A Note from Brazil

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Monthly Archives: March 2012

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Buffet

Lunch like It’s 1995

March 29, 2012 by Jennifer Sikes

Lunch is a big deal here. People don’t eat cold sandwiches at their desk. Employers are required by law to provide an hour for lunch and a meal for their workers, so Scott joins everyone else at his office for a hearty buffet that includes meat, salad, rice, and beans. We have no shortage of food at home, either. I have embraced my new role of homemaker in many ways. Anyone who knows me knows that the traditional domestic arts (cooking, […]

Categories: Daily Life, Food & Drink

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Exquisite Clock

Long Live the Arts

March 27, 2012 by Jennifer Sikes

There is an article in today’s New York Times about the surge in arts funding in Brazil. The budget for the Brazilian national arts organization, the SESC, comes from a payroll tax. So more workers equals more support for the arts. According to the SESC director, their budget has been doubling every six years (!) and is now at $600 million per year. As a US comparison, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has a FY2012 budget of $146 million. […]

Categories: News

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T.P.

Fit for a King

March 24, 2012 by Jennifer Sikes

I spotted this madness while grocery shopping this morning. Note that with the current exchange rate, two rolls of this day-glo toilet paper cost $12.59. And according to the 2010 census, the monthly median income is somewhere around $281. I knew I was shopping at the fancy grocery store. The one with the selection of imported products for expats and others who occasionally crave peanut butter or tacos (both of which you can’t readily get here and are very expensive). […]

Categories: Daily Life

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Eggs

Subequatorial Chocoholics

March 23, 2012 by Jennifer Sikes

The upcoming Easter holiday is a big deal here–people have time off from work, they see their families, and, if the stores are any indication, they consume their own weight in chocolate. Grocery stores have been taken over by giant chocolate eggs. Eggs hang from the ceilings, the circle poles, they cap the end of aisles, and they peek out between all sorts of other products. Long price lists peek out amidst the foil foliage. At Christmas, the same phenomenon happened […]

Categories: Daily Life, Food & Drink

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Cultural Center

Old and New

March 20, 2012 by Jennifer Sikes

Belo Horizonte has some beautiful old buildings mixed in among more modern construction. I snapped this photo today walking by Centro de Cultura Belo Horizonte. The building has been home to all kinds of things over its nearly 100 year history–including the municipal library, the first city radio station, the first class of the UFMG School of Architecture, and even City Hall. Today it houses an arts library and hosts seminars, educational programming, and other cultural events.

Categories: Belo Horizonte, Daily Life

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sidewalk 2

Portuguese Pavement

March 19, 2012 by Jennifer Sikes

Any visitor to the beaches of Rio de Janeiro is familiar with Portuguese pavement or calçada portugesa, the mosaic-style sidewalks that line the waterfront. They originated in Portugal and are still found there and in former Portuguese colonies. Belo Horizonte has them all over the city as well. Many are in basic geometric patterns, although you sometimes see ones that match the store or building next to them–a flower pattern in front of a florist shop, for example. The process of […]

Categories: Belo Horizonte, Daily Life

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Bikini

Everyday Things

March 16, 2012 by Jennifer Sikes

Author, traveler, and astute observer of the world, Bill Bryson, has said that “the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” Many everyday things here in Brazil seem unfamiliar, and I’m sure their American counterparts would seem as strange to a Brazilian. A few examples: 1. Kitchenaid mixers Ok, the […]

Categories: Belo Horizonte, Daily Life

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Futebol for Children

Indoctrination

March 9, 2012 by Jennifer Sikes

I spotted these children’s books at a nearby livraria today. The two most popular soccer teams here in Belo Horizonte are Cruzeiro and Atlético. Atlético was founded in 1908 with the nickname of “the rooster” (o galo). When Cruzeiro came along in 1921 they became “the fox” (a raposa). And I think we all know what happens when a fox gets in the chicken coop. Scott and I are supporting Cruzeiro. When we arrived last year, they were so terrible that they […]

Categories: Belo Horizonte, Daily Life

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Unlocked

How’s it going? Jewel!

March 8, 2012 by Jennifer Sikes

One of the most difficult (and fun) things about learning a language is the idioms—those funny expressions that don’t make sense when translated literally but everyone knows what they mean. It’s a bit like unlocking a secret code. Mistakes in translation can be costly. Just this week Brazil and FIFA, the international organization that manages the World Cup, have been in a bit of a skirmish after a FIFA official suggested that Brazil needed “se donner un coup de pied […]

Categories: Language

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