27 November
Autor: Becca | Publicado: 2010-11-27T16:03:00-08:00

Happy belated Turkey day Wei!&nbsp;its so cute that youre english class had a thanksgiving party. pumpkin soup, &nbsp;but no pumpkin pie? the pies are always my favorite part of thanksgiving because everyone in my family gets to choose their favorite. our average thanksgiving has at least one pie for every person...unlike halloween, which every brasilian knows about because of horror films, disney, and the chance to get free candy, no one even mentioned thanksgiving. i googled what day it would be, and forgot shortly after. i think its easier to forget the holidays here because the weather is completely opposite. &nbsp;I am constantly losing track of the days and months because of it.&nbsp;The day before thanksgiving &nbsp;all the kids in my class decided they didnt want to go to school the next day. this is sort of typical in brasil, at least in my city. everyone just sort of agrees not to go to school and since there isnt really a penalty for absences, no one goes. so i slept in until 12 on thanksgiving. and woke up to lunch with my family - rice, beef, and a mayonaise salad. after lunch we went to Bauru to pick up some photos that Mae had developed there. It was so hot and everyone was tired and quiet. On the way home we stopped at Alameda, sort of like a mini shopping mall that has a lot of imported things. everything is fancy and expensive. We all ate cochinha, think like a deep-fried dumpling with either chicken and cheese, ham and cheese, or just cheese inside. Pai bought some fancy bread with ham mixed in and i bought the biggest danish i could find in the french foods area. they also had some bread that was dipped in chocolate and i thought of you and your bread form heaven. on the way out i saw a 1950's car (the size of a boat, a teal paint job, white walled tires, and my favorite part - a hood ornament) on display for taking photos and Pai and i did a mini photo shoot of me in it.&nbsp;The day after thanksgiving was much more eventful - Barbara and i went to Bienel, a modern art show in the city of Sao Paulo! It was so amazing! (the other day i learned that amazing in portuguese is "animal," before that i always thought my freidn felipe was literally calling me an animal) All the school groups were assigned a guide when they got to the museum and ours was so cool. At every area she would ask us what we thought the art meant and she took everyone's suggestions and then explained what the artist wanted to convey.&nbsp;The first part that was saw was this sort of installation that had all these antique cameras that, if i understood this correctly, were thrown away or sold for next to nothing and then this artist fixed and took beautiful photographs with. each camera was displayed next to this incredible photo that couldnt be achieved digitally and the point was to make you rethink worth. and there was &nbsp;kodak brownie there just like the one i used on that day when you visited and we went to the beach!My favorite part had all these huge photos of people in tribal clothes. (sabrina, our guide explained that this was one partr of the carnaval celebrations) but none of the photos were clear. some of them were a reflextion in water. and some had people moving to fast to see anything very clearly. one of them was a combination of photos of a crowd, but it was a hallogram. and one of them had a glass overlay that looked like it had a photo of spilled oil on top of the photo. i liked it so much that i made my first attempt of the day to explain what&nbsp;i&nbsp;thought the artist meant to say. and i think it was about how nothing could be given a solid definition. like all the lines were blurred. and there was a photo of little shells arranged. and one was an equal sign. and right below it was an equal sign with a line through it.&nbsp;there were so many incredibele things there and even though we stayed for 2 hours, we only saw a few of teh things. we were always moving from one place to another so fast and i would get caught up looking at one of the works of art in between the one we just finished looking at and the next one we would discus. Barbara and i both thought that we needed to go back and spend all day looking at everything.&nbsp;We went to a shopping mall in Sao Paulo afterward (a major reason why most of the kids in Bah's class wanted to go to Bienel) for lunch. we ate at McDondalds, which is very exciting for everyone because we dont have one here in Lençois. but on the way home the whole bus was dark and there werent any bright lights or buildings and Bah and i just looked at the stars. and i told her about teh time Amee and i stayed up late and watched shooting stars. and how when clouds came we got in the car and drove to every park trying to outrun them until 3 or 4 am. and i told her about that song boats and birds. and we looked at a fashion magazine that i bought at the rest stop and planned photoshoots like the ones we saw. and i think it was one of the best days i had in a long time. &nbsp;oh and a little footnote about my fashion magazine - it had pictures of people in pea coats and Barbara and i were both like - oooooh thats so pretty. and i told her you have one in yellow and we both had a moment where we wishd it was cold enough here for peacoats. jealousy for cold weather exists:) and we are going to make you Babe the Blue Ox sunglasses so everything gray will look green, or yellow depending on what cellophane we buy.&nbsp;So the word for rain is very close to the word for smell, and more than once i have said "its smelling!" and then wonder why everyone looks so confused. its slightly more strange when i hold up things that smell good and say "rain this." I used to tease Barbara because she likes to smell everything, but its definitely rubbing off on me. like i now smell things that are not thought of as havign a smell. like electronics. mostly because i like to say "cheroso" which is like one word that means smells good.so i havent encountered too much confusion with you and yous or formal you. here almost no one uses formal anything. but here there are a lot of words like avó and avô (grandma and grandpa) that i cannot tell the difference between. worse is coconut, crap, and boobs. they all are like cocó, coco, and cocô or something. i just avoid saying them...summer vacation starts next friday and my friends at school are throwing a churrasco (barbecue) end of the year party, complete with a secret santa exchange of - guess what, because you wont believe itflip flopswhen does your christmas vacation start? any exciting plans?
p.s. i told barbara about your very french pencil case idea. and she thought it was very strange. and asked if she was getting the same thing. and i reassured her no. but she said even though the belt sounds cool she just wants an eiffel tower keychain or something like that. i am very excited for my shake and squeeze white out:)