São Paulo day 2

Before I say anything else, here are a few things I've noticed about native Portuguese speakers speaking English. [this is in no way making fun of my new friends, it's just observation. I clearly can't speak a lick of their language so I'm super grateful that everyone HAS to speak English here. Can't wait till next week when I'm thrust out into the Portuguese speakin world :0 ]

They LOVE the word "sure". 

Me: can I ask you something?

A Brazilian: yes sure. 

Me: do you like São Paulo?

A Brazilian: sure no no rio is much better yeah sure. 

Typical. Every answer has at least one sure. I love it. Also, the way they say "leave" and "live" is the same. So you can imagine it gets confusing when they say things like "I've been to New York but I'd never want to leave there". A whole chat about where to stay in rio was full of live/leave and finally I realized that no one wanted to leave and everyone wanted to live there. 

Today was the first day of the boot camp. We woke up around 7-8ish and ate breakfast: rolls with a spread that's like a mixture of cream cheese and yogurt. I couldn't help myself, it was delicious. And paired with CASHEW juice? Feels like I'm back in Barcelona drinking Zumasol (amiright Emily???). Cashew juice is real. A cashew fruit looks like an apple with a worm coming out the top. Which obviously is the cashew, but me being...me...asked what "Caju" juice is and what the heck the worm like thing out of the top of the picture on the carton was. It was a "when you see it you'll s*** bricks" moment if I ever have one. 

The boot camp started with us introducing ourselves, our expectations for the week, and what others can ask us about. Since EVERY single person (okay, Brazilian) I've talked to thinks baseball is about as fun as going to the dentist, I said anyone can ask me about baseball and all the reasons why it's not boring. To which I got quite the response. One girl actually sat me down a few hours later and tried to figure out why I like baseball, there's just no way I could like something so boring! 

Then we had 20 minutes to think of a team name and a team symbol. This was pure and delicious chaos as we hashed out a whole idea of what we believe we as a group embody. A phrase that brazilians say about everything is "beleza" or "beautiful". It can be used absolutely for anything. "How's the weather?" "Beleza." "How are you?" "Beleza." "Man that baby is ugly" "yes sure beleza". It's just the thing to say. [EDIT: I have since learned this is not the case entirely. But I will keep on believing it, darnit!] And since we are so many cultures coming together in Brazil to create something meaningful blah Dee blah it's beleza. Bam. Our symbol is a triangle shape made of squiggles representing the diamond on the Brazilian  flag and also some other stuff that made sense at the time but now seems kinda iffy but WHATEVER we only had 20 minutes. 

Then, we got our brief. And it's long. And hard to explain. I'll explain when I have more time and it's not 1:35 in the morning. 

Around 1 we were set free. We broke into groups and set out for lunch/sightseeing. My group had the idea to go an art gallery in the center of the city. Well, walking to the subway we decided we were too hungry and stopped to watch the France v nigeria game while eating a traditional Brazilian meat dish. Everything here has meat. Which is rather exciting for a quasi vegetarian such as myself because oops! Guess I gotta eat meat now that I'm here! There are a few diehard vegetarians in the bunch but I figure I gotta at least try some stuff while I'm here. I think I made the right choice. 

Terrible pic but there's the meat, cooking away in the middle of the table. 

We're a bunch of designers/ad agency people so of course we're gonna get artsy. 

After a 2 hour lunch which also had Brazilian...coprihinas (? I'm not sure and no one is awake to ask. It's vodka and sugar cane and it's very strong. Although one girl in the group got a kiwi one and it might've been the most delicious thing I've ever tasted. ) we ventured into this alley way that's famous for it's incredible street art. Behold: 

We walked around in there for a while, then went to a small art gallery, where we happened to be discussing The Lord of the rings. The owner of the gallery just walked up to us and said "oh you like The Lord of the rings? I have a tattoo of my name in dwarfish." The way he said it was totally in a "haha you guys are nerds for talking LOTR haha" but no. No no. He had this tattoo large on his arm. Got it when he was 15 and now he's ashamed and is getting it removed. Quite frankly it looks pretty sweet, he has nothing to hide! If anyone asked he could say it was something else, but I guess too many people in Brazil know dwarfish :( poor guy!! 

Back at the hostel we started drinking and watched the Germany v Algeria game. A few of us got into a lengthy chat about tinder/hinge and why we use it/why we like being single and why being on tinder doesn't mean we're tryna get with you. I just like chatting with people! And I use tinder to recruit for soccer. 

Okay I'll explain the rest later. I'm beat. GOODNIGHT BUON NOCHE.