Heya!
In one of my previous posts I wondered about travel journalism (after musing about the abundance of international experiences nowadays), which is a very sought-after job, though it can't be as easy as it seems. And it's definitely not easy to get, because how many writers (and even people who aren't even interested in that) would refuse a paid-for trip to another part of the world? Not many, I suppose. Take a look, Elizabeth Gilbert wrote a book based on a whole year of traveling around the world, which her publisher was willing to pay for her in advance. Now that publisher is probably counting up the big bucks from the sales of the book, but there's something almost fairy-tale like about this story, as the sceptical ones among us will point out, as it's not so easy for most people to just take off exploring the world for a year. But hey, I read the book, it made for some good entertainment one way or the other.
Myself, I first started writing my silly little childhood stories when I was about 8. Obviously, at that age I did not yet think much of it, but till this day my mum sometimes fondly recollects how I used to sit at the table when I was a child and just write, write, write. By the time I was 12 I already had a pretty good idea that one day I would like to be a published writer. And perhaps all those pages (I mean it, it's quite a lot actually haha, I even had characters and a storyline) I filled with my Russian scribbles may not get published in their original form, I really feel like they have become a part of me during those years. I grew up with the story and the story grew up with me, and as I often tend to go by the writer's rule of 'write what you know', I based much of the underlying ideas in the story on my own experiences. And what do you expect, I was what, 10? The funniest thing is, I actually re-wrote the beginning of the story a few times, because as with every passing year I became more mature, the previous beginning I wrote just seemed so childish to me. I wonder what I would think of it if I read it now... it has been years since I've been busy with that story. And at some point, during high-school in the Netherlands, I also made the switch from writing in Russian to writing in English. Now that's probably something that not many writers actually do, but that's how it is. It's like what they refer to in music as 'cross-over' (although I'm not a big fan of that concept in the way it gets used to describe music artists).
Though they are tucked away safely in the pages of my multi-coloured notebooks, somewhere in my room, you can't say that the characters I created in my childhood (these were not imaginary friends I created out of loneliness by the way, just to make this point clear hahaha) will never experience the joy of being published and decorating the shelves of bookstores. Sure, I grew up and so did they, but who's to say they can't feature in another novel again? Those are gonna be some spunky young ladies. Hahaha.
Why all this reminiscinesce, you might ask. Actually I didn't even mean to write about my childhood writing activities, what I wanted to point out was that since my teenage years when I was already sure that someday I'd like to be a published writer and possibly journalist, too, I've been trying to figure out what aspects of writing and journalism interest me the most. Thanks to my university background, I've written academic and research papers on everything from pshychoanalyzing a famous movie character to the role of testosterone in male spacial cognitioning abilities (hmm, or something like that..), to Disney's Americanization of European fairytales. Diverse? Sure is. But so is journalism, and even after writing for a variety of school and university publications, volunteering my time and efforts to be a 'Society and Culture' newspaper editor, and courses in creative writing and journalism, I still haven't quite figured out what writing path would be the best for me, especially as an international in the Netherlands, with English as the principal language in which I write.
The case is similar for my reading interests, too. One minute I'm reading about the latest news (inevitably, often about something unpleasant), sometime later I'm looking through the articles in a women's magazine giving me advice on how to better lead my life, before I go to bed I read a novel, and in between there somewhere I might also get through a travel article, not without some jealousy, I might add. Having just a touch of nerdness in me, I've devoured many different books in my life, including those for university, with piles of published musings and research on both the US and Disney proudly taking up their space on my bookshelves. And just yesterday I thought, but what happened to all that psychology I studied at University College? I don't (consciously) use what I learned from it nowadays, but perhaps it's because I forgot much of it? So I may be fishing out those big textbooks sometime to find out what it is I've actually learnt about it, and how might I be able to use that knowledge. It can't just be me though who thinks, I learned all that and wrote all those essays, hmmmm.
Well, as the here and now goes, I'm still figuring out where my writing interests are exactly, although you might just say it's in 'diversity' (as you can probably tell from this post itself!). Whether it's in journalism and news, travel-writing, producing 'diverse' articles for various publications on an array of topics (as has mostly been the case till now), book-publishing (hopefully) or communications for non-profit organizations (also hopefully), I'm going to keep on trying to get there. By 'there' you may interpret what you wish at the moment, I've given much here for your imagination to go in all kinds of directions ;) And as part of it all, well, there's the blog you're reading. Thanks!
Beijo!
Saudades, beijos, meu Brasil
Friday, 25 February 2011
Sunday, 20 February 2011
On my Brazilian hometown, pt 2
Oi gente!
There still seems to be a rather overwhelming amount to write about my life in Juiz de Fora and Brazilian travels, and sometimes I wonder what it says about me that almost a year since I left (note: left, not came back) for Brazil, I am still trying to write about all that. Ideally I would have liked to have written about it as it was happening, but on the other hand having had time and distance since my internship has allowed me to think a little clearer and reflect better about my life there. I would still encourage others to try and write as much as they can about their current special experiences and travels, but perhaps in my case I needed some time to let it settle. Besides it's also quite therapeutical to be able to write about Brazil.
In the beginning of July, the weekend after my birthday, was my last full week working at the school. On Monday someone dropped a word that it was my birthday the past weekend, and I was sung a birthday song by the people in the lunch room, led by teacher Wagner. Haha. That week we had to finish the preparations for the South Africa cultural lunch on Friday, and the class responsible, which has such cuuute kids in it of 7-8 years old, had me (and Bryley!) to help them that week with the activities beforehand, as well as general games. The kids in that class are really fun, and there are several girls who are just crazily affectionate, they were the ones who would always run up to me in the school yard screaming during the break in their afternoon class, 'Marina! Marina!' and hang themselves off me. Aww, kids. There is nothing like their sincere affection, is there, especially at that age (before they start developing complex (pre)adolescence character traits and behaviors). I have to say though, as much as I loved the affection (and attention) they showed, when two or three of them would try to sit on me at the same time, that got pretty heavy. Just holding one 7-year-old on your lap can get pretty heavy after a while, let alone three!
This was an interesting week in a slightly different way from previous ones because I had a gringa-friend with me to show around and take along to places ;) From Saci, to my first host-family's house for a visit, to Vico's Portuguese classes, to shopping for sneakers (where we ended up getting the same pair of All Stars), to watching the Holland game against Uruguai in the semi-final, to the amazing Japanese cones at the Cone e Cia restaurant, to samba at Muzik with my Brazilian host-sisters and friends, dinner at an Arabic-style dinner place with friends, and going out at W100 with Mari and Cacau (after we waited for an HOUR in a stuffed crowd to get in) and trying those yummy watermelon cocktails, Bryley had accompanied me around that week in JF. And, of course, the two main events of the week, my Russian-themed birthday party at Vico's house (hehe, yes I'm that self-centered), and the Holland final against Spain (with that interview with the Tribuna de Minas newspaper sports reporter beforehand as well, that I wrote about in my entry on the World Cup), both in the weekend. But about that a bit later.
Introducing a friend from another country to everyone at your workplace, to your friends, host family, etc, is interesting. Oh, and helping to translate the language when you run into people who don't speak English, which happened often enough in Brazil. (Although, Bryley was quick to start understanding the language). And it's interesting for all parties involved: for Bryley to see all the people I've met, for the people I've met to meet another gringa, and for me to see how everyone reacted, and to get Bryley's reaction to everything around her that to her was new, but for me became so familar already. The newcomer's perspective on the life that you'd gotten used to is a curious thing to observe.
