Eddy in Brazil

Mudei de familia!

2006-07-29T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, just putting this on the blog to let you know that I´ve moved host-family!
The family has a low income, and we share a crowded little house with 6 people. One bedroom and a room that is like a living room with a kitchen in it. Here is a photo of the bedroom window, it takes a little getting used to sleeping with so many people in the same room and the street light flickers at night.. but i guess we get food on most days...

Ok, I know that was kind of bad taste... I haven´t REALLY moved to a favela...

In fact, I´m only a few blocks down from where I lived before! I´m still in centro de Vila Velha. I am staying with the Basos family. Here is my endereço:

Rua Antonio Ataide, 679/ apt. 302
Centro
Vila Velha, ES
Brasil

Homephone: +55 27 3329-4251

Host-family looks a little something like this:

Pães: Lucienne (mãe), Ary (pai)
Irmãos: Nayara (17), Vitor (15), Natalia (9)
Nearly forgot, we have a dog called Biju!

They look Brazilian don´t they... I have known the Basos family since the start of the year, as Louis, one of the other Australians used to live here, so in that sense settling in is made a lot easier; we are not total strangers.

I stayed with Uziel and Daiane for 6 months and a few days. I am very grateful for their hospitality and efforts to give me as many things to try and explore as possible in Brasil. Although I was officialy their host-son, I see them more as my friends, and I was basically a room-mate, in the sense I lived as an equal among them. They have taught me so many things about life, and I have taken away things from them that will stay a part of me. Cheers guys!

I look forward to staying with the Basos family for the remainder of the year. A new family, a different experience, making the exchange even more worthwhile. Ok guys, signing off now!

abraços para todos!

Tenho monte de coisas para fazer!

2006-07-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

As much as I would like to sit here and type updates. I´m leading a busy and full-filling exchangers life and it would be silly wasting this precious time behind a computer screen.

The 27th of June marked 5 months for me, since I arrived in Brazil, and so I am more or less halfway there. It´s gone so quickly already, but it seems like a long time to go. People, it´s worth every bit of it. Today, I was talking to my host-dad, Uziel and a man from church Alarcon how missing out a year of university (faculdade) is really insignificant when you weigh up the things I´m learning here. Here I´m doing "faculdade da vida", and that´s exactly right, I´m learning about life, in all aspects imaginable. Experiencing a new culture broadens your vision, as now I don´t just see things the Dutch or Australian way, but the Brazilian way!! Remember Jeitinho Brasileiro...

Since the Curitiba trip I have been lucky enough to have traveled two more times. First to the south of this state to a place called Alegre. Here there is an anual music festival, called Festival de Alegre (seems logical). It is one of the biggest in Brazil that goes for four days and houses all the main Brazilian artists, tons of sideshows and sometimes even international appearances. Not long after Alegre, I went to visit Lucy, a friend from school in Adelaide. She is on exchange with Rotary in Bauru (São Paulo), so I stayed with her for a week. I am now back in Vila Velha, and about to turn 18. You can see how things get crowded can´t you.

I wish everyone well and até mais...

Curitíba: A cidade da gente

2006-06-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

It´s post time!

I think I´ve already mentioned how I have come to perceive Brazil as a country of "extreme extremes". This perception became even greater when I visited Curitíba (koo-ree-chee-bah), the capital of the state of Paraná. For those of you use Google Earth, I uploaded the following placemark which will give you an indication of where it is located (Brazil´s south). Just looking at the Wikipedia entry for Curitíba, and it gives a very nice overview as well. I won´t give you a day-by-day account, but rather a brief summary along with my impressions and plenty of photos and for the first time on EddyinBrazil some videos!

Click on the thumbnail for a slideshow; read the post to understand the photos!

Destination: Curitíba, Paraná, Brazil
Reason for travel: Church and family business
Duration: 8 days (17th until the 25th of May)
Mode of travel: Aeroplane

Let´s take-off!

We managed heavily discounted tickets through "Varig Brasil" and so Uziel, Daiane and I flew to Curitíba´s João Alfonso´s airport after passing through both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, with some delays.

Curitíba, located significantly further from the equator, has a very different climate than that of Vila Velha. Here in Vila Velha, there is barely any seasonal difference, and right now the temperature still hangs around 27 degrees celcius. At the same time, Curitíba´s will get below 10 degrees at night, and during the day, maybe a top of 20 degrees. So to say the least, it was a cold change!

The south of Brazil, was subject to much immigration from Europe, from countries like Germany, Italy, Poland, and therefore it has a strong European feel. The south, compared to the rest of Brazil, is considered first-world. And having personally experienced the city, I can now confirm that the difference certainly exists. The city´s public services are all of a high standard, and much of the city was re-planned and altered such as the roads and public transport. Curitíba has many parks, a botanic garden, musea, an opera theatre; facilities you would not find in a city like Vitória or Vila Velha. Crime, is significantly lower, and aside from locks on doors, it is almost not an issue (as I have been used to my entire life). In Vila Velha, you are forced to take several precautions, such as avoiding to go out at night, and carrying a minimal amount of valuable items. In the south, as I witnessed in an amazing personal experience, the police is not afraid to take action, even against considerably small crimes. Another example is that around the city, you find divided recycle bins for up to five different types of rubbish, and the city streets are noticeably cleaner; European standards. Transport is well organised, with large connection highways and buslanes in throughout the city. There are buses of three-times the normal length, that run on natural gas, and the bus stops are the iconic "tubes"; large glass tubes with ramps that are used to save time by avoiding buying tickets on the bus and they provide great shelter and easy access. Below is a quick clip of Parque Tanguá, one of many parks in Curitíba. Once an old, unused stone-groove, Curitíba´s ex-mayor Jaime Lerner had a vision and turned it into a beautiful park connected to a lake below through a large waterfall (not the waterfall seen here). Uziel is talking in the background.

