So first, I woke up pretty darn early this morning. In the rare case someone is trying to stalk me around the city, I'm not gonna mention the exact time, but let's just say it was in the single digits. Mike does not function at this time of day, especially when he stays up until 1am the night before binge-watching Brazilian Youtube channels.
After begrudgingly preparing myself, I decided to drink some water and pick up this snack I had in my pantry to eat on the way to work. I hadn't opened it, but by the title "Bananada" and the shape, I assumed it was some sort of banana bread. I opened it as I crossed the first avenue and took a bite - nope.. it was not. Apparently bananada is some interesting Brazilian sweet made from Banana pulp. It wasn't bad per se, but it wasn't exactly what I expected. Here's a picture:
If you wanted to know what THAT looks like, I just happened to take a picture one morning of that meal. Here it is below:
Pão de Queijo, the bread you see up there, is what Belo Horizonte is known for. You can find it anywhere for only about 50 cents and its reportedly the best in Brazil. I will talk more about this and probably more about açai in another post but here's just a glimpse for you right now. This is because they are cultural staples in Brazil and deserve a lot more than just a small paragraph in this one blog post!
Bonus: the place I go to also blends in banana when they make the açai juice! It's amazing guys.
Back to the story..
I showed up to work a few minutes late, ran to my desk, and low and behold - there was only one other person in the office. This is normal due to the fact that punctuality is a bit more relaxed in Brazil. Usually everyone gets in at some time within the first 20 minutes of their shift. Not too far off from life in Italy but I'm not complaining!
Then of course, I sat down at my desk, turned on my computer, and got to work.
I need to be honest. I don't know what it is, but having a computer, a desk, and a personal telephone make me feel so much more adult-like and independent than I actually am. Does anyone else feel this way?
If you remember the purpose of my job, it involves working within the International Relations department to encourage the spread of English within the city and increase internationalization. One of the ways we do this is by organizing training classes for English teachers within the city limits. Prior to this week, I had to call 200 some-odd public schools to reach their English teachers (of Brazilian origin) to try and convince them to enlist in this program.
At first, I need to admit, I was scared. Talking in-person is one thing in a foreign language but talking on the phone is usually a lot more daunting, especially given the fact you can't see the other person and usually it's harder to understand what they are saying. After the first 5 phone calls though, I quickly got the hang of it and I all but mastered my pitch. There were many times; however, when nobody would answer or I would not be able to get ahold of the teacher I was trying to reach. There were also times in which people would hear my accent on the phone and try to guess what European country I was from.
Now I'm basically keeping up with the teachers who subscribed to the program and making sure they are coming to the classes and are keeping up with what they need to do on their part. However, this is not my only project. I'll tell you what else I'm doing soon in another post.
Oh and by the way, in the many hours I'm at the office, usually coffee gets passed around, traditional Brazilian cookies, water, and tea. It's a pretty nice environment I must admit. Additionally, my co-workers are the coolest people ever. We're essentially a big family and I'm the adopted foreign child - if you can imagine that.
After work today I set off on a new mission, the dentist. I've been having issues with my teeth so I decided to schedule an appointment with a sister of a friend of a friend. Yeah, referrals are pretty interesting here. We talked via Whatsapp and she seemed cool, so I decided I was going to give this appointment a try.
I set off deep into the center of the city to find my dentist. I usually forget I'm in a giant metropolis, but when you go to the neighborhood "Centro" (the center/downtown as its name suggests), you realize again that there are actually 2 million people living in this tropical concrete jungle.
I would have taken a picture for you, but I generally do not feel safe taking out my phone in this part of the city.
Anyways, I eventually found the place, took the raggedy elevator up a few floors, and walked into the office. I was half-petrified considering I had never gotten a dentist appointment in a foreign country, let alone a foreign country which generally has stereotypes associated with being "developing."
Soon enough after sitting down in the fancy air-conditioned office, a young and smiling dentist lured me into her chamber and began to work on my teeth. It was a general cleaning, if you wanted to know. I was still terrified to some degree. Yes, It was painful at first, but she kept cracking jokes to make the time go by. "Oh wow it must suck, you just met me and I'm already putting you through pain!" I noticed she didn't have an accent from Belo Horizonte and I asked her where she was from. She then told me proudly she hailed from Recife and we began to talk nonstop (well, when her dental tools were not in my mouth) about how amazing it is there and how I'm so excited to return.
At the end, she gave me a prescription, tons of advice, and hugged me because "this is how we do it in Recife." This was probably one of the best dentist appointments I've ever had in my life, and I only ended up paying $23. Can we think about that for a second? She then told me to shoot her a text on Whatsapp if I had any questions about what to do.
For anyone who does not know Recife, it is a large coastal city in Northeast Brazil. This region is known for its hospitable, friendly, and warm people as well as its beach culture. I went there in May to visit a friend and the culture reminded me so much of home that I cannot even describe it.
I promptly sped home on foot. However, I was only going home to get ready to go back out. My friend Daiane, at the place I teach English, teaches me Portuguese a few times a week. I quickly got ready and ran back across the city to do some studying with her. We talked about accents in Portuguese and I studied the history of Samba. Learning about the Portuguese language also involves learning about Brazilian culture! On a side one, Daiane is one of the coolest people I know here in Brazil (I hope she's reading this). She's extremely skilled at explaining any problems I have in Portuguese and she's been an amazing friend to me this past month, so I thought I'd give her a quick shoutout!
This is one of the only pics I have of you Daiane! I hope you don't mind.
Afterwards, I ran back home again to get ready to get dinner with my friend Taís who works with me at my other job. We usually head to this vegan place called "Las Chicas" in the "Maletta." The Maletta is this old building which has tons of restaurants and bars people tend to flock to every day. They call it a "city" within Belo Horizonte. During the day, there are also tons of old used book stores and you can buy used books at great prices.
This escalator below can be found within the Maletta building. It is the oldest escalator in Belo Horizonte according to Taís. It worked a few decades ago, but now it's basically a monument.
Once we got upstairs, our waitress, who at this point knows us by name, sat us outside and we quickly knew what we were going to order. Keeping up with the ritual, we decided to get vegan burgers. They were pretty amazing I must admit. The first time I got them, I got everything all over my face - but this time Taís was the messy one and I did not let her hear the end of it!
This place has a wide variety of vegan food that anyone would enjoy. I'll post another picture of something I ordered another day just to show you all. This is a picture of feijoada, a typical dish in Brazil which is filled with beans, rice, vegetables, and meat. However, this one is vegan! Don't even ask what it is made of, I have no idea.
After stuffing our faces with vegan food, we decided to find dessert. You can usually find men and women carrying around traditional brigadeiros and other chocolate treats, ready to sell for a cheap price. Unfortunately, we did not find any of these people tonight.
Instead, we ended up walking a few kilometers across the city and dancing the night away at a typical Brazilian balada to Funk music. Funk music is unique to Brazil, I'll talk more about it and show you some of the songs we listen to in another post.
I hope you all enjoyed hearing about my typical day and I look forward to seeing you again for my next post!
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