On Monday, we went to see my first host family, because I haven't been back for a while since I moved, and it was funny to bring a friend along. But to me, as I remember it, the funniest was to come into the house and start chatting around with my family, in Portuguese, and it was so... easy! The language, I mean; my host family is lovely, but when I lived with them I still had much of the language to learn (I still do, actually), but when I came back in July, chatting to them in Portuguese went so easily and spontaneously, it was a surprise for me too, in fact. So I wonder what Bryley was thinking as I was talking to Aninha and her parents and sister, bla bla bla in Portuguese; I turned into a true Brazilian (meaning, you don't stop talking!). I mean, I even dragged her to Portuguese classes at Vico's school, and at some point we were learning about past tenses: preterito perfeito and preterito imperfeito, which I even had trouble with. Imagine someone who just came to the country trying to keep up with all that language overload! Well, I know how that feels, actually. And, for the record, Bryley also accompanied me to a couple of Vico's English classes too, to impart her own language skills to help his students.
I remember my friend Fernanda at Saci told me that she learned quite a lot of Spanish working with the children in Ecuador; she said to me, let the kids teach you Portuguese, but it was hard for me to learn from the kids as it was my job to speak to them in English, and the little ones were actually pretty difficult still to understand. Many of the kids did figure out by the end though that I'd learned much of the language, some of the bigger ones even consciously spoke some Portuguese with me. Well, at the end of that week I even gave an almost hour long presentation about myself and my culture to about 30-40 kids of 6-11 years old, all in Portuguese! I guess that was evidence enough for them after all that I did learn it :) (Some have been wondering about it for a while, but I was often a little vague about it, should they stop speaking English to me at all, while it was my responsibility to help them progress, hehe).
I really liked my job at Saci, it was relaxed and varied, sometimes with more responsibilities and tasks than at other times, and I really liked working with kids (under the teacher's hardcore supervision!). The kids at this school come from quite well off families though, and until my last week working at Saci, I haven't actually come into much contact with the less fortunate children in Brazil. Some older students at Saci went every so often to a Centro do Promocao do Menor in JF, a kind of social organization which houses a number of children who have come to live there because of difficult family circumstances or even abuse. That week, Bryley and I were taken along with the class and some teachers, and it was so interesting and moving to visit these children. Most of them are still quite young, not older than 10, and I just remember one of the teachers, who's really good with kids (I know because I went on a school trip to Tiradentes where she was in charge), sitting among a bunch of these cute, shy kids, with one on her lap, and a few holding close. The students from Saci were standing around as Maria do Carmo (the teacher) entertained the kids with conversation. Later, the students gave out the little gift packages with candy they brought for the kids and helped the children open them up; and everyone sat around, talking or playing with different children. Meanwhile, some boys were running around the yard like crazy (boys will be boys!).
This was a unique experience for me as it was one of the few times in Brazil when I came closer in contact with the more difficult side of the Brazilian social circumstances (as Maria do Carmo put it, if I recall correctly). Until that moment I was mostly working with quite well-off or middle-class children at the school, so I confess coming to this center made me a little uncertain at first how to behave there, how exactly to interact with the children, many of whom have had quite difficult childhoods. On the other hand, of course, children are just children anywhere, and those children just want to have affection and love as any others. There was a cute boy there who seemed to be quite fond of me, holding on to me, talking and smiling, and it's the same kind of affection other kids at Saci have shown, too. But as I said, somehow being there for the first time made me less certain how to interact with these children as many come from quite difficult circumstances, and you don't know what they are; and some children were quite shy, and it's overall a rather sensitive issue. I wish now I could have had the opportunity to go there with the school more often, so I could have become more familiar there while the children would become more used to me, too. As Maria do Carmo said, she visits often and the children are easy and comfortable with her, as well as some of the other students.
And now for something completely different! After quite a full and intense week in JF, on Saturday we have gathered a bunch of AIESEC people together at Vico's house for my birthday party, Russian style. With Russian pancakes (for which we had to freeze the Brazilian creme de leite for lack of creme freche), a birthday cake (thanks girls!), Russian souvenirs on display, drinks (including the funky Russian liquour from Ufa, the city near the Ural mountains in Russia) and crazy Russian videos with a lot of female nudity (thanks again for showing to everyone what kind of media goes around my country, Vico ;)). Aaaah, it was such a fun party. All these people around, everyone in great spirits; with a birthday song (for me! yay) and cake the girls sneaked out to get while the first serving of pancakes was ready on the table, Tammy waving around the Russian flag, Yuen sleeping randomly on the couch, AIESEC committee president Leo in full Dutch football spirit in the orange Holland sweatshirt, hugging the Russian teddy-bear for all the photos, taking lots of pictures, making a deal with Mariana that she'll come to Holland for NYE (which she kept up), and just lots of fun randomness like that (like those naked Russian videos... ahem. I didn't even know they got quite that explicit!).
Afterwards, some of us went to have some more food at an Italian restaurant, where our long table had a paper cover, which got covered by writing in various languages throughout our dinner, and no, there were no children at the table, it was just us making all those scribbles, drawings, little games. =) And I so vividly remember, when we left the restaurant, it was raining lightly outside after a very dry winter (Brazilian winter, that is) period. Huh.
The next day, it was game time at a local bar, that is, time to watch the final between Holland and Spain. As I wrote before, we have gathered quite a group (mostly consisting of not-in-Holland-living-people but actually Brazilians) to watch the game, dressed in orange, taking lots of photos and waving around the Dutch flags and wearing the orange glasses for the photos, under the curious gazes of the other Brazilians at the bar. Well, Holland lost, but oh well. It didn't stop us from going over to a Japanese restaurant around the corner from Mari's place and eating all their sushi. Or at least some of it.
Well, that's my story for today, and look I kept my promise, got over my 'saudade' and wrote more about JF. Woohoo!
Um beijo grande!
There still seems to be a rather overwhelming amount to write about my life in Juiz de Fora and Brazilian travels, and sometimes I wonder what it says about me that almost a year since I left (note: left, not came back) for Brazil, I am still trying to write about all that. Ideally I would have liked to have written about it as it was happening, but on the other hand having had time and distance since my internship has allowed me to think a little clearer and reflect better about my life there. I would still encourage others to try and write as much as they can about their current special experiences and travels, but perhaps in my case I needed some time to let it settle. Besides it's also quite therapeutical to be able to write about Brazil.
In the beginning of July, the weekend after my birthday, was my last full week working at the school. On Monday someone dropped a word that it was my birthday the past weekend, and I was sung a birthday song by the people in the lunch room, led by teacher Wagner. Haha. That week we had to finish the preparations for the South Africa cultural lunch on Friday, and the class responsible, which has such cuuute kids in it of 7-8 years old, had me (and Bryley!) to help them that week with the activities beforehand, as well as general games. The kids in that class are really fun, and there are several girls who are just crazily affectionate, they were the ones who would always run up to me in the school yard screaming during the break in their afternoon class, 'Marina! Marina!' and hang themselves off me. Aww, kids. There is nothing like their sincere affection, is there, especially at that age (before they start developing complex (pre)adolescence character traits and behaviors). I have to say though, as much as I loved the affection (and attention) they showed, when two or three of them would try to sit on me at the same time, that got pretty heavy. Just holding one 7-year-old on your lap can get pretty heavy after a while, let alone three!
