Aracaju! - 2 (images)

Monkeys! EEEEEeeeeeeeeee:







Drawing blood from wasps:


Step 1: Put on suit


Step 2: Climb up giant ladder


Step 3: Capture the wasp in a small container and put on ice for 10 mins to sedate.

Step 4: Pin down wasp


Step 5: Mark wasp


Step 6:Place needle under one of the flaps on abdomen and gently suck out no more than 3 microliters of clear blood. If it's not clear, you hit something you shouldn't have.



Parque dos Falcões:
My album of falcões!

Aracaju! - 1

I am finding myself to LOVE Aracaju!

I arrived late on Monday and stayed in the pousada across the street from the bus station. The man running the counter in the morning was very nice and tried to help me with my Português while I was waiting on my couchsurfing friend, Raphael.

Once Raphael picked me up, I was able to see more of the city. It's around the same size as Jacksonville, but has a decidedly more arid feel about it and loads more sand.

The whole family here is lovely and very much my kind of people. The mom is very helpful with my Portuguese (probably because she doesn't speak English) and her cooking is amazing! We had a traditionally Portuguese dish (from Portugual). Cod fish, potatoes, cheese, onions, and green olives. Very tastey! In the evening, I went with Raphael to an island across the bay to watch the sun set and discuss life over clams (were they?) and beer. Very cool!

Yesterday I went the central market here. It was huge! There are actually two markets now. One has produce, live and dead animals, and all kinds of grains and spices. The other one is full of handmade goods... although they look uncannily similar to a market I went to in Salvador... maybe it's sort of hand made.

In the evening I saw a performance by Leila Pinheiro. Her voice is absolutely amazing! And what a lovely woman. She seems so genuine!

This morning I went with Raphael's brother, Eduardo, to a research project he is involved with. He studies social insects, particularly ants, but this project is with wasps. There is a nest that is monitored by an American graduate student, Hanz, who really knows his stuff. He explained that he wants to know more about the hormonal changes in the wasps that indicate wheather one becomes a queen or worker and how the wasps know to single out a queen to excommunicate, and in repeat enteries is refused back into the colony. He also showed how to take blood from a wasp... which is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.

Sítio do Conde

I visited a place called Sítio do Conde where there are about four main streets that cross to form a center plaza. It's a veeery small town! It was a nice change from how big Salvador is, and I was able to have a lot of time to myself. I met a lot of people there, but no one spoke English. It was a strange experience to not be understood, as they are not used to my accent there. I didn't know I had such an aural variation on the question "quanto custa?".

The beach was very strange there. Beautiful sand stopped just before the water into what kind of looked like asphalt. From there it stopped suddenly into more sand and then the waves. The cool part was the little mini-ecosystems that formed in the crevices of these rocks. There were tiny, and fast!, lizard-fish things. That's the scientific name :) And loads of plants, crabs and algae.

The woman who owned the pousada was very nice, but looked very coarse. She was round and had a strange squint to part of her face. She was very willing to talk with me and I found her to be understanding of my accent, probably because her two daughters live in Italy now and she visits them from time to time. She cooked a lovely breakfast for me and gave me lots of hugs. In the resturant that was attached to the pousada, there was a man there who seemed like the head bartender. He was very nice and seemed to giggle everytime I asked him "tudo bem" or to say "obrigada". It was really funny to have him react that way!

I accidently missed the 10am bus to Aracaju so I had to wait around for the 3pm one. By the time I arrived in Aracaju, I was exhaused!

Tchau for now Salvador

About to head out to the bus station.

I realize have the misfortune of traveling on a hoilday weekend to Mengue Seco. It's likely I will have trouble finding accomodations, so I've got a couple other towns to consider.

If all goes well, Tuesday I will be in Aracaju hanging out with the likes of Raphael, a 27 year old from the area who digs the Sufjan Stevens album Sufjan Stevens invites you to: Come on feel the Illinoise.

From now until then, internet will be questionable.
Don't worry, I'll take loads of pictures!

xoxo

Last day in Salvador for a while.

Woke up a little late today, but just in time to say goodbye to Lutz and his friend Frank before they left for the islands. What lovely people!

I went through the fridge and feasted on all the food I had left. I didn't want it to go bad by the time I'm back in Salvador in a month.

