Rio Gringa

Brazil gets the World Cup for 2014

Hey all. I've been busy with work and going out with my friend but I had to put this post up tout suite.

Yesterday, FIFA announced that Brazil will be the host for the 2014 World Cup. What exactly does this mean for Brazil?

Today on the front page of Globo News, the following was the lead for the main story about the decision (my translation).

"Brazil has conquered what every country in the world can only dream of; the privilege to host the greatest spectacle of our time: the World Cup. Thanks to Ricardo Teixeira, president of the CBF (Brazilian National Football Organization), Brazil was the only candidate and will now be the host in 2014, after the TRAUMA of 1950 (when Brazil lost the Cup on home territory).  But the challenge is only beginning: the country has 7 years to reconstruct the airport system, make safer roadways, fix subways in the major cities, and build trains between state capitals, and of course, modernize all the stadiums....President Lula said that this will be "such a great World Cup that not even an Argentine will be able to criticize.""

Related articles discussed more details, like the fact that the Cup will take place in 18 cities all over Brazil (even in the Amazon), though the largest stadium is Rio's Maracana, that fits over 85,  000 people. Brazil plans to spend around $6 billion on preparations for the Cup, but also will have to spend somewhere around $9 billion on a train line from Rio to Sao Paulo. They had a one-page map of the stadiums and showed their shape and how many people they fit, and my favorite stadium is in Natal (which means Christmas in Portuguese) which is shaped like a star.

But what other implications does this have for Brazil? It means the government spending billions on infrastructure, which will ultimately benefit the country but will divert much-needed funds from social programs and funding. It means all eyes will be on Brazil, despite little hope of a change in levels of poverty, inequality, and violence. And finally, if Brazil loses on home territory again, it would be an actual national tragedy, just like in 1950, which would have reverberations on all possible levels of Brazilian life.

 

Today I had 5 classes, and Eli helped my friend around Ipanema and then she wandered around the city and thankfully found the restaurant where we met for dinner, the famous pizza rodizio place, which luckily she loved! I'm glad she's good at being independent because I have to work today and tomorrow. But Friday is a holiday so I will be free! Last night we went out to a funky bar in Botafogo, where my friend had a drink called a "Technicolor" that was 5 bright, vivid separate colors before she drank it.

Today on the bus to Barra there were 4 women who didn't know each other all having very intense conversations, like they were good friends. This is totally normal here, and though I find it a little weird, I think it's so sweet, and sometimes makes me feel like I'm amidst a big extended family.

Also today one of my students told me she'd just finished Marley and Me in Portuguese, which she absolutely loved. But she said to me, "One of the things I noticed was the way they live. It's just so different from how we live here. It's like another world." Things like being able to buy a house, buy lots of things, being able to switch jobs that will still allow you to live well, and to have a family that heads onto this same track is something that is just not a reality for most Brazilians, even of the middle class.

Well congratulations Brazil. Here's to 2014!

 

Here is the official BBC article about the announcement.

gringa arrival!

Today my friend from GW arrived in Rio! She is studying abroad in Brazil so she didn't come too far. I had to go to a class in Ipanema, and then when I got back she had arrived. She slept while I went to my 12pm class, and then we went to lunch at Botafogo Shopping and went to Centro.

Then the next two things that happened were less than ideal for my poor friend's first day ever in Rio. First, on the way to the subway, we passed a crime scene in action. A street person was lying on his face while a guy with a gun kicked him and pushed him onto the ground, and a huge group of people had formed to watch (at a safe distance, naturally). Later, after talking to a student, I deduced that the street person had been trying to rob the pharmacy on the street, and the security guard threatened him and held him until the cops came. Apparently, cops here get "second jobs" in their free time to make extra money, and many times they become security guards for businesses.

