On our first Brazilian party
Daisy and I arrived in Brazil and lived in a house with a woman and her live-in boyfriend for three months. They also had a huge dog, part-hound, who…did not like us. All three could be a handful, but our hosts were really generous with us. In those first months, it took us a while to have contact with university students because of a delay in scheduling our Portuguese classes and the English classes we would host.
One random Friday at the university cafeteria, I sat with a girl and struck up a conversation with her. She was younger, a freshman it seemed. We shared a bit about ourselves, and she mentioned that she liked going to parties and that there was one coming up, if I was interested in going. That was how we ended up going to our first republica party.
The night of the party, we took an Uber to the house. We arrived on the dark street and searched for a way in. There was a long wall with a lot of plants and greenery and what seemed to be a garage door. The door to get into the house itself was past a gate, so we couldn’t knock. We could hear the sounds of music and people talking. We started laughing at each other as we realized we were stuck outside this house where we didn’t really know anyone.
Soon after we’d arrived and checked things out, another group of about three or four students showed up and looked at us as if to say, you trying to get into this party too? They’d already had some drinks. One of the girls introduced herself as Finlandia and we explained that yes we were trying to get in, and we were also foreigners. At the time, Daisy’s Portuguese was decent, but mine was pretty much nonexistent. Luckily for us Finlandia spoke English because she spent time in the US and also studied abroad in Europe. Eventually someone exited the house and was able to open the gate for us to get in.
Finlandia had bright blue eyes and long straw colored hair. She was super animated as she explained that in republicas, people referred to each other by their nicknames. Republicas were student organizations which shared some similarities with sororities and fraternities in the US. Republica could also refer to the house where the members lived and hosted parties. Each organization had its own backstory, unique name, and personality, we would come to learn later. In Finlandia’s republica, all the girls had a nickname that was also an alcoholic drink, and she explained Finlandia was a type of vodka.
Inside the house, the party felt indoor and outdoor at the same time. In what would’ve been the garage, there were some couches and tables with drinks where people drank and smoked, with a large space in the center for dancing. Loud Brazilian funk and trap music played, and people would sing along now and then. The party also opened up onto the backyard. We saw the girl who I’d gotten the invite from and greeted her, and she smiled at us past heavy-lidded eyes. She got us some drinks, then wandered off. So we drank, danced, and chatted to some people, having to yell into their ears over the music to explain who we were and what we were doing in Brazil. Finlandia found us again and danced with us, and also gave us a drink from a small colorful bottle called corote, a type of cachaça, which is a Brazilian liquor that comes from sugar cane. She would always mention that later and laugh, how she had found two gringas that night and given us our first taste of corote.
Later on in the night, we chatted with two guys in the backyard, one we’d just met and the other who had been in some of the classes we’d visited at the university. One of the guys had texted his friend to come to the party, and that was how we met the girl who would later become my neighbor, who arrived probably after midnight. She was a few years older, with thin brown hair and dark eyes. We got to chatting with her and got her number, and finally we left to go home.
Finlandia and my neighbor were two people who ended up really helping us during our time in Brazil. Finlandia was studying social science, and she explained to us the political climate on campus, how the administration was trying to cut some university programs, and the reasons that both professors and students were initiating strikes (which would sometimes conflict with or cancel the classes that we hosted). My neighbor was a graduate Chemistry student who helped me acquire my apartment, which was right next to hers. While I would’ve liked to hang out with her a bit more, she was still super helpful in a lot of ways, like letting me use her washing machine and her clothesline on laundry days. She also had a super cute brown chihuahua named Apollo who would roam the complex, dozing on other people’s welcome mats in the sun and being friendly with all the residents. She was someone who also helped us with our Portuguese in those early months, because she spoke just a bit of English. Finlandia on the other hand was pretty much fluent so whenever we hung out she would switch over.
Towards the end of our stay, Daisy hosted what we would call “festinhas na sacada”, or small parties on the roof of her apartment. We would gather a small group of friends, snack on chips and guac, and drink caipirinhas. I was struck by how our Brazilian friends, even the ones that struck me as reserved, were comfortable holding the floor at parties, willing to talk and joke about different topics and have a good time and connect. We’d grown from having to crash a university party to being able to host our own. Those chance encounters at that first party had blossomed into new experiences and a new appreciation for seeking out those connections and a gratefulness for those connections that last.
originally published 2/13/22