Olaaa :)
Once again, I'm back to writing today, and will try to keep it entertaining still for you ;) So, I left off where I went to a Festa Junina dressed up so beautifully but a little too much even for the occasion, or so it seemed. Though embarassing it was to come in dressed in such a traditional outfit, and got kinda cold later as the party was outside in the garden, it was really fun, and over-dressed as I was, people did complement me on my clothes. And we danced the quadrille with all of us, which is the traditional festa junina dance in pairs, with a whole bunch of people all together. I think I haven't danced something like that since I was pretty young and made to do so at school... but so much fun!
Well, popular as they are, Saci, the school where I worked, also had a festa junina the following weekend. Actually, there I had to work behind the bar, which was especially busy around lunch time with all the parents wanting to have soda, juice, and beers, so I figured leaving the long skirt behind was the best idea so just went with the Snow White top and a regular cute skirt. Though I did buy and wear a girly straw hat with fake pigtails :) There were no grown ups dancing around much there though, as most of the parents were sitting around little tables while the kids were running around, and the teachers and staff at Saci had to work, including myself. I did slip out for a little bit to go see the 8-11 year-olds dancing the quadrille, all dressed up so cute! They have the most adorable little outfits for the boys and girls; the boys wore the checkered cowboy-ish clothes and hats, and the girls amazing colourful dresses. So awesome to see... but of course, the adolescents just show up in normal clothes. I dont think I saw a single teenager dressed up that day.
Speaking of Saci, in case some of you are still wondering what I did there... I have to say my job was generally pretty relaxed. Some days I had to stay a bit longer, but most of the time I worked 10 till 3pm, with different groups of kids in bilingual classes, 3 to 13 years old, and I usually assisted the teacher, rather than being the teacher. Saci also hosts a cultural lunch for a different country every month, and because of me, they did Russia and Holland, so I had to help much with it as well. Saci likes events like that... so, apart from the day-to-day activities in helping with the projects and speaking English with the kids, I helped around with that kind of stuff, which was great, because then it also gave me a more important role, so to speak... the job for the foreign trainee at Saci is pretty relaxed, which is great, but it's also nice to be able to help more with this kind of stuff.
Something else which is pretty cool is that on my last day of work in July, I did an almost hour long presentation for the 6-11 year old kids from both bilingual and non-bilingual classes, about myself, and my two countries, with a PowerPoint... in Portuguese. There was a bilingual teacher there just in case I got stuck, but pretty much most of the presentation I delivered in my fourth language. So I'm going to drop the modesty and say I was fairly proud of myself for being able to do this after 4 months in Brazil =D
So maybe some of you are wondering about the Portuguese... When I arrived in Brazil, I had a very basic knowledge of Spanish from the course I took at college 3.5 years ago but never practiced the language. I also knew a few things in Portuguese that I learned from my Brazilian friend Pedro in Shanghai, but some of those would be frankly inappropriate to say to, for example, your host family. So when I arrived, all I could say to them was "bom dia" (good day) and 'prazer' (nice to meet you). And "obrigada" - thank you... But you'd be amazed what can come out of necessity, interest for the language, and some basic Spanish... the ability to now speak Portuguese, which I love :) Brazilian Portuguese is absolutely beautiful, and one of the things I miss most about living there. It was one of my objectives to learn it when I left.. and actually, I did get help - from a Portuguese teacher at Saci who offered to help me herself and for which I had to get up an hour earlier on Monday morning; and, in the last 2 months, from my friend Vico, who teaches English, but did pretty damn well teaching Yuen, the other trainee, and me Portuguese ;)
From May/June I was actually frequenting Vico's school quite a bit, both to learn Portuguese, and help others learn English in Vico's classes, which involve much direct conversation, so the presence of gringas hopefully was an asset to the students. And I have to say, I've had the chance to teach a little bit at Saci on some occasions, and though I can get shy with that kind of attention, it is fun :p And I honestly miss coming to Vico's school and helping with the classes, because it was great to meet and get to know his students, participate, and watch Vico teach, because he is a wonderful teacher.