Uziel (my host father) is originally from Paraná, and was born not far from Curitíba. His family, therefore, nearly all live in and around the city. So in the time I was there, I met Uziel´s parents, siblings, cousins and other in-some-way-related family members. Uziel´s family is bigger than I thought, and quite spread out. Let´s hope I get this right: Uziel is the youngest (29) of six siblings with 3 brothers and 2 sisters. His parents live in Palmeira (about an hour´s drive from Curitíba). Uziel´s father, Pastor Adolar Lagos is 82 years old, and has already worked for the ministry for 51 years. He has set up many churches, and is still completing the construction of a brand new church next to his house.

One part of my stay in Curitíba, and who would have guessed, was Marcha para Jesus, that´s right, Eddy went on a Jesus march! Roughly ten thousand people marched through the city center, uniting christians from all types of churches. Our church (World Revival Church) was there, with custom t-shirts and a large banner, which I helped carry for the majority of the time. A big trio-eletríco (big truck with a band on top and lots of speakers) led the way. It was interesting to observe a congregation like this. From what I could tell, there were mainly people of a low social class, hippies and there was a underlying political drive to the march as well, as the march´s destination was the governor´s house, and both he and the mayor of Curitíba held speeches. Although this is totally not my thing, it was fun being in the midst of it, and it gave a lot of people a spiritual lift. Plus we got to advertise the church!

I must say, I am getting value for money on this exchange... Let me tell you what happened on our second day in Curitíba. Driving home at roughly ten o´clock we were descending towards are big crossing when all of a sudden, we could hear shots being fired, really rapidly, and all I could see was a police car stationed in the middle of the crossing with several officers taking cover and firing their weapons. Uziel, who was driving at the time, immediately spun our car around, and headed in the opposite the direction. Catching our breath, we turned onto the road running alongside the main road where the shots were fired. It turned out there was a stolen vehicle being chased, and the car thiefs were firing at police, who in turn returned fire. As we later turned back onto the main road, we could see police lights flashing in the distance. As we approached we saw a blue car with its back, completely smashed as well as a white truck whose front had narrowly missed. On the other side of the crossing was the red vectra, which tried to run a red light, but crashed and consequently stopped working. The thiefs ran, and one got shot dead trying to climb a fence, while the other fled. We arrived only seconds after it happened. Swat style military police streamed in from all directions. I´ve never seen such an awesome police reaction in my life. These so called HONS police were all heavily armed, with submachine guns and literally shot the vectra (plus the thief) to bits. I made a small movie clip of the scene. The red vectra, and behind it the scene of where it crashed.

We stayed with Uziel´s nephew, Helder also known as Thor. He lived in the US for 15 years, and had his three children there, before moving back to Brazil. Just outside of Curitíba, he has a large retreat/holiday house, known as chacará. Complete with a small soccer field, pool, trampoline, large churrasco, numerous animals and plenty of spare land. On Saturday, he invited a whole group of friend and the men had a game of six-a-side, after which an entire lamb (pre-cut) was barbequed and consumed. Apart from this amazing meat, I also tried a new food item, which is orginally from the south of Brazil (Rio Grando do Sul) called Chimarrão (pronounced shee-mah-howng). It´s a tea-type drink, prepared in a cuia - a special container made from a pumpkin-like fruit of the calabash tree (crescentia cujete). In the foto, the cuia is made from horn. Uziel´s father has an impressive collection of near a hundred cuias, of all different shapes and sizes imaginable. Hot, but not boiling water is added to special ervas or herbs and drunk in turns through a metal straw called a bomba. Read the wikipedia entry for Chimarrão more info. It very cool, and hot on a cold day... you get what I mean. So if you are ever in Brazil, near the south, to fit right in just say the following: Vamos tomar um chimarrão! (Let´s go drink a chimarrão!).

So all in all, a very nice chance to visit another part of Brazil. My vision keep broadening, my language keeps expanding and there seems to be no end in sight. I´m loving it here.

Valeu galera!

As ferías

2006-04-26T16:40:00.001-07:00

Holidays! Although the school year here is not structured into terms as in Australia, with regular two-week breaks for every ten weeks of school, we have had quite a few holidays over the past few weeks here in Espiríto Santo. The Easter weekend, and the two weekends that followed were all long weekends, spanning 3 or 4 days each. This made for a nice time off school, and also gave the opportunity to travel here and there. My mate from school Diego da Matta invited me on the first two weekends to travel with him. The Easter weekend we spent down at Camping do Siri near a place called Marataízes, roughly three hours drive south of here. The following weekend I travelled with him and his sister to Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais. The third weekend Uziel & Daiane went to a church convention, also in Minas, during which time I stayed home alone for a weekend!

So, the Easter long weekend started with Diego's parents dropping us off at the camping on Thursday night. Oh nearly forgot, the night before I went out with Robertinho's older sister Nanda and her friends to Com Vento, one of the nightclubs in Vitória. Roberto is a mate from school, and Jarryd is now staying at his house. The night's theme was Psyfunk, hence a selection of
trance music and later Brazilian funky. Here is us:

I'm not homesick yet mum!

