SAS Travelogue-Salvador, Brazil

SAS Travelogue-Salvador, Brazil

by Rebecca Smith

Olá from Brasil!!! OK, so what have I done here? Well, I have shopped, gone to the beach, and shopped some more. Every day we have gone to Pelourinho, or the old town section of Salvador or Bahia. In old town, you can shop or you can shop. It’s lovely and historic. The people are very nice but no one speaks English here. Some speak a bit of the other Romance languages, but no English. So I have been employing a mix of Spanish and Italian and the few Portuguese words I have been able to figure out. And still I have trouble. Most of the time they can understand me, but I have no idea what they are saying back to me. And a lot of people will just talk to you in Portuguese and keep repeating themselves after you tell them you don’t speak Portuguese as if eventually you will understand. I love that. It’s so funny. Anywho, so the first night, Shawn and Erin and Roy and I tried to go out dancing with a few of the RD’s and we took a half hour cab ride to a mall, and we got to the club and it was closed for a private function. So they told us to go somewhere else called Fashion, so we took a cab there and they wouldn’t let us in because Shawn and I were wearing flip flops. So first we tried to appeal to their sense of national pride. I said, but mine are Reefs. By wearing these, I am supporting the Brazilian economy and boosting trade for your country. Also, since I love Reefs, I tell other people about them. Thus, I am doing a service for you on an international marketing scale. That money pouring in from the US for these sandals is due in part to my efforts. The taxes that the Reef company pays helps support your social systems. Thus, my money and my efforts helped to build your country, so let me in to go dancing. This was not a successful tactic since he had no idea what I was saying. So we stormed around the parking for a minute, then tried a new tack. We attempted bribery. We offered to pay more money to enter. Pagamos mais. Pagamos mais a tu. Well, that was a no va situation as well. Finally, some other SAS students showed up with their Brazilian friend. They were also wearing flip flops, but their friend had an in with the bouncers and was going to try to work out a deal. Since he spoke Portuguese, it was a bit easier. Finally, the manager came out and was gonna let us all in, but one of the boys with that new group was wearing shorts and sneakers. Well, he screwed us all over. So we hung out in the parking lot waiting for another cab to come get us to take us home after our failed attempt at a night out. OH well. No bailamos. So the next day we went to the beach. It was an interesting experience. People walk up and down the beach trying to sell you everything from fried cheese to bikinis. Jewelry and something called capalinheas picoles, agua minerale, Coke Light, sarongs, and sandwiches all are pushed in your face in the attempt to entice you into buying any or all of the above. I, being the whitest of he white girls, reapplied sunscreen (waterproof, sweatproof, 8 hr, SPF 30) like it was going out of style, and still I got burnt to a crisp. I guess that’s what happens when you have a vampire-like pale complexion and are exposed to daylight for more than 5 seconds at 12 degrees away from the Equator. Thank God for Aloe!!!! So we went to the mall yesterday because we were all at least a little burnt and wanting to avoid sunlight and craving an air conditioned environment. We did a bit of shoppy shopping, ate a little Pizza Hut, bought some more junk that we don’t need, and discussed possibly going to see the new Harry Potter movie, but decided against it as it was dubbed in Portuguese. Then we went to the supermarket and bought coffee and chocolate. Yay for souvenirs from Brasil. OK, today we went on a cruise to the island of the two brothers (“Isle do Dos Frades”) and Itaparica. Beautiful, tropical, lovely. By the way, the Simpson’s is so right. Music is always playing in Brazil. The weather is HOT HOT HOT, with a 100% chance of Passion. You can take a conga line to anywhere you want to go. Soccer is an obsession here. And “I’m in Rio, and I’m walking on the beach, I’m in my Speedo.” Ewwwwww gross, Speedo’s are unfortunately the norm, and the rumor that Brazil is the land of the beautiful people is very false indeed. Rather, Brasil is the land of big, large, tubby people with an excessive amount of body hair and teeny tiny Speedos or dental floss and coconut shell contraptions that are called bikinis, but I think it’s a conspiracy. I wish I could be here for Carneval, maybe I’ll come back. I don’t know. It is beautiful here. Now, just because there are a lot of yucky people wearing unsuitable swimwear here, that is not to say there are no beautiful people. Au contraire. The men who do capoeira at this restaurant we went to, ooooooooh we!!!! If I could put a couple in my suitcase, well I would be a happy girl. My goodness, and what they could do, WOW!!! Amazing, I am signing up for capoeira when I get home. So awesome. OK, so today after we got back from the islands, we went shopping again, you know, to round off the day. Well, anyways, earlier, Randi (one of the girls going to the islands with me) was discussing how she wanted to take pictures of mullets in every country. Well, in a store there were these two guys with amazing mullets and they were just totally fabulous examples a weird guys anyway. They were talking to each other in some foreign tongue, and since we had yet to encounter anyone who spoke English, it didn’t occur to me that they might. So, despite being a quiet and reserved, demure young lady, I could not quietly let this opportunity pass. So I yelled across the store to Randi to come over (which was so against my nature). She asked why, so I told her there were some mullets she had to see (which is so obnoxious and unlike me). Well, another girl behind me was intrigued and asked where. Someone behind me said “right here” before I had the chance to answer. When I looked, I realized it was the two guys with the mullets. OH crap!!!! Well, no one spoke English when we needed them to, so when I least want someone to understand me, of course they understand me perfectly. If my face weren’t already red with sunburn, it would have been tomato red with embarrassment. In the end, Randi didn’t even take a picture, even though all the other SAS kids in the store did. It turns out the guys were from Iceland, and mullets are all the rage there, and they couldn’t understand why mullets amused us. Well, I wish Randi had taken the picture, since I sacrificed my dignity for it. OH well, maybe someone else has a copy. OK, that’s all from Brasil!!! Obrigada for listening. Ciao!! See you in Cuba!!!