/hello/ all who know me. i'm now in the city of salvador. in the state of bahia. in the country of brazil.
i have made a few trips /to get here/. i started off 2010 in pittsburgh, pa. then on the 4th took a flight to wash, dc and on to rio de janeiro.
/rio/ was great. i really enjoyed my 4/5 days there. met a lot of people from the hostel cabanacopa (on copacabana beach). primarily, fernando da sousa - who is from são paulo.
/accents/ by the way i really love them in portuguese, ã, õ, ç, é, è, á, à, í, ì, â, ê, ô, û, î ó, ò, ... oooo, let´s do caps too... Ã, Â, Á, À, Ê, É, È, Í, Ì, Î, Õ, Ù, Ú, Ô, Û, Ó, Ò, and the best Ç. and the sound of "ção" is just great slash not really, but looks cool and is an unfamiliar sound to an english-speaking tongue. it is a real nasally "ss-ow."
/são paulo/ - you just pronounced it the most brazilian you ever have, now that you know how to say ão! i'm just not cut out for this type of city. the 9th of january i arrived at the ceasar business hotel and i left on the 3rd of february and it never stopped raining. [i might be lying a little bit, but i distinctly only remember ONE day that it didn't rain - but i still carried my umbrella all day in fear of the showers] and btw
FACT: sao paulo got more rain in the month of january 2010 than any other month in the last 60 some years.
/host families/ are such a great experience and really boost your language skills. i had a host mom in são paulo she was 60 something close to 7 [if not 67.] she had a host grandaughter who's 18, but i only saw her once i think, and talked to her on the phone a few times... when my host mom did think i understood her that ppl only wear shorts at the beach, so i must wear jeans. and the time when she thought i didn't understand that i need to watch out for 'creepers' in the streets. cuidado!
/portuguese/ is a difficult language. the accents are all funky and words mean completely different things if you don't stress the right part, or make the difference between "ss" and "ç"... which by the way both sound like "s." and the random whining noises that are part of the language, like "não" for example, i continue to pronounce "no" like in english-ish. which sounds more like "in something" than "no." and if i read enough of Dudu's books and learn to understand baby portuguese. i think i'll be set.
/dudu/ is my host brother. not dog doo-doo. [take note of the spelling difference.] dudu is the master of the house. i mean apartment. if our parents ask him something he says "oi" = "hi" and no. and you don't want to be the one to tell him no or he will instantly start crying for the next 15 minutes. [until the person gives in. and that person is never me. he is starting to learn.]
/4:00 am/ is the time exactly right now. and i'm ending on it.