At the camping we set up our four man tent, which despite its size, failed to house my abnormally long legs. Diego's parents later left and we walked around to get to know the camping. Diego had been before. Very nice grounds, adjacent to the beach, plenty of trees, clean bathrooms. The camping is 30 years old and so has a bit of tradition to it. There were two other friends from school. We mucked around lots, playing bocha, a form of bowling, and of course going to the beach daily, where my sunscreen (30SPF) failed to adequately protect from the sun. We fished for Pitú (freshwater shrimp), in the little creek, catching up to twenty which we later cleaned and made a Moqueca of (a seafood dish). There was a lake nearby where we swam, jumped of the bridge etc. Just being able to be a kid again felt good, people grow up too fast. There at the lagoa (lake) at one of the kiosks we ate bolinho de aipim and drank Pinacolado, juiced pineapple fruit mixed with condensed milk, ice and plenty of vodka, served in the original pineapple. Very fancy. On Saturday night, as the "older kids" we were asked to play monsters and hide in the dark and empty section of the camping. The little ones then got to search for us with their torches and throw water balloons. I was a giant Gorilla and I think I may have scared some of the little ones a little bit too much... The part about the water ballons had skipped my ears, so it was a nice surprise having giant sacks of water land on me out of nowhere. It hurt copping them in the face! I hadn't taken any precaution in let's say wearing boardshorts and taking of my shirt underneath the cape... So I was soaking wet by the end of it. But it was good fun. On Easter the kids had a easter-egg hunt, while we preferred to stay on the beach. At the end of the weekend we caught the bus back home to VV.

A short week of school passes and we are off again; this time to Minas Gerais. MG is the state west from here and the bus trip there is about 7 hours. A very hilly and winding road. Diego and I went caught the bus at 8:00am on Friday. On Thursday night, I tried to invite all the Australians to go out as a group. We only managed three out of five, Jarryd, Louis and I, but it was good fun all the same.

Louis and Eddy!

I barely touched the matress at Diego´s house, before we it was time to catch our bus to Belo Horizonte. Diego was born there, and most his family lives there. Good thing I could sleep on the bus. We stayed with Diego´s Vovó, or grandmother, and she is literally half my size (I have photographic evidence). She had just turned 85 and would do anything to make us feel at home. She said "fica à vontade vui" (make yourself at home) about every minute and apologised that we had to sleep on the floor, asking jokingly "você caiu da cama?" (did you fall out of bed). Diego's cousins showed us around. His uncle is the president of Rotary and also of América, a big football club. I just found out this club has a partnership with Feyenoord Rotterdam, hmmm. Diego's dad owns the dairy company "Da Matta", very big in Brasil, and so you can see how these people are near the top of Brasil's wealth ladder. All in all, BH is a big city, with a bigger economy than say Vitoria. It appeared pretty clean to me, although a ot of people find the city ugly. Sunday night we went and saw the movie "V de Vingança" or V for Vengeance, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers (Matrix trilogy). It's awesome! A quiet day on Monday, and after a nice sushi dinner (sushi is my new found love, it's so good) we caught a night bus home, where I again struggled to fit my legs in the limited space provided; (thanks for the genes Dad).

From L to R: Cyntia, Leonardo, Nayara, Marcelo, Paola, Diego and I

The final long weekend, as I mentioned, my parents had to travel to Minas Gerais, and so filho Edgar stayed to look after the house. This gave me a taste of what it it like living alone, even though it was just for 3 days. Friday night, however, I already had my ticket for the O Rappa show. O Rappa is one rasta, Bob Marley looking guy with a big band including a Dj, guitarists, percussionists etc. His music style, is a mixture between rock and reggae, very cool. Show was held in a big gymnasium with lots of people, similar to the Trivela show.

Here's the whole group

O Rappa!

A view onto the crowd from above, at least a couple of thousand

The rest of the weekend I mainly stayed at home, trying to entertain myself. Failing, it led me to doing groceries, washing clothes and vacuum cleaning the apartment. Mum you would have been proud. On Monday the Aussie boys hit the beach for some Aussie Rules football. Lots of strange looks from were received, as nobody was quite sure what this strange sport was. At sunset we climbed Morro do Moreno, which his a big hill that overlooks both Vila Velha and Vitoria. Very nice views, and i'll be back no doubt with my camera.

It's taken a while to write this up.. I am writing this section on the 5th of May, which is my Vovó's 85th birthday! Unfortunately I can't be in every continent at once, (even though I try really hard) but nevertheless my thoughts are there in Gulpen. Proficiat Oma!

Gringo out!

Os gringos foram roubados!

2006-04-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

This exchange is no fairy-tale and it's not supposed to be either. Apart from the obvious discomfort of being taken away from home, thrown into a foreign place, with different customs and a unknown language, there can be just be plain bad things that happen. Just like they happen at home.

You may have noticed in my posts so far, although I focus on the fun things I do and the nice places I visit, I also comment on some of the harsh realities I come across. Brasil, as I see it and as is well known, is a country of "extreme extremes", and hereby I am of course referring to the inequality of wealth distribution. It's a country where the richest one percent of the people have fifteen percent of the wealth , and the poorest forty percent has less than a tenth. An equally interesting (less numerical) fact is that Sào Paulo has more private helicopters than any other city in the world, more armoured limousines and armed security personnel. Yet at the same time there are currently 45 million people living in conditions of poverty. Brazil is second to South Africa, as the country with the biggest inequality of wealth ditribution in the world. This great divide, you can safely say, is roughly divided into blacks and whites. I could recite a little Yoda-style "poverty leads to desperation, desperation leads to crime" type cycle, but that's basically what it is. So crime...

