My heart is beating like a jungle drum...

…tumrumtumtumrumtumtum!!

Olaaaaaaa!

Wow you're still here following my weblog? You're a very persistent one aren't you... eheheh... but thats's great!!! Hope I can keep you interested with my stories about my little Brazilian world :)

It´s been quite a while since I last wrote you, time sure flies... maybe especially because in Brasil time and plans dont exist... things just pop up and people are very relaxed, surfing the waves of life ;)... which makes time pass more naturally and maybe therefore faster? I don´t know. Anyway, Im enjoying a lot!! Let´s give you a small update on what I´ve been up to lately.

First of all I went for traveling during my holidays, which was really good. First I went to Parati, a cute and old colonial city near the beach in the state of Rio. Here I was together with Maria (German exchange student from SãoP) and Marte (a Dutch girl I met on the Brazilian embassay in Rdam and who studies in Rio, see Travelbuddy) and Marte´s housemates (Edi, German and Lucie, French). We had such a great time together!!! Unfortunately the weather wasn´t that great, so no chilling out at the beach, but we pretended that there was sun and had a lot of fun anyway, exploring the beautiful city, tasting the best cachaça ever(= Brazilian national drink, made of the sugar plant and comparable to wodka), going for concerts and dancing, dancing until we couldnt feel our feet anymore :), making new friends, going for a ride on the boat of one of the new friends eheheh :P, which was wonderful.
We were on this amazing sail ship, crossing through the bay, looking at the beautiful islands passing by, enjoying caipirinhas, and the boat guy even cooked some delicious pasta for us and played guitar!! Then we stopped in the middle of bay to swim to a deserted island nearby where small and curious monkeys would eat from our hands... incredible experience. The pictures probably tell you more than I can ever describe.
Oh, and we were staying at the hostel of this amazingly chilled-out guy, which made us feel that we were rather couchsurfing or staying at an olds friends house than at a hostel. Hospitality as it should be! There was always reggae music on :P, a trampoline and a climbing wall in the backyard, a dog who had his birthday and me and Marte even baked Dutch pancakes for the guy and his friends!!

So after this great (long) weekend, I continued to Minas Gerais (another state, more in the North, translated to English it´s General Mines), where I was going couchsurfing on my own. Me and my couchsurf host (Sergio) didnt get along that well, as he was a bit of a Brazilian macho... but I ended up hanging out a lot with his housemates and friends who were really cool.
I was staying in a Republica (student house) and my god, it´s literally ALWAYS party there!! Hahahah. And they smoke and drink a lot... as I was the first person they ever met from Holland, they proclaimed me to be the official ´Weed expert´, even though obviously they smoke a lot more than I do :P, só every time they called me to check the quality of their stuff eheheh. Also they decided I was the first Dutch cowgirl from the inland of São Paulo (holandesa caipira), as somehow my accent is not from the city of São Paulo itself, but from the interior of the state, where a lot of small towns and farmers are, so, that obviously makes me a Dutch São Paulo cowgirl... eheheh :P
Mariana, the city where I was staying, was really nice as well and I also visited a lot Ouro Preto, a nearby city. It is very charming and important in Brazilian history, as it was the center of gold mining and a failed revolution had taken place there (in 1789). (Brasil only got its independence in 1822 and until that time Portugal had been exploiting Brasil a lot; levying high taxes to maintain the luxureous way of living in Europe, taking away its natural resources (wood, sugar, gold and other minerals), bringing slaves from mainly Angola to work in horrible conditions... so in short Brasil felt pretty screwed and was happy to finally become independent). If you like, I can tell some more about Brazilian history in another blog.
Nowadays you can still see traces of the revolution in Minas Gerais slogan: ´Independence, even if it comes late...´. Not a bad place to spend Independence Week Holidays right? :)
Also I met up a lot with Marte, Edi and Lucie who were also staying in Ouro Preto with a biggggggg group of exchange students (I believe it was 70!!!) so this time I took advantage of my ´gringo´ (= white foreigner) appearance to sneak in and join with their group activities :P (Im sure Cor would be proud of me..) We went to a mine which was really cool. Actually most of the mines cant be used anymore because the water is rising and fills about 70 percent of the mine... wow. It was pretty interesting and spooky to walk around there, as there were few lights, imaging how it must have been there 300 years ago, what the lives of the slaves had been like... a time machine :)
The last day Sergio took me to a waterfall, hidden in the mountains. Together with some more friends of his, we made an amazing hike through the mountains, passing through narrow ways and cliffs, for which I would be normally scared to death to move any foot (because of my fear of heights), but now I was in survival mode and I enjoyed so much!! The view and the cool water in which I took a dive were also very rewarding.
The next day, early in the morning, it was already time to return to São Paulo by a long bus ride... I was staring out of the window, admiring the view of beautiful mountains, lakes and even sunset later on, when a song came to my mind: “Minas Gerais, quem te conheçe, não esqueçe jamais...” (Minas Gerais, who knows you, will never forget you.. but it sounds a lot nicer in Portuguese though :P). So true....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtpPtrFXOKs

