Living in Brazil

Brazilian science fiction writer Jaques Barica has written an article concerning Brazil:

Optimism in Literature around the World and SF in Particular, part 5: Brazil, “the Country that Could Have Been and Maybe Will”.

Brazilian SF has always been pessimistic. Worse yet, in many occasions it has been ironical to the very idea of future. The 70s and early 80s, the “age of lead”, as we call it, because of the military dictatorship on course, were marked by the publication of some classic dystopian novels, like “And Still the Earth” (originally Não Verás País Nenhum, or You`ll See no Country) by Ignacio de Loyola Brandão. A decade later, when cyberpunk finally arrived in Brazilian bookstores, it quickly grabbed readers and writers alike because, well, Brazil IS a cyberpunk country. And as the original punks would say, there’s no future.

He, however, goes on to explain that Brazil seems to have made some optimistic changes in terms of technology and a more positive outlook:

For example, 3G networks are used in public web-based long-distance education programs. Computer games (like Civilization) are used in many schools to teach history, political science, administration, etc. Indigenous tribes use the web to preserve their cultural heritage. Almost-forgotten languages are available online, as well as ritual dances.

Another example: Brazil has cars running 100% on alcohol since 1979. Total-flex cars are sold since 2003, a technology developed by Brazilian engineers. Brazilian alcohol comes from sugarcane which has lower impact than corn alcohol. The blend commonly called E25 (that is, 25% of alcohol and 75% gasoline) is the standard of Brazilian gasoline. Brazilian energy comes mostly from hydroelectric power plants and there are projects to build fields of wind turbines in the country’s Northeast.

But Brazilian science fiction (SF) hasn’t caught up with that spirit yet, he contends.

Interesting article for me to read as I’ve learned about Brazil living here, and contrasting that experience with my life in the United States, growing up with science fiction and becoming a writer.

I already have gotten a little trouble with friends because of Mike in Brazil (a porn site online featuring sex with Brazilian girls in Rio).  I won’t supply a link.  Find it if you want.  “Mike” isn’t me!  At least not often enough…

But there’s a new Mike in Brazil on TV, and he’s a scientist with a PhD like me, too.  He’s got a TV show on the Travel Channel in the United States.  He travels the world, apparently, finding critters that bite.

Ugh.  And it’s not porn!

Bite Me With Dr. Mike.  The first episode features Brazil.

I thought this would make a good post to explain something that I think many Americans don’t appreciate.  Brazil is not one giant rain forest, or stripped rain forest.  Lots of it looks like the United States, with cities, trees, grass, birds, dogs, cats.  Some of the species are a little different, but most places aren’t swarming with monkeys (a very few are), and there aren’t giant spiders crawling through the windows.

Parts of Brazil are remote and wild, just as in the U.S.  Dr. Mike could go to the Everglades and be eaten by mosquitoes (and I once saw a show about a place in Texas where a cow was killed by mosquito bites), or to any of a dozen wild places full of biters.  Brazil probably has more this way (if Alaska is excluded), but people who watch the Simpsons may think that monkey fling shit from every street corner of every city here.  Anyway…

Here’s a preview of the episode:

Ouch!  And Texas has its fire ants, so again, interesting, but not that different.

I thought I had written about this months ago when I had the experience, but apparently I didn’t.

There is likely more than one way to do this, as there is in the United States, at a range of prices.  I can describe my experience but not that full range.

Anyway, my back when my ex-girlfriend moved in with me, she encouraged me to get tested.  I hadn’t been tested in a while so that was a reasonable request.  I missed a chance to get free HIV testing when I was back in the U.S. in November/December and figured I’d just do it in Brazil.

So, you want a “urologist” for this in Brazil.  My ex-girlfriend looked one up on the internet for me, not too far from the apartment (I live near a hospital which also has nearby medical offices and clinics), and we made an appointment.  I didn’t have any symptoms of anything and the brief visual inspection (fun) was also fine.  The doctor prescribed tests for five STDs that don’t necessarily show symptoms and are serious (several varieties of HIV and hepatitis).  The office visit was $R200, a price which included a follow-up visit to discuss the results of the tests.

