Welcome to Salvador

I'm finally here!!!!!

I have two first impressions of Brazil. First, I'm reminded of a line from Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, which talks about the lack of smell in America. It is the complete opposite in Brazil. Everything smells. Meat is cooking, fruit is ripening, cheese is being grilled, coconuts are being hacked and spraying juice into the air....the entire city of Salvador is one huge olfactory wave.

My second impression of Brazil is this: Beautiful Chaos. The city is a mess. It's gorgeous. People elbow into you and call out "Bom Dia!" and ghetto houses are cramped into each other on top of mountains while skyscrapers tower nearby. Surfer dudes walk amongst businessmen, college students mingle with street dancers. It's a city of much heartache and history, and I think I'm really going to enjoy searching through all the corners.

It was a bit of an adventure getting here. My flight from Detroit to Miami was rather uneventful, but as soon as I switched over to the TAM airline, everything was delayed by at least an hour. Everybody spoke Portuguese and very little English, so it was difficult to try to cobble together sentences to figure out what gate I had to go to and if I really, for sure, had to get my luggage in Rio instead of Salvador (I did). People were really quite nice though. I mastered the use of "Falo English?" and "Nao fala Portoguesh", as well as "Obrigada", "Bom Dia", and "Descuple" (Do you speak English? I don't speak Portuguese. Thank you. Good day. I'm sorry), and was able to mostly get along with smiles. I did have fun trying to order dinner (Frango is chicken) and a drink (Vino Tinto: red wine), and the flight attendents were quick to make jokes with me. On my last flight, the ticket taker and I had a quick, limited exchange in Portuguese, and then he called back, "And now in English, just for you! Have a nice flight!".

Once I finally arrived in Salvador, there was some more chaos. Many others had their fights delayed as well, so we waited around for everyone to get in, and then we all climbed into a 15 passenger bus to head to the hostel. We took the beach drive, which was wonderful. The hostel is equally wonderful. A bit smaller than the pictures let on, but the owner is hilarious, and everything is clean and well kept. The other people staying here are quite nice: fellow students from Australia, Ireland, and England.

After unpacking, we headed down to the lighthouse. Today was Independence Day in Salvador, so there were thousands of people crammed down at the beach playing rock music and dancing. We ended up getting a couple of beers and hanging out with the locals, trying to dance. We got dinner at a cute cafe near our hostel. I tried a meat called Penhiro Argentina (or something of the like), which turned out to be a very tasty seasoned beef.

We attempted to go the club afterwards, but had difficulty finding a cab. Some of the group ended up going, but my roommates and myself decided to call it a night. Probably a good choice-my feet are killing me!

Well, that's about it for today. Tomorrow should bring a shopping trip, possibly cell phone buying, dinner with the UFBA professors, and, oh yeah, the beach :)

Buo noite,

Brittney