I think I went through culture shock today. I think its also when I lose patience with people. It started yesterday. I went out to lunch with the AIESECers and again, they go off laughing and talking about a million things that I have no idea what they're saying and I'm just sitting there, bored and feeling ignored. I really don't like going out to eat with them. Hanging out and actually having an activity is fine but when I have nothing else to do its horrible. I realized that it didn't have to be like this. When I hang out with my other group, I have a lots of fun even though most of them speak Portuguese and that's because someone is always willing to summarize and explain what's going on to me so I don't feel so lost. That's all that's needed is that extra effort from people. Its annoying too because no one speak Portuguese with me when I ask them to but then they expect me to know what they are talking about when they're only speaking Portuguese with each other?! That's the thing that frustrates me the most! I don't feel like I've improved in the past month. My learning curve for Portuguese totally died off. I really want to learn more but its hard when you have to be motivated to teach yourself. Well, I'm going away this weekend, so it'll be a nice break from the frustration, I hope.

HAPPY CANADA DAY EVERYONE!!! I will be representing Canada as I sport my Roots Canada hat on Sunday to visit a village of poor kids. (According to what my friend told me).

Celebrating good friends.

NOTE: UPDATED JULY 3RD with skating pictures!!

On Wednesday Patricia left:( So sad! I got to spend the 5 days with her before leaving because she and her friends had finished school. The last day she was here we went all out. We started off skating indoors at a mall (Park Shopping). I was super excited! I love skating! My Canadian friend, Dan treated us because he felt like he owned us for making his stay in Brasilia so much more fun! I felt bad but if he was willing then why not! It was REALLY expensive though, R$20 for 30 mins. I usually go skating for 1-1.5 hours but I have to say 30 was PLENTY. This rink was tiny and there obviously was no zamboni that was going to drive out from anywhere so the ice wasn't the best. What do you expect, its Brazil. I was already a little worried because everyone on the rink was wearing helmets and I'm thinking heck no, I'm not looking like an idiot. Obviously I wasn't close enough because they were also wearing elbow pads and knee pads to complete the look! LOL, I couldnt' believe it, it was mandatory and I couldn't get out of it! We even had to sign a waiver, I have no idea what it said but probably something along the lines of if I die I can't sue that mall. I couldn't skate for 10 mins because I was laughing so hard at my embarrassing ensemble. The skates were also plastic! The most uncomfortable things I've ever worn! Ever. After I while I kinda forgot about what felt like a bodysuit and started skated gracefully. I even tried poses forgetting about the outfit. My friend had a really good fall, so she was super thankful for the helmet. After discovering the worst blister of my life we went to McD's and then headed over to our friend, Juliana's to watch the soccer game of Brasil vs Mexico. We were 15 mins late and Mexico had already scored 2 points!! There was no hope for Brasil anymore. It was 0 to 2 at the end. We took lots of fun pictures and played "never have I ever". Afterwards, Patricia had a time of sharing on the flaws of everyone in the room and she was really honest and open because these were all her closest friends together. It was nice to see the raw honesty someone can put forth. I think its also a good learning experience for yourself to hear. Sometimes someone really does have to have the guts to say something or else those annoying people will always stay that way. I was nervous for my turn but thank God she's only knew me for 1 month so she didn't have anything to say. hehe. We were too loud for the neighbours so we drove to the 3rd bridge and danced to my friend's Ipod till 4am!! My favorite funky song and a bunch of others including Ivete (a Brasilian artist). It was a lot of fun and a really memorable night. I'm sad to say bye to a friend that was always here for me in Brasilia.

My camera was still broken, but I got some pictures from my friend's camera.

Six years of figure skating and I get forced to wear THIS!

I didn't suffer alone. My favorite group in Brazil was there to laugh with me.

I tried to be graceful and then I remembered what I was wearing:(

This is what we had to skate in! No wonder I got a huge blister!!


At Ju's, Monique, Fernanda, Manry, Dan, Patricia, and Juliana.



At Lago Sul (South Lake) Monique was cold lol, Dan, Patricia, Abelado, Manry, Gabe, Ju and Fe.
(Lucas taking the picture).

A summary of the past few days

Wow, I'm definitely due for another post.

