.. oh the people of Brazil, I love them. When you meet someone you kiss them sometimes hug too depending on how warm the person is. I love this, the people are so friggen friendly. Even if youve never seen the person before you still kiss them, and when your walking down the hall in school you dont just wave and say hello you stop and kiss. The boys dont kiss but they are more affectionate w/ each other they always shake hands our pat each other on the back. Oh and brothers and sisters are a lot more affectionate w/ each other too. Like they will hug a lot. It seems that brazilian siblings get a long a lot better than American siblings. Everyday i walk to school with my 2nd host family because they live in the same building as my family im living with right now, and sometimes Thais will be running late and Hamid (her brother) will wait for her and be late to school because he was waiting to walk with her. And in the afternoon too we always wait for her to get out of class. Its really polite and considerate.
Families also seem a lot closer, most all families sit down at lunch and eat together. And the moms are very informed on their childrens lives. For example my 2nd host mom knows all about Thais and her boyfreinds and she knows who Hamid has kissed. To me its a little annoying beacuse im not used to a mother always being there. But its nice because the kids always tell their moms everything, and they know all their freinds.
The schools here are crazy, the students are so insulting to their teachers they´re constantly mocking the teachers and yelling out in the middle of class, i dont think an American teacher could survive at my school. You pretty much can do anything in class, everyone always talking, even when the teacher is, people will move theirs decks to be next to their freinds, they get up in the middle of class to walk around. My first week here was so hard to get used to. I felt like i was back in 7th grade, but ive gotten used to it now.
Kids don´t really dress up when they go to school the girls usually just wear spandex and sneakers, nike pumps to be exact. EVERYONE has nike pumps. Brazilians love to be rich! They love showing off how rich they are too. If you have puma, nike, quicksilver oh and Deisel you´re rich and people will know it. Everyone always asks me about money, they´re like are those expensive jeans you´re wearing.. or how much do you spend on this or that.. its weird. But I love going out on weekends though its fun because you get all dressed up. Girls wear really high high heels, like soemthing you´d wear to prom, and really tight jeans and tight shirts. At clubs you always see girls wearing really tight shirts with tons of cleveage no matter how fat or skinny you are. I went shopping with my 2nd host sister to a underwear store and i honestly think they only sell push up bras in brazil haha i didnt see any normal ones. When you go shopping there´s ALWAYS someone right there helping you telling you if what you´re wearing looks good on you or if they can get you something else, and you usually dont pick out the cloths you want to try on. When you walk into a store a person will come up to you and ask you what you´re looking for and then grab a bunch of whatever it is and you then decide what you want to try on.
When you go to a night clubs or to a freinds birthday party kids will drink because you can buy alcohol pretty much anywhere but they don´t drink to get drunk unless you´re at a really big concert or party. And smokng pot is kind of frowned apon especially among the people i hang out with because i go to a private school because all the public schools are horrible sometimes theyre really dangeruous, there are have been shootings in schools and roberies. But anyway my city is really big for me but its a small brazilian city most citys are very large unless theyre very poor, then they´re small. In the north of Brazil there arent a lot of large citys its mostly villages that are very poor.
There is a huge diversity in Brazil you can find any culture here, but ive realized people are more open about being racist, they call blacks "negros" and they´re not afraid to make fun of Japanese or Chinese people. Oh and they make fun of gay people all the time, even adults. The other day me and Hamid were waiting for his mom to come and get us at the gym and a gay guy walked by. Hamid goes.. "that guys gay, there are lot of gays here at the club, its weird" I go "Its not weird, its normal" he was just like what, normal.. no its not NORMAL. I´d certainly hate to be gay living in Brazil. Oh and they´ll tell you if they don´t like Americans and they all HATE Bush. Ive defineatly gotten the ol "I HATE AMERICANS" yelled at me. Then theyll come up and say i hate americans but i like you! haha its so weird.
Its so different somethings here are taken for granted like paper, no one ever recycles and they dont flush toilet paper they throw it in the trash because most human waste is dumped into the rivers. But then again theyre very concervative when it comes to food. Everyone always cleans their plates, its somewhat rude to not finish what you have on your plate because there are so many starving people in this country that you have to be grateful for the food you have. They also use alcohol for some cars here. Which i personally think is a very good idea, its less poluting, cheaper, and there´s an endlesssupply of alcohol unlike gasoline.
You always see homeless people when you´re driving at night and you stop at a stop light little kids will come up to your window asking for food or money. Its even worse in São Paulo. There are so many slums in the big citys its awful. People live in the smallest shakes on the sides of roads. At night you have to be really careful because there are a ton on motorcyclists (theyre everywhere) and they won´t stop for anything. If you walk in front of them they´ll hit you. And if you´re walking at night you have to be REALLY careful where you go. Its very common to be robbed. My host mom won´t even let me walk 1 block to the movie store by myself after the suns gone down.
