¡Bom día!
Hello Livejournal.
I'm writing to you right now in an empty lobby in Miami Airport at 6:27 AM, trying to figure out how to kill time before my next flight, which boards in 12 hours. I arrived at 4:25 AM and I thought my next flight was gonna board in an hour at 5:30 AM, so I was panicking as Customs was taking forever (I was frantic because I thought I had missed my flight) but then I realized I have to kill an entire day before I fly back South.
I wanted to report to you about my week in Brasil.
It's really incredible how much you can actually fit into a week. My host families have been so generous to prepare sooooo much for our visit. My four days in Rio de Janeiro really left a mark. I got to become very close with Jean's two sisters, Juliana and Jessica, who were with me the whole time, taking me around to downtown Rio by ferry, bus and taxi, to samba clubs, markets, their universities and schools, a number of great restaurants and bars, a couple malls, many museums and beaches. I got to visit Ipanema and Copacabana beach and saw the giant statue of Jesus on the top of the mountain. They made sure I didn't miss out on anything. The girls taught me a ton of Portuguese words, too. By the third day, I could basically read with correct Portuguese pronunciation. They tried their best to make me a "Carioca" girl, a person with characteristics distinct of that region, such as having an accent on my "R"s, "X"s, and "S"s, or wearing Havaiana sandals, and sporting the local soccer league, Flamenco.
When I arrived to Sao Paulo, they winced and cringed at my Carioca accent and attire. The rivalry between the two regions is like Kansai (Rio de Janeiro) and Tokyo (Sao Paulo). Rio resembles Nor Cal, like San Francisco, everything built on top of each other on steep hills, more liberal people and open gays, whereas Sao Paulo is more like LA, metropolitan, more land and wide-spread, and extremely diverse in ethnicities.
In Sao Paulo, I met many more people. Leo is the oldest of four brothers, all of whom speak mainly Portuguese and Japanese. Dennis and I had to communicate with his parents in Japanese because they didn't speak English. I met Leo's girlfriend, Yumi, a national YWD vice-leader. Dennis moved in with us, too, the day I arrived. Until then, he was staying with Juninho (Junior), who is famous at SUA for being the most knowledgeable of SUA. His story is widely known, too. He tried to apply to SUA twice. The first time, he was accepted but his Visa was denied and he couldn't leave the country. The second time, his Visa was denied as well. But he's determined to come to SUA and he has sworn to Sensei that he won't give up. So he has been housing so many SUA students, opening his house and family to anyone who comes to Brazil. He's an amazing guy and he gave Dennis and I a wonderful time. We got to meet his huuuuuggeee extended family, too. We became close with his cousins, Hector, Guillemo' and Eduardo and their parents. The father, a lawyer, was a great guy, extremely comical, friendly and generous. Although he spoke very little English, he had Dennis and me laughing the whole time. And then there was Juninho's grandmother, with whom he lived, his many uncles, their wives, children, and those children's girl/boyfriends and then their neighbors, and their neighbors families. Since yesterday was Dennis and my last night, the whole lot of them pulled a party for us, with amazing food and real BBQ. They sang for us, and we sang for them as someone (not part of the family by blood but family nonetheless) played the guitar. I have videos so I'll share them with you later when I upload them.
In Sao Paulo, I got to visit the BSGI headquarters, where Leo arranged a meeting with the National Seinenbucho, Mr. Miyamoto, who gave us extensive encouragement and praise. It was a really humbling experience and he stressed just how much faith and trust he had in us as SUA students and promising leaders for Kosen Rufu. He made us see how sincere the members of Brasil were, and how deep their connection was with Sensei. I got to see the Brasilian May 3rd Youth Division Festival video, too, which was absolutely stunning and extremely encouraging. It had performances by the Ikeda Humanistic Philharmonic Orchestra of Sao Paulo, the Kotekitai, and other Youth Performance Groups. I was moved to tears by the video. I bought a copy to show you when I get home. Then one of the Byakuren named Juliana as well gave us a tour of the headquarters, which looked a lot of like Shinanomachi. There was a Japan town near by so we killed time there, too. In the evening of that day, Leo, who was a former member of the Ikeda Humanistic Philharmonic Orchestra of SP, took us to a rehearsal, where, again, Dennis and I were praised and embraced warmly. They even put up an article of our visit that night on their website. So that day was dedicated to BSGI activities.
Also, I told you I sported the Flamenco soccer team, just to please Jean's sisters. Well, I had to put up a good fight the whole time I was at Sao Paulo because there, they hiss at the name of Flamenco. I should've guessed that they wouldn't spare a moment in converting Dennis into a Corinthian. Corinthians is the second most popular team in Brazil (but apparently #1 in fan spirit *eyeroll*) and Corinthian fans go crazy at every game. Everyone in Juaninho's cousin's family (whom Dennis stayed with the first 2 days he was in SP) were Corinthians fans. Juaninho is a fan of Sao Paulo, an older, more classical team, now not as strong. It's almost ridiculous how fervent Brazilians can become with soccer. They all went raving mad and laughed hard when I insisted to stay in Flamenco. The lawyer father even gave me and Dennis each a gift, a mug from our respective teams.
Also, FOOD. I had sooooo much delicious Brazilian food in the past week that I can swear I gained a pound or two. Of course I had Feijoada (black beans, beef, pork on white rice), Picanha (BBQ on a stick), Coxinha (deep fried dough with chicken filling), Empadas (chicken mini pies), Pastel (Deep-fryed pastry with filling), bite sized cheese bread, Farofa (Brazilian seasoned toasted manioc flour served with almost anything), Brigadeiro (chocolate fudge-ish balls covered in more chocolate), Brazilian "Temaki" sushi (tuna fried with cheese and avocado into mini cubes... not Japanese at all). Drinks, too: Caipirinha (cachasa, strong alcohol from sugar canes, with lime or passion fruit--stronger than Tequilla), chopp "shoppe" (cheep but good blonde beer), cervesas (brands like Brahma and Anta'rctica), Brasilian coffee, and fruit/fruit drinks like Acai', Guarana, Banana, Coconut, etc. And I fell in love with Pasoca (sweet, ground, powdery peanut candy) so I received 3 boxes of them from various family friends.
So if you can believe that that's only a brief, abridged summary of my stay in Brazil, then you can guess just how crazy the past few days have been. I have over 500 pictures to upload, too. I'll let you know when you can visit them on facebook.
For now, I need to get on to writing other people e-mails. I hope this will suffice for the time being.
P.S. Don't mind my alternating spelling of words in Portuguese and English.