Hooray for the weekend!

As I write this, we're all still recuperating a bit from one heck of a weekend.

Friday was a short day of class. We did a tour of the Diabetes and Endocrinology lab in Salvador, which was kind of slow. Our translator wasn't nearly as good as Cress, so we missed out on a lot that our presenter was teaching, and they kept insisting on showing us their administration aspect, which meant a tour of every. single. office. From an health viewpoint, it was an interesting lesson in how to best serve the population. Diabetes is a rapidly exploding epidemic in Brazil, they don't have the funds to care for everyone, they don't have enough centers, and educational material is tough because so many people are illiterate. We finished up our academic week with a group discussion with Eugenio (one of our professors) back at the university, and then it was back to the hostel.

This is where the fun really began :)

We all signed up to do a Salvador pub crawl. For R50 (about $30), we got 5 drinks, 4 bars, a pizza, and a night tour of some of Salvador's more fun districts. It was very fun and very crazy, and I got to try some of Salvador's signature drinks. The first bar's drink was a ginger shot with different kind of spices (AMC, hush up!). The second bar, called Zulu, had a rum and coke with ginger syrup. It was a nice take on our classic rum and coke. At the 3rd bar, which is where we got the pizza, we had shots of sugar cane liqueur. Just to give you an idea, they call it the truck stop liquer. The pizza was amazing. Salvador is very big on Italian type food, and their take on it is a chicken and white sauce pizza....it's very delicious. The last bar, called the Hanger, was a bit of an issue. When you walked in, they gave you a card to keep track of your drinks. Whenever you walk out, you have to hand them your ID and the card, so you don't run off without paying your bill. Well, I stepped out to get some air, and when I went back in, they didn't give me my ID back. So when I went to leave for good, they kept asking me where my cards were, and of course, they still had them. There was a bit of a kerfuffle with the bouncers, and I was very tired and frustrated, but it all got worked out in the end.

After sleeping in (we didn't get back until almost 4 in the morning), we all got up and headed tome to a beach in Rio Verhmelho, another district of Salvador. It was kind of cloudy and rainy, but it eventually cleared up. I can't describe how amazing the beaches here are. I played in the ocean with everyone and some little kids that joined up with us for quite a bit....the waves were HUGE! I also had some beach food....coconut water fresh from the coconut, and grilled parmesan cheese. This was technically breaking our rule of no street food, but I haven't had any stomach complaints, and didn't have any afterward either, and it was SO DELICIOUS. I ended up walking for a bit by myself and taking to some wind surfers, and hunting for beach glass and shells. I found some cowrie shells! There were little tide pools at one end of the beach with these tiny little crabs and fish, and lots of shells. And I, Brittney Benjamin, queen of sun poisoning, did not burn, but instead got tan. Yes, TAN.

Oh! Josu got stung by a jellyfish! He's okay, but because I am a detective by nature, I took a picture of the ones that were washed up on shore, and we determined it was a very, very small Portuguese Man of War, which are called bluebottle jellyfish here. Scary, but again, he's okay, and we haven't had any other incidences.

When we got back from the beach, we were all pretty darn tired, so we pretty much just hung around the hostel for the rest of the night. We don't get dinner on the weekends, so we walked not even a block away to this pizza restaurant, which was excellent. I tried margherita pizza, California pizza (what we would call Hawaiin...ham and pineapple), seafood spaghetti, and mint ice cream. The rest of the night was spent relaxing, playing cards and having a bit of wine.

So here we are on Sunday! I slept in very late today...I didn't get out of bed until almost noon. A few of us decided to go into Pelhorino again. The big market was closed, and I forgot my camera, so I was kind of upset at first, but it turned into a very relaxing day. We walked around the upper city, and took the city elevator down to the lower city and looked at a few street vendors. Then we met up with our "social coordinator" Fabiano, and he drove us to a really gorgeous church and a street concert. We also got what may be the best ice cream I've had outside of MSU. I got mango and coconut flavors. What's weird in Salvador is although ice cream is served in a cone, most people don't eat them. Me? I like the crunchiness :)

And now we're off to dinner to celebrate Nicole's birthday. I think we're saving the big steak dinner for another night, since she's a vegetarian, but the restuarant we're going to is supposed to be pretty darn good. In fact, I have yet to have a bad meal.

