A lack of sleep but loads of fun this week!

12 December - 18 December 2005

Sorry that this post doesn't have pictures but my laptop where all these precious memories are stored is broken :-( I hope they will fix this soon, but all I can do now is waiting, and sending a post with only some texts. I do hope that I can pass you the feelings and hapiness that I experienced last week ...

The week started quiet on monday, to recover from the weekend and the show of Chiclete com Banana. But I only had one day to recover, as some friends called me on Tuesday to go to a bar where the band of one of their friends would play that night. Again some other music style, it was a kind of Brasilian rock and metal music. I had a great night with some nice talks. We started with some beers in a boteco, this is a very simple, marginal bar where people only go to drink "a lot" as the beers are cheapest here.

In regular bars, it's very common to have live bands playing, something I will miss in Belgium, as this makes the ambiance of the night!

On Wednesday, we had the Christmas party with the environmental department of Caenge. It's the tradition here to buy a present for a "Secret Friend". You receive a name of a colleague/friend for whom you buy a present. During the night when the presents are given you have to describe your friend, and people guess who it is. I received a nice collar from Menezes, and bought a CD for my boss Marco. We had a lot of fun guessing the secret friends, drunk a lot of beers and ate very good snacks in the Australian restaurant Outbreak in Parkshopping. Afterwards we continued the night till 3am in Stadtbeer having more beers and listening to a great band. I went to work the next day with very small eyes, but I survived the day ...

I spend my Friday night in the travel agency booking the flights for my mother and boyfriend and for my carnaval. What did I spend a lot of money in one time, but Fabiana convinced me to combine Recife and Rio for Carnaval as it will be a life experience ( where else have we heard this ... that's why it suits in my AIESEC traineeship ;-) The carnaval in Rio is only in the Sambodrome on Sunday and Monday, where you have to pay to enter, for the rest, there are not so many parties in the street. Recife on the other hand has free street parties with 2 million people in the streets. That's one fifth of Belgium, imagine ... . Who doesn't believe me can find a picture of Galo de Madrugada, chicken of the morning; the huge statue that they carry through the city and that people follow; on http://www.pernambuco.com/carnaval/2005/galeria/galo_23_g.jpg .

On Saturday, there was a Christmas Party with the entire company. So great, with all the colleagues, their husband/wife, children. There was a live band of a colleague, delicious food, and a lottery with wonderful gifts. Unfortunately, I didn't win ...
Afterwards we went with some colleagues to Calaf, where live Samba was played. I could practise what I learned in Rio in the Samba school, and the Brazilians got crazy seeing me dancing like that :-) I'm becoming a real Brazilian they told ...

I thought that my evening would end there, but some people decided different things for me. There was an other Samba show in a huge stadion nearby. People invited me to go there, but due to my travels that I have to pay, I really run out of money for the moment. But the friends of a colleague of mine (that I even don't know that well) proposed me to buy my ticket. I don't talk about 5 euro or something, it was more or less 30 euro for the best places. Who would ever do this in Belgium ?!? So I went with them and I had a wonderful evening! I danced Samba till 4 am in the morning and got some course with an ancien who is present on every samba event. A pity that I can not show the picture, it's so funny! People told me again that I really have the rhythm and that they never saw any gringo (foreigner) dancing like me :-) Hehe, cool ! And the more they clapped in their hands, the faster I started dancing till I couldn't go further ... Awesome !!! I will miss this so much. Does anyone knows a Samba bar in Belgium ;-) all info is welcome here on my blog!
And this is how my fun weekend ended. On Sunday, I slept till noon and made my suitcase to leave to Nordeste on Tuesday ...

It will take some weeks ( maximum 3 till my next post ) as I don't know if I'll have internet during my travel, and I want to enjoy the sun there. I'll let you know everything when I'm back in rainy Brasilia (yeah rain season started to become very serious here), where I have time to write you everything!

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. Although I'm not fysically with you, I think a lot about all of you and I won't forget you during my travel!

Feliz Natal e Bom Ano Novo!
Abraço a todo,
Nele