I was walking back from language book shopping with a woman from the
hostel scene (hi Claudia!) and we passed a high school in the center
of the city. There was a large paved area inside a fence next to the
school, just like you'd see in New York or Philly. And on it a huge
group of high school kids was out in the playground doing a really
flirty, dosie-doe-ing version of gym class.
We just had to stop and watch from the sidewalk. And we stood there
with huge grins on our faces.
Everybody was in the gym version of their school uniform: collared
short sleeves, grey athletic pants, and optional but often opted-for
grey short skirts for girls. There was loud Brazilian dance music;
this high school had a bumpin' PA. A few young teachers or older
students were the flirty jazzercise drill sergeants, bouncing around
and blowing whistles in an awesome fusion of authority and complicity.
At first there were two lines, and pairs had to run up the middle of
the lines grabbing hands behind their backs as they swapped sides.
The move seemed designed to distract the teenagers from being awkward
and goofy, so that they grasp hands in a moment of unselfconsciousness.
Then the next thing was even crazier; it was pretty much a G-rated
gym class version of wining! Everybody stood in two concentric
circles facing the center, standing with their back to someone else.
They did a booty shake down and back up, and then shifted to the
right. Then after a full revolution the inside circle switched
places with the outside circle.
Everybody's dancing style was different. Sporty, chill, lazy,
aloof. Oh, and did I mention that a few of the guys were really,
really flamboyantly gay? It was great!
Thinking about it now it reminds me of the parts of Brave New World
that--admit it--were pretty hot. One imagines alpha plus Brazilian
education technocrats convening meetings to puzzle over questions
like "How can we ensure everyone is socially/sexually well-adjusted?"
or "How do we boost attendance in after school programs?" (this was
at 5:00PM in late June) or "Adolescent males need to learn to be in
Brazil without having erections all the time. But how?"
We were part of a small assortment of onlookers that also included
some old guys (hey maybe that's cool here?) and one girl's mom or
someone who knew her mom (mom laughing, girl mortified). The German
felt funny watching once the sheer joy wore off and so we walked to
get ice cream and sit down to watch some more. Appropriately, the
German got popcorn flavored ice cream. Appropriate and totally
gross. Anyway, in the ice cream shop there were more teenagers who
seemed to be having a really good time, and I realized that the only
people I've really seen having fun in Brazil so far have been
teenagers. It seems really fun here to be a teenager.
So, international businesspeople, professors with sabbaticals,
lefties looking to escape Bush's America, here is my recommendation:
Based on everything I know about Brazil, there is nowhere better you
could bring teenage children. If you dragged your teenagers here, it
would be *so* hard for them to even feign grumpiness. They'll get in
shape, find teenage love, eat exotic jungle flavored ice cream, learn
to dance and get fluent in the raddest language around. Seriously.
Okay, semi-seriously.
