Carving Pumpkins: YAAAAY!!!

I bought my own pumpkin! 

Yesterday, October 16, some American friends invited the Brazilian students to carve pumpkins with them! When they new we had never done this before, hey got crazy and said we had to have this experience. Personally, I was pretty excited because I always saw that in movies and was curious about how I could do my own! Besides the fact that Halloween is not traditionally celebrated in Brazil, we do not have this kind of pumpkins, ours are much smaller. They just told us to get our own pumpking and one of them would come to pick up us at Polo Club, the condominium where we live.
We did not know how to pick a goog pumpkin for carving, so we asked for help in Kmart and one of the guys who work there told us how it should be: fresh. When we arrived at Sarah's house, we covered her living room with old newspapers because we did not want to make her wood floor dirty. So the

American guys gave us some sharp knives that were essential for cutting the pumpkin appropriately. They just told us to be careful because we could get hurt if we did not pay attention to what we were doing. My pumpkin was quite big and I realized it would demand a lot of work. First of all, I had to cut the hole above my pumpkin to clean it all inside. The one I chose was really heavy, so I thought it would have a loooot of things inside and I would fill a whole bucket. But no, it is heavy not because it is full of seeds and bud, but because it is thick. After cutting the edge of the pumpkin, the guys told me to take off everything that was inside the pumpkin with my hands. When I touched it I said aloud: IIIILLLL! hahahhaa.

The feeling reminds me of something gross, it has a wet and jelly texture and it does not come out easily. So, they gave me a spoon for me to use to my force to yank it all. It took a loooot of work and I was becoming tired and bored when the guys told me it didn't have to be 100% clean, that mine was 90% and it was enough. So I put my perfectionism aside and began drawing the face I would carve in my pumpkin.

Then one of the Brazilian girls said I am "a little devilish kid", so I decided to carve a devil. And this is my final pumpkin!!! What should we do now? Light them up, take them to the dark backyard and take pictures! Above you can see some pictures of all the pumpkins together and on the right one of my pumpkin alone. At first, everyone told mine could have become better because the eyes were too small. And I said; guys, wait until it is lighten up and you will see. And then they all get impressed and said mine was very beautiful in the dark! After taking many pictures of our pumpkins in the dark, our pumpkins replacing our heads and etc., we went indoors again to talk, eat pumpkin cookies, baked pumpkin seeds, popcorn, chips and lemonade and to watch the horror movie The Shine. It was hilarious the way everybody felt scared and how the girls screamed! hahaahahahahha I wish I had recorded it! One of the girls told us that they use to make many things with Pumpkings as coffee, brad, cookies and I was pretty impressed! Now, I finish this post hoping that Halloween brings much more scary and funny experiences! And now I have to look for a costume or to create one myself!

Tips: fair or unfair?

One thing I did not like in American restaurants: giving tips. Ok, I am not a mean person, I just was not used to it. The only situation in which we give tips in Brazil is when we park our cars in the street (not a parking place), and we give some money for those guys who offer to keep guard over the car or the motorcycle. So, we explicitly agree in giving tips.
In US you have to give it everywhere you go, except for some fast foods.
Waiters do not earn a full payment as in Brazil, so most of their money comes from tips. And everybody knows it is not mandatory, but you feel bad when you do not give it because it seems that you are not giving the waiter/waitress the money they deserve. A good consequence of tipping is that all of them are soooo polite, nice and talkative!
They do their best to make you feel good and satisfied and, as a consequence, give them good tips. And some people say that if you do not give tips in the first time you go to a restaurant, the next time you go there the same waiter may not be so good to you. The normal wage for the tip is 15% of the final bill, but if the waiter is really good, some people give 20%. Once an American friend posted in her Facebook that she had earned a 60 dollars tip. And I was like WHAAAAAAAATTTTT???!!! What did this girl has to do? What I have learned with this experience is that if I am helping those people who really work hard standing up for long hours and serving people being as much nice as they can, why not rewarding them for a good level or service? Some of them are still in college, can you see how they have to work hard in dealing with classes,  homeworks and the restaurant hours?! These guys definitely should be rewarded.

The weather

Copacabana (Rio de Janeiro) and rainy season

In Brazil we do not have the fours seasons throughout the year, we have only two: the summer and the rainy  season, which is hot too. On summer everybody likes going to the beach, getting tanned and doing outside activities as playing sports. In the rainy season, however, it rains a lot and in some cities which are not prepared for that there are huge floods which destroy poor's houses. That is sad, but it happens every year.
When I arrived in Athens, on July 31, it was still summer. The city was sooooo hot and I could not believe how a person, who comes from a hot place, as I do, feels bad in another hot place! Even though in Brazil it is always hot, we do not feel we are inside a microwave as I did in US. People say it was because of humidity: you just begin to walk outside and you are all sweaty. And what did I do? I drank a lot of water and lemonade, used sunblock, sunglasses, hats and comfortable clothes! And I was really afraid of getting sick because inside every bulding or car we had air conditioned and when we went out we had that temperature shock.

Picture taken in COE - UGA

But hopefully summer is over now. We are in the Fall season!! I really really LOVE it! It is so romantic! Seeing the wind dragging the leaves, people using sweaters, scarves and boots... Sometimes when we wake up it is raining and then we wish we had that special person we left in Brazil to lay down and hug! It is also when it begins to get colder and colder  and now I remember I have to buy scarves and a pair of leather gloves  because I don't have any! On Fall, sometimes it gets rainy and wind, and it all begins suddenly. Last week hopefully I was covered by the bus stop because a heavy rain suddenly began and people in the middle of the streets got all wet and they went to the bus stop squeezing their clothes with their fingers! Poor guys, I was so sorry for them!
Now I am really excited about the winter. I have never ever seen snow in my whole life and I really would

Times Square on New Year Day

appreciate if there were snow in Athens. A friend of mine told me that this year we probably will have it because it is getting colder in early Fall! Yaaay! On December I am travelling to New York for the New Year Day, so it will be very cold in Times Square and I am sure there will be snow there! I am not used to cold weather at all, but I really like feeling all these American unique experiences, having the American way of Life. Now, another reminder for myself: I have to buy a thicker winter coat otherwise I will be freezing in NY!

