Map Alert!

Portuguese Words of the Day
- Aeroporto = airport
- Carregador = charger
- Quente = hot
- Céu = sky
- Moto = motorcycle

Red x's are the places that I visited. Joinville, SC,  Brazil is the yellow X.

I'm back at home, and I realized that after 3 months, I didn't include a single map in my blog. So here is a map of the places that I visited over my time in Brazil. It feels so weird being home, kind of like a Spirited Away dream. I probably will write one final post about the entire trip as a whole, but that's for another day. Now, Wii racing and A Very Potter Musical awaits me.

Saudades - Final Post in Brazil

Portuguese Words of the Day
- Mostarda = mustard
- Pinças = tweezers
- Espelho = mirror
- Toalha = towel
- Panela = pan

In my last post, I said that it would probably be my last post in Brazil unless something exciting happened, like it was sunny all week or something. Lone and behold, it was sunny and averaged a perfect 26 degrees every day of the week. But the sun isn't the real reason I'm writing a post (outside in the lovely weather, I might add). It's because it's such a strange feeling packing up my room.

Earlier in the week, I felt kind of ready to go home. But after having a farewell party on Thursday and saying bye to some people, I'm not quite ready. There are still a lot of people that I have yet to say tchau to, but I really dont want to. I've met so many great people who made Joinville exciting and enjoyable. I mean, what am I going to do without my americanos, Ruhy and Kevin? And which Frenchman will be there to have in depth discussions about dungeons, cats, and zombies? And awesome that buddy that always makes you laugh when he talks about prostituição. I could go on, but thats going to make me even sadder. It's also strange to think that I'll probably never see some, if not most, of the people that I have met. Even with the other Americans, it will still be hard to see them since everybody is busy with work, etc.

However, I do miss my family. I really can't take it anymore when I open my email and my sister sends me something saying "omg one more weekend...I cant wait to see you! And now here is the schedule of things that we are going to do as soon as you get home." I wish that I could just bring both worlds together.

On a more cheerful note, this week has been a week in good company. On Wednesday, Anthony from Nigeria invited a bunch of people to his house and made dinner for everybody. And on Thursday, Ruhy, Christophe, and I went to a Brazilian steakhouse, where they served us unlimited meat and sushi before attending the AIESEC farewell party for us. After sitting out last night due to some strange foods, tonight will be my last hurrah in Brazil!

Though this is my last post in Joinville, there shoulxd be another post or two once I get back. I mean I haven't even mapped my travels yet.

Next stop, home, via São Paulo and Detroit. 

Os gringos vão para Rio de Janeiro?! Not quite, just a weekend in Balneário Camboriú

Portuguese Words of the Day
- camundongo = mouse
- rato = rat
- regra = rule
- tecla =  key (on a  keyboard)
- sinaleiro = traffic light
- fecho = zipper

This past weekend, a group of twelve of us went to Balneário Camboriú, the touristic city of Santa Catarina. They call Balneário Camboriú a poor man's Rio de Janeiro. There is a statue of Christ that is similar to Christ the Redeemer in Rio, as well as a cable car, and plenty of beaches. It was kind of a strange city because everything there was planned--all of the buildings there are relatively new, and it was a calmer, more Brazilian Rio de Janeiro.

The group that went was basically all foreigners. There were three from USA, two from Italy, two from Peru, one from France, one from Germany, one from Nigeria, one from Mexico, and one from Brasil. It was really interesting since everybody has such different backgrounds. Everybody was here on some sort of exchange or a part of AIESEC. Since we spent most of the time together at the beach, it was a weekend of English and Spanish and Italian.

Once we arrived there, the trip as a whole was fun. Before that, we were supposed to meet at Terminal Norte at 18:15 to take the bus to the center terminal and then to the rodoviária to catch the 19:20 bus to Camboriú, of which some of us had already bought tickets for. (Pause, while I rant about how you need a CPF for everything in Brasil. So annoying. It always complicates everything, and you can only purchase a certain number of bus tickets per CPF. And not to mention how horrible the websites for a lot of bus companies are. As great as Catarinese is, they really really need to upgrade their website. Ok, rant over). Therefore, I planned to take my Canto do Rio bus, which usually comes at 18h to Terminal Norte. Since the Canto do Rio bus has a mind of its own and comes whenever it feels like it, it didn't arrive until 18:15, and there was traffic the entire way to Terminal Norte. Just fantastic. The bus driver kept on steeping on the gas pedal, but the bus didnt't (well, couldn't) move anywhere. Finally, at 18:45, I arrived at Terminal Norte, where just about everybody was waiting.

