More Travels and Other Stuff

I went to a party at USP. Well, I tried to. I took a bus and then a taxi, but the security guard stopped me and asked for student I.D. at the entrance. I had no I.D. I needed one. “You’re not a student,” he said. So I called my friend and told him to come get me. I got bored while waiting, so I tried to walk in. This time, they let me in. I walked for another 20 minutes to get to the party. It’s normal to take an hour or so to go anywhere in São Paulo. I tried to find my friends, but there were too many people – again, typical of São Paulo. Then my housemate texted me saying he wanted to go home. I had given up on finding my friends. I was travelling the next day, and I couldn’t say no to a free ride.

I went to Curitiba. I met with a friend and we went to a local bar in the historic downtown. Then we went to this restaurant which offered the ‘best burger in the world.’ It was actually really good; much better than that McDonald’s shit. The next day, I found Jesus. Jehovah’s witnesses, rejoice! We went to a very cool museum, also the largest and most modern in Brazil. We took some time there because Jesus was taking a shit (I never thought I’d say that). Then we went to a park. I told Jesus to walk on water, but he said that he wasn’t the real messiah. I had fun calling his name because every time I did, people would stare. Jesus and I parted ways, and I saw a bunch of other sites. Not too adventurous this time, but this city is definitely one of the most beautiful and organised in Brazil.

On the way back, I missed my bus. Buses usually stop at some place where people can eat and go to the toilet. I went to buy something and came back in time, but the bus had already left. Either my watch had the wrong time or the bus driver just left early. My bag was in there, along with my bus ticket. It was not so hard to explain my situation since I now speak Portuguese quite well. After a while, I was on another bus to São Paulo, and the operator contacted the bus driver telling him where my bag was. Usually, I don’t sleep well on buses. I kind of hover between R.E.M. sleep and consciousness. These are the perfect conditions for dreaming. I had a very long dream where I was kidnapped by some gangsters and was held there until the morning. I was then thrown onto the sidewalk. I had lost my bag, my shirt, and everything in my pockets. I decided to take a taxi home and then pay him. I had hoped that somehow some of my stuff would be at home, and that my housemate would be there. And then I woke up. I saw people in the bus laughing at me. They said that it was just a dream. Then I woke up again. I was in the second level of dreams, dreaming that I was dreaming. Dreamception! I got to São Paulo and managed to get my bag. I went to the metro and it was full. Typical of Sã...you get the idea. Although being squashed like a can of tuna is annoying, it has its benefits. It depends on where you are standing. If you are between two girls (or two guys if you like), it could be fun. I was standing between two girls, and I figured that since we already got to second base, I should ask for their number just out of courtesy.

*One workweek later*

I went to Belo Horizonte (Beautiful Horizon). It was, indeed, beautiful, and almost all the attractions were at walking distance. I had the hostel all to myself. Since I saw all the main attractions on the first day, I decided to go to another city the next day. I carpooled there early in the morning. It’s a small mining city in the mountains called Ouro Preto (Black Gold). I visited many colonial churches. I eavesdropped on a tour and found out many interesting things. The architectural style is uniquely Brazilian. Then I went to a gold mine. The second half of the day was ruined by lots of rain. Scumbag Zeus strikes again. I couldn’t do anything, so I went and relaxed at the hostel while waiting for my shoes to dry.

Meanwhile in school, I have presented several times about myself and my culture. I have also done many tasks like marking tests, making exercises and subbing for teachers. I have some free time most days, so I play the piano, or surf the net. I’ve travelled on almost all the weekends, so I am always busy in the weekdays. It’s more efficient writing these blog posts in one entry, hence the long post. Anyway, more exciting adventures coming up. Bye for now.

Foz do Iguaçu/Florianópolis

Once I got home from River of January (Rio), I immediately booked another trip, which was in four hours. 16 hours later, I arrived at Foz do Iguaçu, a city on the borders of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

This was a great adventure. I went to the Itaipu Dam, the largest hydroelectric plant in the world. It is also one of the Modern 7 Wonders. At the hostel, I met a religious nutcase who couldn’t turn the light off or open the fridge because it was Sabbath. I heard him singing a prayer later on. Not sure if praying or possessed. The next day, I went to the falls, one of the New7Wonders of Nature. I have to admit: they are better than Niagara Falls. Three wonders in one week. Not bad.

