Festas, Festas

Here it is August and I haven’t even taken the time to post about this year’s Festa Junina. Well, it was actually another Festa Julina this year because it was postponed until July. We actually had two separate celebrations.

The first was at the English school where we celebrated the 4th of July last year. This year the teacher wanted to do something a little different so it was a bingo party. Yes, they have bingo around here, but something a little more festive was requested and I found a fun game set when I was last in the U.S. so I brought it back for the event.

My husband was on call duty and I was responsible for selecting the numbers. A job for which I was reprimanded, I might add, because I didn’t shuffle them enough between number calling. I quickly stepped up my game, though. Wouldn’t want to disappoint an eager crowd as there were some pretty good sweets at stake, I must admit.

We were also the audience for quite the concert as three children at the school sung Bah, Bah, Black Sheep in English. It was great!

The second celebration was a party where my husband works. It is typically only for employees, but as seems to be the custom with the gringa, I was the exception so I was able to attend and experience it. It was actually quite a celebration, much different than the party we attended last year, but still with the same great food. I did my best with the costume, but I wasn’t about to rent a dress so I was bit of a tomboy caipira for the occasion.

For the food there was a pastel stand, pinhão (from the araucaria tree), pipoca (popcorn) and the sweets that are common at these types of events, namely paçoca (peanut candy), one of my favorites! (And just as I’ve written that I realized that all those foods start with “p”. Just a random thought thrown in there. Sorry.) The pastel (deep fried pastry, this time filled with ham and cheese) was nicknamed an A4 because that is the name for a standard size of sheet paper. They were huge!

The group danced the quadrilha and I say "the group" because I was conveniently on camera duty. Not that I don’t like to dance, but I’d rather snap photos at these kinds of occasions. This dance is comparable to square dancing in the U.S.

It was at this point that I couldn’t help but start humming – rocky top you’ll always be home sweet home to me… It seems many cultures have their version of this. I wonder where it originally started.

So our last Festa Junina/Julina was a lot of fun. Not being the type to enjoy dressing up I won’t miss that when June rolls around next year, but the pinhão, paçoca and pastel are a different story.

Cathedral on Corpus Christi

Thursday was an exciting day around Maringá. In fact, I even planned my last trip to the US so that I could be back for it. It was the feast of Corpus Christi. This isn’t something we are used to celebrating much in the US even though we are Catholic. After a little research I learned this is because in English speaking countries the holiday is often celebrated on the following Sunday and not on the actual day.

Well, it is huge deal around here; bigger than Easter if you judge by the crowds around the Cathedral. What makes it even more an intriguing event here is the carpets that line the walkway in front of the church.

Before moving to Brazil we had seen a documentary based in Ouro Preto where this same practice took place on Easter weekend. We were disappointed to learn that this wasn’t common on Easter here, but then learned about Corpus Christi.

My husband and I were discussing on Thursday that we don’t know what the actual word for the creation is in Portuguese. In that documentary they translated it to carpets so that is what we have used to refer to them.

People were up early on Thursday morning. We heard that they start the night before, but this wasn’t the case this year. I’m not sure if we got false info or if it was because it had rained the previous night.

We went out early because we were curious about how these beautiful carpets were constructed from the beginning. We learned that they start on a piece of paper where often the group in charge has already drawn out the design.

Then for most of them, words and designs are lined with colored yarn, often black. After that, things like salt, sand and wood chips that have been blended with colors are used to create the picture. It looks to be a tedious job that takes a lot of time even with 4 or 5 people working on each one.

The carpets are left there for the day and mass takes place about 3:00pm. After mass, there is a procession along the carpets with the Eucharist. The whole day we wondered what happened to the carpets after the mass and realized as we drove back from dinner that night that they are simply left there to dissolve into the road and nearby ground. Papers and sand were all over the road where the beautiful carpets lay early in the day.

It is kind of sad to see all that hard work go to waste, but I’m not quite sure what you would do with them anyway. All I know is that they were certainly an amazing site to see as they were being created and completed throughout the day.

This was my husband's favorite.

This was my favorite.

I don't think this guy really had a favorite. He was sleeping through all the action.

Easter Weekend Recap

Some days are marked by a small gesture that makes the experience of living abroad even more rich. These are the moments when your appreciation for a stranger and their effort to make you feel welcome are overwhelming. Saturday was a perfect example of such day, a moment and a stranger.

After a lunch of stuffed potatoes, my husband and I were walking back from the mall. We passed this small beer shop which we have walked by multiple times before. It’s not really a restaurant or a bar. It is a place where you can get Germania beer in bulk, as in buying it by the keg for a party.

The small shop sells souvenirs and they do have the beer on tap so we threw caution to the wind and stopped in to order a chopp. As we were looking around the store, a gentleman, which I assume was either the owner or a manager, came up to give us something.

He presented us with two Easter eggs and a hearty “Feliz Páscoa!”

This wasn’t some commercial candy egg or plastic toy. This was an actual egg shell which had been drained, painted and filled with candy; in this case, sweet peanuts. My husband’s coworker had told us that this is a tradition carried on by some Brazilians which originated in Germany.

