Fitness, Buddha, and Mexican

I've been feeling like I need to not only update my blog, but to write more about my daily or weekly activities in this city - to give insight into my life in Brasilia. People always enjoy "seeing" the city where you live through your eyes and not what the travel books and/or Wikipedia write about a particular destination is like. I receive a lot of comments on Facebook whenever I take pictures like these. I'm going to try and add a more personal touch to my posts, as well as pictures that I've taken. I'll start with this post, with this weekend.


Yesterday morning E and I went to Brasilia Capital Fitness at the Convention Center in downtown Brasilia so that E could check out the "fitness scene" in the city and try to get some free samples. We really didn't succeed at either objective. This event was planned, as far as I could tell, to promote local gyms; to sell fitness equipment, workout clothes, supplements, books, and anything related to working out. There were also classes that you could participate in (or "try out" I'd say). These included spinning, a kind of step aerobics, kickboxing, and there were treadmills with people running (maybe some kind of competition?).  They did look like fun, especially the kickboxing class, but I was not dressed for the occasion and I wouldn't have felt comfortable joining by myself. The day before I had gone to a local gym in my neighborhood to get information about joining so I'm preparing to return to working out (and am happy about it). So I was kind of in the fitness mood when we went to the even yesterday.


One thing I noticed were the women's clothes. There was not ONE woman who was NOT wearing tight (in most cases FUGLY) work out pants. I'm talking spandex. And on top of that, most of them wore the 80s type scrunchy socks, but in this case (in this city) they pull them up to their knees. Very very 80s. And when I talk about the colors on the spandex pants, I mean, really ugly patterns with loud colors. Some women even had one piece workout body suits on, with cleavages and camel toes to boot. Holy culture shock! 

E wasn't impressed with the event and found the price of all of the protein supplements to be outrageous because frankly, they were. We ended up just walking around and around the arena until he decided that he wanted to try out "rock climbing". A local company had brought a "wall" with them and anyone was welcome to scale it. Although it wasn't challenging to him, E climbed up since he has ants in his pants and enjoys any physical activity. 

Neither of us was sad to leave this event.


Later on in the evening, after a relaxing afternoon at home, we went to the Buddha Temple in Asa Sul. There was a kind of festival happening there (a few weekends in a row?) where there was food, music, shops, games, music for teenagers, and the temple was open so that we could visit and get a taste of Japan and the Buddhist religion. We went with a few of my co-workers. We waited in a long time to pay for our food, then another long line to pick up our food and drinks, and then we sat down next to the temple and enjoyed our food. I'd never eaten caramel bananas before but man was it delicious (not sure if that's Japanese food) and E and I shared a Yakisoba that was good. We bought some homemade soaps at one of the shops; one was made of maracuja (passion fruit) and smells delicious. In fact, the bathroom is starting to smell the same way so it's great. It was fun to do something different and to support the Japanese community in Brasilia.

Finally, to end my weekend, I had a very Brazilian breakfast with maracuja juice this morning, worked on lesson plans and organized myself for school tomorrow, and then had lunch with some of my co-workers at a nearby restaurant called El Paso. It was pretty good. I had to say that I wasn't expecting it to be very Mexican, but it was pretty close, especially with the decor and the Spanish background music. It was nice to sit back and relax, talk, and eat something different. The food was delicious, too.


Overall it was a good weekend. I got to try visit new places, try different food, and hang out with friends. Next weekend is the garbage pickup in the city and the following weekend we're going out of town to Goias so there's a lot to look forward to.

It's been a month...

I have been a resident of Brasilia for a month, today. I arrived on the 12th of July and even though it's only been about 30 days, I feel like I've been living here much longer. One of my American co-workers told me that time passes slowly here and that's exactly how I feel. I'd say that's a good thing. I feel like my afternoons are much longer, maybe it has to do with the fact that I waste  spend A LOT less time watching TV, or because it quickly gets dark by 6:30 p.m., or because I don't need to spend hours planning since I have more time during my work day to do so. Whatever the reason, I do feel like I've been living in Brasilia for 3 months, not 30 days.

I definitely feel like I'm living here, versus visiting or even just spending an extended amount of time here. For example, just yesterday two women approached us as we were walking away from our apartment building. They asked us where a "block" was and I answered confidently and gave (perfect) directions; it's an area I often visit and I was pleased that they understood perfectly where I was sending them off to. Then we went to "our" bakery and the cashier (who has been unfriendly before) joked around with us and even smiled. Feels more like home when you're comfortable in your surroundings, when people recognize you, and even more so when they can joke around with you.