Saturday the 8th of April, there was a churrasco at the church here, the second one since I've been here. I invited Sammy and Jarryd to come too, as we had plans to go out afterwards to a birthday. Churrasco is a brazilian barbeque, with large chunks of meat, heavily marinated with salt, speared onto spits and cooked over a coal fire. When cooked, the meat is then sliced and cut up into little pieces to be passed around. About 8 o'clock the three of us plus Cleverson, my friend plus the guitarist at church (17 years old) went to call over another guy from church, Renato. He only lives two streets away, all in centro de Vila Velha. Lost in conversation we walked one street too far, so we took the next street and walked around the block finally ending up at the house. We let another resident inform us that Renato wasn't in so back we went. Just before reaching the corner of the street, three black guys (couldn't have been all that much older than us) approached us from the rear, all of them on bikes. One pretended to ask Cleverson for street directions before getting off his bike, slamming into the ground as he did. At this moment I knew, as it's always in the back of your head, plus all of a sudden, the situation seemed to be just right for it. Say bye to what's in your pockets I thought. Their demands were quite clear; "carteira! carteira!" (wallet). The scroungy short one decided to empty my pockets, sticking his fingers in his shorts, signifying he was armed. I didn't resist in giving my cell phone and the loose note of ten reais that I had. Thankfully boardshorts have only one pocket... He was pretty delighted at the sight of my phone, calling over the other one, but other than a house key and a scrap piece of paper with the address for the birthday of that night, I had nothing more to give. The second threw the key hard against the ground and the three mounted their bikes. I picked up the key and looked at the others, all looking pretty stunned. We walked calmly until they were out of sight and then ran back to the church. It's all a compressed memory now, as things like that happen in seconds. The total loot: two cell phones, 120 reais in cash and a watch.

Yes, not happy about that. We tried to find the ladrões afterwards, having a pastor, a sergeant from military police and a federal police officer in the car, hahaha. They are all associated with the church. We didn't find them, which is probably better that way. Because it would have led to more nastiness, probably a fight or whatever. Numerous people tried to call my phone, and a few got an answer. A lady picked up one one attempt, and as it turned out the phone and the rest of the goods had already been traded in for drugs at the local drug point or Boca da Fuma (smoke-mouth). Apart from the monetary loss, my phone had quite a few photos on it and all my contacts and phone numbers, which will take some time to re-attain. Luckily we weren't personally harmed. Most of these muggings are solely in the interest of gaining money to trade for drugs, and unless you resist or do something stupid, the ladrão won't try to hurt/kill you. We did the right thing, by staying calm and just giving whatever we had. I don't think they were armed, and people I've talked to like to put up a big voice and say "Oh why didn't you run or beat the guys"!!? Easily said, but it all happened in a split second and I don't think it's worth the risk. Good news is, insurance will pay all, and the fact that three gringos got robbed and that I am without a cell phone is a continuous source of jokes.

It seems like following this incident on the 8th there has been a spree of looting or attempted break-ins in the area. The furniture store across the road had an attempted break-in, luckily the guy that lives on the opposite corner was woken by the guard dog in time to scare off the criminal. This same man informed us that two nights ago our car had some interest and nearly got broken into. Sabor da Terra, the restaurant where we eat almost 3 times a week was robbed by two ladrões with revolvers during lunch time last Tuesday. Took over 2000 reais and robbed the clients. On the same street the car-wash got robbed and just today a jewellery store on the main road behind our block got robbed, and shots were fired. Police presence is minimal and their atitude and naturally I now feel less safe and am more aware slash paranoid. You can see how racial prejudice arises like this, because my gut feeling tells me now that whenever a black youth passes (on a bike or on foot) and he looks a bit suspect; this guy is a ladrão. I know this is an unfair judgment, but on the other hand you can't blame me. And the possibility that he IS a criminal is higher, that's just a fact! And in a way it would be ignorant and stupid of me to ignore that...

Anyway. I'm not trying to scare anyone, nor trying to make it sound like my life is hanging by mere threads, but it's part of life here, part of Brazil's makeup, I view it as a good experience, despite the fact that we got mugged... =P

I think I'm done for this post. I don't spend much time on the pc and the computers here don't allow me to upload the ton of pictures I have for you guys. I am still writing however, and I have a couple of other posts lined , they're just waiting on photos.

Até a proxima pessoal!

Aniversario de Pedrinho

2006-03-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

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.

This is Pedro!

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.

Du-duddududu Batmaaaaan, Batmaaaan , Batmaaaaan.

Uziel and Daiane

Edgar getting into the 4 year old party spirit, look at the table of sweets haha

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.

Parabéns pra você Pedro!

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!

Rock!

2006-03-27T15:02:00.000-08:00

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):

From L to R: Nanda, Jarryd (Aus), Me, Roberto, Livia and Anna.

This is Zulu, Jarryd, myself and Roberto!

An indication of the size, the band is yet to start...

The grounds were adjacent to Vitória bay, that´s Terceira Ponte or ´third bridge´

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!

To aqui ainda...

2006-03-27T14:13:00.000-08:00

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!

Eu esqueci o titulo...

2006-03-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

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!

Eu voltei!

2006-03-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

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:

More or less in centro São Paulo, all in all pretty dirty

Driving out of São Paulo, seemingly endless city

Nice mountains in between São Paulo and Rio

Cruising down the 'Serra'

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!

Viagem a São Paulo

2006-02-23T12:06:00.000-08:00

Bom dia tudo mundo!
I am blogging to you from the third biggest city in the world: São Paulo!
Including it surrounding areas, this place has an estimated population of 17 million!! Nobody knows the real number...