So I have been going out like everynight since last Friday!!! I've never done this in my life! At least not that I recall. It's partially because my closest friend(Patricia) in the city is leaving to go on vacation this Thursday and I wanted to be able to spend as much time with her before she leaves. She has been amazing since the first day I met her. She picks me up to go out and drives me home everytime, she invites me to her house to eat lunch all the time with her family and brings me to fun events. She's one of those people who actually listens when you talk and I think that's probably one of the most important things here.

Sunday I went to church for the 2nd time and I wish I could bring this church home with me. The sermon was really good and the pastor is able to say everything in about 30-45 mins. No one ever falls asleep here. Then I went to lunch at Patricia's house and then at night went to the concert of Gotan Project that was sponsored by the French Embassy. It was free when most people pay about R$60-$300!! Before the concert my friend's car tire got stuck in a hole and that was memorable. All 8 of us trying to use the tire lever to lift the car off the ground then pushing it. What teamwork! Definitely moments like these that bring people together.

Tire in the random hole in the parking area. It was really deep.

Pushing the car...I know I should have been helping, but someone had to capture this on camera!

We decided to put a tree in the hole to warn people, how considerate are WE!?

So finally got the car out and I was really excited for the group. I wasn't sure if they were good or not but after seeing them, I have to say they are one of my favorite groups. Its like everything I love about music put together. They played tango, salsa, classical, mixed with some electronic beats. It was fun, we stood on the bleachers as we listened and danced to the music. Unfortunately this girl dropped my camera and now the lens won't go back in and won't take pictures. I hate when things happen, not just because it costs money but the hassle of getting things done here. I have to ask people where to take it, if anyone will take me to that place, if not, how can I take the bus there? What are the directions to get there? The city is nice but horrible for travelling in. People from other cities make fun of us because they think everyone in Brasilia drives in circles. Its true actually we don't really have corners. You just drive in one of those circles until you get to the street that branches off of it. The city is also divided into coordinates. South to North: 1-9 West are odd #'s, East are even #'s. Confused? Yea I feel ya. I still don't really get it. There are no such things as street names. I think you guys realized when you got my address for my city.

Gotan Project! Muito bom!!

Anyways, Monday we went Bowling and I have never played so horribly in my life but it was fun to get a game in and feel at home.

Taisa, Patricia, Dan, Manry, Claudius, Luciana

Tuesday we went to our friend's family restaurant that had really yummy steak and then I went to meet some other friends. One of whom I just met last night and does translating in China. He's Brazilian but knows a little Cantonese and Manderin. He has a pretty sweet job and he's NOT EVEN GRADUATED! His major is Translating. Weird, yet cool. I still don't really know what he does but I think he was explaining that he manages the team that does the translating and doesn't really do translating himself. I'm not sure, but I want his job! Why did I study Bio and now I have no jobs to go into to make a decent living!? Grr...

Tacky Festival and Kareoke

Last night was so much fun, I just had to make a note of it. After the AIESEC meeting everyone was going to this salsa, samba place I went to last friday called "Caribeno". My friend who's not in AIESEC called and said he was dancing at this festival he was having with his English school that he taught at. I decided I would support my friend at his performance and I'm glad I did. We had so much fun even though I got a broken toenail that was bleeding the whole night from it. We ate and drank a lot of Gummy. My Canadian friend said it would make my toe hurt less hehe. I guess it kinda worked. The party was like a Festa Junina party, where people dress up in patterned dresses and kinda country-style dances. (Please refer to the pictures.)

They performed a really fun long dance. Then we talked arond a bit and played Bingo to try to win a huge fruit basket. I was happy I understood the numbers being shouted out! :) Then we all went to a Kareoke place. What FUN!! We were the only ones picking the English songs but they knew most of the them. We sang, Bon Jovi that was Dan's favorite (the other Canadian), Madonna, Barbie Girl (Mi, I was thinking of you during this hehe), Spice Girls (Wanna Be), Summer nights (my voice was so gone, I could hardly sing this one), Shania Twain, Man I feel like a Women, totally rocked the whole place up and a U2 song. It was so much fun. I always have a blast with these guys. Maybe I should be hanging out with my AIESEC friends more out of AIESEC but I see most of them like everyday at the office so its nice to be able to hang out with other people. Plus, there's still a big of that language barrier thing. We spend more time explaining things to me then really having good conversations. But I've had some good moments during the week.

