It's the Start of Something New: Couchsurfing

As everyone in our house prepared to travel throughout the month on August, Jake and I decided to give Couchsurfing a chance. Over the past two months, we have opened our home on three different occasions for Couchsurfers. Now, we decided it was time to try surfing for ourselves. The process of just filling out requests was an experience in and of itself.

Two nights ago, we decided that the best option to get to Porto Alegre today was to stay in Pelotas last night. So, I sent out a couch request and had a response almost immediately. Unfortunately, the person could not host us at his house because he had owned a hostel and had been working a lot recently. However, he told us that he would like to host us in his hostel for the night, for free, and had already made a reservation. Jake and I were shocked, but grateful. 

Getting to the hostel was an adventure. We caught a bus to Pelotas, and at some point, I decided it might be a good idea to ask if anyone knew where the street of the hostel was. When I asked the bus driver, he said it was the stop he had just pulled away from, but that he would be returning to it. I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that, but we stayed on the bus. When we arrived at the rodoviaria, he told us if we wanted a ride to the street, he would take us there.

Once on the correct street, we realized we were in the 400's and needed to be in the 900's. We didn't realize it was more than 5 blocks. Like 10 blocks and two parks later, we arrived. But just the comforters on each bed made it worth it. They were AMAZING! It was the first time I didn’t wake up cold in the middle of the night in a long time. Our host, another guest, and our host ate pizza that tasted like a coxina, and I thought it was great. The best part was that our conversations easily slide back and forth between Portuguese and English, and it was great!

Shameless Plug: For anyone looking for a hostel in Pelotas though, I would highly recommend staying at Hello Hostel. Everything about it is nice!

Now we are on our way to Curitiba…

Fenadoce

A while back, the ETAs in Pelotas told us about a festival of doces that was going to occur in June. At the time, they did not have a lot of information, but I was excited. A festival of sweets? Count me in.

Pelotas, RS is famous for its sweets. Since Rio Grande is about an hour from Pelotas, doces de Pelotas are everywhere. Even the three snack shops at FURG sell a variety of them. Catherine and I have decided that doces de nozes (it is like a pecan truffle thing) is one of the best. The doces de amendoim (peanut truffle thing), is at the top of the list as well. Of course, I was excited to go to the festival, but I had no idea what to expect besides lots of sweets.

After waiting in line, two friends, Jake, and I entered Fenadoce and we were met by carnival rides, a giant building, and food tents. It was incredible. The building alone was gigantic. It housed booth after booth of people selling food, books, all things Gaúcho, clothes, blankets, and more. Additionally, other booths had travel and business information. Behind the booths sat the Cidade de Doces, the city of sweets. Set up as a mini town with little storefronts lining the indoor streets, place after place were selling doces. It was amazing. Our friends even bought us a cuia (the chimarrão cup), and engraved it: Lembrança dos amigos do Alegrete (A reminder of your Alegrete friends).

Jake and me in front of Cidade de Doces.

Cidade de Doces
I forgot to mention that the mascot of Fenadoce is an ant...

Jake found a giant cuia that he wanted to take home.

Doces
The doces de nozes are the milk chocolate and white chocolate covered sweets in the middle.

The doces even look like the Brasilian flag.

Once we had eaten our weight in sweets, we moved to another small building. As we sat and drank quentão (warm, spiced wine), we watched a group perform typical Gaúcho dances. Although the entire event was incredible, I was done eating doces for a while.

Life

I have determined that 48 hours without sleep makes for an interesting Rylee…just ask my sisters.

Saturday, I woke up like any other day with nothing to do: at 1pm. Catherine and I had decided to visit the ETA’s in Pelotas the next day, so we headed downtown to buy tickets. Along the way, we discovered o mercado público was completely closed at this time, there is nowhere to eat lunch downtown, bauru is a dinner food, and the saying here translates to, “I’m so hungry, I could eat a cow”. (Because, who eats horses?)

Although Catherine and I are living comfortably on campus now, we are looking at moving into a house/apartment off campus. (Sharing a kitchen with everyone in the building is hard.) So, next we headed towards Cassino to visit a potential home. Google Maps failed us. We walked at least a mile past the house, before turning around, because that is where it was located on Google Maps. Catherine and I had been hoping that this house would work out and we wouldn’t need to do anything else. Let’s just say, the house did not live up to anyone’s expectations. The structure was small, with a giant yard, and a single room with nothing else out back. But watching Catherine and the lady speak French to communicate was fun. It really is interesting how much Catherine and I use our Romance languages to communicate when our Portuguese is lacking here.

Basking in our disappointment we headed back to campus because a group of friends were making dinner and hanging out. Catherine and I actually made it through a game of charades, Imagem e Açao, in Portuguese. The games lasted until well past 4am. By the time we got home and ready for bed, it was 6:30am.

Catherine passed out in Pelotas.

At 8am the next morning, my door flies open and Catherine yells, “we are not going to make the bus!” The craziness that ensued was well worth the lack of sleep. Within 15 minutes I was ready to go. I go into Catherine’s room as she is stepping out of the shower. Her only response, “I still have to pack.” So, we decided to part ways and I headed to the bus stop. For whatever reason, I thought the busses would take a while and I ended up walking all the way to the bus stop, which is over a 4km walk. I somehow made it with 10 minutes to spare. By the time I made it to Pelotas, I had slept for a total of 2.5 hours since the day before.

I hopped in a taxi and the taxi drivers discussed the address for a few minutes, before the driver followed. But, I got to the ETA’s house safe and sound. Shane’s greeting was great: “I saw you sent a message at 4am. How much did you sleep?” Then I was offered breakfast. Shane and Lisa were both so great about everything! Finally, at 11 something, Catherine arrived. Life ensued, and we decided to get our hands on some of the famous Doces de Pelotas.

The ETAs and their doces.

Later, we met the third ETA and everyone headed to the mall for some much needed food. While at the mall, I found something I just had to have before heading home.

My new dessert book. 100% in Portuguese!

In the taxi on the way to the rodoviária, the taxi driver and I had a great conversation, completely in Portuguese. The fact that a month ago, when I arrived in Brasil, I knew less than five phrases, means I am actually learning the language! The strangest part was when I was asked if I was from São Paulo. As I was trying to say no, I completely butchered the sentence. I guess proving I wasn’t Brasilian. 

By the time I made it home, I was wide awake. Somehow, I didn’t go to bed till after 2am. I might have been pushing delirious by that point…