American Cowboy vs. Brazilian Cowboy

Ahhh....so one new thing Ive learned since being away is that Im terrrrible at keeping up with a blog. lol. So much has been going on and I dont have internet in my apartment...and my laptop hasnt been working at work....so basically the only way I can update this thing is if I borrow someones computer, like Im doing now. Lol. And please dont pay attention to all the punctuation mistakes on here bc this is a Brazilian laptop and I have almost no clue how to use anything on it besides the letters.

Soooo.....some highlights from the past few weeks...there are so many it is difficult to narrow it down. For starters...I went to a wedding last weekend in a town about an hour from Taubate. It was soooo much fun, really. Most everything in a wedding ceremony functions the same here as in the U.S. None of the bridesmaids wore matching dresses....and they hired trumpet players and an opera singer to do the music during the ceremony. Afterwards everyone went from the wedding to the afterparty. The parents of the bride rented a big party place, complete with a dancefloor and bar. To get into the party they had bouncers with a list of names at the door and your name has to be on the list. You go in and find a table and they had about 20 servers that walk around giving everyone everything they need for the whole night. Beer after beer after beer after beer....etc. Lol. Then they had all kinds of traditional Brazilian finger foods (esfihas...coxinhas...etc) and after everyone was drunk and full....they pass around the cake.

(coxinhas, they have cream cheese and chicken inside)

These are esfihas...they either have chicken or beef inside and you usually squeeze lime juice on them as you eat them.

This is a Bolo Brigadeiro....a Brigadeiro cake. Brigadeiro is a very typical Brazilian sweet make with butter, milk, cocoa, and condensed milk. Its very sweet and usually eaten with chocolate sprinkles on top (like here). On a Brigadeiro cake, you place a layer of Brigadeiro in the middle of the cake and instead of using icing on the top, you use Brigadeiro. Its sooooo yummy! :)



The DJ played all kinds of music; American and Brazilian. They even played the YMCA and the Macarena, lol. We arrived there around 8 and didnt leave until close to 3 if I remember correctly. I danced and Samba-ed so much that my butt was sore the next day lol. It was sooooo much fun. I did have a hard time in deciding what to wear, though. The fashion here is so different...especially with women I think. Its very popular to wear black black panty hose with every dress...if you go out of the house panty-hose-less....people will stare. It doesnt seem appropriate to them...so I bought some black panty hose and wore a little black shawl thing around my arms.

Heres how the wedding was. Lol. Notice all of the funny headgear and glasses? They passed out some for everybody, along with flashing colorful icecubes to put into your drinks while you danced. Lol. Eventually the bride and groom put on funny wigs and boas and danced in the middle with everyone. 

Here are some typical outfits in Brazil for a girl to wear to a club, out on a date, or to a wedding. Something okay to do there that wouldnt okay to do in the U.S. (which I had to do for the wedding) is to wear black pantyhose with black heels with a black dress....I felt like I was going to a funeral, lol. Another popular thing to match is black and brown...you see lots of girls wearing brown dresses with black pantyhose and brown boots...and with gold jewelry. 

Here are some pics of  famousBrazilian girls wearing the black and brown fad.

This Friday I went to this hugggge festival (Expo Vap) in a city called Pinda (about half an hour from Taubate) that was soooo much fun. It was really interesting to see the differences between an American fair and a Brazilian fair. One thing I found interesting is that in Brazil, most allll of their fairs are during the winter time.....never in the summer. I guess since its scorching hot all year long....Brazilians really enjoy to be outside in the cooler weather. Apparently this has been the coldest winter theyve had in a long time....and the coldest it ever gets its like 60 degrees F, but I would personally prefer to be at a fair in the 100 degree weather than in the 60 degree weather. All the rides were the same....they have the egg scrambler and the ferris wheel and the swinging ship. Fireworks went off periodically.....I seem to be hearing fireworks allll the freaking time in Brazil. They love fireworks, lol. If their team wins a soccer game, they go get fireworks....for a bday...they go get fireworks....at the wedding I went to...fireworks....and then my students told me that the cops and drugdealers use fireworks to locate each other lol.


 Anyways...so there was this hugggggge food area in the fair with alll kinds of goodies that you never see at a fair in the U.S. One area was all sweets....with chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate covered coconut, this wonderful sweet called beijinho which means little kiss. Ah...so good. Then they have the hotdog and hamburger area....which are sooo amazing too. They put mashed potatoes, peas, and sliced carrots on their hotdogs and burgers....its amazing. They had another area for espetinhos which are meat shish-ka-bobs and then an area for chinese food, shrimp, and churros.
 O-M-G. crazyyy....good.

here is a typical Brazilian hotdog....or cachorro quente as they call them....you have corn peas little fried potatoes lettuce mustard ketchup mayo peas mashed potatoes and in rio de janeiro you put raisons and guine eggs as well. YUM!

Beijinho!!!! They are really little and really sweet. Made of sugar, condensed milk and lots of coconut.

These are Churros.....I think its actually a Mexican dish but Im not sure. They are like thick fried funnel cakes and they have a machine that pokes a hole in the middle and fills it with flavoured condensed milk (either chocolate, caramel, or vanilla) and then they sprinkle the outside with sugar. Sooo fattening but sooo good.

espetinhos!!! here they have chicken, steak, and sausage.

LUAN SANTANA!!!!

They had a really famous singer in Brazil named Luan Santana performing that night at midnight and I got to watch, and they had a big rodeo going on as well.

Here is a Brazilian Rodeo Cowboy at the EXPOVAP with his Brazilian flag.

Heres another pic taken from the EXPOVAP (you can see the stadium seating from this angle)

This is the concert arena where Luan Santana performed....around the sides the have stadium seating where people also watch the rodeos from, earlier in the day before the concerts.

Some Brazilian Rodeo Cowgirls at the EXPOVAP

 It was so much fun....omg...the place was so full that I had to climb up on the bars of the seating arena to see Luan. Check out the website....it has alll the pictures and everything....just click FOTOS.

http://www.expovap.com.br/fotos.asp
I was there 08 de julho.


This is a video of my favorite song by Luan Santana:

THENNNNN....on Saturday we had a Festa Junina for all the teachers and workers at my school. Festa Junina means: little June´s party. So the whole month of June people throw these parties which are basically just country celebrations (like farm and cowboy country). You eat a lot of traditional country food (typical country food of Brazil) and you dress up in plaid dresses and shirts with straw hats. Its really cute. The funny thing is that Brazilians like to party soooooo much....that even when June is over....they are still throwing these June´s parties. Lol. I got to the party pretty early....like around 6...and didnt get home until about 3. Everyone brought beer and food...there was soups and hotdogs...and different kinds of candy. The food is so delicious....I love all the June´s party food.

This is an old painting of a Festa Junina party. See the little colorful triangle flags? Those are usually hanging up at every Festa Junina party you go to.

Some Brazilian children dressed up in typical Festa Junina wear :)

Here are some Festa Junina sweets....they use a lot of condensed milk, peanuts, and coconut in most of the sweets here. They also serve corn on the cob, a green legumes and potato soup, and this really delicious hot wine (red and white) that they heat over the fire with cinnamon, clove, oranges, and apples.

Caldo Verde: the green legumes and potato soup

Hot wine!!!! Ive got to get the recipe before I come back because this stuff is amazzzzzzing.