Cultural Shock

I'm officially back in Montreal - since 2 days now - but my friends say that my behavior is strange... I tell them that I just returned from Brasil...

Getting ready to go to the grocery store, my roomate asked me why I was putting my Havaianas on when the temperature was below 0...

I told him I had just returned from Brasil and that I had forgotten how to tie up my shoes...

He asked me why I was walking in the ponds...

I told him I had just returned from Brasil and that walking there involved walking on the beach - or in the water...

He also asked me why I was putting some sunblock on when it was not even sunny...

I told him I had just returned from Brasil and that over there, we don't only get sunburns, but also moonburns...

At the grocery store, my roomate asked me why I was buying all those beans...

I told him I had just returned from Brasil and that I had started to love them... (on rice)

Later at the bar, my friends asked me why I had ordered one beer and 4 glasses...

I told him I had just returned from Brasil and that I was used to big beers... (the size that makes you unable to keep track of how much you drink...)

Watching the hockey game, he asked me why I was cheering for Brasil...

I told him I had just returned from Brasil and that we could get killed if we did otherwise...

He asked me why I had ordered a glass of window cleaner...

I told him I had just returned from Brasil and that the waiter didn't really know what cachaça was - so I asked the closest thing to it... (just kidding)

Leaving the bar, he asked me why I had said 'bisous' to the waitress...

I told him I had just returned from Brasil and that the people there send kisses everytime they leave someone...

After the bar, he asked me why I didn't want to stop at Subway...

I told him I had just returned from Brasil and that asking for a simple sandwich used to involve too much talking...

Then I showed him a 'grease' and he looked at me strangely saying that it was a store for second hand books...

I told him I had just returned from Brasil and that this was what it was called there but in portuguese... cebo... for the grease that the previous readers had left on each page of each book...

Back home, he asked me why there wasn't any steam after I had taken a shower...

I told him I had just returned from Brasil and that I had a new reflex taking cold showers...

Then he asked me who I was sending messages to when I could just call my friends...

I told him I had just returned from Brasil and there were people who were missing me a lot - so I had to do something for them...

Now, I ask myself why am I still writing in this blog?

I have just returned from Brasil... but I want the story to continue...

(Here is a suggestion if you don't think of any comment: AAAWWWWWW... :P )

Total denial

I am not freezing...

I am not tired and I slept very well in the last two nights...

On Friday, I didn't send a message to all the people I wanted to see because I was not going to leave Brasil the next day... And I didn't mention that if they wanted, they could try to convince me that it was better for me not to go to bed for the whole night because I would be more tired than if I hadn't slept at all... Why would I have done that anyway if I didn't leave Brasil and if I am not sitting on the couch in my living room in Montreal...

Or maybe all this really happened but anyway, I missed my plane from Floripa to Rio... or if I didn't miss this one, I missed the one from Rio to Charlotte... of if I didn't miss this one, I missed the one from Charlotte to Philadelphia... or if I didn't miss this one, I probably missed the one from Philadelphia to Montreal... because according to the first paragraph, I would have been too tired anyway to catch all those flights - so I am not in Montreal...

I have not been freezing since I got off the plane in Charlotte... because there are so many reasons that I could have missed this flight for... First of all, when I went to Brasil, I missed my flight from Montreal to Philadelphia - and maybe it felt cool and I wanted to live this experience again... or maybe I have gone out on Friday and because of the message I had sent, my friends convinced me to stay awake (and keep drinking) before they took me to the bus station... but there I could have fallen asleep and missed the bus to Floripa... and from there, the taxi could have taken me to the wrong airport... (if there had been another airport - but how can we tell - maybe I never made it there...)

So I might not be freezing since I went to Charlotte because the security to go through the US is just too crazy... If I wasn't thinking like this, I wouldn't tell the whole story... I would totally deny it... I wouldn't say that even before checking in, I had to answer a full questionnaire... about what I was bringing with me... And I wouldn't mention doing a (shoes and belt and watch) strip tease to pass the metal detector... as my carry on was being body scanned too... I wouldn't continue saying that the boarding started more than an hour before the departure... and that there was another questionnaire - that I actually didn't really understand - I knew it was about my carry on - but I was already so tired that I only copied what the person before me had said to the security guard... and it actually worked... did you leave your bag unattended in front of someone who could have secretly hiden some drugs in it? I wish... just kidding... or is it denial? Whatever my answers were - good or bad - they still checked all the carry on bags... and then made us into different lines - so we would wait until some people complained about the heat - and until some other people answered them that we were still in Brasil... it was hot... how could I already be freezing?

