Today was the day after our bike ride. I honestly did not feel that sore, it was the sheer tiredness that got me. After finishing the ride we had to catch cabs back to Paulista and we got to bed just before one and had to be up for class at 7:30. It was so hard to stay awake in our Portuguese class even after the two espressos…we were talking about idioms in Portuguese and then we went to the language lab to work on our pronunciation.
Directly after class we had another excursion for our culture class. This time we were meeting at Parque do Ibirapuera to visit the Museu AfroBrasil and the former director would be giving our tour. The great thing about meeting in the park was that we could all get fresh Agua de Coco before the tour to help restore our muscles after yesterday’s bike tour, otherwise, the park is rather far from PUC’s campus and there is not really an easy way to get there (no metro stops, few buses). This really demonstrates the fact that this park, São Paulo’s version of Central Park, is intended to be a space for the elites (those with cars) to enjoy. We spoke about this with the director when we asked why the Afro-Brasil museum (which is a recent museum) was located far away from the ‘povo’ or the people. He explained that it is a reflection of the power distribution as none of the public museums or buildings are located in poor neighborhoods.
In addition to the interesting physical location of the building, the museu houses a very interesting collection. You can tell that it was built recently, in the early 2000s, because of its non-traditional lay out and the displays that visitor can actually walk through and almost be a part of. The museum is huge. The first floor is divided up between a rotating art display and a semi-permanent display about design, technology and art during the slavery period. The collection has an interesting variety of slave built technology; artisan machines from workshops, jewelry, elaborate wood carving and metalwork. The second floor had information and displays on Afro-Brazilian religions and creative additions to Brazilian society (festivals, and art). The museum also contains more current exhibits on Afro-Brasilian identity and cultural production.
Visiting the museum was really a great experience, but it was also difficult to do the day after our big bike ride and a solid morning of classes with no lunch break. By the time our three hour tour was over everyone pretty much left and went home to take naps. The pace of the program here is fast and it is starting to wipe everyone out. However, despite our growing exhaustion everyone still wants to see and experience everything in São Paulo which this night meant going to Japanese-Brazilian Kareoke in Liberdade at a place called the Chopperia Liberdade. It was so fun!! It was perfectly cheesy and ridiculous. Everyone in our group had a great time singing fun old songs from the 80’s and 90’s, I personally sang some Journey with Alison and we were a great hit! Outside of our group the Brazilians mostly sang old Brazilian music (to be expected) except that it was not that fun since they all seemed to be choosing easy listening/elevator music. We did get very excited when on pair chose to sing a song we had all learned in our culture class called “Trem das Onze” which is about having a man having to leave to catch the last train home to his neighborhood outside of São Paulo from his girlfriend’s house. Another funny one was when two girls sang Shania Twain, but in Portuguese…It was a great night and we all had so much fun acting ridiculously cheesy!
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