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!!
Comments