Time to say goodbye August 20, 2009

Today I´m leaving Rio and heading home. My feelings are bittersweet since I´ve got to know some fantastic people and since I know I´m going to miss the city a lot. On the other hand, I miss home and I feel happy about returning to the safety of my day-to-day life.

I have ahead a 10-hour flight to Madrid, change of plane and a 2.5-hour flight to Tenerife. I can´t say I´m looking forward to the flight since I still remember the flight here, but at least it´s an over- night flight this time and who knows, maybe I even get some sleep.

Saying goodbye to the people is difficult. Most of them I´m never gonna see again and  I will maintain contact only through facebook with some of them.  Two of them I´m going to miss a lot and hope to hear from them through skype and see them soon. Time will tell if the distance is too long.

The good news is that I get to see you all really soon!

What I´ve learned.. August 18, 2009

• I actually like black coffee.
• I also learned to love caipirinhas.
• I can be much more flexible than I ever thought.
• I survived eight-weeks of intense cohabiting and it wasn´t even difficult.
• I don´t like flying. Before I found it boring, but now I actually dislike it.
• I´m more Spanish than I thought and I know for sure that my home is in Spain.
• I´m still capable of learning a foreign language. And I can even do the nasal vowels!
• I like working with kids. Heck, I even like kids.
• It is very easy to turn a blind eye to the ills of society, but  seeing them still affects you.
• The Brazilians are very hospitable and helpful. They may criticize their country, but they also understand that there´s no other place like Brazil.
• Going to a foreign country makes you see the differences with your own, but more importantly it shows how we all are very similar.
• Sometimes you have to take risks if you want to be happy.

What I love about Brazil August 16, 2009

In no special order:

1. Hammocks. Hadn´t slept in one of those before and I have to say they are very comfortable. And they´re everywhere.

2. Juices. They have so many fruits I had never even heard before and most of them taste really good (the only I didn´t appreciate was cashew juice) and are, of course, very healthy. They are available everywhere and are cheap, so you really have no excuse to try.

3. The Brazilians. Always willing to help, even if you don´t know where you´re going or where you are. Very hospitable and sociable

4. Brazilian Portuguese. I know I had my difficulties at first, but now that my stay is coming to its end and I can actually understand them, I have to say that it is a very beautiful and expressive language. I´m gonna miss the carioca and pernambuco accents back home.

5. Rio. An enormous city and still I felt like at home the moment I got in. You have beach, busy centre, parks, tropical forest, museums, stores, what ever you want, in just one city. The views from Parque das Ruinas in Santa Teresa or from the Pão de Azúcar  are just plain amazing.

6. Comida por quilo. The restaurants where you first choose the food from a big buffet and then weight it and pay for the weight. Very practical, cheap and you get to eat varied.

7. Brazilian food. This can´t come as a surprise to no-one. I experienced my first high with the salgadinhos, the salty pastries, then with the cakes etc. then I discovered the meat and churrasquerías.. the list could go on. Oh, the Bahían food! So good!!

8. Respect for the special groups. The elderly and students can ride the buses free, which I find fantastic. The banks, postoffices and supermarkets have special lines for older people, disabled or pregnant women.

9. The living in the outdoors-culture. There are so many parks and beaches and normally the weather is at least ok, so you have no excuse to stay in.

10. Some of the tv programmes that are just plain hilarious. Instead of watching comedies you could choose to watch the Brazilian parliament in action. Last week there was shoe- throwing involved. Not.kidding.

Last day at work August 14, 2009

Today was my last day at work. This week the ballet was still on holiday due to the swine flu, but some classes were organized, among them a ballet class with a new volunteer, that I attended, and my last Spanish class.

I wanted to say goodbye to the younger kids so I went to help in the ballet class. It was funny for me to be there, because the kids were hyper and misbehaving and I managed to understand them, made them understand me, calm them down and stay calm myself. The ballet teacher had a harder time since she hadn´t got used to hyper Brazilian 5-year olds and she definitely lost her patience and temper. After the class she was telling me how bad it had been and how she didn´t want to come back and although I understood her feelings, for me it was just a regular day.

This Monday the secretary asked me to come on Thursday to give my last Spanish class. I arrived promptly at 3pm and was met by a suprised secretary who asked me if the class shouldn´t had been on Wednesday. I didn´t want to lose it at that point anymore (I was thinking happy thoughts since I was asked to write something on a visitors´book) so I just asked her how many kids would be coming. In the end, three showed up. I didn´t mind.

I had planned on showing some pictures from Spain and Finland and reading a passage in Finnish (they had asked me that before) and spending the most of the class listening to music. Only that when I gave them the revision exercises I had prepared after our last class (four weeks ago, but hey, who´s counting) and told them that they could do them or not at home, but that I wouldn´t be collecting them, they showed their sudden passion for the Spanish grammar. They started doing the exercises and my attempts of captivating their attention with Juanes didn´t exactly work out. In the end, we corrected the exercises, listened to some Juanes and Maná and I read them in Finnish (a passage on the Spanish verbs, but hey, all they know, it could had been the finest poetry).