Speaking of food, another cool thing to eat here is called Acai. I know we have the berries and the juice in the US, but it's a huge thing here to make a sort of icee/smoothie out of them and eat them with granola. I tried it today for breakfast, and it was very good.

I'm going to try to post something every day, but it's been getting difficult. I get back and I'm just too exhausted to write! I know you're all enjoying this though, and I enjoy writing it, so we'll see :)

I'm also going to be uploading some photos. They are all on facebook, if you're friends with me (Mom, get Jake to show you), but I'll be putting my favorites up on the blog as well.

Love you all,

Brit

Rules of Salvador 1.0

1. If they can't see it, they have a much harder time stealing it. Loop cameras around bra straps, and keep money either tucked into your shorts or your shirt (not pockets! It's very common for people to casually slip their hand into your pocket)

2. Decide on fare price before you leave in a taxi, as they will try to jack it up as much as possible by taking you the scenic route and then charging you more.

3. Ignore the traffic signs, and instead watch the traffic. Drivers run red lights like none other, and motorcycles don't have to obey any traffic laws. Even if it's a one way street, look both ways.

4. If you're a young American woman, you need to be very forceful with men if you don't want their attention. Even smiling or making eye contact, if you dont' explain very carefully that you're not interested, can result in them camping outside your hostel.

5. If the dog is not on a leash, avoid it.

6. Coconut water is the best remedy for hangovers and upset stomachs.

Ugh

So, my post for Wednesday got accidently deleted :(

To sum: we had our first "field" day. It was kind of boring. We met the Secretary of Health, which was interesting, but the long days are making it hard to focus. We have the most amazing translator named Cress, who is from Wales, and likes steampunk now that I've introduced her to it! I spent most of my evening at the beach, drinking a bit of wine and playing in the ocean after dark.

Today was much more interesting. The problem with yesterday was that we were just SITTING for so long...I was going stir-crazy. Today we were walking all over the place! We spent all of the morning at a blood bank and donation center in Bahia. The director was very interested in us, and wanted to know what we were studying. Colling decided to donate blood, and we all got `Give Blood´t-shirts. We walked through the entire process of donating blood in Brazil, from where the volunteers come in to where it´s processed and shipped out to various hospitals.

We had lunch at this amazing restaurant. We´ve been typically eating at `comida a kilo´style restaurants, which means food by the pound. This one was the same, but they had a variety of weird meats and half off prices if you paid in cash. I had some very good chicken, and tried beef tongue-the taste was fine, but the texture was very disturbing.

After lunch, we headed over to one of the hospitals. They talked about bed distribution, and how they organize emergency cases. Their set up has 3 types of ambulances: a basic ambulance for non life threatening cases (someone falls, etc), a more advanced ambulance for true emergency cases, and a 'mobile health unit', which is essentially an emergency room on wheels. The last one is used for cases where getting back to the hospital in a timely manner may be an issue, such as when someone get injured while rappelling and they have to cut them down first before they can transport them. We got to watch the process of someone calling in a 192 call. The operator gets as much basic info as possible before handing the call to the standby doctor, who walks them through as much as he/she can. Meanwhile, the location is sent to the radio team, who sends a message to the nearest ambulance. All of this is done via computers.

We also got to watch some emergency life support training, but I had to step out and take a breather....they were pretending like it was a drowning victim, and it was just a little too much for me. My triggers have gotten a bit worse on the trip, but everyone is very nice, and we all morbidly joke that if we want to get out of class early I can have a breakdown for the sake of the team.

Once we got back, it was back to the beach. I can't fully express just how much I love the ocean at night here. I mean, it's quite lovely during the day too, but at night there's nobody on the beach and it's even calmer than usual, and it's just a great way to relax.

I hung out with Johannus and Spike again....we always seem to get into fun political arguments whenever we're out in the courtyard.

We're going on a Salvador pub crawl tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to it. For $50 (real, not dollars), you get 5 drinks, a pizza, and a cab ride to 4 very different parts of the city.

I keep meaning to talk about some of the customs of the city, but it never seems to happen. Another post, I promise!

Love,

Brit

Street Party Madness!

Ay yai yai....