The prescribed tests were to be done at a nearby clinic and involved both blood and urine tests.  This turned out to be another $R260.  My poor Portuguese led me to believe the original $R200 included everything.  I could have had free HIV testing on AIDS Awareness Day back in the U.S., but I wound up paying $R460 in Brazil in the end for my clean slate.

The test results were made available via the internet, and that was easy and convenient at least, and with everything negative there was no reason to return to the doctor.

Anyway, it’s my understanding the doctors in Brazil are good but that there’s a two-tiered system similar to the U.S.  That is, expensive quality private care and then free or cheap hospital and clinic visits with long waits and less personal service.

I had the privilege this week of serving on the PhD committee for one of my collaborator’s students, who is also a friend of mine.  I have served on a few PhD committees back in the U.S., and went through the process myself when I got my doctorate in astronomy.

How PhDs are awarded differs from university to university and country to country.  Within a country, the differences are few.  From country to country, the differences can be large.  For instance, I understand that in Belgium the student gets to bring along advocates for the work and can direct all questions to them and need not answer any at all personally.

In Brazil, the process is similar to what I’ve experienced in the United States.  I wrote about defending a PhD thesis elsewhere.

There was one big surprise.  After the hour-long presentation of the thesis, normally the public is excused and the “grilling” (sort of an oral exam given by the committee about the thesis topic to ensure the PhD candidate knows their stuff) then commences.  Well, in Brazil that part is public, too.  It was a surprise to me!  Seems like it might be more stressful, but I can see pros and cons to this approach.  In any event, we went for another 2.5+ hours, almost 4 hours in total, and most of the public attendees trickled away as the clock ticked on.

It didn’t take so long because of problems, but simply because many scientists like to hear themselves talk.  I try to keep this in mind, and that the exam is about the student and not me.  Luckily 2-3 of my questions were asked before I got my turn at the end, so I was able to keep my contribution in check.

Oh, the presentation and the questioning was all in Portuguese, so recognizing that my questions had already been addressed was great for me.  I followed a lot, especially the talk since I knew the topic and could see pictures and read words on the powerpoint presentation.  I had to ask my questions in English.  Just not enough of a technical vocabulary.  Everyone at the the PhD level in Brazil is expected to speak English, and do, so this was fine.

Oh, one final fun thing.  The topic of the PhD involved black holes.  In Portuguese a black hole is “buraco negro.”  Here is the awful way I remember how to say that.  I just think of Barack Obama, as “buraco” is pronounced similarly to “Barack O.” and then I need to remember that negro is pronounced differently than in English (with the “neg” in “negative”).  If Obama were white, I would probably have a more difficult time remembering this term.

Betty Boop, pronounced BET-CHEE BOO-PEE here (I think!), is remarkably popular in Brazil.

In the United States, where she comes from originally (see above 1934 cartoon), I’ve barely seen a sign of her in decades.  I mean, she’s around still, but somewhat obscure.

Here in Porto Alegre, I saw a car this afternoon plastered with “I Love Betty Boop!” messages and images.  Go into the mall and you will find Betty Boop lunch boxes and shirts.  I’ve even seen a couple of girls with Betty Boop tattoos.

Betty Boop is definitely popular here.

Now, a lot of international icons are popular in Brazil.  I’ve seen Hello Kitty in every country and continent I’ve ever visited.  It’s strange to me that one like Betty should have become so popular here in Brazil and faded so much in the United States where she came from.

I have heard of cases where some writers or artists or musicians first find popularity in foreign countries, sometimes but not always followed up by attention from their home country.  I guess Betty falls in with a different crowd, however.  Maybe like how the French loved Jerry Lewis so much, or the Germans with David Hasslehoff.  

The Brazilians love Betty Boop.

The other cartoon icon like this I’ve also noticed to be popular is Woody Woodpecker.  Not quite like Betty Boop, but there are Woody cartoons on TV regularly and he is used to advertise Habib’s (a middle eastern fast food chain here).  Strange Stuff.

Both the weather and my apartment.

It turns out that you can buy little portable heaters/fans in the grocery store for $R60 to $R100 (in 110 volt) and even thought they’re not much, they make a huge difference.  I sit up late too many nights in front of the computer or the tv and it gets cold just sitting.

