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Rain, rain, go away!

Hellooooooo winter in Bahia!  The past few days have been nonstop rain.  But you have to try to have a sense of humor about it, and in that spirit I wanted to share this story: Today I was pretty fed up with the ceaseless downpour (and having to walk in puddles everywhere).  After my evening … Continue reading →

Snapshot

Surreal scene: Six a.m., you’re on the highway in a traffic jam.  The sky is getting light, but the clouds are still that pink-gold dawn color.  There’s nothing interesting to look at along the highway, and the car is moving at 15 km/hr. All of a sudden, the edge of the highway opens into a … Continue reading →

Back in SSA

Hello my friends, I have returned from my voyage with my host family to the interior of Bahia for São João (holiday, which I didn’t even mention here yet).  The trip was everything it promised to be, full of ups and downs and campfires and fireworks and food and drink and forró music.  I may enter … Continue reading →

BrasilxCoreia = lackluster. So here’s something more fun.

Instead of writing about Brazil’s poorly played 2×1 victory over N. Korea, which has left everyone around here decidedly angry (high standards, I guess), I wanted to share with you this video from the World Cup opening ceremony: (Credit to my friend Dhiamille for sending me the video.) Oh, also: remember how I talked about … Continue reading →

Cala Boca, Galvão!

People in Brazil hate Galvão Bueno, soccer commentator, because he never shuts up.  And Brazilians have chosen Twitter as their means to get the point across.  In order to make the topic “Shut Up, Galvão” become the No. 1-discussed item on Twitter, a hoax on non-portuguese-speakers was created in which people were asked to tweet … Continue reading →

TOMORROW.

Tomorrow at 3:30pm is Brazil’s first world cup game, against North Korea.  I expect madness. Yesterday the power went out for an hour or so and we got to thinking: what if the power goes out somewhere during the game?!  Coelba (electrical co.) employees could lose their lives! But seriously.  Banks are officially altering their … Continue reading →

Too many celebrations to keep track of!

Brazil is famous for having lots of holidays, but I think now things have gone too far even for Brazilians: tomorrow is Valentine’s day, the World Cup just kicked off, and in a couple weeks is São João, a rural festival that’s really popular here in the Northeast.  When you watch tv, almost every commercial … Continue reading →

Visa + mariachi band

Visa tries to gain more clients in Brazil by reminding us how hard it can be to get change for big bills… So logically they bring in a mariachi band to sing in portañol.  (My favorite part: at the start where the merchant tries to give the change in candy–this really happens, though not to … Continue reading →

Just before sunset, June 3rd

Bob Marley’s Greatest Hits

As I have previously mentioned, my days here are never without a soundtrack.  Tonight, my housemate Anderson and I were standing at the balcony railing watching the sun set and talking about various things.  He started to tell me about the house below ours, which was the source of the Bob Marley mix filling our … Continue reading →