Adventures of a Gringa

and it's back to the grind

Today life in Brazil went back to normal. Brazilians like to say that the New Year actually starts after Carnival--not on January 2nd. And so it was, with the masses going back to work, the kids going back to school, and me going back to the joy that is adult ESL.

This is more or less how today went.

1:30am: toss a little. turn a little.
3:00am: pray for sleep.
4:45am: glorious dream-filled sleep.
5:30am: text message from student saying he will not make 8am class.
5:30am-8:00am: toss and turn.
8:30am: call boss to schedule afternoon meeting.
8:35am: attempt sleep.
10:15am: wake up from alarm. put pillow back over head.
11:15am: repeat.
12:15pm: drag self out of bed to eat and get ready.
2:15pm: meeting at office
3:00pm: first class with new students (they are nice, but this may not last)
4:15pm: collapse onto couch where boyfriend has already passed out.

What a fun week ahead. Oh man.

warning: this post contains deep thoughts and complaints

Today for some reason I could not get up. I think it might be the antibiotics that are finally kicking in. So I cancelled my morning ballet class and luckily my other English classes got canceled too. So I dragged myself out finally to my afternoon ballet class, where, for some reason, the music teacher decided to do her own class starting at 4pm (when my class starts), I think to practice for their show next week. Well, thanks guys! So then I had a half hour class which went pretty badly because even the usually good ones were being bad and I got so mad I called in the mean assistant to lecture them. I plan on talking to the director about this lack of communication with teachers and scheduling issues, because it's extremely annoying.

While I was waiting for the bus, I saw a little kid with no shirt tearing down the hill, and was surprised he didn't fall he was going so fast and so steeply. I assumed he was trying to catch the bus, which was coming, but when he arrived, it was Leandro, the homeless boy, as I had predicted, but I'm not sure why he was running. "Oi tia, hoje nao tem aula?" he asked (hi Miss, today you don't have class?) So I told him and then I had to get on the bus since I was already late for my class in Urca.

So I went and no one was there except the maid and my student who was out on this random little nook on the roof playing with her guinea pig which apparently lives on said nook. I finally coaxed her out and we had a semblance of a class, in which she told me that the unhelpful and surly (young) receptionist who is almost always there wasn't there today because apparently her husband died, somehow. Normally I might question this coming from a 9 year-old but this is Rio. In the meantime I left a note for the mom telling her next week is my last week and I need to be paid by then. We'll see how that goes.

Some ponderings:
Today I felt like I've really had it with here, and am just so irritated and sick of everything (backwards culture shock?). People here are so inconsiderate to each other, not just with the dance school but like some of my business English students, people on the bus and the subway not moving over or getting up for other people to get in or sit...I don't know, I'm just really feeling so done. There also is the whole thing with lack of respect for other people's lives and property that is pretty obvious in this city.

But my plan is not to leave yet and I have a lot I want to accomplish. So today I officially took a break from my job--or quit--depending if they'll take me back in March. I did this by email promising to talk to them in person (but knowing my boss, this was probably better than waiting til the end of the week to tell them live). I don't feel relieved yet, maybe because I have another month to go. I just feel like I've never felt like I did while abroad every other time I've gone, where I'd often wake up so happy, feeling such a great sense of possibility. I do like it here and things are falling into place, but I'm not as happy as I could be. Maybe dealing with this job stuff and traveling will help.

On the other hand, about Cariocas, sometimes they really look out for each other. I always see street or stall vendors giving free food or drinks to street kids and sometimes adults, even though they too are making barely anything. Today I saw a young woman mobile vendor selling food give 2 hamburgers to the bus company checker man who hangs out at the Urca bus stop. Even though there is a serious lack of empathy for those who have less to the degree we may have in the US (enough to do something about it, by volunteering or donating, etc), some here do look out for the less-off.

Now I am home about to fall asleep (again??) watching a certain gay Latin superstar concert on TNT. Oh man, I hope this all works out.

English Teacher in Deep Merda (updated)

So, in the news is a big deal about an British teacher teaching English abroad. In Sudan. She had her students name a teddy bear and they decided to name it Mohammad, and now she is going to jail and will then be deported. I've read about it and seen people talking about it on CNN, and the general feeling is Wtf. BBC also did a nice little ditty about learning to respect cultural differences when teaching abroad, check it out here especially if you are an English teacher! Luckily, things like that here are not as much a big deal, since our cultures are more similar, but you always have to be careful. See the BBC article about Brazilians' sensitivity to criticism in yesterday's post.

Today was not a particularly red letter day, but interesting nonetheless.

