Christmas in Rio

(If you're on my "friends" email list, you've already gotten a slightly different version of this by email. This is an expanded description of Christmas in Rio.)

Christmas always seems sort of surreal here because it's so hot! It's high summer now and it's been
over 100F most of this week. But the Christmas decorations in the stores have fake snow - plus reindeer, sleighs, Santa, carolers, artificial fir trees, the works. Like I said, surreal. The Christmas trees especially seem surreal, to me, because apparently Brazilians have latched on to the idea that a Christmas tree should be conical, but none of the native trees are the right shape. (That shape only evolves where there's heavy snow.) Indoors, they use fake fir trees that keep making me think I have somehow been teleported back to the Pacific Northwest. I'm reminded of a Hawaiian friend of mine, who, when she first moved to Seattle, kept saying "Oh my god, there are wild Christmas trees everywhere! Just growing, like real trees!" I think the Brazilians, like my Hawaiian friend, don't think of Christmas trees as actual trees. In fact, outdoors, the public "trees" have no physical tree at all - just an elaborate conical arrangement of Christmas lights, suspended in mid-air on a wire framework. Took me a while to get used to the idea of a tree-less tree. But they're really beautiful, actually.

But the best part about Christmas here... the rabanadas, big cinnamon-sugar pastries that appear in the bakeries at Christmas time. Like portable French toast. Every Christmas party has an enormous tray of them. YUM.

Well, actually, as good as the rabanadas are, that's not the best part. The best part has been spending time with my friends and their families. Last year I spent Christmas completely alone. This year has been very different. 2 family Christmases, two extravagantly decorated trees, piles of gifts, super-excited kids running around, huge enormous feasts... I actually bought some presents (first time in 2 years!) and got some too. Including the 2007 samba-enredo cd!

In Brazil, the big family feast and present-opening seems to be on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day, or at least it was in my 2 families. The whole family, kids included, have the giant feast late on Christmas eve. Part of it was very familiar - turkey, ham, potatoes - and part was not - codfish balls, rabanadas, piles of roasted Portuguese chestnuts, and passionfruit mousse. No eggnog, but lots of champagne. Everybody stays up till midnight and opens ALL the presents right then, from midnight till about three am - kids included!

How does Santa come, in a tropical country with no fireplaces, and where no one will go to sleep to let him put the gifts under the tree? Well, of course, he just rings the bell or knocks on the door shortly after midnight, but when you open the door, there's nobody there - he's already dashed away in his sleigh - but there on the doorstep is a pile of presents! I guess he doesn't get any cookies, though. (coincidentally, you might spot a parent or grandparent or aunt scuttling away around the corner. Brazilian families are so large, nobody notices if one of the adults vanishes for a little while.)

Christmas in Brazil marks the end of the school year and the start of summer, sort of like Memorial Day does in the US. It's also a little vacation from the increasingly intense Carnaval preparations, which surged ahead in early December with the start of escola rehearsals at the Sambodromo (the big samba stadium). But for the two weeks bracketing Christmas and New Year's, there are no lessons, no classes, no escola rehearsals at the Sambodromo. Everybody just takes a little break. I'm planning to take a break too. I need it! I've been working super hard. I've been playing in three escolas (Sao Clemente,
Mocidade, and - rarely - a tiny bit at Grande Rio), and also in Monobloco's advanced class; plus renting studio time several times a week to practice; plus tamborim in the Monobloco beginner class, third surdo & repinique in Banga, and lots of private lessons; and hours and hours trying to practice and write out all my recordings, and hours and hours on long rattly bus rides to the distant escolas...

Some of it's going REALLY well. I can't believe Mocidade has let me play with them; and I'm a little surprised with how well caixa is going. And some is REALLY difficult - in my last tamborim class I got so frustrated that I started crying in the class and couldn't stop! Damn, there is nothing quite as maddening as trying to change an ingrained bad habit (my right hand keeps reverting to a caixa hold). And I have been completely stalled on pandeiro all month, bored with my practice routine and unsure what to aim for next.

It is stressful sometimes, having gambled so much to come here, and feeling such pressure (self-imposed) to do well. Time is slipping away! My trip here is half over already! And I've been getting super-exhausted from the all-night escola bus rides. So it will be good to have a break this week. I feel like I need to sleep for about a month.

So, time for a break. I'm heading to the Rio Surf Tour hostel for a few days... no rehearsals, no classes, or escolas... just me and the beach... and, well, I think I'll bring the tamborim and the pandeiro too! just in case! I'll just have some fun with them, no stress. And then, back to Copacabana/Ipanema for the enormous New Year's beach parties. And be ready for a beautiful new year.