Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Did october even HAPPEN?

Um it's become a bit of a joke how this time just..goes..let's see what has passed here..surprise surprise I've been travelling again, just trying to soak up the last few months!

So my parents took me to Campos de jordao which is a town full of German-inspired architecture where rich Paulistans build their winter country houses and people just visit there in winter for a bit of a European feel. It was really chill, had some amazing food there and on the second day I went to an adventure park! It had 350m high zip lines (sort of like flying foxes but TO THE EXTREME), high ropes courses and horse riding, was such an awesome day. Just like the skycoaster I was a bit scared but just pushed myself to do it and was so glad that I did!




Then I went on a road trip down to Florianopolis again, to meet up with some Strayans and go to oktoberfest!! The trip down was good, my television producer host brother and his gorgeous Cariocan girlfriend took me, cruised on down sharing music so sussa! Was really cool to meet a WHOLE new group of exchange students, my jacket is getting filled up with pins now! So oktoberfest was an experience, it is held every year at a city colonised by Germans, but I don't think it's quite as hmm -drunk- as the German one, because they're Brazilians and together they already have a party!

There were 93,000 people there, all drinking beer and dancing and just general german merry making (yes it was a rotary trip don't send me home!!). If you were dressed in traditional clothes you got in free, so there were heaps of people running around in cute little folk dresses and funny little suspenders and hats! We had so much fun dancing in our circle of gringos and going on rides, the only down side was that the bathroom waits were like half an hour!






I spent the next few days in Criciuma with my friend Mat from Australia, he's from Coolum but his family passed holidays in Yamba and he saw me in the paper and in podium but little did we realise we'd be off on the same plane to Brazil haha! So that was a nice, we went to a deserted beach and watched a guy (almost) jump through a ring of knives but he took too long (the things you do to get money hey..) and then I went back to Floripa for one more night and went to a cafe that was inpired by Australian ones apparently! Run by Brazilians who have been there and with that deliciously cosy vibe of a cafe that I miss so dearly (for some reason there aren't that many here..maybe because it's blistering hot a great percentage of the year..could be this..) anyway enjoyed a chai latte on a bean bag reading a tracks magazine about Angrourie and Nat young, right at home!

Came back to Santos and straight away went to a country club type thing that is only for doctors and their families, so we went with 3 of my host siblings, their partners and 2 cousins. Was really lovely, did some nice trail walking, futebol, pool swimming and just general chill. But the best part was at night we ordered pizza, ate outside and my host brother played guitar while everyone sang along to these old Brazilian songs. It was such a calming, cosy feeling and that night I made a toast to familia, by sangue (blood) or not.. :D




Then just casually lived some more Santos life, school, seeing people, going out etc. One day I was walking home from Muay Thai on the beach and I stopped to see what these people were doing and because I hesitated for so long they came up were like hey did you wanna give it a go? And I was all by myself but the sun was still up so I was like yeah sure why not! And then I spent 3 hours with them learning how to do slackline! It's basically a seat-belt like material in between two trees and you try and walk on it and do tricks..MUCH harder than it looks but it's good to improve your balance for surfing and skating etc. so yeah just stayed there until like 10pm talking to these people, once they found out I was Australian it just went from there! That just shows the friendliness of Brazilians, just turn up to people you don't even know and then when you leave you're friends :D





That weekend a previous exchange student with his contacts and so forth arranged for us to go an ice cream factory, watch a training of Santos Futebol Clube and spend the day on a yacht!! We were allowed to eat as much ice cream as we wanted (so much pressure..I think I ate about 10 in 10 minutes haha), at the training we got photos and autographs of all the players (except the best one, Neymar) and for those who aren't familiar with futebol, Santos just recently seconded to Barcelona in a world tournament..so they're pretty up there. The yacht day was amazing just laying back in the sun jumping off the top and eating, could it get any better? We were so lucky to get those things :)





And just the last little adventure before the trip, some exchange studnets and I went up to Sao Paolo for it's annual zombie walk! Yes. It's exactly as it sounds. Heaps of people, in the middle of a city, walking, dressed as/acting like...zombies. It was so crazy, there had to be about 6000 people which is CONFRONTING when they are all zombies haha! With all the exchange students being together it is like the equivalent of taking hard core drugs and we got up on a massive bus shelter just chilling, dancing, um I climbed a literal bus haha very wild times. The return home was really interesting too (yes there is a story to that ;) )




And with that I'll love you and leave you! I have a massive 30 day trip around the Northeast of Brazil to get to tomorrow so keep calm and party hard ;)

Beijao!

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