In the afternoon, I met Marie to go to Parque Metropolitano de Pituaça. It's a lovely park with a huge lake with an island that is the center of the trails. Once in the trails, I felt like I wasn't in a huge city in Brazil. So very serene. We ran a total of 10km. Actually, Marie ran 10km; I ended up walking most of the way. I'm surprised at my lack of endurance in running. Especially considering that I do capoeira. Well... it makes sense... strength vs endurance. yeah.

On the the return walk/run (5km there, 5km back), Marie ended up about 3km ahead. There were many patrol bikes that ran up and down the path, and one stopped me and asked if I wanted a ride to the head of the trail. OK! It was really fun riding on the back of the bike in all of that wilderness! Even funnier was Marie's face when I rode up next to her. :)

We left around 5, and it took us 1h30m to get back to Barra. Marie was nice enough to help me buy a cell phone so I have one for when I am traveling. Her Portuguese is MUCH better than mine! If you want my phone # to send me words of wisdom via text, email me!

To top off the day, I managed to fit all of my important stuff in one backpack as well as all of my stuff I'm leaving at the hostel in one suitcase. Ninja packer!!

I find that the manikins in Salvador are creepy:

Quatra-feira, 6 de outubro de 2010

Today was excellent!

I had a fantastic lunch, homemade and YUMMY! I had a quick lesson in portuguese related to food and then gathered some great tips on how to cook veggies with a Brazilian edge.

The percussion lesson today was EXCELLENT. I have been feeling unlucky that I wasn't born Brazilian... with a pandeiro in my hand, but today's lesson gave me some strength.

Now, cheap turasco, senzala, e música de Salvador!

palavra.

reacção alérgica

Saturday I went to the hospital for an allergic reaction to cashew nut shell liquid!

A week ago my lips came in contact with it and made my lips swell. They were doing well, and healing just fine, when Thursday a rash started to spread across my face and neck. I'm all about letting my body do it's work on it's own, so I let it be and tried not to scratch. Unfortunately, when I woke Saturday morning my face was swollen, especially around my eyes. I looked kind of like this. Although, actually like this and this.

As I was arranging to go to the hospital Saturday morning, I was fortunate to have brought the subject up to one of the other residents of the hostel, Lutz. He is a German surgeon, and happened to have some hydrocortisone pills to give me. It helped alot, but after 3 hours I felt it was getting worse; minor difficulties swallowing. (!!!)

I made it to a public hospital, and I found it to be unique experience. I was there maybe 30 or 40 minutes and I was seen. Quicker than any US hospital. The first room was a doctor who wrote me a prescription. I told him I wanted a shot, and he said they were going to give me one in the next room. I wasn't weighed, and other vitals weren't read.

The next room was full of people, patients and medical staff. The lady treating me was very nice, but didn't say very much because of our language barrier. I was given one hydrocortisone shot in my arm and two other shots in my hips. The ones in my hips hurt very bad!

After 20 mins, they said I could leave. The cool part: I didn't have to pay anything. Which was nice since I spent about R$110 in taxi fees finding the correct hospital.

Overall, a very interesting experience I am not interested in duplicating!

Long hot day

Today was a good day for using Portuguese... I still find myself primarily using English, but slowly I am feeling more confident when I use what little Portuguese I know.

I dislike the bus system in Salvador. If I was going to a tourist area, I'd have ten buses to choose from. Since I am not, I get to wait for an hour for the bus. I was SO late for my aula de percussão. Jorge was very lovely and didn't hold me accountable. I was just happy to be out of the heat by the time I arrived at his house. The sun was monstrous today, and I found myself quite irritable.

For lunch this afternoon, I had what was one of the best meals I've ever eaten. Red-fish baked with heaps of vegetables and a side of beans and rice (not your La Napalera beans and rice!). Sorry, I really don't do the dish justice by this description. The meal way joined harmoniously with an ice cold Bohemia, a view of the sea, and an engaging conversation with Lucas (an inspiring Brazilian I've had the pleasure to get to know).

Also, just heard from Alex, (a friend at the hostel I am living) that Kelly Green may be making a trip here sometime. Ask her for details, but I think she's doing recording, shows, and some studying while she's here. Muito legal!

Eu não gosto de turismo, mas é como as pessoas ganham dinheiro.
...mas eu não gosto dinheiro!