Then, I went to the bird park, the three frontiers – where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet – and the biggest mosque in Latin America. Later on, I hitched a ride to Paraguay with some motorcyclist. Although Ciudad del Este is Paraguay’s second biggest city, there is nothing to see. It’s mainly a duty-free market visited just for shopping. I was surprised that there was no border control. You need original documents to get on the inter-city bus, but you can cross the country’s borders without being stopped. No logic, but it’s a smuggler’s paradise. To end the night, I went to a show which had performances and dances from all over Latin America. It was amazing, and the food was great.

*One workweek later*

It was a Friday evening and I wanted to go somewhere. I checked the buses online and found out that there was one seat left for Florianópolis. I booked it, as well as a hostel, and was off in an hour.

The weather wasn’t looking so good. Suddenly, it started raining. And in São Paulo, when it rains, it pours. I took the bus to the metro, but it stopped five minutes away because the streets were very crowded. I told the bus driver to drop me off where we were. Some guy who spoke English came and told me that there is no way to get to the metro and that I will get diseases or something. I told him that I don’t care and I went out. It was worse than I thought. It was like a fucking river. The water came up to above my knees, and when I crossed the street, it almost reached my hips. I was completely soaked, but I got to the metro, and I made it to the bus on time. Every black cloud has a silver lining.

I got to the hostel on Saturday morning. My shoes were still a bit wet, but I didn’t have any other shoes. I met some people at the hostel and we hung out. We went to the downtown and then to the beach. Drinks were involved, and some funny situations ensued. We stayed at the beach until 2 a.m. My memory is a little blurry, so I’m not a very reliable source of what happened. I managed to get a mark on my face. As far as the kids at school are concerned, I just fell on my face.

The next day we went to the beach again. It was very windy, and there were very big waves. I decided to go for a swim. Little did I know that I was going to be drowning five minutes later. I was at a spot where I could touch the ground, but the waves were just too strong that I had to swim back to the shore. I kept swimming, but the waves were pulling me back even further. After swallowing water for a few times, I was like ‘shit, I’m drowning!’ So I started screaming ‘Help!’ (Yes, I actually did that – in English. What was I supposed to do? I don’t know the word in Portuguese) but nobody heard me. The waves were louder. I started waving my hands, but nobody saw me. The waves were blocking the view, or the life guard was texting. Meanwhile, on another beach, the life guard was telling people not to go in the water. Anyway, *spoiler alert* I survived. One does not simply give up on life. I managed to swim back after swallowing too much water. I haven’t swum since. Adventure level: Near-death experience.

Since I had work on Monday, I had to leave Florianópolis on Sunday night, but I can be a bit late. I got to São Paulo at 6:00, and I had work at 9:30. I went to take the metro, and there were so many people. I had to wait for four metro trains to be able to get into one of them. The amount of people in this city is too damn high! I got to work late, but just in time for lunch.

Some facts:
The Iguaçu Falls has a flow capacity equal to three times that of Niagara Falls. Upon seeing the falls, the United States' First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed "Poor Niagara!"

The Itaipu Dam is the largest operating hydroelectric facility in terms of annual generating capacity, supplying 90% of all the electricity consumed by Paraguay and 19% of that consumed by Brazil.
Florianópolis is an island in the South of Brazil. It is the city with the highest quality of life in Brazil, and was named best place to live in Brazil. It has 42 beaches.

*Pictures on Facebook

My Trip to Rio

This was one of the best trips in my life. However, it was not without its struggles. This seems to be a common thing for me in Brazil. I always have many challenges, but things end up working out. The spirit of never giving up is what got me to Brazil, and this is just more proof that it works. Besides, these situations build character.

The first hurdle was at the bus station before I even left São Paulo. In Brazil, buses require original documents for travel, and I only had copies. I tried to explain my situation to the bus driver, but my Portuguese wasn’t good enough. So I kept talking until he got fed up with me (I used to do this with my professors) and let me in the bus.

The trip took two hours longer than it should have, and I took another four hours to get to my friend’s house. On the way there, a hooker was offering herself to me for RS20 on the bus. It was a good price, but sex was the last thing on my mind. Although a local couple was helping me find my friend’s house, I had the wrong address. I was calling my friend, but I always got this answering machine which said something like there is no number. It turned out he had no credit to answer. Finally, I got a message from him and was able to tell him where I was. I spent 14 hours on the road, but it felt great to finally get there.

