Updates : )
Aiight. This one's a bit more upbeat than that last one. ^_^
Well, yesterday evening, while drinking my honey-water tea, I realized that I could swallow with a negligible amount of ouchiness! I was SO happy. I didn't believe it when it hit me. I drank two more cups just to be sure. I don't think I've never been so happy to swallow before. (There is no good way to put that; Dirty jokes to a minimum, plz. :p)
Also, another good thing, I'm going to get to go to the soccer game here!!! One of the other students offered to pay for my ticket since I didn't have enough money. YAY!!! A soccer game in Brazil! How awesome is that. :D
And today, we went to downtown PortoAlegre and saw the legislature building, a renovated theaterhouse (very cool), and a "Casa da Cultura". The TheaterHouse was really cool. I realize there that that was among my favourite places to be that were actually like buildings/places. Some of the things in that drawer are the TheaterHouse, Vineyards, and CoffeeHouses. John (my roomie) and I got to sit and chat with the lady who had taken over the TheaterHouse years ago. On the wall, she showed us pictures of the condition it was in when she got it, before she began to fix it up. Amazing. This lady was actually born in Germany and came here to Brazil when she was thirteen. She spoke English with a German Accent and, as far as I could tell, she hadn't an accent when she spoke Portuguese. She was Jewish and she mentioned something about the "Hitler Situation". (I forget what but it was just amusing to hear it referred to as that. She was cool. She said that learning languages was a good thing. ^_^
So the culture house... The Anniversary of Mario Quintana's 100th Birthday is July 6th so they are having an exhibition of a bunch of his works. He was a Brazilian Writer (1906-1994) who was born in Alegrete, in Rio Grande do Sul (the state if Brazil in which ULBRA is located). He seems to be somewhat of an icon here or smth. Idk. Anyways, the exhibit... It was SOOOO awesome.
The whole exhibition was titled "Entre o Dia e a Noite" (Between Day and Night). The first part was more... bright. The first exhibit in this part consisted of various boxes on the wall with a hole in the side of each to put your hand in to experience what was inside. Four of the five turned out to be empty but the center one (they were layed out like a five on a dice) had a paper crane origami inside. It was interesting. It made me think of how this would be how I would experience new things if I were blind. It was like experiencing the paper crane anew. I remember taking in the texture of the paper, noticing that the unseen object required a delicate touch, following the folds and angles of the object that was under my fingers... It was like remapping out your house and noticing a plethora (SAT word, woot!) of new details of a familiar object that you never really took time to enjoy. ^_^
The next exhibit was a very large blow-up pink elephant with blue bursts on it... It kinda looked like a Heffalump. :P This elephant (about the size of two sofas) was suspended from the ceiling with its feet pointing upwards. On the floor beneath it was the line from Quintana...
"Coisa Louca
Um elefante caiu do teto."
(Crazy thing/An elephant falling from the ceiling.
I quite enjoyed that piece. ^_^
There were various other pieces in the "Day" portion of the exhibit, but the night one needs explaining too. :)
So the next exhibit was of the darker pieces of Quintana. It was more-or-less unlit. When you entered this part, the guy gave you a flashlight with which to see the exhibits. The walls were black as was the floor. On the walls, in gold-foiled lettering, were selected poems of Quintana.
Here's a piece of one of his poems from there...
"Da primeira vez em que me assassinaram
Perdi um jeito de sorrir que eu tinha...
Depois, de cada vez que me mataram,
Foram levando qualquer coisa minha..."
(80 Anos de Poesia, l986)
{my best shot at translating...}
From the first time they murdered me
I lost a skill of smiling that I had...
Afterwards, from every time they killed me,
They took something else from me.
It was really really cool. There was some furniture and stuff in the darkened room. It was all like an Elphaba-green. There were some apples hanging in a mobile-like fashion too. It was very avantgarde (thanks, Dr. Dixon). I liked it very much. It tickled the senses and pricked up the ears in a way that gave the inside of your skin goosebumps and butterflies (not in a bad way). ^_^
I bought postcards from the Theater-House and I got two from the Culture house to remember them by. ^_^
Alrighty, I think that's enough for an entry. The windows behind me at the public comp are ALWAYS open at night and I see the mosquitoes coming around the comp. I'm going to head off before I become dinner for them.
Oh, something funny.. Today I realized that the name of the town we're in (Canoas) could mean "Canoes". So that means that, translated, I could accurately say that I spent a month over the summer in Canoes, in Big River of the South, in Brazil. (... in Canoas, in Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil) :P
Até logo!
