So here is a quick rundown of my weekend so far;
- On Saturday I presented a science project at school. At my school every student in every grade is required to work for months on a science project and then present it to teachers. I was in a group with six of my friends. They'd already been working on it for months and I only joined earlier this week, so to be honest I did pretty much no work. My only job was to deliver the introduction. I guess I did it pretty well because at the end I was engulfed in hugs and kisses from multiple teachers and everyone congratulated me. It seemed like a lot of fuss considering I only spoke three sentences but apparently I spoke them very well. Our project went great and from what I understood we got the Brazilian equivalent of an A! Congrats to the girls in my group for all their awesome work!
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| In other news, I'm a giant. |
- We went to the Holi Festival in Sao Paulo! After the science fair, my sister and I met up with her friends at the Holi Festival in Sao Paulo. I'm pretty sure this was nothing like the actual Holi Festival in India. It was pretty much just a giant party/concert in the park with people throwing colored powder at each other. Iza's friends were nice and it was pretty amazing to see all the different colors. I also got to buy presents for my mom and brother and a beautiful flower crown for myself. When Iza explained to one of her friends that I was an exchange student he said, "Hi!" So I of course replied in Portuguese. He looked shocked and asked me if I spoke English. Ummm yes, but to be honest I've lately been forgetting random English words. We arrived pretty late and were hanging out on the sidelines so we remained clean for the first few hours but after awhile we waded into the main concert crowd to hear the band. That's when we actually got pelted with colors. I also got red wine spilled on me from someone in the crowd. Oh well, I didn't expect to leave the part clean anyways. I was glancing around looking at all the different colors when suddenly there's this guy coming at me and speaking Portuguese to me. He was tall and covered in green powder, tattoos, and piercings. He was saying, "Hug me!" I was a little surprised but,as he was already leaning in, I went for it and hugged him and added green Holi powder to my already colorful clothes. Iza and her friends were cracking up at the poor exchange student being taken advantage of. We had a great time and left there covered from head to toe in Holi powder.
So finally, we're at the story of my first haircut here in Brazil. When I asked where I should get my haircut my host mom told me that their neighbor cuts all of their hair. I was surprised mostly because she's my younger sister's age but she works in a salon so I'll go with it. I'm incredibly spoiled when it comes to my hair. I've always had the same people that cuts my mother's hair cut mine. We're talking more money spent on a haircut than on a whole outfit. Haircuts are serious business. But when in Rome... besides it's just a trim. So I go over to the neighbors house around 8:30 and they're still getting set up so I hung out in the living room with her dad. Now her dad speaks no English and I, for some reason, have more trouble understanding men than women. Her dad's a big talker so he talks and I nod and smile. Good thing is, he uses tons and tons of elaborate hand gestures. I'm not quite sure they go with what he's saying. Anyway, after he gets tired of talking at me he turns on music, specifically Rihanna, and starts dancing. I'm cracking up and he's gesturing for me to dance but I'm just laughing too hard to dance. He's grabs my hand and we start waltzing around the room. His daughter comes in and starts laughing and dragging me out of the room because it's time to start my haircut. She and I discuss what I want. It's hard to communicate cause I don't know hair cutting words and she doesn't understand all of my English. So we're mostly using hand gestures and demonstrating on my hair.We go into her bathroom and she has one of those chairs that hairdressers use to wash your hair. It's in her shower and it's hot pink. We climb in the shower and I get in the chair and she starts washing my hair. There's a problem with the water, it's coming out ice cold and there's not a lot of pressure. I assure her that the temperature doesn't bother me. So my hair is full of shampoo when suddenly the water stops. After much discussion in Portuguese, she declares,"The water is finished." Brazil's in a drought and there are water restrictions. Their allotted water was finished. I just immediately start cracking up which of course makes her laugh. Her mother comes in carrying a giant bowl of water, ice cold of course, and dumps it on my head. This happened several times and then my hair is clean.We go into her bedroom, I sit at her desk chair, and she begins cutting my hair. People wander in and out of the room throughout the haircut to chat. After the cut, she blow dries and styles it. When I finally got to see it I was really impressed. It looks every bit as good as when I go to my master hairstylist at home. What's even more impressive is she did such an amazing job and she did it at home and she's even younger than me! After the haircut was finished I said goodbye to her mom and her and exited. When I got to the living room we ran into her dad. So of course there was a lot more waltzing and then a half hour of conversation also known as charades. Overall, the haircut and dancing took three hours and I got home around 11:30. I loved the haircut and all the dancing just made it more fun and memorable. I'd post a picture but I'm in pajamas and no makeup... My next blog post,about a trip I'm taking to Bonito, will have pictures with my new hair so you'll just have to wait for those. Until then just take my word that it's a fantastic haircut. Tchau!
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