And even if I had survived to this without saying anything stupid, I wouldn't have stood being in the last row of the section of the plane - the back of my seat on the wall - so I couldn't put it down - and I wouldn't have accepted to be that far from the TVs - since I had a hard time to keep my eyes open... and anyway, the first two movies were kind of the same lame story - a not normal guy in love with a (perfectly normal and beautiful) girl - but she doesn't share his feeling and he has to find a way to make it work... the second one was a bit better - the guy had the Asperger syndrom and he loved the universe... I think I would have loved it if only I had made it to this plane... and if I wouldn't have been sitting beside the toilet where all the people waiting in line kind of kick my arm and my leg that are too long so they float in the aisle... and if the girl in front of me hadn't had a huge head that was falling left and right before she woke up each time - I would have had to move in the opposite direction each time... to the left - to the right - everybody clap your hands - how annoying can you be - can you be that annoying - how annoying can you be - head to the left - head to the right...

After this plane, we had to collect our baggage to pass the boarder - the guy asked me if I had something like flowers, plants, animals, food, no, no, no, no... and alcohol? I said yes and he looked shocked... but maybe because my voice was going mute... he asked me to repeat what I had in my bag... and then a recheck-in... and another metal detector... Where could have I got some metal... as if I had stolen a part of the wing of the plane and hid it in my shirt... Oh my my...

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Besides all this superhero movie action - I made it to Charlotte to realize that Reais were not good anymore and that I was hungry - but anyway - and then to Philadelphia - where I continued reading "Em busca do SONHO" and then guess what? I was in Philadelphia! The guy sitting besides me asked me in portuguese if I was brasileiro - because oh! surprise! he was... so we talked about Brasil - and then he told me that because of what I was saying about it, he was starting to miss it too - he was going back to Boston to his University - and that it was not good... and finally, I arrived in Montreal - where - thanks to the canadian boarder people - it went super fast - the only question that I was asked was: Mr. Bourgault, qu'est-ce qu'on fait dans la vie...? On enseigne dans différentes écoles is the answer that pleased him - which allowed me to enter in Canada with all the illegal stuff that I'm bringing - like a can of cachaça, a bottle of cachaça, some erva mate for terere and for chimarao, some other gifts and a napkin with weird messages on it... I should really hide...

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My last day in Brasil was just perfect - I obviously didn't meet All the people that I would have liked to meet but all the ones that I met there had brought some very special things to my stay in Camboriu! It wasn't sad though - there are people that I meet - to whom I say goodbye - they stay alive in my mind - and if I wish to see them again - I make it happen... there are people that I had never met before that I met in Camboriu and I just know that I will meet them again - in Canada, Brasil or anywhere else... So "Bye for now" to you or a simple "Au revoir" and MERCI pour tout!

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RANDOM

Here are some english songs that "might" remind me my time in Brasil (are there others that kept playing over and over again?)

Rebelution - Bright Side of Life

Lady Gaga -Bad Romance (actually, I'm not sure if it played that often or if it was just stucked in my head...)

Lady Gaga - Paparazzi (see the comment above)

David Guetta - When love takes over (sorry to say that I find nothing interesting in this song)

David Guetta - Sexy Bitch (it was just playing everywhere - 'great' lyrics!)

Jason Mraz - Lucky (on the radio)

Bob Marley - Redemption Song (I would have liked to hear this one more often - instead of Lady Gaga)

Edward Maya - Stereo love (from the small white car with the windows open - that was just always passing beside me)

Here are the ones that played the most often on my mp3 player... when I was looking for calm...

