Things I have learned...

Sometimes when the days never seem to end, and when the 21st of December cannot come fast enough... it helps to think of the things that I've gained from this program.

6 months is a long time. It doesn't seem that long when you're living it, but when it comes down to the last couple of weeks... you start to feel how long it's been.
... how long it's been since you have seen your friends, how long it's been since you've been in your room, how long you've spent with the same people without any additions...
It's hard to look at the bright side, when every morning you just want to come downstairs make some toast and leave without having to greet everyone with a big smile on your face. (I like my host-family, I really do! It's just tiring.. always living in someone else's house for the past 6 months..)
But enough bitching. Yes it has been 6 months of being away from home, but I definitely gained some things out of it. (Woohoo, forced cheeriness and looking at the brightside!)


1) I've learned a new language, whilst improving another.

I can understand Portuguese pretty well now. My Portuguese is actually pretty much on par with how my French was before I left for the program... which is actually amazing, considering I didn't study at all before I left. I remember being at the camp in Montreal before leaving for Brazil and feeling so overwhelmed when everyone started studying during the evenings and quizzing each other...
I've improved on my French. I can understand a whole lot more now than I could before. I've (unfortunately) picked up on a lot of Quebec slang, but hopefully NOT the Quebecois accent. I could barely watch TV in French, but I've been to the movies and have been able to understand the films and enjoy them... all in French and no subtitles! I've also been reading books here in French.. although it was a graphic novel... (Persepolis) and the pictures helped, but I still understood the French!
I've also gotten accustomed to talking in Franguese. Where I begin in French... but end up speaking in English with a couple of Portuguese words thrown in for good measure. This is sort of the norm within the group.. so I apologize in advance if I come home and speak retardedly for the first couple of weeks.


2) I've learned about 2 new cultures.

I've learned a lot about the culture in Rio Grande do Sul - the Southern-most state in Brazil. The town we stayed in was incredibly traditional, and kept most of their customs, and I was on a team to teach the rest of the group about the culture of the region. I learned about the traditional dances of the region... and we even took classes to learn 2 of them to show to the group. We also dressed in traditional clothing for the day, baked a traditional cake, and learned how to lasso!
Living in a different country for 3 months gives you time to discover and appreciate the cultural differences in all facets of life. I learned how to eat beans and rice everyday at lunch. I learned how to have churrasco almost all week. I learned what churrasco was (basically giant slabs of meat spiced with salt and barbecued over a charcoal fire)... and I learned how to eat incredibly salty food, all the time. I also learned how to make some of the food I ate while I was there.
I also learned to appreciate and love a Brazilian music. We went to a lot of bailes (dances) while in Manoel Viana and we all learned to dance traditional gaucho dances to bands playing gaucho music. But also going to parties and hanging out with some of the young people in the town, we also got to know a lot about the youth culture in the town... (which honestly was incredibly hilarious and will make for a lot of ridiculous stories for you guys when I get home) and as well the music that they listen to. There was a lot of American hip-hop and pop, but there was also a lot of Brazilian funk, that although the Brazilian participants seem to hate... we seemed to love. (Enough to search it out and put it on our ipods upon our return)
Also, I learned how to appreciate Canadian culture a lot more. At the beginning of the program, the group was given the task to put together a spectacle of sorts to show the town what Canadian culture was. It was pretty hard to do. Canada didn't really have a culture... or so we thought. But upon our arrival in Valleyfield, by wanting to show our Brazilian counterparts what Canada was all about, I think we were all able to discover things that are an integral part of being Canadian (Tim Hortons being one of those things...).
I've also learned a lot about Quebec culture. The typical Quebecoise dishes - Pâté Chinoise... Poutine... (I've also learned that poutine is the best "I'm drunk and fucking hungry" food and that it really is okay if I have eaten a poutine for every meal on a weekend, not including breakfast, and that cheese curds are the most amazing snack food ever). I have also seen a lot of Quebecoise movies, and they've all been really good. It's weird because they kind of have to do their own thing here... so they have their own movies, their own TV shows and their own music.


... okay so this list looks like it might turn out to be a long one... soo I think I'm going to do it in installments. Look out for part 2 coming up next.

Quebec city!

this weekend the group took a trip to Quebec city!
I saw the streets I walked in, the restaurants I ate at, and the bars we drank in, when I was ther last, and I honestly felt the most at home I've felt in... well 6 months.
It's the first familiaity I've experienced in half a year, and I was so incredibly sad that we were only there for 2 days.
We stayed at an auberge in the city, and Saturday night, a bunch of us went to Sacrilege before bumping into some really cool people in the street and being invited to their place to smoke, drink and get smoked up.
i propose that next time any of us need to go away, we go to Quebec. It's $20 per person, per night at the auberge.. plus $4 for sheets (if you dont have a sleeping bag) and it's a really nice hostel... it includes fire escapes to hang out on during summer nights. and its within walking distance of a lot of bars.
i took pictures with my holga, so if you're lucky, i might send you one in the mail.
maybe.

26 days left.
2 more weeks of work.
3 more weeks of the program. (plus 4 days of final evaluation in montreal, minus all the brazilians and plus all the canadians...)
i'll be home soon... i hope.