Then, when we got to Centro, I showed her around a little and then we went to the Cathedral, the spaceship-like building famous for being really weird looking. We got about a foot in the door before a security guard came up to us and was really rude and told us we couldn't come in any further because my friend was wearing shorts and a tank top (note: it was ridiculously hot today). He was a really big asshole about it (and dumb; we could stand around in the front part of the church but not walk around??) and I felt really really bad. So I sent my friend off to explore Santa Teresa, and before my 4pm class I went back to the Cathedral, found a higher-up management person, and told him that though I understood the rules, the way his guard was treating people was unacceptable. He looked extremely uncomfortable and thanked me for the comment. I was still irritated, so now you all know not to go to the Cathedral. Unless you want to cover up in this ridiculous heat.

After that I took my friend back to Botafogo and we walked around, and I showed her some of the local mansions and we walked around the gardens at Rui Barbosa's house, where we saw some teeny tiny adorable monkeys! I have monkey neighbors! Now we are back and chilling, Eliseu is out, and it is still hot.

Little note about the Brazilians: an informal study by a Brazilian TV network in Sao Paulo found that over 86% of Brazilians are sympathetic (solidarios) to each other and that over 80% of Brazilians love to make small talk. They set up two actors on the street who spent a couple hours sobbing uncontrollably to see how many people stopped to ask if they were OK (hence the results). Lots of people stopped to find out the problem and lots stopped to chit chat. I noticed here that Brazilians are pretty sympathetic in small ways, like giving up their seat on the subway for an elderly person or mom with a kid, and giving food or change to homeless people. But on the social level, Brazilians are a lot less sympathetic to those economically below them, aside from an occasional dime or two.

I don't want to be rude to my friend so gotta go.

it's so ridiculously hot

It's insanely hot, the traffic is terrible because of the tunnel chaos, and did I mention it's hot? It's not the same kind of heat as in the Carribean, where it's so humid you feel like your body has liquified and will just gurgle into a puddle onto the floor, but a dry, blazing heat like you're standing on the surface of the sun. I sweat just sitting around. Summer has sprung, apparently. Summer also brings these weird cricket-like bugs to the Urca neighborhood, who literally sound like fire alarms when they chirp.

Me news:
Today I couldn't sleep because it was so hot, but got up for my 8am, only to sit there for half an hour before I got really pissed and texted my student who was like "Yeah lots of traffic...no class sorry." Thanks, thanks so much. But after that I had to teach ballet anyway, so I got some juice and a paper and then went up to Santa Teresa.

Today I taught two ballet classes as usual. The first class though, went horribly wrong. I noticed a lot of the girls were being obnoxious even at the beginning of class, not following the stretches I was giving and just being lazy. But then, during the barre, I gave an adagio combination (very simplified) and one of the teenage girls flipped out and was like, "You can't give that to the younger kids, they can't do it and if they do it wrong they'll end up crunching their muscles and end up all twisted."  This was after I asked one of the girls who had literally not done a single combination the whole class if she wanted to sit down, but the other girls interpreted it as an invitation and before I knew it most of the class was sitting down. I was like, "What are you doing?" And the girl who started the argument said something along the lines of, "We won't collaborate with you trying to give a combination that will hurt the others." I was fumingly angry and frustrated but between kicking them all out and moving on, I chose to move on. However, I am almost positive that the other ballet teacher said something to them, because that's not something they would just pull out of nowhere. I know the other teacher doesn't like me (partially bc I'm gringa, partially bc I'm treading on her turf somehow) so I have the feeling she is trying to turn the kids, especially the older girls, against me. Well, it's working. I need to talk to the director because that's not going to fly.

On the other hand, my afternoon class went relatively well, other than the fact that they were minorly out of control at some points but I was much more OK with that than what the other class did. Though my fav prodigy child wasn't there, another girl was there who had only been to my first class, who is super enthusiastic and sweet, so that was good. Also, the mean assistant gave me a little "present" from Teacher's Day (which I missed), a pendant of none other than Santa Teresa (not the Indian one).

