The other week, I mentioned the great book I picked up called 1808, on the Portuguese Royal Family’s escape to Rio de Janeiro. This morning, I found a video summary on Youtube given by the author and its running time is about 30-something minutes (in 4 parts). So for those of you who are more visually-oriented, it’s quite interesting!
I’m thinking quite a lot of people have heard of or seen parkour but what about it’s laid-back cousin, street training? Yes, that’s right, if you are not daring enough to attempt l’art du déplacement then there’s another way you can interact with your surroundings and it’s called street training (what is it called if you become an expert?).
It seems to have started in London and picked up across the pond in none other than Brazil. After seeing a few videos on Youtube, I’m no longer sure it should be called the lazy off-shoot of parkour but rather the chilled-out version of flash mobs…or is it the walking man’s idea of the laying down game? Oh I’m not sure anymore…you crazy kids, you!
Last night, I was at a reggae concert featuring some local bands from Pará as well as Gregory Issacs from Jamaica and Soja from California. In the audience, near the stage were various couples watching and enjoying the live performances dancing forró super close to each other the whole time (5 hours plus) while bumping into everyone who actually came to *see* the bands play. All I have to say is, go dance elsewhere! Go to a bar, stay at your house, pay a lot less and go to a club for crying out loud but don’t go into the most dense part of the crowd, right near the stage and have your alone time with your partner. It’s extremely rude to say it politely. It may be a shock to you and your ‘sweetie-pie’ but nobody likes being bumped into every five seconds. In times like these, the only defense is to cross your arms and therefore use your elbows to make a point, so to speak.
Oh and this goes for the same types of couples, if you are going to spend the other half of your time in such an event ‘sucking face’ with your partner, get a room! Hug, kiss…I couldn’t care less, but if you’re acting like you’re in the privacy of your bedroom ‘knocking boots’ at 2AM then I hope those boots are also made for walking…cause you could go somewhere else and leave me and my friends to enjoy the event…yes, it’s not just me the foreigner who found it quite annoying, but my Brazilian friends too.
it must be global warming, right? and I (or my habits) must be causing it. I’m so “glad” (yes, that’s sarcasm) to know Brazil is falling for the carbon credit taxation scam (yes, folks, that’s where we’re headed and that’s why you’ve been primed). But if you think that’s bad, wait until UN Agenda 21 is in full effect!
“Brazil said Friday it would offer a “voluntary” cut of at least 36 percent in greenhouse gas emissions at the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen next month.
The goal could see carbon reductions of up to 39 percent and is set against Brazil’s forecast level of emissions in 2020.
The target was presented by Environment Minister Carlos Minc and government chief minister Dilma Rousseff at a news conference in Sao Paulo following talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Brazil is the fourth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, largely because of carbon released through deforestation of its vast Amazon forest by ranchers and farmers.” – Source (more here, but no need to read)
Between the US and Brazil, the educational system has many differences and while that would be interesting to go over (I’ll save that for a future post), I’m going to concentrate on some of the terms in Portuguese for university students.
Universidade – University
Faculdade – College (ie, College of Liberal Arts)
Colégio – Elementary, Middle or High School (it doesn’t mean ‘college’)
Escola – School (a general term)
Curso – The degree you are studying
Cursar – The verb to explain the term above
Matrícula – Tuition
Semestre – Semester
Bacharelado – Baccalaureate
Graduação – Undergraduate
Pós-graduação – Graduate
Formar-se – To graduate
Ser formado/a em – To have graduated in
Universitário/a – University student
Aluno/a – Student
Matéria – Course or Subject
Aula – Class
Sala – Classroom
Nota – Grade
Tirar 10 – To get an A (0-10, not letter-based)
Colar – To cheat
I think we’ve all heard the song “Raindrops keep falling on my head“, an oldie but goodie. We also all know how Belém, in some ancient local dialect, must mean “rain” although technically I know it means Bethlehem, which in turn means “House of Bread” (It would be awefully nice if a loaf of bread fell, right?).