Since it takes some time to go from Terminal Norte to the rodoviária, we decided to exit the terminal and take a taxi from the "Ponto de Taxi," where there should always be at least one taxi waiting. Of course, when you most need something, it is never there. In panic, we called the number listed on the wall, and the telephone inside the wall started ringing. It's a good thing that I live so far away and chat with taxi drivers on that long drive to my house to get their cards (since there are so many independent taxi companies in Joinville). We called one of the cab numbers, and soon after began the race against time to get to the rodoviária. We made it with legitimately a minute to spare, and those who had previously bought tickets boarded the 19:20 bus.

After a quick hour and a half bus ride, we were in Balneário Camboriú. In finding ways to economize (as always!), we decided to walk from the rodoviária to our hostel, about a 3.5 kilometer walk at night. Though it probably was not the smartest choice, we made it there, only to see a sign that the owner of the hostel would be back in five minutes. We waited and waited, but nobody came. So we decided to go to the beach. All of a sudden it was 23:30, and we decided it was probably best to head back to the hostel to see if the people were back. And yes, the people were back, and boy, at first glance, they were pretty creepy. There were two guys from Argentina, one from Spain, and two girls from Portugual, who we didn't see until the next day.

Andrea (Italia), Priscila (Brasil), Andrea (México), Kevin (USA),
Christophe (France), Anthony (Nigeria), Magdalena (Germany),
Ruhy (USA), Francesco (Itália), me,  Fátima (Perú), Luz (Perú)  

On Saturday, the weather was about 28 degrees celcius and sunny, which was perfect for the beach. So, of course, we went to the beach, which was about a five minute walk. It's funny that the street right in front of the beach was called Avenida Atlântica because it was the exact same in Rio de Janeiro. We swam, played football,  took plenty of photos with and coconut juice from a coconut, walked on the beach, and just relaxed for the entire afternoon. Around 16h, the sun set to the west behind the large skyscrapers. Though that didn't stop us from just hanging out on the beach, I still wonder who's genius idea was it to build sky scrapers that block the sun when it's setting.

After the man whom we rented beach chairs was closing his shop and wanted his chairs back, we left to find food. Similar to Rio, I got a cheese salada (x-salada). However, unlike Rio, it cost twice as much, and I didn't get food poisoning from eating it. After dinner, we met the two Portuguese girls (who each had a bottle  of wine in their hands). Meu deusshhhh, they spoke such a strange Portuguese. We left to find a nice party and got super lost. Well, not really. It's just that nobody knew how to get there. Eventually, one of the Argentines was like we can either walk 30 blocks, or we can take a bus.

Let me just tell you, the buses in Balneário Camboriú are so strange. They weren't like your normal transit buses. Instead, they looked like the touristic buses being pulled by a truck. To make a strange bus ride even stranger, we passed by Mario and Luigi. And as soon as we disembarked the bus, there was a fountain with a cow on a jet ski. Well, to be fair, we probably got off the bus because we saw the cow on the jet ski, and not the other way around.

Then Sunday was a day of laziness. When I woke up around 12:30, it felt like it was still 8h or something early like that. My friend Kevin came into the room shortly after and said that they were heading to the beach. So I went left the others sleeping and went with them to the beach. We played frisbee, did ballet, hung out, and found food. After awhile, we went back to the hostel since we  needed to leave semi-soon to catch the bus back to Joinville only to find the others still sleeping. It was 15:30.

Shortly after, we left by foot for the rodoviária and took the scenic route to get there. We passed the statue of Cristo Luz, or Christ Light. Compared to Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro, Cristo Luz is all right. It was still nice to see it though. We got to the rodoviária and quickly boarded a bus back to Joinville, where we had dinner at the oh-so-classy Angeloni Supermarket and eventually headed to our respective homes.

