Around here, restaurants don’t fill up until about 9:30 pm which we’ve adapted to very well. However, the one thing I can’t seem to get over is the incredibly late hour that things/events/classes seem to last during the week. I’ve tried to remember and in grad school I’m pretty sure I didn’t have any night classes that went past 8:45 pm. That didn’t mean I stopped working then, but the structured class was over. Here, I have friends teaching and taking university courses that last until 11:00 pm every night.
This was all brought to mind last night as we listened to the rehearsal performance taking place at the Cathedral. This week marks the performance of the Passion play held outside the Cathedral for Holy Week. It is a really great performance. We went last year.
We learned last night, though, that we really don’t need to actually walk the four blocks to the Cathedral to hear it. Practice began at about 7:00 pm with a gentleman say “Oi” into the microphone about 150 times to test the volume. And oh, was the volume good. It literally hurt my ears as we sat in our apartment.
It is only one time a year, though, so no big deal and the music was actually pretty good. It wasn’t so much the sound as it was how long the practice lasted. At 11:00 pm we thought for sure it was over only to hear them break into song at the crucifixion scene. It was almost 11:30 pm before things quieted down.
Now this isn’t a play rehearsal in a school auditorium, mind you. I have no doubts this thing could be heard from miles away. We are talking LOUD.
I wasn’t quite sure if we would go this year, but assume we’ll probably make our way down there on Friday night. It was a great performance last year, but also standing room only and difficult to see even with the elevated stage.
It was a bit….hmmm, what is the word…busy. People are chitchatting and moving around. There is a guy selling playground balls on a string, and food vendors. This is, of course, is strange to us since we fast and abstain on Good Friday, but it just goes back to that Lent discussion we had about 40 days ago. Anyway, it just made it a bit hard to concentrate on the true meaning of the event.
My camera isn’t the greatest at taking night photos so I walked down to the cathedral today to snap some shots of the stage. They were busy at work getting things together for the big event.
7 comments:
Hmmm... that sounds actually like a perfect Brazilian experience. Too loud, starts an hour late, a little disorganized, half the crowd distracted by something else, someone selling something in the crowd trying to make a little extra money! Totally Brazil.
We also notice what early birds we are relative to everyone else. I'm in my pj's when my neighbors are on their way out to their night classes and we never hit the busy "happening" hour of restaurants, etc.
That Cathedral is quite something though!
The latest I ever had class in the U.S. was until 10pm. I'm a night owl myself though so I fit right in this culture. :)
I saw a HUGE Passion Play when I was in Brazil. We walked miles following it around. I'm not religious but it was still so cool!!!!
lovelydharma - Ha, ha! You are right, it does sound like the perfect representation of a Brazil event. Yeah, the Cathedral is the most interesting and beautiful spot in the city for me.
Kyle - So cool that you got to see that. I'm pretty sure I know which one you are talking about (although maybe there are more here than I think). I looked into it last year and it sounded so amazing to follow the event like a moving theater.
I have noticed that since Sidnei has been home, he and his family have been keeping LATE hours. I thought at first that was just because he was home, but it seems to be a pretty regular occurence. To which I responded with, you know I like to sleep? If he trys and talks to me past 11, I'm dead to the world on the phone! Haha, but maybe that'll change if I can sleep in!!
Oh and I acutally had classes in Utah (undergrad) that went until 1045! But it was one night a week and started at 745! (It was KILLER after working all day!)
Haha, it's true. We brazilians go to bed really late. There are exceptions, of course. But generally we go to bed late. We also have dinner very late. In my home in Brasil my parents go to bed around 1 am (I did too when still lived there), we would have dinner around 9 pm sometimes 10pm... watching the news, haha.
Wow, I miss those times...
Here I still go to bed late, but not as late. I learned to have dinner around 6 pm, and go to bed around 10 or 11 pm. It's hard though, my mind keeps going and most of the times I rolling in bed and take forever to fall asleep.
You know what bothered me when I first started living in the US? The time bars and clubs close! I remember the first time I went to a nightclub and it was 1:30 Am and they were shouting it was time for people to leave! I was so frustrated! In Brasil people start getting to bars and clubs around 10 or 11 pm and leave at 4 or 5 am.
Now it doesn't bother me anymore, I don't even go out much...hehe
Oh, I left you a comment in the "Respect" post.
Stephanie - I guess I was in the minority with my early classes. Ha, ha! I couldn't imagine paying attention that long after working all day!
Nani - I actually prefer being a night owl. However, when I started working and having to get up at 5:30/6:00 am I quickly started getting to sleep about 10:00pm. Ha, ha! I am one of those people that thrives on something closer to 9 hours of sleep each night. :)
Funny you mentioned the bar thing. When I was in college in northern IN the bars stayed open until 4am. Then we moved to KY where they closed at 1:30. We couldn't believe it b/c we usually didn't go out until 11 either. Like you, though, my goin' out days have pretty much come to an end, at least going until all hours of the night anyway. :)
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