When traveling here though, you should take caution when walking under the mango trees, as you may find out that raindrops aren’t the only thing that falls on your head here. Yes, that’s right, I’ve been warned that mangos hurt.
Of course, when there’s opportunity, there’s a Brazilian with their thinking cap on close by. When buying mangos in Belém from a street vendor, it’s quite possible the idea just fell into his lap.
Portuguese
Eu acho que todo mundo já conhece aquela música antiga em inglês “Raindrops keep falling on your head”. Também é bem possível que a palavra Belém em algum dialéto antigo desta região significa “chuva” mas tecnicamente sei que vem de Bethlehem a qual, em seqüência, significa “Casa do Pão” (seria uma boa se o que caiu fosse pão de forma, né?).
Embora quando o turista passa pela cidade à pé, ele deve ter cuidado porque as gotas de chuva não são as únicas coisas que podem cair sobre a cabeça. Isso aí, gente! As mangas têm a tendência de atingir a cabeça também.
Claro, que quando hã oportunidade, vai ter um brasileiro por perto, se pondo a pensar. Quando se compra uma manga em Belém de um vendedor na rua, pode ser que a idéia caiu do céu, de repente assim.
The Economist came out with a 14-page (baixar) report on Brazil and here’s the cover with Christ as a rocket.
“WHEN, back in 2003, economists at Goldman Sachs bracketed Brazil with Russia, India and China as the economies that would come to dominate the world, there was much sniping about the B in the BRIC acronym. Brazil? A country with a growth rate as skimpy as its swimsuits, prey to any financial crisis that was around, a place of chronic political instability, whose infinite capacity to squander its obvious potential was as legendary as its talent for football and carnivals, did not seem to belong with those emerging titans.
Now that scepticism looks misplaced. China may be leading the world economy out of recession but Brazil is also on a roll. It did not avoid the downturn, but was among the last in and the first out. Its economy is growing again at an annualised rate of 5%. It should pick up more speed over the next few years as big new deep-sea oilfields come on stream, and as Asian countries still hunger for food and minerals from Brazil’s vast and bountiful land. Forecasts vary, but sometime in the decade after 2014—rather sooner than Goldman Sachs envisaged—Brazil is likely to become the world’s fifth-largest economy, overtaking Britain and France. By 2025 São Paulo will be its fifth-wealthiest city, according to PwC, a consultancy.” – Economist (a little more here)
“Brazil emerged Wednesday from a widespread power outage that plunged as many as 60 million people into darkness for hours, prompting security fears and concern from residents about another black eye for a country hosting the 2016 Olympic Games.
Power went out for more than two hours in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and several other major cities after transmission problems knocked one of the world’s biggest hydroelectric dams offline. Airport operations were hindered and subways ground to a halt.” – Source (more here)
The other day, I was introduced to a site that like mine, covers just about anything and everything that’s cool about Brazil. When seeing both perspectives, it just goes to show that one person can’t possibly cover everything so it’s nice to see someone indirectly saying “hey, you missed a whole bunch of stuff”. It is run by a Brazilian woman named Eloise and she currently lives in Canada. I recommend checking out her site/blog, The Good Blood, as you’ll be sure to find interesting content.
I’ve had a few lists of cultural phrases in my head for many many months and the day came when I decided to do something with them. The result? Eyes On Brazil t-shirts are now available for purchase!
You might be thinking these are going to be t-shirts with just the name of my site but they aren’t. In general, they combine cultural phrases with designs and give you a way to say “I’m in the know” when it comes to all things Brazilian.
Check it out for yourself here at the Eyes On Brazil store.
As a side note, any and all phrases you see are also available to be placed on any product Printfection offers. Colors can also be altered, just let me know. Currently, there are 10 shirts (for Brazil in general) to choose from although there are more shirts in the other two sub-stores. Stay tuned because more are on their way!