Minor allergic reaction; GREAT fruit smoothies!

I finally bought one of these (Obrigada Lucas for taking this lovely photo!). I should have looked it up before! Apparently, the liquid from the shell where the cashew nut hangs out, is an anacardic acid, similar to poison ivy, oak, and sumac. Hopefully, the small amount I put on lips won't make it bubble up like some of the nasty pictures I googled.

(Yes, I feel that "googled" is a legitimate, past-tense verb.)

In awesome news, I helped make some really GREAT fruit smoothies! água, manga, mamão, abacaxi, goiaba, polpa de açai, polpa de caju, leite condensado, e leite de coco. JOY.

Today, I started work on the plans for my youth world ensemble project. I'm super excited! I have a lot of ideas yet to work out, and I need some help writing for some grants, but they'll all be worth it in the end. Feel free to email any ideas if you have them!

Mid-week four... 2 meses mais...

I've decided to go with posting photos on Photobucket in addition to Flickr:

http://s1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb464/jenn2brazil/

Mas, no new photos just yet! Check back!

Quite an eventful day today, yet slightly unfocused! I took the bus to my percussão professor's stop and there was a HUGE error in planning. He told me he couldn't teach today, but could teach Wednesday. I didn't interpret that, and showed up today for a lesson and he wasn't there! Oopaaah... Turns out I'll just have an extra lesson next week, but I can't believe I confused quarta-feira and quinta-feira after three weeks! Lesson learned.

I took the rest of the day to review my Portuguese grammar before dinner. Slightly successful!

For dinner, my friend Victor cooked a traditional Dominican dinner (plátanos, abecate, ovos, pão com tomate, e queijo frito... e uma cuba libre!!)Muito bom!

At dinner, I requested that everyone speak Portuguese despite my language barrier, and it turns out that I can understand a lot more than I expected! There are some nuances I cannot pick up, but I suppose I cannot be so attached to conversation nuances in a language I just started learning. In English, I realize I thrive on understanding the nuances... which I think makes me feel like I don't know enough Portuguese, despite learning at an average rate. I am trying to not feel overwhelmed. :)

I've met some great people here, so it's going to be extremely difficult to go back to the states. I never knew people could be so awesome! I've decided not to think too much, and to worry about things as they come (Obrigada Maria, Jess, e Jess!)

Beijos

Todo dia

My percussion instructor is awesome! He really has a great handle on how to get started on the Brazilian rhythms. Today, I learned a samba variation and ijexá. The latter is quite difficult, although it sounds simple. My hands have a hard time staying with their own parts. His name is Jorge (pronounced Georg-ie), and he often wears a t-shirt with São Jorge (Saint George) on it.

It has been difficult to express what I want to know (I'm still not that great at Portuguese), and I am certainly having a hard time understanding him. However, the great part is that I am forced to use what I know how to say and understand! Better language mapping that way.

Today is the last night my friend Maddi will be in Salvador. :*( I am really going to miss hanging out with her, and I hope I get an opportunity to visit her in Sydney in the next year.

Tonight, I plan to head out to a historical area called Pelourinho for one last dance-in-the-streets-with-the-sambistas. I've found myself to have done a fair amount of going out to venues and discovering the local drinks and food, but after three weeks in town, I am eager to completely dig-in and learn the things I want to learn from this city - the things I came here for: language, percussion, and music.

Boa noite!

Videos from YouTube

Airto Moreira

Great intro to samba on the pandeiro from a brazilian

Samba partido alto

Link to my photo album: FLICKR

Do you know another photo hosting website that´s free with more space? Having troubles with uploading everything to Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52178763@N03/

Week two... near the end of it.

My Portuguese is improving. I´ve been practicing with my host family a little, and this morning I was able to have a full conversation (just a little primitive).

Next week I work with a private percussion instructor. The first classes are with a small group, then I will progress to the individual classes only R$35 per. Also, next week I go to the place where I will consider volunteering. It´s a social organization for children called Rhythm of Hope. I am not sure how well I will work out in this volunteer job as my Portuguese isn´t that great yet.

I move to a hostel this weekend, and there is internet included. I´m excited to be able to use the internet at night... which means I´ll be updating more often!!