I love these guys!:)

Another adventure

I've been planning a trip to Northern Brazil for the past 2 weeks. My friend and I finally decide to get the tickets together but the stupid airline websites won't let us buy them. Apparently, you need a CPF # that only Brazilians that live here have! So after wasting 2 whole days searching online and trying and re-trying I decided I couldn't wait any longer. My friend said she would come at 10am on Friday morning to come and help. She never showed up. Its the typical Brazilian thing, they can't say no. So I wanted till after lunch and decided I was tired of relying on other people. I think I'm independent in that way that I don't like to depend on other people for things I need to have done. I rather do things myself then to delegate tasks to other people. So I asked my friend how to take the bus and wrote it all down and went my way. I had this excited, yet nervous feeling. I was starting to really enjoy these moments of true independence. I found the right bus with the word AEROPORTO labelled on it like my friend said and it was a Heaven sent that a guy that worked for GOL (a big airline here) was sitting in the first seat (a good sign). Even with everything, I still felt a little doubtful, because the bus was taking so long to get to the airport and all these people kept getting one! Surely they aren't ALL going to the airport too with all those shopping bags. At that point I realized, the similarity between taking the bus and life. Sometimes you are given all the right signs of where you should be going but you still doubt yourself. You don't fully believe in yourself. I go through that a lot. That uncertain feeling that always holds me back a little but I realized that you just have to learn to listen to your gut and my gut was saying this was right. So I arrived after 45 mins and after walking around the airport 3 times, I found the place to get my tickets. The guy took forever because he kept wanting to practise his English with me. I was just happy I made it there was able to save R$130 by taking a R$2 bus to get there. Unfortunately, waiting for the bus to go back was annoying. There was this really annoying old guy that wouldn't leave me alone and trying to get a little too friendly. What's with me and old/weirdo people!? Go away!! I was about an hour late for my AIESEC meeting but I was so happy after 4 phone calls to my friend that I arrived to the other University for the meeting. I felt really good that I was able to accomplish one of my challenges.

The morning I was supposed to run with my roommates and they didn't wake up on time so I decided, I'll just go by myself and try to figure out where the nearest park was so I could run. Again, I wasn't really sure of where I would be lead to but I let myself explore and I found it:) It was like walking through the jungle with dense trees everywhere, a lot better then the city park. Another lesson I realized with this was that sometimes you just have to step out of your comfort zone to discover new treasures and not to be afraid because even though you don't know where you're going, there is already a path ready for you. You just have to let yourself discover it.

I saw Shrek last night! It was really good. I always loved that movie because it was so hilarious! I wanted to treat my flatmates but they wouldn't take credit cards!? It was so stupid, what movie theatre doesn't take credit cards?! So then it ended up that he paid for all of us. Totally backfired and looked bad.

And they cooked me this for lunch yesterday:) It was super yummy!

Here are my flatmates:

Saulo and Virginia.

Ok, so now that I figured out how to put pictures on this thing. I'm going to update some past posts with pictures. I know everyone is waiting for more eye candy!

Biking event

Max, Jonas, and I
















Max and I on the 3rd Bridge riding through Lago Sul (South Lake).

I don't seem to like posting right away for some reason but because I have some dedicated readers, I will try my best to do this more often. Let me know you are still reading this though. I really feel like I'm writing to the wall sometimes hehe.

So Sunday I woke up thinking I was just going to bike for 2 hours or so and then eat lunch. WRONG. I woke up at 7:30am to leave for 8am and somehow end up participating in the 5th annual biking event that celebrates the sharing of the road with cyclists and drivers. There were thousands of people! The Governor of either Brasilia or Brazil was there, journalist, media everywhere. I think I might have been in some pictures because I was in the front. Anyways, they closed off a bunch of streets to so that we could bike through. We even got to bike on the 3rd bridge, which is one of my favorite bridges. It was really fun. It was a beautiful day, super sunny but windy too. I seriously hadn't biked in maybe 5 or more years?! 'Cause I seriously don't remember biking being so uncomfortable. I was using my friend's mountain bike and it ended up having a hole in one of the tires. If it was me, I would have had to just walk my way home or something but being the well-prepared and experienced guy he was, he took out his kit and went to work. It was great. I wasn't really paying attention but I don't understand my luck here. I've never seen a tire get changed for a car or bike at home but here, I've seen 2 tire changes for cars and now a bike. My other friend, Max showed up and during the draw won a helmet just as he told us he didn't have one. What luck. It would have been cool if I could have won a bike but I probably won't be able to bring it back to Canada.

