More "what's that noise?"

Two nights ago, about five minutes after I'd fallen asleep, both Matt and I had a very rude awakening. Apparently there was a soccer game going on, and something happened, and it seemed as if the city erupted. We heard some kind of horn (trombone? very bad trumpet?) and our downstairs neighbor was having a shouting match with someone across the way

"Cruzeiro!"

something unintelligible

"CRUZEIRO!"

something else unintelligible

Then came the fireworks. And then the requisite dogs barking.

We really need to pick up a local paper and figure out what everybody is shouting about.

A few hours later we were again awoken by a very strange and loud noise. Matt thinks it was someone's answering machine. I think it was the radio of a police car. But what we heard was some kind of recorded female voice VERY LOUD.

And then at 5:00 am, I awoke to our friendly neighborhood bird. It always seems like it is perched right at our windowsill, beckoning us. I hate it.

So much of what we sense (hearing included) is perceived thru our own cultural lens, and there are so many things that I hear on a daily basis (this is a loud city) are things that I just don't understand. I guess if there were noises in the US that I didn't recognize, I would probably just ignore them or realize that in that context it was all okay. But when there is so much that is new and different, and so much that just doesn't make sense, noises take on a whole new significance. Or you just try to make sense of what you hear based on what you know. I'll probably keep writing about this until I can wrap my head around it, because I find it so very fascinating. So bear with me...