I also have a routine which helps me assimilate easier, as well as a temporary ID, a bank account,  I've applied for my carteira de trabalho (or work papers/permit), E is back in school and has a job, and we have friends and plans for the weekend. All of this makes you feel more "at home". This is exactly what I wanted. Now let me be honest and say that not everything is perfect. I get annoyed with a lot and I get frustrated, but that happens with less frequency than when things go my way. I also try to ignore the negative and focus on the positive so that I will be grateful and feel confident with my decision to leave behind my life in the US to move to Brazil. 
So far so good.

Marrying out (multicultural relationships)

I wrote a post recently about multiculturalism and mentioned that I had contributed to an article that was going to be published about Latinas marrying Non-Latinos. Now, while I'm not a Latina, and my husband IS a Latino, you may think that this does not include us, but in a way it does. We are in an interethnic and multicultural relationship (marriage). Consequently, the author of the article was interested in hearing my voice in regards to the issue of "marrying out" and included my input when publishing the article on NewLatina.net. 


I believe the article is interesting and informative, giving the viewpoints of people in multicultural relationships, and I think everyone should check it out (especially if you're in such a relationship). It's refreshing to read about the similarities that we have, regardless of our race, ethnicity, culture, or religion. And as the article states, "One thing is for sure:  our innate tendency is to move towards where the heart feels content, excited and peaceful…"


The article can be found at: Marrying Out: Why Latinas are Marrying Non-Latinos
Source: NewLatina (written by Angelica Perez-Litwin, PhD)

Thanks for visiting my blog and checking out the above links. as well as supporting communities like NewLatina and Multicultural Familia.


Take care,

My multicultural family

Our wedding day

I have a small multicultural family. Just me and my husband. Nevertheless, we are a multicultural unit. By "multi" + cultured I mean that we each have more than one culture. I'm an American of European descent. E is a Brazilian who is Native American and European. My native language is English and E's is of course Portuguese. We eat different foods, we grew up listening to music that the other had never heard of, and watching TV shows that the other will never get a chance to watch. Our traditions are diverse, our customs, our physical appearances, our likes and dislikes. And I know that E comes from an Amazonian (Brazilian) culture where my northeastern upbringing has greatly influenced the person that I am today. Neither of us had ever truly experienced the culture of the other and probably didn't really understand one another until we first slept in each other's childhood homes.

I got to thinking about multicultural relationships recently as I was introduced to New Latina, "a personal growth and lifestyle on-line magazine for women" by a good friend of mine from college. I realize that I am not a Latina, but I was asked by the founding editor and publisher to contribute to an article that she was writing about bicultural relationships (with a focus on Latinas and their "gringo" partners). I was asked a few questions via e-mail about my relationship and this started the ball rolling...in my head....and I started to think about this "bi/multi cultural" relationship/marriage that I'm a part of. And then, much like me, I started to read and read and read about other people's experiences and find it all so fascinating. 

By the way, once the article is published, I'll post the link here for everyone to read. I'm so proud.

Anyway, back to thinking about multiculturalism and how it's a part of my life....you know I realize that my husband is from a different culture than me, but yet it's not something that I dwell on. Hence, out of sight, out of mind. Wait, that doesn't make sense because it's not out of sight. But it is almost out of mind. I mean, I don't have daily thoughts about the fact that I'm living with someone who is not "culturally" like me. I'm just so used to E. Oh yeah, and did I mention that my mom told me last year that she thinks I'd be "bored if I had married an American"? Interesting.

What I want to say is that I don't feel huge cultural differences between my husband and me. Maybe it's because we met in Brazil so everyone was unlike me during the beginning - the foundation - of our relationship. I was used to being with someone who did not share the same customs as me, someone who didn't speak my language. Therefore, when we moved to the U.S. everything in our relationship seemed to me to be "normal". Plus, I'd dated foreigners in the past so I wasn't necessarily used to dating Americans. I didn't feel I was missing anything by not dating one. I actually noticed our cultural differences most when we went to New York to visit my family and stay with them for 2 weeks, especially when my mom whispered to ask me why my husbandbread for breakfast. But what is funny is that on our subsequent trips to NY there was more bread in my parent's house and yet my husband had picked up the habit of eating oatmeal for breakfast. I loved it!

Although after more than 6 years together we still are learning from each other and dealing with cultural differences, we're also used to being in a marriage with someone who is very unlike us in many ways, and I'd say, deal with it pretty well. I believe that living in each other's country has helped us better adapt, as well as having an open mind and an adventurous spirit. Oh yeah, and loving each other despite our differences. Isn't that the fun part anyway?

Ten things I'll miss about living in the U.S.

