Showing posts with label Brazilian. Show all posts

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Mike, kiss her........Tales from Carnaval

Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Thanks to my Brazilian Brother, Ronaldo, I have a very interesting story to tell about walking around in Rio during Carnaval


February 18, 2012……2nd official day of Carnaval and my 3rd day in Rio. It was a hot day, my morning started at 6am. The 1st bloco started at 7am in the famous hilltop neighborhood of Santa Teresa.
Santa Teresa

I am supposed to meet Renata and friends somewhere in Santa Teresa for the bloco. I make my way down the hill and have been trying to contact Renata to find her location. Cell Reception is bad and the music is loud even from far away. She is with Ana Paula and Raphael. Text tag and phone tag end with Renata telling me that they weren't going to make it or find me. At first, I'm a little annoyed but after walking down the winding streets, I quickly understand why. The street is a sea of people. Thousands between me and the bottom of the hill. 


This is going to take forever to navigate I'm thinking. Eventually I join the crowd. Costumed men and women, afro wigs, cans of beer, and samba blaring. I'm stuck in a crowd of people slowly moving, not knowing where it will lead, but I'm enjoying it.

That was much pretty much the story of my day. Bloco in Santa Teresa followed by bloco in Ipanema, where I finally meet up with Renata & crew

Ana Carolina, Raphael, Renata & Me
and proceed to another bloco in a section of the city called Glória. And of course during day there has been plenty of beer. Eventually we meet up with Ronaldo and this is where the story begins. With Ronaldo's arrival, I started to drink more and was preparing for the night at the Sambadrome. Ronaldo had arranged a pair of tickets for me and my friend, Adriana. She decided change before we departed for São Cristóvão and while waiting Ronaldo and I decided to have a few more beers, walk around, and maybe find some girls or just chill. 
Marina da Glória

Since the bloco was over in Gloria, most of the people were gone. We just talked a bit and ended up wandering into a bar for a few shots of cachaca. As stated earlier, I had been drinking ALL DAY, so after the shots I was really feeling it.

We left the bar to continue walking, and waiting. So we walk…..and walk……and walk some more then all of a sudden Ronaldo is talking to some random girl. She was chocolate complexion, big smile, and wearing a police uniform with a wig on.
She kinda looked like one of them.....I think

 Of course, they were speaking in Portuguese and I didn't understand most of what they were saying until Ronaldo said "Ele é Americano" (He is American). She gave him a weird look like…..who?!……..him?!…..no! and then starts to, what I perceive to be, a back and forth of him convincing her that I am truly American. This went on for 5 minutes until mid-sentence, all of a sudden, Ronaldo turns to me and says "Mike, kiss her" in heavily accented English. I immediately turn to him, say "what?!?"But since I'm in Brazil, I didn't hesitate for long and went in for the kiss and she was VERY cooperative . Tongue and all, very good kiss. Cool. Wasn't expecting that but hey, it's Brazil, in Rio, during Carnival. Everybody is supposed to kiss somebody right?


After the kiss, she starts speaking to me (in portuguese of course)  and in my intoxicated state, all I could say is "what?!" Further proof that even though I may look Brazilian, and may be carrying myself like a Brazilian, I'm still very much American. So during this horrible exchange of Portuguese and English, I turned to Ronaldo with a look that says "MFer, translate!!" and you know what he does?? He says "Mike, kiss her again"…….. Welp... good enough for me and here we go again . Tonguing each other down in the middle of sidewalk and nobody gives a damn. I love it! After this second kiss, I have to get her number or something. We can definitely continue this. This is also where my story gets a little fuzzy. Cachaca will do that to ya.


Somehow she put her number in my phone and I thought I had called it. Unfortunately 12 hours later, when I woke up, after spending all night at the sambadrome, I look at my call list and there is nothing. The last call was to Ronaldo from earlier that previous afternoon……..MERDE!!
Partner in Crime




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Interview with Mariana

Posted on Saturday, May 12, 2012

Coming with another interview with one of my favorite Brazilians. Introducing Mariana!! Hope you enjoy!!







Where did you grow up in Brazil?
I grew up in the Wonderful City - Rio de Janeiro!!!

What is your profession?
My profession... I want to be an Engineer, now I am a Master's Student.

Which languages do you speak?
- I speak Portuguese, English, French (I'm still not able to write well in French) and some Spanish (Portonhol, like we say in Brazil!!) =D

How did you learn English?
I studied a little bit, however, I improved my skills listening to music (such as Queen!!), watching movies and talking to people. I still have some problems with prepositions.

What is your cultural/ethnic background?
Ethnic background... well, I'm Brazilian... just mix white, black and native Brazilians and you will get "something" very similar to me!! :p

Favorite place in Brazil?
Now that I'm far, my favorite place is my mother's house, and Parque Lage.

Site where Snoop Dogg filmed his video for "Beautiful"



What is you favorite time of year in Brazil?
- I love summer! I was born during summer.

What is your best Carnival memory?
- I think the best memory, at least a recent one,  was when I started my Bachelor degree. Me and my new friends from my University had a lot of fun together.


How has Brazil changed over the years?
Well, Brazil is a strong economy now. But internally we still have most of the same old issues.

Could you see yourself living anywhere else? (Outside your current
city or abroad)

- I live in France now.. But I still could imagine myself living somewhere else - not here. I am going to do an internship in Denmark, and so far the idea of living there pleases me very much.