I have one little heater I’m lugging from room to room.  Now that I’ve seen that it works, I’ll likely invest in 1-2 more for the rooms I frequent the most.  I’ve been almost embarrassed to invite anyone in, it’s been so cold, but now it’s tolerable.

Last week I finally finished lesson 30 of Pimsleur’s unit 3, which is the 90th and final half hour lesson of the series.  I’ve listened to most lessons 2-4 times in the past, and still have the final five to listen to a second or third time, and am reviewing some from the second and third unit now.

I thought it might be useful to let people know where this gets you.

First, some disclaimers.  I’ve also done most of unit 1 of Rosetta Stone (about a year ago) and I have a private Portugese teacher I see a few hours a week when I am in Brazil.  And I’ve been living in Brazil 6-7 of the last 9 months, which includes talking to people in Portuguese, watching TV and movies with Portuguese subtitles, and occasionally trying to watch Brazilian TV and movies themselves.  I’ve also been working on reading some articles and stories in Portuguese.

So, in most ways I’m a lot more advanced than I would be if I were simply doing my Pimsleur lessons back in the U.S. and only them in an attempt to teach myself Portuguese.

Now, what Pimsleur was perfect for was its portability.  I could put the lessons on my ipod and listen to them out walking or on the bus, and I have about an hour on the bus any day I go to work on campus.  I do more mumbling to myself than speaking while doing the lessons.  I like Rosetta Stone but don’t like being tied to a computer to do it (although I hear that newer versions have a portable portion now), and while I liked being able to subscribe, sometimes internet connections are not so cheap or reliable.

So, where am I with the Portuguese?

Not fluent, that’s for sure, but much improved.  My vocabulary is very limited although I do know a lot of forms, tenses, etc. and can say all sorts of things correctly.  I think it would be very difficult if not impossible to learn Portuguese without being able to listen to it one way or another as the pronunciation is tricky.  I tend to have a lot of trouble with words that are very similar to the English words because the pronunciation is often so different.  I was once beffudled by a couple of girls talking about this famous movie they couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen.  It was called, phoenetically, CHEE-TAN-EE-KAY.

That’s “Titanic” to you and me.

Now, I have to say that the Pimsleur system, asking in English (sometimes Portuguese) for me to say things in Portuguese and following conversations, with good review of old words and slow introduction of new words, works.  I’ve mastered most of the Pimsleur vocabulary, but it is far from complete, and some aspects of how things work are a little mysterious still.  Additional referencs may prove useful.

Also, parts of it are kind of old fashioned, or are particularly suited to business travelers rather than someone living in Brazil every day.  I asked my Portuguese teacher about a few things and she confirmed to me that no, no one tends to be as formal as some expressions I had learned from Pimsleur.

I definitely needed to review many lessons more than once, and when I took a few weeks off I felt the need to review more restarting.

Being busy though and having something useful to do on bus rides, where I’ve been warned not to pull out an expensive laptop computer in plain sight, makes Pimsleur a winner for me.   I mean, over the past 8 months I’ve spent the equivalent of 3-4 full time work weeks on just the Pimsleur, and I finished them, which pleases me.  I wish there was a unit 4 for me to listen to now — I still have a couple of months more of bus rides here, and the review will get old pretty soon.

I can usually hold up my end of a one-on-one conversation pretty well, although sometimes the lack of a wide vocabulary for some topics is a problem.  A bigger problem is just listening and following someone else who uses a much larger vocabulary than I have, along with slang and verb forms I don’t know or don’t know well.  When I watch TV in Portuguese, I can pick out a lot of individual words, but unless the conversation is simple I can’t keep up with it for very long and put it all together.

I should also say that real-life Brazilians don’t speak as clearly as the voices on Pimsleur.  Furthermore, there is a wide range of accents and ways of pronouncing things here, and that full range is not present in Pimsleur (although they do have at least 4 different native speakers on the lessons).

To be honest, I thought I would know more and be more fluent after finishing Pimsleur.  I’m not unhappy with my progress, but still feel like I can’t tell people “I speak Portugese” without qualification.  I can watch and understand a Brazilian movie in Portuguese, but only with the Portuguese subtitles turned on to let me read along.

I have to put in more time, especially listening.  Probably reading too, which will help more with the vocabulary as I can look up things in a dictionary.