So, now Im back in São Paulo, which is also not the worst of all... ;) I started to spend more and more in USP (my university) and believe me, it is a little wonderland...
There´s just always so many interesting things going on that it has become common during the week to leave for uni at 6.30 (am) and just come back around 11 or 12 in the night. ´What the hell´, I hear you thinking aloud, ´why would like to spend so much time at university while you´re in Brasil??´
Well simply because its so entertaining and many things to do! I have classes in the morning from 7 to 11 (which are unfortunately obligatory..), thereafter I get led by stomach to the central restaurant where you can have lunch for 80 eurocents and has turned into my means to survive :P (rice, beans, meat, vegetables, salad, juice and a dessert. Food´s pretty good and brings me back to life after the early classes :)). After that I might take a nap in the park, under the palm tree... :) Thereafter I either have capoeira class (Wednesdays and Fridays) or I study a little bit.
Actually the material´s quite challenging, apart from that it is in Portuguese, because most of my courses are from the 4th year. Veryyy interesting but also very demanding, we get classes in groups of 15 people of specialized professors who treat us like small economists. We have to read some 300 pages a week, and then in class we have in depth discussions with each other. I have to admit that I have read more scientific papers and articles in the 2 months here than in my whole time in Rotterdam eheheheh, and Im learning a lot!! Ofcourse I don´t finish all the material that I should do, nobody does, but putting EXCHANGE STUDENT on top of your exam answer sheet might also help a lot... :) heheh.
In afternoon I meet up with friends for a coffee or hang around or study together. Also there´s always a lot of things organized by students; from lectures on corruption to photo expositions of the WO2 to circus workshops...
Then in the night I have dance class (Tuesdays and Thursdays): forró, a dance from the NorthEast, and it´s prettyyy cool :) after that we might go to a party in uni. There´s soooo many parties, from different faculties at which different students mix, usually there´s BBQ or other food and might be free cocktails for girls :)There´s a lot of forró parties which are a lot of fun, or if I feel like it, I go for another capoeira class in the night. Capoeira class is really being awesome. Apart from the dancing-fighting, which also involves some acrobatic and breakdance elements imagine how cool :), we started to learn to play the African instruments as well. Pretty awesome right? So weekend is always good to catch up with my sleep hahahah :P

Last week was my birthday, thank you all for your sweetest wishes and thinking of me :) :) :) My day was great, in capoeira class they were singing for me, while I was in the middle of the circle all the time, fighting with everyone eheheh. In the night I made a small party with friends (and ofcourse the pancakes weren´t missing ;)) whereafter we went to a mpb (musica popular brasileira) concert with a taste of reggae and ska, in my neighbourhood, which was a lot of fun... :)

Ah, and tomorrow there´s gonna be elections! So public transport will be for free to give everbody the opportunity to vote. Voting is mandatory by law by the way. I still don´t understand so much of Brazilian politics, but whenever I will, I promise to update you :P

Well well, that are my Brasil adventures for now!! I hope you all had great travels and wonderful summers as well!! Good luck for going back to school, uni, work etc.. you can do it!! Don't let the Dutch rain get to you eheheheh you can make the sun keep on shining right? :)

Liefs,
Claudia