The reason I am here, is that Uziel was called to meet with the senior pastor, Ouriel de Jesus (not really related) from the United States (Boston Ministry), who is in Santos/São Paulo this week. We drove in one day from Vila Velha, to Santos. This is where the meeting was originally at. Left at 5am on Tuesday morning, arrived about 7 at night. The church service had already started, so we quickly showered in an apartement in the church building and then joined in. Very big church, and interesting to see how it operates. Back to the trip, it´s approximately 1000kms, but because the road along the coast is very winding and hilly, it takes longer than usual. It´s really a unique landscape, with these big green hills and coves that meet the ocean. We passed through Rio, but it was a murky day, and I couldn´t see a whole lot. Santos is south of São Paulo, it´s on the coast. The two are barely separate, as São Paulo has no boundaries, it´s so big. We stayed in Santos for one night, in a rather chic hotel, paid for by the church =D. The next day, it was mutually decided that we go to São Paulo, where we are now staying in another pastor´s house. Let me just show some pictures from the drive and more:

Here is the route we took; Santos bottom left, Vila Velha is North-East off the map. Ignore the last part of the green line...

En route, we´re over-taking here, so don´t get confused, note the bicyclist!

Having recently crossed into Rio state; a nice impression of the landscape.

A glimpse of a Rio favela; shonky huts crammed against a hill would be my one-sentence summary.

A murky day in Rio, taken from the bridge. The Cristo Redentor statue is on top of that peak.

Santos! View from hotel. Nice city, much cleaner.

About 11 in the morning on Santos´ main praia. The big light pole lights up the sand at night, just like Vila Velha.

Main road to the beach, mosaic pavement, palm trees; this is so Brasil

Hotel, nothing too exciting, but it was a very luxurious one.

A big park in São Paulo. Like my new haircut? Just 8 reais.

At a Churrascaria restaurant. Clockwise from left: Uziel, Daiane, Pr. Walter Brunelli and his wife, Pr. Ouriel de Jesus and his wife and son, and me in my Guaraná shirt.

The service at Walter´s church in São Paulo. Ouriel is preaching.

Oh yea, guess who was at the service? Pélé´s daughter! I´m famous!

We had plans to go down to Curítiba, but right now it doesn´t look like it. We were planning to head back home today, but we decided not too, plus the car played up today, right after we filled the tank. Uziel suspects it could be bad gasoline, as they tend to mix in things, especially in a big city like São Paulo, where control is minimal. Hopefully we can get it fixed by tomorrow. It´s hard to get a proper feel of São Paulo, the sheer size means you can´t just take a quick tour, because traffic here is hell. They even have legislation that means cars with number plates ending on 0 or 9 are not allowed to drive on Friday between 17:00 and 20:00 o´clock. Different numbers for different days, so as to reduce traffic. Damn I would hate to have Friday as my day, as does Pastor Brunelli (our host).

Before all of this, I´ll just let everyone know that, I have started school. I have had about 4 full days. I failed to wake up on one day... I´m going to Escola Santa Adame (ESA), the same school Jess and Jarryd are at. Turned out that none of the other schools nearby had any place, so in consultation with BEX, it was decided I go there. Bought my uniform, and quarta-feira (Wednesday) of last week was my first day. In similar fashion to my Adelaide departure, all alarms failed, and Uziel knocked on my door at 6:51am, ten minutes before the first class starts. I´m getting good at first impressions... No problems in the end, the Bio teacher was away, so a free lesson, more or less, useful to do all the introductions. School isn´t too bad, although I have to change my routine from going to bed at 2:00am and waking up at 10:00, to going to bed earlier, so I can wake up at 6:00, the crack of dawn. Everyone is really curious and friendly, and the three of us (Aussies) are quite famous already. After introducing myself, my English teacher couldn´t pick I was foreign and it wasn´t until another student told her at the end of class that she realised. I took that as a compliment... Classes are pretty easy, as far as physics and maths go. Other subjects like History of Sociology, which are lecture based are harder to follow. Instead of sleeping or distracting others, I just translate new words trying to teach myself portuguese. I´m pretty eager to learn the language, plus my French is proving to be very very useful.

Next week is the official week of carnaval. National holiday for one week! Most people take the week prior, or following, or both off work as well. Samba parades have started already around the country, and TV is filled with ads from the various samba schools that are competing. I haven´t made any definite plans, but there are a couple of options.

Anyway, this should suffice for another update, in the meantime we have to wait for this little car to get fixed. It just got towed to the house, hopefully we can get it fixed tomorrow, it´s just close to carnaval, so everyone is knocking off... This also means the roads are ridiculously busy, especially out of São Paulo.

Thanks to those who signed the guestbook! Time for the rest to sign :P
Tchau!

Sem Escola

2006-02-11T05:26:00.000-08:00

Hello friends, family and other unrelated visitors.

The school I was initially placed at, Michelangelo, turns out to be somewhat far away and it has a bad reputation with drug use. Seeing as school, for me, will be a place to meet 'good' people who can take me out and show me around, making friends with junkies is just not cool. And as far as convenience goes, it's much easier if school is on a walking distance, especially if I want to go back in the afternoon to play sport or whatever (school only goes till roughly 11:30/12 o'clock). So Uziel and I decided to find a new school.

Sante Adame, seemed a good option as it is very close, and has a good rep etc. Problem was two of the other Australian exchange students Jess and Jarred were already going there, and with only two classes in the second year level (segundo ano) it would mean we would be tempted to just speak English with each other, and not learn Português. So that kinda ruled out that...

We tried three other schools nearby, two with a very big reputation (and price tag), two of which had no room for me. So we're now waiting on the last one. I'm only supposed to be a listener at school. I'm not here to pass subjects or get any academic credit. So I am not asked to pay the usual school fees, maybe just some, for uniform, books and admin.