Jack Johnson (Breakdown)

Ben Harper (Younger than Today)

Daniel Bélanger (Soleil Gratuit - Étreintes)

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (Once soundtrack)

Grand Corps Malade (Je dors sur mes deux oreilles)

Muse (any song)

Richard Desjardins (Les Yankees)

Rodrigo y Gabriela (any song)

Yann Tiersen (any song)

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I'll probably upload some pictures on Facebook in the next days - and if you want me to send you some of them in their original size, let me know! For now, I really need to sleep - I had two nights in a row without any sleep... Thanks for reading!

NEXT BLOG: oligoes(back)tobrasil.blogspot.com :)

Toi c'est sale!

So what have really been going on in Balneario Camboriu? The last entry was only about one day during which I had obviously no plan - but it was a fun one! Here are a few more stories...

Actually, the title of this entry is something that Jessica told me a few days ago... I was not completely dirty - just my feet - but it is just for walking too much with my havaianas by the beach... and who is Jess? She is one of the many people I have had the chance to meet through the school - and who inspired me in many ways! So I'm really happy to be here and to have a chance to catch up with her!

CS story - On saturday - I have been invited to a CS meeting - and thanks to Helcio (my host) for doing so because I met many other interesting people - that I had the chance to meet again since last week and that I will surely see again before I leave! And they almost all had some connection either with the french language, Montreal or even ILSC! One is going there in August... I am not really surprised anymore - I used to think that Brasil was a huge country but now I know that it is nothing else than a big village! :) The CS meeting ended in a bar by the beach and then I returned to the hostel right on time for the breakfast and then I could sleep until I had to sign out...

Sunday was Jess's sister's Bday - we had great seafood for lunch and we went to a bar on another beach (actually, everything here is about the beach - except the shopping mall and the theatres so I will not mention it anymore) to see a band of Forro - there are usually four instruments - a guitar, a drum, an accordeon and a triangle... and four people to play them... I have to admit that I had no expectations for the triangle but it did add something to the music... something like cling cling and cling... and... cling... After the bar, we hanged out on the b**** and had chimarao... It's a hot version of terere... (So if you didn't read all the blog, you can either pretend you understand or go far back to find out what terere is...) So in the South, I have to like chimarao more... it is not even an option... it's a rhetoric question... I can't say that terere is better even if it is like 35 degrees outside and the drink is 100 degrees... In Mato Grosso I had to say that terere was better - even if I hadn't had chimarao... I would say that I like both but I already hear your comments saying that I can't like both... just like I can't cheer for Argentina and Brasil at the same time...

I also met a guy and mentioned that I was intending to participate to the half marathon that actually happened yesterday - he told me that he was a triathlete and that we could run together - I said yes - we decided to run on Tuesday morning...

Meanwhile, on Monday evening, I went out with some other CSers for a few drinks and went to bet quite late but I was on time on the b**** ready to run as the sun was very slowly getting up... While my running buddy was getting ready, he brought some 'Runner' magazines and showed me a picture showing a guy on the finishing line at the Boston marathon - and then he told me that he is his friend and that they train together... It was not a big deal because he didn't win... he only finished in 9th place... I was relieved...

Then I started to think about my shoes - which I knew - were definitely not good for running - they were not even good for walking - not even for existing... sorry shoes... We still went for the run - first up north the b****- then to the south end - then on the roads that took us on a hill - where some people jump in parapente (I mean that it is high) and then down the hill to another b**** - we ran in the sand - climbed some rocks to get to another b**** and then through the woods to the BC b**** and back to the starting by a road that was so steep - that walking litterally went faster than running... Then I was scared to look at my feet - they were so sore and actually bleeding... because of many blisters that had not survived without bursting... Later, I was about to go back home - I had the option to take a bus - or to walk by the same hill to make some cool pictures... Guess what I did...

There was one problem though... I had taken my camera everywhere with me since the first day in Brasil and it had been exposed to water and sand very often (did I mention the beach?) that it got mad at me and refused to show anything on the display... It means that I can't use any option - neither can I see if the memory is full and the battery empty - or the memory empty and the battery full - but I wouldn't really care in this case... The good thing is that I can take random pictures of people and they can't force me to show them the pictures... My mp3 player is also slowly dying - either because of the mix of sand and water - or because its camera friend is not doing well...

