Jogo de Futebol no Minerão

time has flown by! as it will continue to fly by.

yesterday, i was supposed to eat lunch with my second family, but my "sister" of this family went into labor... later on, i stopped by the clinic to the new baby boy and to say goodbye to the fam... so, instead of eating with them, alberto and i went to an excellent seafood place in Praia de Jurerê and had a creamy shrimp dish over rice and fried potato rounds. so good!... that afternoon and evening, i met up with the former maid of my first host family--vera; we had coffee with the mother of an old exchange student--maria carmen; and we went by 4 different places to say goodbye to all the galera ("folks") that i met through alberto--bidigui, gionni, rodrigo, camila, and oscar... after 4 hours of sleep, we hurried off to the airport.

it was so sad to leave florianópolis, again, but at least this time, i know i´ll return again soon... the hardest part was saying goodbye to my good friend (and tourist guide), alberto. thank you, bbto. ;)

just after arriving to belo horizonte, aida and her cousin, laura, took me to my first brazilian jogo de futebol (soccer game)--Atletico v. Flumenense! crazy, but relatively calm (compared to bigger, more important games)... considering the exchange rate, tickets were only $0.80 and beers were only $0.50... for those of you in asheville, this sure beats Thirsty Thursday, doesn´t it?!... plus, since soccer runs through the blood of most every brazilian, the entire experience was spectacular!... well, that´s all for now, gente... tomorrow we´re planning to go to ouro preto--a place famous for its old gold mines... falou, gente.

Passeio pro Sul da Ilha "Trip to the South of the Island"

today, alberto and i went down to Lagoinha do Leste, one of my favorite little, secluded spots in floripa. it takes about 2 1/2 hours to go and return, but the vistas/views are spectacular! it has the most perfect mixture of mountains, sea, nature, sky, sand... i loved going back there. it brought back so many memorias.

yesterday, we didn´t do much (typical of sundays here), but alberto´s parents are worth mentioning here. his father is so happy, sweet, kind, and friendly. his mother is the same, but she is also very hospitable and generous--her soup was great! i´ve really enjoyed getting to know them...
tomorrow, i´m going to eat lunch with my second family, and then we´re going to meet up with alberto´s friends for a "goodbye" night for me... then, wednesday, i fly to belo horizonte to hang out with my friend, aida... até logo, gente!

winter in Floripa

daí gente ("well, people"), the winter here got me. tuesday morning (after a night out at a boite ("night club") called O Santo where they play popular american hip hop music on monday nights), i woke up with swollen glands, aching shoulders, and a headache. (no, it wasn´t a hangover--i don´t drink as much as it sounded like in my last entry.) i spent almost the whole day sleeping, except for when we went over to a friend of alberto´s (luiz felipe) for lunch.

finally, wednesday morning, i felt much better, thanks to my mother´s cold and flu tablets and zinc/vitamin C cough drops... wednesday, i had lunch with my second host family (the Menegaz family) and visited with them. when i arrived, they said i hadn´t changed a bit--neither had they, except that my host sister is expecting a little boy. my mãe, my pai, my irmã (sister) and two of their friends were there. (my irmão (brother) and another irmã weren´t able to come--the former is studying english in australia, the latter was working.)... it was great to catch up with them, to see my old house, and to be able to communicate so well with them. neither of us could believe it had already been 6 years that i´d been gone!... over all, the visit was great! it felt so natural to be there... i´m planning to hang out with them again on monday or tuesday.

thursday, i had lunch with my first host family (the Schlemper family) and visited with them, too. they also thought i hadn´t changed, only that i´d lost weight. (while i was an exchanged student, i´d gained about 10-15 pounds... with all the bread, fried snacks (coxinhas, pasteis, etc.), pasta, beer, etc., i don´t know how brazilian women stay so thin.)... it was also very very good to spend time with them again. the whole family (minus one irmã) came to eat lunch with me! it was great to see everyone, and it felt so natural to be back in their house again. besides a few little additions to the family, everyone is the same. from the moment i arrived, my mãe showered me with care and hugs. she was and stilll is such a warm, loving mother... again, over all, the visit with them was great! i met up with them again this afternoon to hang out, to drink fresh fruit juices at Café Cancun, to pass by one irmã´s house, and to eat dinner at another irmã´s house... monday evening, we´re planning to meet at Golden Café for a coffee and snack and to say our goodbyes.

friday, we met up with some friends of alberto´s (camila and oscar) and went to Praia do Santinho (one of my favorite beaches)... of course, it was too cold to swim, but it was very beautiful nonetheless... (later i´ll attach photos.)

besides all this, i´ve either been just enjoying or amused by the brazilian life--the night, the late mornings, the main meal at mid-day, the little quirks that you can only encounter in brazil (see previous entries), the food, the openness, the novelas (literally "soap operas"), the mobile advertizing (cars w/ loud speakers), the people-watching, the hunter and the prey of brazilian night culture, the consumerism of the wealthy, the cleanliness, the random smells of sewage, ... i´ll try to write more details later. i must get going... beleza, gente. beijos a todos!

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.