I just came back from the first maracatu session of this week (I participate in both) playing the Gonguê at a whole new level. The next instrument I am going to play will be the Alfaia.
I also remembered I got several requests to start posting again. Asking me to do so is only fair enough and therefor I will write this small post, in English though. So, hereby, I'd like to notice I did not die of visiting too many parties, I was just busy ... with visiting many ..
As mentioned I have been very busy past two weeks. Mainly with my internship but also with Portuguese classes (I even got tárefa de casa >.<), maracatu and preparing for the housewarming of upcoming Saturday.
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I have done interviews with all but one divisions within the Diretoria de Tecnologia da Informação and after the last interview which will be held tomorrow I will be done with the first round. After finishing all the reports, each interview has to be written down and checked by those who were interviewed, I will be able to make an analysis of the areas which could be qualified for improvement. Finding the right (combination of) problems will be hard especially because a lot of processes are controlled by external factors. Did someone say "Challenge!"?Curso Português
I have started to participate in Portuguese classes. They are fun but quite difficult. Especially since Caroline, our teacher, will only allow Portuguese in class and all the other students have a Spanish background (and therefore have a big advantage in learning Portuguese). I am obligated to give a two hour presentation in two weeks (all help is welcome) and during the entire course I will get two oral and two writing exams along with a second presentation. And I was thinking I would never have to make exams again.Housewarming
I decided it would be a good idea to introduce the term housewarming which, of course, had to be accompanied by a big party. So this Saturday we will have a churrasco on our rooftop with over 30 people. It is going to be amazing. All the people I used to live with at Flavia's are going to come. I invited my professors and Marco is coming all the way from Belo Horizonte. At night we're gonna go the first freshmen party of the year, Calourada, with over a thousand students, at the campus. It's gonna be epic.Três Bandeiras
Last Sunday Edgard, Lívia and I went to the central look-out, in a reserved area of the campus with preserved nature, called Três Bandeiras. By nightfall it's like a mysterious, very peaceful and yet noisy place where one can get total relaxation. There are a lot of birds and insects that make all kind of noises. At the highest point you have an overview over all the campus. I will post some pictures of this place later on. When it was completely dark we went to a demo / training session of O Bloco, the maracatu group. The movie I made there will be uploaded to YouTube soon (as soon as I can find a place with a decent internet connection). Before we went home we participated in a Forró.Pageviews
I just saw my blog has over 400 page views already even though I have arrived here just three weeks ago. I would like to thank everyone who keeps visiting my blog and keeps up on my adventures. Hereby I'd like to take the opportunity to thank those who send me emails with replies, comments and stories from Holanda as well.I have a few more posts in the so called pipeline (subjects being traffic, facts and figures, leisure and language) but they need a little tweaking before they will be released.
Although not part of this post; pictures can be found at my Flickr page.