-Misha
Well, yesterday evening, while drinking my honey-water tea, I realized that I could swallow with a negligible amount of ouchiness! I was SO happy. I didn't believe it when it hit me. I drank two more cups just to be sure. I don't think I've never been so happy to swallow before. (There is no good way to put that; Dirty jokes to a minimum, plz. :p)
Also, another good thing, I'm going to get to go to the soccer game here!!! One of the other students offered to pay for my ticket since I didn't have enough money. YAY!!! A soccer game in Brazil! How awesome is that. :D
And today, we went to downtown PortoAlegre and saw the legislature building, a renovated theaterhouse (very cool), and a "Casa da Cultura". The TheaterHouse was really cool. I realize there that that was among my favourite places to be that were actually like buildings/places. Some of the things in that drawer are the TheaterHouse, Vineyards, and CoffeeHouses. John (my roomie) and I got to sit and chat with the lady who had taken over the TheaterHouse years ago. On the wall, she showed us pictures of the condition it was in when she got it, before she began to fix it up. Amazing. This lady was actually born in Germany and came here to Brazil when she was thirteen. She spoke English with a German Accent and, as far as I could tell, she hadn't an accent when she spoke Portuguese. She was Jewish and she mentioned something about the "Hitler Situation". (I forget what but it was just amusing to hear it referred to as that. She was cool. She said that learning languages was a good thing. ^_^
So the culture house... The Anniversary of Mario Quintana's 100th Birthday is July 6th so they are having an exhibition of a bunch of his works. He was a Brazilian Writer (1906-1994) who was born in Alegrete, in Rio Grande do Sul (the state if Brazil in which ULBRA is located). He seems to be somewhat of an icon here or smth. Idk. Anyways, the exhibit... It was SOOOO awesome.
The whole exhibition was titled "Entre o Dia e a Noite" (Between Day and Night). The first part was more... bright. The first exhibit in this part consisted of various boxes on the wall with a hole in the side of each to put your hand in to experience what was inside. Four of the five turned out to be empty but the center one (they were layed out like a five on a dice) had a paper crane origami inside. It was interesting. It made me think of how this would be how I would experience new things if I were blind. It was like experiencing the paper crane anew. I remember taking in the texture of the paper, noticing that the unseen object required a delicate touch, following the folds and angles of the object that was under my fingers... It was like remapping out your house and noticing a plethora (SAT word, woot!) of new details of a familiar object that you never really took time to enjoy. ^_^
The next exhibit was a very large blow-up pink elephant with blue bursts on it... It kinda looked like a Heffalump. :P This elephant (about the size of two sofas) was suspended from the ceiling with its feet pointing upwards. On the floor beneath it was the line from Quintana...
"Coisa Louca
Um elefante caiu do teto."
(Crazy thing/An elephant falling from the ceiling.
I quite enjoyed that piece. ^_^
There were various other pieces in the "Day" portion of the exhibit, but the night one needs explaining too. :)
So the next exhibit was of the darker pieces of Quintana. It was more-or-less unlit. When you entered this part, the guy gave you a flashlight with which to see the exhibits. The walls were black as was the floor. On the walls, in gold-foiled lettering, were selected poems of Quintana.
Here's a piece of one of his poems from there...
"Da primeira vez em que me assassinaram
Perdi um jeito de sorrir que eu tinha...
Depois, de cada vez que me mataram,
Foram levando qualquer coisa minha..."
(80 Anos de Poesia, l986)
{my best shot at translating...}
From the first time they murdered me
I lost a skill of smiling that I had...
Afterwards, from every time they killed me,
They took something else from me.
It was really really cool. There was some furniture and stuff in the darkened room. It was all like an Elphaba-green. There were some apples hanging in a mobile-like fashion too. It was very avantgarde (thanks, Dr. Dixon). I liked it very much. It tickled the senses and pricked up the ears in a way that gave the inside of your skin goosebumps and butterflies (not in a bad way). ^_^
I bought postcards from the Theater-House and I got two from the Culture house to remember them by. ^_^
Alrighty, I think that's enough for an entry. The windows behind me at the public comp are ALWAYS open at night and I see the mosquitoes coming around the comp. I'm going to head off before I become dinner for them.
Oh, something funny.. Today I realized that the name of the town we're in (Canoas) could mean "Canoes". So that means that, translated, I could accurately say that I spent a month over the summer in Canoes, in Big River of the South, in Brazil. (... in Canoas, in Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil) :P
Até logo!
-Misha