5 Posts in 1

Well this is it! My first moment free in the last few months!

Next Friday will mark the last day of the summer semester and I can’t begin to express how nice that is. I have been ignoring this blog to a point of extreme child abuse, and am beginning to feel the stomach tightening shame of neglect. It’s as if the collective volume of my blog is rising up, screaming shrill cries of parental disregard late into the night. I’m afraid that despite a seeming lull in inspiration, I simply cannot ignore her any more.

So sorry.

To my credit, this is the porra that has been keeping my busy:

Citizenship, from the dawn of the Greek polity to the formation of the nation-state in the 18th century, has played a major role in the filial, linguistic, and cultural organization of people’s lives. In the days of the small-scale Greek communities, citizenship was seen as a public matter—an obligation deeply connected to one’s every day life. To be truly human, one had to be an active participant in the communal unit, for as Aristotle famously expressed: “To take no part in the running of the community’s affairs is to be either a beast or a god!” In the modern age, communal politics and identity, which was once local and organic, has taken on a global scale. As the world becomes more inter-connected, the lines between citizen and community, nation and its nationals are becoming increasingly distorted. At the center of this deconstruction is the use and adaptation of the national language—the central consolatory power which defines ethnicity, prescribes citizenship, and which feeds the heart of the human polity and its individual and collective consciousness. As these lines become blurred, as one nation becomes coupled to another, and as citizenship becomes increasingly de-territorialized, the adoption of language policies – or planned interventions relating to the use of language – is of particular import for how citizenship and identity may be expressed on the international level. This paper seeks to explore this topic of the world citizen, the process of recognizing oneself in the other, the role of English as a global language, and the possibilities that language policy, at the local level, may hold.

Heady isn’t it? And this is just the abstract so you can only imagine. As much as I like doing research and writing academically stunning, if inane, pieces of intellectual property, there is only so much a man can take.

And so it is, back to the bloggity blog.

First thing of great note and import on this Brazilian journey of mine is that I have graduated!!! A couple of Fridays ago, Vivi and I decided to hit the town with a group of her English students. It was one of those really fun crowds, full of energy, who drink like horses, who are the loudest group in the bar, generously liberal in their jokes, giggles, and smiles. You know, the fun type.





We hit the Rio Vermelho district and sat outside drinking beer late into the morning. Pretty common occurrence by our standards, but what set this particular outing apart was the subtle cultural interaction that happened between her students and myself. To my glee, I have reached a point in my Portuguese that allows me to be my safado, jokester, no public shame kind of self, and it is indeed most liberating. The process of learning a language has been somewhat difficult for me, as I have had to survive being the quiet awkward observant one for too long. I hate this. Truly hate it.

On this particular night, lil’ social Leo came out full storm. Every Bahian joke, slang, and soliloquy that I knew came flowing forth. This was a huge surprise for her students because they had never met a foreigner who could interact with them on such a level (as one of their own). This was accentuated by the fact that I am American, and that there is a real stereotype here that Americans are in a sense, untouchable, if not aloof to cultures unlike their own. So for all of us, it was a breaking down of longstanding and seemingly impenetrable socio-cultural boundaries. And for me, it was a long awaited point of arrival—an affirmation that after two years of brow furrowed concentration, I am truly becoming Brazilian. Thumbs up for that!



During the night, the students gave me a nickname "pombo sujo" or "dirty pigeon" which is a guy that knows all of the bad jokes, slang, and pop culture of Bahia. I loved it, and to my suprise the students made me a certificate of my graduation, making it official!





So as it is, I have been extremely, extremely, stressed and busy trying to get my passport for December. Three months ago, after having bought my plane tickets to come home for Christmas and see the folks, I started the unbelievably bureaucratic process of applying for the document. All I can say is, wtf!

Yeah, um, so Leo, you need to get a voting document. Um yeah, Leo, for that you need to register with the military. For that you need to reschedule for a flag swearing ceremony. After that, you need to get your titular eleitor, for that you need to wait a month, for that you need to get a confirmation of doing that, and then wait for the confirmation to be processed, and after that make an appointment with the Federal Police to turn in your documents, and for that get a confirmation of your place of birth, and for that bribe a representative to make sure that 5 days prior to my travel, the passport is printed in time. Uhhhhhh, breath.

Here I am, with less than a week away from my official travel date, and I still do not have my passport (over three months after bringing the process). Jesus. Really? Can we complicate this any further, just for the sake of fucking over people who need to travel. Can we get a signed and stamped confirmation of the fucking over, in order to prove that the fucking over “might” potentially happen, depending on the weather, and watermark, and level of ……. on that particular day?

Fingers crossed we’ll see what happens.

And wait there’s more.

I have finally finished it. About five months ago, Vivi asked me to design her first tattoo. I am an extremely anal, detailed, and patient tattoo designer, and generally take around six months to develop or perfect a tattoo. Witness Vivi’s phoenix which she will be getting for her birthday.

I received this photo as a reference:



Through countless hours in photo shop, I turned it into this:



You like?

Alright, before I splatter any more of my brains on this page, let me leave you with three ridiculously amazing rock-reggae videos that I found. The first is 311, what I consider one of the shining examples of this little known genera. The following two are from a band called Forfun here in Brazil. This is my absolute favorite genera of music that I am into right now. One day, when I get past this damned masters degree and have some free time, I’d like to form a band and make some music of my own.








Oh Leo, such a dreamer.

I’m out!