Dance at Caxingi/Brooklyn February 23rd

Well it was about time to put our newly acquired dance skills to use at a LDS dance.  This Saturday was apparently a big day for dances in the LDS community here. There were at least 4 dances in São Paulo scheduled that I knew of.  The two biggest that I knew of were in Brooklyn and Caxingi (the chapel by the temple).  So the people that we went with to the dance wanted to go check out the Brooklyn dance and then head to the Caxingi.  I learned something very interesting about events in Brazil that day.  Brazilians are drawn to the biggest 'party' in town like bees to honey.  If people feel that the dance or party isn't all that it was cracked up to be (bad music, few people) and if there is some sort of alternative you can be sure that everyone will empty the place very quickly.  For instance, we heard at first that everything was heading to the dance in Brooklyn, but by the time we got there the public opinion had changed and everyone headed to Caxingi!  I really felt bad for the places that had spent a lot of time in preparation but because of popular vote had been pretty much abandoned.  But it's just the way things work here.  To break down what an LDS Brazilian is like: A good mix of hip hop music (but people usually don't know how to dance to it so few hip hop songs are requested), plenty of choreographed arrocha, or different line dances, a couple of samba songs, and the majority of the time taken up by the couple dances of sertaneja and forró. Compared to the US there are pretty much no slow songs.  Talking to some Brazilians who lived in Utah for a time, the common opinion was that dances there were pretty boring and slow songs (completely awkward) haha.  After seeing dances here I have to agree!  The dances here are much more animated and exciting.  The only downside to the Caxingi dance was that the AC broke in the gym and it got uncomfortably hot in the room.

 

Dance Class Rocha and Axé February 22

Later on in the week we were invited by a friend of ours to go to a dance class in downtown São Paulo.  This particular dance studio was two stories and bigger than I expected.  They had several classes going on at the same time.  That night however was a special class directed towards the music of Arrocha and Axé.  Axé is a music originating from where I served my mission in Bahia.  Basically it's a blend of Afro-Caribbean music like Reggae, Marcha and Calypso.  Arrocha on the other hand is a music that originated from the interior of Bahia, and although recently emerged has gained popularity quickly.  Both dances are choreographed dances, (line dances) instead of a more flexible couple dance.  It was definitely a cool experience, for example Anders and I learned the dance moves to a popular song called Camaro Amarello.  After a couple days though, I have to admit I forgot everything.  There's just no way to remember all those specific moves without practicing them on a regular basis!

    

Black Dog: Where they make hot dogs like a champ February 18th

As we were asking people for recommendations we came across the restaurant on Avenida Paulista known as Black Dog.  No they don't serve 'black'hot dogs however, the name indicates to some degree the ferocity and size of these bad puppies.  You could say Black Dog is the Burger King of hot dogs as compared to burgers.  Yup they come with fries and a drink.  There's a couple of similarities and dissimilarities when comparing American and Brazilian hot dogs.  I would say that Americans are a lot simpler and favor less variety when it comes to hot dogs.  However Brazilians like to experiment, mix things together.  Besides using corn, it's not to uncommon to find batata palha (small crispy potato fries), mayonnaise  and even a type of mashed potatoes.  So when I got the king sized hot dog from Black Dog, it was quite a challenge to eat the whole thing.  I could literally compare the experience to going to McDonalds.  You go to McDonalds because you want to get stuffed, but by the time you finish the meal, the grease, the fat catches up to you and you find yourself a couple fries away from the finish line.  Was the hot dog good? Yes! Would I go there again?  Only if I were super hungry....

Helping out at the SRE February 18th

Although we didn't have any career workshops planned for the week, we went to the main office and helped out with many of the workshops that were being taught by Jozzi another career workshop teacher.  On Wednesday, our teacher was running a little late so Anders and I stepped in to cover her absence by teaching her class.  One of the dynamics we always like to do is called the jogo do empregador, (game of the executive and worker)  It's a simple game where 5 people sit down on chairs that are pointed inward making a circle (with one empty chair) On the outside of the circle are 6 people, each one standing behind one of the chairs.  In the game the people on the outside or the 'excecutives' of the company try to restrain their worker (the person sitting in the chair in front of them) from leaving to go sit in the empty chair.  The only way a worker can move is if they receive eye contact from the executive with the empty chair.  It might seem little confusing at first, but basically the game reflects on the importance of staying alert (as a worker) and seeking out the many opportunities/promotions that are out there....or so we tell the class and those involved in the game at first.  The game actually has a hidden player which is a person who walks around the circle of chairs and who desperately tries to get eye contact with the executive with a job opening.  When we explain at the end of the game this hidden player, and ask why none of the executives looked at him to 'offer' him a job, all of them respond "I didn't know he was playing!"  We then explained to them how in the work field many times we miss out on opportunities not because we are not qualified or because we are not trying hard enough, but because we have failed to promote/advertise ourselves effectively to companies, executives who have the power to offer us good jobs (through resumes, job interviews, declarations of power, me in 30 seconds).

São Paulo Soccer Game February 16th

With the Staudium of Morumbi 5 minutes from where we lived, there was no way I was going to miss out on a game while visiting Brazil.  Brazil is pretty much synonymous with the word Soccer around the world.  It's one of the main topics of discussion among all Brazilians.  If you ever visit Brazil though, there's a couple of rules and things about the soccer that you need to understand (for your own safety.) While it's true that it's completely normal for people to walk the streets wearing soccer shirts for their team, be very mindful of the shirt that you wear and where you our in relations to territory.   It might seem like I'm exaggerating the danger, (I probably am)however, if you wear the wrong shirt in the wrong bairro or worng situation there's always the possibility that you could be mugged.  Take for example, the four main teams of the city São Paulo Coríntios, Santos, São Paulo and Palmeiras.  Each one is pretty much rivals and whenever there is a game between two of them there is heavy police and security.  Fans of Coríntios, notorious for their violence and a common enemy among the rest of the teams, were last year prohibited from entering ANY football stadium besides their own due to a incident in a world soccer game.  