On Wednesday of last week, I had an awesome moment at Jess's place - while she had friends over - we had wine - and then we sang songs outside on the balcony - we could have been at the b**** but there is no point since we can see it and hear it and smell it from the balcony... (Oh! I'm gonna miss this...) Jess had been inspired by the Forro and I guess I had also been because she brought me some metal spoons and I accepted to play -because fortunately in Quebec we learn how to play spoons when we enter school... So I started to play a few notes... it sounded like cling cling clingcling cling cling clingcling... you recognize the song?

On Thursday, Jess and siss and CSers went to a bar called Didge... it's an australian bar they say - they will have to explain me though because I had brasilian beer and there was a brasilian samba rock band... I guess we had had a few drinks already because I kind of became a catastrophe... Someone said: ''He made a real effort to samba...'' But to be honest, in my case, I don't think that efforts are enough... But it's another story... Later, we went back home and I don't know how they managed to do it, most of them went to their classes... while I was starting to feel normal again...

On Saturday I went to meet another CSer and when we met in Joinville (wouldn't you like to live in a city with a name like Joinville?) she told me that she had been to Montreal (I was not surprised) and that she had studied at a language school with a four letter name (I was not surprised) and that she remembered some teachers' names that I knew... (I swear I was not surprised) Have I even mentioned that this world is kind of small...? We went to a city in another state on Sunday morning called Curitiba - which I found amazing! Of course I didn't stay long there but my first impression stayed with me for the whole day - I loved it! And the road to there was really beautiful!

So overall, I am really happy with everything that has been going on in the last weeks - I got some great experiences in the first month with great people visiting different places and seeing how they lived and sharing lots of quality time with them and their families - and now not being as organised but still having some great time with some other great people! It is only positive!

I had HAM this morning

They told me yesterday that it had been on the news... that all the ham that had been bought in the last ten days shouldn't be consumed... and that it was dangerous... I had not watched the news... Oh well... I had ham yesterday morning and my ears didn't grow bigger so I guess it was fine so I had some again today...

So here I am writing and sitting in the shadow of a palmtree and after a long walk that started on a normal road that turned into a paved road that turned into a kind of trail... with small rocks at the beginning and then sand and then earth and then mud and then nothing else but grass... and then really nothing so I was walking into the wild and I found the magic couch! I even took a picture of me and the magic couch!

If you asked me where I am, I would say that I don't know because I was only trying to find a way to get across a river so I could climb the mountain that was on the other side... But I met a rabbit and I asked him which road I should take... He asked me where I was going and I said that I didn't know so he said that then it didn't matter which road I would choose...

So I picked one and Doris came to me while I was on a little boat with a singing captain with a white beard, sunglasses, a cap and a cigarette and probably the tatto of an anchor on his arm... and a pipe somewhere not too far... Popeye the sailorman dum dum... So Doris told me to just keep walking and just keep walking and then just keep walking...

So because I believe that Doris is always right I told myself that I should keep walking and that it didn't matter which road I was walking on... So to tell you everything the smell of this place is almost like the one at the Biodome in the rainforest part! Plus the heat and the humidity! Some brasilian probably went to Montreal and stole a bit of the smell of the Biodome rainforest and he reproduced it in Brasil...

Yesterday I saw on TV that some one had captured two ghosts in two small bottles - the ghosts looked like some blue colored water... and they were selling them on ebay... I should have been watching the news...

On my way back, I met a man and he looked like the second last human on earth - in this part of the city - and then a car (!!!) came very fast and it also looked like the last car on earth - but this time in the whole world... This car had probably been used to put some trees down the way it looked... Or the thing about the ghosts is true and this car was the ghost of a car and... Oh my my (it's a line of my new favorite song) it was blue! And I am sure it would have looked like some blue colored water if I had put it in a small bottle...

Animal Farm by George Orwell ends like this: The creatures outside looked from pig to man and from man to pig and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which... I'm not sure if the ham was good this morning but I feel normal...

I still have to get back to the river to meet the "passeur" if he is still there... The happy sailor man dum dum who found the best job in the world... after a lifelong quest trying to find happiness... he realised that it was in the journey and not in the destination... Now he helps people to continue their journey - some of them in direction of a magic couch!

