Pouso Alegre

February 14-16

Friday

The fish was verrrrrry good! Best fish so far in Brazil.

My bud Tiago is from the city of Pouso Alegre. When we made it to the bus station there Friday evening, his parents were waiting for our arrival. For dinner, his mother fried some fish that his dad had caught. It was really good! Tiago's dad enjoys fishing. Tiago also has an older brother, who arrived early Saturday morning via a bus from São Paulo. The planned itinerary for the weekend included: riding bicycles, going to Mass, the birthday party of Tiago's cousin, futsal, and a trip to the cinema!

Tiago's Family: Henrique, Marlene, Tiago, Ranulfo, (Me)

Saturday

Tiago and I rode bicycles throughout the city this morning. After walking downtown to get the second bicycle from his dad's dentist office, we proceeded to the other side of town where there was a park. The park used to be a zoo, but now it's just a nice place to visit and spend time. There is also a plant/flower area, but it was closed-off when we visited. 

Pine trees from back home.

Escoteiros (Scouts) in the park

Tiago and I playing on the animal props.

After a great morning workout of biking across
the city, we returned to the house and had lunch. 

After resting and cleaning-up, Tiago and I went to Mass. 

It was pouring rain when we arrived at the church,
and I had wet socks during the service. 

The church was called Igreja Matriz. It was big, impressive, and looked like a basilica. During communion, I partook in a custom I had never done before. The people who received the Eucharist dipped the Host in to the Chalice, rather than dividing the Host and Chalice in to two separate processes. It was really interesting to partake in, and certainly a cultural take on the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In my past experiences and up until this point, I had not attended a Catholic Church in Central/South America where the chalice was offered to the parishioners. Only the host was distributed.


Following Mass, we returned to his house where we picked up the rest of the family and headed to the birthday party. On the way, we stopped by a store and bought a present for the birthday girl. When we arrived, Tiago introduced me to his aunts and some of his cousins. It was a big family gathering, with lots of laughter, loud talking, and good food.

Churrasco! (Brazilian bbq)

Before...

After

 Tiago's cousin, Maria Fernanda, was celebrating her 18th birthday party with her boyfriend, family, and an American. Haha. The food served at the B-day party was delicious! Churrasco (Brazilian bbq), yakissoba (Japanese noodle dish), and bolo (cake).  I was very grateful for the invite and for the way Tiago's family treated me.

The artist herself, in front of some of her paintings.

While at the party, I saw a nice painting on the wall of the house that had the same signature as a painting back in Tiago's home. I asked about it and learned that one of Tiago's aunts painted. The paintings were her works. I met Fatima, who lived upstairs. She showed me more of her work: sketches, drafts, and paintings she has completed. I was very impressed and inspired to paint more myself, after seeing all that canvas.

I particularly liked this one!

I tried beer that night too. I don't remember if I had actually tasted beer before, but tasting the two different Brazilian beers reaffirmed my belief about the bitter, bad taste beer has. If I had to choose between soda and beer, soda would always win out. Although neither is particularly a healthy choice, why not choose the one that atleast tastes good and doesn't dim your senses? But I digress...

This night, time went back an hour.

Sunday

After a delicious breakfast, I had a good conversation with Marlene, Tiago's mom, about foods and typical meals in the United States. I showed her some pictures of food from Cracker Barrel and McAlister's. I also had to mention my beverage of choice- sweet tea! Later, Tiago, Marlene, and I went to the Serra Sul Shopping to go see a movie at the cinema. We decided on Hercules, and I understood most every part of the film (it was in Portuguese). I'm sure it helped that I was already familiar with the Greek mythology and story behind Hercules, but also it is not so hard to understand movies because of what you can read in people's body language and  certain situations. We shared a big bag of popcorn that came with two complimentary chocolate candies: sonho de valsa (a very popular Brazilian treat).

Unfortunately we were not able to find any futsal games to play in over the weekend, but right before our return trip to Itajubá, Tiago broke out his pair of roller skates. He used to rollerblade a lot, and he showed off some of his moves their in the street in front of his house. I skated around some too.

Bolo de milho: a simple corn cake
(almost like corn bread)

I tried some new food during my stay in Pouso Alegre:  Feijoada & Bolo de milho

Feijoada: a type of black-bean & meat stew.

That night we went to the bus station to head back to Itajubá. We boarded the bus to find that one of our seats was occupied by a young woman. Rather than inconviencing her, we went to another pair of available seats. However, the person who was assigned those seats soon boarded the bus after, and then we went back near the front to ask the girl to move. Oh buddy, someone had an attitude! [snap the thumb and index finger while waving the arm in the "z"-pattern] Tiago was polite when he approached her, but she wasn't hearing it. I did not catch every single word, but I got the gist of her reply...something like: "We're all going to the same place aren't we!? So who cares where we sit?" So we left her alone up there and went to the back of the bus, near the toilet. Now keep in mind that this was the last bus out of Pouso Alegre for Itajubá, which means the toilet had been used earlier throughout the day. Needless to say, our ride home was quite fragrant. I stuck my nose out of the window like a dog. Haha.