This was an interesting week in a slightly different way from previous ones because I had a gringa-friend with me to show around and take along to places ;) From Saci, to my first host-family's house for a visit, to Vico's Portuguese classes, to shopping for sneakers (where we ended up getting the same pair of All Stars), to watching the Holland game against Uruguai in the semi-final, to the amazing Japanese cones at the Cone e Cia restaurant, to samba at Muzik with my Brazilian host-sisters and friends, dinner at an Arabic-style dinner place with friends, and going out at W100 with Mari and Cacau (after we waited for an HOUR in a stuffed crowd to get in) and trying those yummy watermelon cocktails, Bryley had accompanied me around that week in JF. And, of course, the two main events of the week, my Russian-themed birthday party at Vico's house (hehe, yes I'm that self-centered), and the Holland final against Spain (with that interview with the Tribuna de Minas newspaper sports reporter beforehand as well, that I wrote about in my entry on the World Cup), both in the weekend. But about that a bit later.
Introducing a friend from another country to everyone at your workplace, to your friends, host family, etc, is interesting. Oh, and helping to translate the language when you run into people who don't speak English, which happened often enough in Brazil. (Although, Bryley was quick to start understanding the language). And it's interesting for all parties involved: for Bryley to see all the people I've met, for the people I've met to meet another gringa, and for me to see how everyone reacted, and to get Bryley's reaction to everything around her that to her was new, but for me became so familar already. The newcomer's perspective on the life that you'd gotten used to is a curious thing to observe.
On Monday, we went to see my first host family, because I haven't been back for a while since I moved, and it was funny to bring a friend along. But to me, as I remember it, the funniest was to come into the house and start chatting around with my family, in Portuguese, and it was so... easy! The language, I mean; my host family is lovely, but when I lived with them I still had much of the language to learn (I still do, actually), but when I came back in July, chatting to them in Portuguese went so easily and spontaneously, it was a surprise for me too, in fact. So I wonder what Bryley was thinking as I was talking to Aninha and her parents and sister, bla bla bla in Portuguese; I turned into a true Brazilian (meaning, you don't stop talking!). I mean, I even dragged her to Portuguese classes at Vico's school, and at some point we were learning about past tenses: preterito perfeito and preterito imperfeito, which I even had trouble with. Imagine someone who just came to the country trying to keep up with all that language overload! Well, I know how that feels, actually. And, for the record, Bryley also accompanied me to a couple of Vico's English classes too, to impart her own language skills to help his students.
I remember my friend Fernanda at Saci told me that she learned quite a lot of Spanish working with the children in Ecuador; she said to me, let the kids teach you Portuguese, but it was hard for me to learn from the kids as it was my job to speak to them in English, and the little ones were actually pretty difficult still to understand. Many of the kids did figure out by the end though that I'd learned much of the language, some of the bigger ones even consciously spoke some Portuguese with me. Well, at the end of that week I even gave an almost hour long presentation about myself and my culture to about 30-40 kids of 6-11 years old, all in Portuguese! I guess that was evidence enough for them after all that I did learn it :) (Some have been wondering about it for a while, but I was often a little vague about it, should they stop speaking English to me at all, while it was my responsibility to help them progress, hehe).
I really liked my job at Saci, it was relaxed and varied, sometimes with more responsibilities and tasks than at other times, and I really liked working with kids (under the teacher's hardcore supervision!). The kids at this school come from quite well off families though, and until my last week working at Saci, I haven't actually come into much contact with the less fortunate children in Brazil. Some older students at Saci went every so often to a Centro do Promocao do Menor in JF, a kind of social organization which houses a number of children who have come to live there because of difficult family circumstances or even abuse. That week, Bryley and I were taken along with the class and some teachers, and it was so interesting and moving to visit these children. Most of them are still quite young, not older than 10, and I just remember one of the teachers, who's really good with kids (I know because I went on a school trip to Tiradentes where she was in charge), sitting among a bunch of these cute, shy kids, with one on her lap, and a few holding close. The students from Saci were standing around as Maria do Carmo (the teacher) entertained the kids with conversation. Later, the students gave out the little gift packages with candy they brought for the kids and helped the children open them up; and everyone sat around, talking or playing with different children. Meanwhile, some boys were running around the yard like crazy (boys will be boys!).
This was a unique experience for me as it was one of the few times in Brazil when I came closer in contact with the more difficult side of the Brazilian social circumstances (as Maria do Carmo put it, if I recall correctly). Until that moment I was mostly working with quite well-off or middle-class children at the school, so I confess coming to this center made me a little uncertain at first how to behave there, how exactly to interact with the children, many of whom have had quite difficult childhoods. On the other hand, of course, children are just children anywhere, and those children just want to have affection and love as any others. There was a cute boy there who seemed to be quite fond of me, holding on to me, talking and smiling, and it's the same kind of affection other kids at Saci have shown, too. But as I said, somehow being there for the first time made me less certain how to interact with these children as many come from quite difficult circumstances, and you don't know what they are; and some children were quite shy, and it's overall a rather sensitive issue. I wish now I could have had the opportunity to go there with the school more often, so I could have become more familiar there while the children would become more used to me, too. As Maria do Carmo said, she visits often and the children are easy and comfortable with her, as well as some of the other students.
And now for something completely different! After quite a full and intense week in JF, on Saturday we have gathered a bunch of AIESEC people together at Vico's house for my birthday party, Russian style. With Russian pancakes (for which we had to freeze the Brazilian creme de leite for lack of creme freche), a birthday cake (thanks girls!), Russian souvenirs on display, drinks (including the funky Russian liquour from Ufa, the city near the Ural mountains in Russia) and crazy Russian videos with a lot of female nudity (thanks again for showing to everyone what kind of media goes around my country, Vico ;)). Aaaah, it was such a fun party. All these people around, everyone in great spirits; with a birthday song (for me! yay) and cake the girls sneaked out to get while the first serving of pancakes was ready on the table, Tammy waving around the Russian flag, Yuen sleeping randomly on the couch, AIESEC committee president Leo in full Dutch football spirit in the orange Holland sweatshirt, hugging the Russian teddy-bear for all the photos, taking lots of pictures, making a deal with Mariana that she'll come to Holland for NYE (which she kept up), and just lots of fun randomness like that (like those naked Russian videos... ahem. I didn't even know they got quite that explicit!).
Afterwards, some of us went to have some more food at an Italian restaurant, where our long table had a paper cover, which got covered by writing in various languages throughout our dinner, and no, there were no children at the table, it was just us making all those scribbles, drawings, little games. =) And I so vividly remember, when we left the restaurant, it was raining lightly outside after a very dry winter (Brazilian winter, that is) period. Huh.
The next day, it was game time at a local bar, that is, time to watch the final between Holland and Spain. As I wrote before, we have gathered quite a group (mostly consisting of not-in-Holland-living-people but actually Brazilians) to watch the game, dressed in orange, taking lots of photos and waving around the Dutch flags and wearing the orange glasses for the photos, under the curious gazes of the other Brazilians at the bar. Well, Holland lost, but oh well. It didn't stop us from going over to a Japanese restaurant around the corner from Mari's place and eating all their sushi. Or at least some of it.