I just got back from a street party in Pelhorino. Pelhorino is the "old city" in Salvador. When you see all the colorful houses and everything, that's Pelhorino. Anyway, every Tuesday, they have the amazingly huge street party with drummers and music and everyone passing jokes and drinking beer. Geronimo (from Michael Jackson fame) plays there during the summers. He wasn't there tonight, but tonight's party was extra special due to Independence Day. They had several huge floats with deities, and several thousand people dancing in the streets.

Class was pretty fun too. We had our first "not in English" lecture today. It was pretty hard to follow. Our professor lectured in Portuguese while a translator repeated everything into headphones. It was very difficult to focus.

We had lunch at the university at this cute outdoor cafe. A man from one of the Amazon tribes came around selling earrings, but he ran out of the ones that I liked. Mariana asked him to make more and come to our hostel, so I'm crossing my fingers.

Our days are VERY long. We get back from class and all I want to do is sleep, but there's so much more of the city. I haven't been sleeping very good (nightmares), so it's kind of a drag, but hopefully I'll find my balance soon.

More photos to come :)

-Brit

Boa noite!

I'm finally starting to settle in a bit here. Yesterday was kind of crazy, but in a really fun way. We all slept in, which was much needed. Breakfast is included at the hostel, which includes several kind of fresh fruit, fresh bread, and eggs/pancakes made to order, plus Brazilian coffee.

There was a little bit of chaos at first, trying to decide what we wanted to do. We tried going to the mall to exchange money, but due to it being Sunday, the mall opened much, much later. We got a few supplies from the local grocery store, and then headed down to the beach. We're staying on the very tip of Salvador, so we have two beaches very close by: the surfing beach, which has a TON of waves and lots of rocks, and the swimming beach, which is much calmer. We decided to forgo the surfing for now in favor of actual swimming.

The water was amazing. It was warm, but still refreshing, and just enough waves to do a little bit of body surfing. We swam out to where there were some stairs. It didn't seem that far but it was a great workout due to the current. I made friends with some little boys who were jumping off boats. The beach itself was kind of funny. The beaches here are actually pretty narrow, so people are crammed into each other. Vendors peddle all kinds of food and jewelry. Specialities include coconut water and grilled cheese....which is a hunk of parmesan literally grilled over the fire.

After the beach we went to mall to exchange money and look around for a bit. There is a movie theatre in the mall, so Harry Potter in Brazil might be a possibility. Most of the other students are HP nerds as well, so it feels right at home :)

The UFBa staff (basically, our professors) took us out to dinner at this really good seafood restaurant on the beach. Brent and I ordered something called Merascado, which turned out to be some sort of seafood stew. It had oysters, lobster, squid, fish, crab, and shrimp all mixed together. It was little bit intimidating to eat (the squid chunks had very large tentacles!), but very tasty. I also ordered a carafe of sangria, which was the best I've ever had.

After dinner, we decided to go out walking and look for ice cream, which we did find at "Gelateria de Barra". I had a mixture of chocolate cookie and cream. Then we walked back and hung out in the courtyard of the hostel and swapped stories with some of the other guests. Besides us, there are travelers from Ireland, England, Colorado, and Australia.

Today we had to wake up VERY VERY VERY EARLY for class. Okay, it was only 6:30, but it felt much earlier. We spent from from 8 until 12:30 in the classroom, listening to two different guest professors. The first lecture was on changing health concerns in Brazil, and the second lecture was on the anthropology of Brazil. We had lunch at a very cute restaurant near the university, and met the university director.

So far, I really like Brazil. It's very chaotic, for sure, but very fun. And everyone is so nice! I know way less Portuguese than I thought I did, and outside the university very few people know more than few words of English, but somehow we all smile and cobble together our own sort of language. We've dubbed it "Michiguese".

Well, that's about it for today. Dinner is going to be served soon, and we're all thinking about picking up some beer and heading down to the beach for our own mini 4th of July party.

Ate logo!

-Brit

Boa tarde!

Today has been a little crazy, but I though I'd upload some photos from last night. We went down to the oldest lighthouse in South America and partied with some locals.

So many people!!!!!!

Jaron, Jodi, myself, Megha, and Liz. Salud!

This is the lighthouse. The entire hill was covered in people, all of them dancing and waving their hands in the air.

This was the view from my window during the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Salvador. Beautiful mountains!

-Brit

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