Thursday evening I relaxed a bit and then opened my computer to start working on my racism paper for my anthropology class. I had planned to stay in, maybe watch a movie and sleep, but my friends had other plans in mind. We went to this club near the river called The Loft that played weird house music and had a huge dance floor. A huge...empty...dance floor. So sad. It was still a fun night and it was cool to check out a new place in a different part of the city. Also, the entrance was lit up in hot pink, which of course I thought was awesome. Our late night caused me to sleep in and I woke up on Friday with a huge to-do list staring me in the face. At one point I decided to go for a walk because it was a beautiful day outside and I had a great adventure with my iPod around my neighborhood. It's so easy to forget that other people have work and school on Fridays, not like the Portuguese ever seem to go to work in the first place but whatever. Friday evening we tried to go to a 9:30 showing of the new 007 movie but couldn't get tickets until the midnight show. If you're ever going to see a midnight movie, go to one like James Bond. It'll keep you awake. And since the movie hasn't come out in the US yet, I'll take this opportunity to tell you everything that happens....
Just kidding.
Saturday the real fun began. We woke up early to go to the flea market, a neat little discovery by Annia last week. To get there we had to take the trolley up the hill past the castle to the National Pantheon. Basically, this means we were in a beautiful location overlooking some beautiful architecture and spectacular views of the river. The flea market is overwhelming. Near the entrance, you have legitimate vendors selling handcrafted jewelry, scarves, accessories and the like. As you wander further into the market, you have more and more vendors with a blanket full of CRAP. Honestly. It's like a giant yard sale. These people dig through their houses and pull out everything they don't want. And there are hundreds of these vendors. Buttons, old calculators, light switches, dolls--often in pieces--bouncy balls, shoes that have been worn through, napkins...everything. My favorite sightings included a 4-ft carved giraffe statue, a female mannequin in 2 pieces that we later saw someone buy, an electric typewriter that didn't work, and a giant rusted propeller. At the far end of the market Sarah and I spotted a fondue set. We asked (in portuguese!) how much the man wanted, and he said 10 euros. We responded "Nao, obrigada" and then he said "5 euros!" so we said "sure!" Our 5 euro flea market fondue set. Pretty nifty. We have no idea how to light it and thus use it, but that was not a consideration at the time. We also bought a few scarves at 2 euros a piece. A successful day at the market. I think I will go back every Saturday from now on just because it is a great place to meet people and an even better place to practice Portuguese. It was also, coincidentally, the place where I heard the most English I've heard so far (outside of my friends) On the trolley on the way back we actually met two older couples who were visiting from Dallas. One of the men asked me where I go to school and responded with "hook 'em horns!" when I told him. It was kind of nice to run into some Americans. It's only the second time since I've been here, which, as of today, is officially two months. It was not so nice to accidentally poke one of the Americans with our fondue skewers when the trolley jerked to a stop. Luckily, I could adequately apologize for the wayward skewer in a language I speak without stuttering.
We tried out a new pastelaria in Baixa before heading home. I napped for a few hours and then woke up to study and write papers. Super fun. Study abroad is not supposed to be so demanding that it keeps you from doing other things and experiencing the culture. It's been a little bit of a disappointment to be faced with these massive 15-20 page papers for classes that have no bearing on graduating or even relate to my own academic interests. But what can I do other than do it and move on? After finishing one of the three papers I have to do, we headed out with the brazilians for Japanese food. Ordering Japanese food is somewhat overwhelming in the states when I don't know what everything is. Ordering in Portuguese was downright stressful. They had an all-you-can-eat menu that we all decided to order but then choosing each of the dishes...Sarah and I kept spilling all over the place, too, adding to the already violently red shade of my blushing face. I spent most of the meal speaking Portuguese with Joao who totally threw me for a loop when he asked the waitress for what sounded like "hashish."
"Did you just order weed from the waitress?!"
"No!! I asked for chopsticks."
Oh. I don't know how to spell the Portuguese word for chopsticks but it sounds strikingly similar to "hashish" (think hak-shish) and if anybody else at the table had noticed my startled moment I probably would not have been able to live it down. That's what I get for being friends with native Portuguese speakers.
I know you can't see it, but I'm smiling. I still can't get my head around the fact that my closest friends here are Brazilian, that I took a leap away from the Americans and really forged my own friendships. It's also helpful having them around because I get to practice my Portuguese, although I do get a lot of grief for speaking "too Portuguese." Monica, my teacher, would be so disappointed in me if she knew I was learning *gasp* Brazilian Portuguese. Please don't tell her.
After dinner we headed to Bairro Alto where I was the only native English speaker in the whole group. It gave me a lot of opportunities to practice but it was also a tiny overwhelming. Very cool though. Where else in the world and when else in my life am I ever going to have the opportunity to be the only American in my group? Nowhere. Never. Amazing.
The best part of the evening is that we witnessed the beginnings of a protest. Some politician has decided to "clean up" Bairro Alto by closing the bars down at 2 am and forcing people to leave. The residents of the neighborhood are complaining about the noise, so the visitors to the neighborhood decided to complain about the residents. The "protest" involved a bunch of people with guitars and other instruments and a lot of people with whistles. As the bars forced people to leave, the whistlers got started. The screeching was awful/awesome. I've never seen people so dedicated to maintaining their nightlife environment. I'm sure that people would react similarly in Austin if the city tried to close down 6th street 2-4 hours earlier than usual but something about the narrow alleys of BA being completely cramped made the whole experience stimulating and overpowering. In a good way. Sort of.
The cops showed up as predicted and started politely pushing people out through side alleys as they tried to force their way through the crowd to get to the whistlers. Naturally, the noise only got louder.
Sunday instead of pursuing my usual policy of utter laziness and mandatory Pajama Day, I went to the Gulbenkian Museum with my roommates. The museum is free on Sundays and it houses a beautiful (enormous) collection spanning about 5000 years of human history. Afterwards we wandered through the gardens. One duck-inspired photo shoot, one acorn fight and one nap in the cool grass later, we decided that maybe it was time to head home and start working on the massive amounts of homework we all have. I'm really glad I took advantage of the opportunity, though. The copious sunshine really rejuvenated me for my somewhat stressful week.
Pictures coming soon.
Interesting fact of the day: Portugal has the 4th highest wine consumption in the world and is number 8 on the list of countries with the most freedom of the press. Not too shabby!
And one final thought...
I live here.
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