Que Frio Em Curitiba !

Portuguese Words of the Day
Marancujá = Passionfruit
Caixa = cashier/ATM
Mãos = Hands
Presunto = ham
Molhado = wet

Last weekend, I went to Curitiba with five other trainees--Daniel and Natalia from Colombia, Fatima and Luz from Perú, and Ruhy from the USA. Curitiba is the capital city of the state of Paraná, the state above Santa Catarina (and fun fact, the state where Michel Teló is from). We left Joinville Friday night after work from the Rodoviária, a word that took me way too much practice to be able to say, on the 8:35 bus to Curitiba. We arrived in Curitiba close to 11pm and took a taxi to the hostel.

Let me say that the taxi ride was one of the most horrific rides in ever. It was late at night, and the taxi driver had no idea where to go. The hostel was located on Rua Nilo Peçanha (Pecanha and Peçanha make all the difference in the world as well), and the cab driver kept on passing the street and circling around the same street. To make matters worse, none of us spoke very fluent Portuguese. I kept on telling him that "você tem que dar a volta. Isto não é a rua." I don't think he understood us, and we didn't understand his mumbling. And as he made ever single circle around the same street, it was evident that he was getting more and more frustrated at us. After an unnecessarily long time and way more money than it should have cost, we found the hostel and met up with our friends.

On Saturday, we spent the day doing touristy things around Curitiba. We first went to Museu Oscar Niemeyer. The museum is famous for being shaped as an eye. We went through every single exhibit. By the time we made it to the top of the eye, I was slightly disappointed that there wasn't a café located there (brincadeira!). Overall, it was a really interesting museum--having all sorts of artwork. We then took the "Ônibus Turístico" to a park and a Theatre located within nature and took plenty of photos there. Unfortunately, I did not bring my giant camera with me, so the photos that I post here are borrowed from Natalia and Director Daniel.

The Tourist bus that we took was a double decker bus that went around the entire city of Curitiba. It woud have been really nice on the top floor, except for the fact that it was 11 degrees and windy. Therefore, everybody was freezing, and I even caught a cold from sitting up there for so long. Everybody was bundled up in jackets, gloves, and even hats in the form of lions. On the bus, we also met a couple from the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area who were in Curitiba for a concert. The Portuguese that they spoke was much easier to understand than the Portuguese in Santa Catarina since they spoke much slower and relaxed.

My favorite part of the day was going to "Santa Felicidade," which is the Italian part of the city. It is one of the centers for good culinary eats. There were Italian restaurants, and the most famous attraction of the area was the winery. It is one of the largest selections of wine, cheese, and chocolate (seriously, what other foods do you need?). There was also a man dressed in mariachi clothes, singing "Ai Se Tu Pego" in Spanish.

On Saturday night, we returned to the hostel and met one man from Buenos Aires, Argentina by the name of Juan Paulo. He was travelling alone, since he wanted to move to São Paulo. He spoke English, Portuguese, and Spanish with a typical Argentine accent. With the Peruvians and the Colombians, we mainly speak in Spanish, so I think my Spanish improved over the weekend. However, Juan Paulo's Spanish was so difficult to understand. But since he was alone, we invited him to go to the balada de funk with us. I once thought that I liked funk music, but I don't. I'm not sure how I feel about funk music being so popular in Rio de Janeiro, a place where we are planning on visiting (details to be planned out and discussed soon).

On Sunday, we continued our touristic travels of the city. Sunday was a beautiful day, and a (heavy) jacket was not required, except for on the bus. There was a fair in the center of the town, selling local and handmade crafts. After a brief time there, we took the touristic bus to another park and the botanical gardin.

The most memorable event of that evening was almost missing our buses back to Joinville. We went to famous park called Parque Tangüi. By the time we arrived, it was around 6pm and getting dark. So we walked around a bit and decided to head back by the Tourist Bus to grab our items from the hostel. As we were heading to the bus stop, there was already a bus leaving, but we didn't worry too much after it passed since there was supposed to be another bus within the next twenty minutes. However, we waited for almost 40 minutes, and there was still no bus. Finally, a young couple with a child in a stroller came up to us and started asking where we were fun. As soon as Daniel said that he's from Colombia, the bus pulled up, and hit the man with the rearview mirror. Since (I think) the man was under some sort of influence, he was extremely angry and started kicking the bus and yelling at the driver. We were all worried that the driver would just leave, which would have been a big problem as that was the last tourist bus of the day. Finally, after five minutes, the man's wife calmed him down and the driver opened the door. After that experience, I don't think I've ever been so happy to make it back to a hostel.

However, that does not conclude the bus dramas of the night. We arrived to the Curitiba bus terminal at 20:45, and there was a bus to Joinville that was leaving at 20:50. However, it was impossible to make that bus since we took two cabs and still needed to purchase tickets. There was a bus that left at 21:15, so we figured that wouldn't be a problem, until we learned that the 21:15 to Joinville was full. With no other choice, we waited until the 22:10 bus. For some reason, nobody was paying attention to the time and they just didn't announce our bus. Or, rather they did announce our bus, just to tell us it was leaving. It was 22:11 when they announced it and the bus had left. Luckily there was a bus that left at 22:35 that would stop in Joinville, and we took that bus home.

By the time I arrived home, it was almost 1:30, and I still had to work the next morning. I woke up the next morning sick at 7:15, showered, and dragged myself to work, where I finished my video for the Instituto Amar regarding the courses that it offers, which can be found here.

And today is already quinta-feira, which means that it is almost the weekend again! According to weather forecasts, the weather is supposed to be beautiful this weekend--25 degrees and sunny. Hopefully they are right. This weekend, I am going to another feijoada to benefit an organization.