McDonald's and Diversity in Brazil

Kind of sad that my 2nd post on this travelogue is about McDonalds but oh, well!

We've been in the country about 9 days now and I'm horrified to say that we've been to McDonald's about 6 times now.  Our kids are pretty picky eaters in the States and it's been a challenge to find things that Safari Girl, in particular, will eat.  Plus, they are giving out Super Mario toys in the Happy Meals (McLaunche Feliz) and it's been fun for them to collect the toys and actually have something to play with here.  So here are some things about McDonald's in Brazil.

• When we order a cheeseburger, apparently they have no word in Portuguese for it.  For a lot of other things they just use the English word, albeit with a Portuguese accent (DVD, iPad, pickles) but in this case they don't.  We have to order "bread and meat with cheese" (pao e carne com queijo).  That's a cheeseburger.  
• But chicken nuggets are simply called nuggets.
• Their shakes are really good.  They put little round chocolate sprinkles in them that actually taste better, I think, than the chocolate sprinkles in the States. 
• They serve grape juice and Guarana in addition to orange juice.  We haven't asked about other sodas.
• I tried a "Cheddar" burger (it's Cheddar written in English here) thinking that was a cheeseburger but it most definitely is NOT the same kind of cheese burger.  They piped on enough cheese whiz that it could have been frosting on a store bought cupcake in the States.  I couldn't even stand to look at it, let alone eat it!  I posted the picture Facebook.  I will NOT be getting that again.

• The workers have to dress from head to toe in a McDonald's uniform.  Literally.  They have a hat, a shirt, jeans have have the Golden Arches embroidered near the back pocket and even their shoes have the Golden Arches on them!  I have to laugh every time at that little Golden Arch embroidered near their back pants pocket. 

 

Make sure to zoom in so you can see that embroidered Golden Arches!

 

We are quite the attraction when we go.  The teen workers all oogle us and families watch us and tell their children that we are speaking English.  It's a weird sensation to be the center of so much attention.  There are a lot more people of European descent in Southern Brazil where we are, and there's more diversity in general (Chinese, Japanese, etc) but I still haven't seen that many really blonde people the way our kids are blonde.  Also, I catch people staring at my blue eyes.  In Northern Brazil where I served a mission my blue eyes were even more of a rarity and they called my dark brown hair blonde!  Either way, there's something about us that screams foreigners to the Brazilians even when we aren't speaking English.  We've had to work with a plumber this week and he wanted to know if I was Argentinian based on my accent in Portuguese.  I take that as a compliment!  Also, he mentioned that Papai and I speak Portuguese better than the owner of our apartment, who he thought was Chinese.  Then we talked to a lady below us and she said he couldn't be Chinese or Japanese because those people are nice but this guy wasn't.  He must be Korean, she said.  That's another thing about Brazilians.  They tell it like it is.  If you have zits or are fat or bald or have unwanted hair on your face, it's all game for comment!  I think those who are a little more educated or have lived a  abroad (Brazilians love to travel!) are less likely to comment than others but it's pretty common. 

Anyway, there you have it--McDonald's and a few comments on the diversity in Brazil.