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.

Work Hard, Play Hard

After a week of classes, working, and little time for a social life, we finally were going to have time to relax and hang out with friends. Friday was one of our friend’s birthday, so after some chimarrão and work, we headed over to our old living accommodations, the hotel, to say happy birthday and celebrate. It turned into amazing pizza (the second day in a row, because I made homemade pizza the night before), and Happy Birthday being sung in three languages, five different ways. After, we headed to the store to buy ingredients for sobremesas (desserts).

Catherine and I had been craving desserts all week, so I decided that chocolate fondue with fruit was in order. However, this is not exactly what came out. Instead, as some friends met us at our house, I made chocolate and coconut covered bananas to eat with our vihno tinto. Chocolate and wine, the best combination ever. In addition, we played some music and ended up dancing bachata, which I had been missing a lot.

Chocolate and coconut covered bananas.

The next day was spent relaxing before heading out to celebrate our friend’s birthday again. We went to watch several bands play forro, and had a blast! However, as Catherine and I were tired we decided to head home. About an hour later, Catherine received a phone call and life got crazy.

Catherine comes to my room and explains we had 7 guests on their way over. We frantically starting counting beds and figuring out where everyone was going to sleep. By the time everyone arrived, we were all set to go, only to find out half decided to head home and there were only 4 guests.

Sunday was relaxing once again, and I decided I needed to read. We felt bad that we were unable to see our friend that had just returned from break (a week into the semester), but due to timing, we hung out at home, and I stayed up till 7am Monday morning reading. Obviously, that hadn’t been the plan. So, Monday was a little more difficult to work than I had anticipated. But, I started and finished two books. So, maybe it was worth it…

By the time we made it to campus, it was lunch time. We ran into our friend and ended up following him to the mechanical engineering office. (Yes, most of our friends are studying mechanical engineering.) Surprisingly, the office was fun. We hung out and I ended up seeing Wesley’s project, a go-kart that he is building. Also, he made sure that I received one of the best gifts from his mom! After being made fun of for putting hot sauce on everything in Maceió (and apparently more in one sitting than anyone they know), she made me my own bottle of hot sauce! We have to wait to try it, but I cannot wait!

See all the peppers? So excited!

At the end of the day, I was exhausted, and passed out for a while before having the strength to go home. When we arrived home at 10:30ish, we decided it was a good time for bauru. Earlier in the week, we found an amazing bauru place at the beginning of our road. Let’s just say, if we don’t watch it, we are going to get fat quickly. 

Bauru Number Two!

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…