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Besides all this, I did arrive in BC on last Thursday - I was going to camp but after walking for several hours with a ton of stuff on my back - and smiling at people who would take pictures of me - I started to ask where (the h***) it was and then I got tons of different information until I got to the right street and a woman standing in the middle of the street told me it was closed... I found a pousada but there was no running water... hum... And then I stayed in a hostel where I am sending this from - and will move later today with some CSers (he know les TETES A CLAQUES!) that I met on Saturday! So I really enjoy being here - once again it is very different than what I had expected!

Why I LOVE Facebook - and some other news

I got a friend request this morning from someone I had met in Montreal about two years ago - I accepted obviously - and then I looked at this person's profile to find out that she was from Floripa - exactly where I am right now (it was totally random) so I sent her a message to tell her - and about an hour later she was there to pick me up and we went to a small city - where I had already been when it was actually raining (!!!) to eat seafood! It's great to be living in such a small world! And it's even greater when there is absolutely no expectations between two people and when you realise that it is as if you had known each other for a long time! I really like the not planned plans!

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An other great and true story:

Yesterday I went to the beach and it rained... The end.

(Look at the pictures if it is not exciting enough...)

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I might leave Floripa tomorrow for BC (the brasilian BC) and I will probably be leaving in a tent... So even if I guess I could, I don't think I will use Internet everyday... I already hear some of you begging me to continue writing as often as possible - I will try to, don't worry!

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NOW, I'd like to know who read one or more entries in this blog... So here is the list of everyone who told me something about it - by the way, have I ever told you that I LOVE reading your comments? And that I really sincerely appreciated to know that you were reading it?

So, if you are reading this and your name is not in the list, let me know! If your name is there but you have no idea who I am nor what this blog is about, let me know too... I will remove it!

(For your information, the names with * are the followers... and the names in bold are the people who hosted me - I thank you all so much!)

Eli * Dominik * Luila * Andree * Susana U.* Julia L. * Mariany * Amanda M. * Beatriz * Michelle * Anne * Camila V. Renata Ulisses Mariana Ana K. Marianne Anne-Sophie Claudia A. Maria H. M-H Vero Isa John Émilie Debora Miguel Vivie Cornelia Jessica L. Simone L. Caro D.

The last but not the last... (drums...) CS Friend!!!!!!!!!! (You really don't remember singing Ironic? I thought we were going to start a band...)

Me - And isn't it ironic...

You - Yes it is!

Me - Don't you think?

You - A little too ironic...

Me - Yeah I really do think,,,

Together - It's like raaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.........................

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If I still have some of your attention in this moment full of emotions - and if you're interested of course, you should go read this: http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/?p=5815

If you know some of the things that I've been doing in the last year, you know that I tried to help the movement called The Invisible Children to reach their objective which is to free the child soldiers who were abducted by the LRA in Central Africa and to help the children who suffered because of this army... The link is about a MAJOR NEWS!

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About the pictures, the tree that you see is huge just in case you didn't pay attention to the size of the people... It is probably something like 40 meters wide!

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Before leaving, there is one question (that I don't have an answer to) that I have in mind... Don't answer if it is not relevant to you... Why is it normal in Brasil to wear a shirt or sandals or a swim suit or any piece of clothe with the brasilian flag and/or the word Brasil and it is not normal in Quebec - except on our national holiday?

BOA NOITE ;)

Eu quero saber... Você já viu a chuva ?

I wanna know... Have you ever seen (that much) rain...?

Ok I am now in Florianopolis - I thought it was only raining in Sao Paulo, but apparently not... they decided to share the rain with other cities... and the rain I'm talking about is not normal rain... It's a deluge! It can be sunny for a long time, you can get some sunburns and as you are putting some sunblock on, the sky turns grey and the next second, it is falling on you... not drop by drop, but all at the same time... and you would expect that after it fell on you, it would turn blue again, but it doesn't... it keeps falling and falling and raining and raining until wherever you were hiding - you get wet anyway - and you are very thankful for wearing havaianas because anyway, even if you got long legs and you jump very far, there is just no way you will not step in some deep ponds of water on your way home... They had told me that summer in Brasil was the rain season, but I had not listened enough... I heard yesterday that some beaches were not there anymore... and there is something else that is not there anymore, my facial tan... it litterally fell off... At the beginning, there were just a few pieces gone, but I either looked as if my face was burned, or as if I was dirty... or both... so I took everything off and I look as arriving from the winter again! So the moral is that you should always carry sunblock AND an umbrella with you in Brasil!

