Do not do dishes in a Brazilian home
Trip Start
Oct 19, 2007
1
61
126
Trip End
Ongoing
Belo Horizonte,
Brazil
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
I wake up around 11:00 and I can`t believe I`m spending Xmas in Brazil, weird. People start showing up around noon or so and the total group consists of Me, Cleiber, Cleiber`s mom, two uncles, two aunts, Julianna and Scintia. His two uncles are super cool and one even speaks some English as he has been to the US over 100 times on "business". The other uncle is an extremely nice guy and pretty funny and for some reason he is addressed as James Bond. Everyone calls him this, not sure why, I guess because his first name is the Portuguese version of James. I never did quite figure this out, but I went with it as I thought it was pretty funny. Basically, xmas in Brazil consists of drinking lots of beer and eating lots of food. I have no idea how it is in other households in Brazil but Cleiber`s family doesn`t exchange very many gifts and the xmas tree is tiny
Me and my present
. Xmas is used more as a platform for getting together and hanging with the family as opposed to celebrating Xmas in and of itself. Cleiber`s two uncles keep giving me more beer even before I have finished the beer I`m on. Brazilians hate anything less than ice cold beer. If one of his uncles notice that I have been on the same beer for more than 20 minutes they automatically switch it out for me. I argue a bit at first telling them I don`t mind if my beer is a bit warmer than when it came out of the freezer but after awhile I just give up. The meal was absolutely fantastic and I ate as much as possible without throwing up due a mild case of gluttony. The three lady`s kept shoving food down my mouth and trying to encourage me to get 4th and 5th helpings that I completely felt at home as this is totally how my mom would act. Seriously, I`ll eat like the biggest plate of food imaginable and my mom will say "Shawn, you didn`t eat much", what!!! that plate weighed like 3lbs, what are you talking about. One thing I learned about Brazil, it is a big social faux pas to try to do dishes if you are a guest (or possibly and/or a guy) in someone`s house. I felt like I needed to contribute something as opposed to just sitting around all day drinking their beer, eating their food and boshitting with Cleiber and his uncles all day long. So, I took it upon myself to attempt to wash my dishes. Oh brother, don`t EVER EVER EVER do this. I more or less got scolded and had my hand slapped for even thinking about washing my dishes. I handed over the now tainted dishes to one of Cleiber`s aunts, said disculpe, lowered my head and walked back into the living room to drink more beer, eat more food and boshit with Cleiber and his uncles. Cleiber is awesome as he does some perfunctory translating throughout the day. I actually understand James Bond`s wife pretty well as she is very courteous and talks slow and doesn`t use big or exotic words, and I find myself talking to her quite a bit throughout the day. Julianna is very good at this as well. I think she realized after a bit what words I know and which ones I didn`t and from that point on she tries to use the words she thinks I know to converse with me. I understand her better than anyone else I have met on this trip who can`t speak any English whatsoever.
At one point during the day (even before she received her presents) Cleiber`s mom exclaimed that she now had two sons. Awww, she is the sweetest lady I have ever met. I get a t-shirt that says "I love BH, radically" BH obviously is for Belo Horizonte. Very nice of Cleiber and his mom to get me a gift. Although the person on the shirt looks a lot like a chick, I wonder if they are doing some undercover rigging (undercover making fun of me). Cleiber`s mom loves her presents from me and tells me she will do more of my laundry if I need her too, which is pimp because I do. Apparently the two uncles support different football (soccer) teams in BH and this ends up leading to some good natured ripping. BH only has two pro football teams, one is Atletico and the other is called....damn I forget. But anyway the two uncles go back and forth and the one says Atletico supporters are......and he does the limp wrist thing to imply that Cleiber and his other uncle are gay. If you ever want to cause controversy among family memebers just bring up football. Anyway, the whole thing was pretty funny. I joke around as much as I can in Portuguese, mostly about how tall I am and how I hit my head on everything as Brazil wasn`t made for tall folk. I end up talking to my family for the first time in 2 months. I think they were more interested in the amazing technology that allows someone in the US to call on a cellphone to someone in Brazil on another cellphone than actually talking to their son, just kidding, kind of. I definitely miss not being there especially since my immediate family is with all my cousins, uncles, aunts etc. But the good thing is, Cleiber`s family is fun and the day goes by quickly and I don`t think too much about missing out on my family`s gathering. Later me, Cleiber, Julianna and Scintia go hang out at this lake that has a huge xmas tree in the middle of it. It`s an extremely nice night as the temperature is probably 80F. Spending xmas in 90+ degree weather was a little odd, I must admit.
Fin
Comments
caught up finally....
nice work Shakespeare...i've spent the last week and a half trying to catch up in this blog on the el. I must admit though, there have been numerous times where i've been sitting on a quiet train and just burst into laughter to the amusement of everybody around me. I've also made a habit out of purposely leaving the blog entries i printed out on the el so that some random might read it.
Keep up the good work!
oh, and i hate you right now...it's freezing here. currently -7.
LOL... my work is suffering.
Dookie posted a link to this and I wasted my whole day at work. Half this blog down.
90 degree christmases are pretty abnormal for me too. Its usually in the mid 70s here.
-donger