Salvador, March 2013

So here is my long-awaited update on what I did during my time in Salvador, Brazil, over spring break.  I arrived there after an epic long journey on Friday morning, and stayed for about two weeks, until the second Thursday after that.

Salvador, Brazil

All the previous times that I visited the program, I just stayed with my then-boyfriend, but this time, since we're not dating anymore, I stayed with two female friends from the orchestra, L and G.  One is the principal cellist, and the other is the principal violist.  I had a really great time living with them! They are really sweet girls, and made me feel so welcome and at home.  They invited me to do a lot of things and helped me to have a great time.  I really hope next time I go back I can stay with them again, since I enjoyed it so much!

Whenever I go to help out with NEOJIBA, I do similar things, but my days never follow an exact set schedule.  The mornings are the most variable part of my day.  Sometimes I go to another nucleo (branch of the program), outside the center of the city, to help out and teach there.  Other times, I teach private lessons to the horn players in the TCA nucleo, as space permits.  And finally, sometimes I just stay home and practice, or do other chores that are necessary.  After lunch, I usually either teach a sectional for the horn players of the second-level orchestra, give some private lessons, or attend the full rehearsal of the second orchestra, where I often play with the horn section and give advice from within the group.  In the evenings, I work with the horn section of the top orchestra.  Usually, I perform with the top orchestra while I am there, but this time, because of the concert schedule, I couldn't.  Instead, I played with them in some of the rehearsals to offer advice, gave private lessons by pulling students out of the full rehearsal, or observed the rehearsals and offered comments.  My workday ends at 8pm, so usually afterwards I would go out to dinner with friends, or do other kinds of social activities.

Teatro Castro Alves

Because of the aforementioned breakup, some things were obviously quite different this time.  However, things were not weird as I had expected.  Between Y and I, everything was exactly the same, except minus the dating part, which was just as I had hoped.  It was really great to see him again and hang out after so much time without really talking.  Also, being single this time made many orchestra members seem more comfortable inviting me to do things with them, which I really appreciated.  Also, since I was living with people with whom I really couldn't speak English, it made me practice my Portuguese even more than normal.  Though when I arrived I had forgotten a lot since my previous trip, I soon remembered all that I had forgotten and learned even more vocabulary.  I also finally got to the point where I was able to start self-correcting some of my more difficult grammatical errors in Portuguese.

In my limited free time, I did some fun things.  On my first full day there, I went to a concert of the Orquestra Sinfonica da Bahia, which was quite interesting as it contrasted poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade with music written on themes from his poetry.  I wasn't very familiar with his poetry before, but I really enjoyed the readings they presented at the concert, so I think I will do my final project for my Portuguese poetry class about him.

Açaí na tigela

I also ate a lot of açaí.  Açaí, pronounced uh-sai-EE, is a very trendy fruit in the US right now, but we don't eat it the way they do in Brazil.  There, açaí is usually served na tigela, or in a bowl, as opposed to the fusion drinks that are all the rage here. The fruit is frozen and then blended to make a kind of thick milkshake texture, and is usually served with bananas and granola.  You can also go to specialty shops where you can order it infused with other fruit flavors.  I tried a lot of different flavors but I think my favorite was com abacaxí, with pineapple.

Praia Porto da Barra

And of course, any trip to Salvador would be incomplete without visiting one of their world-famous beaches! I only had really two free days, and one of them was rainy, so we just went to a city beach, called Porto da Barra.  This beach lies right on the boundary between the Atlantic Ocean and the Baía de Todos os Santos (Bay of all the Saints), and you can swim on either side.  We chose to swim on the bay side, since there were fewer rocks there and the waves were calmer.  The water was super refreshing in the 100-degree heat, but when I was on land I stayed in the shade of the umbrella.  With my gringo skin, I can easily get burned in under ten minutes in the harsh Brazilian sun.

Additionally, I learned how to cook some new Brazilian foods, so look for the recipes up here sometime soon!


Until next time!

Lauren