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Here is a typical Couch Surfing story... Everything started when I contacted some other foreigners who appeared to be in the same city... Some of them replied to me - and they were two finnish girls... They actually made the perfect/impossible pair - I can't imagine one of them traveling without the other one... One was totally crazy (Stinke - fake name) - the kind full or piercings and tattoos who talks to every strangers - and the other one (Iida) was normal - whatever your definition of 'normal' is, she was the normal one...

The first time we met, they had a plan and it went fine... We went to swim in some 'natural pools' which meant at this time swimming in a lake with huge waves surrounded by huge slippery rocks... that were either dangerous when the water would push us on them or impossible to reach when the water was going the other way... It was fine though... The more typical CS plan happened a few days later...

I went to the finnish CSers' place - they said that there was a party somewhere in the evening... But they didn't have any more information... Their CS host was not home, neither was their CS co-host... There was an other guy who was talking on the phone with someone he didn't know - that the girls had met the day before - and that they also hardly remembered... so this guy came to pick us up to take us to his place - but not really - he was a brasilian CSer - he had to ask for the key to the neighboors... we entered the place - he said that the guy who really lived there was going to come later... So I asked for the plan for the night - I wanted to know because if there was no plan, I had to go back home by bus...

There was still no plan - the only answer I could get was that the other guy - the peruvian guy who lived in the apartment - was walking home... but he had to stop often because of the rain and this was why we had to wait for him for hours... So I thought that my best option was to go home but there was a problem... the gate was locked and the neighboors were sleeping... this is what I call a typical CS plan... So I climbed the gate hoping to catch a bus - that never came... it was too late - so I went back to the apartment - and finally met the peruvian guy... Then we decided to go to a university party - with a reggae band and a crowd of hippies (and cheap beer - something like 1$ each) fighting to stay under a roof - the party was outside - and the sky was still falling! At the end, we got in the car, completely wet - there was no way the driver could see where he was going, we opened the windows - I kept trying to dry the windshield - but anyway, the water splashed higher than the car and it kept raining in the car... we drove slowly and after a stop in a gas station to get something to eat (mmm... gas station food!) we were back at the first apartment! I was dry again + there was no more gate to climb to go inside or outside!

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So right now I'm in Florianopolis - on the Ilha de Santa Catarina... It is very different than most of the places that I've seen so far... There have been waves of immigrants from many european countries - mostly germans! So we can hear many spoken languages - but also a lot of spanish because we are not far from Argentina and the beaches here are just perfect!

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One last thing... I made many jokes about Charlie and his stolen kidney and the brasilians also stealing kidneys (and other organs) in the previous posts... but... I had been recommended a movie called 'My sister's keeper'... And I watched it... and the main topic is actually a kidney... that a girl is kind of forced to give to her sister to save her life but she doesn't want to do it so she sues her mother... It made all my kidney stories not very funny anymore... So thanks Caro! :P

(Not so #2) Random Entry

Yesterday evening, I was reading the news on radio-canada.ca and there was something about the famine in Ethiopia in 1984-85 - and there were some comments below the article that shocked me - so I decided to reply to some of the comments - and as I was doing it, I had in mind some names and faces of kids that I had met and whom I had developped a friendship with... Because of the maximum number of caracters allowed - and also because it wouldn't have been very pertinent in the end - I chose not to include any names.

This morning, when I opened my hotmail, I had a new message... It was a message of one of the kids that had been in my mind the night before! It is the first and only email I have ever received from any people from Ethiopia and it happened right after I clearly publicly took position for them... Isn't it more than a coincidence? It made my day!

