Stories Inspired by Life in Rural Brazil
Commentary on political happenings and social conditions
I don’t know about you, but I love me the occasional fashion blog. It’s the girly-girl in me. I like them even more than fashion magazines because they’re the voices of normal women, not style editors. In any case, they’ve all–fashion blogs and magazines–been in a tizzy for the last year or two about the …
You learn something new every day. In particular I love how life often decides to give you a crash course in one subject or another. I love it even more when the lessons fly hard and fast one after another. My latest lesson in humility: Over the past weeks I offered up a few of …
Have you heard of the Danish idea of hygge (hue-gah)? Alex Beauchamp explains it this way: The Danish word hygge (hue-gah) is a feeling or mood that comes from taking genuine pleasure in making ordinary everyday things simply extraordinary; whether it’s using real lights on a Christmas tree or breaking out the good wine when friends come …
Recently I described my observations on Belo Horizonte’s graffiti scene. I saved two photos for later because there is another sub-genre of graffiti that doesn’t fit into the general definitions I described in my first post. Political graffiti is a category of its own, and is often done for different reasons than why someone would …
Not everyone appreciates a caterpillar but everyone loves a butterfly. That’s the way life is. However, you don’t get one without the other. That’s the way life is, too. I spent my last year of college hanging out with graffiti writers. (Ah, the tough things we do in the name of sociology research.) A dynamic …
There. A NPR article finally said what I’ve struggled to find the words to blog for months. In just six words, no less: “Ask Who I am, not What.” No matter where I go here in interior Brazil my funny accent opens the door to the same conversation every time: “So, where are you from?” …
I saw this on the wall of the Churrascuria near my school. I haven’t been here since last week and this must have been posted by the staff over the weekend. Love it. Translation: “We are smart We are caring We are fighters We are delicate, beautiful and sensitive. We are romantic, sensual, and sincere. …
Another re-run of an older post while I’m away studying in Belo Horizonte. The true irony to this post is that after writing this and then surviving a year of driving in Brazil I returned to the United States and got into my first fender-bender in over a decade. Sigh. Should I take it as an …
I adore the jazzy sounds of Elza Soares. All except for one song: Two Tac. Over and over I found myself skipping that track in the album because it was too jarring and overwhelming to my ears (so is the video on my eyes, it turns out). But imagine my surprise to discover that this time …
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