Final weeks in Brazil

The yearly event 'Semana do Fazendeiro' started at Sunday, it was a beautiful day and the sun shined bright. Let's go to this event! There where a lot of tents selling flowers and a lot of orchids of all different types. Also a place where they sell furniture with a real farmer look. Another section of the campus you could find the more technical machinery and you could even buy new cars there. At another place you could do courses, in the MU (a big event mall at the campus) there was a big market with all different stands selling cloths, food, jewelry, books and other accessories. In one tent at the campus food and accessories typical to the state of Minas Gerais was for sale. At the park of Bernardes you could find all different or alternative culture activities and things. Here they play that Sunday Colombian music named Cumbia typical to Eastern Caribbean of Colombia. And lastly there was something that supposed to be a mini farm with farm animals but basically it was just a tent with farm animals. During the week, I went many times to the event with some of my special friends!

That same weekend Circo di Italia had arrived, I was curious how a circus would be in Brazil. Together with my Colombian friend I went there to see how it was. I had no high expectations but I was fun and interesting to see. It felt like I went back in time, it was a small tent with only a wooden stage and no very spectacular acts. The most spectacular act was in my opinion the motorcycles in a cage! With 3 motorcycles in a cage riding circles and go upside down in the dark lighted by LED! 

An other experience I really had to try once in Brazil was to go just to a normal cinema in Viçosa. It is actually really cheap here, a student get 50% discount paying only 7R$ which is about €2,10 for a movie like Spider-Man: Homecoming!!!! Oké, the movie was in English with Portuguese subtitles, but that's no problem with this price. For the rest, it was just 1 movie hall and over the day they play 3 different movies there. So you don't have the luxury of choosing the movie and preferred time.

During the 'Semana do Fazendeiro' me and Ana were invited by our professor who gave a course during this event at his farm to participate in this activity. It was my second visit at his farm and he showed the group full of pride his installation and production for his car that drives on ethanol produced at the farm. This ethanol is produced from sugarcane as I remember, which is great because sugarcane is part of the small carbon cycle. Meaning that it has less impact on the environment compared to cars on fossil fuels.


On one of the last days of the farmers week me and Ana went to see the antique car event. For car lovers as I am it was fun to see all those old cars like VW Beetle, Chevrolet Opala (think it would be Impala) and some Willys from war times. 

For sale 30.000R$ I believe, maybe I should bring it to the Netherlands as a souvenir 😁

During the week after 'Semana do Fazendeiro' I worked hard to finish my final placement report. Every time I tried to finalized it but then I discovered that some information was missing and that information was also very complex to fit in the report... After days of hard work and the great help Ana gave me with checking on correctness of the information I could send it to my father for a final grammar check! In the evenings I had some energy or time for watching a movie or serie. After this week of giving it all to the project my final weekend in Viçosa has arrived. Unfortunately since Thursday before that weekend I can't eat at RU anymore. UFV has signed me off as a student 😭😭😭😭😭 

The week after 'Semana do Fazendeiro' was again a new event, all week there were activities for graduation students. With on Friday the graduation which was really big! And to end this week of graduation events a gala for all graduation students with their friends and family. As I heard the stories, it was really big, started at 23:00 with a lot of dinner food and ending at 7 or 8 o'clock!!! I can tell you one thing, those Brazilians in Viçosa know how to celebrate and party!

That weekend I came to realize the end of my time here is approaching... and with that end I need to say some difficult goodbyes. I'm not ready yet for goodbyes 😔, to distract the mind I went wall climbing. I was invited by a Colombian friend who had a friend with a indoor climbing wall. It is a sport that I want to try more and it was very nice to do!

In the following days after (my last week) I spent a lot of time with finalizing meetings with friends. Had goodbye lunches, goodbye shopping with Ana, goodbye walking through the forest for a last time and more. Sometimes it got really emotional... Because I will travel to Rio Friday morning I had organized a goodbye reunion at a local bar (no farewell, sounds so dramatic and eternal which it shouldn't be). Here I invited some of my best amigos with whom I want to have a proper goodbye. Emotions were very high, and I was touched by the tears. I never was this aware of me being here and this made it all the more special. 

Museum of Tomorrow

That Friday it was time to travel to Rio de Janeiro for one last time, a one way ticket. Knowing that I will leave all those wonderful people behind in Viçosa. After arriving I and Samanda (who went also to Rio) went to drink a lot of caipirinhas until Lucas and Katinka arrived, who came later by plane. The next day we went not so early to the Botanical garden, there we met the Italians from exchange in Viçosa. The Botanical garden was very beautiful, only photos can describe it. With lunch we went to the same self-service restaurant as where I went with my parents. Next activity was to go to the Christ the Redeemer statue for me again, but this time the weather was much better. And again a lot of photos were taken. On our second day we went to the Escadaria Selaron, a second time for me. After the stairs we went to the Museum of Tomorrow. Which is a museum I would recommend to all of who don't believe in the environmental problems currently having in this world or for the environmental students.

The view from Christ without clouds this time

Escadaria Selaron

Monday, my last day in Brazil... It started relax and after finding a place for our luggage to stay after check-out of our Airbnb apartment we went into the city. Just to kill the time till we go to the airport. And at the Airport we saw Micael too, to say goodbye. Micael is going to do an internship abroad for half a year in the USA! 

So to all my loyal Brazilian readers, friends and big big big friends this is my last blog written in Brazil. I know we won't see each other for a while, but when we really want. And I know some of us know this, we will meet again one day, somewhere in this world. We will have new stories, adventures, problems and more to tell and experience together! We keep in touch, we can practice English, Portuguese and hell even Spanish hahaha. Brazil is a beautiful country be proud of it (except the corruption...), PLEASE take care of your environment wherever you can. But I always said, the best thing, the thing I will miss most of Brazil are the people, you guys my friends. Who are kind, open and helpful even when there is nothing in it for them. You asked me sometimes what I will miss here, other things that I will miss are the surprise Brazil gave me, because Brazil surprises, things are different than I imagined. Like Rio de Janeiro is a beautiful city if you can look through the poverty of the favela's. I won't miss the every day rice and beans.... blhhh. The açai I will miss... And off course I need to get used to the Dutch climate again. Brazil was a huge experience for me, I will never forget this and you all were part of it. You helped me through times, we had fun, we had sadness and we supported each other. We will keep in touch and when we want, we will see each other. Thanks for all!

My next blog will be written once again in the Netherlands, after 24 weeks. I will miss you guys #saudades

Over and out...