So I ended the day at 1:30pm feeling much pain but very healthy and tired. I definitely got a farmer's tan accompanied with really bad burns on my arms and legs. I had no sunscreen and didn't know my flatmates had some until I went to look for aloe vera or something to help me out. In Rio de Janiero, their sun doesn't really burn but Brasilia is more North (closer to the equator) and can do some serious damage. A well spent morning/afternoon with some of the guys. I guess the girls aren't very active in my committee (where I work) because I never do much with them.

On Monday night, I made Brigaderos (a Brazilian chocolate dessert) with my flatmate, Virginia. It was a lot of fun. I'll try to make some for you guys when I get back. We ate so much food because they had just came back from their home city and everything is half the price there. So we had like 10 kinds of fruits in the house and the fridge and freezer were both packed full. I enjoy living at the new place because it is super convenient and my flatmates are really awesome, caring, nice people. They have been cooking the lunches and including me in them everyday. I have to learn to cook soon though but I have some tips from my mom and also my friend. It seems everyone can cook except moi. That day my flatmate's mother called and since she doesn't know English she spoke French. Oh man! I was getting my Portuguese all mixed in with it and getting the poor lady all confused. I don't get it, when I want to speak Portuguese I speak French and then when I'm given the opportunity to speak French, I mess it up with Portuguese, the language of which I hardly know!? Hopefully my brain gets out of this mix up and I can improve my Portuguese much more! My goal is to speak 10 sentences of Portuguese a day. I haven't really been able to do that yet but I've made it up to at least 5. I need to practise writing out my verbs and conjugating them.

The Journey from success to significance

“We should think about the difference between success and significance. Success is about being and significance is about becoming.”
These were some of the many touching words that the main speaker of my graduation said. We don’t remember the successful people but we all remember the ones that touched our lives and had significance to who we are today. As boring as graduations are I always love the speeches that I heard because they give me a bit of inspiration that I need to hear to make me rethink my life. To re-evaluate my present being and what I’m doing to contribute to being a better person, a better friend, student or member of society. It sucks that 4 years I got to go to everyone else’s graduation but I couldn’t be there for my own. It’s just one day right? I guess I’ll get over it. I’ll have more chances to graduate.
He did say something though is that we should spend more time on making significance and so with that I want to work harder to make my time here to make a strong impact. Right now I’m working with bringing more interns into Brazil to work on social entrepreneurship projects. What happens is the interns come to Brasilia to work with some craftsmen and help to export their goods to other countries so they can try to make a living. The intern would help to monitor that the process the products were made were environmentally and social sustainable. For example, didn’t use child labour to make or didn’t harm the environment to produce. This is the product of AIESEC, being able to put forth real actions of making a chance in people’s lives. It isn’t about just saying we develop leadership and whatever else our brand promised but that through our work, you develop those skills and characteristics and that’s how you make an impact on society. In Brazil I see the bigger picture more easily. I really hope that I can see the change these interns make before I leave Brazil.

First night alone in my new place

It’s been a month a 3 days since I’ve been in Brazil and time has really flown by. I apologize in advance if my English is also very poor. Some days I feel like I can’t speak anything. I feel like I’ve lived here for longer then just a month. I’m really getting used to the life here and how things work. Except for the whole tardiness of everyone, I don’t think I’ll ever get over that. I moved to a new place with a couple and I have my own room which is located 2 minutes from the AIESEC office. Life is quite different here. I went from an apartment in the nice area with 5 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms and 1.5 maids (one of them only comes 2 times a week) and a dog and served meals to a small apartment and a couple with one bathroom and making my own food.
What started out as a normal day ended up being quite unexpected. So the couple I’m staying with left for the weekend to their home city and left me to take care of myself. No problem right? I kinda know how to cook and I’ve lived away in a dorm independently before. Well, firstly I start off the night by burning the leftover pasta my friends left me. Then I realized the internet wasn’t working and there were a million wires and I had no idea what to do with them. I was frantically trying to get on msn to contact my friend about going to see a band play because my cell phone ran out of money so I had no way of calling people. But my laptop battery was going wacko on me and in 10 mins I had only 33% of my power left and couldn’t find a plug in anywhere! Thank goodness my LCP was still at the office and saved the day by coming to fix the plugs and I was able to contact my friends at the office! I realized I really need to figure out technology and not be so dependent on people. But it was a rude awaken to make me realize I have a lot of independence to learn beyond traveling alone.

