I haven't blogged much lately because I have been on the road.  Fulbright gives each ETA a travel stipend which we can use to either attend or present at an academic conference which pertains to either our research area or teaching English in general.  Since I was a part of UFPA's linguistic research group this semester, I was able to present at CLAFPL (a conference about improving future language teachers in Brazil), one of the conferences where our proposals were submitted.  My presentation was about analyzing Language Advising using Complexity Theory.  It was my first time presenting in Portuguese and I lost a little bit of sleep over it and spent hours practicing.  It went well and I feel extremely relieved that it is over and done with.  It was a good way for me to end the year and tie up my time with the research group.



We have less than two weeks to go and each day is already chock full of activities.  Tomorrow I present at the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) conference in Belém and then all of us are working like crazy to get Halloween workshops and parties ready for Friday.  This has been such a fun year and though I'm sad to be leaving Belém, I'm excited for whatever comes next.

Lots has been happening for me and Sean in Belém recently.  We took a weekend trip to Marajó Island which was a nice little getaway and last weekend was the famous Círio de Nazaré celebration.  The tradition of Círio actually lasts for almost the entire month of October.  It is a religious festival that involves the pilgrimage of many Catholics to worship an image of Saint Mary.  During the celebration, the population of the city swells to more than double and there are a variety of different church services and masses, processions and performances.  It's known as the largest religious festival in South American and being able to witness the event was not only really interesting but also a little overwhelming and emotional.



The first part of Círio takes place on Saturday morning on the river and is called Círio Fluvial.  The saint is escorted down the river to the port of Belém by a large group of decorated boats.  We watched the aquatic pilgrimage from the balcony of one of the Fulbright coordinators who has a superb view of the spectacle.  She also offered us breakfast and lunch replete with homemade traditional foods.  It was a fun and relaxing morning eating, catching up with the other ETAs, and kicking off the holiday weekend with plenty of fireworks and elaborately decorated boats.  After lunch, Sean and I headed home to nap and recharge before the evening festivities began.

The two main newspapers from each extreme predict different candidates to win the election (Photo credit Eric Stoner)

 It's a big day for Brazil today - there are elections for federal, state and local positions along with the presidential election.  For the first time in South America there are two women running against each other for president along with one other male candidate.  To be honest, I haven't been very interested in the candidates' profiles but I have been very intrigued by the election culture here in Brazil.

These past few weeks have been filled with fireworks, increased traffic because of parades, cars with loudspeakers blasting political propaganda, doorbell ringers at all times of day eager to hand out pamphlets and people lining the streets waving flags of their party.  It's made daily life a bit chaotic, to say the least.



Voting in Brazil is required and this obligation is a frequent topic of discussion in our English classes.  Students are both amazed and interested in how the U.S. election system works especially because it is voluntary.  Here, if you don't vote you have to pay a fine and could never be considered for a government position.  You also have to vote in the place where you were born and if you move you either have to do a lot of paperwork to change your voting location or apply for a proper justification of why you physically cannot be there to vote. 

Political propaganda covers the streets of Belém

Voting in Brazil is famously corrupt and when I ask my students what this means they say that it's because candidates "buy their vote."  They either give citizens money to vote for them or give them free things they can use.  One example I heard was one candidate giving out free pressure cookers but to get the very important and necessary lid to the cooker, you had to show up on voting day and vote for him.  Most of my students choose to vote "Nulo" which means they show up to vote but either leave their ballot blank or just write in nonsense so that their vote doesn't count.

One thing I will NOT miss from Brazil: os "Carros de Som" / Sound Cars

Most interesting for me, however, was the "Lei Seca" or the Dry Law which forbids drinking on the night before and the day of the election to try and prevent people getting a little too out of control (for similar reasons, alcohol is not usually permitted in soccer stadiums as well).  Voting is always on a Sunday here so restaurants and stores stop selling alcohol at around 6pm on Saturday night.  That doesn't prevent people from drinking and having a good time, though, say my students.  Everyone just prepares for the weekend by buying their booze from the supermarket well ahead of time.

Check the news tomorrow to see the results of the Brazilian election!