If this last school says no, I can either go back to Michelangelo, or go into slave labour...

They say it has high job satisfaction...

In the meantime if have been enjoying myself meeting new people and going to the beach for dinner just about every night. Here they have a large paved area in between the road and the beach were there are market and food stalls. The beach is all lit up night with large floodlights every 5/10 metres. The sand is a earthy yellow and there's large cocunut palm trees (coqueiros) on the sand and lining the street. Here is Wednesday night:

Where the sand is flat, a big Limpeza (cleaning) machine was sifting the rhubbish from the sand.

I eat a full plate of lunch (with guaraná) for R$7.00 at the most, usually its about 5 reais (hey-eyes) and dinner (a smaller meal) costs even less. And I am talking about QUALITY food, fresh food like: "yummm", "Oh my God this tastes so good", "This is practically orgasmic!"... I'm sorry, but you just have to try it for yourself. In my first ten days here (we counted it up) I tried 30 new kinds of foods! Today, the two week milestone, the count stands at 47. I am aiming for a hundred... And yes, upon completing this goal I may or may not be morbidly obese, but I'm sure it will be worth it. Once I get some more pictures, I will do a big food post so you can see what you're missing out on.

Meanwhile, the water ran out during my afternoon shower, and the next morning half the suburb was without power for an hour because they were changing some parts on the power lines:

The power lines just across from our building

Apart from the inconvenience, it was actually kind of fun; it's just typical...
I realised I hadn't yet taken a proper picture of my host parents, so here are Uziel and Daiane.

They're really not that bad...

Have a good weekend everyone, and sign the guestbook! It won't hurt you, I promise.

Polícia Federal

2006-02-04T05:26:00.000-08:00

In order to stay in Brazil for the amount of time granted on your visa, you have to register at the Federal Police within 30 days of arrival. Hence, we did so.

We had lunch at Jarred's host family's restaurant and afterwards we went to the Federal Police, which is in Vitória. It was a hot day, just like any other, and so as we approached the front gate in a most casual fashion, the heavily armed guards grunted that we were not permitted inside wearing shorts. Strangely enough, thongs were acceptable, as well as sleeveless shirts. Here we were, about 30 mins from home, with no pants. Trust the Brazilians to find a way... Jeitinho Brasileiro is the expression here. It's like the 'no worries' of Australia, or 'The Brazilian Way'. This means not stopping for red lights at night, not giving way to crossing pedestrians or putting lixo (rhubbish) in the bin.

Also incorporated into this idea is the entrepreneurial skills of the people here. With high unemployment, 'people invent' new professions. One of these, is for example the flanelinhas who are guys that find you a park, and then look after your car for a couple of coins. They occupy one street, then point you to a free park, help you reverse park. They may also put some carboard over your windshield or even wash your car while you're away. Back to the Federal Police...

No pants! Well we were not the first, and most definitely not the last. So why not, thought a man that lived down the road one day, do I start renting out some pants! The place today is Ricardo's Photo Shop, just 100m from the police building. Here he does 6 passport photos for R$12.00 and to rent some pants is just two reais! As with the pants issue, a lot of people get turned down because of their passport photos; it's a delicate issue. Quite satisfied that we were allowed in with our 2 reais pants, we found ourselves waiting in a highly inefficient and bureaucratic environment. We took a number. 394, and they were only up to 336. Foreigners registration, passport application and a dozen other things were all done through the same desk. Luckily a nice guy we met, Adrian, who was waiting for his Dad (who had gone home to get pants) swapped numbers with us. Then when our number was called, some spanish dude cut in front 'jetinho brasileiro' style.

I expected to have to fill out a form, maybe get my passport stamped, but there was a more intricate process involved. We showed the man-behind-the-counter all our documents, only to be pointed out our photos required white backgrounds. No to worry, we had already acquainted ourselves with Ricardo, so another quick trip down the road and we had our photos. Then we had to pay two fees, in total R$105. This could not be done in the same place, so we had to go to a different department. As we are getting our receipts printed, the payments counter person shuts his door. Oh and we had to pay R$2.00 for the receipts... If we paid cash however, we could go to another room and pay there. So we did. So that was the payment. Then we needed photocopies of our visa and photo-page in our passports. I had mine, but Jarred didn't so off they went to a photocopy place. The Federal police doesn't have a photocopier handy? It seems not. Now that this was done we needed to get out forms fingerprinted; gee I never knew I had this many fingers. The fingerprinting department was on the otherside of the building... but we got there in the end.

I am now safely registered, although the actual card may take up to three months. Get it in the mail? No, you have to go pick it up. How will you know when it's done? You don't...

Today's plan: Lunch, then Praia!!

Jeitinho Brasileiro!

Tudo bem?

2006-02-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

Oie, a quick update from Vila Velha. God I'm loving this place... So far I have been fed like a God, big lucious lunches, drinking coco gelado (cold coconut water, served in the coconut with a straw) and my new favourite Guarana, a soft drink made from real guarana from the amazon.

Click the photo for a slideshow of the first few days, then click on individual photo's for a brief description.

