Peruvian Adventures

Peru is amazing. Cusco and Machu Picchu are destinations that I also add to the highly recommended list. Much like visiting Egypt and seeing the pyramids and tombs constructed so many thousands of years ago without technology, seeing the Inca ruins was really awe inspiring. And serves to remind us that we’re really not as smart as we like to think we are.

But unfortunately seeing Machu Picchu was not the most adventurous part of my trip. In an unexpected turn of events, I had an overnight stay in a Peruvian hospital during my vacation. I will spare you all the gory details, but needless to say that an emergency visit to the hospital in a developing country where you don’t speak the language (my spoken Spanish is actually a combination of Portuguese plus a smattering of actual Spanish words necessary to order beer and exchange pleasantries) was quite the intense, nerve wracking experience. Thankfully, when it was all said and done, I got good treatment and have been recovering just fine. But, I certainly felt like I’ve now experienced a different side of expat life, being far away from familiar healthcare, having a limited ability to discuss my health and decide about my treatment in my own language, and feeling extremely far away from my family for the first time. Quite the experience…Maybe this means that I have been truly initiated to South American life now?

For more photo highlights (hospital photos of me with an IV, withheld) visit this album.

Preguiçosa

In the same vein of some of my direct translations (see once again I have Doubts), this is one that I have recently been amused with: preguiçosa (preguiçoso)= LAZY.

Despite these words being exact translations and technically the correct word in each language, I still mantain that this in Portuguese is NOT the same as it is in English.

Portuguese: My colleagues use this word ALL THE TIME. After lunch, tired and full from eating, they say eu me sinto preguiçoso... In English they say to me, I feel lazy.

English: At this, I always feel surprised. Lazy? This word is reserved for insults, refering to non-contributing members of society or a very ironic or self-deprecating comment about oneself. To blatantly tell your colleagues after lunch, I FEEL LAZY? It's just not done. That's like career suicide. As I said in my recent post, não é possível!

This word in Portuguese, clearly does not pack the same cultural punch. After discussing this at length with many Brazilians it became clear to me that this word is quite innocuous in Portuguese. It merely means that tired, slightly slow or less motivated feeling one has on a saturday morning or after lunch on a weekday. Not a complete separation from the rest of our productive society, implying that one has embraced sloth and obesity as a way of life and that some extreme weight loss reality TV show should be targeting you as fodder for its next season.

Helpful, since instead of packing for my trip to NYC, I am drinking wine and writing my blog. And so, not only shall I embrace the impossible, I shall perhaps embrace my inner feeling of preguiçosa! De novo!

North American Excuses

I wrote about Brazilian excuses (see post: Então) awhile back, and its time to return the favour to all of us Canadian and Americans.

North Americans, when declining a social invitation, seem to feel an overwhelming need to explain WHY they cannot attend. And, if they simply do not want to attend, they further feel the need to create some elaborate (yet somehow tenuously plausible) story about why they cannot attend. Something like: I can't come because I have to work late, and then go to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned, and then my friend is coming into town so I have to clean the apartment, and then I have to meet my boss's son as an obligation which I simply can't get out of, SO, then I just don't think I can quite make the party...Even though I'D LOVE TO BE THERE! God forbid that one actually say, I don't want to, I'm too tired or something as simple as I'm just not into it.

Extensive explaining of why you cannot attend an event is seen as very strange here to Brazilians. No one expects a long winded explanation. In fact, just the opposite, personal oversharing is seen as strange, unneccesary and even uncomfortable overstepping of privacy. A Brazilian will decline an invitation by saying some variation of Unfortunately, its not possible. Não posso. É impossível. Infelizmente!

This simplicity is refreshing. In this case, I am taking a page from the Brazilian book and have started embracing the IMPOSSIBLE!

Sorry, it's just not possible.

Mendoza

Quick vacay to Mendoza, Argentina's beautiful wine country at the base of the Andes. Vineyards turned fall colours, gorgeous sunsets and sunrises against the mountains, wine tastings, great food and chilling out, pool by day, fire by night.
Mendoza has rated up there on my highly recommended list of places I've been thus far on the planet. GO. THERE. IMMEDIATELY.




















More photos of Mendoza, as well as Buenos Aires and Iguassu Falls are now posted here for your viewing enjoyment.