I guess when it comes to seeing the wonderful friends I made in Brazil again on this European side of the ocean, I'm quite lucky. In December and January I played host to my lovely Brazilian host sisters Mariana and Cacau for two weeks (including the trip to Paris), and was sad to see them go - it seemed so weird not to have guests in the house anymore! Someone to take care of from morning to evening, hahahhaa... never thought of myself as a house wife per se (still don't), but I guess I don't make such a bad (host) zusje. Yay for that! :-)
And just a couple of weeks ago (actually, I'm a little lazy and late with this post, hehe) another very special friend from Brazil came to visit me in Holland, Vico. Though he was only here for two days (despite my very elaborate but unfulfilled plans to detour him from getting his train back to Paris...), it was enough for him to fall in love with the country, so now I'm sure he'll be coming back again before too long. There's so much more to still see and do! I'll be waiting =)
In these two days, I was happy to receive Vico at my house too, where he could meet my mum and speak some Russian, take in all the Matryoshka dolls around and get comfortable at my 'cute house' as he called it somewhere on facebook (I spied it in Portuguese, lol). After a little misunderstanding beforehand, he realized once he was here that my house actually isn't in some far off strange place (as it seems I described it, haha), but is actually in quite a nice neighbourhood, hehe. It's no surprise that after seeing my house, taking a tour of Leiden under the almost-professional guidance by Bryley, and a night- and day take on Amsterdam, Vico left so enamoured with Holland ;-) The two days flew by so fast, it was like lightning. Luckily, we had some time to explore many charms of Amsterdam both at night (including the Red Light District :p) and during the day, when the sun was so kind as to shine for us the whole day. That was beauuutiful!
Together in Leiden, with the key image of Holland in the background: a true-life Dutch windmill!
Although Vico was only here for two days, it seemed strange at first after he left to go back to the normal routine (though a couple of days later I started a new job, so not completely the old routine actually). I had the feeling again as if there is something missing from the picture - where the Brazilian friend to take care of? Haha. *Sniff*!
And what was also really great is that Vico got to meet some more of my friends - and vice versa! Now when I keep talking about Brazil to my friends as well as my mum, at least some of them will be able to put the actual person they met to the story I'm telling. Particularly as all my friends who met my Brazilian friends liked them all, and the other way around! (And it was so hilarious because Vico spent a month in Russia before this visit and so he kept putting in phrases in Russian into his conversation that he learnt there... while my friends in Holland are more or less hopeless at understanding it, hahaha).
Now there's been three Brazilians who came to visit - so I hope the number will keep on going up, and those who've already been will come back again. As for me, life has once quite unexpectedly sent me to Brazil, so let's hope it will do so again soon enough! To help me with my Brazilian saudade, Vico also kindly brought me some gifts from Juiz de Fora, which warm up my culturally-torn heart, while they decorate my table and play on my iTunes. Rsrsrs :)
(NB Hahaha, that stands for risos, which means 'smiles' in Portuguese, and is one of the ways Brazilians express their emotions on internet lol. I thought it was weird at first too.)
As I promised before, there's still more to write about my experiences in Juiz de Fora and traveling in Brazil, with Morro de Sao Paulo in Bahia as the next story destination. I haven't forgotten - and I hope you won't forget to check it out, because it's coming soon!!!
Beijo!
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