So, there was much going on in JF in June. There were many parties and fun events and hanging out with friends, not even including the World Cup games, about which I will write separately... Mariana and I even went to a party for the launch of a magazine Mari worked on at a fancy shopping mall, with much free champaigne included... you can see why we make such good sisters :D
There was also a concert of two famous Brazilian musicians that I went to: the young, good-looking samba singer Diogo Nogueira (I think, from Rio), and the older pop/rock singer from Minas Gerais, Nando Reis (they did perform separately though, one after the other). Actually, this was an interesting night. I wanted to go to the concert but didn't have company to get there, and it's pretty far, but I ran into my friend Stéphanie by chance, and she said, call this friend of mine, she will probably be there. So I went with her friend, Maruska, and another girl... and when we got there, I saw several people I knew, so Maruska joked that I knew more people there than her; she must have been so confused! The concerts were great, but what's funny, in Brazil, shows like that start at about midnight and this one went on till at least 4am... while in Holland they start at 9pm and finish by 11pm.
Lucky I was to have Maruska to go back with though (and not go alone), because when we came out, there were like 2000 other people wanting the same thing: a taxi to go home. So we had to walk down the road, among many people, trying to get a taxi, which took about half an hour. Finally I managed to catch one, and we got in with two other random people, but the taxi driver was both kind of deaf and crazy, so he drove us through all these empty streets to get to my place first, which was a way longer route, and all the while Maruska was just yelling at him that he's not going right, and we're not gonna pay him all that extra money. For a while we drove through a bunch of streets I did not recognize at all, until I saw a familiar street and the little twinkling light of McDonalds. Oh the relief ;) I have to say I was just a bit freaked out where this guy was taking us at 5 am. I randomly saw Maruska again at another party a while later, but I have no idea how things went after I got out. But this was surely an experience just to get back from the concert venue!
Thanks my dear readers, and to my friends in Brasil, eu tenho muitas saudades de voces, nao me esquece! Espero que voces gostaram, e tem saudades de mim tambem ;)
Beijos e abracos! :-)
Saudades, beijos, meu Brasil
Sunday, 29 August 2010
The story goes on! Maschmallow in Juiz de Fora =)
Oi pessoal!
So, to keep things varied, I will tell some more of what I'd been up to in Juiz de Fora in May and June, before my friend Bryley arrived in Rio and we began traveling together, and she got to meet all the "fifty friends of mine" in her first week in JF, as she says herself.
At the end of May I moved to a new host family, and I remember that already a couple of weeks before, because I knew I was going to move, I had started running around town trying to find nice goodbye and thank you gifts for my first host family. It is difficult to figure out how to thank a family whose house you've lived at for two months for free and who have been so nice to you... luckily, a teacher at Saci, Adriana, has suggested I compile a basket for them, which is a common type of gift in Brazil, including all kind of things possible, from chocolate and coffee to more personal gifts. That's what I'd done - found a basket, filled with some yummy things that I knew my host family liked, and added some personal touches and gifts, and I think the basket was well received :)
For a kind of 'good-bye but will see each other again', we went together to a new fancy pizzaria in town, which was really nice. The first night and morning I was living in my new house, I was still feeling a bit nostalgic, after 2 months it is after all an important change. I remember always enjoying getting up for breakfast at their house before going to work, and Aninha's mother was already awake to take care of the younger daughter, so breakfast and coffee were already set up in their cozy kitchen. I also always admired Ana's mother, as she was working long hours but still found time and energy to take care of her kids, set up breakfast and yummy coffee, and look good :) Modern women eh :p But though feeling somewhat nostalgic about moving houses, I also knew that it'd be better for me to have a change in my exchange.