Cristo Luz in Balneário Camboriú

And now is my final week in Joinville, meaning that this is probably my last post in Brasil, unless something really exciting, like it's sunny for the rest of the week, happens. I think I'm kind of ready to go home. I do miss my sister, and I know that she misses me a lot as she has been emailing and gchatting me every single day letting me know how many days before I come home. I also need to brush up on my English. Today at work, I was writing my transition guide, and I could not express myself properly in English. Also, the word photograph in English is spelled with a 'ph,' not as foto. So I guess I'm excited to speak normal English with people again.

But at the same time I know that I'll miss the friends that I've made here. Over the weekend, Ruhy, the other American who is also leaving on next Sunday, kept on thinking "in exactly a week, we'll be on an airplane." We also spent a large part of the weekend talking about how much we'll miss each other. With the crew, everyday is a surprise, and you never know where the conversation/you will end up.

Looking back on my bucket list that I made about three weeks ago, there are the museums and running from my house to Univille and back, for a total of 10.2 kilometers. After having cafezinho after café da tarde and bolos everyday, I'm not sure how physically possible running will be. Maybe it is time to go home and then back to school, where I have no excuse not to go to the gym, considering I will be living across the street from it.

Sertanejo, Porco e...Gato?

Portuguese Words of the Day
- Bilheteria = ticket window
- Fita = tape
- Cola = glue
- Ilha = island
- Sul = south
- Pega pega = tag (the game)

I don't think I've hated sertanejo more than I did this past weekend. Sertanejo is kind of like Brazilian country music and has a lot of accordions in it. On Friday night, João Neto e Frederico were in town for the Joinville Country Festival, and we (Fatima from Peru and I) were supposed to go. However, we didn't end up getting tickets. Instead I went to another sertanejo party, where they, of course, played sertanejo for the entire night.

On Saturday I went with my hosts Daniel and Camilo to Daniel's parents' house to celebrate his grandfather's eightieth birthday. The first weeks of my trip I went to their house, and I didn't understand a word that Dani's family was saying. However, after two and a half months, I understood just about everything they said. We had lunch there, and during the afternoon Dani decorated the large 1/4 sheet cake for his grandfather (since he's a cake designer). After the cake was ready, we drove a short distance to Dani's aunt's house, where the family would eventually gather.

Dani's aunt's house was legitimately in the middle of nowhere. There was no cell service, no internet, and was surrounded by woods and the main street. It was kind of scary. Dani actually said that it almost felt like the movie Scream, where there was no access to communication and if you screamed, nobody could hear you because they were blasting sertanejo from the trunk of someone's car. However, it wasn't too bad as I was playing 'pega pega' with Dani's cousins. There was also churrasco, or Brazilian barbecue there, so the foodie in me was quite happy...until I thought I heard Dani's father ask: carne de gato ou de porco--qual gosta mais? In my head I was like cat meat? Oh gosh. I'm pretty sure he asked if I preferred beef or pork, but I really wasn't sure and didn't want to ask. So of course, I just said I like the pork.

On Saturday night, I was so tired and just wanted to sleep. Of course, the neighbors had some sort of party where they were blasting sertanejo. I thought that I would miss sertanejo when I left here, but after a day of sertanejo, I certainly will not.

On Sunday, the weather forecast said that it was supposed to be 26 degrees and sunny, so Ruhy and I thought that it would be a great beach day at São Francisco do Sul, about a 40 minute drive from Joinville. However, when I woke up, it was probably more like 16 and cloudy. Since it was cold, we probably should have just stayed in Joinville, but we hadn't been to São Francisco nor the beaches there, and we decided to still go. And then commence the day of hilarious fails.

I had heard that there was a bus company called "Verdes Mares" that would bring you from Joinville to São Francisco, so we tried looking on line for the bus schedule. It said that there was a 10:30 bus from the rodoviária in Joinville to São Francisco. We thought that it would be like the buses that we normally take and drop you off at the bus terminal, but it turned out to be an inter-municipal bus, making all the local stops. Since we had never been there, we didn't know when to get off (or how to signal for the driver to stop), as it was coach bus. We kept on riding the bus.