Now, for Latin American news.

As you may have heard, First Lady Kirchner has now become Mrs. President Kirchner! I think it's awesome that a woman has achieved her level of power in the Americas, though a few articles I've read about her, and an Argentine opinion survey on BBC, say she is bipolar, power-grubbing, and will probably let her newly ex-president husband help her out and will probably not make that big of a difference. Who knows? We'll see.

A Venezuelan humorist was given a US$19,600 fine for publishing an "ironic" article in a newspaper about the Chavez government. Not good guys. Not good.

A leftist leader and political enemy of Colombian president Uribe won the mayoral elections in Bogota.

Tropical storm Noel is pounding the DR, and 13 people in Santo Domingo and the outskirts have died in heavy rains and flooding. Hang in there DR!

An indigenous Brazilian girl won the national Brazilian surfing championships in Rio this week.

We missed a new Cow in the Cow Parade by just a day! The Paddleboat Cow arrived in Lagoa on Sunday and was free to ride.

Globo had a special report today on the women in the drug trafficking rings in Rio, featured in a new book about women traffickers all over Brazil. Apparently, though more and more women are becoming directly involved in trafficking, many women become prostitutes for head traffickers or marry them and become forced to live confined to their homes, to protect them from rival factions and from cheating. One woman married a head trafficker when she was just 13, and at 20 is followed by a "soldier" of the favela everywhere she goes, even though her husband is in jail. Essentially, in exchange for money and financial support, these women trade in their lives.

On a happy note, my friend from GW who is studying in Salvador is coming to visit this week and she arrives tomorrow!!

Part I: Brazilian Food is Awesome

Today we slept in, went food shopping, and then spent a good part of the afternoon cleaning the apartment from top to bottom, since my friend is coming to stay with us this week and we need to have everything nice and clean! Other than that, the rain has stopped, it is veryhot, and Extreme Makeover Home Edition still makes me cry.

Moving on!

Here begins Part I of my new series about the awesomeness of Brazilian food, where I will describe all of the delicious things you must try when you visit this pais lindo!

Part I: Salgados ("Salty" Pastries)

Salgados are a wide group of snack foods that are mainly salty pastries, but can also include things like chips and pretzels. At nearly every cafe, deli, and juice bar in Rio (and in most parts of Brazil) salgados are freshly made and people eat them as snacks at any time of the day. Here are some of the most common ones you will find.

Coxinha (koh-sheen-ya): a tear-drop shaped fried pastry filled with chicken

 

Kibe (kee-bee): Of Middle Eastern origin, this fried pastry has ground meat inside and its outside crunchy shell resembles a falafel.

 

 

Joelho (joh-el-you): Joelho means knee in Portuguese, but this actually is a croissant-like, sandwich-like pastry of bread, ham, and cheese. Kind of gross.

 

Esfirra (es-fee-ha): Also of Middle-Eastern origin, this triangular, folded breaded pastry looks like a humentashen, but is made of salty bread and is filled with chicken, cheese, or ground meat. Yummy.

 

Pastel de carne/queijo (Pas-tew gee kar-nee/kay-joo): Meat/cheese pastries, these look like Chinese food (I think they are of Chinese origin). The outside is like a wonton or those crunchy crackers you get with Chinese delivery in the US, and the inside is ground meat or cheese.

 

Bolinho de aipim (Boh-leen-yo gee ay-peem): Little ball of cassava (yucca), this pastry is fried yucca filled with ground meat. Mm.

 

Salsichao (sal-see-chownn): Known as "big sausage," this is basically a corn dog: it's a hot dog on a stick fried in oil and cassava flour. Kind of gross.

 

Folheado (foh-lee-ah-doh): Folded pastry; this pastry is made from a type of filo dough and is filled with cheese, spinach, ham and cheese,  or chicken; but I have also seen them made with fruit fillings and are delicious. Which brings me to Part II: Brazilian Food is Awesome, featuring Salgados that are sweet!