How is it different living in France compared to Brazil?
- Food, weather, the speed of making friends...

What things do you miss about Brazil?
- Meat, weather, beach, friends, family

What are your plans after finishing your Master's Degree in France?
- I want to start working!

How did we meet?
I think I was watching a Rugby game in a bar (maybe close to Ipanema) with some friends, and you called me (we had talked before on CouchSurfing), and I left the bar to look for you.

How can you tell that a person is a gringo/gringa - minus language?
- Well... Usually you can tell that looking at the very white ones, that just arrived in Brazil.. after a while, I don't know... maybe it's possible to tell by their accent (but that's excluded from the possible answer)

What is your biggest annoyance about visitors?
The biggest annoyance of visitors is the false image they have about my country and my people. I hope when/if they spend enough time there, they are able to change their point of view. ;)

Favorite foreigners? (country)
I don't have favorite foreigners. As long as they are friendly and respective, I love everyone!

Advice to future visitors coming to Brazil?
Leave some of the preconceptions at your country! And be safe.







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Interview with Luciana

Posted on Saturday, April 28, 2012


The first interview for AMEB. Here will be little windows into what it is like to live in Brazil and/or be Brazilian. Today, I have my friend from Rio de Janeiro, Luciana. Enjoy and please comment below!



Where did you grow up in Brazil?
 - I was born in Manaus (Amazonas state), but moved to Petrópolis (Rio de Janeiro state) when I was 7 years-old and lived there until I turn 18. Then I moved to Rio de Janeiro for my Law studies at the State University and I have been living in Rio since then (I am 29 now).

What is your profession?
 - I had graduated in Law in 2006, but right now I am a receptionist at a hostel in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro city.


Which languages do you speak?
- I speak Portuguese and English, and also have some knowledge of Spanish.


How did you learn English?
- I have joined English courses when I was 11 years-old, but English has been part of my life long time before that. My first lessons came from home with my mom and older brother. I still can remember my mom teaching me how to sing "I just called to say I love" and my older brother teaching me how to count until 10. My mother was always encouraging me to learn English and music was also really important in this process of learning another language. I was always trying to learn songs in English and trying to learn the lyrics by only listenning to the music. Back at that time, there was no google or internet tools to give me the lyrics right away, so I had to learn the lyrics by only listenning to the same song over and over again. Then I went to US in a High School student program. I lived for 6 months in Florida and that helped improving my English skills.  

What is your cultural/ethnic background?
- I am Brazilian, so I am pretty much a little bit of everything :) There is a little bit of Brazilian natives, black, arab, but it is mostly from Portugal.

Favorite place in Brazil?
- Rio de Janeiro!






How can you tell that a person is a gringo/gringa - minus language?
- Usually by the way the person looks. The physical appearance, the clothes and the havaianas tell a lot if the person is or isint a gringo.


How has Brazil changed over the years?
- The world has changed a lot over the years and it couldn't be different to Brazil. We still have the same problems of corruption, precarius education and health systems for the majority of people, but I believe some things in Brazil have improved along the past years. The economy got better, and the people of lower classes now have more access to goods and technology than they had before. The bad thing is that the prices are getting higher when compaired to the rest of Latin America: real state properties, rents and even food are getting more expensive, specially in Rio de Janeiro. Despite that, we have more jobs now and the tourism is getting better and better.


Could you see yourself living anywhere else? (Outside your current
city or abroad)
- I love Brazil and Rio de Janeiro, but I could live abroad again. I guess it could be anywhere near the ocean. My great passion is Portugal, so it would be easy living there (specially up north and at the city of Porto). 

How did we meet?
- That is an interesting question... We have a common friend named Claudio. You have rented an apartment for Carnival days, but you would still need a place to stay for your first night in Rio before going to the apartment, so Claudio asked me if I could help you somehow. So we have talked online and you stayed one night at my house :)


What made you give up Law to go into the tourism industry?
- When I was 18 years, I had to decide what I was going to study at the University. I thought about Tourism, but back then there was not that much talking about Tourism and there were no public course of Tourism in Rio de Janeiro, so I ended up joining the Law University. I studied Law for 5 years and worked for more 5 years as a Lawyer, but have always kept myself informed about what was going on in Tourism. On November, 2011, I finally decied to leave Law behind and start my studies on Tourism. Since I don't have any experience on the area or further studies on that, I started working in a hostel. I am happier now than ever in my life, and I can't see myself working again in Law. However, I have no regrets about Law and I think it was really important for my education and my background.


How was your experience in the US?
- It was really good. I have met very nice people there and have great memories from US. I miss the people, the roads, the nice smell of most of the stores and I really miss some food! I hope I can go back to US and have the chance to visit more of this huge country. 

What is your biggest annoyance about visitors?
- When they don't respect the hostel rules. It is not really common that they do disrepect the rules, but this is really what spoils my mood.

Favorite foreigners? (country)
- It is a difficult question... I still haven't had enough guests to have a favorite nationality. 

Advice to future visitors coming to Brazil?
- I see some people bringing lots of clothes to Brazil, and later they tell me they didn't use most of them. We are talking about a tropical country with the most relaxing and easygoing environment, so don't worry about bringing too many things. All you will need is some light clothes and comfortable shoes or sandals. Come here with open mind and enjoy the place :)



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