So far I am meeting lots of people through the church and school; I better explain. Uziel is a pastor who work for the ministry in boston but was sent to Brasil as a missionary. He and Daiane are both originally from Brasil, the southern part but moved to Boston 5 orso years ago. Here Uziel was a truck driver, and eventually stopped driving himself and he owned three large trucks, doing deliveries from coast to coast. It was always Uziel's intention to become a pastor, his father is a pastor too, and so he gave up his trucking business and was sent out by the ministerío de boston to Vitória. He and Daiane therefore moved here 1 year and 2 months ago, (they got married in Boston). Here in Vila Velha, Uziel set up an evangelical church, in an old warehouse. The other half serves as a school where they run several classes; such as english, spanish, electricity, computer management etc. Funds are very limited and Uziel has built everything himself. Just using office panels to block-off little classrooms, and many things like the chairs are donations. I was pretty impressed when I was first shown it, and there is an overwhelming sense of 'doing good for others' with the little they have here. They teach English and several computer classes for various programmes, on computers that are more than just old.

Anyway, it's great to be close to the school because there are constantly people coming and going, and they are all very interested in me, and it's good for my portuguese. Just about everyone has invited me to come eat at their place, and everytime it eat new things and do new things. The other night I had a type of soup made from mandioca and it had the following in it: frango (chicken), queijo (cheese), milho (corn). Taste good doc. Then we played dominoes for a good two hours me and Uziel against our host and his son. You'll see it in the slideshow.

Tchau for now!

Oi!

2006-01-28T05:01:00.000-08:00

I have safely arrived in Vila Velha, after a rather lengthy and at some times frustrating flight. Can't say I can recommend Aerolineas Argentinas, they pride themselves on Comfort and Reliability, except their boeing was about 30 years old, the seats came off and the entertainment system didn't work at all.

Gee the day started with a buzz, my flight scheduled to leave lil' ol'Adelaide at 6:00am, and all the alarms failing to wake us, so we ended up leaving the house at 5:15am. What a start to an otherwise sublimely prepared trip... I ended up missing out on my flight as boarding had closed, but I could catch the next one to Sydney 40 mins later. This didn't end up affecting my flight to follow, Aerolineas Argentinas made sure they delayed by 50 mins... how nice of them. I met up with the other 5 Southern Cross people going to Brasil in Sydney. I was surprised to find out that 4 out of the 6 were going to Vitoria, or Vila Velha. The remaining two are now in Salvador, or so we hope. Very nice group, got to know them quite well over the 30 orso hours we spent in each others company.

Uziel and Daiana were waiting for me at the airport and they showed me Vitoria and then Vila Velha. The approach to Vitoria at night was incredible, you could see all the streets and praias lit up; sensaaaational. Vila Velha is the original settlement of Vitoria, it has the main business area and beaches. From my tiny first impressions, the rumours are confirmed, Brazilians are party animals. It was no coincidence that when we went for a quick walk and sorvete (ice-cream) along Praia de Costa that they were in the middle of packing up the day's dance festival. Rhubbish was sprawled on just about every inch of pavement, evidence that they really did party hard. When I mentioned it, Uziel just said; That's Brasil. The beach is otherwise lined with Quisqoues (kiosks) and little eateries, many with live music.

In just a 20 min drive and the small 12 hours I've been here, I have taken in so many impressions that my brain is having trouble processing it all, let alone summarise it in writing. I can tell life here will need some adjusting, but this was not unexpected. I will have to become much more independent as much of the time Uziel and Daiane will be teaching or occupied with the Church. I only have a small room (big enough for a double bed and wardrobe) and a little bathroom with a shower and toilet and sink, so I will live with less than I'm used to. I can see how it will be a challenge, especially the initial language barrier, but in overcoming it the rewards will be great.

There is too much to experience to be wasting my time on this computer, so até logo!
I will get some pictures up once I have some more of the area.
Tonight I get to taste traditional Brazilian barbeque meat. Yum

I'm sipping a tiny café, very sweet strong cofee shot, the way they like to drink it here, even a normal cappucino I ordered in Rio was the size of an espresso.

Last Night Out

2006-01-26T20:02:00.000-08:00

Departure day is not far away, it's just a few minutes past eight in the evening and I am doing some final things before going to bed. It will be a reasonable early wake-up call tomorrow, my flight from Adelaide takes-off at 6:00am.

I did the majority of packing today, and to my relief I am well within the weight and size restrictions. Heck there's even some room for souvenirs. I am typing from Juliette's room at the moment. There was a mutual decision made by all that it was time to upgrade Juliette's previous 6.5 year old Compaq, so she has now got my Dell (on temporary loan?) And.. (if you're reading this Oom Henk).. I think you have almost persuaded Mum to look into a new iMac as well...

I took plenty of 'happy-snaps' from my last night out with friends. We went to the Ed as planned and then to the Torrens Arms Hotel (known as 'The TA') until about 2/3 o'clock. I assembled the most civilised looking shots and put them into a little slideshow, it's quite nice... you'll like it. Just click the thumbnail below.

Thanks for coming out everyone, I had a great night. If I have time to sit down at a public computer terminal, I will do a quick travel update, if not, the next time I post will be from Brasil!

Oh and Happy Australia day everyone :P

Visto Recebeu!

2006-01-23T21:04:00.000-08:00

Just like The Beatles, I now have my ticket to ride. It was a bit of a last-minute ordeal, waiting on documents from Brazil and what not, but they're finally letting me in.

I'm all set! I started packing things together today, and I came to the conclusion that man has too many shoes. Shoes for sport, shoes for going-out, shoes for the beach, shoes for formal occasions, shoes for another sport... So I decided to take a separate bag and make it 'the shoe-bag'. A shoe, for interest's sake is called a sapato in Portuguese. There you go, now we can all say we have learned something today.

Tonight I am meeting at The Edinburgh Hotel (a local pub/restaurant) with my friends for an unofficial going-away gathering. For Adelaide-outsiders, the Ed is close to Mercedes College and so many ex-student young and old come there and Tuesday's are especially popular. I may just post some pictures if I can get some.

