It's an odd, in between time at the university right now. After vacation finished in July, we had two weeks of work with an intensive class for English Without Borders because the semester hasn't officially started yet. Next week all ETAs in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay head to São Paulo for our mid-year seminar and then classes begin the week after that. So until then, we have been trying to get back into the swing of things, preparing presentations for the upcoming seminar and reflecting on our vacation.
One of the biggest perks, without a doubt, of teaching abroad is the amount of vacation time. This year we had the month of July off and took three small trips to nearby places. Our first adventure was to visit some of my mentees in the capital city of São Luis in the neighboring state of Maranhão. We spent three days in the city and spent two of them at the university UFMA (Federal University of Maranhão) and a third day exploring a nearby historic island. After school we spent time walking around the city which is beautiful and famous for its cobbled streets and restored colonial buildings and mansions.
We stayed right in the historic city center which was quirky and charming. The iconic image of São Luis is of colorful ceramic tiles which can be seen everywhere. Many of the tiles are from the 19th century and are often blue or blue and white from Portugal, France, Belgium and Germany. The tiles provided a durable means of protecting walls from the omnipresent humidity and heat that comes with being a northern city on the coast of Brazil.
It was also fun to try some of the regional foods and drinks such as stuffed crab, shrimp stew and the city's specialty arroz de cuxá, rice with shrimp, toasted sesame mixed with a bitter herb called vinagreira. The drink that everyone said we had to try was a neon pink pop called Jesus (named after the guy who came up with the recipe) that tastes like bubblegum. It was way too sweet for me but interesting to try nonetheless. While we were there we say everyone drinking Jesus and it became obvious that it was the beverage of choice. The locals that we talked to said that it has always outsold Coke there so Coca-Cola finally just bought it. The marketing slogan used to promote the soda calls it the "Pink Dream."
Sean was more interested in the unusual-looking bottles of purple alcohol hanging in the central market. The most common alcoholic drink in Brazil is called cachaça which is normally made from sugar cane. The type of cachaça in São Luis, however, is made from manioc root and is called Tiquira and Sean said it didn't taste half bad. At least this lilac-colored liquor will be more tasty to try and share at home than the vile bottle of snake wine brought back from Vietnam. Gross.
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