The eggs were beautiful and this was probably one of the most authentic gifts we have received while living here and it came from a complete stranger.

He talked with us about where we were from by first asking me the question – are you German? The conversation went on to the difference between cerveja and the chopp we were drinking. Apparently our chopp was the unfiltered variety that has a shelf life of only 12 days.

We’ve had Germania on tap at restaurants and it hasn’t been our favorite, but this glass was tasty. It was faintly similar to the unfiltered, unpasteurized beers we’ve had the opportunity to try on our various brewery tours during travels.

I have to say the whole short, unexpected experience was the highlight of our holiday.

The rest of the weekend focused more on chocolate. My husband received a Cacau Show truffle from a coworker that just happened to be graviola flavor which is a fruit from the Amazon region. I doubt this was anything like the actual fruit. I’ve only had it in juice form and it really lacked any flavor, but sweet. However the truffle filling had a flavor that seemed to be a combination of melon and citrus.

While we were at the mall prior to our beer stop, we decided to join the action at the Cacau Show store. The line was about 30 deep before we had lunch, but we came back to find only a few people remaining so we decided to wait it out and see what they had left in the store.

We didn’t get the egg filled with hazelnut cream that everyone raves about here, but we did get an egg filled with individual hazelnut truffles. I’m banking on the fact that it only has about 3 truffles in it, but it was only about R$12 so I’m not so concerned about it. We were both satisfied that we had at least made some effort to celebrate Easter with something Brazilian.

Unfortunately, between the other Easter candy I brought back from the US in March and other treats received we just didn’t get around to trying the truffle egg. We are going to save it for next weekend so we’ll see what surprises we find inside.

Picture Post: Amazing Easter Moon

We decided to watch (and listen to) the Passion play from our apartment last night instead of walking down to the Cathedral. About a half hour before the show the moon started to come up and it was absolutely amazing.

My camera is notorious for taking really blurry, bad pictures at night. However, these pictures turned out okay. You can see the moon, but it definitely doesn't do the scene justice. I have never seen the moon look so large and with the Cathedral in the view it was breathtaking.

On a related note, I'm getting a new camera soon. Our DSLR arrived at our parent's house last week so I'll get it in May! I'll be so glad to have it for taking better pictures around the city.

I've already had lots of fun Easter adventures this weekend, but will save them for posts next week. God Bless and Happy Easter!

This Week’s Big Event and Late Nights

Through my travels and ex-pat experience I’m beginning to realize that as a whole USAmericans are the least of the night owls in this world. I mean, we have our cities that never sleep and people who work all hours of the day, but in general we do our evening activities a bit earlier than other countries, especially Brazil. Dinner typically falls somewhere between 5:00 and 7:00 pm. Most of the people I know who have a standard, away-from-home day job strive to go to sleep around 10:00 or 11:00 pm.

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.

Display Awards

If there were awards for supermarket displays I have no doubt that Maringa would win. Who knows, maybe there are such awards and I’m just not aware of them.

I’ve never seen so much effort put forth to display such common items. For example, brooms.

Most often I am amazed that someone has taken the time to do all this work and I’m even more amazed when I got back two days later and the display is gone. The supermarkets here are an environment that is always changing.

I will say I get a bit nervous when I see a display such as this made of wine glasses. Especially as three unsupervised children run by. A bit of an accident waiting to happen and I’m secretly hoping I’m never the one to cause it.

Speaking of displays the eggs are up! Remember these? All those chocolate filled Easter eggs on display high above your head at the stores.

I had the opportunity to watch a guy putting them up the other day and let’s just say my senses will be a bit heightened from now on as I walk under them to get to the cheese. Something about a single wire and heavy metal bar that makes me a bit anxious, but the eggs are light so that is a good thing.

There is a reason the eggs are light and this is because there is barely anything in them. Last year I posted about how excited I was to try them only to be disappointed with my 6 chocolates. What was so funny was that my friend here told me she was going to warn me about it how disappointing the eggs were, but then decided I should learn for myself.

Oh, I learned. This year we will be saving money and just buying a box of the regular chocolates and pretending they are wrapped for Easter. However, my disappoint and future chocolate shopping plans make the egg displays no less impressive. Always something entertaining around here.

Lent?

Okay, so this is one of those posts that is also a request for information. There are a few things we’ve encountered recently that I don’t quite understand. Perhaps there are some really simple explanations or perhaps it is due to huge cultural differences. I don’t know, you tell me.

Let’s start with the facts. The Catholic population in Brazil is 85 to 90% depending on your source. This is a place that I consider VERY Catholic. I mean, Catholic holidays of the church are recognized as national holidays. The US is about 22% Catholic, again, depending on your source. I am part of that percentage which is why I am pondering the following issue.

Last week was Ash Wednesday, which means we don’t eat meat and we also take up this practice on Fridays throughout the rest of Lent. Or do we?

In the US, despite the lower number of Catholics, about this time of year every fast food restaurant around starts advertising their fish sandwich, cheese pizzas start getting special and seafood is much more noticeable.

