Jun 8
Saudade: homesickness/nostalgia/bittersweet pining

…after lunch in Santa Teresa, we took the trolley back to downtown.  I sat on the edge, and this man was hanging on the side (the ride is free if you do that).  He was an interesting fellow… mulatto, with graying hair and wrinkles in his face that looked like they came from a lot of smiling.  He started whistling in a bird kind of way… flipping the notes up and down.  Then, when some children came up, he put his hand to his mouth and started up the same melody, but this time in a very good trumpet impression.  The trolley started, and he interspersed the trumpeting and whistling with an impression of a cat screeching.

At one point a little boy jumped on.  He was beautiful and seemed so free and content.  The strange man was quite fascinated with children, and this one especially.  He would poke or tickle him to get his attention, and then play his trumpet song for him.  And the boy had no problem with him.  He didn’t frown or act annoyed, he just laughed, and after a few minutes, jumped off the trolley to join his friends standing on the side of the street.  This would never happen in the us (the child would have, no doubt, been accompanied by some over-protective adult who would have turned the strange man in for pedophilia), and I loved that I was in that seat to experience it.

- Esther

June 15
Apertada: tightly packed

…From this museum we went to a train-station-turned-concert hall and had a guided tour (which was really very extensive and interesting) on its restoration and the creation of the concert hall.  This specific hall is known for its amazing acoustics because the ceiling is moveable and can be lowered or raised to fit the type of orchestra performing.  It was amazing to see, and I would love to hear a concert in there.

The tour was pretty long, however, and by the time it was over, the day was getting dark.  Now, the part of town where these buildings are is not the best, and it didn’t help that the subway station had just been closed for some technical reason.  We ended up walking around quite a bit, at night, in big crowds of people, trying to figure out what to do.  It was a little unsettling, although I actually didn’t feel too scared.  I guess because of the very fact that there were so many people around I didn’t think anyone would try anything.

We finally took a cab (apertada, of course) and got back safely to our hotel… only to leave in less than an hour for a samba concert.  I think, apart from being tired, we all enjoyed the concert, and now I’m inspired to get some samba cds and learn to dance to them.  It looks like so much fun.

The audience was probably one of the best parts of the concert.  We were literally in the last row (of a HUGE hall), so we could see everyone.  And they were really into it… a lot of people standing and dancing the entire time.  And people knew almost every song.  So there was a lot of singing along.  It was really interesting to see people our age so excited about the music.  Samba in the us is definitely not considered “cool listening” for young people.  As cyriaco says, music in the us is really compartmentalized, and I think he’s completely right for the most part.

-Esther

Jun 19
Provar: to try/taste

… today we spent a free day in ouro preto.  I love it here… maybe one of my favorites of the places we’ve been so far.  It’s fairly small, and very quiet.  All the streets are steep, narrow, and cobblestone, and the city is not only built on hills, but also surrounded by them.  Right now I’m sitting in the lobby of the grande hotel (designed my Niemeyer) looking out over part of ouro preto and the hills behind it.  I love how everything is packed in so tightly (apertada, again), how there are tiny alleyways and random doors everywhere.  Nothing is in a grid, so when you walk, you never know where you’ll end up.

… just wanted to note that we had a typical mineira dish (chicken in blood sauce) for dinner.  And it tasted quite good, surprisingly.

- Esther