My day of Independence

All my trainee friends had left to go back to their cities because they all needed to work. My LC was flexible and so I was able to stay a day longer to see the city. The problem was, my host was very busy at school and I had to travel the city by myself. So I wake up at around 8:45am due to sheer nervousness I was about to embark. I took an hour to get ready just to stall the start of my independent journey. I had my little map of Rio I got the day I arrived in Brazil and a manually drawn map and stops of where I should get off. My plan was to go to Rio Sul Shopping Centre, then to Uruguiana, then the cultural centre and finally the ballet at the Theatro Municipal. My host was able to describe the path the bus would take very well. The way it would go up a ramp and go straight then do and slight turn to the left. I was able to also ask the bus people to indicate where I should get off just in case. The people were a lot friendlier then I had imagined, thank God. I finish shopping and had to take the bus again to go back to where I was staying to go to the metro station and take that to go to the “centro”, their downtown. This is probably the most dangerous part of the city because it is so crowded and full of vendors and things everywhere that someone could just easily rob you. I was super careful and constantly was conscious if anyone was following me or if I looked too touristy. Mind you, I think the whole being a tall Asian girl gave it away without me speaking, that I wasn’t from there. Uruguiana is equivalent to the markets in China were there are a million little booths cluttered with tons of things on sale for a lot cheaper then any stores would charge and a lot of fake designer items. The food there was dirt cheap. Unfortunately after spending all my cash on my 2 pairs of Havaianas, I only had about R$10 to get back home and also have dinner. Smart, real smart. Sadly, I didn’t end up getting much there. The great thing was I felt guided that day, like I knew where I should be going without really knowing the area. I made it to the city centre and was able to get more cash randomly at the bank, buy stamps to mail my postcard home and see one of the famous churches. Unfortunately, the city centre was closed but everything worked out. The only problem was that the ballet didn’t start until 8pm and it was 5pm right now and I had to figure out a way to waste 3 hours safely. So shopping it is. I went into whatever boutiques were still available and probably spent about 2 hours at this one bookstore. I left after the manager kinda gave me the look of “you’re STILL here?” Whatever, I learned more about Rio from a tourist book and read almost every cover of the fiction section in Portuguese. The words written are so similar to French and Spanish that I got most of what they were trying to say.

The ballet was amazing! It was only R$5 for 5 performances. The best R$5 I’ve ever spent. I think I was supposed to sit in the cheap seats section at the very top of the hall but I was the only one who bought that one (I’m trying to save money). So I ended up getting to sit on the first floor with eye level viewing of the show! It was awesome. They had everything from modern music, to classical and piano pieces that were similar to what you would hear on soundtracks for movies. I safely got back to the apartment I was staying in after my 12 hours of asking in Portuguese for directions, prices, trying to bargain (unsuccessfully) and ordering food. It was so nice to feel like I overcame a real challenge and that I wasn’t robbed and survived being alone in one of the most dangerous cities in Brazil.

Rio de Janiero for 5 days

All my friends here advised me not to take the 22 hour bus to Rio because its one of the most dangerous cities in the world so I paid R$80 more to take the plane. I guess I got a good deal since its the holidays. I arrived and it was late and dark out so I thought it would be safer to get a taxi that's associated with the airport. Of course with that relationship, I had to pay more. Apparently R$30 more! I paid a R$62 taxi ride that usually costs $30? Oh well, at least I was safe right?

The first night everyone met up at a restaurant, almost all the trainees (people doing their internships in Brazil from different parts of the world) were there. Just the Dutch girls were missing. I was SOO happy to see everyone, mostly Eric (from Canada) and Lyn (from Austrailia) because I knew them best out of the people there. Then all 8 of us decided to go to Lapa (an old area of Rio known for their bars and dance clubs). We went to Democraticos, a famous club for dancing Samba. We had a lot of fun and I learned to kinda Samba so for those that are expecting me to be pro when I get back, be warned.