However, around here (Curitiba, actually, although Maringa too) every person I saw on both Wednesday and Friday last week had a big slab of meat in front of them. Only one restaurant menu I saw even featured a fish option. My husband started talking to a coworker at lunch who was dining on red meat. He said he was Catholic, yet offered no explanation as to why he wasn’t abstaining from the stuff.

Now, I understand the idea of being a certain religion, but not practicing it. Many people I know would consider themselves in this situation. I also want to make it clear that I’m not making any kind of judgment call. I really don’t care if you eat meat on Friday and you are Catholic. That is your business, not mine, although I personally choose to abstain.

I’m just curious as to whether we have simply encountered the 10 to 15% who are not Catholic in this country, or if these Lenten practices really aren’t that big of a deal in Brazil. Do the majority not follow the church here? Is it just because Brazilians love red meat so much? Or maybe it is very different in different areas of the country?

I’m all ears. If you have knowledge, experience or opinion on the subject, spill.

The Perfect Gift

I get a lot of towels. Hand towels to be exact. This seems to be the gift/prize of choice around here. I’m not exactly sure why. It is a nice gift, however, I have received them on the most random of occasions.

The green one was given to me at the Arabic restaurant in town when we decided to go there on what just happened to be International Women’s Day last year. It is kind of an odd feeling to have the waiter present you with a gift as you pay the bill.

Another I received at the gym. After my Body Balance class the teacher announced she had a gift. We all lined up, she closed her eyes and called a number. The person who was that number in line got the gift. That person was me and the gift was a hand towel with a pharmacy logo on it.

My most recent towel was given to me just last night. We headed out to have sushi. As we paid the bill here came my towel. I have no idea what the occasion was last night. IWD isn’t until March 8th this year. It was our 12 year dating anniversary, but I doubt Toyota or the restaurant knew that. Maybe they think we are in the market for a car since we always walk to the restaurant.

Thinking about it, it is a nice gift and a good way to market, I guess. I don’t know how cost effective it is considering the prices of towels here. It’s your typical double the price of the US for half the quality. However, at least we can use the towel, can’t do much with an ad flier.

My Vegas Top 10

I love traveling to Las Vegas. This trip over New Year’s Eve was my 4th trip out there and it is likely that, once we get settled back into wherever we are going to be for a while, it will become an annual long weekend trip for us.

As I wrote the above statement I was reminded how thankful I am for affordable domestic flights in the US. Long weekend trips are a true option, unlike our unfortunate experiences with the pricing of domestic Brazilian flights.

I’m not sure what it is about Vegas. It is overrun with tourists, a bit tacky in areas, morally questionable from time to time, but it is just so….alive! All those bright lights are energizing! Not to mention that I absolutely love perusing all the beautiful hotels appreciating the creativity (and money) that goes into their decoration.

We aren’t big gamblers, just a few penny slots or some black jack machines here and there. Despite how much I would like to be, we aren’t fancy diners either. We usually plan one nice meal each trip then we stop here and there weighing the cost versus the quality and quantity of food. Sometimes it is a food court sometimes it is one meal at a buffet for the whole day.

This was a first trip there (or anywhere) for New Year’s Eve. We stayed at TI this time which is more north on the main strip. It was pretty tame compared to what I was expecting. I was actually a little nervous being out there with all the people.

We went to see the Cirque du Soleil show, Mystere, earlier in the evening then hung out in the casino. About 15 min before midnight we headed out to the strip. There wasn’t any audible count down. We just started hearing people cheering and fireworks going off. It was kind of like, “Well, I guess it is the New Year.” Then we went back into the empty casino and waited for the elevator line to thin down before we headed up to bed.

Sounds boring, I know. But for me, it was just about perfect. Well, except it was cold. Man, I had no idea it ever felt that cold in Vegas. Bring your tights or your long pants ladies!

So why do I love it so much – you got me. Every time I go out there I can only describe it as a lot of fun, so I just keep going. I thought I’d compile my top 10 favorites (not really in order of preference) from the area and maybe it will help me figure it out.

1. Bellagio fountains. I could stand and watch them all night.

2. Bellagio botanical garden inside the hotel. It is amazing what they can do with flowers.

3. The Palazzo hotel. This is the new tower for the Venetian. I loved their casino and the fountains inside were impressive.

4. The lions at MGM Grand. If you are lucky you can watch them play with the trainers. Otherwise they are pretty lazy, but still fun to watch.

5. The Cheesecake Factory and Grand Luxe Café (Yep, that’s fried chicken and waffles).

6. Watching the Bellagio fountains while eating at Mon Ami Gabi in Paris Las Vegas.

7. Getting off the strip and seeing the mountains as we drive around.

8. Bulmers/Magners cider at Nine Fine Irishmen in NYNY.

9. Stampede Penny Slot. We won $50 bucks one night which now makes it our new favorite.

10. Friendly people. For some reason, I remember staff and servers being pretty unfriendly on our last visits. I tossed it up to it being a huge tourist area. This time people seemed so overly friendly. Maybe it was some left over Christmas spirit.