As I sift through my belongings and organize, discard, and box up books to leave the U.S. and emigrate to Brazil, I do a lot of thinking. I imagine what life will be like for E and me in Brasilia. Of course this makes me excited and anxious, but at the same time it gets me thinking about what I'm going to miss here. I know it's cliche (and maybe cheesy), but I read a quote the other day that said "don't count the days, make the days count". So, that is what I've decided to do. As I try to take advantage of what I have here, I've decided to compile a list of 10 things that I'll miss from the U.S. I'm not going to include family or friends on here because that is inevitable. I hope to add to the list as our departure date gets closer.

I will miss....

1. Giving my name to the hostess/host at a restaurant when asked who we're reserving a table for. I can't do this in Brazil because they look at me like I'm speaking Russian and then say "o que??" (what??) and then murder my name by pronouncing it like it's a dirty dirty word.

2. Speaking English. Now I am fluent in Portuguese. I speak it every day, and I actually enjoy speaking Portuguese (and am looking to getting back what I've lost from being away from Brazil for a few years). BUT, I'll miss not having to do any thinking when I go to a store or make a call (wait, I do live in the U.S. and as a result of outsourcing I speak to Indians when I have a problem with my laptop, but that's beside the point). Regardless of the fact that I'll be teaching in English, I'll miss speaking English to native English speakers everywhere I go. It's like I'm looking forward to speaking Portuguese, but at the same time I'll miss speaking English. Make sense?

3. Bubble Tea. Need I say more?
For those of you who have never had it, you're missing out. Big time. (see picture)

Bubble Tea

4. Having my own car. Although I'd prefer it if we were a one-car family, it is very convenient to have your own car. (We'll probably just have one car in Brazil).

5. MTV. I love MTV and all of the reality shows they play. For instance, I could watch episodes of "Jersey Shore" and "Teen Mom" again and again, regardless of how trashy they are or how much my husband complains. Brazil's MTV is b-o-r-i-n-g.

6. Shopping malls. Not that I shop that much, but I like the outlets and sales and variety of the stores I go to. I also like that no one bothers me when I walk into one.

7. The radio. I guess this kind of goes along with number 2. I'll miss listening to the radio programs that make me laugh on my way to work. In English. My culture. Jokes that only Americans would understand. The prank phone calls.

8. Redbox. Does anything like this exist in Brazil? (I haven't been there in 4 years so I hope that I'm not too off on what I'll miss from not being in the U.S.).

9. Black Americans. I work at a "black school", my (step) dad is black, and I have amazing co-workers and friends that are black.  I'll miss working with my black co-workers, their culture, their jokes,.... I haven't come across or met many black Americans all the years that I was in Latin America and I always missed them.

10. My phone plan. I'll miss my seemingly unlimited minutes and my unlimited text messages. Cell phones in Brazil are expensive (though so is my iPhone plan) and each minute is precious. I guess what I will really be missing then are my (animated) text messages.

When to KISS

I first went to Latin America in 1999. I went to Bolivia, to be exact. That is where I was initially introduced to the "cheek kiss" greeting. By this I mean the kiss, or kisses, that people give to one another when they meet up; this "cheek kiss" is much like the handshake in America, or the hug in Haiti. It is a greeting that millions of people all over South America (and well, the world) are most familiar with. But to us, the "gringos", it can be awkward.

I mean, do you kiss each time you see the person? For instance, I visited some good friends this afternoon and since they're from South America and they know of my cultural knowledge (AKA time spent abroad), we always kiss as a greeting. I'm comfortable, meaning I'm totally ok and used to it, with this and have no problems. I don't even mind kissing them goodbye. The issue is that I don't think I'm a natural. I guess since I know that the kiss goodbye is coming that maybe I over think it and when I'm leaving then I have to lean in and sometimes I just think about it too much. I just feel like I do it wrong, like it's forced. I'm not uncomfortable, I'm just awkward (or so I think - no one has ever told me differently).

Anyway, I digress. So I run into these friends a few hours later at our local supermarket and to greet me my friend kisses me again. (I can't remember if she kissed me goodbye). But I thought that we didn't need to do that since we'd already greeted each other with a kiss a few hours before at her house. This leaves me wondering, when exactly do we kiss? Is there a specific place on the cheek to kiss so as not to accidentally kiss on the neck or too close to the mouth? How many times do you kiss? I know in the case of Brazil, and possibly in certain European countries, it depends on the region or country. And then in my experience today, do you kiss if you see each other more than once in a day? All of this can be very confusing to a handshaking, family-hugging American girl.