You guys...

I want to come home.


I miss my room, my laptop, my clothes, my house.
I miss driving, I miss the city.
I miss the hang outs that I could be having with you guys.

It would be bearable if I was having an amazing time here, but I'm not.
It just barely passable - helped along by the nights of heavy drinking that have now become routine.

6 weeks left. Just 6.
a month and a half.
(it's never seemed longer....)

hope you guys had a good halloween!

consumerism

Even from the far corner of small town Quebec, without a credit card, without any income except for $15 a week, and a weekly expenditure of an average of $25 a weekend on booze, I still manage to keep consumerism alive.

Thank god for Paypal and international shipping.

I just bought this:

So cute! I'm super excited for it's arrival. I just hope it won't take 1 month and a half to arrive.. because I won't be here any more.

Shopping has become a distant memory for me. For the last 6 months every item of clothing I've acquired has been second hand - I do a weekly tour of all the second-hand stores in Valleyfield, and even in Manoel Viana, I managed to find a second-hand store (which is an amazing feat, since the town was so small, and barely had anything in it...) where I thrifted little boys button downs (actually if you think about it, it's kind of sad to think about - I'm wearing the castoffs of someone from a small-town in the South of Brazil... oh well). I don't think I'm capable of buying anything over the price of $5 any more. I actually balk at the thought of paying $5 for a sweater that looks brand new and has the tag on it here.

My host mom has promised me a trip to Montreal for shopping purposes, and besides the fact that I'm pretty much broke (or will be soon.. Halloween is on a Friday this year!) and have no access to a credit card, I'm dying to walk into an H&M, UO and/or American Apparel. (Let the stop-supporting-global-capitalism lectures begin!)

Out of the 5 pairs of jeans that I brought to wear on the trip, 2 are too tight and way too uncomfortable (I guess I did put on some weight...), one has several rips in the crotchal area and paint on it from digging, planting, and painting in Brazil, and one has a hole in it from falling off my bike. Someone purolate me some clothes please. I'm tired of fighting with little old men for plaid flannel shirts, little old ladies for cable knit sweaters, and buying mens undershirts to wear as dresses.

On the other hand, I will return home with the most impressive collection of plaid shirts and grandpa cardigans that Mississauga has ever seen.

The other day I bought a hand-knit, long, heavy wool sweater at one of the stores for $10. I wore it all weekend during mid-project, and at night I put a light hoody under it and spent the whole night outside by the camp fire, and I could not feel the cold even if I wanted to (this could've been attributed to the Fireball mixed with chai that I was drinking... but I really don't think so). It's magical, and probably the best buy I'll ever make in my life.

At least if I wanted to I could dress up as an old man for Halloween. It might be easier than dressing up as an 80s aerobics bitch, or a poutine...

Does anyone know what I can wear to cover my ass if I dress up as an 80s aerobics bitch, with my AA raglan sweater on top, and leggings and legwarmers? We all know how I feel about wearing leggings as pants...... RAFAY, I AM LOOKING AT YOU FOR IDEAS. Something that can easily be thrifted. I couldn't find short shorts at any of the thrift stores I frequent.

(wow, there are a lot of pertinent tags for this post..)

klutz

i have fallen off my bike twice within the last week.
both my knees have scrapes surrounded by very large, very black looking bruises. I think I have more bruises and scrapes at one time than I ever had as a kid.
It was like my body was unhappy about the large bruise and pain in one knee, and decided to even it out and do the same thing on the other.
yes, i was sober.
both times.
and no, it doesn't get any less embarassing after it's already happened once.

In other news, I am very bitter about life right now. It's stupid and trivial and whatever, but I still hate life.

In other brighter news, there's a very very good chance that I am going to be seeing Bob Dylan in Montreal on the 18th.

lush

do you know how hard/amazing it is to ride a bike home when you're trashed?
is that legal?

friday night we went to a bar where we accidentally ended up at a show.

last night we went to a club called "le saint", where the there was a jungle theme for the night, you could get squiggly lines airbrushed onto your arms and legs, and everywhere you turned, there was a frat boy with his pink polo collar popped and a beer bottle in hand.

welcome to small-town quebec. where it's like the suburbs, but worse.

but hey, drinks were cheap - $3.50 for a vodka+canneberge, $3 for a beer (i'm sure they know that there needs to be a certain level of intoxication involved in order to deal with djs dressed up in leopard print pimp suits, throwing budweiser hats at you).
and at least we started the evening off with class.. sitting on a bedroom floor listening to Madonna, and drinking wine with cheese and bread.
..and taking shots of gin on the long walk to the club..
all in all a good(ish) time was had - i vividly remember getting really excited and dancing really hard to lady gaga even though i could barely stand at that point.

my host dad just laughed at me because its 3pm and after i biked my way home from the place i slept over at, i took a shower and changed directly into my pyjamas. he asked if i drank a lot last night because apparently i look super hung over.

my counterpart and her partner for her JAE are in the living room listening to the beach boys for some reason...

good weekend.

anyways, happy thanksgiving.