I'm So Rio, You Don't Even Know.

carioca 

noun | ca-ri-o-ca | \ˌka-rē-ˈō-kə\

a native or resident of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

As a current resident of Rio de Janeiro, there are many things that are becoming commonplace. Beaches. Carnaval. Caipirinhas. Public transportation. Juice from corner bars. Selfie sticks.

Coconut water from an actual coconut? So Rio. Bonus points if you're on the beach.

Pull-ups (or push-ups or any other sort of workout) in public? So Rio. Bonus points if you're really sweaty.

Watching the sunset at Ipanema? So Rio. Bonus points if you have a canga. Double bonus points if you clap when the sun finally sets.

Shamelessly owning a selfie stick? So Rio. Bonus points if you take it in the ocean.

Being tourist-y at iconic locations such as the Sugarloaf? So Rio. Bonus points if you go early to stake out a spot to watch the sunset.

I think I could get used to this Rio thing...

"...and Carnaval Is Their Party."

"The beach is their playground, samba is their music, and Carnaval is their party."

Wow, oh wow. Saturday night Mónica and Katja picked us up around 6:30pm and took us downtown to watch the samba parade. It was like nothing I had ever experienced. Ever. There were six samba schools that performed, beginning with the school that finished in sixth place and ending with the champions. Each school performed for about an hour or so and just samba-ed down the street. The floats were huge, the costumes were intricate, and the dances were intense. The words I'm trying to find to describe the parade don't do the night justice, and neither do the pictures that we all took. But here's a glimpse of the once in a lifetime night we all had.



Claire, the make-up artist, made us look dashing for the night ahead.

Panoramic view from our seats.



Party Like a Brazilian.

"Come with happiness in your hearts and samba in your feet." -- John

This commercial for the Norwegian cruise line was on all the time before I left the States and headed for sunny Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Now that I am here, I am fully able to understand the phrase "party like a Brazilian". Brazilians sure do know how to have a good time-- usually until at least 2 or 3am. Which I am not cut out for, I'm more at the speed of "nap like a college student."

John is one of the high school teachers at OLM and him and his wife, Vania, invited us over to their house for a couple of days during Carnaval. Vania and a few of her friends came over to our house and then took us over to a bloco at Ipanema. Let me explain these blocos for a second. They are not just a couple of friends hanging out in their front lawns. These are HUGE street carnivals, which usually cover a whole block. Hence bloco. There are people in costume, bands, noise makers, drinks, and huge crowds. These blocos have been going on each weekend since we've arrived on various streets throughout Rio and then became an everyday occurance starting two weeks ago.

We'd attended a couple different blocos, but they had always been in the middle of the day which was always miserably hot and filled with people who are talking and singing in Portuguese. Don't get me wrong, they were fun, but they weren't great. And then we met Vania.

The bloco in Ipanema was at night time, so it was cooler and we were with a couple of people who spoke English and Portuguese, so they could let us know what was going on. We learned how to samba... kind of,  bought some Carnaval memorabilia, and lived life like the Brazilians. It was a late night filled with lots of energy, but also so many memories and laughs.

"Gato. Meow. Pato. Quack."

Preparations for Carnaval are well underway! Last night the librarian, who is also named Mónica, took us to a samba festival. We all thought that we would be sitting down watching a samba competition, but it was more like a fair or festival. We didn't actually see samba dancers until we left, so maybe things just hadn't picked up yet.

The festival was at the place where they build the floats for Carnaval. There are 14 major samba schools who participate in Carnaval and each make seven floats for the parades. Seriously, the work that goes into these floats is ridiculous. They work year-round on the floats and people are able to see the progession, but then a week before Carnaval the windows are all covered so that the finishing and most extravagent touches can be completed in secret, not to be revealed until the Carnaval parade.

Part of the winning float from last year.

We were able to see a lot of the floats and take pictures with pieces of some of the floats from last year. We also rode on a trolley that was driving back and forth at the festival. The trolley was an old Carnaval float from the 1950's or 60's. It's amazing to see how much they have changed since then!

Hanging out on the old-fashioned Carnaval float.

Us with the trolley driver.