And so recently, I had the opportunity to go to one of the soccer games at the morumbi, where São Paulo played some obscure team.  Happily São Paulo won 2 to one against the team.  On a more epic game I heard that the fans are much louder. Even then, the fan base were pretty energetic with everyone up on their feet and someone playing some big drum that sounded eerily like the one played in the Fellowship of the Ring by the orcs (Don't take that the wrong way, I wasn't comparing São Paulo fans to the orcs).  I guess at the end of the day I was happy that my first soccer game in Brazil ended without any incident.   

Ibirapuera Park Febuary 14th

Whenever we ask a local, "so what do you recommend that we see while we're here in São Paulo?", almost without fail everyone responds the Ibirapuera Park!  According to the reliable source of Wikipedia, the park is one of the largest in all of Latin America.  It's a place where you can do leisure walking, picnics, play soccer, admire art, and go biking.  I've often heard the park compared to the Central Park in New York, and while it's not as big, you definitely wouldn't want to walk around the whole thing.  When I arrived with some friends of mine I was happy to find out that it was only 5 reals to rent a bicycle an hour.  Which I have to say is a really cheap price compared to the 15 that I payed for in a smaller park in Salvador, Bahia.  And so with our bicycles we took off around the park!  At one point it was interesting to see a huge undercover section where hundreds of skateboarders were practicing their flips and tricks.  Apparently because of it's many features and popularity the Ibirapuera Park has turned into a Skate Boarding heaven for many.  Going at a good pace it took around 20 minutes for us to get around half of the park.  There were plenty of statues and even animals to look at as we rode through the many parts of the park.  And I have to admit I couldn't help thinking, wow this would be an awesome place to have a picnic date.  And sure enough all over the park we saw many couples making out.  And so is the Ibirapuera Park worth checking out?  That's a definite YES!!!

 

Feijoada February 12th

If there's a food that I'm going to order take out in heaven, it's going to be feijoada!  As I mentioned earlier, feijoada was served at lunch for the last day of the camp out.  The dish is considered a national dish and a favorite by me!  For instance, if LDS wards have chili cook offs, it's comparable to wards in Brazil that raise money for youth camp outs by sponsoring feijoada cook offs.  As the legend goes, feijoada came from the slaves and plantation workers in the Northeast regions of Brazil.  Although slaves were given only rice and beans to eat, on special holidays owners would give bits of the least-desirable cuts of pork (skin, snout, ears, feet, belly) to add to their dish.  Eventually people discovered that it actually made a delicious meal and in the 19th century was urbanized in the restaurants of Rio de Janeiro.  or so the wide spread legend goes.  The same story I heard multiple times while I was serving as a missionary in Salvador, Bahia.  After some research I discovered that the legend is false.  According to some of the culinary historians such as Carlos Augusto Ditadi, feijoada originated from Portugal, where similar dishes like the cassoulet turns out to be cousins, with the main difference being the black beans (as used in Brazilian feijoada).  Just as a warning to readers, feijoada while very delicious is a very heavy meal which takes time to process well.  I wouldn't recommend playing any sports after eating feijoada.  Additionally if not prepared carefully, it can lead to some serious fevers and unpleasant side effects.  For instance, a good number of the youth who went to the camp out (including me) got pretty sick for the next few days.  However, it's hard to tell if the sickness was because of  the food or simply because of excessive partying and staying up late every night!

 It's my opinion that any Brazilian dish improves its flavor when it's accompanied by good pimenta/hot sauce!

Last Day February 12th

Everything that has a beginning has an end...


And just like that the 5 day camp out came to a close.  The last day was like the others, some played basketball, volleyball  while others relaxed at the pool.  For lunch they treated everyone with a special meal called Feijoada (I'll go a little bit more in depth about this food on the next blog.)  Because of its very heavy and filling nature, a lot of people hit the beds for a while after eating the delicious feijoada.  To close two final events took place.  A very special baptism of one of the youth that was attending the camp out and a final picture slide show with some words by the leaders.  While the baptism we attended was done at the pool side, the sun and small space for a large crowd forced everyone to watch from under shade (or two or three stories higher up from the dorms).  To beat the traffic that was sure to clog the streets from people getting back from the beaches after the Carnival weekend, we decided to leave early.  As a result, it took us less than 30 minutes to get home as opposed to the two hours it took us to get here.  You could probably imagine that everyone getting home was completely exhausted.  Just to get an idea of how much these people like to party, we got wind of an dance that was going to be taking place that very same day at 8:00 as an unofficial camp out reunion.  Well even though Anders and I were tired, we decided to get a ride and go to the dance.  What we thought would be one short car trip turned into a hour long ride getting lost in the outskirts of São Paulo and subsequently missing the dance.  When a friend of ours finally arrived to lead us to the dance, the car broke down and rolled to a stop.  After an what seemed like a hour, two hour long wait, we hitched a ride to go to a food place where everyone had gathered together after the dance.  The place was called Ponte de Açai, a place where they sell bowls of Açai (an icream-like dish).  At that point we were definitely ready for our little adventure to come to an end!

- Anders and I pushing the car off the road












Arriving at the Ponte de Açai and meeting up with some friends