Passe Livre

In 2006 and 2007 I studied abroad in Brasil as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts. While I was in Brasil I was studying the language and culture along with meeting locals and traveling to different cities and regions. Before I left for Brasil I had no knowledge of how the people would treat a fresh ignorant American coming into their country. As I naively walked off the airplane with a clean shave and crew cut I met my new "parents" standing tall looking like nothing I would have imagined.
My host father, Oscar was tall, blond and bold. My "mother" Valeria not as tall, but dark and beautiful. Along side both were two of their three children Victor and Vinicius. Victor was 14 at the time and six feet tall and with an outrageous shoe size of 14. Little Vini was only 5 but was showing signs of great height and shoe size. With radiant smiles and firm hugs they excepted me right away.
My first Brasilian meal was in that Airport in Sao Paolo international. They offered me one of Brasil's delicacies; Pao de Queijo and a coffee. Pao de Queijo is a cheese bread that is very common in Brasil and has a very unique taste that is learned to love. After I devoured my treat and we spoke a few broken words back and forth we set off on our six hour drive back to the small town of Promissao which my host family had come from.
Promissao has a population of 10,000 people and endless fields of sugar cane, which along with milk, leather, eggs and latex is one of the biggest manufactured products of that area. Later I would spend numerous hours exploring the cane fields and learning everything there was to know about Brasilian exports. Oscar was a businessman and entrepreneur. He owned a branch of a famous radio station, Band FM, he started a construction company with his brother and a reforesting company along side it. He owned various properties around the city and was loved by most everyone. All Oscar wanted to do was show me how great Brasil was, and all I did was listen.


More coming soon....