You know it's a curious thing to suddenly have a full house, with dear foreign guests to take care of. I had this feeling when my host-sisters from Brazil, Mariana and Cacau, came to visit Holland recently. When they arrived at my house, everything was new to them, so of course they were a little shy in the beginning, so I had to try and make them feel at home... after all, I stayed at theirs in Brazil :) We've never really had many guests stay over at our house, let alone international friends, so it was a new role for me too - that of a host. But I learned a little bit about host families and living at somebody else's house in another country while I myself was in Brazil, so now it was my turn to be a host-sister, and it was great, I miss having a full house, preparing coffee and breakfast for my zusjes, taking them around. I'm glad we could experience living at each other's houses in turn, within the same year! :) By the end of their stay, the girls felt so at home here, they cooked a whole Brazilian meal for me, my mum and Bryley, including real brigadeiros (a chocolate dessert) brought over from Brazil! I think I had so many brigadeiros that night, I was on a bit of a sugar rush.
The girls arrived here the day before Christmas Eve, and I still remember the feeling of anticipation when I went to pick them up at the airport. Actually, I've never really picked anyone up at the airport either, at least alone and in the last ten years, and it was very special for me... it's a funny feeling, standing in front of the arrival gates, waiting for your friends from across the world to arrive... don't you think? It's so surreal. Seeing them suddenly there, coming out with four large suitcases, those special friends from Brazil who you said good-bye to a few months ago on another continent. Actually, it felt just as surreal when we went back to the airport when the girls were leaving Holland. But then it's a little sadder of course, as two weeks together have flown by so quickly.
Together, we explored the surrounding cities, had a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas (with snow!), exchanged gifts, watched the new Ivete Sangalo show from New York (that I was so happy to receive as Xmas gift from the girls!), hung around on the couch at my house watching movies, and much more! Also, as a lucky coincidence, our annual Christmas dinner with friends was in the week the girls were also here, so they got to meet my close group of friends, too :)
Amsterdam, of course, could not be missed either! The funniest thing ever is still Mari trying to take some naughty pictures in the Red Light District. Which were not allowed and had to be deleted, and our group once even had to relocate ourselves. Oh, and the search for the condomerie that Mari was so excited to visit and buy souvenirs for her friends at! (I must say, it's a very cool store). Among others, we made a stop at the Anne Frank's House, and believe it or not, I've never been there before! But what a great and inspiring museum to visit.
The five of us in front of the famous IAmsterdam sign :)
After exploring the great things in Amsterdam for two days, we even managed to make a stop over in Utrecht, where the Brazilian girls tried the Dutch broodje kroket, patat friet from the ever busy Manneke Pies, and the Belgian beers at cafe Olivier, the coolest bar ever.
And then it was the end of 2010 and the arrival of 2011 already! Hard to believe how hard time flies, but how great that we could spend New Years Eve together with our Brazilian host-zusjes here, in Holland! And our group for NYE was huge too, with friends from both sides of the ocean. Free (at least, before midnight) champagne and olliebolen, which are special Dutch pastries sold around this period, roasted marshmallows, (slightly late) fireworks at the big square: a great way to celebrate the coming of 2011, with great friends! Happy New Year everyone! =D
And, of course, Paris! We made our trip together there a couple of days after NYE, where we stayed in a very nice hostel full of Brazilians (of course), and kept up with a busy schedule of hitting all the famous Paris landmarks (and there are many) in that January cold, brrr! Eiffel Tower, Arc du Triumphe, Champs Elysees, Louvre, Monmartre, Notre Dame, all the beautiful sights of Paris are difficult to describe of course!
Trying to speak (although Bryley was impressively good at it) French, trying out French food i.e. crepés, buying Parisian souvenirs and black-and-white cards with the romantic city scenes, being shocked at the prices of coffee and even coke in Parisian cafés, wishing it was summer and warm and making plans to come back when it actually is (so we can hit all the cafés in Paris despite the ridiculous prices), taking the boat tour in the evening along the Seine river, holding a mini photo-shoot in front of the Eiffel Tower, dragging our butts around on the kinda-expensive (it turned out) pub crawl in the red light district of the city with a guide from Holland, looking for Amelie Poulain's café, buying all those mini-Eiffel towers (I think Mari got like 30 key-chains... and more than 10 mini-towers... ok, I got a couple of mini-towers too ;))... life á la Paris is full of glamorous randomness... or random glamour? ;)
Beautiful girls in front of what is probably the most famous landmark in the world! ;)After the Paris trip, the girls only had a couple of days more in Holland, but we squeezed in a little trip to Delft, a small but lovely Dutch town where all those white and blue ceramics come from (too bad the weather was so... blah); and a wonderful Brazilian dinner at my house, after wich we watched together the Dutch movie Mari has been wanting to see since I was in Brazil and told her about it: Zwartboek.
But I have to say again, what a pleasure it was to see my Brazilian zusjes cooking and taking charge of my kitchen... eeeee! =D
It was strange bringing the girls back to the airport, as the time flew by so fast. But Bryley and I waved them off on their trip back to Brazil, with loaaaads of gifts for friends and family (remember the 30+ Eiffel towers?), knowing that either here or there, or anywhere, we will see them again soon! Zusjes re-united again :)
Au-revoir my friends, till the next post ;)
Beijos :p
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