I first met Mariana, my new host sister, at a Faculty of Communication party in mid-May, a couple of weeks before I moved. I remember when I met her, a mutual friend in AIESEC told me, "I think you will really enjoy her, she's a very exciting person". I think the first time we met, Mariana may have had this impression of me that other Brazilians did in the beginning, when I was new, that I was still a bit shy and holding back. Well I think things have changed a bit when I began living with her, and damn, our friend was right, she is an exciting person, and when I moved in with her, her sister Cacau and their mother (and countless family members who would swing by the house from now and then), my life in JF had picked up pace significantly.
There were a lot things happening these days, such as the countless despedidas (goodbye parties) of the two much-loved Colombian trainees. That involved cooking (Colombian) food, hanging out at people's homes, and going to the bars afterwards. AIESEC has also had a kind of bbq (churrasco) party for the new members at the house of one of the new AIESEC'ers, which was a day full of great food and fun.
There've been many times since then that were really awesome... I grew close with my host sisters, we went out together a lot to different places, Mariana introduced me to many friends of hers... once at Muzik, the club in town, during the samba night, I must have met a ton of her gay friends, too. And she taught me about "pagar mico" - paying your dues, when she had to dress as an angel (a very beautiful one :)) and hand out love messages at a club on the Brazilian Valentine's Day party. (Brazilians celebrate this day on June 12... I still don't know why).
I learned more about "pagar mico" when I had to do so myself the next day... so, in Brazil, during June and July, they have these traditional parties called Festa Junina (or Julina), when everyone dresses up in checkered and/or dotted clothes and straw hats, a little bit like at a farm party actually (I don't mean to offend any fans of Festa Junina, but just trying to explain the idea to my non-Brazilian friends), and eats traditional food and dances the quadrille, a kind of traditional dance. Yep, so the idea is - traditional party. Use your imagination.
So, AIESEC had a Festa Junina party in mid-June, for which I have borrowed an outfit from Mariana, which I believe was sewed by her grandmother. Disney's Snow White-like top and a long, dark blue, polka-dotted skirt. Black polka-dots and rouge on my cheeks, and pony tails. True caipira as the Mari called me. It was my idea to change at the house,where the party was, but Vico, Mariana, and her mother had all told me that it's normal to go to these parties in June and no one is going to care. The party was on the other side of town, and for whatever reason, I had left my common sense to listen to Brazilian advice. Thank God it was Sunday, because I met Vico at Parque Halfeld, which is one of the central points in town, and it wasn't too busy then. Imagine a working day, OMG. Because from the moment I left the house till I entered the party I was stared at from every corner. Ok, so I did look like a beautiful caipira... but it was a very expensive "pagar mico"!
And the best (if you want to look at it that way) bit was when we got to the house, and the door was opened, and I looked inside.... I just wanted to hide (which I tried to do). There I was, looking like a Snow White-Brazilian caipira from 50 years ago, and most girls inside were wearing everyday clothes, with some exceptions of short checkered skirts and accessoires. Some guys were wearing checkered t-shirts (which, I'm sorry, are also very everyday, especially for men) and straw hats. What was my reaction? "Fuck, fuck, fuck". As I walked in, it was lucky I had rouge on my cheeks, because the reactions of the AIESEC'ers were pretty priceless and logical - some surprised, joined laughter was in due course of course. What a naive gringa!
To be continued.
Kisses and beijos!
So, to keep things varied, I will tell some more of what I'd been up to in Juiz de Fora in May and June, before my friend Bryley arrived in Rio and we began traveling together, and she got to meet all the "fifty friends of mine" in her first week in JF, as she says herself.
At the end of May I moved to a new host family, and I remember that already a couple of weeks before, because I knew I was going to move, I had started running around town trying to find nice goodbye and thank you gifts for my first host family. It is difficult to figure out how to thank a family whose house you've lived at for two months for free and who have been so nice to you... luckily, a teacher at Saci, Adriana, has suggested I compile a basket for them, which is a common type of gift in Brazil, including all kind of things possible, from chocolate and coffee to more personal gifts. That's what I'd done - found a basket, filled with some yummy things that I knew my host family liked, and added some personal touches and gifts, and I think the basket was well received :)
For a kind of 'good-bye but will see each other again', we went together to a new fancy pizzaria in town, which was really nice. The first night and morning I was living in my new house, I was still feeling a bit nostalgic, after 2 months it is after all an important change. I remember always enjoying getting up for breakfast at their house before going to work, and Aninha's mother was already awake to take care of the younger daughter, so breakfast and coffee were already set up in their cozy kitchen. I also always admired Ana's mother, as she was working long hours but still found time and energy to take care of her kids, set up breakfast and yummy coffee, and look good :) Modern women eh :p But though feeling somewhat nostalgic about moving houses, I also knew that it'd be better for me to have a change in my exchange.
