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.