Right now I am sick. I have a serious sinus infection and it´s getting worse. I went to the pharmacy with a friend from the school who speaks much better Portuguese than I do. He really helped me out and I was able to get a nasal spray and some honey with extract of ginger root for tea. I´m very excited to see if it helps! It´s been very annoying to constantly be blowing my nose.

Tchau!

First Saturday in Brazil

What a busy week! I´m getting behind in my blogging!

Salvador is amazing! So much stuff going on and so far I´ve meet a lot of fantastic people. Right now I´m in an internet café, and they are playing a lot of american pop music. Song of the moment: Lenny Kravitz "Fly Away". I shall never escape this.

I´ve made a turkish friend who speaks only turque and a very little bit of portuguese. So, as you can imagine, the communication is difficult. I feel compassionate: he does not share a common language with anyone (the rest of us at the school speak english socially) and most of the other students don´t want to talk for long due to the overall difficulty in speaking. He also told me the brazilian friends he is living with don´t interact with him at home, so he isn´t able to pracitce his portuguese. SO, I´ve been trying to talk with him more and help him a lot in class. I think he is getting better... I hope so.

I´ve meet up with a few people from couchsurfing.com and it´s been really nice to get tours of the area from locals. Until I am much better at speaking portuguese, I think it´s a great idea to get introduced to the city via brazilians who speak english. I´m very happy to be able to use CouchSurfing.com as a resource for this.

Does anyone know of a free unlimited photo/video uploading service? I´m already over my limit on flickr for the month, and I don´t have the money exactly to buy the "pro package" (although it´s a really really good deal)

Also, I´ve decided I need to go to the Amazon while I´m here. I mean, what would it be to go to Brazil and skip out on that?? The fortunate thing is I may be able to meet some people who frequent there an tag along or some thing! That would be great.

Until next time, Tchau!

4

Last night I went to historical Pelorinho with Anita, Edtna, Maddie, and Zdennek (I think I spelled his wrong yesterday). There was a huge crowd of people, but according to Maddie, it was a small crowd for this area. It was raining lightly on and off, so maybe that´s why...

We ate at a little italiano place, and talked for a while. Edtna is from Switzerland and is studying tourism. She has been to every continent besides Austrailia, and speaks many different languages.

I have to leave the computer for today! I will finish tomorrow!

3

I´m very tired already!

This morning, for breakfast, I had the normal fruit, coffee, and bread with a new addition. My host-mom took a long thin loaf of bread, cut it in circular slices, poured milk in the center, dipped it in whipped eggs and fried it. Kind of like french toast... only AMAZING-ER. :P

I feel like it´s going to be easy to get into the language here. I´m picking up a lot of things already, and it´s only day 3.

In 45 mins I do capoeira at the school! I´m excited to learn in a different place.

For lunch I ate with Greg from Queens and Zderrek from Austria. Zderrek and I ate at Casa de Pão and Greg met us there once he brought Subway (in his defence he´s been here for 4 weeks already). Before Greg joined us, we spoke about differences in countries, and how his country views the US to be very conservative, but some other places even more so.

I hope to see the historic center, Pelirinho, tonight. I have to find some school friends to show me around.

Dia 2

Today has been a long day already, and it´s only 3pm!

My first Portuguese class was really interesting. I was able to pick up a lot of new words and better yet, I was able to use the stuff I already know. There are two others in my class: One is Bulent who is from Turkey and speaks a little German, and the other is Melanie who is from Belgim and speaks French, English, German, and Spanish! The class is entirely in Portuguese and is easy sometimes, and difficult some other times.

After class, I ate lunch at Melanie´s casa. We had bread, salami, and cheese. All of it was very good. Afterward we walked around, and she showed me a fabric shop, a grocery, and a bakery. She lives with her boyfriend in an apartment near school, and she´s had two weeks to get to know the area with him.

So they don´t have squrills here, but they do have TINY MONKIES! Yes!!!! I´ll get a picture of one asap!

Tomorrow I start capoeira. I am very excited to try the art in Brazil! Also, I will find out more information about where I will stay once I am not with my host family, and I get to pick where I would like to volunteer in Salvador. I don´t know what is available yet.