After we passed a small center with signs that said São Francisco do Sul, we were headed towards more undeveloped areas. A bit confused, I asked the driver where São Francisco was, and he said that we just passed it. Oops. However, we could ride the bus until the very end and take it back to the center. There was a nice couple sitting next to us, and they could very obviously tell that we were lost and offered to help us. They said that we could get off a the stop in front of the beach and hang out there, so we listened.

The wife said that the husband "spoke" English and could help us out even more. One thing here is that when people say that they "so-so" English, they really mean that they don't speak any English. We told him in English that we had been working in Joinville and were just in Sao Francisco for the day. And for the longest time, he kept asking us when we would go back to Curitiba. Anyway, we got off the bus when they did, since they live right in front of the beach.

Upon exiting the bus, they told us how to get back to the city center and how to take a bus back to Joinville from there. Then they said that they could hang out with us for a couple of hours at the beach (even though it was still freezing cold by 12pm). Since we didn't want to trouble them, we politely asked if they had anything planned. Then before we knew it, the wife was flagging down a bus that went to the center of town and asked us to get on.

So, to avoid awkward "we don't want to go to the city center yet" situations, we thanked the couple and got on the bus, only to realize that the driver of the bus was on the municipal bus (awk turtles). Since we were to get off at the last stop, we tried to duck our heads and avoid that driver. But then, I looked outside and saw a sign that said "Centro histórico: 18,0km." What?! Why was the city center 18 kilometers from where we were. We were so confused and had to ask the driver if it was really the case. It was. And it was about a 40 minute drive from where we were.

About 45 minutes later, we finally arrived in the city center. However, since it was Sunday, all of shops were closed. I'm sure that the center of São Francisco is very beautiful when it is sunny and the stores are open, but it wasn't the case. We were also freezing and starving from not having breakfast and sitting on a bus for nearly three hours. We found a buffet, which served semi-decent Brazilian homestyle cooking. I'm just glad that we were able to warm up and eat.

After lunch, we tried to explore the city center some more, but everything was closed. We took some really silly pictures by the dock of us shivering. I even put on a second t-shirt that I had brought with me. Since it definitely was not an ideal beach day and everything in the center was closed, we decided to take the bus back to Joinville.

It's funny because as we were on the hour bus back to Joinville, the sky began to clear up slightly. I'm not sure it was much warmer, but I would have been happy with blue sky there. When we arrived back in Joinville, you'd think that we (perhaps I, having to take multiple buses to/from work) would get on the right bus to go home. But somehow the bus that I normally take to get from the bus terminal to Terminal Norte went to Terminal Sul, all the way across town. Eventually, we got back to Terminal Norte, where I was greeted by the only win of the day. As I got off bus, the bus that I take to go home was about to leave. After sprinting across the entire terminal, the bus driver opened the door, and I was able to get on the bus and finally go home after a strange, yet rather hilarious, day, where I was greeted with a homemade meal of chicken and potato pancakes.

Esqueci "the Portuguese Words of the Day"

Quick update: At work a girl from Germany started, and now we speak Portñol-glish at work. It's funny. And confusing, but mostly funny. Speaking of English, I'm beginning to teach English to my co-workers. Finally we'll be able to say more than "very cold."

In my excitement in recapping last week's adventures, I forgot to mention the Portuguese words of the day. Here are as many words as I can think of:

- Janela = window
- Saída = exit
- Copo = cup
- Mesa = table
- Estatua = statue
- Colher = spoon
- Sacola = plastic bag
- Bolsa = bag
- Caixinha = box
- Balada = dance
- Catarata = waterfall
- Ponte = bridge
- Areia = sand
- Quente = hot
- Garrafa = bottle
- Estadio = stadium
- Unhas = nails
- Arco-íris = rainbow

São Paulo - Take II

Why does it seem that every time I am in the largest city in southern hemisphere, I am so sleepy? The first time I was in São Paulo was my first day in Brazil, after 14 hours of travelling. I slept sixteen hours that night. This time I arrived in São Paulo at 8:30, after catching a 2:30 bus from Rio de Janeiro.

