Category: Culture

These are a few of the things that have helped me stay sane during my fading love for Brazil as described in my last post. They’re little things (and …

The story of my involvement with Brazil spans seven years and five or six trips back and forth for study, for work, and for love – but the whole …

If, like me, you spend around 8 hours a week on Brazilian buses, here are some people you’re sure to see: 1. The person who offers to hold your …

Most Brazilian food is colorful and delicious, like the dishes in my last post. …but there’s an exception to every rule. In June 2010, I spent a week with …

So, rice and beans are not your thing? Well, you’re in luck, because Brazilian cuisine has an enormous variety of mouth-watering options besides arroz e feijão. Here are just …

Take this quiz to find out how Brazilian (or not) you are: Food You eat all the parts of the traditional feijoada, including the chunks of skin, ear, and foot: …

1. Brazil’s name comes from a tree Brazil’s original name was Ilha de Vera Cruz (Island of the True Cross) – given by the explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral when he …

I’ll never forget my first encounter with a Portuguese expression that seemed to make no sense. It happened during my first month in Brazil, when I lived with a …

Before we got married, my husband asked me multiple times and in various ways if I was really willing to give up the comforts of living in the U.S. …

Wedding etiquette is complicated. I haven’t even been to that many weddings, so I don’t know much about how things are “supposed” to be done. But there were two …