I haven´t run into any street music, but I´ve been a little nervous to venture on my own just yet. I hope to meet some of the other students at Diálogo tomorrow, and maybe some who are interested in exploring more. I haven´t felt in danger on the streets here, and part of me feels like I just need to be aware, but just to be safe, I´ll make some friends first! :)

First morning in Salvador da Bahia!

Bom Dia!!

I sat next to Silvia on the flight from Miami to Salvador. She was visiting Recife, where her family lives. She was very nice, and was so interested in my project she offered her email address! Very cool.

Jailson picked me up from the airport, and I confess I was a little scared of the car ride to my host family. It seems that the lines dividing the lanes are only suggestions. I made it safely to my host family, and Jailson was very helpful in answering my questions about Salvador. The coolest part about the ride in was the random agogo playing I heard.

My host family is WONDERFUL! Sandra e Carlos take such good care of me and are very patient with my difficulty speaking português. Sandra served for breakfast pineapple, pão (bread), jam, café, e guava juice. Very tasty!

The street of the apartment is very loud and busy, so when I arrived at their casa at 730am, it was difficult to take a nap (I didn´t sleep much on the flight). After my nap I had a really cold shower :/ Either hot water isn´t needed this close to the equator, or I didn´t know how to work the shower that well. I think I heard a cuica being played while I was there. wow.

So for everyone wondering how I am: I´m FANTASTIC. This is going to be the best idea I´ve had until now! :)

Tchau!

(why are they playing early 90s American pop music in this internet cafe??)

9 days before Brazil!

Today I set up a meeting with the Student Health Services to get a traveler health exam. I think I will need to get a few vaccinces before I go: Yellow Fever, Hepatitis-A, Hepatitis-B, and Malaria prevention pills? Who knew, and holy sheeets those vaccinces aren't cheap! $170 just for the yellow fever one!

I want to work hard this week developing very specific research goals for this trip. I fear if I don't have a list of ideas going into this journey, I may waste time on topics that aren't very interesting for the journal editors of Ethnomusicology and Ethnomusicology Forum.

I wonder if they use A4 paper in Brazil... I'll need it to submit to the second journal I listed. Apparently they are a Brittish journal. Interesting!

TLO Statement

So, I bet you're wondering what exactly I'm doing while in Brazil as well as what I'm hoping to get out of it. Below is my written statement for the Univeristy of North Florida's Transformational Learning Opportunity Grant Application. I hope it gives the best description for your understanding!

***

"As is typical of any study abroad, I expect to widen my perception of the world and hope to grow substantially from the experience in this study abroad in Brazil. What is unique about this study abroad from those currently offered at the University of North Florida is I will be participating in community outreach in Brazil. Brazil has one of the most extreme disparities between the rich and the poor in the world. Ten percent of the richest people in Brazil own more than that of the poorest fifty percent. These figures terrify me, and I desperately want to see what it takes to help close the gap.
Additional personal development I predict relates to my degree focus in percussion performance. Brazil, particularly the northeastern state of Bahia, has a rich culture and musical heritage, and the Brazilian martial art capoeira is a part of this. Capoeira involves the heavy use of percussion in its performance, and as a percussion performance major, this is very interesting to me. Since I will soon be graduating with my Bachelor of Music degree at UNF, I have been thinking heavily about my future and have found an interest in ethnomusicology. Professionally, what I hope to accomplish in Brazil is to conduct research on the music of Capoeira and compile the data and materials into an article to be published in Ethnomusicology and Ethnomusicology Forum, nationally recognized ethnomusicology journals. Overall, this experience will transform who I am, how I think about poverty and music, and where I will lead myself and others in this world."

Donate Button!

International Travel isn't cheap, and to make my trip to Brazil as educational and productive as possible, I need donations to help me along.

These donations will go towards international round-trip flight, a Brazilian visa, food, shelter, lessons with Brazilian percussionists, and state-side care for my cats and belongings.

Every little bit helps, even $5 :)

Vista de Salvador

VistaSalvador, originally uploaded by Jenn2Brazil.

Borrowed from the internet! Check out how beautiful Salvador is!!

In Preparation

It is entirely nerve-wracking to plan this trip to Brazil, but nothing makes me as excited! I hope to grow so much as a result of this experience.

I hope I will find a grupo de percussão and a coro to perform with while I am there.

Check out these links to Salvador da Bahia, which I will be visiting:

In English
Em Português