The next day we wake up not sure if our host was still asleep or had gone to school but my friend, Lyn and I knew one thing, that we wanted to go to the Beach today! We had no idea where to get the bus or which one we should take but with her Portuguese we managed to get ourselves there to meet up with the Estonia girls. I was so excited I was probably doing somersaults inside. I hadn't been to a real beach since I was 16 in New Brunswick? I can't remember which ocean I was in that time but this time I got to play in the Atlantic Ocean!!! It was just a gorgeous site. I wanted a tan so badly but the sun wasn't very strong that day and so the tan wasn't very evident. It was hilarious because it seemed like every vendor on the beach had approached our little group. Me and my pale legs probably told them we weren't from around there. After the beach, we decided to go to the Jardin Botanico (Botanico Gardens) after the beach since it was only R$4 and we heard it was pretty.

At night we went to Bukowski, a place that was a nicer version of the kildare house and The Loopo put together. It was basically a house turned into a bar with 80's music and some alternative music playing. I of course didn't know most of the songs but my attitude was to have fun so I just danced along. When we were leaving they started playing all my songs that I love to listen to on 89x (an alternative station in Windsor/Canada). Darn it! Anyways, it was late.

On Saturday we went to Corcovado, the huge Jesus Statue. It was like being in Heaven. There were clouds everywhere and it was just beautiful. As the day went on we were able to see more of the city and got a good view of some of the landscape. I never got to see Maracana (the world's largest soccer stadium) but I did see the top view of it. I wish I got to see a game being played there!!! Anyways, because the Corcovado is on a mountain, we drove by a lot of favelas( hillside neighbourhoods where all the poor people live). They are VERY dangerous because a lot of them have gun fights and a lot of violence there. Then we went to Santa Teresa to have lunch. We ate in this cute restaurant that had live music playing and I had shrimp with rice and real mango juice. This was the life. hehe The atmosphere was awesome, I felt like I was in Europe or something. Afterwards we realized we were really late to go to Pao de Acucar (Sugar loaf) to see the sunset. My friend, Patricia ended up driving 110 km/h in in the 80 km/h zone to race the sun so we could get a good view. We get there and there are about 150 people in line!!! But thanks to her connections (her dad's a tour guide and was randomly there) and jumped in front of the line and bought us tickets:) We were super lucky! We caught the last glimpse of the sun as we were riding up the tram to get to the first peak of the mountain. Then raced to the 2nd tram to get to the higher mountain with a better view. This sight was even better then the one we saw at the corcovado. Especially with the changing colour of the sky. It was just gorgeous. We stayed up there for an hour and then not waiting to make our host wait so long, we went back down to go home. After our daily nap at 6pm, we went out again to Lapa and who do we see but 2 of the guys from the Samba club! We asked them for recommendations and found a place that was cheap where we met up with the Dutch girls and Eric and his friend. It was AWESOME. They played everything from Samba, to Forro, to Funky (Brazilian funk), to American music and stuff like "Do the Twist"! hehe It was so much fun.

Sunday was the last day for the trainees to be together. We got to see the Estonia girls during the day at Ipanema beach and as Lyn left to go home Eric and his friends came and we stayed till the sunset.

Monday was my last day in Rio but that will be a separate entry because it was the day I was in Rio all by myself since everyone left to go home and my host was busy at school. Stay tuned...

Nipo: Japanese Country Club

Saturday night there was a party at the Japanese Country Club (Nipo) where there's usually a lot of Japanese food on sale. Unfortunately, I was also invited to go to a sushi night at my friend's friend's place. I was caught in a big dilemma! Sushi is one of my favorite foods but I ended up going to Nipo because everyone said it was cool and only that one night. I might get a chance to go to someone's place and have sushi again.

The day started off where my friend Patricia drive me to her house. She's living with her uncle's family and they have a huge house and pool and everything. The house is in "Lago Sul" which is on the other side of the bridge where all the rich people live. They ONLY have houses over there. The first thing I see is fire in a land full of tall grass and trees. This fire ended up spreading crazily! Its a 5 min drive from the house but there were ashes flying all over us and the pool. It was horrible. I still don't know if it was deliberate or not.

The funniest thing I've seen since being here happened within 5 mins of getting into the house. Patricia accidently dropped the 2L of Coke we just bought, off the patio and it bounces off the ground and FLIES across the yard onto the neighbour's roof!! It was so cool, DEFINITELY worthy of YouTube!!! hehe. I loved it. Made my day, it reminded me of the Coke with the mentos video I've seen before. We played some soccer in the backyard and sat by the pool. There was construction to have another little house built in the back with a sauna, snooker room and storage room.