Well, that's my story for today, and look I kept my promise, got over my 'saudade' and wrote more about JF. Woohoo!
Um beijo grande!
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
On my Brazilian hometown - pt 1
Oi!
I recall that when I held my 'speech' at my despedida (goodbye party) in Brazil, I honestly told everyone that when I first arrived in Juiz de Fora, around the area near the bus station, I thought, 'Omg, where did I arrive?' Hahaha. In my guide book JF didn't get much attention from the authors, other than being referred to as the 'ugly industrial town' on the way between Rio and Belo Horizonte, two of the biggest cities in the area. However, even though the area around the station is not so pretty per se, I wouldn't put it quite that harshly. And by the time I got to the city center and my host family's house on my arrival day, I was already beginning to quite like the city.
What's funny, before I came to Brazil, I often associated South America with Shakira's song and especially videoclip 'Ciega, Sordomuda'. It's one of my favorite songs by her, and I don't know why, but I just love the video, and to me, it has this South American (Colombian?) flavour about it. In a way, I could draw a parallel between JF and the setting for this video, not because it's visually extremely alike, but because there is this... South American feeling about them both. And when I walked down the street in JF, I always enjoyed this feeling of just being there, this continent I've dreamed of, breathing in the air and the atmosphere around me. So when you get into JF town, though it's not exceptionally beautiful, you certainly can't call the city ugly! Ok, I've seen more stunning sights in Brazil, and as a tourist you wouldn't have much to do in the city, but it's my favorite place in Brazil. First of all, because of the people of course! My friends, my host families, everyone I had met, through AIESEC, at Saci, the kids, all the people I ran into through other friends when out in the evenings. With half a million people, JF is actually around the same size as my hometown in Russia. And now it's legitimally my Brazilian hometown for sure! Though there aren't many tourist attractions in JF, in its own way it's still so beautiful. And once you have your good group of friends to spend free time with, it's great!
The name of the city is actually kind of funny, as it's so strange - it literally means 'The judge from out of here'. It took a few people to explain this name to me before the meaning finally stuck with me. From what I recall, initially the city grew very fast back when industrialism began kicking in: JF's location near to Rio de Janeiro, on the border of Minas Gerais, spurred that growth. But there weren't any judges in town, imagine that. So, judges from other places had to keep coming to Juiz de Fora, and were referred to as the 'judge from out of here'. And so the name stuck and the city now proudly bears this fact from its history in it. Oh I do hope I got this story right!
I lived with two host-families in JF, first with Ana's (from AIESEC) family near the city centre, in a nice neighbourhood, with a few English schools around, the fancy night club Privilege not too far from there, and the viewing point called Morro do Christo a bit further up the hill, where you can see practically the whole city before you. I used to walk down a long central street (many streets in JF are interminably long) to get into town then, passing through the Parque Halfeld, which is the center of the city and the classic meeting and hanging out point for many people. It faces the shopping street on the other side of the street, called Calcadao, which is busy day and night. I can vividly recall walking down the Calcadao; after work, in the weekend, or just passing by on the bus. The city theatre, the Teatro Municipal it was called I think, is also located right in the middle of the Calcadao.
After a couple of months, I moved from Ana's house to live with Mariana, Cacau and their mother to another neighbourhood of town on the other side of the city center. This area is full of bars and restaurants, and has a small shopping center (with a cinema), so it's always busy and full of young people hanging out. It's the hip part of town :) As many bars were close by, including the one where AIESEC'ers would often get together at, it was so easy for me to get to. The area around the bars was also where people would gather to party after the World Cup games. I loved living in this area, the neighbourhood is lively and full of activity. There was also this cool trampoline around the corner from my house, where kids would always jump up and down, and I was always jealous of them :p
There are several other places around town I would want to talk about, but I'm starting to feel a bit like a tour guide ;) There is the beautiful park Manuel Honorio, with a lake, tall slender palm trees and swans; a lot of very nice churches, and interesting streets and squares in town. There is one epic place that deserves a mention, too: the club called Muzik. What's so special about a club you might think, but aside from their great Wednesday samba nights, for me it's just full of memories, among them my host sister wearing an angel outfit and passing around Valentine's cards to people in the club.
Beijos!
I recall that when I held my 'speech' at my despedida (goodbye party) in Brazil, I honestly told everyone that when I first arrived in Juiz de Fora, around the area near the bus station, I thought, 'Omg, where did I arrive?' Hahaha. In my guide book JF didn't get much attention from the authors, other than being referred to as the 'ugly industrial town' on the way between Rio and Belo Horizonte, two of the biggest cities in the area. However, even though the area around the station is not so pretty per se, I wouldn't put it quite that harshly. And by the time I got to the city center and my host family's house on my arrival day, I was already beginning to quite like the city.
What's funny, before I came to Brazil, I often associated South America with Shakira's song and especially videoclip 'Ciega, Sordomuda'. It's one of my favorite songs by her, and I don't know why, but I just love the video, and to me, it has this South American (Colombian?) flavour about it. In a way, I could draw a parallel between JF and the setting for this video, not because it's visually extremely alike, but because there is this... South American feeling about them both. And when I walked down the street in JF, I always enjoyed this feeling of just being there, this continent I've dreamed of, breathing in the air and the atmosphere around me. So when you get into JF town, though it's not exceptionally beautiful, you certainly can't call the city ugly! Ok, I've seen more stunning sights in Brazil, and as a tourist you wouldn't have much to do in the city, but it's my favorite place in Brazil. First of all, because of the people of course! My friends, my host families, everyone I had met, through AIESEC, at Saci, the kids, all the people I ran into through other friends when out in the evenings. With half a million people, JF is actually around the same size as my hometown in Russia. And now it's legitimally my Brazilian hometown for sure! Though there aren't many tourist attractions in JF, in its own way it's still so beautiful. And once you have your good group of friends to spend free time with, it's great!
The name of the city is actually kind of funny, as it's so strange - it literally means 'The judge from out of here'. It took a few people to explain this name to me before the meaning finally stuck with me. From what I recall, initially the city grew very fast back when industrialism began kicking in: JF's location near to Rio de Janeiro, on the border of Minas Gerais, spurred that growth. But there weren't any judges in town, imagine that. So, judges from other places had to keep coming to Juiz de Fora, and were referred to as the 'judge from out of here'. And so the name stuck and the city now proudly bears this fact from its history in it. Oh I do hope I got this story right!
I lived with two host-families in JF, first with Ana's (from AIESEC) family near the city centre, in a nice neighbourhood, with a few English schools around, the fancy night club Privilege not too far from there, and the viewing point called Morro do Christo a bit further up the hill, where you can see practically the whole city before you. I used to walk down a long central street (many streets in JF are interminably long) to get into town then, passing through the Parque Halfeld, which is the center of the city and the classic meeting and hanging out point for many people. It faces the shopping street on the other side of the street, called Calcadao, which is busy day and night. I can vividly recall walking down the Calcadao; after work, in the weekend, or just passing by on the bus. The city theatre, the Teatro Municipal it was called I think, is also located right in the middle of the Calcadao.