I first met Mariana, my new host sister, at a Faculty of Communication party in mid-May, a couple of weeks before I moved. I remember when I met her, a mutual friend in AIESEC told me, "I think you will really enjoy her, she's a very exciting person". I think the first time we met, Mariana may have had this impression of me that other Brazilians did in the beginning, when I was new, that I was still a bit shy and holding back. Well I think things have changed a bit when I began living with her, and damn, our friend was right, she is an exciting person, and when I moved in with her, her sister Cacau and their mother (and countless family members who would swing by the house from now and then), my life in JF had picked up pace significantly.
There were a lot things happening these days, such as the countless despedidas (goodbye parties) of the two much-loved Colombian trainees. That involved cooking (Colombian) food, hanging out at people's homes, and going to the bars afterwards. AIESEC has also had a kind of bbq (churrasco) party for the new members at the house of one of the new AIESEC'ers, which was a day full of great food and fun.
There've been many times since then that were really awesome... I grew close with my host sisters, we went out together a lot to different places, Mariana introduced me to many friends of hers... once at Muzik, the club in town, during the samba night, I must have met a ton of her gay friends, too. And she taught me about "pagar mico" - paying your dues, when she had to dress as an angel (a very beautiful one :)) and hand out love messages at a club on the Brazilian Valentine's Day party. (Brazilians celebrate this day on June 12... I still don't know why).
I learned more about "pagar mico" when I had to do so myself the next day... so, in Brazil, during June and July, they have these traditional parties called Festa Junina (or Julina), when everyone dresses up in checkered and/or dotted clothes and straw hats, a little bit like at a farm party actually (I don't mean to offend any fans of Festa Junina, but just trying to explain the idea to my non-Brazilian friends), and eats traditional food and dances the quadrille, a kind of traditional dance. Yep, so the idea is - traditional party. Use your imagination.
So, AIESEC had a Festa Junina party in mid-June, for which I have borrowed an outfit from Mariana, which I believe was sewed by her grandmother. Disney's Snow White-like top and a long, dark blue, polka-dotted skirt. Black polka-dots and rouge on my cheeks, and pony tails. True caipira as the Mari called me. It was my idea to change at the house,where the party was, but Vico, Mariana, and her mother had all told me that it's normal to go to these parties in June and no one is going to care. The party was on the other side of town, and for whatever reason, I had left my common sense to listen to Brazilian advice. Thank God it was Sunday, because I met Vico at Parque Halfeld, which is one of the central points in town, and it wasn't too busy then. Imagine a working day, OMG. Because from the moment I left the house till I entered the party I was stared at from every corner. Ok, so I did look like a beautiful caipira... but it was a very expensive "pagar mico"!
And the best (if you want to look at it that way) bit was when we got to the house, and the door was opened, and I looked inside.... I just wanted to hide (which I tried to do). There I was, looking like a Snow White-Brazilian caipira from 50 years ago, and most girls inside were wearing everyday clothes, with some exceptions of short checkered skirts and accessoires. Some guys were wearing checkered t-shirts (which, I'm sorry, are also very everyday, especially for men) and straw hats. What was my reaction? "Fuck, fuck, fuck". As I walked in, it was lucky I had rouge on my cheeks, because the reactions of the AIESEC'ers were pretty priceless and logical - some surprised, joined laughter was in due course of course. What a naive gringa!
To be continued.
Kisses and beijos!