My love affair with Manaus

I somehow knew, even before I received notification that I'd be teaching in Manaus, that that is where I was going to spend one year of my life while teaching EFL in Brazil.

I first went to Manaus in 2004 after being accepted into a program that allowed me to work as an intern teaching English at a language school. I was "hired" by a Brazilian NGO called IICA  (Instituto de Intercậmbios e Cultura Americana) that placed me in a very well known Brazilian school called Fisk. The school teaches English and Spanish; there are schools ALL over the country - and even in the movie that I love, "Bossa Nova". The particular school that I worked at is a franchise and the owner (my boss) frequently requests native English speakers to work at his schools in Manaus and in the nearby town Itacoitiara. In fact, there had been Americans working at his schools in the past, there were two while I was there, and there were more after my time. It's a great opportunity for both the American teachers and Brazilian students. It is truly an exchange program.

I worked in Manaus for a year. It was one of the best years of my short life. I had been to Brazil before, and I had volunteered in ESL classes in the United States, but this was a unique chance for me to really experience Brazil, learn the language (one of my goals for going to Brazil in the first place), learn more about teaching English, and spend more time in South America, the continent that I love.

There is not enough space here for me to describe why my year in Manaus was so unforgettable and just down right amazing (for lack of a better word) and I'm afraid to start and leave anything out. I'm sure that one of the best reasons was that that is where I met my husband, my love, E. (There is a post about him on this blog somewhere). But it's more than that. Manaus has so much to offer - a wide array of tastes and smells, of welcoming and wonderful people, culture, nature, contrasts, heat....

I fell in love in Manaus and at the same time with Manaus. I miss everything about the city and so much about the life I lived there. I miss what I did while in Manaus, I miss my job, my students, my friends, my trips, the Amazon River and forest, the neighborhoods I lived in, the places I frequented, the parties..... The city, and all that it encompasses, will always have a special, sweet place in my heart.

There will be another time when I will be able to find the words to describe in more detail my love affair with Manaus.

Christmas on Both Sides of the Equator

Different cultures means different celebrations. Even Christmas. Or 'Natal' as they say it in Portuguese. As I grew up in New York state, Christmas to me means snow, freezing temperatures, FAMILY, presents, a Christmas cake for Jesus on the morning of the 25th, sledding (at least for my older sister), stockings, Christmas movies, a warm house, and a general relaxing festive atmosphere. Since I didn't give it much thought, I just figured that everyone else had the same Christmas experience as me. I was wrong. I discovered this when I first went abroad at the age of 17 (Bolivia 1999). That was a learning experience for me because I went to midnight mass on the 24th and then celebrated the holiday with my Bolivian "family" at an aunt and uncle's house afterwards.  Christmas was a 6-hour holiday, from 9 p.m. on the 24th to 3 a.m. the next morning. Then it was over. No Santa. Some presents. Definitely no snow. December in South America means summer so the weather was hot. Not what I was used to growing up in upstate New York.

Needless to say, I knew what to expect when I spent Christmas 2004 in (Manaus) Brazil. Christmas would be HOT and it would probably be celebrated on the 24th. I spent that holiday season with E since we had just started dating the month before; we've now spent every Christmas together since then with the exception of 2006 since he was preparing to emigrate here. Our individual expectations of the holiday can be summed up in these two pictures.

On the left we see the Christmas of my childhood, and on the right we see a typical situation in a tropical country like Brazil (the picture was taken there). Now where would Santa Claus feel more at home?

E's Christmas may not seem too different from mine from the outside, but when you experience it first hand, you feel the unfamiliarity in Brazil's celebration of the holiday. I am expected to not only dress up, but to wear new clothes. I am also expected to wait until midnight to have dinner. I get that the 25th is really Christmas, but why start the festivities on the 24th (which they consider to be Christmas) and then wait to eat until the 25th? Dinner is delicious, but is it really worth the wait? Brazilian children do get to open their presents on what we consider to be Christmas Eve; I'm sure American children would love that. Basically, the celebration begins on our Christmas Eve and lasts late into the morning on the 25th. Why not, the 25th is not really Christmas in Brazil anyway.

Unless we are in Brazil or with my family, we have worked out a way to celebrate on Christmas Eve (for E) and Christmas Day (for me). Seems to work out. I believe that we will forever do this. I don't think I can ever give up my Christmas Day present unwrapping (with maybe a trip to church), and a lunch on the 25th. I also don't see E envisioning Christmas as any other day than the 24th and wearing new clothes on that day is important to him. But we can do this. A bicultural relationship means compromises and bicultural celebrations. I know that as far as I'm concerned....I'll always be dreaming of a white Christmas.