I am sure that if I took three months, doing a lesson a day, and then visited Brazil for the first time I’d be able to be understood about simple things, but I would probably find it nearly impossible to understand what anyone was saying around me most of the time.

Most people, including Brazilians, think of Brazil as tropical, and a lot of it is.  Still, Porto Alegre is at the southern tip of the country and it’s now June and approaching winter.  It typically doesn’t snow here, but it can get down to freezing temperatures at night with wind and rain, which is no fun.

But that’s not the big problem.

I’m from the mountains in the United States.  I can take the cold.  I prefer cool temperatures to the heat.  But the infrastructure here is not set up for the cold.

A lot of the housing doesn’t have heat!  My apartment has no heating systems.  There is gas heat for the water, and I can turn on gas burners on the stove, or run my clothes dryer, but these things are not made for heating the place.  It’s warmer than outside, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s much warmer.

A Carioca would just die here.  When it is 70 degrees F in Rio they break out the coats and sweaters and start complaining!

We do tend to have a similar problem back in Wyoming.  A lot of the houses there have no air conditioning.  It can get warm in the summer sometimes, and uncomfortable.  It’s just the same problem in reverse.  Fans are cheaper, easier, and safer than space heaters, however.

I thought I had written about this before, but apparently not, looking back over the old entries.

Something that is a little different here in Brazil than in the States is that the Brazilians, whenever possible, drink out of cups or glasses.  Drinking from the can or bottle is a no no, and at most restaurants or bars the glasses will be offered automatically.

And Brazilian cups tend to be tiny!  Big gulps haven’t made it down here.

So the usual result is someone standing around with a can or bottle (sometimes a big bottle) in one hand and a glass in the other.

Maybe traditionally Americans have had cleaner cans and bottles, or maybe we’re just pigs.  I don’t know.  But in any bar in the U.S. you’ll see people drinking out of long neck bottles (called “longy neckys” here).  We have barbeques and picnics and pull cans of beer and soda out of ice-filled coolers, not messing with cups.

I asked one of my Brazilian friends about this and he confirmed the preferences.  When I asked him why, he used the “It’s cleaner” explanation.

Sometimes I like drinking straight from the can or bottle, knowing it’s an American thing that sets me apart from the Brazilians around me.  They probably just think I’m unsanitary rather than being a foreigner.  The cans and bottles look as clean to me here as they usually do in the states.

This morning I went to the Federal Police to sort out my issues with the exipiring and lost RNE protocol.  (RNE = National Registration for Foreigners.)  I had a brainstorm and went to check my luggage and found photocopies of the temporary ID that I knew I had.  I often keep documents in a pocket in my carry-on when I travel, and I had copies with me on a trip to Rio in February, but the airlines here put on plastic binders on outside pockets and I’d never taken them off.

Anyway, I headed to the local office of the Federal Police armed with all the apporpriate documents, except the original.

And I don’t know if I posted this before, but they have a webpage you should refer to in order to find your local office to handle this sort of thing.  In Portuguese, so a little more effort.  But here it is:  http://www.dpf.gov.br/

I got my number and waited.  They called me and I explained the situation (aided by a written explanation my colleague here helped me with).  I was told I needed to go to a regular police station to document the lost protocol.  There was one a couple of blocks away.

I walked there, with another written explanation for what I needed and was able to secure the necessary document within about half an hour.  My Portuguese was being challenged, but was sufficient.  Every once in a while I needed to ask some questions or say I didn’t understand and ask for a repeat, but I’m coming along.

I went back to the Federal Police and another half an hour got me a new temporary protocol, good until the end of October.  I need to use the RNE number to check the status of the processing for the permanent card.  Total process took a couple of hours, which doesn’t seem so bad in hindsight.  No extra payments.  I did need to have a small 3×4 cm photo for the new protocol.

I’ll get photocopies made ASAP…

So the lesson is to make those photocopies.  Write down those numbers (e.g. Passport, visa, RNE, CPF, etc.).  You have to do this about a million times for a million things here, but make sure to make your own copies and file them someplace standard.  I had my stuff, but not where I easily remembered it.  You might send it to a friend to hold onto, also, for reference.

OK, lots more stuff coming up.  I got a chance to reread my old posts and realized that there were a number of things I thought I had written about, but never actually did.