... man do my thumbs hurt!

  Santa Cruz do Sul, Brazil
Monday, June 16, 2008

June 16, 2008 - Stairway to Heaven, The Poodle's found the car keys, and man do my thumbs hurt.

Another great week, although I was busy as all get out. Started putting in some time helping out with the English classes and also started my own individual Portuguese lessons. I have 2.5 hours of Portuguese lessons each business day and spending about 2 to 4 hours per day participating with the English classes.

Went to the Park (parque) today with my Portuguese teacher. There was an alligator, many different kinds of small monkeys, parrots and parakeets, and a really cool cave. I envisioned it as being an apartment complex of ancient times because there were so many different rooms on the inside. We walked through all the rooms inside the cave. I was impressed. I don't know if the raw nature here is in any way impressive to Brazilians, but for me it's wonderfully different and a little more exotic than what I'm used to and that alone makes it cool.

I and my teacher were attempting to walk this rough trail in the wilderness up to the top of the waterfall, but chickened out when it began to get really steep and a little dangerous. The ground was super slick from an earlier rain. I plan on going back later.

One of the English classes that I participated in was with 8 kids about 8 years of age. They were intermediate English speakers and surprisingly had a good grasp of English language basics. They were soooo cool. Soooo much fun. They had so many questions for me. It was awesome. At the end of the class we all took a picture. I was pumped for the rest of the day.

Stairway to Heaven - So Friday night I and some friends went out, you know, just to hang out, get a beer, and hear some music. Unfortunately, there weren't many people out that night because (the day before) Thursday, was Valentine's Day here in Brazil and people were lying low and/or had spent too much money the night before. (Yes, Valentine's Day is June 12th in Brazil. (I hate Valentines Day and this year I had to endure it twice.)

Now, I have heard from Brazilian musicians that I know, of how they came to the United States to play Rock music, but once they got to the states everyone wanted to hear Brazilian music, then, when they went back to Brazil to play Brazilian Music, everyone in Brazil wanted to hear American music. Go figure. Well there was a Brazilian (American Rock) Cover Band. You know (Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, etc - American music LOL - even though none of these bands are American). They band at the club was actually pretty good too. Although, I did wonder if the lead singer really knew English (and knew exactly what he was singing) or did he just have a good ear in mimicking the English.

My friends in the club were telling me about this one particular Brazilian song that no matter where you go in Brazil people always asks the band to play it. In fact, people ask bands to play this particular song so much that there have been actual songs on the radio of bands singing about how they will not play this song. I started laughing and mentioned that we have this too ... songs like "Freebird" and then I thought of "Stairway to Heaven." I said, "If I hear Stairway to Heaven one more time ..." Not 5 seconds after I said this (I kid you not ... 5 seconds) the band started playing "Stairway to Heaven". We all died laughing. So to all my musician friends in the states, even in the South of Brazil, there is no escape.

I thought about yelling out "Freebird" just for the hell of it, and fortunately thought better of it.

The Poodle's found the car keys - On Sunday there was a big Festival in Parque do Centro (the Downtown Square).

Getúlio Vargas Square-1

They had a stage with live performances, food venders, merchandise venders, churros (god I love churros, I think I've had about 5 of them since I've been here) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churro, and inflatable rids for kids. I was enjoying a wonderful gaúcho band (traditional music of South Brazil - a little like mariachi meets American country, and sometimes with a pop beat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaucho ) when this white poodle with someone's car keys in his mouth came walking by. It would walk about 10 feet, then stop and look up and around as if to say "OK, you guys are not the owners" and then move another 10 feet and do the same. Everyone thought it was the strangest thing. We all smiled. I really like the relationship with animals here. It's more like when I was young growing up in Oxford. You could walk downtown and this dog that would cross your path walking in the opposite direction. In a very human way you would look at each other with mild interest and chuckle. He's going to his destination and I'm going to mine. This has not a one time thing here. It's actually a common occurrence for me and I find it very nice, and human. Pets without leashes, what a concept. In fact, all the animals here seem to be a lot more emotionally balanced in general.

Man do my thumbs hurt - Played volleyball earlier today. So much fun. I've always loved volleyball, but in the states, no one I knew played. I haven't played in 15 years and while playing today, I quickly had to refresh my memory of the game and relearn how to hit the ball. I had so much fun, but afterwards my thumbs were killing me. Like I said ... 15 years.

Personal note: Was inspired and wrote 2 songs this week and I think I am starting to get use to my new and smaller soprano saxophone. Looking forward to another great week. Until then ... Tchau!!!