From the middle of the Atlantic

Hey Readers,

Sorry I’ve kept in you suspense since Carnivale – I’ve been busy with classes, friends, sunbathing and yoga. One of the professors on board is a yoga instructor and she teaches a class every night, so I’ve been trying to go at least a couple times a week

Here’s a brief summary of how I spent my last two days in Brazil:

The day after Carnivale I left with a group of friends to spend a few days on Itaparica Island. We ended up taking the wrong ferry and, while we still landed on Itaparica, we were on a strange part of the island. We asked a cab driver to take us to a nice hotel. The first hotel he took us to was decent but our impression of the neighborhood was that it wasn’t very safe. These were some people stumbling around, apparently drunk at 3 in the afternoon, so we kept driving.

30 minutes later we arrived on a better part of the island, where we found a nice hotel in the center of town. We were the only white people we saw the entire time; we were completely surrounded by locals, which was so amazing and gave me a feel for life in a small Brazilian village.

We walked around for awhile, trying to talk to some of the locals. There was a girl in our group who spoke decent Spanish, so with her second language, and with the locals’ second languages, we managed to piece together some understanding.

We ate a restaurant that was written completely in Portuguese, so we decided to take the safe way out and order “Pizza Portuguesa” – a pizza with ham and olives.

After dinner we found a tour guide – a little boy named Willy who was selling peanuts. After showing off his capoeria moves, he led us to an amusement park that had been set up for Carnival. A few of my friends went on the bumpercars, but I hung back and took pictures (which I’ll hopefully be able to post soon).

There were still some people dancing and singing in the streets, so we joined in, partying until about 2 a.m. when we finally went back to our hotel.

The next morning we woke up early and had an authentic Brazilian breakfast at the hotel. There was a lot of amazing fresh fruit, manioc (which I had heard of, but never even seen before, much less eaten), and some doughnut-type things that were ridiculously delicious.

We walked to the beach and spent the entire morning there until it was time to catch the ferry back to the ship.

When I got back, I went out with a few friends to look for souvenirs – I didn’t find much, but I really liked walking about the Merchant’s Mercado, which was full of handmade clothes, paintings, and sculptures. I was tempted to buy a painting because they were beautiful, and incredibly cheap, but it would have been awkward to travel with when I get back to the States.
That night I went out to dinner with a huge group of SASers. The meal was all-you-can-eat for 45 raels per person (about $25 US) and the food was incredible. The guys were blown away by the quality of the steaks, and probably had 5 or 6 a piece. I don’t like steaks but I tried rabbit (it made me sad, but it was really delicious), chicken heart (only a tiny piece – it really just tasted like regular chicken meat), lamb (which I still don’t like) and a number of sausages from parts of animals that I don’t want to think about. In addition to the meat, they had an amazing salad, sushi and seafood bar. My favorite was a squid salad made with vinaigrette.
I had pineapple ice cream for dessert, garnished with papaya.

The next day was our last day in Brazil, so I went out and walked around with friends again and went to the Angolan Capoeria school.

My original impression of Capoeria was that it was very fast, with lots of gymnastics and upper body strength, like breakdancing. But at this school, they were practicing a different method of Capoeria that was much slower and much more controlled.

When I watched them, I thought it looked easy and I was unimpressed by the initial display. I wanted to see some fighting. But then they made us try it, and I realized how incredibly strong you have to be to exert that much control. They were able to roll up into a handstand effortlessly and hold it as long as they wanted – it took me 5 minutes to find my balance before somersaulting forward and nearly breaking my neck. By the end of the hour, I was sweating profusely, and the next day I was sore everywhere.

After the trip, it was time to get back on the ship. Everyone was back on the ship by 2130 so we were able to leave earlier than expected (we were scheduled to leave at 2300).

Now we’re somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where, according to the bridge report, we’re on top of 5,000 meters of water and surrounded by something like 3,000 nautical miles of water in all directions. It’s actually nice feeling being so isolated from the world.

We had our first Global Studies exam yesterday, which was a big ordeal. Everyone was up late studying for it. I haven’t gotten my grade back yet, but I’m fairly confident I made an A.

I still love all of my classes, especially Fiction Writing. I wrote a story for the class that I might post on here, if I refine it enough.

By the way, thanks to Steve for posting my pictures of Brazil  I can only transfer 50 MB of data or my internet minutes will be automatically cut off.

My luggage never arrived in Salvador, which was a bummer, but fortunately I found someone who has the same type of camera as I do, and he agreed to let me borrow his charger in exchange for a pizza at the snack bar.

Anyway, I have a class in about 30 minutes that I should probably start preparing for (I’m still in my pajamas).

Xoxoxo.