Eddy in Brazil

A few Saturday´s back, a boy from Church called Pedro turned four years old. He is therefore known as Pedrinho or ´little Pedro´. He has become my little buddy and although I don´t always follow what he is saying, we are good mates.


He had a Batman themed party held at a condo in Vitória. A table full of sweets, hotdogs, torta and bolo (cake); there was plenty to stuff yourself with.





I was surprised and shocked to find out that Pedro wasn´t Pastor Loiola´s son, which I had always assumed seeing as they take care of him. (Pr Loiola preaches at our church). He is actually Pr Loiola´s son´s child, the result of an careless night out. So Pedro´s mother is with her other boyfriend and Pedro is being raised by his grandparents. These cases only become apparent after some time, and it´s always sad to discover them. If anything, it made me grateful for the fact that I am not in a similar situation. In fact, I´m the only one from the Australian exchange students here that doesn´t have split parents.



That was just a quickie, and just to cap off, the first Brazilian to go to space took off yesterday. Marcos Pontes. The launch was last night (just before I called home to check dad´s result). Click here to see the launch. Marcos will be at the international space station for eight days, before returning back to Earth. Cool isn´t it!

EDIT: Got my hands on some more pictures! Scroll on down!
I might get one post out of the way now... haha
Last Saturday there was a music show, that in portuguese slang is known as a Rock, pronounced 'hock'. It was an Axé festival, which is similar to Samba music (carnaval).The band was ASA Trivela, and boy it was CRAZY.

Below is the only picture I´ve got of us, it was taken and uploaded by the event people. If you want to get a general impression, go to http://www.tevejonorock.com.br/. There is a small video clip on the front page, then click on ´Fotos dos Agitos´ on the left, and find TRIVELA parte 01 and 02. Here is the still sober us (except for Roberto):

The way they run these things is so Brazilian and so good. Basically you buy a ticket (+- 50 reais) you pick up the designated singlet for that event (different each time and all the girls get them modified) and you're set. If you pay more you can get a blue singlet, and this puts you in the VIP area, which is above the main ground. But if you ask me those people paid more to get less; the real fun is down in the pit. Everyone gets there during the afternoon and before you even get into the grounds, there is one large street packed with people, everyone in yellow (the colour of the this events singlet) and there are infinite stalls selling lots of alcohol, food and playing loud music. Around 4 or 5 o´clock, people will start making their way inside. The actual band plays on a giant float, pulled by a tractor, so there is no front or back, because the stage is constantly moving around. I think they must have had about 5 songs that everyone knows, and they played them over and over again.

I can´t estimate the amount of people that were there, but it is at least 5 football fields filled, as far as the area goes. I went with friends from school and all (but one) of the Australians went as well. Location was in Vitória (across the bay from Vila Velha where I live) at Praça da Papa where Carnaval is held. So altough I didn´t witness any carnval here in person, this gave me a pretty good idea. You might think Australians have a pretty heavy drinking culture, but Brazilians go crazy just the same. Different types of Cachaça drinks (made from sugar cane), tequila, lots of beer and vodka. I managed to stay standing, but plenty of others were seen carried off, before it even got started. The show ends at 10, and afterwards we went to Cariacica where Sammy (other Australian) lives. We found out there was a house party nearby on top of some apartment building, so we went there to cool off for a few hours, before hitting bed at about 4. Great atmosphere and a great night, thanks to mum and dad for funding it and those that were there.

More updates to come! This week is semana de provas at school, so while the others sit their tests, we make good use of the IT room. Hahaha

Vai com Deus!

Hi guys,

I'm still here, no need to worry. With my school routine and some internet downtime I haven't gotten the chance to show and tell you more of my experiences, but trust me all is well.

I have been going out a lot more, making heaps of friends (my orkut has over 50 already) and in short, I am loving it here (Orkut, made by Google, is online community where you can add friends, upload pictures, write about yourself and message others, almost everyone here has it). My portuguese is still growing exponentially. Uziel and I just bought some grammar books, so we are going to teach ourselves over the coming weeks. This way I can go at my own pace and I'll pay a lot less.

At odd moments during the day, like walking down the busy streets here in Centro, I get these moments where I stand still, just glance around and take in everything and think; wow! I'm in Brasil. Sure there are some lonely times, when there is not much to do, but this is part of the deal. And the challenge is then to entertain myself.

There is much to say about the past few weeks, I could write you a novel. But I will use school time to write up some accounts and hopefully the computer let's me upload some pictures.

I'm having fun, I hope you are too!
Thanks to the Dutch Uncles for their messages in the guestbook.
Eu preciso sair, então, até mais!

Right now it is bucketing down with rain. It´s really tropical weather, with blue skies and lots of sun in the morning, but around noon, the skies darken and it rains for a few hours on in with thunder and lighting. This also makes the weather rather humid, the umidade (oo-mee-dadge) is usually in the 50-60 percentile range.
Adelaide´s arid hinterland makes for a much drier heat in summer, which is a lot more bearable, because I have up to three showers a day (one after I wake up, one after I get back from school and one before church/bed) because you sweat a lot more. The showers, then, are more rinse-off´s than anything else. Last Tuesday during our one and only lesson a week of Educaçao Fisica (which really translates to free-time with a ball of your choice; basket-,volley- or soccerball) I worked up the biggest sweat I think I have ever done in my lifetime, simply because the air doesn´t take up the moisture, because it is already quite humid. That made for a nice little meteoroligical lesson didn´t it?

