(Also, I don't have a whole lot of pictures from these events, put I'll post some in the albums)
I climbed a mountain -Pico da Bandeira again- with Vanessa, this time. It is an 18km trek and an elevation gain of over 1km; probably not the best choice for a girl's first mountain experience, but it went well and she did fine.
A little river on the mountain.
We also spent a long weekend in a quaint little coastal town called Buzios, a few hours north of Rio; Nice, fancy (Brasilians love to use the word "chique"), colonial town. Hung out there for a few days -going on boat rides, snorkelling, swimming, and just relaxing.
On the opposite side of the scale, I spent another long weekend riding my bicycle with Ted. We rode near Diamantina and it is probably the toughest riding that I've done. There were no flat parts at all. It was just up and down, up and down, up and...you get the idea.
One neat thing was the pension house (like a bed-and-breakfast) that we stayed at in a town in the middle of nowhere (can't even remember the name). I absolutely loved the woman who owned and operated the place, and she showed me around her garden, showing off her different plants, telling stories about her family; really great.
Just a few days ago I went to my first soccer game here. The stadium is called Minerão, a good-sized stadium with a capacity of 70 to 80 thousand, depending on who you ask. It was ok, but these Brasilians really are crazy about their soccer. They really get into it in a way that I'll never understand, and they yell, scream, sing, curse -before, during, and after the game. I learned more profanity in Portuguese in that day alone than I have in my time in Brasil.
Two intersting things happened as we were driving home:
First: We saw a bunch of young guys riding on top of a city bus, jumping up and down, singing, yelling and so on as the bus was driving along. I can imagine the poor bus driver, scared out of his mind in case one of those guys fell off and was run over by the sea of traffic, but also too scared of the guys to tell them to get off.
Second: As we were driving along a police officer ran out in front of our car, gun drawn, yelling at some dude to stop and lay down on the ground with his hands behind his head. We waited and watched as the guy started doing so and as the cop slowly walked towards him, gun in hand, ready to pump him full of lead. As soon as the cop was out of our way, we got the hell outta there.
One final piece of news that's significant to me, but probably to no one else:
This weekend I feel I reached a milestone with my Portuguese. Hanging out with some friends who speak no English, we had a real conversation about politics (the little that I know), health care, corruption, taxes, and the like.
I have another month of work, during which I'll likely be too busy to do anything fun, but after that I've got a few weeks off, and am considering various possibilities.
7 comments:
May I recommend a visit to Malaysia
what was the soccer game? Andreas will be very jealous...I think checking out a game in Brasil might be high on his list of things to do before he dies....
It's definitely a nice idea TMC. However, it'll have to be another time. I'm going to make a visit to the US (I have a new nephew that I haven't yet seen) and up to Canada. And unfortunately the time and $ factor will limit me to that plus a quick tour in Brasil before I go back to work. Another time!!
Cheri: It was a state team here in Minas playing against some Chilean team. The fans really do get into it. Usually it's relatively healthy, but if Andreas really wants to see somthing super-crazy: In Minas, the state where I live, there is a ridiculous rivalry between two teams (Cruzeiro and Atlético). At games where these teams play each other, the violence among the fans is absurd; the police presence is super strong and after the games there are police on horseback roaming the streets near the stadium, breaking up fights by swatting people (those fighting as well as those in their way) with the flat of their broadswords.
Hi Mr. Varga,
como vai voce? heheh. It's me, Kinta, your former mdm student.
Anyway, I send you our mdm class pictures.
I send it to varga.leon@gmail.com.
Is the email address correct?
Hi Kinta!
I'm doing very well thank you.
Yes, that is the correct address. I'm looking forward to getting those pictures.
Hope you are doing great!
i am a bit jealous when you talk about football , especially football in brazil. In brazil!!
drop by montreal when in Canada. its a bit noisy here but pretty fun.
And may I recommend dropping by Halifax after visiting Montreal!
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