Out

This post is simply titled "out" because it is a quick summary of the things I've done outside of my house. The first "out" event we had was at AABB. Edson (the president of the club) had a book release there. He's written a book of poetry and is apparently the president of some poetry association around here but I have to look into that one. In any case it was a nice introduction to Araguaina culture. People took turns all night reading selections from the book and at the end of the night (for us) his daughters sang. He looked so proud.

We had chambari which is a typical Tocantins dish. I'm told chambari is oxen ankle meat. The food was prepared in literally the largest pots I've ever seen in person. I wasn't there so I don't know, but I imagine they were similar to pots used to feed plantation quantities of slaves or maybe some communal village. We stood in line for food and I went to buy a lata (bottle) of guarana. Here, at restaurants they keep beer in rotation. Like before you even order they bring a huge beer to the table in a huge beer sleeve and start pourin glasses. Every six minutes or so the waiter comes and shakes the bottle. It's usually just as full as it was the last time yet he then brings another. If you don't drink it, they don't take it back. It just sits there and gets hot until you leave. Not gonna guess what they do with it after that.

After a night of book release fun

(note the bracelets. Made from golden grass. It doesn't grow everywhere here but artisans/vendors have suppliers where they go get it. The bracelets were welcome gifts for us. These are actually Michol's. Mine are bright colors which I love but hers matched my outfit)

Our second time out came in the form of Calourada. It's like a Welcome Back party at the school. I thought it was just a welcome to college party for the freshman since that's who asked us to come and calouro literally translates to freshman or first year but when we got their we were first spotted by our seniors. In fact we spent half the night talking with them. They all have Saturday 7:30 am class. Yikes. So they went home early. After they left we went to immerse ourselves in the crowd. It was good for both of us as I like to dance and Michol likes to watch live music. They had a Sertanejo band that sang as everyone paired off to dance forro. Sertanejo is like pop country music and from the tv commercials seems to be a male duet kinda thing. Forro, like Samba, is a popular Brazilian dance. As UFT is an outdoor university the party was in the parking lot. There were people working the gate i guess so randoms couldn't just walk in.

With two of our students

Though the party was far from over we left at about 1:30. It's pretty difficult to catch a taxi at night and they're more expensive in the evenings. Granted that's expensive by Araguaina terms. As I already explained services here are way cheaper than they could be. In fact the taxis don't even have meters. You just know how much it's supposed to cost to get you from one place to another. And we have a guy. Michol thinks he's the kingpin of the taxi industry here cuz whenever we need a taxi we call him and when he cant come he has guys. One of which seems to be his right hand because he's the most consistent fill-in. In one case I tried to ask one of the drivers for his own number and he simply referred me back to our kingpin man.

Now quickly Avenida Filidelfia. The street has all the cool bars and food on it. We've experimented with a couple of the pizza places on the street but have much more to explore. Another cool place to be is Neblinas. Picturesque landscape it looks like what you'd probably imagine if you thought of Brazil minus the beach of course. This is where everybody that doesn't pay to go to an academia (gym) goes to exercise. Included on this street is Labaredas. Its a joint dance hall and restaurant. Michol and I ate there for Good Friday. They had all types of tasty fish.

We went to the dance hall that Saturday. I thought it was for a Christian concert. It was not,lol. They charged to get in (which I didn't mind when I thought it was a live Christian concert,lol) and they played their music so loudly it was simply not enjoyable. Now Brazilians BLAST their music, graduation included, plus they advertise for stuff by hiring trucks wired with concert speakers to play through the streets. In their defense, I think that's a south of the U.S. American custom in general. I first encountered the loud speaker trucks living in Mexico. They scared the... well, you know out of me. I feel bad for the future of the people who drive those trucks. That was my explanatory way of saying, Michol and I decided we wouldn't be back. But it was good to go once and see. I'll let you know how more of our out experiences go as they come.