 

Argentine News and two bitty Brazilian ones

• Argentine Che Guevara's hair sold for $119,000 today in Texas from a single bidder.
• The first 5-star gay hotel in Latin America opened today in Buenos Aires. Click here for pictures and the story (in Portuguese). Only in Buenos Aires!
• On Sunday, Argentines will vote for president and I am extremely happy to announce that the two front runners are women! The first, the favorite, is Senator/First Lady Cristina Fernandez Kirchner, and the second is Elisa Carrio. The Brazilians are rooting for Cristina, who has promised to expand trade with Brazil, and they are calling her "Evita II." (I'd call her the Argentine Hillary). It is ironic that in a part of the world seeped in machismo and stuck in many social and economic trends that date back to colonial times, that women could even reach the level of power to become front-running presidential candidates!

In Brazilian news...

• in an ironic and karmic twist of fate, a thief robbed a man of his wallet and watch on the street in the (big) city of Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, and then headed to the mall to have the watch appraised. But he so happened to chose the jewelery store where the victim worked, who recognized the robber immediately and called the police, who arrested him. Good job!
• In a news item I don't quite understand, the Brazilian stock exchange, Bovespa, had a surge of 51% after first listing. Here's the BBC article. The gist? Lots of foreign investment is flowing into Brazil and strengthening the real.

 

 

Balance News and What I Miss

For those of you who don't know me, or didn't know, I was one of the co-founders of Balance: The GW Ballet Group, the George Washington University's only ballet company and the only entity on campus with any ballet at all. We grew from a tiny group of about 10 people and dancing in churches to...this!!

In other words, the new university president has chosen Balance as THE best dance troupe on campus, over older more established groups like Bhangra and Capitol Funk, to perform at none other than Lisner Auditorium, a theater so big and beautiful (and expensive) that student groups rarely use it because international performances happen there! It has been my dream, and of the other co-founders, for Balance to perform there, but I didn't think it would be for another few years at least! I am so happy and proud!

 

So while I'm on the topic of missing home, I figured I'd list some things I miss, so all of you stateside can appreciate what you have!

I miss:

• friends & family
• seeing movies when they actually come out and not 4 months later
• watching TV without subtitles
• bagels
• New York pizza
• bottled milk
• driving
• fall
• Halloween
• New York
• my dog
• women's shaving cream
• American drug stores with everything you could ever need, a la Walgreens
• La Kalle
• pre-made food at grocery stores like Whole Foods
• candy corn

 

Lastly, I'm pleased to announce that Balance is doing a donation drive for my ballet school in Rio!! Thank you Balance!

great article about BOPE

The sun is out but there are men hammering in the space between the roof and our apartment. Ahh Friday. I forgot that I really need to get myself moving to get to Recreio by 2 so this will be quick.

BBC has a great article today about the "Elite Squad" movie and the BOPE in Rio. Here is the link. And here is an excerpt:

"As he watched his men training, one of Bope's senior commanders insisted he did not accept the film's portrayal of police using torture.

"The film is a fiction and the author may exaggerate things. The limit of activity of police, in particular Bope, is the law. The law doesn't allow us to do that. Torture is not permissible, torture is a crime," he told the BBC News website.

The commander said any operation in a violent area was difficult as civilian injuries were possible. " We work to try to prevent this, it's not what we want," he said.

But Rodrigo Pimentel, who wrote the film's screenplay, and who served for 12 years in Bope, said torture did happen.

"The Brazilian police tortures and kills - that is a fact. It is part of the daily life of the Brazilian police, " he said.

"For obvious reasons I will not confess to torture. But I would say to you that I used to agree with the actions of the character I created [in the film]. For the first two or three years of my career I believed in this kind of practice. But I left the police condemning those acts."

He said the best legacy of the film was the debate it had provoked among millions of Brazilians over how security is handled."