After a couple of months, I moved from Ana's house to live with Mariana, Cacau and their mother to another neighbourhood of town on the other side of the city center. This area is full of bars and restaurants, and has a small shopping center (with a cinema), so it's always busy and full of young people hanging out. It's the hip part of town :) As many bars were close by, including the one where AIESEC'ers would often get together at, it was so easy for me to get to. The area around the bars was also where people would gather to party after the World Cup games. I loved living in this area, the neighbourhood is lively and full of activity. There was also this cool trampoline around the corner from my house, where kids would always jump up and down, and I was always jealous of them :p
There are several other places around town I would want to talk about, but I'm starting to feel a bit like a tour guide ;) There is the beautiful park Manuel Honorio, with a lake, tall slender palm trees and swans; a lot of very nice churches, and interesting streets and squares in town. There is one epic place that deserves a mention, too: the club called Muzik. What's so special about a club you might think, but aside from their great Wednesday samba nights, for me it's just full of memories, among them my host sister wearing an angel outfit and passing around Valentine's cards to people in the club.
Beijos!
Sunday, 6 February 2011
How to become Isabel Allende
Well, not become her literally, of course. But you know, like in literature ;)
It would be quite a crazy ambition for me to aim to go quite that high (not impossible - but pretty crazy), but her work serves as inspiration nevertheless. As I am currently reading my signed (!) copy of her latest novel, Island Beneath the Sea, it always makes me wonder what a great imagination she must have, and how well she manages to mix it with history, all perfectly inter-woven in her deep but sensitive plotline, with a feminine heroine at the front as usual, one who is a model of a strong, independent woman despite her life circumstances. When someone at the book signing in Utrecht last October pointed out that she always has strong female characters, Isabel said 'Do you know any weak women?'
Good rhetorical question! But how do you become like Isabel Allende? I believe she began her career in journalism, but her first book, still generally considered her best, 'House of the Spirits', a fictional novel in the magical realism genre based on some of her own life experiences and rather eccentric family members, came out in the early 1980's while she was in exile after the military coup in Chile, which took place in 1973. Something like that of course has the power to change one's life forever. I suppose there isn't much point to try and 'be' like someone else, but their work and temperament (like Allende's, for now I've actually seen her in real life and thereby briefly met one of my favorite writers) can serve as sure inspiration. I can only wish that one day I can draw up, publish and sell a novel as colorful, compelling and rich in detail as one of hers! Would I be able to handle the almost military writing regime of starting at 7am, working till evening, and going on in such a way until the novel is written and ready (however long that actually takes)? Talent is one thing of course, but there's the hard work, too. It's hard, hard work to write and publish a novel, many writers work according to a similar schedule, and that's something to face up too if that's a dream to fulfill. Sounds a little nerve-racking, doesn't it?
There is a great novel by another favorite writer of mine, Sophie Kinsella, who writes in a genre very different to Allende. She is the author of the famous Shopaholic series. This novel I'm talking about is not though, it's called 'The Undomestic Goddess', about a 29-year-old woman who is one step from becoming a partner in a law firm, but otherwise has no life, really. Due to some wondrous and wicked circumstances she suddenly ends up being a housekeeper after running away from her job at the law firm as she discovers a huge mistake on her part - with absolutely no domestic skills whatsoever. As she is starting to get into her new job though, her old life of a lawyer is there again on her doorstep, and she is facing a difficult dilemma. I won't spoil it for you in case you meant to read the book, I just remembered it as an example that you can give a kick-new-start to your life at any point, really, and in the most unexpected ways.
^^
It would be quite a crazy ambition for me to aim to go quite that high (not impossible - but pretty crazy), but her work serves as inspiration nevertheless. As I am currently reading my signed (!) copy of her latest novel, Island Beneath the Sea, it always makes me wonder what a great imagination she must have, and how well she manages to mix it with history, all perfectly inter-woven in her deep but sensitive plotline, with a feminine heroine at the front as usual, one who is a model of a strong, independent woman despite her life circumstances. When someone at the book signing in Utrecht last October pointed out that she always has strong female characters, Isabel said 'Do you know any weak women?'
Good rhetorical question! But how do you become like Isabel Allende? I believe she began her career in journalism, but her first book, still generally considered her best, 'House of the Spirits', a fictional novel in the magical realism genre based on some of her own life experiences and rather eccentric family members, came out in the early 1980's while she was in exile after the military coup in Chile, which took place in 1973. Something like that of course has the power to change one's life forever. I suppose there isn't much point to try and 'be' like someone else, but their work and temperament (like Allende's, for now I've actually seen her in real life and thereby briefly met one of my favorite writers) can serve as sure inspiration. I can only wish that one day I can draw up, publish and sell a novel as colorful, compelling and rich in detail as one of hers! Would I be able to handle the almost military writing regime of starting at 7am, working till evening, and going on in such a way until the novel is written and ready (however long that actually takes)? Talent is one thing of course, but there's the hard work, too. It's hard, hard work to write and publish a novel, many writers work according to a similar schedule, and that's something to face up too if that's a dream to fulfill. Sounds a little nerve-racking, doesn't it?
There is a great novel by another favorite writer of mine, Sophie Kinsella, who writes in a genre very different to Allende. She is the author of the famous Shopaholic series. This novel I'm talking about is not though, it's called 'The Undomestic Goddess', about a 29-year-old woman who is one step from becoming a partner in a law firm, but otherwise has no life, really. Due to some wondrous and wicked circumstances she suddenly ends up being a housekeeper after running away from her job at the law firm as she discovers a huge mistake on her part - with absolutely no domestic skills whatsoever. As she is starting to get into her new job though, her old life of a lawyer is there again on her doorstep, and she is facing a difficult dilemma. I won't spoil it for you in case you meant to read the book, I just remembered it as an example that you can give a kick-new-start to your life at any point, really, and in the most unexpected ways.
^^
Sunday, 30 January 2011
This curious writer's thoughts on traveling and international experiences ^^
Hello dear readers,
Thanks for visiting my blog, whether you're new here or you've followed my blogging attempts for a while. I just have to say, I really appreciate it! :)
When I was a student in Utrecht, the Netherlands, my fellow students all around were going on exchange. I didn't go then. After my masters, I wanted to do an internship in the US, but for a number of reasons it didn't seem to be working out, which is when I began to think of going on an internship abroad, though not to the States, with AIESEC, the biggest international student organization in the world which makes international internships possible. With the thought of, if they don't accept me for the programme, I will go study Spanish in Spain or Latin America (I already checked out several options, seriously), I went to and back from the AIESEC admission interview. A couple of months later, I was in China, where I could not understand a word, spoken or written, and learned very little other than to say 'thank you', 'hello', 'my name is', and a few very random phrases, such as ''what are you staring at'' (I never did use that last one apart from with friends).
A few months after that, I was again in a new country, on yet another side of the world. I was in Brazil, trying to learn Portuguese. If I wasn't going to go the AIESEC way, I probably would have gone off to Spain or a Latin American country, to try and learn Spanish (again). I came back from Brazil in August 2010, and to this moment I am trying to learn Portuguese, and I believe that this new favorite hobby of mine will never leave me.
(Just for a laugh, here is something else ironic: before leaving to China, I took a beginner's class in Argentine tango in the Hague, and a few months later I was trying to learn samba... my life doesn't make much sense, does it?)