Prior to Nipo, I rarely ever saw any Asians in the streets of Brasilia but Nipo proved they did exist in the city. It was 8pm and there were already hundred's of cars parked everywhere! This was definitely the place to be. The food wasn't great especially for me because I've tried good sushi before but I tried some Yaksiba, which I don't think I've ever had before and Camarao (fried shrimps). Sadly, I didn't even have any sushi. Everything was kinda expensive. The Yaksiba was 12$ reais and the shrimps were 10$ reais. Whoever thought of this festival was BRILLIANT! Seriously, it was just getting the manpower to make and sell the food and you could easily make $30 000 reais in a couple of hours. My friend who's lived in Japan for a year also didn't think the food was amazing but I guess its the atmosphere. The thing was, the whole night was mainly just eatting and chatting with your friends. There were no shows, music but it wasn't even Japanese. A little lacking in substance.

One of Patricia's friend (Sheida) wanted to go see some of her friends sitting far off and so she brought me. It was probably the worst social experience I've had here. They were really not friendly. They just said hi and I tried to speak to them in Portuguese and then they just continued talking without really acknowledging me. When they did talk about me, they asked Sheida instead of me but still were pointing at me. It was so awkward. I just wanted to leave.

Anywho, it was an ok experience, I ran into some AIESEC friends and so it wasn't so bad. I normally love meeting new people but here it's almost becoming stressful because I can't really talk, I feel so mute.

Then we went to Melting Lounge to eat and I tried Sheesha for the first time with Mint and Citrus flavour in it.

Next week I'm off to Rio de Janiero for their Corpus Christi holiday to have a reunion with some of the trainees I met at the Brazilian conference. Hopefully it all works out! Stay tuned for pictures. I just need to figure out why I can't post them?!

Quote of the Night:
Rogerio: "Wow, there are a lot of Japanese people here!"

Pre-packaged goodness, I have no idea what they were but they were EXPENSIVE!

The sign says "Camarao" which means, shrimp. They seriously had like 100 people working behind the scenes that night.

Into my 3rd week here

This week was a bit rough. I had a quarrel with my host friend and since then it just hasn't been the same living here. I'm going to move out soon because I need to live closer to the AIESEC office which if I had to get there by bus would require taking 2 buses in total and spending about $5 reais each day. I guess it was like the burst to my fantasy bubble. That I am in a real world and I have to deal with real interpersonal problems. I was so sad I just wanted to go home that night. I think this was Monday night. This week feels like a blur because of it. There have been improvements since then. Because of the argument, I've gotten a more structured schedule on how my day runs, concrete mandates on what I should be doing here and also definitely meal plans each day. No more starving at 9:30pm and not knowing when my next meal is!:)

The Vice President of Talent Management (VPMD) has been doing some coaching with me and career planning sessions. AIESEC runs SOOOOO differently here and is a lot more structured. People really put a lot of time into AIESEC. Most of them don't even have part-time jobs because they don't have those in my city. So they work at AIESEC as if it is a full-time job in addition to school. It's really motivating to see. People have been great, despite feeling somewhat lonely when everyone in the office speaks Portuguese the whole time in the office. But I need to learn. I just really need a grammar book or something to practise my Portuguese. I'm picking up words here and there but I (like Melissa) still can't understand 99% of what they are saying.

The most awkward thing has been the greeting. Since people know I'm from Canada they just kinda automatically give me their hand but I've been here long enough that I've been greeting people with a hug and so sometimes we don't even know what to do lol. It definitely requires quick thinking so that awkwardness doesn't occur so frequently.

I saw Pirates of the Carribean on Wednesday night with my host family. It was a GREAT MOVIE! I loved it. I never realized how funny that series could be! We even stayed after all the credits to see the last little part. The only thing I didn't know was we were going to sit there and wait 10 mins just to see a 2 sec clip. Oh well. That night I guess the argument was not resolved but my host friend gave me açai (my favorite food here) to say I'm sorry, minus saying the words? I just hope its not so awkward anymore.

I got a really homesick the night of the fight. I miss you guys! More happier entries to come.