Party up with Americans!

In the first week of classes we had orientation about many issues related to College and to International Students Life. It was organized by Leigh Pole and the World Learders, which are undergraduates and graduates who volunteer for helping and teaching us many useful things for our everyday life in Athens. The first Thursday of the semester, as they say, they traditionally go out to party up in Downtown and then they invited us to go to different bars and dance clubs.
The very first thing I noticed when I got to downtown was that people do not stay in the same place for the whole night. They like walking around, going to different places and having different types of drinks. In Brazil,  however, we have to pay to enter clubs and some bars, so we normally stay in the same place for the whole  night. Also, we have parties until 6-7am and if it is a rave it may last until noon of the following day. That is crazy, isn't it? In Athens, everything closes at 2:30am and I always have the feeling "I want more!". But this is because Athens is a city for students, and many of them are under age. As they drink much more and get very drunk, if places do not close early, they say that "kids get crazy". And that is completely true because I have already seen people about to pass out in the middle of the street.

The World Leaders invited me to a sort of "pre-game" in the apartment of one of them and there were many jelly shots with vodka and rum. They were good, but very dangerous because you do not taste the alcohol, then you do not realize you are getting drunk. After that, we went to Sideways, Buddah bar, 90's and The Loft. The last one was the craziest place I have ever been in my whole life!! I was really shocked with the way American guys danced there, and they call it the booty dance! It consists of a very sexy and provocative dance in which the woman gives her back to her partner and shakes her ass in his penis. For me, that is almost the sexual act and in Brazil the girl would probably be seen in a bad way. Guys and girls were very much drunk, the hip hop music was loud and most of them were black or asian folks. Can you imagine the scene? In Brazil we dance face to face, but usually we are not that provocative. And I have seen people booty dancing in other dance clubs, so this type of dance seems to be a common practice among Americans.    Also, women dance together to call men's attention. I was in the nineties and four of them were dancing in front of us. Personally, I thought there were lesbians and were about to kiss each other, but then my American friends told me the intention was to be noticed by men. And I said: ok, I think I'm gonna dance by myself.  

American food

When I arrived at USA, the first thing I noticed was the differences between Brazilian and

American food. Actually, I realized that american food is spicy and does not have a lot of condiments because some people have allergies to some of them. If you go to the house of an american family, the food will have a better taste because they know which condiments they should use in order not to affect anyone of the family. But in restaurants the food is different, they avoid using them and, to make up for that, they use pepper and other spicy things, as jallapeños. After some weeks I really missed Brazilian food, as Feijoada, but then I really got used to american food. Once I went to Picadilly, a pretty nice and cheap restaurant at Georgia

Square Mall, I ordered spaghetti and meatballs and they were not spicy at all. Then I asked for pepper sauce immediately. I think I got addicted to it. =D
Another different habit in America is fast food. In Athens I have gone to many of them as Wendy's, Burger King, Italian Beef, Five Guys, papa Johns, Domino's, The Grill, KFC, Chick-fil-a and Subway and they are pretty cheap if you take their prices in Brazil. For example, a combo is about $5 without tips. In Brazil, we do not eat fast food that much (we

 are healthier) and it is much more expensive. In McDonalds, a combo costs R$ 15,00. It is not a happy meal at all! But a pretty good place that I have gone is Outback. I LOVE it not only because it has a very good food - I ordered well done ribs, smashed potatos, blooming onion and their delicious black bread - but also because it reminds me of home. I felt so homesick! And guess what? The manager said he didn't even know there were Outbacks in Brazil! It's crazy, isn't it?
But let's go ahead. One thing I HATE about American food: he didn't

even know there were Outbacks in Brazil! It's crazy, isn't it?
But let's go ahead. One thing I HATE about American food: Peanut butter and cinamon, which is not that much used in Brazil. OMG, once I saw a girl in the bus, early in the morning, eating banana with peanut butter and I almost shivered from head to toe! I Love donuts but, unfortunately, some of them have cinamon all over it. When I do not realize that before buying it, I do my best to eat them, but sometimes I really can't.
The last thing I noticed is that people eat frozen food a lot, specially if they are young. I know it is cheaper, easily preparable and you do not lose that much time in cooking, doing the dishes and so forth. But I think some of them are not healthy at all, even when they have "No Fat" or some information like that. On the other hand, fruits are more expensive in US. That is probably because they are imported from other countries. So, if you want to stay thin, healthier and pretty, you have to spend more money on food!

Opening the travelogue!

Hi, Folks!!

This is my first post and I am preparing myself for the exchange experience in USA.

So, I will frequently post my experiences so that, at the end of december, I have a travelogue with the most important and relevant things I learned (related to the culture, the language, the research and other interesting issues).

I am going to study at University of Georgia (UGA) and develop a research about multiculturalism in a school in Athens. The first part of the research consists of working with students from Monteiro Lobato School, at Fortaleza. They will have contact with some american students and then we will studies their cultures. The last part of this will be carried on in USA.

The other people involved in the project and me will soon have a blog specifically constructed for the project. There we will have access to all the products of brazilian students and their comments about it too. As soon as i can I will share the electronic address of that blog here.

I'll bring news soon...