An international experience seems somewhat of a 'must-do' these days. Through Facebook, I can keep up with the traveling and internship/exchange updates from friends around the world, and what I've noticed lately is many people I got to know in Brazil during my five months there, are currently away in another country themselves, whether they've been there for a while, are half-way their trip, or just arrived. There are updates from Brazilians from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Chile, Canada, Bangladesh, Thailand, Colombia and Russia ;) It's crazy in a way isn't it, how small the world is nowadays. I don't take it for granted that I've been able to have this experience myself, certainly not. Despite the increasing numbers of people who go abroad for an exchange experience, I still think it's quite a special thing to do. Once I was talking about it to a friend, and we were thinking, you know people are different in this respect, some feel like their local environment is enough for them, and a move to another city in the same country is a big step. Some go on exchange to a country next door, some within the continent, or some across the world, like me (I specifically wanted to). And some even go to countries where the challenges are even bigger than just going across the world, and I wonder if it really takes a certain type of person to do it, or it's something you may learn from traveling. Whichever the case, traveling and exchange experiences, though certainly not to be taken for granted, are exponentially on the rise these days, especially among young people and students. But I guess it's not just a hype, it's a sign of this world getting used to mixing up its cultures after all.
These days, the world is at your feet...
They say an international exchange or work experience looks great on your CV. Sure, it does, it helps you stand out and proves you have that personal quality of initiative and sense of adventure, in most cases it also signifies that you've learnt much and grown from your international experience. And yet, the more (young) people go on exchange, the more competition there is, isn't there? Hahaha... how do you still set yourself apart then? How do you prove your uniqueness, enhanced by your international experience smiling at you (and your employer) from your CV (or online profile, etc.)? Aaah, the question of modern times, when just being international may no longer make you seem so special when trying to 'make it (big)' in our harshening society. But how thankful I am that there are organizations such as AIESEC, which made it possible for me to get to know two different cultures on the opposite sides of the planet. Because I know that every international experience is unique, isn't it, for every person, who can take from it something special for themselves, something that will most likely play a big part in their lives for a while after the exchange itself. And it's great (though I have to admit, I'm a little jealous too) to get a peek into the exchange experiences of your friends around the world, see what they're up to in all these different countries; striving to live the experience unites us, after all, it should certainly not be something to separate us. And though I am here in Holland, I've left parts of my heart behind in other countries, which connects me to the people I know there.
Ok, the last thing for now, something that I wonder about, and I'm sure would make the dream job for many people, what about travel journalism? Before I sat down to write my blog entry, I read an article about Lisbon in a travel journal, one of those you get on board the plane (going somewhere, so reading an article about traveling is just about the most appropriate thing for the occasion). But I actually have no idea who wrote this article, what relationship they themselves have with that city, where else they have been and written about. The life of a travel journalist seems to be a fairytale, you go traveling around the world, to all these exotic places, you write about it, and you get paid for it all, too! Can't say I wouldn't wanna do that, but what a killer of a competition this job must have then, because I can imagine many people who wouldn't even wanna be writers otherwise, piping up to say they're up for it. How do you even become a travel journalist? It's like a mystery to me.
At the same time, it must be a heck of a difficult job all the same. Especially if you do it freelance. Being sent out once in a while by the magazine you work for, coming back and writing an article, may be one way of doing this, but somehow it sounds... too easy. I have a feeling there is much more work to this profession than just having a chain of vacations in diverse places linked up one after another and the occasional work involved. What about all this online media these days too! For some inspiration I checked out the travel page of the Global NY Times before this, and it's full of articles on traveling, and sometimes I really wonder about the people behind these stories; who writes them, when, where, how many they manage, what else they might be doing for a living, what kind of home life they have. It's another mystery yet ;)
Then again, life is full of mysteries, and I'm not demanding any answers now, you live and you learn, and someday I may have the answer to some of my questions I raised here. The world is gonna keep spinning, and we all will do so with it, in our increasingly melting pot international society. But I guess the beautiful thing is, no matter how small the world is getting, there will always be - I hope - enough diversity in it, enough corners yet to be (re)explored, enough new things to see, try, learn about. And there will always be curious writers like me wondering about these things; and ever more people lucky enough to have their unique international travel-and-live-abroad experiences :)
Life will always be full of surprises and mysteries, and we have to manage it that way. After all, when I kept the option of learning Spanish in Guatemala, Peru or Barcelona (or wherever else) as a pretty good plan B to going on exchange with AIESEC, I didn't know I'd be trying to keep up my Portuguese a year later, did I? But that's how it goes.
Thanks for reading!
Beijos, obrigada mais uma vez pra ter lendo o meu blog!
Thanks for visiting my blog, whether you're new here or you've followed my blogging attempts for a while. I just have to say, I really appreciate it! :)
When I was a student in Utrecht, the Netherlands, my fellow students all around were going on exchange. I didn't go then. After my masters, I wanted to do an internship in the US, but for a number of reasons it didn't seem to be working out, which is when I began to think of going on an internship abroad, though not to the States, with AIESEC, the biggest international student organization in the world which makes international internships possible. With the thought of, if they don't accept me for the programme, I will go study Spanish in Spain or Latin America (I already checked out several options, seriously), I went to and back from the AIESEC admission interview. A couple of months later, I was in China, where I could not understand a word, spoken or written, and learned very little other than to say 'thank you', 'hello', 'my name is', and a few very random phrases, such as ''what are you staring at'' (I never did use that last one apart from with friends).
A few months after that, I was again in a new country, on yet another side of the world. I was in Brazil, trying to learn Portuguese. If I wasn't going to go the AIESEC way, I probably would have gone off to Spain or a Latin American country, to try and learn Spanish (again). I came back from Brazil in August 2010, and to this moment I am trying to learn Portuguese, and I believe that this new favorite hobby of mine will never leave me.
(Just for a laugh, here is something else ironic: before leaving to China, I took a beginner's class in Argentine tango in the Hague, and a few months later I was trying to learn samba... my life doesn't make much sense, does it?)
An international experience seems somewhat of a 'must-do' these days. Through Facebook, I can keep up with the traveling and internship/exchange updates from friends around the world, and what I've noticed lately is many people I got to know in Brazil during my five months there, are currently away in another country themselves, whether they've been there for a while, are half-way their trip, or just arrived. There are updates from Brazilians from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Chile, Canada, Bangladesh, Thailand, Colombia and Russia ;) It's crazy in a way isn't it, how small the world is nowadays. I don't take it for granted that I've been able to have this experience myself, certainly not. Despite the increasing numbers of people who go abroad for an exchange experience, I still think it's quite a special thing to do. Once I was talking about it to a friend, and we were thinking, you know people are different in this respect, some feel like their local environment is enough for them, and a move to another city in the same country is a big step. Some go on exchange to a country next door, some within the continent, or some across the world, like me (I specifically wanted to). And some even go to countries where the challenges are even bigger than just going across the world, and I wonder if it really takes a certain type of person to do it, or it's something you may learn from traveling. Whichever the case, traveling and exchange experiences, though certainly not to be taken for granted, are exponentially on the rise these days, especially among young people and students. But I guess it's not just a hype, it's a sign of this world getting used to mixing up its cultures after all.
