I recruited two friends from high school to accompany me as we jolt from small beach cities, to world-renowned urban planning achievements, to postcard peaked cliffed landscapes, to epitomizing quaint colonial cities, to uber contemporary capitals, to western frontier one horse towns, to even further western frontier no horse towns, to Eco-tourism nature reserves, and finally to the aortal megacity that drives the country; all while partaking in debauchery along the trail. That's the easy part, the hard part is saying goodbye to the city and friends and students I've made. Brazil has a way of captivating people unlike no other. It's no coincidence that you or probably someone you know has a friend who has packed up and moved to Brazil after falling in love with it on a trip. The people, the nature, the culture are all mesmerizing in their own right. I certainly have been taken under it's charm. After soul searching, and decision changing, and arguing with myself I eventually decided that I'd come back to the states. My students and friends all tried to convince me to stay, making persuasive arguments but to no avail, I could not be swayed.When asked as to why I'm leaving this seductive country, I say my return ticket was too expensive to be wasted, I say I'm homesick and I miss my family and friends, I say I'm sick of Brazilian TV and food, all truthful reasons but not really quite good enough to appease my students and friends. I guess the real reason is despite all the friends I've made over the past 10 months, and as hard as I've tried to delve into the culture and people of this world, and though I've made a place for myself in this world but I've never truly felt at home. Perhaps it's the lack of Jewish humor, perhaps it's the lack of El Salvadoreans and Peruvian chicken, (go figure) perhaps its the lack of Andy Rooney bickering on my television every Sunday night, but all these little factors combined to push me over to the side of returning to the USA just in time for Thanksgiving. (no cranberries here in Brazil.)
So this week I've undertook the bittersweet task of saying goodbye to my students and teachers who have really made my time here in Floripa worthwhile. I ate a delectable lunch with my Portuguese teacher Dona Valda on Wednesday. She insisted I drink a beer at lunch, and we enjoyed a salad featuring carrots, lettuce, avocado, tomato and a Brazilian vegetable called xuxu, topped off by vinegar. The main course was a beef casserole that she pretexted with a disclaimer that it had been the first time she'd ever made it. The meal was capped off with a chilled banana served with a sugar cake doused with a sour grape sauce. The meal left me drowsy and I fought to stay awake during our subsequent class. My classes with Dona Valda helped me to smooth out many of the rough edges Portuguese creates.Valda lived in Germany for 35 years, raised a family there and only recently came back to her hometown of Florianopolis. She instilled upon me that during her time in Germany she felt many of the dual contradictory feelings of the loneliness of being a foreigner mixed with the fascination of a new culture.
The day continued with a guitar lesson with my teacher Leo Garcia. I met Leo my first week in Floripa when I stumbled into his classroom at the local university. We played a few tunes for the students to demonstrate improvisation. Afterwards we exchanged information. It wasn't until July when Leo could take me on as a student. We mostly worked on Bossa Nova guitar these past few months. Every week Leo would challenge me with a new song. You can all expect a concert when I get back. Our last lesson was spent running through all the songs we had learned over the course of the semester. Samba de Uma Nota Só, Samba de Verão, Wave, Corcovado, Chega de Saudade, Aquele Abraço, Insensatez amongst many others. Leo is a great teacher and an excellent player. He also speaks English quite well, but we generally relied on Portuguese during our lessons, with the exception of the occasional expletive.
My city tour was finished off by my final dance class which was spent dancing with 15 year old teenage girls or 45 year old MILFs and not anything in between. I'd been taking ballroom dancing classes with the anticipation of meeting friends and taking advantage of my time in Brazil. The classes were fun and my teachers, Tatiani and Raphael were a passionate duo of lovers. We danced a variety of styles but my favorite were Forró and Samba de Gafieria. I left the class just as my hips started to thaw through the thick dense ice that being a Caucasian North American has congealed upon them for 23 years.
Then I began saying goodbye to my students.My students took me out for a going away party last night. We went to a fancy restaurant in a neighborhood called Santo Antonio de Lisboa, a traditional Azorean neighborhood located on the northwest side of the Island. They explained the fish heavy food we ate such as moqueca, and pirão (a paste made of all parts of stewed fish including the eyes, heads, and poop.) We recounted dramas of the school, and gossiped about the staff. My students have all adopted Nicknames during the semester. Baiana was a TOEFL student I taught at a breakneck exhaustive speed over the past two months. We called her Baiana because she talks very slow, she's lazy and she's always late. But in actuality she's one of my brightest students and she's a unique girl who is trying to become a jewelry designer. In fact we made a bet, and we wagered one of her pieces. Tulião is a sponge. Any slang, term or new vocabulary I throw at him he can regurgitate with the utmost of ease. He gives me a ride home every night after class and he insists that I practice Portuguese with him. He's easy going, and welcoming. He's one of the best friends I've made here in Brazil. He's even said that he'll invite me to his wedding.
Barbie Pimp is perfect. To give you an idea, generally my group of 4 Mechanical Engineering students scidadle their way out of class leaving a trail of dust behind. The other day Barbie Pimp showed up early and the 4 guys lingered around and I had to mop up the drool off the floor. She's a civil engineer who is applying to schools in the states for her Doctorate. She's going to be riding the crest of the wave of green engineering. Her catch phrase is, "It's perrrrrfect" The combination of her and Tulio in my class is like a pair of co-hosts from a children's afternoon program.
It's hard to sum up how great of a work environment the school was and the only shame is I didn't spend the entirety of my time here in Brazil working at it. I really learned a lot about Brazil through my students and I was in contact with some of the brightest minds this country has to offer. (although most of their hard drives are filled with soccer and sex).
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