To Grandmother's House We Go

(click on the pics to see them full size)

Yesterday we woke up early, picked up Will's mom (who had traveled here from Santa Catarina) and drove a little over an hour from Porto Alegre to Vale Real (translation: Royal Valley). I was a little nervous that Will's mom and I wouldn't be able to communicate (my Portuguese is still pretty limited), but I was relieved when she and I discovered that we both speak enough Spanish to have a decent conversation. The drive was pretty nice, I basically just zoned out in the back seat and watched Brazil go by. I noticed a lot of things during the drive:

1. Gas is pretty much the same price everywhere, whether you're in the middle of the city or way out in the countryside. Right now it's R$2,49/liter ($5.95/gal) and you don't see huge variations like you do in a lot of other places.

2. Most businesses don't have signs attached to their buildings, they're usually just painted right on the building. The colors are also often really bright and garish... It makes me think of Sturbridge, MA and how the city is completely anal about how each business presents itself... the city planners there would probably have a heart attack if they saw how things go down in Rio Grande do Sul.

3. The closer we go to Vale Real, the more German everything got. It made me think of the German village of Leavenworth in the mountains east of Seattle, only way less tacky. I remember seeing one billboard that said João Vogel, a nice juxtaposition of German and Portuguese. Later in the afternoon we went to the store and I told Will that if I didn't know where I was at that moment, I never would have guessed that I was in Brazil. With the green rolling hills out of The Sound of Music and 90% of the people walking by with blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin, the only clues as to where I was were the language being spoken and the license plates on the cars. Other than that Vale Real may as well have been a Bavarian village outside of Munich.

When we arrived at Will's grandmother's house, she greeted me with this chihuahua:



It was very interesting speaking with Will's grandmother because she speaks mainly Portuguese but also German (which ends up coming out a little more than half Portuguese). I had a pretty interesting conversation with her about DVDs, her late husband, slaughtering pigs and making sausage. She'd slip into Portuguese and the more confused I looked, the more German she used (with some very interesting grammatical choices). Overall she was very sweet and I really enjoyed getting to know her.

I also felt a little guilty because I'm a vegetarian, which is not very common in southern Brazil. Will's mom was nice enough to make me some noodles with a white sauce while everyone else had churrasco (huge chunks of meat on skewers) Here's Will threatening his cousin Victor with some churrasco:



Speaking of Will's cousins, they kept me pretty busy all day... at first they thought I was weird, but then Victor wanted to speak German with me (which he's learning in school) and Will's other cousin Erica wanted me to play ping pong... Since I was American, the kids decided they wanted to play baseball, which they improvised by pitching a whiffle ball at a ping pong paddle... it was pretty fun and I ended up getting a lot of sun and exercise. Later in the day Will's mom had to help me out by shooing the kids away when I collapsed exhausted on the couch. We also enjoyed some Playstation games and Victor wowed us with his skills on the accordion:


Another highlight of the day was a short drive to the lake nearby. Here are a couple of pictures... it's kind of funny how one picture looks totally like Brazil and the second looks like... umm... not Brazil:



We also enjoyed some fresh tangerines from the tree behind Will's grandmother's house:


One of the highlights was hearing the story of how Will's parents met at a German-Italian dance in the area, which is perfect because she's Italian and Will's dad is German... then we saw a billboard indicating that the European tradition is alive and well in Vale Real:



After a long day of eating and playing, we set off around 5 p.m. only to have the power in the car completely and suddenly cease to exist. The speedometer was stuck at 120 km/hr, the radio and clock shut off, and the engine died. We pulled over on the side of the highway and were completely surprised. I said "why don't we pop the hood?" and so we did and found this:



The positive connection on the battery had somehow come loose and detached, causing the car to lose power. Will carefully reattached it and we continued safely back to Porto Alegre.