These days, the world is at your feet...They say an international exchange or work experience looks great on your CV. Sure, it does, it helps you stand out and proves you have that personal quality of initiative and sense of adventure, in most cases it also signifies that you've learnt much and grown from your international experience. And yet, the more (young) people go on exchange, the more competition there is, isn't there? Hahaha... how do you still set yourself apart then? How do you prove your uniqueness, enhanced by your international experience smiling at you (and your employer) from your CV (or online profile, etc.)? Aaah, the question of modern times, when just being international may no longer make you seem so special when trying to 'make it (big)' in our harshening society. But how thankful I am that there are organizations such as AIESEC, which made it possible for me to get to know two different cultures on the opposite sides of the planet. Because I know that every international experience is unique, isn't it, for every person, who can take from it something special for themselves, something that will most likely play a big part in their lives for a while after the exchange itself. And it's great (though I have to admit, I'm a little jealous too) to get a peek into the exchange experiences of your friends around the world, see what they're up to in all these different countries; striving to live the experience unites us, after all, it should certainly not be something to separate us. And though I am here in Holland, I've left parts of my heart behind in other countries, which connects me to the people I know there.
Ok, the last thing for now, something that I wonder about, and I'm sure would make the dream job for many people, what about travel journalism? Before I sat down to write my blog entry, I read an article about Lisbon in a travel journal, one of those you get on board the plane (going somewhere, so reading an article about traveling is just about the most appropriate thing for the occasion). But I actually have no idea who wrote this article, what relationship they themselves have with that city, where else they have been and written about. The life of a travel journalist seems to be a fairytale, you go traveling around the world, to all these exotic places, you write about it, and you get paid for it all, too! Can't say I wouldn't wanna do that, but what a killer of a competition this job must have then, because I can imagine many people who wouldn't even wanna be writers otherwise, piping up to say they're up for it. How do you even become a travel journalist? It's like a mystery to me.
At the same time, it must be a heck of a difficult job all the same. Especially if you do it freelance. Being sent out once in a while by the magazine you work for, coming back and writing an article, may be one way of doing this, but somehow it sounds... too easy. I have a feeling there is much more work to this profession than just having a chain of vacations in diverse places linked up one after another and the occasional work involved. What about all this online media these days too! For some inspiration I checked out the travel page of the Global NY Times before this, and it's full of articles on traveling, and sometimes I really wonder about the people behind these stories; who writes them, when, where, how many they manage, what else they might be doing for a living, what kind of home life they have. It's another mystery yet ;)
Then again, life is full of mysteries, and I'm not demanding any answers now, you live and you learn, and someday I may have the answer to some of my questions I raised here. The world is gonna keep spinning, and we all will do so with it, in our increasingly melting pot international society. But I guess the beautiful thing is, no matter how small the world is getting, there will always be - I hope - enough diversity in it, enough corners yet to be (re)explored, enough new things to see, try, learn about. And there will always be curious writers like me wondering about these things; and ever more people lucky enough to have their unique international travel-and-live-abroad experiences :)
Life will always be full of surprises and mysteries, and we have to manage it that way. After all, when I kept the option of learning Spanish in Guatemala, Peru or Barcelona (or wherever else) as a pretty good plan B to going on exchange with AIESEC, I didn't know I'd be trying to keep up my Portuguese a year later, did I? But that's how it goes.
Thanks for reading!
Beijos, obrigada mais uma vez pra ter lendo o meu blog!
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Gringas from Holland traveling together in Brazil :)
Ooooi!
You know, when I first arrived in Brazil, I didn't know anyone there other than the people from AIESEC and Saci, the school, who received me and whom I had 'met' online before leaving Holland; I didn't speak the language, and was feeling a little bit lost for the initial period. It was so different when my friend Bryley arrived at the Rodoviaria Novo in Rio de Janeiro, three and a half months later. And it was such a funny feeling in the beginning to see her there in Brazil. We often said in Brazil that we made a good traveling couple, as I speak the language and she has a great sense of direction, so together we made our way around easily. Of course, Bryley has even traveled in more challenging countries than Brazil and on her own, and I always admire people who have the guts to just go anywhere and everywhere by themselves, and wonder if it takes a certain type of person to do that, or it's something you can learn as you go about it?
In Rio, we stayed at a hostel in Copacabana recommended to me by my friend Roberta, which, I remember, we had to put some effort to find initially once we got off the crowded, rambling city bus. We should just have stayed where we got off as the hostel was just around the corner, but instead we actually decided to try our luck with a cab... the driver had no idea (hmm?) where to go and just drove us in a circle before setting us off somewhere close to where we started, but it was a funny conversation, as it involved a random conversation in Portuguese between me and the driver about where we came from and, since we were from Holland, about the Brazil-Holland game two days later. Bryley just arrived so I'm not sure anymore how much she understood, other than what I might have translated for her benefit. I just remember it being really funny, so that I didn't even grit my teeth too much that we paid the taxi ride money for nothing, since our hostel was really so close, we just didn't know. And I remember the guy thought that Holland would win the game... and well, he turned out to be right. In any case, he must have been pretty entertained as even in a busy tourist area such as Copacabana they still probably seldom get such random gringas (with such good Portuguese skills ;)).
After spending a couple of days in Rio and getting about a bunch of tourist things like seeing Christ the Redeemer and the Sugarloaf Mountain, on Friday we ended up going out till 5 30 am in Lapa on the night of my birthday, with a big group from the hostel that quickly reduced itself to me and Bryley following this random Brazilian guy for a little while who came by the hostel every weekend or something to take the whole lot to Lapa. But as we weren't satisfied by the quality of the first place he took us to which was full of seriously horny guys grabbing you at every corner (it was a seriously intense atmosphere hahaha), and we kind of figured that the guy was just trying to show off by demonstrating how many friends he has, we made our own way for a while. We ended up in this funk place (it's a music style) in the middle of Lapa, where we found our hostel roommates again and their friends, a bunch of Brazilian guys! One of the girls knew them from her previous stay in Brazil, as I remember... well, I can only hope that I can come back to Brazil and show off such a cool friends-pack at a party hehe (I'm sure I can). The funniest thing was, they even acted as our protectors from the other guys around who wouldn't leave us alone (there were some annoying ones). Time flew and it was early morning by the time we left and climbed back into bed, to roll out too late the next morning to have breakfast at the hostel, so we had to go eat our sandwiches and drink our juice at a local cafeteria, perched on high chairs by the counter, listening to the sounds of fireworks around, which were in the honour of Argentina losing so impressively to Germany in the Cup. If Brazil didn't get to use up the fireworks the day before, this was the day to do it... apparently, in JF, it was the same case! Fireworks, just for Argentina!
That afternoon, after perusing the area of the city with the beautiful Teatro Municipal which is similar to the one in Paris, and another coconut-water stop-over by the Ipanema beach, we headed to Petropolis, a small near-by town in the mountains (right on the road between Rio and JF) famous for having been the summer retreat of the Portuguese kings during the colonial period. The kings left several famous castles and building around the city, which is a small but beautiful place surrounded by green mountains, and is relatively cooler than Rio, which explains its popularity with the cariocas from the capital (and thus the Portuguese kings), when the heat is just too much to take even lying sprawled on Copacabana beach. And yes, it is one of the towns that was recently affected in the floods that took place again in Brazil... There was a big flood in Rio where I was still in Brazil myself, but this was unfortunately even more serious, so as I have been to two out of three places that were hit (the others towns were Teresopolis and Nova Friburgo, and I've been to the latter) I was quite sad to read the news on the floods in Brazil... it's interesting how much more you find yourself paying attention and how much more it means to you when something happens somewhere in the world if you have a connection with that place. So I hope that things will soon get better in these towns.