After leaving my email to them and writing on the visitors´ book thanking about having  me around, the kids hugged me, the director hugged me and the two secretaries hugged me. What I found hilarious was the non-helpful-secretary´s  ´oh, I can´t believe you´re leaving already. It´s so sad´-act, since she had basically ignored me the past 7 weeks. Leaving the kids was quite sad and I wish I could had done more, but things don´t go as you plan them, do they?  In the end, I´m happy with my volunteer experience and I think the kids taught me more than I managed to teach them. If nothing else, at least  I know now that borracha is a rubber, not a drunk person

Parks August 12, 2009

One of the things that I most love about Rio is its numerous parks. Sure, I like the beaches, but walk around in a park is much more pleasant.

Last week I visited parque do Flamengo, a long park that streches from Gloria to Botafogo. It took me two hours to walk the whole park through. It´s clean and has wide jogging and biking paths and you have the sea and beaches on the other side. I stayed almost half an hour watching for a futevolei game, a Brazilian version of beach volley in which you´re not allowed to use hands (only head, chest and legs). It looked really difficult and it was nice to watch.

I´ve also visited the botanic garden and Lagoa, the lake. The botanic garden was actually quite nice, very spatious and with some really tall and beautiful trees. The lake was beautiful despite the bad weather and I sort of hoped to visit it again when sunny.

A very interesting park, Campo da Santana, is in Centro. It´s quite big and borders with Saara. It has some fountains and small lakes, but what made it special for me was the capivaras. Now, I really wished I had a picture, because the explanation is gonna sound like an alien animal. They are more or less the size of small dog, they have short legs and run like rabbits, but they don´t have tails. Their head is long and sharp and remains a little bit the head of a cangaroo.  I really recommend you to google them, they´re just the funniest looking little creatures on earth. Coexisting with the capivaras were some ducks and dozens of domesticated cats that just spend the day laying in the middle of the paths, not being bothered by the passers-by at all.

My favourite park, though, is the enormous Quinta da Boa Vista in São Cristovão. The park has lakes and hills and it´s filled with families, youngsters and couples having a good time. Of course there are soccer fields and there´s always someone playing. I was told that you can spot macacos on the trees, but to my shame, I only saw birds. If you´re tired of walking, you can rent a swain shaped paddling boat or a family-seated paddling carriage. It looked like fun, but I resisted the temptation, since the idea of not beign able to paddle back to shore crossed my mind.  The was also music and a small collection of animals, a sort of mini-zoo. I spotted some huge capivaras and antas, which looked more or less like huge pigs with long faces.

I still wish to go to the Tijuca National Park and see the last traces of the atlantic jungle that once covered the city.

Niteroi August 10, 2009

First of all, sorry for the long silence. Some of you already know the reason for that and the rest of you will hear it later.  I didn´t have access to internet for a few days so I couldn´t update.

A few weeks ago I went to Niteroi, a city that lies on the other side of Guanabara Bay. The best part of the trip was the ferry, that cost something like 3 reais.  It was fast and gave me a new perspective of Rio: from the sea.

In Niteroi I visited a museum of modern art, which I found quite weird. The expositions included notebook papers in frames and sewage drains as art objects. Needless to say, I took pictures and giggled all the way through. The museum building was nice though, very modern and on a beautiful site. I spent more time admiring the view to sea and Rio than looking at the ´art´.

After the museum I took a bus and returned to the ferry terminal and to Rio. What I find surprising is that so many Brazilians believe that Niteroi is an island. Yeah, sure, you take the ferry (or drive there through a long bridge), but it´s just on the other shore.

Shopping II: Fairs August 5, 2009

Another way of shopping is to go to the fairs or to Saara, the huge bazaar area at Centro.

The Hippie fair is organized every Sunday in Ipanema and it gathers the stalls of artisans, painters etc. I’ve been there twice and it is pretty nice. It’s actually the only place where I’ve seen many tourists (excluding the Sugar Loaf). I love the paintings they have there and I´m still thinking about investing part of my money to a painting of the Sugar Loaf in sunset.

The Antiquity fair is organized every first Saturday of a month in Centro. The stuff is pretty much the same, but it’s bigger, closer to home and you get to see capoeira.

The biggest fair is the Nordestine Fair in São Cristovão, in the Northern part of the city. The entrance is $R 1 which allows you to stay in the huge semi-covered area and shop/eat/listen to music until you’re fried. It specialized in the handicrafts, food and music of the Northeastern Brazil. We spent the whole day eating and buying stuff and trying to get rid of the pain-in-the-ass restaurant workers who were trying to get us into their restaurants. I bought some Northeastern music and food. The funny thing with the food was that it wasn´t labelled in any way, so I had no idea what I was actually buying, I just got the stuff that looked interesting. Later I found out that I had bought some pastries made of aipim (I´m still to discover if ´aipim´is the same as ´tapioc´and ´manioc´) and I also discovered that I prefer my aipim fried and not in the semi-sweet form (it actually smelled like cheese).