Friday, 27 August 2010
The story goes on! A menina tá aqui na Holanda, mas agora é bem Brasileira!
Ola minha gente!
So I know it has been a while since I've written here... probably 4 months? I think I must have just gotten too busy living the exchange experience to write about it... although I always meant to, but now I'm back, I intend to continue the blog nevertheless. Never mind even how many readers I actually still have ;)
I won't write about everything from where I left off, of course, I'd be writing non-stop for two weeks. As I told many of my good friends already, spending five months in Brazil was a huge experience for me, and I've honestly lived the best months of my life till now there :) But I'm positive I will keep coming back to Brazil for many years to come. I've dreamed of South America for years, but it can be hard to imagine yourself actually doing that. And now I feel like I've found a (second... third?) home - which is a big deal for me. So, here goes!
So, a bit about the travelling: when I wrote last, I had still only been on one trip in my first six weeks - Rio de Janeiro. Soon after that though, in the beginning of May, I went on a trip to a city called Nova Friburgo, in Rio state, with a few friends from AIESEC in Juiz de Fora. Nova Friburgo is a nice place to visit, with beautiful hills around, and even higher and colder than JF. And my friend's family we visited was so lovely, especially the mother was so welcoming! And she taught me how to make Brazilian-style lasagna! (Which everyone else enjoyed, yay).
Towards the end of May, the weekend before I moved to my new host family's house in JF, I had gone on two short trips - to a small, but beautiful town Tiradentes, and the natural park Ibitipoca, both in the same state of Minas Gerais, not too far from JF. These trips were right after each other, and I had to roll out of bed for both at 5am, two days in a row. I remember getting out of bed at this deadly hour to go to Tiradentes, thinking, "maybe this was a bad idea". And then I had to do the same thing right the next day. Can't say it wasn't a bit challenging, but at least it paid off, as both places are really worth the effort.
I went to Tiradentes with the school trip from Saci, where I was working. This meant my company was a few of the teachers - all of whom only spoke Portuguese, but are all lovely, and the Portuguese was no longer a problem anyway - and a bunch of 9-years olds. Starting at 6 in the morning. Then again, there is nothing that a stop-over with coffee and a pao de queijo (literally 'bread of cheese') can't cure ;) Tiradentes is a very small, but lovely town from the Portuguese colonial era. The best thing though was probably the train ride from Tiradentes to its close-by bigger and more modernized neighbour, Sao Joao del Rei. The antic train called the Maria Fumaca is practically famous all over the country, and I can tell you half an hour goes by really fast, because it's just so fun to ride the train along the green Brazilian landscape, hanging out of the window now and then, in a carriage filled with children :D You should try it (though the kids aren't strictly necessary for you to have fun, no worries. You will soon feel like a child yourself).
On Saturday morning I rolled out of bed at 5am again to go to the natural park Ibitipoca with my friends, the other trainees. It's about 3 hours to the park and you take two buses - one decent one like the kind that runs between the cities in Brazil (the buses between the cities are actually better there than in Europe), and one that rumbles up at a random bus stop in the tiny town called Lima Duarte, and resembles a shack of a city bus rather than anything else. As you sit there, you finally feel like a real traveller (in our case, in South America), sitting in a crappy bus, on a seat that makes your butt sore =)
Ibitipoca is a huge national park, with a few trails you can follow, but we took the short one as we only had the one day, and trust me, it is a workout already. The scenery is amazing, and, not being spectacularly sporty myself, at the end of the day I felt quite proud of myself having made it all the way there and back alive :D In the evening, we also hung out in one of the local bars in the Ibitipoca "town", if you can call it that, as it is very small. What I also remember with a smile is walking back to our pousada, the four of us with arms around each other, in complete and utter darkness, apart from the light from Julio's cellphone, braring out a loud dance song :D
The next time I went travelling after this, with the exception of the tiny place called Rio Novo near JF where AIESEC had invited us for an evening and day to discuss our exchange experiences and party, was to Belo Horizonte at the end of June, the capital of Minas Gerais. Probably Juiz de Fora's main city competitor inside Minas, BH is a city of a few million people, quite new but by now huge, with beautiful, wide avenues in the center of the city. It is not a touristy city, even less so than I thought, but it's very beautiful and I think would be a nice place to live in for a while ;) I went there with a few trainees, too, but this time they were all different people who had arrived more recently. In BH we stayed with a friend of one of them from AIESEC BH, who was a great host, and a really fun guy to hang out with. He took us to an AIESEC BH party at someone's enormous house the night we arrived, showed us around town in BH during the weekend and was the life of the house party he effectively put together on Saturday night, at his own apartment.
