Sharing the knowledge

The past few days have led to improved lanuage compotency, provided some cultural insights, and brought more feuding with the maid. None of the below are scientifically validated or empirically cited but I think they are plausible observations worth passing along:

- I´ve learned the lyrics to happy birthday in portuguese.

- São Paulo has the largest population of gays in the world.

- Women greatly outnumber men in Brasil, especially in Fortaleza.

- In my opinion the above two statements account for why machismo remains so strong in this country (in addition to a long history of habit). The demand is great and the supply is low. One example of this disparity is the Brasilian phenomenon where it is okay to kiss 4 to 5 people during a night out, which often includes female friends fighting over the same man. No thanks!

- But men from Argentina are even more macho according to my very biased Brasilian sources. Apparently the men in Argentina are much better about opening doors and letting women off elevators first BUT they also (gross generalization to follow) feel entitled to any woman they want anywhere. I knew an Argentinan guy once and he wasn´t aggressive, but he definitely thought he was a very special gift to all women. Whether it is true or not the cultural rivalry between Argentina and Brasil is very amusing.

- A majority of Brasilians are born in December, about nine months after Carnaval - a time known for "freeloving".

- Southern Brasil, especially São Paulo, has a LARGE Japanese population. Today while reading a Brasilian magazine designed for people of Japanese heritage we learned that in Japan, during the summer, kids don´t eat ice cream or drink soda to cool down. They frighten eachother. Santomi, the Japanese student in my class, confirmed that this is true - again, only when it is warm. She says this partly accounts for the intense like of horror films in Japan. Ahhh....

- I grew up with a mom who always talked about how great it was to have maids. She was WRONG! My aunt´s maid and I can´t stand eachother. It isn´t all her fault, she makes $650 reais a month - a little more now that I am here. That is for about 25-30 hours of work a week. For that much money I don´t think I´d deliver a pizza, much less clean toilets, cook, and iron other peoples clothes. Since she doesn´t make that much money she often talks on the phone, invites the doormen up for lunch, eats all my good paçoca. I was fine with that until I learned that my family was paying her more to work more and that she said she couldn´t work as hard with how much I talk to her. Hilarious! Since I´ve verified this isn´t the case she´s stopped washing certain articles of my clothing, she doesn´t clean my room, she uses my phone charger, she buys the stringy tasteless mangos. And my aunt assures me she is much better then others. Despite her pathetic wages she has all the power. She has been my aunts maid for 17 years, I can´t complain about her or make her unhappy. I may sound like a paranoid conspiracy theorist but it is TRUE - she has declared war on me, in all the ways that an underpaid exploited laborer can. At first I was plotting my counter maneuvers, I was going to stop making my bed, I was going to take my phone charger with me, I was going to hide the paçoca. But alas, I´ve decided to take the higher road. I´ve actually never done this before - not liked someone and been nice to them - so I don´t know that I`ll be any good at it. I´ll keep you posted. All in all, the fact that I am even considering it lets me know that being in Brasil is having a profound affect on my personality.

-I don´t know what I`ll be like when I leave here but I know for sure I won´t be the same person that arrived.