 The festival took place in downtown Rio, so the school driver, Elias, took us there and then we caught a taxi home. Elias speaks very little English, but is such an awesome person-- we all love him. On the way there we we having him help us pronounce different words in Portuguese, mainly types of fruit. Pineapple is spelled abacaxi and pronounced ah-bah-kash-ee. Claire was just sitting in the front seat saying "ABAAAcaxi. AbaCAXi. Abacaxiiii." Elias couldn't stop laughing and we finally realized how strange it must sound to have her sitting in the front seat saying "Pineapple, pineapple, pineapple" over and over again. When we got into downtown Rio we passed a park or something that had ducks and cats on the inside of the fence. I meowed and Elias goes "gato", then he pointed to a duck and said "pato". There was some giant hampster/ miniature cappybara thing also inside the fence called a 'cochilla' (which is not the correct spelling). We were trying to ask what noise a cochilla makes and couldn't really get our point across. Amanda finally goes "Gato-- meow. Pato-- quack. Cochilla..?" And then we find out that the cochilla doesn't make a noise. But I was pretty much crying in the backseat because I thought it was so funny. See? Despite the language barrier we can still communicate with others. They probably think we have really low IQs, but we can still communicate.



"I Don't Eat Ugly Food"

I cannot believe that I have been living in Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL for a whole week already! It's already been full of ups and downs, but overall, it's been incredible. Before coming down here, I was bummed about all the things at Ashland that I would miss while I was here in Brazil, but after being here for awhile, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

Our Internet was down this weekend, which was a bummer, but forced us to get out and do things and become more immersed in the culture. Don't get me wrong, we don't spend all our time on the computers, but it is nice to be disconnected for awhile. Although it's a little disgusting to see how dependent we are on our phones.

Friday afternoon, we went to the mall in Botafogo with one of Brittany's teachers named Viviane. Apparently it's one of the smaller malls in Rio, but had eight stories and the top two were strictly food. My kind of mall! The view from the top was incredible! We could see the bay and the Sugarloaf-- it was amazing. I really cannot wait to go visit the Sugarloaf and see it up close.

Bad panoramic of the view from the top of the mall

After walking back from the mall, we went to Drink Cafe with Viviane and Mónica for their friend's birthday party. Two of Vivi's friends, Carol and another Mónica, were there and they were a riot! Carol is in the catering business and tries out her food on her friends before offering it as something she would cater. She's working on barbeques right now and invited us over to hangout and eat some of the food. You don't have to ask me twice! They had also ordered a cheese and vegetable platter type thing and Claire was the only brave soul who would try the food. One type of food was capers and cream cheese wrapped in eggplant. Mónica said she wouldn't eat it because it tastes like a wet dog and Vivi didn't want it because she doesn't eat ugly food. Good thing we were all in agreement, it looked pretty nasty. It was nice to go out with some locals and hang out with them and get accustomed to the culture here in Brazil. Even if they were adults and our mentor teachers.

On Saturday we woke up bright and early to go to Copacabana. We got there around 10am and Vivi met us around 11am. We stayed until about 3pm until we decided that we absolutely could not hang out there anymore. The heat and warmth was fantastic, but they aren't kidding when they say that the Brazilian sun is brutal. All four of us left with some sort of color, whether it be brown or red or a combination of both. To esape the sun we really tried to get in the water, but it is so cold! Seriously, after standing in it for a minute or two, my ankles get that sore feeling like I've been icing them for awhile.

Flat Stanely goes to Copacabana

The sun must have wiped us out because we came back to the apartment that afternoon and crashed. Showers and naps all around. We woke up that evening and just hung out in the living room chatting with each other about the weirdest things-- weddings and suicides were just two of the topics we touched upon.

Nomming on some watermelon at Copacabana

Sunday morning we kind of slept in a little bit before waking up and going to the Hippie Fair in Ipanema. We braved public transportation and took a taxi to Siqueria Campos Station where we hopped on the metro which took us straight into Ipanema. We're still trying to figure out the most efficient time and manner in which to travel-- I'm sure we'll figure it out sometime.

The Hippie Fair is a giant, glorified, not junky flea market. There were vendors EVERYWHERE selling anything that you could imagine. It was a great place to buy souvenirs, I've made quite a dent in my shopping and gift list. I think we're hoping to go back sometime while we're here because we didn't even make it all of the way through the fair.

Typical Carnaval headpieces

Later that night Claire and I went to the indoor/ outdoor market and went to Rota 66 for dinner. The waiter didn't speak English, which we're finding to be pretty typical here. We both ordered grilled chicken sandwiches with french fries-- true Americans. The food was delicious; we both blinked and our food was gone.

Each time we go out we feel more and more comfortable talking to people and conversing with people. And it always feels good when you taxi drops you off in the right location or the food place in front of you is the same food you thought that you had ordered. It's definitely A LOT tougher living in country that speaks Portuguese than I had expected, but we're surviving quite well.