Boa tarde amigos e amigas! Tudo bem? How are you all? It is super-dooper hot here, like way hotter than it was last week, and it is showing. Despite my desperate attempts to stop tanning by applying and reapplying the factor 25 cream, I am browning every day. By the time I get to Turkey, I will probably look like a Turk!! I hope the good weather will last until the end of the week, because I really want to use the weekend to explore a bit, and if it´s raining, I will feel inclined to sit on my bed with a packet of biscuits and a book all day. Oh, which reminds me, they have that disgusting Aquarius drink here, and the same bizarre strawberry-cream biscuits as I found in Malaga airport......so in many ways, a Spaniard would feel right at home here! They really like their sugar here - everything is immensely sweet, and you can feel your teeth rotting. The juice they serve in the morning for breakfast in the Pousada is freshly squeezed or blended fruit, diluted with a lot of water, and then shedloads of açucar is added. WHY???!! Fruit is sweet enough on its own here. Arghhhhh! And I went into the supermercado to buy some snacks, really hoping to find some crisps or something salty, but couldn´t find anything other than biscuits, and some salty crackers that remind me of the ones we would eat out of desperation sometimes in India. It´s really weird. One thing I wanted to try here was the food from the street vendors, particularly acarajé. It´s like a falafel, but its made of beans, shaped into a big ball, the size of your hand, and fried to death in palm oil (which stinks). The ball is then split open and filled with mashed up shrimp, some peanut paste and other stuff. Sounds good, except firstly, I have heard that sometimes they don´t take the tails of the shrimps - there is no way in hell I am eating prawn shells. Secondly, if something is greasier than the samosas from Shahanshah, then I am going to have to say no, or there will be dire consequences afterwards. Henceforth, I am going to pass the Baianas sitting on the curbside selling the oily delights.
On Monday I went to the extra dance class in the Pelourinho, at the Diaspora school. It was really awesome, way better than the classes at school. We warmed up for ages, and then, a drummer started to beat out a rhythm on the drums for us to dance to. Every now and then, he would speed up because he felt like it, and we would have to perform the movements we had just barely grasped at warp speed. It was seriously tiring, but it was a lot of fun, and because it was open to anyone and everyone, it felt more real and authentic than the class at school. The dance was pretty much Afro-Brazilian, so some Candomblé and Axé moves. I think I will be well and truly prepared for this year´s Notting Hill Carnival! The next class was yesterday, but I was way too tired to go. I think the rise in temperature and humidity and all the walking I have been doing has taken its toll, and I feel exhausted by the end of the day. I shall endeavour to attend the Monday classes though, and then do the Wednesday and Friday classes at school. That´s enough exercise and dancing for one person!
The night out in the Pelourinho on Tuesday (fiesta night!) was ok. Met up with Steve, Malik and others and went for a quick drink at the Bahia Café first, before moving to the streets. But, pretty much everyone has been zapped of energy, so by 11pm, we were saying our goodbyes. The music and the atmosphere was pretty good though, but I feel that it would be a lot more enjoyable if you really appreciated the music and if there weren´t so many people begging or trying to sell you something. Ah well, its a touristy place, so it cannot be helped.
I also managed to wash my clothes - hurrah!! All by hand, because the laundry services/launderettes here are pretty expensive. Thus, my hands were pretty wrinkly and sticky afterwards, but at least I have clean clothes!
Today, in an hour or so, there is an excursion from the school to Forte de São Marcelo, which is some sort of fort in the mar (sea) and that we get to by a 15 minute boat journey. I would really like to go to the island one day (there is a big island across from Salvador, with the best mangoes in all of Bahia), but the journey is about 45 minutes and the sea looks pretty rough, even on a good day, so I don´t know if I will be able to handle it. Apparently, on the weekend, there was an excursion to Morro de São Paulo, which takes 2 hours to get to, and because the weather was really bad, all the students got given a bucket as soon as they boarded the boat. Hmmmmm, gross!
Oooooh, this weekend is the final of the Copa America, with Brazil versus Argentina!! We are going to go to a bar to watch, because its going to be awesome! There aren´t many opportunities to watch such a big game in one of the countries participating! I may buy a Brazil football shirt in preparation! Adeus, blogreaders!
On Monday I went to the extra dance class in the Pelourinho, at the Diaspora school. It was really awesome, way better than the classes at school. We warmed up for ages, and then, a drummer started to beat out a rhythm on the drums for us to dance to. Every now and then, he would speed up because he felt like it, and we would have to perform the movements we had just barely grasped at warp speed. It was seriously tiring, but it was a lot of fun, and because it was open to anyone and everyone, it felt more real and authentic than the class at school. The dance was pretty much Afro-Brazilian, so some Candomblé and Axé moves. I think I will be well and truly prepared for this year´s Notting Hill Carnival! The next class was yesterday, but I was way too tired to go. I think the rise in temperature and humidity and all the walking I have been doing has taken its toll, and I feel exhausted by the end of the day. I shall endeavour to attend the Monday classes though, and then do the Wednesday and Friday classes at school. That´s enough exercise and dancing for one person!
The night out in the Pelourinho on Tuesday (fiesta night!) was ok. Met up with Steve, Malik and others and went for a quick drink at the Bahia Café first, before moving to the streets. But, pretty much everyone has been zapped of energy, so by 11pm, we were saying our goodbyes. The music and the atmosphere was pretty good though, but I feel that it would be a lot more enjoyable if you really appreciated the music and if there weren´t so many people begging or trying to sell you something. Ah well, its a touristy place, so it cannot be helped.
I also managed to wash my clothes - hurrah!! All by hand, because the laundry services/launderettes here are pretty expensive. Thus, my hands were pretty wrinkly and sticky afterwards, but at least I have clean clothes!
Today, in an hour or so, there is an excursion from the school to Forte de São Marcelo, which is some sort of fort in the mar (sea) and that we get to by a 15 minute boat journey. I would really like to go to the island one day (there is a big island across from Salvador, with the best mangoes in all of Bahia), but the journey is about 45 minutes and the sea looks pretty rough, even on a good day, so I don´t know if I will be able to handle it. Apparently, on the weekend, there was an excursion to Morro de São Paulo, which takes 2 hours to get to, and because the weather was really bad, all the students got given a bucket as soon as they boarded the boat. Hmmmmm, gross!
Oooooh, this weekend is the final of the Copa America, with Brazil versus Argentina!! We are going to go to a bar to watch, because its going to be awesome! There aren´t many opportunities to watch such a big game in one of the countries participating! I may buy a Brazil football shirt in preparation! Adeus, blogreaders!