The next day, I went to get my tickets for the Rio Carnival at the Sambodromo. I got to the office and it was closed, so I went to meet up with my friends and I got stuck in human traffic on the way. Once I got to my friends, I asked one of them to ask where the office was. It turned out I had the wrong address, again. The real office was far, and it was closing in half an hour. I had to take a taxi. I told the driver that I had to make it, so he was swerving between cars and cutting off everyone. I got there right on time. Now I had to go all the way back to my friends to give them my bag. Since I blew all my money on the taxi, I had to get some cash. I don’t have a local bank account, and only one bank accepts my credit card, so I was lucky enough to find that bank close by. I tried my card several times, but it wasn’t working. At the end, it did and I made my way to the metro. I got to the last stop and texted my friend – ten times. There was so much pressure on the phone lines that there was a problem with the connection. The situation was getting badder, and time was being wasted. After about one hour of walking aimlessly, I got a text telling me the meeting point. I went to it, but he wasn’t there. I got a call from another friend, but he could barely hear what I was saying. Finally, my friend showed up. I made my way back to the Sambodromo.

After spending about 12 hours on the road – again – I was hoping it was worth it, and it was. Although I arrived late, I watched a good six hours of this glorious spectacle of extravagance. No wonder it’s known as “The Greatest Show on Earth.” I met some people there and was with company the whole night. The costumes were amazing, and the floats even better. Some schools also incorporated themes, like slavery. The show ended at 5:30 a.m., and I got home at 8:00. a.m. I took a shower, had breakfast, and was ready for the next adventure. I couldn’t afford to waste time sleeping.

We went to the famous Christ the Redeemer, one of the New 7 Wonders. Then we went to Copacabana beach. It was just a relaxing day. The following day, we went to a bloco on Barra beach. The bloco kept moving until it got to Ipanema. There was a large beer truck, selling 3 beers for RS5. Then we went to the beach, which was right beside the bloco. The water was cold, so not many people were swimming. When I got back to my friend’s house, I needed to use the internet to figure out where I was going to be picked up for a tour, and to buy a bus ticket back to St. Paul. But the internet wasn’t working since the morning. A few hours later, it started working. Just my luck, I guess. I was also able to plan my day as I was doing some sightseeing.

The next day, I arrived right on time for the favela tour. It felt a little exploitative to go around looking at poor people’s houses for amusement, but they’re used to it by now. Then I went to Sugar Loaf Mountain. The views were the best in Rio. Then I walked around in Downtown and saw many monuments and historical buildings.

So, as you can see, I had some epic adventures with great challenges, and a lot of luck. If you see events like this in a movie, you may say that they’re ridiculous. But these things don’t just happen in movies.

Rio: Some Facts
Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil. It was the capital of Brazil from 1763 to 1960, so it has more historical significance than any other city in the country. It’s the most visited city in the Southern hemisphere. Although the media perpetuates Rio’s reputation about crime, the special forces police, called the BOPE, have been cracking down on gangsters. With the planned hosting of both the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, the crime-fighting activity has increased.

*N.B. Pictures on Facebook

Teaching, Laundry, and Lots of Rain

This week, I got to teach for the first time. After being a student for 18 years, it’s an interesting experience. It’s more fun than I thought, especially when the students actually learn something. Of course, there’s always the bully, and the kid depriving a village somewhere of an idiot. But for the most part, it’s a lot of fun. I also did a presentation about multiculturalism, which went very well.

Since there is no dryer in the house, I have been putting off laundry for a few days. When I finally decided to do it, the washing machine was going for two hours and counting. It turns out that the ‘white’ load is six hours long, so I had to manually skip to rinse.

I went to buy something from a store nearby, and while I was there it started raining cats and dogs. Due to bad judgement, I didn’t have my umbrella. I waited a little bit, but it showed no signs of stopping. I ran back home, and in ten minutes I was completely soaked. Great Brazilian weather myth: busted.

After only two weeks of work, I have the whole week off for Carnival. I will be in Rio for most of it because I managed to get cheap accommodation. The amount of excitement I have is over 9,000. Do you know what I meme?

