Pedro Dois -June 15, 2007

Okay so Friday I was still not feeling well, but I was getting better. Thursday was my bad day. After class in the morning the professor left to the big city for the weekend leaving us without a Portuguese translator but with the liberty to do as we wish. As I soon found out though, it's hard to get things done in a large group. See, people make up plans in their head for what they want to happen and without consulting the group expect it to happen. It's not too bad, I probably do it subconsciously but it doesn't help when everyone has a different idea on what to do with a Friday evening.

That's Pedro one, don't forget it!
After much discussion, we decided we would split into different groups. It was rather inevitable actually since people wanted to do different things! Anyway, we decided we would try our independent sense of adventure by going on two different buses that went different ways- all to later end up in the same market, go figure! Well our bus took the long way and all the meanwhile my group of six sat on a bus that was heading who knows were. A group of six talking in English and pulling out their cameras for every other normal thing, yea we were typical Brazilians. As we loudly talked to each other in English one young man asked us if we needed help. He knew English rather well and soon became our friend as he answered our every question about taking buses around here. Well, he answered what he knew and helped us get were we had to go. His name was Pedro and he seemed very excited to meet us.
Every other English speaking local has a good interest in speaking to us Native North American English speakers. They have also heard of California and take pride in hating our President... I don't even know theirs.
Well this man we met, Pedro dois as we soon called him (Pedro Two), showed us around the municipal market and talked to us for a while, mentioning that just by knowing us and talking to us for two hours was better than any other lesson in English he has ever had. He also translated many things for us and to tell you the truth made me a little jealous because now when people called Pedro, they weren't calling me. Later, we were all hungry and long behold decided to eat at a McDonald's that had two levels and free Internet access.
Later back at home I got something else to eat and most of the group just relaxed watching movies in the lower level commons room. We saw Lord of Wars and half of Munich until we all felt very tired and went up to sleep.
McDonald's has a sustainable franchise around here and thrives on its delicious sundaes. Hollywood movies make up at the majority of movies as they're too expensive to compete and the shopping malls are a glamour of wealth. Even so, Brazilians have their own culture and besides some American brands they look rather different. Even with American culture taking a good part of their economy, Brazil has sustained its own culture and gives a relaxed way of life.