If you expected a funny part to this entry, here it is: the members of the website can not only comment the articles, but also express if they agree or disagree (by clicking on the word) with each comment... Because it was my comment, I thought (without really thinking) that I could see the name of the only person that had disagreed (!!!) with me - by clicking on 'disagree' - but guess what happened? I disagreed with my own comment... Call me Mr Internet or Internet Genius!

One (not so) random day at the BEACH!

Yesterday I went to the beach and it was cool because I was with my new CS friend that I had met at a bus station - so we went in the water trying to make peace with the ocean but the ocean only wanted to play with us (we were some kind of toys that the ocean was trying to destroy) so then we decided that we should be friend with the sand and a little bit with the sun... and also with a coconut and an acai - but at the end, there was not much left of the coconut because after we drank the water, we asked the guy with the machete to cut it into two halves so we could eat the white stuff inside... This was our plan... So we stayed there, I read a little bit as my new friend was pretending to make crosswords... (I say pretending because she was using symbols that I didn't know...)

Something really cool (and real!) about her is that she had been teaching to some Ukrainian and Ethiopian people in Israel... :)

Then my CS friend met - by chance! (go read the story about the small world in case you forgot) her CS host who invited us for a drink and who also decided to invite 4 american guys to join us... One of them was Mitch from Baywatch - and I am sure it was him because he behaved just like Mitch probably do when the cameras are not on him... something made me doubt though - i'll tell you later... so we talked about the gold medal hockey game that they had lost... One guy was also impressed by the fact that I was from Montreal because he had been there very often - to a bar called Wandas when he was studying in Vermont... Then they started to order rounds of caipirinhas (a caipirinha is almost only sugarcane alcool - with a bit of lime juice and a lot of sugar) that we slowly started to drink... Someone asked for some sugar - the waiter brought a glass with some white powder in it - an american said it was heroin... my CS friend put some of it in her drink and mixed it...

Mitch and CS host began to be very friendly... (Summer would have been jealous if she had been there...) They kind of forgot that there were people around them... And my CS friend and I sang Ironic from Alanis Morissette... Then my CS friend began to feel not too good so Mitch told us to take her at his place so she could rest - which I tried to do... but then, drama #1! Mitch - or the guy who pretended to be him - I know he pretended because if he hadn't pretended, he would have told me he was not him - remembered that he had left the keys with his drunken friends on the beach - and I know that Mitch would have never done that... And drama #2 - the CS host who was visibly super drunk told me that she was brasilian and that her mission was to take care of my CS friend and that I shouldn't be there - and that I should go home... I didn't feel like arguing, so I started to walk alone on a dark road...

Drama #3 and Mambo #5 - I saw a banana tree and because of the music and the monkeys who were dancing and singing at its top, I decided to climb to join them - and I was served a drink called 'vitamina' which is a kind of banana milkshake, a piece of banana cake and some banana doce - which is a kind of banana jam or banana jelly... some people think that we shouldn't make any of those things with bananas because the texture is not one of jam neither one of jelly - still, some people make some because they believe that the most important part is the taste... And I woke up at home with - of course - a banana in my favorite ear... I checked if I had scars - I didn't - my kidneys were there!

All the leaves are green and the sky is grey...

Guess where I spent the last 5 days?

A city where it's been raining a lot in the last... months!

A city where when you call someone to pick you up at the airport - it might happen that this person's phone is in this person's car - not working anymore - because there had been a flood so there was water in the car and the phone drowned... (phones can't swim...) (And don't worry Vivie - I still like you!)

A city where wearing shorts and my new white Havaianas probably looked strange for some people - but fortunately, I don't care! And there are small brasilian flags on them - but I don't think it made it less strange...

A city where they sell the biggest mortadella sandwiches in the world - mortadella is a kind of bologne, but what makes it so special is that there are big chunks of fat to add to the taste - seriously, there were probably more than 50 layers of mortadella + the cheese!

A city where when the people say they go to the beach, they actually go to the shopping mall! And when you think that they talk about eating filet mignon, they talk about filet miau... (cats filets! ...joke...)

A brasilian city where I looked like a tourist - not because I was white, but because I was actually more tanned than at least 2 people whom I compared the color of my arm with!

