Nao faz mal (not bad)

So yesterday I went to the very city of Sao Paulo. Now on our way there my roommate Kris and I went with some of the teachers, all who are no older than 20 to Sao Paulo. Let me interject one thing, the teenagers of Brasil are very mature for there age, that~s why I was taken aback when I found out how old they were. Teenagers in the US are very immature compared to other teenagers around the world. It's just an observation. However, we took the bus and the bus drivers have no regards to the people inside the bus, which is quite funny at times. Your body will go one way as the bus goes the other, and the driver will slam on the brake, so you slam into the seat in front of you while he finally releases the breaks and you slam back into your seats. The bus rides were always adventures. It rains a lot here. When I say it rains, it will sprinkle and then a few minutes later it will stop and the scorching sun will erradicate all evidence that it rained.

Right now I've been calling friends and family at home. Also I've been trying to meditate a lot here. I find a lot of purity in nature. I love the trees and the birds. I'm now into a lot of reggae, in particular, Bob Marley's Stir it up. My roommate and I started to analyze the whole genre of reggae and concluded that its so relaxing and you don't have to do a lot of dancing. Okay, I'm stirring off topic (no pun intended.)

SO in Sao Paulo we went to the central park Ibirapuera, it's like central park but bigger. I've never seen such an amazing place in my life. There are lakes (ponds) with swans and ducks. People running, jogging, biking, playing around, walking. There are little resturants there. I had and Acai there. I felt like I had died and marinated in a cloud. Those things are soooo good. They are like sherbert of the Acai berry grown in the Amazone, blended with bananas, served in a bowl, with cut bananas around with granola sprinkled on top. I had to the the X-large. It doesn't look like much (taste) however, after eating it, when you see it, you become greedy. It is sooooo good.

Later that day we went to the World Mall. They weren't kidding when they called it the world mall. It's big. Very very, big. So we decided to see Benjamin Button. I cried, but the movie seemed predicatable. The two Brazilian teachers I was with Paula and Luis, all less than the age of twenty I might add, would talk to me in English, and we did it just to get looks from people around us. Luis says he gets a
kick out of people watching and staring. In the movie theatre, that had subtitles, I felt for moments that I was in the US, it was when I left the theatre, I realize I was in Brasil, and I felt I had to adjust my mind because I was confused for the moment. Brasilians love American movies, do they love American movies. My gosh. And American Music, they love all music, I heard some guy in an expensive car listening to T.I. feat Rhianna Live Your Life. At times if feels like home. Yet, I don't want to leave here. Nao Faz mal, it's not bad here. I don't want to wait until I'm old to live here. I see myself in a house somewhere in Bahia. Even if I was there alone, I really won't be alone because unlike Columbia, you see people, every single day of every single hour.

Tonight I'm going to have dinner with some of the other teachers. Then prepare for my lessons tomorrow. I can't wait. People laugh at me and say Liz, you're excited now but wait until week four when you dread it, and the repetition of it is homocidal. I say, yeah, it's like driving a car as a teenager, and yet the first couple months it's fun, but then you dread it after a while, well for me I know it's going to be like that but driving is an adventure, although I might see the same things everyday, you never know what my cross the road. But hey, nao faz mal.

Later :0)


For one week in Brazil, life has not been bad.