Although it is not touristy, BH does have some very nice highlights to see. As I said, the center is beautiful, and very green. If you venture a trip to BH - Praca da Savassi, Praca da Liberdade, Parque Municipal, Parque das Mangabeiras, and Pampulha are a few things you should try to see. The city center has a few nice squares and parks, and there is a great viewing point of the city near the Parque das Mangabeiras, called (no surprise for Portuguese speakers) Mirante, from which it's amazing to see BH: first bathed in sunlight, then at sunset, and then as the lights begin to twinkle around this enormous, modern city. Pampulha, meanwhile, is one of the creations of the famous Brazilian arquitect Oscar Nieyemer, who also built Brasilia, his most well known work. It is basically an artificial lake, with a very modern, museum-like church alongside it, which has, from what I had heard, sparked many criticisms. The lake is about 16 km all around, and artificial though it is, very beautiful. Pampulha is nowadays a rich residential area, which is not particulaly surprising.
Well, there is much still to write about my travelling in Brazil, but I'm going to stop here now and continue in my next entry. But I promise this time that I will continue, you can be sure of it ;)
I miss Brazil much, so I'm sorry, but... Eu espero que voces gostaram dessa historia, e vao continuar ler o meu blog! Eu vou tentar escrever muito mais aqui sobre a minha experiencia no Brasil, porque foi legal demais, e eu quero share this experience with you! ;)
Muitos beijos!
So I know it has been a while since I've written here... probably 4 months? I think I must have just gotten too busy living the exchange experience to write about it... although I always meant to, but now I'm back, I intend to continue the blog nevertheless. Never mind even how many readers I actually still have ;)
I won't write about everything from where I left off, of course, I'd be writing non-stop for two weeks. As I told many of my good friends already, spending five months in Brazil was a huge experience for me, and I've honestly lived the best months of my life till now there :) But I'm positive I will keep coming back to Brazil for many years to come. I've dreamed of South America for years, but it can be hard to imagine yourself actually doing that. And now I feel like I've found a (second... third?) home - which is a big deal for me. So, here goes!
So, a bit about the travelling: when I wrote last, I had still only been on one trip in my first six weeks - Rio de Janeiro. Soon after that though, in the beginning of May, I went on a trip to a city called Nova Friburgo, in Rio state, with a few friends from AIESEC in Juiz de Fora. Nova Friburgo is a nice place to visit, with beautiful hills around, and even higher and colder than JF. And my friend's family we visited was so lovely, especially the mother was so welcoming! And she taught me how to make Brazilian-style lasagna! (Which everyone else enjoyed, yay).
Towards the end of May, the weekend before I moved to my new host family's house in JF, I had gone on two short trips - to a small, but beautiful town Tiradentes, and the natural park Ibitipoca, both in the same state of Minas Gerais, not too far from JF. These trips were right after each other, and I had to roll out of bed for both at 5am, two days in a row. I remember getting out of bed at this deadly hour to go to Tiradentes, thinking, "maybe this was a bad idea". And then I had to do the same thing right the next day. Can't say it wasn't a bit challenging, but at least it paid off, as both places are really worth the effort.