Later

Fun Fact: The population of Lebanon is 4,000,000. There are about 7,000,000 Lebanese people in Brazil. The current vice-president of Brazil, the governor of São Paulo state, and the mayor of São Paulo are all Lebanese Brazilian.

Bader

Week 1

Hi,

So much has happened in the first week. Feel free to stop reading if you get bored.

I started work on Monday. I took the bus. The bus stops have no name and no information whatsoever. They are just slabs of concrete. I was lucky enough to meet someone who spoke English and was going where I was going, so he showed me the way. When I got to the school, they weren’t expecting me, so I didn’t do much teaching that day, and the whole week was just for me to get familiar with the school. On the way back home, I got lost in a taxi for an hour. After calling my roommate five times and going around in circles, we finally got home. It turns out I live in the middle of nowhere. My neighborhood has more dogs than people, and the dogs seem to suffer some sort of excessive barking disorder.

On the second day on the way back home, I got lost again. Some guy who looked like a character from “City of God” said he would show me the way. He didn’t speak anything but Portuguese, so we had a one-sided conversation on the way. We took the scenic route and walked through a dilapidated favela. One does not simply walk into a favlea. Dangerous city is dangerous. I thought he was going to take me to his friends and steal all my stuff, but luckily he was honest. Before I got home, it started raining. It was still sunny though. I have never seen sun, rain and thunder at the same time. Speaking of thunder, the amount of thunderstorms in this city is too damn high. On the third day I did not get lost, but I walked for 1.5 hours so I can discover the area and prevent getting lost in the future. On Thursday, I had to do some administrative stuff which took a whole day.

Sidarta is an international school with about 300 students only. Students are taught English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Portuguese, as well as all the other subjects. It is a school for the elite. The tuition fees for one year are almost as much as I paid for my entire undergraduate degree at McMaster. The school has a great campus and the teachers are nice. The kindergarten teachers are very nice, if you know what I mean. I get to eat lunch there everyday. In Brazil, lunch is the main meal, so that saves me from cooking.

I will be teaching students from 7-14 years old. Although I am an assistant teacher, my English is better than the actual teachers. One of the English teachers was telling me about the going to the ‘bitches’ in Rio. That kind of pronunciation completely changes the word, and it reminds me of the Italian guy who went to Malta. Some of the students said I look like Edward from Twilight, and some of them call me Edward. I don’t see the resemblance.

Although São Paulo is quite expensive, food can be very cheap. For example, an all you can eat buffet costs CAD$12, a bottle of cheap wine costs $1.5, and, a pack of cigarettes costs $3. The prices are all including tax. Why don’t they do that in Canada? If you buy something which is $99.99 it ends up being $113. So sell it at $113 and cut the bullshit.

In the first few days, it was hard to communicate, since only the young people spoke English. I used a unique language which is a mix of French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and sign language. I just use whatever words I know until one of them works. Sometimes it’s like playing charades. Later on, I found out that Portuguese is pretty similar to French, and that I can read it without much difficulty. It will take me some time to speak it well.

On Saturday, I went to Bauru, a city in São Paulo state, to visit my relatives. My grandfather’s brother is 83 years old. He came to Brazil 60 years ago, when he was roughly my age. In 60 years, he only visited Lebanon once. I am the first one from my hometown to come to Brazil and visit him. I have never met him before, but he was very welcoming. Today, I hung out with a friend I had met when I was on exchange in France.

In my first post, I forgot to mention that I was able to do this through AIESEC, so check it out if you are interested in doing an internship: http://www.aiesec.org/

My work here is done.

Bader

First Few Days

Hello,

After an epic battle to obtain a Visa to Brazil, the struggles were not over. I was screened in US Customs in Toronto, which made me miss my flight. After being convinced that I am not a terrorist, they let me go. I took another flight, but it arrived late to Houston (connection), and there was not enough time to transfer my luggage. On my fourth day in Brazil, I am waiting for the luggage to arrive today.

My roommate took me on a city tour yesterday, which was quite fun. Still, there is a lot to see, but I am trapped at home without any of my stuff. No pictures yet, since I don't have my camera.


The house I live in has a gate, an electric fence and a 24/7 guard. You know, the sort of protection an ambassador would get. I also have my own bathroom, and only one other person living in the house. I'm supposed to start my job tomorrow, but I don't know anything about it.

I hope my first post was not too boring. It's my first time writing a blog.


Bader