Have you ever been eating somewhere and realized you didn't have enough to pay the bill? Yeah, that happened to me today. I went to one of my favorite lunch places, that is kind of pricey but has really yummy tabouli so I decided to splurge. Except, even after clearly seeing the sign "we are not accepting credit cards right now" I conveniently forgot I had spent some of my money on a metro ticket. So I waltzed through, getting a little bit here, and a little there, and was really surprised when the weight, though not huge, turned out to be almost R$30, which is ludicrous for here. But in any event, I sat down and started happily eating away until suddenly I realized I didn't have enough cash, and panicked and started counting my money. I was short by a little over 1 real. I ate the rest of my lunch totally panicked, trying to figure out what creative ways I could iron out the situation. When it came time to pay, I pretended that I didn't know my card doesn't work with debit here, and the lady tried a bunch of times to let me use debit and of course it didn't work. So then I was like, "Well I'm short on cash," and the security guard suddenly appeared at my side and was like, "It's no problem. This guy can take you to the restaurant upstairs and charge your credit card." I breathed a huge sigh of relief, albeit an embarrassed one. Brazilians always know how to "dar um jeito," or find a way of getting around things or making things work out. Thank god.

During my first class, my students introduced me to a guy working with them who wants private lessons. Apparently he has a Fulbright (or trying to get one) to study abroad and needs to pass an English test. We chatted and finally he asked how much I charge (R$50/hour) and he was like uhhh wooahh ok well I don't know about that we'll see. The thing is, I'm beginning to understand how Brazilians feel and how the upper and middle classes start to feel here. I'm trying to give my time to a good cause  at the ballet school yet there are so so many people in need here, even in the middle class. And I just don't have the time, money, or patience right now to be able to help out. I started to feel like a Republican with my indifference.

I found out that the amazing flowers outside our apartment are gardenias. They are awesome.

Today I went to buy my pre-Canadians a little going away present (diaries) and there are a bunch of fun stores on this little side street in Centro, with tons of stores and street vendors on traditional streets with gorgeous architecture from the early 1900s. There's a guy selling fresh guavas out of a wheelbarrow and old ladies chomping on guava halves as they walk along the outdoor stalls. There's a guy frying shrimp that smell deceptively good but are most likely a one-way ticket to diarrhea.

Today I handed in my time sheet and apparently November was my highest earning month so far with my main school, because I went to Recreio twice a week. I'm happy about that but today I was just so unbelievably short on patience and was desperately happy when my last class was cancelled.

Lula is in Rio today, launching the new social program in a favela in Ipanema/Copa, like I discussed earlier this week. This is one of the preparations for his arrival. There is also, as to be expected, enormous amounts of security.

One of the most popular board games here is called "War" (not translated), which is a board with a map of the world and you have to move little pieces around and try to conquer as many continents as you can. Some guy decided it would be cool to make a game called "War in Rio," which is a map of the city and the military police, BOPE, regular police, and drug traffickers battle it out to control Rio. The creator said the idea was a "joke in bad taste" to get people talking about the problem of violence in Rio. IT is pretty bad taste, indeed.

In a case of robbery gone wrong, a would-be thief tried to hold up a 40 year-old woman in a Rio suburb last night, and was very surprised when she beat the crap out of him and her screams for help got the attention of bystanders who helped hold the guy down and police arrested him. She got a little beat up too, but came out the winner. Nice.

a long day ends with the most beautiful sunset

So. Let's see here.

Today I had a class cancelled so I got to Recreio with plenty of time, though I was completely falling asleep all day. During my class, I noticed that the mall next to the girls' apartment has this horrible band that plays Muzak versions of Brazilian (and Spanish??) pop songs all.afternoon. Pretty great. I also noticed that this really loud truck rumbled by in an enormous puff of smoke, and apparently it is some sort of spray to kill mosquitoes. I feel like that really can't be healthy. But ok.

After that I had to go down to Barra for another class, where my student and I came face to face with one of the most disgusting bugs I've ever seen. I think it's a cicada, but it might have another name. The one we saw looked like a cockroach with wings, and a freaking HUGE cockroach at that, about 3 inches long and 1 across. But unlike the North American kind, this one makes an unbelievably loud sound for its body size that most closely resembles an alarm. Like a fire alarm, or security alarm. When I heard them for the first time I was in Urca and thought someone's house was getting broken into. Except today this disgusting thing landed on the balcony of the apartment and its alarm noise echoed so incredibly loudly it was ridiculous. But luckily, it flew away. It kind of looked like this:

But bigger with smaller wings.

Ugh.

Also, my student's mom, my former student, came home and I was absolutely flabbergasted that she would go to work in that outfit. She was wearing a full-body unitard, black with spandex pant bottoms and a spaghetti strap top part, topped off with a gaudy thick belt around her waist and gold jewelry. And heels, of course. I was like, "Were you at WORK?" (At a multinational telecommunications company). She was like "Yeah, obviously!" Oh good lord. She is definitely the hottest grandma in Brazil (and under 40), since her 20 or so year-old daughter in another state just gave birth.

The best part of today though, was the sunset, which I managed to catch a glimpse of between the rows of horrid condos. The sky turned so pink that all of the office building facing west lit up, and the horizon turned a fluorescent orange. Then the whole sky glowed this firey orangey-pink, in colors I thought only existed in Disney movies. I've never seen a sky so pink before. It was the color of six year-old girl's bedroom in the sky. And the funny thing is, no one else seemed to notice.

company gossip & the Carioca yuppie man

So I am slightly more awake today, in between classes.

