So, apparently people want details concerning the last post. It´s not that exciting - which is partly why it was so stupid.
The language deal came up at the airport. Being a large group always takes long, and we were running late for our scheduled flight time. People had charges for overweight bags and there were long lines all over. Some people in our group tried to cut to make it to the gate, but not everyone was let through. One of our students tried to explain it to the airport employee and then proceeded to get loudly upset when the employee did not speak English. We are in Brazil. This country speaks Portuguese. It is not their obligation to cater to us - as guests we must assimilate to their ways. After we finally did get through the line, people were apparently surprised that they couldn´t take big bottles of liquids onto the plane. Oh, and plus, the loud speaker had announced that the flight was delayed; since we don´t speak Portuguese we kind of missed that info. So anyhoo, we made our flight and got to Rio without a big deal. Kind of funny if you sit back and brush it off, but also embarrassing to be associated with.
The alcohol part was from last night. I don´t really know what happened because I was playing pool when it got nuts at the table. We went to listen to samba music as the bar in the hostel around the corner from our hotel. Very cool place. Anyway, this same student ordered fries without the cheese and bacon. But then they weren´t cheaper like the staff supposedly said they would be. So she sent it back to have the cheese and bacon put on since she was paying for it. Then she got even more mad because they were cold. She says he was very rude to her and that she would never be treated that way in New York (I told her places in the States do treat people like that). Anyway, he threatened to call the cops on her - to which she replied that she was a paying customer and was not leaving and he could not talk to like he was. We asked her why she was being stupid because this isn´t the US and her rights are definitely not the same. (We learned after that one of the guys in the bar was a lawyer here and was telling the staff not to call the cops because our student had no money and would never get out of jail here.) I finally walked her home just to get rid of her. On the way to the hotel she told me that she was not going to leave the hotel anymore, that she would not contribute to this economy, and that Brazil is a bad place with bad people. I told her not to judge a country based on one person. She went to her room; I went back to the bar and got free drinks all night.