Tchau!

My Photo Companion

2006-01-18T01:28:00.000-08:00

In order to take some decent pictures when I go to Brazil, I decided to buy a new digital camera. With specialist advice from my uncle (a very knowledgeable photographer) and plenty of research on the web, and visiting various shops, I finally decided to trade my cash for a Fujfilm Finepix F10. It's got very nice specs, including 6.3 MP, 3x zoom, 80-1600 ISO range, 500 shot battery life and very short start-up and shutter lag. So far it's pretty easy to use, and I'm just getting to know some of the settings.

Fujifilm Finepix F10

Here's a test shot I took:

Meanwhile I have been trying to get the Embassy in Canberra to sort out my visa; turned out they needed some original copies of various documents. I sent those off with express post and hopefully this will secure my visa in time before I leave.

I've bought various Aussie gifts for my host parents and the other day mum came home with a large Samsonite suitcase (on wheels). The only trick now is not to over-fill it, because I have to leave room for anything I want to bring back. My plan is to pack light on clothes, as it is very cheap to buy there, and I'll blend in with the local fashion.

In unrelated news, I got my first preference University offer! Here's what I'll be studying after I get back, in 2007:

Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic) Double Degree at University of Adelaide.
[Link]

I'm doing Finance as my double degree. Should be exciting...

To all the other people leaving soon to go travelling or on exchange: Have fun, safe travels, don't catch any crazy diseases and see you at some undecided point in the future!

Let's get underway

2006-01-09T23:52:00.000-08:00

Welcome officially to 'Eddy in Brazil', a blog I intend to maintain while I go on a cultural exchange to Brazil for most of this year. Some quick facts about the exchange:

Duration: Year programme (10 months). I leave on January the 27th, and am scheduled to return on December the 4th.
Destination: a medium-sized city (pop ≈ 300,000) called Vila Velha. It's located South-East of Vitória, which is the capital of Espirito Santo. To let you see exactly where it is I uploaded this placemark for Google Earth. My host family live 'downtown', for lack of a better word, and I'm promised it's only 1.5 km from the beach!
Flight: It's a big one: I fly from Adelaide to Sydney, early on Friday the 27th. Here I'll meet up with all the other Southern Cross exchange students from Australia wide, who are going to Brazil. I'm guessing around 10-20 others. From Sydney we fly to Buenos Aires via Auckland. Then to Rio de Janeiro, and from there each student makes their way to their individual destinations, and many (like me) will have to make another domestic flight because Brazil is so big. I'm flying Qantas to Sydney, then Aerolineas Argentinas for the major flight and then TamAir to Vitoria.
Adelaide --> Sydney --> Auckland --> Buenos Aires --> Rio de Janeiro --> Vitória
School: As part of the exchange I will do another year of high school whilst I'm there. Whilst academically it doesn't count towards anything, going to school will give me the opportunity to make friends and socialise more than anything else. Oh, and to learn portuguese, because that could come in handy. Anyway, Centro Educacional Michelangelo is the name.
Host family: I was first notified of my host family when I was driving into Canberra, on the 20th of December. I was to stay with a couple who have two young girls. When we got back from holidays however, there was a phonecall indicating a family had dropped out and some people were being shifted around. No biggie, although I would have preferred siblings, my new family is a young couple with no kids: Uziel and Daiane de Jesus (24 and 28). She is an English teacher and he is a Pastor. Upon hearing this I began to think my student exchange was somewhat turning into a Holy Crusade to the 'Promised Land'. I'm going to live in the state Espirito Santo (Holy Spirit) with the de Jesus family and my father is a pastor. I only have one picture of my host parents, but its a dodgy print-out and it wouldn't do them justice to scan it and thereby further reducing its quality.

Here are some pictures of Vitoria, Vila Velha is going south over that crazy bridge, 'Terceira Ponte'.

More news soon...

Plans for 2006

2005-11-12T22:00:00.000-08:00

Initially posted on Dutch0ven on 7/14/2005

As most of you know I am wanting to go on a one year exchange in 2006, Brazil being my preferred option. Today I received my Application Kit from S.C.C.E. which contains all these forms and contracts and declarations, which is kind of off-putting but I will work my way through it. I have to write a personal essay, provide lots of photographs and get a doctor to sign off on a medical report etc. How exciting.

Republica Federativa do Brasil

Brazilian flag: green (symbolic of the great wealth of the forests) with a large yellow diamond in the center(representing the vast mineral riches of the land), bearing a blue celestial globe with 27 white five-pointed stars (one for each state and the Federal District) arranged in the same pattern as the night sky over Brazil; the globe has a white equatorial band with the motto ORDEM E PROGRESSO (Order and Progress)

I considered France or maybe even Germany, but it's really all the same in the sense that they're all Western/European countries. To try something completely different, I liked Brazil, as it is in South America, it's a third-world country and well the prospect of the beaches over there doesn't bother me either:

The language spoken there is Portuguese, which I don't speak but I'm sure I'll pick up with time. The proposed exchange is for 10 months, departing in January '06. I will stay with one host family and do another year of high school there. Not that this matters, because I will have my IB Diploma anyway. I know some friends (yea right) in Perth who have been to Brazil and they absolutely loved it. Hannah Watson had a pretty good time there, from what Lucy's told me so yea, bring it on. I also have the wild dream that I will become a soccer star in the time that I am there.

I'm quite young for my year (only just 17) so as far as that goes I can easily afford a year off. When I return I will most probably go to uni; I'm interested in medicine and engineering, possibly combining the two. These interests may well chance over the coming year though.

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