Ode to Fortaleza

 The time came to leave our beautiful little house in Fortaleza da Barra and it was hard to say goodbye. We were there for five and a half months and the house became a home. A home where we hosted our friends, and learned Portuguese; a home where we could be ourselves, exploring other realities and each other. It's hard to leave the cool kids balcony, the comfy beds and the good TV,  the banana trees and the bamboos making music in the breeze. It was such a convenient place to live, a short drive to school and Carol's yoga class and the beach. We will miss the quirk, the mid-evil roads, the street art and the canal with all that it takes and brings. We will miss the busloads of people walking home; and Jerri, who sang with Carol on that infamous drunken night at Rancho de Canoa; and the sunsets and the hammock views.  We are empty from missing it but full from having had it and I think that is part of the point and why we are here. 

Brazilian dogs

 Hotdog stands here are a thing. I've kind of avoided them because the hamburgers are so ba-nu-nus but tonight was the night. I was walking home with my bachelorette dinner of Corona and cookies in a bag on my arm when I noticed the local hotdog shack was open. A rarity. I stepped to the plate and ordered one. The lady clarified, "only one?" -- I concurred and without further questions she started working on my order. Her back was to me so I couldn't see what was happening but it took more time that one would expect. When I got home, I opened the container and there was my prize: my first Brazilian hotdog. On further inspection, the sausage was in there. It was on top of a mysterious red sauce and under some corn and peas, which were covered with pico de gallo topped with a layer of mayonnaise smothered with shredded carrots and potato chip crumbles and all wrapped in a rapidly sogging bun. If it sounds horrendous, it was, but at least now I know. Bon appetite!

Kind of like Trader Joe's

 

My teacher wanted to take me on a field trip to a local market. I admit, I wasn't too keen on the exercised because I have been shopping in this country for months now and thought I knew what there was to know. Wrong again. My teacher approached a customer and asked the difference between two types of papayas. The customer explained and shared how to make a good shake out of one of the papaya types. My teacher then asked a lady what some green leafy was. She was happy to tell us and threw in a recipe for frying it up with garlic and a little onion. Charming. The people at the markets are kind of like like Trader Joes' cashiers with their helpful tips, recipe ideas and overall enthusiasm about produce. This I did not know.

Second thoughts on the nude beach

We went to the nude beach again. It was a glorious day with hot sun, cool water and lots of beautiful people doing their thing, some of them nudely. We made a shelter from the sun. There were a few men, as there always are, strutting their stuff and trying to make a few bucks the hard way so to speak. It didn't bother us. I regret saying before that it felt predatory. Clearly, I'm still trying to sort out my feelings about the activities that we observe over there.  Today, I'm glad there is a place where people can be exactly who they are.

Visitor

 

We have a friend staying with us. It's been fun and has me thinking about a couple of things. First, our friend is a Chicana from Utah. People here relate to her much more as being Mexican than they do as being American and they are very very psyched to speak to her in Portuguese. A language she has been  seriously studying for about four days.  The other thing I noticed was that today she had to translate some Portuguese for me on the beach. It's hard to be the slowest Portuguese learner on the team but I am very excited that I will have some help with the language while Carol is in the US next week. I'm sure I will get it soon.