Saara is a huge bazaar-area in Centro and makes me feel I´m somewhere in Middle- East rather than in Rio. It basically consists of many streets that are filled with kitch and the cheapest havaianas (bought four pairs) and clothes. They also have Libanese restaurants and shops that sells Indian clothes. The best part of it is the atmosphere: so many people, music and street vendors, you gotta see it, but you wouldn´t want to spend a whole day there. That could be just a little bit too much.

Shopping I: The malls August 3, 2009

I’ve visited two malls, Rio Sul (which is pretty close to where I live) and Barra Shopping. Rio Sul didn’t impress me that much, but you really can’t say the same of Barra Shopping. It has 500 stores and is just huuuuuuge. Really big. Enormous. It was also a bit far away and the bustrip took me through the wealthiest parts of Rio. Not too shabby. I spent a whole day walking in the stores and eating at the bars and restaurants and I still didn’t have the energy to see the totality of it. What I liked the best was this huge bookstore, Livraria Travessa, where I spent at least an hour. It looked more like a public library than a bookstore, since the celing was really high and they had high bookshelves with ladders. Like a dream come true. They had books on arts, history, linguistics, fotography, you name it, besides a whole long wall with novels, short stories and poetry. They had a pretty big English- section and the books weren’t as expensive as I had thought. The only reason I didn’t end up with a new Paul Auster was that I haven’t read at all during my stay and I brought five books with me that are still sitting in my suitcase, waiting to be picked up. I did buy a Paulo Coelho book in Portuguese. I thought the best way to start my Portuguese literary experience would be to try to read an author I at least knew from beforehand.

Although it was nice to experience a huge mall, I still prefer shopping on the streets of Centro, Copacabana or Ipanema. You get to enjoy the weather and it also seems more authentic; I must admit I felt slightly disgusted with consumerism after visiting Barra Shopping. I haven’t bought that much: two pairs of shoes (what makes me extraordinally happy is that my shoesize in Brazil is smaller) and a couple of t-shirts.

Going back home August 1, 2009

The thought of going back home seemed so distant to me a few weeks ago and it pretty much felt like my life back home had happened such a long time ago and corresponded to a totally different reality. I felt really detached of the things happening back home and thought I would love to live in this beautiful city for longer.

Many things happened back home, though, that requiered my attention, which made me to connect the two realities. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to try to do paperwork from Brazil, when all the information you need is in Spain? Also, trying to contact people is quite a challenge because of the time difference and the Brazilian telephone system. Two examples:

I was trying to send a fax to Finnish tax department, but couldn’t do that, because they turned off their fax-machines at the end of the day (16.00) which was just when my day here started and the places where I could send faxes opened (10.00). Also, apparently there are some restrictions about sending information abroad, which is why I can’t receive any sms or send them and when calling abroad you have to choose sometimes the operator number and sometimes not, so there was no way for me to figure out which number I should send the fax to. So I had to send the papers by post and just hope that it wouldn’t take too many weeks. Fortunately it worked out ok.

I had received a letter from my University back in Spain asking me to send some additional information by post. Of course I can’t do that since the papers I need are at my drawer in Spain and because my grandma can’t find the right papers and send them. So, I thought I could at least call them and let them know that can’t send the stuff in for another three weeks. That was a very nice idea, but the offices in Spain close at 1pm, which would be my 9.am, so we are back to square one.

I have also been doing some work stuff (translation) from here and I had to deal with a difficult tenant and apparently one of my cats decided to make some impossible culinary demands, so the reality has really hit me this week. I’ve also come to notice that I’ve done most of the stuff the guidebooks tell you to do in Rio, so I feel like going back home in three weeks is pretty ok. I’m gonna miss this city, but I also miss my home and my big bed and privacy (who knew I could live with six other people in the same room?!). So, it will be bittersweet to go home, but the thought of it doesn’t freak me out anymore.

Swine flu (sense the tone) July 31, 2009

Well, isn´t this great. The authorities of Rio have decided to prolong the kids´winter holidays for a week (at least) due to the risk of swine flu. Now, let me just state, that the situation isn´t bad in Rio or in Brazil in general, so the decision seems a bit exaggarated.

I had emailed my fellow English teacher at the Ballet asking her about the organization of next week´s English classes since the other main teacher is not going to be there. I wanted to know whether I would be teaching the kids alone, because I wanted to make the lesson plans. She answers me two days later informing me that the Ballet is going to be closed at least next week due to the prorrogation of the holidays. Thank you, people, for informing me and thank you so much, since this means that my 8-week volunteer experience just got shrinked to 4-week volunteering and 4-week holidays.