Upon arriving in São Paulo, we took a cab to the apartment of Natalia's cousin, who lives in the Pinheiros neighborhood of São Paulo. We dropped off our luggage there, and head out to explore the city. We took the ônibus to the center of town to see the theatre and Praça Ramos. As we were about to take the metro to Avenida Paulista, which they say is a street you have to visit while in São Paulo, we all legitimately were falling asleep standing up. I was too tired to take pictures and don't have any pictures from this trip to São Paulo. So we took the metro back to Natalia's cousin's apartment and all slept until 20:30.

To top off the preguiça (laziness), I also had a minor case of food poisoning. We had been economizing with food during the trip, and I probably ate too many R$4 (2 USD) lanches and sandwiches. We had a running joke that every time we saw a very expensive item, we would say: why would I buy that? I could buy "x" hamburgers with that...At the time the burgers tasted good because you are so hungry and they are so cheap, but your body can only process so many of them at a time.


Therefore, on Saturday night, instead of having more lanches, we went to have sushi. With the large Japanese population in São Paulo, sushi is something that you must eat while there. Somehow we found the only place in São Paulo that didn't serve normal sushi, but I'm just happy that it some sort of Asian food and not lanches.

On Sunday morning, I said goodbye to Natalia, who was heading back to Colombia, and then I took the 8 hour bus ride back to Joinville. After sleeping 6 of the 8 hours and getting a good night's rest, I think I've recovered from the really great time exploring and cheap meats that from last week.

And now back to work in Joinville! 19 days left in Brasil.

Beijos!

Rio de Janeiro was quite exciting - long post!

Ruhy and I arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Monday night, after a short hour and a half flight. The flight was originally supposed to be over two hours, but I'm not going to complain that it was so short. We went to the hostel in Copacabana, which was a completely different experience from the Timbó Posada in Argentina. First, you could feel that it was a business as the people at the reception were not very nice--or they were overly friendly. Secondly, when your bed is next to the only female bathroom in the entire building, you don't get very much sleep.

However, one good thing about the hostel you meet a lot of people from all over world. In our room the first night, there was a woman from Argentina, one from the New Hampshire, and two Brazilians. We eventually met people from Venezuela, Ecuador, Israel, Germany, and a lot a lot of Colombians. It certainly was a mix of cultures and languages. I remember having to say the same thing three times in Spanish, Portuguese, and English for people to understand.

Day 1 - Tuesday
The first day we were planning to go to the center of the city and to the Christ the Redeemer statue in the afternoon. But since it was a beautiful day in the morning, we decided to go to the Christ statue first. We waited in line for about half an hour only to realize that the train that we needed to take to the top of the mountain wasn't for another two hours. Of course, to pass the time, we went to look for food (what else, really?). We found a churrascaria close by, and we ate there. All I can say about that place is that don't judge a restaurant by its looks from the outside. Between Ruhy and me, we probably ate twice our weight in meat, so it was a good thing we walked a lot afterward! Eventually, it was our train up to the statue, and we took way too many touristy pictures there.

View of Rio de Janeiro from the Statue of Christ the Redeemer

Christ the Redeemer

After exploring the Christ statue, we headed to the center of town and walked around the little streets. There were way too many cafés/confeitarias, and we legitimately wanted to stop in every single one. After taking the afternoon cafezinho, we walked tried to find the famous Praça XV de Novembro in Rio de Janeiro. At the time, I didn't know what it was, but I thought it was really cool since the Lonely Planet book kept on mentioning Praça XV. I later found out that it was the plaza where the two emperors of Brasil were crowned. In Rio, there are police officers on nearly every block, so I literally asked the officer(s) on every corner "onde está praça quinze?" I don't think any of them knew where the plaza was because I kept on getting different directions each time.

Very accurately sums up the city of Rio de Janeiro --
fruit stands and police on every corner

In the end, we gave up and found ourselves by the port of Rio. We saw that there were boat trips (in reality they were ferries to bring people to/from work) for R$3 and really wanted to go. However, it was 16:57 and people were legitimately running to the port. We thought about what Paraguay being dangerous after 15:00 and decided it was probably best to go home.