As for the moment, back to that day in Petropolis... (well, yes, it was my birthday... who would have thought that I'd spend my 23rd birthday in Rio and Petropolis, in Brazil!) We were met there by Amanda, a girl I met through Aiesec, whose family lives in Petropolis. So we came over to her family's lovely, comfortable house (so nice after three nights in a small hostel room), where we met her family and her cats, had some dinner, went out to get a movie (the famous Brazilian comedy I already wanted to see before, called 'Se eu fosse voce' - 'If I were you'), and as we were tired, fell asleep soon after it ended (Bryley fell asleep during, haha). The next day we went to explore Petropolis for a few hours, starting with our visit to the top of the hill popular with sporty-outdorsy paragliding people, to seeing the richly done homes of the Portuguese kings, to even a German-inspired party that just happened to be taking place in Petropolis that weekend. I remember Bryley's reaction to it, because it was one of the first things she did in Brazil... a German party.
It was a short, but lovely trip to Petropolis, and hopefully not the last one! In the following weeks, we did a lot of traveling, that's for sure: we traveled to Belo Horizonte, Ouro Preto, Cabo Frio and Buzios, met up the other trainees in Rio again... and after a weekend back in JF, we headed together for the exotic Bahia in the north-east of the country. Well, I do hope there will be more adventure in Brazil next time for me! (Who knows, I might even have the guts then to travel by myself a little bit, too!).
Hope you enjoyed reading!
Beijos! :)
You know, when I first arrived in Brazil, I didn't know anyone there other than the people from AIESEC and Saci, the school, who received me and whom I had 'met' online before leaving Holland; I didn't speak the language, and was feeling a little bit lost for the initial period. It was so different when my friend Bryley arrived at the Rodoviaria Novo in Rio de Janeiro, three and a half months later. And it was such a funny feeling in the beginning to see her there in Brazil. We often said in Brazil that we made a good traveling couple, as I speak the language and she has a great sense of direction, so together we made our way around easily. Of course, Bryley has even traveled in more challenging countries than Brazil and on her own, and I always admire people who have the guts to just go anywhere and everywhere by themselves, and wonder if it takes a certain type of person to do that, or it's something you can learn as you go about it?
In Rio, we stayed at a hostel in Copacabana recommended to me by my friend Roberta, which, I remember, we had to put some effort to find initially once we got off the crowded, rambling city bus. We should just have stayed where we got off as the hostel was just around the corner, but instead we actually decided to try our luck with a cab... the driver had no idea (hmm?) where to go and just drove us in a circle before setting us off somewhere close to where we started, but it was a funny conversation, as it involved a random conversation in Portuguese between me and the driver about where we came from and, since we were from Holland, about the Brazil-Holland game two days later. Bryley just arrived so I'm not sure anymore how much she understood, other than what I might have translated for her benefit. I just remember it being really funny, so that I didn't even grit my teeth too much that we paid the taxi ride money for nothing, since our hostel was really so close, we just didn't know. And I remember the guy thought that Holland would win the game... and well, he turned out to be right. In any case, he must have been pretty entertained as even in a busy tourist area such as Copacabana they still probably seldom get such random gringas (with such good Portuguese skills ;)).
After spending a couple of days in Rio and getting about a bunch of tourist things like seeing Christ the Redeemer and the Sugarloaf Mountain, on Friday we ended up going out till 5 30 am in Lapa on the night of my birthday, with a big group from the hostel that quickly reduced itself to me and Bryley following this random Brazilian guy for a little while who came by the hostel every weekend or something to take the whole lot to Lapa. But as we weren't satisfied by the quality of the first place he took us to which was full of seriously horny guys grabbing you at every corner (it was a seriously intense atmosphere hahaha), and we kind of figured that the guy was just trying to show off by demonstrating how many friends he has, we made our own way for a while. We ended up in this funk place (it's a music style) in the middle of Lapa, where we found our hostel roommates again and their friends, a bunch of Brazilian guys! One of the girls knew them from her previous stay in Brazil, as I remember... well, I can only hope that I can come back to Brazil and show off such a cool friends-pack at a party hehe (I'm sure I can). The funniest thing was, they even acted as our protectors from the other guys around who wouldn't leave us alone (there were some annoying ones). Time flew and it was early morning by the time we left and climbed back into bed, to roll out too late the next morning to have breakfast at the hostel, so we had to go eat our sandwiches and drink our juice at a local cafeteria, perched on high chairs by the counter, listening to the sounds of fireworks around, which were in the honour of Argentina losing so impressively to Germany in the Cup. If Brazil didn't get to use up the fireworks the day before, this was the day to do it... apparently, in JF, it was the same case! Fireworks, just for Argentina!
That afternoon, after perusing the area of the city with the beautiful Teatro Municipal which is similar to the one in Paris, and another coconut-water stop-over by the Ipanema beach, we headed to Petropolis, a small near-by town in the mountains (right on the road between Rio and JF) famous for having been the summer retreat of the Portuguese kings during the colonial period. The kings left several famous castles and building around the city, which is a small but beautiful place surrounded by green mountains, and is relatively cooler than Rio, which explains its popularity with the cariocas from the capital (and thus the Portuguese kings), when the heat is just too much to take even lying sprawled on Copacabana beach. And yes, it is one of the towns that was recently affected in the floods that took place again in Brazil... There was a big flood in Rio where I was still in Brazil myself, but this was unfortunately even more serious, so as I have been to two out of three places that were hit (the others towns were Teresopolis and Nova Friburgo, and I've been to the latter) I was quite sad to read the news on the floods in Brazil... it's interesting how much more you find yourself paying attention and how much more it means to you when something happens somewhere in the world if you have a connection with that place. So I hope that things will soon get better in these towns.
As for the moment, back to that day in Petropolis... (well, yes, it was my birthday... who would have thought that I'd spend my 23rd birthday in Rio and Petropolis, in Brazil!) We were met there by Amanda, a girl I met through Aiesec, whose family lives in Petropolis. So we came over to her family's lovely, comfortable house (so nice after three nights in a small hostel room), where we met her family and her cats, had some dinner, went out to get a movie (the famous Brazilian comedy I already wanted to see before, called 'Se eu fosse voce' - 'If I were you'), and as we were tired, fell asleep soon after it ended (Bryley fell asleep during, haha). The next day we went to explore Petropolis for a few hours, starting with our visit to the top of the hill popular with sporty-outdorsy paragliding people, to seeing the richly done homes of the Portuguese kings, to even a German-inspired party that just happened to be taking place in Petropolis that weekend. I remember Bryley's reaction to it, because it was one of the first things she did in Brazil... a German party.
It was a short, but lovely trip to Petropolis, and hopefully not the last one! In the following weeks, we did a lot of traveling, that's for sure: we traveled to Belo Horizonte, Ouro Preto, Cabo Frio and Buzios, met up the other trainees in Rio again... and after a weekend back in JF, we headed together for the exotic Bahia in the north-east of the country. Well, I do hope there will be more adventure in Brazil next time for me! (Who knows, I might even have the guts then to travel by myself a little bit, too!).
Hope you enjoyed reading!
Beijos! :)
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Brazilian zusjes in Holland :)
Olá meus amigos!
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
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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