Everyday adventures

After Goías there was a Portuguese test waiting for me. At first I must be honest with you, I thought I just will see how it goes. But than someone said to me I must try my best and practice! 😳 What else could I do than practice and do my best, together with Samanda we practiced till the end (literally). And there the test was, I found it kind of difficult but there were also some questions that were easy to solve. In the end the result was good, unfortunately I don't have a grade (don't know if there will be one). After the test and eating something there was a presentation about the culture of Portugal. 2 of the exchange students from Portugal presented it, Diego was there to translate some of the talk for me. Probably somewhere in May we (Katinka, Lucas and I) will do our presentation about the Dutch culture. At least we are hard working on the presentation.

Because Katinka needed some help with her project, as kind as I was I went to EPAMIG to help her. And I was sooo lucky, when I was there some small monkeys came visiting us. These were Saguis monkey's, the same as I saw once in the forest. They are really cute, love those and this time I was able to make good photo's. 😜🙈

Look how fofo! 😉

Soon another long weekend started, because Friday was supposed to be a work day if only there wasn't a protest. People and students were protesting because the government wanted to change something with the retirement age (increasing it I believe). They were protesting by using a song in Portuguese that probably brings the message. And they played the song over and over in front of our appartement building. 😩 It rained that day a lot and luckily around noon they went to the center of Viçosa.

On Saturday I went to a westernshop together with Lucas. It was really cool, especially because I always like western stuff. I'm sure all the horse owners would like this store too. On Sunday it was time for a second attempt to find the panorama viewpoint over the UFV campus. (first time I tried to find it together with Victor and Lucas). This time Micael gave it a shot, together with Diego and Samanda we reached the viewpoint. 💪 yes! It was a bit cloudy, but the view was muito legal. You could watch over almost the whole campus, and if you looked to the other side you watched over a part of Viçosa.

Campus overview

On Monday it was a national holiday in Brazil, Labor day. The ambassadors had another fun trip planned for us exchange students. This time we went to Cachoeira da Usina in Ervalia, cachoeira means waterfall. The day started beautiful with a nice sunny weather, unfortunately it became cloudy when we arrived at the waterfall. The ride to the waterfall didn't take long, about 45 minutes but it was a bumpy ride on dirt roads with a lot of holes in it. On our arrival everybody was enchanted by the beauty of the waterfall and its scenery. 

Without testing the water temperature and not bothering the windy weather we entered the waterfall. It was cold... and I seriously needed some time to warm up again 😅. Despite the cold everybody really enjoyed it and we went in the water several times, brrr 😰 😉. When we all dried and warmed up a little bit by playing a card game out of the wind, I and the other die hard among us went in a pool for the last time. Honestly some of the Brazilians and Colombians resisted the cold better than me, I was impressed 😲. In the pool we held a freezing, fiery and tense swimming pool fight with the ladies on the mans' shoulders. After we did an acrobatic stunt and then I left the pool because I became to cold. While the others continued a bit longer.

I really enjoyed the trip, thanks to all the people and the organizer!

After the waterfall a week passed, Banco do Brasil on the UFV campus got robbed by use of a bomb. And later that week I received a mail of my professor that we will start next week with collecting testsamples. This means that the real research will start. I didn't talk much about my project in my blog because there wasn't much to tell. But I am happy the real research can begin, but probably it also require some real hard labor at the coffee farm for me (Ana told me). I need to watch out for snakes and spiders while harvesting... 😳
And finally, after 3 weeks of no forró dancing I had forró class again. After a short while it went well again.

Weekend!! 💪 but on Saturday there was an intercultural activity which was kind of mandatory for the Portuguese classes (as I understood)... At first I thought whoaaat, in the weekend school stuff... 😑

But I must say, it was actually pretty fun to do. It was sort of a workshop of the high school of the UFV. First we had a tour by a group of high school students through several parts of the Brazilian culture. We went to the different music styles Brazil knows, at the funk workshop there was a dance show given and of course forró couldn't be missed. Also, some vage meme usage in the Brazilian language and some Brazilian food (but there it was off course to crowded). After the tour the turn was to the international students. The high school students could go to the different stands, and damn what a lot of questions!! And I answered some of them in Portuguese 💪 and the rest in English, I must say they could speak English pretty well. I had some fun conversations and unfortunately I didn't see a change for me to go to the other cultural stands... I really wanted to know some more of some of the cultures (especially Colombian and Mexico).

The group of international students together with the letras students from UFV

In the early afternoon I went together with one of my housemates Italo shopping. Because unfortunately my earphones broke and so I needed to buy new ones. We tested a lot of them, some of them didn't even produce sound... and believe it or not, even though I tested a lot I managed to buy bad earphones... unbelievable...😅 I actually get used to the bad sound really fast... I also bought a wristband. Because the store soon closed and I forgot to bring cash I needed to hurry back home and back to the store again... 

For the late afternoon Lucas and I were invited for coffee with a lot of sweets. Together with Ana's boyfriend and friend she prepared a lot of food. The funny thing is, she kept saying "you need to eat, all of it". I think Lucas and I did our best and eat pretty much, but even in the end we got some sweets to take home. But we had a great coffee, and good conversations about everything. And as Ana said, it is a tradition to give a tour through the house when someone visit you for the first time. So we got a tour, and Lucas and I were both really confused about the construction of the building. At one point you look up and see 3 roofs above each other. And while you walk through the hallway it is suddenly outside, it gave me a mixed feel you are inside but it looks like outside and vice versa. But it was a fun tour because of this... 😄

I haven't been to any real Brazilian party, but the ambassadors had organised a pool party. And since all of my friends went, I just though I have to go too. The party it was amazing, and yes also interesting to experience how parties are done in South-America. The Colombians even got me crazy enough to dance with them, it was fun, crazy, sexy, exhausting and special! It is unlike any other dancing I know or have seen. Those South-American know how to dance at parties. For the rest of the party I dance a bit, talked a lot and Micael got me so crazy that I went in the swimming pool at the end of the party. Juntos! After swimming, I was pretty cold and my body was tired. But luckily there was someone I could warm up with 😉. 

The same as my last blog when I got home, tired and satisfied I fell asleep in my bed...

Boa noite!