this funny place called life @carlyputman-blog - Tumblr Blog

AH I GO TO EL HOGAR TOO!!!

Ahhh really? How many times have you been? To El Hogar or to the farm?

Hi! I hope that you're enjoying SP so far! I was wondering if you would be interesting in participating in a research study for my professor at USP? She is trying to find Americans in SP that are native English speakers and learning/speaking Portuguese to write a paper on Language Acquisition with this specific contest. The study is all online and you get paid R$30 for doing it! If you're interested let me know and I can give you more information but if not that's okay too :)

Hey! Sorry I'm just now responding but I haven't had Internet for the last few days! But yes I'd love to participate!! thanks for asking me. If you want you can message me on here or email me ([email protected]) or find me on Facebook Carly Putman. Hope you're doing well!

vacationnnn/ferias

so last week was the final week of ILCP (intensive Portuguese) classes! Festaaaaa! Hey, it was fun while it lasted, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm usually pretty happy when a class comes to an end.

We have a week (well, less than a week now) of vacation time before university classes start on August 5th. So on Sunday morning bright and early I left with 7 other members of our group to head to a small beach town in the north eastern party of São Paulo state called Cambury. It was such a cute little town with, not to mention, GORGEOUS beaches. Very few people were there as "winter break" (July is winter here...I'm still always so confused by this fact) is just winding up.

We stayed at a very cute and simple pousada, which literally translates to inn, about a block or two from the beach. The rooms were shared between 2-3 people and cost $R 40 a night...about $20 USD for a simple beach house located a block from the beach, can you say deal of the century? Oh, not to mention that we were given breakfast every morning. Like I said, vacation time is just winding down in Brazil, so there was no one staying at the pousada with us and we had the whole place to ourselves. It was incredible to say the least. I also quite enjoyed being in the peace and quiet, away from the hustle of the city, and in a not very touristy location. It was nice to see a part of Brazil I probably wouldn't have gotten to see if I weren't living here. I hope to go to many other similar non-toursity places in the next year, and plenty of touristy places as well of course!

The group of people who went was also great and we had a lot of group bonding time sitting around outside on the beach, at the pousada, etc. It was a great few days.

I just got back to the very opposite culture that is the constant movement of São Paulo. Comparing Cambury and São Paulo is like comparing Grayton Beach, FL to New York City.

As soon as I returned I went to a meeting at PUC of all the international students. There were students there from all over...the US, France, Italy, Peru, Spain, etc. It was a cool experience, although I can't say I took full advantage of it because I was exhausted by my four hour bus ride.

I returned home to be lovingly greeted by the fam and Betty telling me that it is possible that 1-3 more students will be moving in to the house soon. I'm not sure how I'm feeling about this, but I guess it is her decision and she needs the money. I do, however, like my peace and quiet so I hope the place doesn't get too hectic. With that said, the house is in constant movement right now as well. Gabi is moving into the room with Betty so there is more room for the other student(s). Again, super confused by this situation but I'll update y'all when I know more. I don't know how I'm feeling....weird.

Anyway, I can't believe that as of tomorrow I've lived in the incredible city for a month! Time is flying, but luckily I have 9 more months to go. I've found my Portuguese to have greatly improved, I'm just missing practice! Luckily I get plenty of that every day. I understand the majority of everything that is said to me though..which is good since I'm starting classes in less than a week!

I'm really excited to start classes at PUC soon! I have chosen 8 classes to test out in the first two weeks at PUC and from there I will narrow it down to 3 or 4 classes for the semester, plus an additional Portuguese class at CIEE. I'll advise once I've picked my final class schedule for the semester.

As for the next few days I will be here in Sampa chilling out. Sleeping, eating, maybe doing some partying and enjoying life in the biggest city in South America. Can't wait to see where these next few days take me. Don't just me if it isn't out of my bed...

Tchau amigos!

Carly

dias feriados e tempo livre

Oi gente!

Today, the 9th of July, is a holiday in the state of São Paulo! That means everything is closed. Since my credit card is not working, my dad sent me money via Western Union, but the Western Union is closed today so I have to wait until tomorrow! Oh well, this is a day of rest I suppose!

Yesterday I finally got my Brazilian cellphone! It was a week of waiting and wondering if I would need a Brazilian ID number to buy it but yesterday afternoon was the day! I feel so much better now about being able to communicate with my friends here. No more awkwardly waiting on street corners wondering if/when my friends will show up. That sounds way sketchier than it actually is I promise.

This past weekend we went to the Centro Velho (the old center) of São Paulo. It was really neat, and very different from the places we spend most of our time. It was much more tourist-y. While there we walked down a street known as the 25th of March which I would compare to São Paulo's version of Canal street--aka fake stuff left and right. I've never seen so many people on a street in my life. It was really stressful and taxing, but I guess if we live in São Paulo we have to experience it once. After traversing the busiest street in the world we went to the Mercado Municipal, which is a big food market in the "new old center" of São Paulo. Again, I've never seen so many people in one place in my life. We had 10 minutes to walk around and buy anything we wanted. My friends and I went to a fruit stand and got majorly ripped off. Like seriously we paid $R 71 for 5 pieces of fruit...which is about $35USD. But, hey, it was good, fresh fruit and we got to try a lot of exotic fruits for free before purchasing. Anyway, we learned our lesson and I think we will just stick to buying fruit from the local markets from now on. We also ate lunch in the Mercado Municipal which was a very tradition Mortadela sandwich...a very giant, salty and interesting experience. That was our day in the city, and that night we all went out.

On Sunday we all went to a street festival in the Vila Madelena bairro, a very hip and cool place to go out. This festa was so so so fun. Tons of samba, great music and a great time all around! It was everything I had imagined Brazil would be. I hope to go to many more festas like that.

Now, y'all may be wondering what do I do in my free time here? That's such a good question because I myself haven't quite figured it out yet. I go to a lot of malls...that seems to be a very favorite pass time for most Brazilians as the malls are always extremely crowded. I know minha mae, Ester, really enjoys the mall as well. Other than that it is a lot of going to barzinhos and hanging out with friends in the group. It is generally pretty fun and relaxed which I love.

Nothing too interesting going on today for o dia feriado, but I think I'm about to get up and about and go to the mall...surprise surprise haha. Tchau amigos!