Florianópolis

it is soooooo crazy to be back in Floripa again. so far it´s been all i´d hoped. my good friend, alberto, picked me up at the airport saturday morning (the 23rd), and ever since then, we´ve been all over. it´s fun to revisit all my old stomping grounds. in fact, in only two days, we´ve already been by Praça XV, Felipe Schmidt, Centro, Café Matisse (at the Centro Integrado de Cultura), a Univerisidade Federal (where i took a "Portuguese class for strangers/foreigners"), Praia dos Ingeles, Praia da Joaquinha, Praia Mole Barra da Lagoa, Lagoa do Conceição, and Praia de Jurerê Internacional (where alberto used to work in a really nice hotel--Hotel Jurerê Beach Village)... i haven´t gone to visit my old host families, yet, but i will some time this week...

like i said, it´s been so crazy, so surreal to be back here... after 6 years, a lot has changed here (more stores, more highways, more people, etc.), but it feels like just yesterday that i sat on the beach sipping on a caipirinha (sugar rum w/ lime, ice, and sugar) or a "chopp" (beer)... or just yesterday that i passed through Praça XV and hung out with the venders there... or just yesterday that i walked to school (Colégio Catarinense) or passed by the shopping mall on the Beiramar or chilled out on the beach with exchange-student or brazilian friends...

what else? well, first, it´s been really awesome to hang out with alberto again. he was one of my best friends when i lived here before, and it doesn´t feel like a single day has passed since we saw each other last... except of course that we´ve both "grown up" quite a bit... the first night i arrived to "Floripa", we went to alberto´s old workplace. while sipping on quite a few cafezinhos ("little coffees"), i met a few other crazy brazilians--camila, matheus, marcelo, fernando, luiz felipe, steffano, and oscar--and i got the royal tour of this grand hotel... afterwards, alberto and i went to camila and oscar´s place for a bit, and from there, we went to café matisse to have a few beers and listen to some live music... i introduced alberto to a "black and tan" (xingu with bavaria)-- i don´t think he´d ever had one, and he probably thought i was crazy... in fact, he just confessed to me that he´s already sure that i´m crazy... lastly, i must say that i had a really good time meeting alberto´s friends--especially camila. we got along really well, and it took us no time to get to know each other. she´s not like any other brazilian woman that i´ve met, meaning she and i think a lot alike with regards to socially-constructed gender roles, music, etc... she´s supercool.

since we stayed out until the typical brazilian hour--5, almost 6, in the morning--we didn´t wake up until 1 the next day. the first thing we did after waking up was drink a beer on the beach (Praia dos Ingeles). later on, we went to a "goodbye" dinner of one of alberto´s friends, magnus. we had calamari, shrimp, fried oysters, french fries, guaraná, and, of course, beer. afterwards, we went back to magnus´s house for some dessert, beer, and a little private guitar concerto, thanks to another luis felipe--magnus´s sister´s boyfriend. finally, alberto and i went back to his place at Praia dos Ingeles to crash.

today, we woke up late (again), and went into town. we walked around centro... what nostalgia. again, after 6 years, it´s a little strange, but it feels like i was here just yesterday. i love it! on our way back to the car, we stopped for an "exotic" fruit juice and snack. i had açai with guaraná; alberto had pineapple with spearmint. i highly suggest either one, but especially açai--which is an energetic purple fruit from the northeast. anyway, i think that´s it for now. i´ll write again later.