Yesterday I was sitting in the main reception for one of the oil companies where I teach, waiting for my student, and the secretary, who is tri-lingual, was chattering away with another employee on the phone. Except she either forgot or doesn't know I speak Portuguese fluently, and launched into this whole plan about meeting the guy she was talking to later at one of the American chain restaurants and said it had to be very secret, and then they'd go to his house later. It's someone who works there and I guess it could be scandalous. What I thought was funny was when she wanted to get a more delicate part across, she said it in English, "If anyone asks, we're going just as friends, you know what I mean??"

Yet another advantage to learning languages.

Yesterday I subbed for another guy there, a very nice young guy just a little older than me already doing really well at the company. I've come across a good amount of guys like him in my job and though I hesitate to make generalizations, I think there is some truth to this one.

The yuppie business professional male Carioca:

• has a slightly small head, perhaps in comparison to his ridiculously huge upper body, carved with care from hours at the gym
• has enormous muscley arms and a small waist
• has an attractive but somehow rodent-like face
• is white, usually of European descent
• dresses impeccably with a button down shirt ironed and pressed and carefully tucked into his pants
• lives in a condo in Sao Conrado or Barra and can't possibly deign to live anywhere else
• lives within walking distance of his gym
• is obsessed with his physical appearance and keeping in shape
• does some sort of extreme sport: surfing, snowboarding, windboarding, etc
• has a girlfriend or wife but is a hopeless flirt
• was born into the middle or upper class
• loves to party and going to the beach
• refuses to take public transportation of any kind
• has travelled outside of the country but Rio is the center of his world

There's some interesting news stuff, but that will come later today.

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Soooo today I went with my Canadian friend to Barra so we could each give a class to the kids moving to Canada, except only one of them one was there, good times. But in the course of the day I learned that Canadians consider the Queen of England their queen since it's a commonwealth (that explains the queen-like figure on those coins that you sometimes get by accident in the US), and that marijuana is legal in small amounts in Canada. She also told me a story that last weekend there was a riot on the Niteroi Bridge and people were throwing rocks at cars and passerbys, since a grocery store had offered a special deal where if you bought a certain product you would win tickets to the Flamengo soccer game, except they ran out of tickets really fast and people started to riot. Such is soccer.

Today when I was waiting forever for  my student not to show up almost everyone who came into the office said "Bom dia" because it is polite to say hello to people in close quarters even if you don't know them. I was there for an hour. Too many bom dias.

There is some bush outside our apartment that just started blooming with white flowers that are the best smelling flowers possibly in the world, a mix of jasmine and plumeria. I want to steal it.

News things:
BBC did an extra report about the prison scandal to explain just how terrible the prisons are here in Brazil. Check it out here.

The State of Rio has decided to double the salary for public hospital doctors. It is currently R$1500/month, a whopping US$750. It will now be R$3000 per month.

Dunga, the coach of Brazil's national team, gave a press conference about the game on Wednesday. He criticized the Sao Paulo fans for repeatedly booing the team, saying that the game felt like it was being played abroad for all the booing they endured. They especially booed Ronaldinho when he got taken out. He said that other teams don't boo their national teams when they're doing bad and support them through thick and thin. Dunga should go to a Yankees game.

Rio state has banned billboards on major roadways to try to prevent drivers from being distracted and crashing. Brazil has a huge problem with car accidents, especially drinking and driving and reckless driving, so though this could be a good idea, maybe they should work on some of the main causes of the two things I just mentioned.

Rio's biggest Christmas Tree is a fake one erected each year on the Lagoon. It's pretty damn ugly but it's a sight to see. This year it will be a record 85 meters high. I miss the Rock Center tree.

are you kidding me?

Today I actually slept, and I really needed it. But even though I didn't have any classes today, I was faced with two really irritating things from my job. First, my boss emailed me to ask why I wasn't using DVDs for one of my students, implying I was being careless. However, at my main school, they provide the materials, and since we hadn't come across any worksheets with DVDs in the textbook yet, I logically hadn't done it yet. Apparently for this student the DVDs are separate, as well as the worksheets, that I have to specially request. The problem with my main school is they never give you any guidelines and just throw you in there with a book, so I was irritated that she implied it was my fault for being irresponsible.

Next, at 5pm, I got a call from the assistant of the irresponsible mom, who owes me for September for teaching her ADD daughter. I called at 4pm to tell them the deposit still wasn't there, and the mom was like, Oh yeah, my assistant is at the bank now, there's a long line. Fine. At 5pm, the assistant calls: "The account number was wrong! I couldn't deposit the money." I had Eliseu repeat the number again (he was the one who gave it to her in the first place), and that was that. So my plan is, if it's not deposited by Monday, I'm going to go down there at 6 for class and ask for it in cash and refuse to teach until I get my money. After that, I have to work out a new payment scheme, so I think I'm going to tell them I need cash or they need a new teacher.

You have no idea how sad I am that I don't have a fellowship. I could be working full time at/for the ballet school, have enough money to live on, and not have to deal with morons like this.

On a happy note, today when I checked my weblogs, I noticed someone accessed by blog from another website. A guy took an excerpt from my blog and put it in his article and then put a link to my blog! Look here.

This is going to be a good weekend. Beach and good food and who knows what else? I need a break from the ridiculousness that is teaching English.