At the hostel we met up with Natalia and began to plan what to do the next day. Unfortunately the weather forecast predicted rain all day, and therefore we had to plan accordingly. As a side note, finding (touristy) things to do in Rio de Janeiro is very difficult, and we spent two hours searching for things to do without any real success.

Day 2 - Wednesday
We originally were going to go to the lake located in the middle of the city but decided that it wasn't worth it if it would be raining all day. So instead, we found a tour of several favelas. Going to favelas was one thing that I really wanted to do in Rio de Janeiro as it pertains to what I'm studying, and I wanted to see first hand what it was like. Unfortunately the tour that we went on was designed for people who had no clue of what a favela was (and in my opinion, had never seen poverty before). The people on the tour were rich Europeans. Anyway, we only went to the outside of Rochinha, one of the largest favelas in Rio and walked inside another that had been pacified, meaning that the government is taking an active part in improving conditions there.

Favela Rochinha

The tour as a whole was an interesting experience. I can't say that I learned too much after those three hours of bizarre and completely unrelated questions, but it did give me another perspective on favelas. I didn't realize that there was such a sense of community in the favelas. I'm sure that this isn't the case with all favelas--many of Rio's 950 favelas are still run by drug gangs or the militia, and the tour obviously was designed to shed light on the misconception that all favelas are slums without any electricity, water, etc. After visiting the favelas, I think that given the current situation, there is no way to remove them from the city. The only way is to integrate them and help the favelas develop infrastructure in order for the city to prosper.

Ruhy and me at the Corinthians x Flamengo
game

At night, we went to a Flamengo versus Corinthians football game at Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, the stadium where the 2016 Olympics will be held. They say that normally games are held at Estádio Maracaná, but it's under renovation now in preparation for the 2014 World Cup. For me, I was rooting for Corinthians, but I didn't want to show it there, since all of the Flamengo fans were so scary. For those who don't know, the Flamengo-Corinthians rivalry is equivalent to the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. I now know why they don't serve alcohol at many football games in Brazil. So I just sat quietly in my seat, quietly cheering every time Corinthians scored a goal. The score was 3-0 Corinthians.




Day 3 - Thursday
On Thursday, we tried to go to the famous "Escadaria Selarón," a tiled-stair case made by a Chilean dedicated to Brasil in Rio, but didn't end up finding it. So we went to the center of the city to find "Confeitaria Colombo," a cafe that, as Natalia said, "we must have to go to." Unfortunately, it was packed, so we kept on walking around the center and found a Starbucks, where we just lounged for the rest of the afternoon. After enjoying a nice hot mocha, something I hadn't had in weeks/months, we went to the dock and just relaxed there, watching the boats pass by. As the day was clearing, we decided to head back to the beach in Copacabana and just relax there.

Day 4 - Friday
Friday was the first and only day when the weather was clear all day. That meant that we must had to go to "Pão de Açúcar," otherwise known as "Sugarloaf" in English. It is a famous hill in Rio de Janeiro where you take cable cars to the top of the mountain and can have a great view of the entire city. Like the waterfalls of Iguazu, you just need to see the pictures (below).

View of Rio from Pão de Açúcar with cable car

View of Rio de Janeiro from Pão de Açúcar

Pão de Açúcar

Since we were again economizing and didn't want to pay more money to stay one more night in a not-so-great hostel, we took a 2:30 bus from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo. However, since we didn't need to be at the bus station until 2 in the morning, we decided to go to Lapa, where Carnaval is held, and stay there until it was time to head to the bus station. We had gone there on Thursday, but it didn't seem that exciting. However, on Friday night, it seemed as if the entire city was there and ready to have fun. There were people of all ages, children included, in the streets eating, drinking, and dancing.

Despite the unfavorable weather, Rio de Janeiro is a beautiful city that I would very much like to go back to and get to know better. The culture in Rio is completely different than the culture in the south of Brazil. That being said, I'm also really glad that I was first in Joinville because it's a quieter city in which the people only speak Portuguese. If I had gone directly to Rio, I probably would have been lost, and might not have picked up Portugese as quickly as I did in Santa Catarina. I guess now I'm ready to tackle the North of Brasil!