So, not much has happened since the last time I wrote...unless you count eating feijoada, taking a dance class (me, a dance class!), and narrowly escaping the wrath of the demon shower.
You have to understand, feijoada is a typical Brazilian dish, comprised of meat, meat, meat, and beans. Now, for someone who doesn´t really eat meat, it´s a pretty big deal to indulge in feijoada but since mãe invited me to try some of the homemade feijoada (and dinner isn´t included in the program, only breakfast...should I tell her that the joke´s on her since sometimes I eat breakfast foods at dinnertime?). So, I ate some and it was good! Curious as I was, I wanted to know what meats I was eating, but I decided to wait until after dinner to ask. ´´Meats, I´m going to eat you and then I´m going to find out what you are,´´ I thought. Afterwards, I asked, in a valiant effort to find out what I just conquered, and the answer I received was that it was a whole combination of meats. In ´´feijoada completa,´´ aka, when people go all out and make the real deal of feijoada, I guess they put in *everything* (whatever that means), but in this case, it was only *some* combination of meats. I never found out what the actual meats were, and honestly, maybe it´s for the better.
Wednesday after class, a bunch of us got lunch, and then instinct led the way to the beach. We couldn´t stay all day, however, because dance class started mid-afternoon. It was an hour of samba-reggae and other styles of dance that will show up at Carnaval, and it was quite a workout...and fun, too! The teacher (Tatiana) was a super-cute Bahian girl who I think was born knowing how to move her butt in a perfect circle. Afterwards, she told us that she would be in Pelourinho (downtown) at 7pm with percussion and everything if we wanted to come by and watch. From the way she was talking about it, it seemed like it would be a show. Not making any decisions then and there, a bunch of us went back to the beach. (When in Bahia...)
After spending awhile at the beach, Greg (USA) and I decided to check out Tati´s show in Pelourinho, so we hopped the bus and found the praça (plaza) where she was. Turns out it was a dance class she was teaching, but it may as well have been a show because everyone was in sync with one another and instead of using CDs, they used people and percussion instruments. All I have to say is wowwwwwwwwwwww. There´s a spectator sport if I´ve ever seen one. I feel like I burned calories just watching (and I´m good at watching)! There was this little boy near us who was even jamming along to the music (not part of the class), and even *he* had rhythm. I asked his mom how old he was and she said one year and 10 months. We told her that he dances better than each of us. She laughed and went on to tell us how he takes capoeira lessons! (Only in Bahia...)
Thursday morning was a bit of an adventure in itself. Until then, I had only taken maybe one shower that had been warmer than ´´almost hot enough´´ so whenever I get into the shower, I always turn the handle all the way to the other direction and usually after a few minutes, the temperature is almost fine. That day, it was no different. After I turned it off, though, there was still water dripping from the shower, so I thought I hadn´t turned it off all the way, but the weird thing was, the water was scalding (a first!). Then I realized I *had* turned it off all the way, and then the whole shower started steaming up, the showerhead (which is fixed to the wall and was, what I thought, a solid white color), turned bright devil red and it looked like demon eyes started flashing (no joke!). But since the small window in the bathroom was already open, the water was turned off, and this unit was bubbling and steaming, the only thing I could do was run for my vida. But first, I decided to open the bathroom door to try and conquer the demon monster myself before waking ninja mãe (demon monster´s nemesis, perhaps?), and all of a sudden, the red showerhead turned white again, and it was as if the whole encounter never even happened. And the apartment remained silent. Was it worth telling ninja mãe that when she incensed (pun intended) the whole place the other day to cleanse the place and get rid of bad things that she missed one? Nah, I can fight this one on my own, just as any good apprentice would.
Then, you know, class and kicking it around Pelourinho ensued. I want to learn how to play the drums while I´m here (percussion style), so I asked Auana and Eliene about classes. Apparently, Auana´s godfather owns a school in Pelourinho. I now have my first lesson at his school next week. I asked for the family discount, but since he wasn´t there when I went to sign up, I didn´t get it. They said maybe if I sign up for a package deal after the first lesson. So, we´ll have to see how the first one goes. While I was in Pelourinho, I stumbled into the filming of a TV show that was traveling around Brazil and was filming its final episode in Salvador in Pelourinho. They asked if I wanted to sign the waiver and be part of it, but I didn´t know what it would entail besides dancing, if anything (and clearly I´m not Bahian...maybe that´s why they wanted me?), and they didn´t know when they were going to start (there was a lot of standing around), so I passed. I came back later and hung around for a few minutes, jamming to the live music. Fun! But really hot outside.
This morning, I woke up ready for a fight, even though I left my boxing gloves back in New York. Much to my surprise, I found out that there was a leak in the showerhead, and I don´t know if the devil that lives inside was trying to play a mean trick or if it burned a hole yesterday. When I turned on the shower, though, it spewed water out the side and was not of top shower quality. Determined to not let it get the best of me, I swiveled the one-headed monster around so that the water shooting out the side now leaked in a downward direction and I managed to take my shower. Robbins: 2 (including the 1 from yesterday), demonshower: 0. Before I left for class, I found in talking to Auana that they had gotten a new showerhead two days before I arrived, and they had problems with it yesterday in the afternoon, too, although when I recounted yesterday morning´s story, she was totally surprised. She had already called a guy yesterday to come fix it today. We´ll see what happens.
What else to tell...well, other new foods/drinks I´ve tried are mango juice, tangerine juice, and Nescau (Cocoa Puffs)..ok, maybe that last one isn´t so new, but I´ve never had Brazilian Cocoa Puffs before this week.
Finally, one more correction to my last entry. I mentioned that the ´fun mass´ is held every Wednesday...apparently, it´s every Tuesday. I seem to get my days mixed up here, and it´s very easy to do so. I have my days straight in English, and I have my days straight in Portuguese, but when I try and figure out what day it is in English, sometimes I get confused. In Portuguese, the system of days of the week is the equivalent of calling Monday ´´second day,´´ Tuesday ´´third day,´´ Wednesday ´´fourth day,´´ etc. and then Saturday and Sunday have actual names. So, I don´t get confused when I think of days in terms of English or Portuguese, but I guess since everything is so laid back here that when I translate the days of the week, I simply don´t even know what day it is, because all the days are more or less the same.
Anyway, that´s the news from here.
A good weekend to all, and careful in the shower...
missy :)
http://andsmilestogobeforeisleep.blogspot.com
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