In other news: I almost made it my first full week of school this week, but last night we went out for Jess´ 18th, and getting home at 4:30 in the morning it was no hard decision I was going to have a nice sleep in. I am sure I was sorely missed by my classmates and teachers alike... Swingers Lounge is the name of the boate or nightclub that we decided to invade. It is in Vitória (so we had to cross the third bridge) and NO it´s not a swingers club. So Jess, an English girl called Kate, two of her friends, one of whom is a brazilian living in Boston and Sammy Clayton (another Aussie) and myself all went to Swingers. It good fun! Jess managed to charm the bouncer into giving us invites so we dodged the cover-charge. It´s a largish place with a big bar that stretched on the right side, DJ Booth on the left and dance-floor eitherside of a elevated part where people can dance and perform other drunken stunts. Loud music, and lots of people, I was very impressed. They even had midgets, dressed up in devil suits who poured tequila in people´s mouths and played drums. They had some mexican theme going. Usually nightclubs play one type of music, but at Swingers it changes drastically, which seems weird but I thought it worked well. One minute you´re dancing to a Brazilian song, and then ´Let´s twist again´ (like we did last summer) comes on, and then it changes to trance, and then to hip-hop. Means everyone´s taste is satisfied at least once. Boy it was loud, my ears are still ringing... Drinks are ridiculously cheap. One beer cost me $R3.50, and a double-shot Johnny Walker (red label) just 10 reais. You get given a little card with a barcode, which tracks all your expenses for the night, then before you go to leave you pay your tab. Good system, cuts a lot of waiting time at the bar.

This week to come I hope to find me some portuguese lessons, so I can get serious with the language. Right now I am learning either from experience or teaching myself. Which I must say isn´t going all that bad, seeing as I have a strong foundation of other languages to work from. But I hate stuffing up the verb conjugations, so I want to get it right.

Apart from that all is well! My host parents are getting busier with the school, because the post-carnaval influx of old and new students. I even had to fill in for Uziel to teach Joanna, a 50 year old lady who is learning English, at least I made myself useful. We went through how to offer and request clarification. Ex: Is that clear? No please explain. etc... Good fun.

Having been here over 5 weeks, I can now confirm that this country is soccer-fanatic. TV is full of it! During carnaval week the daily news went like this: Carnaval around the country followed by soccer news. That was it! I am not kidding. On random occasions during the day you can hear amateur fireworks banging in the distance, not knowing what it was for before, I now know it´s people celebrating a goal, from one of the many games being played nationally. I am yet to find a club where I can join to play, as there aren´t many around. People play more street soccer, futsal or futebol de praia. We were going to play last Friday on a synthetic court, me and the guys from school, but it was raining hard. Um outre dia..

Anyway, I am off once more. Will endeavour to provide some pictures from school and what not in the future. Hope all is well back in Australia and with any family members following from Holland or the USA, but for now Brasil is the place to be!

Abraços!

That's portuguese for I'm back. We got the car back the next day, the bomba (pump) needed to be replaced. We set out for Vila Velha at about two o'clock in the afternoon. Some 13 hours later we were home. There were big hold-ups in and around Rio; it was already on the news before we left. Carnaval-goers from the South going North all pass through Rio, and this causes muito traffico. What I loved about the traffic jams, was that there were countless people selling everything from water, to newspapers, to peanuts, popcorn and small coffees (cafézinhos). If there is money to be made, a Brazilian will be there. People were actually making a living off the heavy traffic! Something to think about...
Some shots of the drive back:










Unfortunately I couldn't get any decent shots of Rio, we were only passing through, and the only good view from the bridge was blurred, so it wouldn't do the place any justice. It was very pretty at night, with several big cruise ships housed in the bay and the big beaches also lit up.

The same Sunday we got home, we left to go camping in Guarapari, a town 40 mins drive South from here. A holiday destination for most Capixabas (people from Espírito Santo, pronounced kapeeshabas) with some VERY nice beaches. Typical Brazilian praias with masses of umbrellas and little beach chairs, and of course lots of kiosks selling coconut water, beer, fried seafoods etc. We stayed in a house with twenty odd people from the church. Nice atmosphere with singing songs, cooking and visiting the Sorveteria (ice cream!). We got back Tuesday. While I was there, I got sunburnt after exceeding the limits of dutch-tanning, bitten over 30 times by mosquitos on my legs and feet (I am not exaggerating), and I got crazy little black spikes stuck in my fingers after trying to climb onto a rock from the sea. Yes, some pain there, but I'm not letting those things discourage me...

Although by now, most Brazilians are starting to go to work, for me school doesn't start until monday. I just got invited to a Ressaca da Carnaval, (Carnaval Hangover) that a girl in my class is hosting at her place. Kind of a, carnaval-is-over-but-let's-just-have-one-more-party type thing. I've been promised a pool, churrasco (YES!) and lots of people. It's at her condo on Itapoã beach, so Jarryd and I will go there tomorrow afternoon/evening.

That´s the update for now, thanks again for the heart-warming messages in the guestbook. Tchau e ótimo carnaval pra vocês!