The area I live in isn´t very pretty because it´s a city, but I still love the view. All the sidewalks have cobble stone designs in them, which is really nice, but there´s always so much litter everywhere and stray dogs. Ive never seen so many stray dogs in my life. But the beaches in Brazil are the prettiest places in the world. I think thats enough for now, there are so many more things i could talk about but i think this is good for now.
Families also seem a lot closer, most all families sit down at lunch and eat together. And the moms are very informed on their childrens lives. For example my 2nd host mom knows all about Thais and her boyfreinds and she knows who Hamid has kissed. To me its a little annoying beacuse im not used to a mother always being there. But its nice because the kids always tell their moms everything, and they know all their freinds.
The schools here are crazy, the students are so insulting to their teachers they´re constantly mocking the teachers and yelling out in the middle of class, i dont think an American teacher could survive at my school. You pretty much can do anything in class, everyone always talking, even when the teacher is, people will move theirs decks to be next to their freinds, they get up in the middle of class to walk around. My first week here was so hard to get used to. I felt like i was back in 7th grade, but ive gotten used to it now.
Kids don´t really dress up when they go to school the girls usually just wear spandex and sneakers, nike pumps to be exact. EVERYONE has nike pumps. Brazilians love to be rich! They love showing off how rich they are too. If you have puma, nike, quicksilver oh and Deisel you´re rich and people will know it. Everyone always asks me about money, they´re like are those expensive jeans you´re wearing.. or how much do you spend on this or that.. its weird. But I love going out on weekends though its fun because you get all dressed up. Girls wear really high high heels, like soemthing you´d wear to prom, and really tight jeans and tight shirts. At clubs you always see girls wearing really tight shirts with tons of cleveage no matter how fat or skinny you are. I went shopping with my 2nd host sister to a underwear store and i honestly think they only sell push up bras in brazil haha i didnt see any normal ones. When you go shopping there´s ALWAYS someone right there helping you telling you if what you´re wearing looks good on you or if they can get you something else, and you usually dont pick out the cloths you want to try on. When you walk into a store a person will come up to you and ask you what you´re looking for and then grab a bunch of whatever it is and you then decide what you want to try on.
When you go to a night clubs or to a freinds birthday party kids will drink because you can buy alcohol pretty much anywhere but they don´t drink to get drunk unless you´re at a really big concert or party. And smokng pot is kind of frowned apon especially among the people i hang out with because i go to a private school because all the public schools are horrible sometimes theyre really dangeruous, there are have been shootings in schools and roberies. But anyway my city is really big for me but its a small brazilian city most citys are very large unless theyre very poor, then they´re small. In the north of Brazil there arent a lot of large citys its mostly villages that are very poor.
There is a huge diversity in Brazil you can find any culture here, but ive realized people are more open about being racist, they call blacks "negros" and they´re not afraid to make fun of Japanese or Chinese people. Oh and they make fun of gay people all the time, even adults. The other day me and Hamid were waiting for his mom to come and get us at the gym and a gay guy walked by. Hamid goes.. "that guys gay, there are lot of gays here at the club, its weird" I go "Its not weird, its normal" he was just like what, normal.. no its not NORMAL. I´d certainly hate to be gay living in Brazil. Oh and they´ll tell you if they don´t like Americans and they all HATE Bush. Ive defineatly gotten the ol "I HATE AMERICANS" yelled at me. Then theyll come up and say i hate americans but i like you! haha its so weird.
Its so different somethings here are taken for granted like paper, no one ever recycles and they dont flush toilet paper they throw it in the trash because most human waste is dumped into the rivers. But then again theyre very concervative when it comes to food. Everyone always cleans their plates, its somewhat rude to not finish what you have on your plate because there are so many starving people in this country that you have to be grateful for the food you have. They also use alcohol for some cars here. Which i personally think is a very good idea, its less poluting, cheaper, and there´s an endlesssupply of alcohol unlike gasoline.
You always see homeless people when you´re driving at night and you stop at a stop light little kids will come up to your window asking for food or money. Its even worse in São Paulo. There are so many slums in the big citys its awful. People live in the smallest shakes on the sides of roads. At night you have to be really careful because there are a ton on motorcyclists (theyre everywhere) and they won´t stop for anything. If you walk in front of them they´ll hit you. And if you´re walking at night you have to be REALLY careful where you go. Its very common to be robbed. My host mom won´t even let me walk 1 block to the movie store by myself after the suns gone down.
The area I live in isn´t very pretty because it´s a city, but I still love the view. All the sidewalks have cobble stone designs in them, which is really nice, but there´s always so much litter everywhere and stray dogs. Ive never seen so many stray dogs in my life. But the beaches in Brazil are the prettiest places in the world. I think thats enough for now, there are so many more things i could talk about but i think this is good for now.