All except for the sketchies

So, I forgot to include two observations in my last entry. I guess my sense of Chronos and Kairos continues to be a little bit off here, as I stroll the streets of Salvador at my anti-Madhattan pace.

One thing that surprised me when approaching locals by myself for any reason (to ask directions, buy something, etc.) was that when I spoke to them in (my) Portuguese, they replied in Portuguese. When I studied in Florence, Italy, one of the most frustrating parts of the experience was that I would speak to people in Italian and they would reply in English, despite my most noble efforts not to stray from Italian. Here, at first I couldn´t tell if it was because they didn´t know English or if they were just doing me a favor by not replying to me in English. I have come to the conclusion that it´s a little of both. People always ask where you are from, and when they find out it´s the US, some people will say, ´´Oh! Do you prefer English?´´ And when I say no, they´ll revert to Portuguese. Some people don´t even ask because they simply don´t know English. And though sometimes it is difficult to understand what people are saying (because of dialect or any number of reasons), it is still that much more helpful that they just aren´t speaking in English.

Then on Friday, something happened (twice) that would NEVER happen in the U.S....at least never in New York (or to this day hasn´t, in my experience, at least). I was walking home from school at a pretty quick pace and I was walking next to the same woman for awhile and at some point we kind of ran into each other, but only ever-so-slightly. I apologized (it wasn´t really my fault, though..nor was it hers), and she struck up a conversation with me. We walked most of the rest of the way together (about 10-15 more minutes) and when it came time for her to turn the corner, she wished me luck and that was that. Then, that night, when I was heading out to go downtown, I was leaving to catch the bus and since I was going to a bus stop that I hadn´t been to before, I asked a woman if I was going in the right direction. She walked with me for a few blocks, asked me where I was from, we talked for a few more minutes, and then said, if I know of anyone who wants to rent out an apartment (or if I need one myself), to give her a call, and she gave me her business card. (One thing about people here: EVERYONE is trying to rent out apartments for Carnaval.) But overall, everyone just seems so genuinely nice here...well, that is, all except for the sketchies.

missy :)
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