Children´s Games and Packages!

Wow, quite a spate of posts recently--either I´ve been too busy or not busy enough...not actually sure which!

Today´s class was primarily dedicated to children´s games. We started off talking about typical food in the US and I waxed lyrical about the wonders of peanut butter, which is a surprisingly regular occurence. I thought it was important to talk/answer questions about food for a couple of reasons:

1. Everyone here eats rice and beans at least once a day. That´s not an exaggeration. You can´t find someone who doesn´t know how to cook arroz e feijão. When food comes up, Brazilians always want to know what our equivalent to rice and beans is. I have yet to think of something similar...I think the closest might just be PB&J sandwiches...cue another chance to sing peanut butter´s praises! When I told them sandwiches are really common and talked about Turkey Clubs and BLTs, they asked me if that was why Americans are all so fat. I wasn´t sure what to say but I ended up blaming (probably semi-unfairly) Fast Food.
2. Of the Brazilians that have actually visited the States (none of whom are students of mine), the majority have only been to Disney World, and maybe the other theme parks in Orlando. So they come back to Brazil complaining about how American food is awful and expensive to boot, and all anyone eats is hamburgers, hot dogs, and french fries. I wanted to correct this erroneous thinking.
3. Food is part of culture, intrinsically, and like I´ve said before, it´s funny to think about something we all need to survive changing so much from place to place.

The games we ended up playing:
-Duck Duck Goose this was definitely a favorite--people picked it up quickly and we played for a while. Incidentally, duck = pato and goose = ganzo, same as Spanish.
-WAH! Yes, all you Whiptail/BDC readers out there, I officially brought WAH to Brazil! We had an excellent time playing and by the end they really got it I think, though they definitely preferred duck duck goose.
-What time is it, Mr. Fox So I forgot the translation for Fox, so that was kind of lost, and I think I may have played it slightly wrong, but they got the general gist.
-Simon Says (Simon Diz) They really liked this one. I explained it to them and then said someone else had to be Simon because I didn´t know enough body parts yet—probably not quite true but I was tired of leading games and it got a laugh. We played that for quite a while.
-Morto Vivo We formally ended with a Brazilian children´s game they decided to teach me, and we had a lot of fun. When the leader says ´morto´, you have to squat down, ´vivo´, stand up. It´s simple but fast-paced and fun. I lasted for a long time which I was proud of.

We ended up formally ending right at 12 o´clock, but about half the students stayed after and we played ´rock paper scissors´and I taught them a few clap games.

I had by far my most fun day today, and I left in a stellar mood to head home for a late lunch, and then head over to the SIT headquarters where I picked up MAIL! A beautiful blouse and a letter from my wonderful Gran, and another letter from the Wellesley Office of International Study containing tons of news, a letter from the class dean, and (more importantly) Swedish Fish, Starburst, and a recipe for pumpkin pie— just in time for Thanksgiving! I think I might try and make something for class tomorrow; I´ll let you know how that endeavor turns out. Fátima´s oven doesn´t have any degrees or much temperature adjustment, so...well, we shall see.