I went to Tiradentes with the school trip from Saci, where I was working. This meant my company was a few of the teachers - all of whom only spoke Portuguese, but are all lovely, and the Portuguese was no longer a problem anyway - and a bunch of 9-years olds. Starting at 6 in the morning. Then again, there is nothing that a stop-over with coffee and a pao de queijo (literally 'bread of cheese') can't cure ;) Tiradentes is a very small, but lovely town from the Portuguese colonial era. The best thing though was probably the train ride from Tiradentes to its close-by bigger and more modernized neighbour, Sao Joao del Rei. The antic train called the Maria Fumaca is practically famous all over the country, and I can tell you half an hour goes by really fast, because it's just so fun to ride the train along the green Brazilian landscape, hanging out of the window now and then, in a carriage filled with children :D You should try it (though the kids aren't strictly necessary for you to have fun, no worries. You will soon feel like a child yourself).
On Saturday morning I rolled out of bed at 5am again to go to the natural park Ibitipoca with my friends, the other trainees. It's about 3 hours to the park and you take two buses - one decent one like the kind that runs between the cities in Brazil (the buses between the cities are actually better there than in Europe), and one that rumbles up at a random bus stop in the tiny town called Lima Duarte, and resembles a shack of a city bus rather than anything else. As you sit there, you finally feel like a real traveller (in our case, in South America), sitting in a crappy bus, on a seat that makes your butt sore =)
Ibitipoca is a huge national park, with a few trails you can follow, but we took the short one as we only had the one day, and trust me, it is a workout already. The scenery is amazing, and, not being spectacularly sporty myself, at the end of the day I felt quite proud of myself having made it all the way there and back alive :D In the evening, we also hung out in one of the local bars in the Ibitipoca "town", if you can call it that, as it is very small. What I also remember with a smile is walking back to our pousada, the four of us with arms around each other, in complete and utter darkness, apart from the light from Julio's cellphone, braring out a loud dance song :D
The next time I went travelling after this, with the exception of the tiny place called Rio Novo near JF where AIESEC had invited us for an evening and day to discuss our exchange experiences and party, was to Belo Horizonte at the end of June, the capital of Minas Gerais. Probably Juiz de Fora's main city competitor inside Minas, BH is a city of a few million people, quite new but by now huge, with beautiful, wide avenues in the center of the city. It is not a touristy city, even less so than I thought, but it's very beautiful and I think would be a nice place to live in for a while ;) I went there with a few trainees, too, but this time they were all different people who had arrived more recently. In BH we stayed with a friend of one of them from AIESEC BH, who was a great host, and a really fun guy to hang out with. He took us to an AIESEC BH party at someone's enormous house the night we arrived, showed us around town in BH during the weekend and was the life of the house party he effectively put together on Saturday night, at his own apartment.
Although it is not touristy, BH does have some very nice highlights to see. As I said, the center is beautiful, and very green. If you venture a trip to BH - Praca da Savassi, Praca da Liberdade, Parque Municipal, Parque das Mangabeiras, and Pampulha are a few things you should try to see. The city center has a few nice squares and parks, and there is a great viewing point of the city near the Parque das Mangabeiras, called (no surprise for Portuguese speakers) Mirante, from which it's amazing to see BH: first bathed in sunlight, then at sunset, and then as the lights begin to twinkle around this enormous, modern city. Pampulha, meanwhile, is one of the creations of the famous Brazilian arquitect Oscar Nieyemer, who also built Brasilia, his most well known work. It is basically an artificial lake, with a very modern, museum-like church alongside it, which has, from what I had heard, sparked many criticisms. The lake is about 16 km all around, and artificial though it is, very beautiful. Pampulha is nowadays a rich residential area, which is not particulaly surprising.
Well, there is much still to write about my travelling in Brazil, but I'm going to stop here now and continue in my next entry. But I promise this time that I will continue, you can be sure of it ;)
I miss Brazil much, so I'm sorry, but... Eu espero que voces gostaram dessa historia, e vao continuar ler o meu blog! Eu vou tentar escrever muito mais aqui sobre a minha experiencia no Brasil, porque foi legal demais, e eu quero share this experience with you! ;)
Muitos beijos!
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