i reread my post about differences the other day and i realized i missed ALOT of differences that need to be addressed:
**their coins frustrate me. they are all different, two different coins for the 10centavos, maybe three different coins for 5centavos. this makes everything much more difficult when trying to look for change fast.
**Bugs. I know I have complained about this before but still. I sleep with my Off Spray. There is a time at night where we have to close the windows and bare the heat because of the mosquitoes. Right now, i just got attacked! by them (have around seven on one leg) but the "good" thing is that they usually last one day, usually.
**There is a brand of bags called Kipling, kinda like our Vera Bradley. Apparently its in the US but i have never seen it. Everyone has it, boys, moms, teachers
**Whenever i say that i am from the US, i always get, "I have a nephew's-neighbor who has a cousin that lives in Boston who just recently moved to Orlando." A lot of Brasilians are in Boston or Orlando. Why there? No clue. Especially Boston casue its realllllly cold there.
**everyone rides motorcycles here. everyoneeeeee. (always with helments too, alwayssssss) they are always in front of the traffic, zigzagging through cars and trucks, driving on the sidewalk, dangerous. but atleast they have helments, right.
**I have met very few people that have visited the Amazon. It is so far away and expensive and i think they would rather be on a beach somewhere then being eaten away by mosquitoes and possibly anacondas
**their milk is different. it's warm. until you open it, you can leave it sitting out, forever. my maid judges me because i dont like having my ceral with warm milk. i try to explain to her but she is just like, "you are crazy." and you never drink it. i miss having an ice cold glass of milk at dinner. they dont have that here. i tried to drink it here and its soooo grosss.
**alot of people here think that the Black Eyed Peas are the best band, ever, in the world. I have been listening to "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling" since i got here.
**There money is reallly coool! they are alll different colors and have animals on the front, because of their love for Amazon. the hundred reais (which i see allllll the time ;D) is a baby blue with a fish; fifty reais is yellow-orange with a jaguar; the twenty reais is yellow with a monkey; the ten reais is red with a parrott; the five reais is purple-blue with a beauitful bird; the two reais is blue with a turtle. (the one real is a coin)
**there are shoes here called Havaianas which are just flip flogs but EVERYONE wears them but you cant wear them out. I wore them to the movies with my brother (they matched my shirt) and my brother yelled at me "Ariana, you just wear those around the house, at the beach, or at school.")
**They are IN LOVE with Brasilian Soap Operas and evyerone watches them and knows what is going on. I know twenty-year old men that watch them RELGIOUSLY. "Passione" and "Ti Ti Ti"
**I have seen lizards in my home that crawl on the walls. And they are welcome guests! Becasue they eat the mosquitoes. They are not welcome within 4meters of me.
**Whenever i say that i am from Pennsylvania (in português, its spelled Pensilvânia ..it sounds much more beauitful) but they ask, "Are you a vampire?" Cause they think of Transylvania! "No, I am not a vampire, you can look at my teeth."
**everyone writes in cursive.
**They use the period and comma in different places than we do. For example, if you have $7.60 ..here you would write it $7,60 causes some confusion especially when we get into higher numbers.
**There are no canned food. None. I never realized this until a few weeks ago. They dont need canned fruits or vegtables becasue everything is so fresh. Imagine having fresh pinapple whenever you want, or juicy mango, or tomates whose skins are so tight. i.love.brasilian.fruit.
**hammocks are everywhere. you dont find a house without a hammock. i have slept on my hammock before (and woke sweating cause i was without air-conditioning)
**much like the US, every state/region has a SPECIFIC accent: the northeast speaks very slowly almost liek singing; the north (amazon) the indians have a different langauge and some dont speak português (its considered a different world up there); the south speaks more português of portugal, more formal; Português of Rio de Janerio is SOO ugly, its a lot of "shhh" sounds, i find it soo ugly; my state of Minas Gerais gets made fun of a lot because we say "uai" (in english its pronounced exactly as "why") it has NO definiton, dont look this up in your dictionary (ive already tried) you say this whenever/however you want.
**Brasilians are ALWAYS late. always. Class starts at 7:15, teacher doesnt get there until 7:20. Party starts at 7 ..the host of the party goes to the store at 7 to buy food and drinks. i remember my first brasilian party i told my mom that it started at 6 and she asked, welll what time does it reallllllly start. at first, this bothered me SO MUCH becasue i am always on time, and/or early. but i find myself slowly becoming like them. ariana, we are leaving in an hour. ..okay so that means i dont have to get ready for another hour.
..i'm sure as time goes on..theree will be more differences
or there will be differences of "estados unidos" that will completely blow my mind
