A Praia (The Beach)—A place to find love, seafood, and…fighting?

Thursday, June 12, 2008


I thought I wouldn’t have anything to update about until tomorrow night or possibly the weekend, after some plans we have (more on that later), but tonight, randomly, proved me wrong. I love it when that happens! =)

First off, today (June 12th) is Brasil’s equivalence of Valentine’s Day, known here as O Dia dos Namorados, or "The day of those in love" and any other rough equivalent of that phrase. Brasilian couples have been out in full force for an entire week, making this single girl slightly bitter because of their constant presence jaja. But since you all are my loves, I’ll wish you all a Feliz Dia dos Namorados! =)

Anyway. Eliana, our host mother lady person (don’t really know what I would call her jaja) asked us today if we liked shrimp, and said that we would go to a "shrimp festival" at night for dinner. Hmm? That’s what I said (not to be confused with TWSS jajaja). But hey, I love shrimp, so I went along with it. It turns out it was a legit annual shrimp festival they have near Ponta Negra beach here in Natal, complete with reallyyyyy cheap and reallyyyy yummy shrimp dishes. There were tons of people there and there was so much variety in terms of food, it sucked only being able to pick one dish! If I can get this picture-in-the-blog thing to work, I’ll post a picture of my dish, Penne alla Vodka e Gamberi (shrimp, duh jaja).



I feel like this was a very cool, random event, something I would imagine stumbling across in Midtown Manhattan or something (like that food-tasting thing, Sam, remember??). And it also meant that we went for a drive around downtown Natal, where Eliana pointed out some good-looking nightlife places (you João Pessoa people ready???) and drove us along the boardwalk of the beach. While we were driving along, we heard some music, people singing and beating drums and tambourines. We stopped and got out of the car to get a closer look, and we found a big circle of people doing Capoeira right there on the sidewalk! It was really cool, especially since most of the Capoeria-ists (don’t know the technical term here, someone want to help me out?) were just kids, and could do aerials, tornado kicks, and spins on their heads (I might be exaggerating that last one jaja). We watched until it started to rain, fighting back the urge to whip out my camera and seem like a COMPLETE touristy loser, instead settling for sneaking a picture from my phone, which I hope to insert here:



It’s actually funny though, because as long as I don’t say anything and in general don’t move around too much (for my gestures are too American by now), people think I’m Brasilian. That’s happened to both me and Shanah more than twice, and it always makes me feel good because that means I’m less of a target for people looking to do harm to obvious tourists. Yeah, I know, that’s the first thing I can see that comes from that jajaj—I’m a New Yorker, after all! =P
Oh, and can I just say the Shanah and I also discovered a gym like two blocks away from the house and…jesus, why did I ever stop doing karate and get out of shape like this?? I wince in pain when I walk or even think about moving my legs—I am SOOO sore right now because Fabio (yes, the trainer guy at the gym is named Fabio jajaja) decided that we actually were tougher than we looked and could do more sets than actual beginners. Ugh. Thanks for the faith, Fabio, but I’d rather be able to walk right now jaja.

Hopefully that doesn’t interfere with tomorrow’s plans, though. We’re finally heading off to the beach to be actual beachgoers! I’m excited; it’s gonna be a great picture-taking opportunity, especially since I haven’t had too much to take pictures of so far! And I hope it’s a 100 effin degrees tomorrow so that I can get a tan jaja. Or maybe just around 35 (since Celsius dominates everywhere in the world BUT the US, which is true for too many things), which is high 90’s. Breno actually called me branca (white!) today, and that coupled with people thinking I’m part-Japanese (though I don’t really mind that) is a sure sign I need to discover that fascinating thing called sunlight. Stay tuned for pictures of a sun-kissed Allie! =D

As for weekend plans, we will *hopefully* be going to down to Salvador and Rio de Janeiro for a week! Both places are supposed to be BEYOOTIFUL , and I’m ridiculously excited to see everything both cities have (aaaand hit up their allegedly gorgeous beaches!). I’m not too thrilled about the prospect of flying again so soon (and so many times in one week: Natal-Salvador-Rio-Natal), but I’ve done it tons of times, and I know it’s definitely worth it! More to come on that excursion, which will also sadly mean that I won’t have internet access for an entire week! =(
I will miss you guys a lot, though, you better know that!

I also just realized I write a lot. Hmm. Like husband, like wife =P


Muito muito muito love,
allieossa aka shakira to the brasilians. Ah, stereotyping at its best jaja.


PS Remember that party I mentioned I was going to last time? Well, Eliana’s niece Paulina (Pina) ended up taking us out with some of her friends, which was a lot of fun because Pina did an exchange program in Canada for a year so speaks fluent English (YES!). First we went to cheer-on one of her friends who was performing at an underground music competition thing (there was this HILARIOUS drunk guy dancing by himself jajaja) and then drove around trying to get into a lot of places (everything was so crowded, no tables!), finally ending up at a place across the street from a really annoying circus thing but having such a good time talking and just being random and goofy =)

Brasilians are just like us =)