Me Ol' China , the first week in Brazil

Guys,

I hope you had a nice weekend. Mine was exhausting and this was due to Brazilian people's warmth. In the Green Mile, Mr. Coffey claimed that love kills people everyday. Well, I can certainly say that too much courtesy can make you very tired!

I have been out nearly every day since I am here and I think that I will have to reduce it a bit. Despite the outings my health is ok and this is a positive note but I am really tired and the week has not even started yet!

Brazil… So different from the other Latin countries and I do not think that it’s the language that makes them different, even if there must be something that has triggered the creation of a strong sense of belonging to… themselves! While in Argentina you hear talking about all other Hispano-hablantes countries in the area, in Brazil seems like there is nothing else outside the country. This does not apply to sports that are broadcast constantly on TV’s and their attitude towards sport reminds me the one of the Brits: Sport, sport and sport! While in Italy everybody is crazy for football, and generally limited to first division, in Britain football means that all the way down to 4th division people have an opinion about it. Plus they really love every sport you can possibly think of and every sport presents a very good starting point to spend a whole evening in a pub. Brazil is very much alike. They love many sports, from Volley to Baseball to Soccer to F1 to beach volley.

This is not the only thing that they have in common with the Brits. Love for beer is another. They do drink a lot of beer and they tend to go out every night and spend endless time dancing. Nearly every pub has a live band and they go wild with American or English language music. From the U2 to the Erasure from Gloria Gaynor to Leonard Cohen to Abba, you hear them all and they know the lyrics by heart! They sing along all night and seems like the night is too short for them. Exactly the opposite for me… Days and nights seem to be endless since I arrived here…

The type of music they listen makes them very different from the one you hear in Argentina or Uruguay or Colombia. In those countries there is a sort of an Hispanic pride that makes them listen to songs in Castilian only. It is hard to hear anything different. When I was in this continent last time, it took months to go to a disco and hear a bit of English music. It was in Montevideo in a place called Ciudad Boliche. It felt great!

Brazilians, or probably I should stay Paulistanos (inhabitants of Sao Paulo, while the inhabitants of Sao Paulo State are called Paulistas), enjoy life but sometimes you wonder if this is not a cohercitive way of living. It seems like they push themselves to the extreme in their dancing, drinking and… kissing… As a friend of mine would say, they suck their faces for hours and hours and, in most cases they do not even know each other. I am sure that they do not go any further but it is rather funny to see that around the ticking of the new day the whole place starts kissing and you see both beauties and beasts kissing eagerly.

What about girls? I am sure that this thought has come to your mind… Frankly, I do not think that Paulistanas are the most beautiful set of girls I have seen in my round the world journey but, I think, that they certainly are sexy. I find them not that pretty and a bit on the chubby side. They tend to dress up sexy but not smart as Argentineans, they tend to be provocative and exchange glances constantly but, still, I do not think that they are as elegant and “tempting” as those from other countries around Latam.

If you remember, when I went to watch Brazil vs. Italy volley match in Beijing I reported of the Chinese crowd cheering for Brazil… How ignorant of me! They were certainly not Chinese but Japanese… The Japanese community here is really big and you see Japanese people and name everywhere. Italian-Japanese mix in people is very noticeable and those that I would have said are indios, effectively, they carry Japanese or Italian names…

I find rather odd to hear these Japanese people speaking Portuguese and seeing them being slightly different from those you see in other parts of the world. They are fully integrated and they dress, act and move like the other Brazilians. Even their size is bigger than the average Japanese person, sign that nearly 80 to 100 years of diets have taken their tolls on the waist line… they tend to be chubby…

I am investigating a bit more about this huge Japanese population here in SP but I got different versions so I will keep investigating more and will share it with you.

Work… Work is ok, more or less 50 weeks to go… It is nearly sure that in a year time I might be writing again from China. So, just something to look forward to while I keep an eye on this country.

Have a lovely week me ol’ chinas!