A city that has a museum called MASP (oh! the name of the city is in the museum's name) - where I went thinking that I would need a few hours to visit it... but after I arrived, met someone, made 2 or 3 photos, I left because the cool thing is the building itself and not the exhibition - because some of the important paintings had been stolen... (but there are still some paintings - don't worry)

A city where - surprisingly - they tried to steal my kidney! It happened in the Museu da lingua portuguesa - There was a short movie in a small room after which a wall opened - and some quiet person asked us to come behind the wall - then the wall went back to its original position - and once again, we were stuck in the dark - about to have our kidneys stolen... but I guess that the doctors were busy (probably watching the Olympics) so they didn't come...

A city where - after giving my email address to a woman in a bar - after she asked for it - I considered making one up but I didn't - she gave me her phone numberS! She was a little bit creepy...

If you don't know the name of the city after all this very precise information, just forget it...

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So with Mariana, I've also been to the park Ibirapuera - the gay street (there was not much gay stuff - at least at daytime) - the Cathedral - an area called Liberdade (a place where many Japanese people lived (and still live) after they immigrated in Brasil 100 years ago... the downtown with many pedestrians streets - where there are people who sell stuff and some people who watch for people who would see them - because it's illegal - so when someone arrives, they scream something *a*a (guess what - I forgot the word) so everybody takes its stuff and pretend that they just like to walk their cellphones or their boxes of CDs and DVDs - and of course the cellphones are not stolen and they are not trying to sell them... We also met with Lucas and Jessica - two of last summer's students at the school - not by chance this time! I tried two kinds of Cachaca (a suave one and a strong one - which makes me not understand why sometimes some students say that they miss it - because it is not something I would really miss - it is really good in drinks though) We made brigadeiros - let's keep it as a secret - it was already the third time I was making some here - so I had a lot of sugar to eat during the 11hours bus ride to the next city... where I am now... in the South... about which I still don't have much to say except that at 6h30pm, through the bus windows, I saw something I had not seen in the last 5 days... the SUN!

Winter Olympics in Brasil

After watching a lot of hockey and a lot of curling, one brasilian girl thought that Brasil should have more than 5 athletes at the next Winter Olympics... She thought that the best way was to create a new sport! It doesn't have a name yet but it's a mix of curling and hockey and what you need to play is a broom and a frog that appeared in your living room - magically!

So what to do is 1) turn your eyes from the TV to the frog 2) go in the kitchen to get a broom (any kind works - even though some might have more power than others) 3) get as close as possible to the frog without scaring her 4,5,6) open the door, broom the frog outside and close the door - all this should be done in 2 seconds or less - if you ever hope to take part to the Olympics...

You have to stay very calm or some bad things could happen 1) you could never notice the frog 2) you could not find the broom in the kitchen 3) you could scare the frog while getting closer to her 4,5,6) you could forget to open the door - so the frog would explode on the closed door, you could kill the frog with the broom even before it is outside the house, you could not hit the frog hard enough and close the door on her - so it would explode and you would lose a few points...

Here is how the points work 1) you get some points if you do everything in the right order (so you lose some if you try to hit the frog before getting the broom 2) you make points if the frog is still in one piece after you hit it 3) you make points if you don't faint after doing such incredible thing 4) finally, you make points for the time you take to do all of it

There might be an adaptation of this sport for the next Summer Olympics - an adaptation of lacrosse - which would be called - take this bat outside the house... :)

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Besides all this creativity that Brasilians show, the Winter Olympics were a big deal here in Brasil - We could watch them almost from everywhere - even when you would expect to see a futebol game in a bar - because it is summer here - there were some hockey games or curling games on the TVs! It is very common to walk on the streets and to hear Kevin Martin's name in a conversation as it was also common to hear people guessing who would score the winning goal in overtime in the men's final! (ok... maybe a little bit of exageration, but still... - it is true that the commentators discussed how Brasil could get some ice rinks to practice curling and to take part to the next Olympics...) I also watched Johannie Rochette's last performance in a japonese restaurant in Sao Paulo - almost everybody in the restaurant was also watching!

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Finally, it felt good to be canadian for 17 days, but now it's time to get back to my real identity: quebecois of course! (just kidding)