Oh procrastination! I’ve been trying to work on my paper and presentation for next week but I’m already falling asleep and it’s only 9:15 PM. My revised game plan is to update my blog and get an early start on homework tomorrow morning.

Friday morning I went for a run and met Bethany to go to Shopping Baja. She, Sonia and I decided that we wanted to go to Rio de Janeiro for our break between sessions. We went to a travel agency to buy our plane tickets because we were advised by our host families not to do any transactions online. We are leaving next Saturday (7/28) and returning the following Wednesday (8/1). We will be staying in a hostel where a friend of a friend works and touring the city. These girls that I am going with are smart and we’ve all agreed that we want to be in the hostel by dark fall each night. After we bought the tickets, Bethany and I ate lunch at Perini’s and managed to get a sandwich, a wrap, 2 fresh squeezed glasses of oranges juice, and a strawberry/chocolate/peanut crepe for the equivalent of $10. We had a restaurant coupon from the group excursion to Praia Forte left over because we split the tab last time, so we essentially ate for free.

In the afternoon we had an optional excursion to Cidade Baixa. We visited Forte Mont Serrat which is a fort overlooking a gorgeous beach, and the famed Igreja de Bom Fin which is a church where Mary is said to have appeared. The church was beautiful, though ornate. The most intriguing part was a room where lining all the walls were pictures and hanging from the ceiling were plastic legs, arms and heads. At first I had no idea what to think but I discovered that each picture or body part represented a request for healing. For example, if you hurt your arm at work you might have an arm hung there with your name on it, or if your loved one has died in a car accident you might add a plastic head or a picture in their memory. After walking around and looking at the pictures, the room struck me as quite beautiful. I confess that I found it border line grotesque at first, but I was won over by the faith and hope of the people whose prayers fill it.

To end the excursion we had ice-cream once again. I had a scoop of maracujá and mangaba, my official favorites.

Sonia, Bethany and I decided to see a dance performance that evening at a theater close to our house. The performance was entitled Desejo Fatiado or “shattered desire.” Going into it I knew that the topic matter would be intense because the pamphlet claimed that the dance enters into the question of what it is to exist and what it means to wait for a future that theoretically doesn’t exist. The stage was set with three glass cases filled with green apples and a wooden slab on top that served as a bench. The dancers were 5 men in tuxes and 2 women. I wish I could somehow convey to you the style of dancing, but the best I can say is that I had to keep telling myself throughout the performance to relax because I was getting so anxious. They used minimalist music and all the motions were abstract and violent. From what I gathered they were trapped, waiting. There was a section were a narrator came on in English but they spoke with such a heavy accent that I couldn’t understand anything except “cards” and “shuffle.” I think the message was essentially that life deals you cards that are outside of your control and that you can’t rely on anything. At the end a man at center stage sitting on a bench says vai (or “leave”) various times, each time progressively louder until he is shouting and the glass cases come open, spilling out the apples onto the stage. When we left the theater we stood outside for a good while discussing it before we headed home. It was a wonderful and thought provoking, though edgy performance.

When I got home Conchita and Isa invited me to watch Murder by Numbers dubbed over in Portuguese with them. That movie only increased my tension and anxiety, so by the time it was over all I wanted to do was sleep.

This morning I went with a group to the beach because all of the students going to São Paulo for the weekend are leaving Sunday. Sonia and I played Frisbee and I sat and wrote a draft for a couple e-mails that I had promised to write. (More replies coming soon!) Let me describe briefly what the beach scene is like. From the street level you walk down concrete steps to the beaches. As soon as you set foot on the sand, men and women renting out chairs and umbrellas will flock to you. You can rent a chair for $1 and an umbrella for $2.50 (USD). People rarely leave the beach without having at least one big green coconut filled with coconut water that you drink, then have it broken open so that you can scrape out the inside. There are also vendors of jewelry, swimsuit covers, and cheese dipped in oregano that they roast for you. The beaches in Barra aren’t continuous so when I want to run I have to run on the sidewalk on the street level. To play Frisbee Sonia and I went to one of the more rocky shores because fewer people like to go there.

When I got home and cleaned up Conchita showed me what one of the roots that we eat here looks like before it’s cooked and gave me a candy made of pure sugar cane to try. It is very popular in north-central Brazil where there is little food.

A few other quirky observations that I have failed to mention previously: When Brazilians talk about the past they snap their fingers, as if traveling back in time. They also don’t drink when they eat. (Have I mentioned this before?) They believe that drinking during meal time will make the food expand in your stomach so it is best to drink 2 hours before or after a meal. If any one is willing to research that, I’d be interested to know what doctors have to say.

Also, a correction. I said that the acarajé is made of corn, but it is actually made from black-eyed peas. Isa told me it was feijão or beans, but it looked much more like corn to me. Another dish that is typical of the region that I’ve had a few times is caruru which is okra and shrimp stew with ginger, pepper, and palm oil. It is a gooey, unattractive looking dish, but it’s pretty tasty once you get used to it.