Elida, our Portguese teacher, arrived only 35 minutes late today, no worry, no apology.
Since I thought she wasn't coming, I was outside talking to my neighbor, who told me that she will go next week with her cousin to buy clothes, but we are getting dresses... BTW, do you wear dresses? (I just laugh to myself inside, realizing she doesn't approve of the way I dress "too Americanish" for Rio- and at the same time I see the way they [Cariocas] dress too gaudy and even vulgar at times; large prints, short skirts, no-back blouses, flaunting their tattoos and bodies that have obviously been under the knife... I just can't seem to wear that! Some of the pants I see out there look like pijamas to me, others like gym attire , and yet others like they are going out to a party, but they're at the mall! Of course, like everywhere else, you have the "normal", no-sweat people, but those don't stand out... And, just for the record, my neighbor Ana Maria wears a nice dress everyday; Luzia will not go to the supermrket with me unless she has her high heels and lipstick). And YES, I do wear dresses, it's just that they are kept with the summer clothes that will be coming out very soon.We learned some other important verbs and how to write and say (this being the hardest for me) numbers! 17 and 18 will be in my final exam... I just can't get to say them correctly and this is always confirmed when I call to get a taxi...
I was reading an article yesterday about Cariocas and their stereotypes and I couldn't figure out what the title meant: "Malandros no Rio". So I asked Elida about this and it triggered a whole topic on cultural aspects, very interesting!
It turns out the term "malandro" was coined in the military regime of Brazil to depict a person who is a laid-back, bohemian artist with a strong link to samba, a flaunty gait and always wearing a hat. The military basically belittled this image and created the stereotype of a person who would usually take advantage of every situation, would behave in a highly informal way, etc.
She went on pointing out cultural differences, such as the concept of time and how Brazilians are not punctual (no kidding), the way they treat strangers- everybody's a friend, but at the same time not- and other concepts like personal body space [a Brazilian has NO idea what this means]. She also told us that one of the worse things for a Brazilian is saying NO, so they will rather say "yes, I'll go to your party" and then not go at all, than telling you right off "sorry, I'm not able to go". Elida explained that a common way of beating around the bush is saying "maybe", "let me see" , "I'll see what I can do", etc. All those answers are basically NO.
So, if you ask me for money, you might hear me say "maybe tomorrow..." ha ha.
