List of Things I Want to do Before I Leave Brasil
I’ve had an awesome week!
Yeah!
This is all part of my not complaining about anything attitude (except when it comes to the American).
But I have actually had a pretty cool week.
On Monday, we were supposed to have an interview with AIESEC and ADUSEPS, but Tora wasn’t here, and René, the director of ADUSEPS was just leaving, so we didn’t have any meeting in the end. And it was put off for another week. So I had a talk to the AIESEC guy before he left, about how another week was a long time when the job was really not going well. I think it’s a valid point – I’m starting to lose all sympathy with ADUSEPS and the work they’re doing, simply because of the way I’ve been treated by AIESEC and them.
Anyway, he said – and this is a direct quote (hence the quotation marks) “Well, we’ve been thinking that because of your VISA problems, we won’t send you to Argentina to renew it, but we’ll stop the job and send you back to New Zealand.”
So I left in tears (sorry Samara!) without talking to him about it anymore. I thought I was getting kicked out of Brasil L
It turned out fine in the end – apparently it was a “misunderstanding” and it was just an option for me to think about. It sounded like a threat to me.
Anyway, it got me thinking…I complain about things an awful lot don’t I? Like the pavements, and the disorganization, and the job, and the slackness, and the American (actually, this one is allowed), and the….other things – I can’t remember now, but I’m sure there were more.
So now I’m going to stop complaining about everything!
It also made me realize that even though I miss everyone back home, there’s still a lot I want to do here. So this is the list of things that I’m going to do before I leave Brasil (in no particular order):
- Get a tan
- Visit the Amazon, take a sunrise cruise on the Amazon River
- Learn Portuguese
- Learn Samba
- See the Pantanal (as an aside, type this word into Word and look at the spelling suggestions. Haha)
- Learn how to cook brigadeiro, tapioca, feijoada, pastels, farofa, camarão, rolo de bolo, caldeinho, (maybe try and learn how to spell too!)…
- Get a Brazilian boyfriend (this is something I’m not very keen on, but everyone says I should…what’s wrong with a bunch of flings???)
- Learn Capoeira
- Buy Brazilian swimwear (that won’t take up much luggage room).
- Save the street dog that lives outside work
- Live in the interior of the country (even for just a couple of days).
- Do a bus trip up the coast – visit João Pessoa, Natal, Fortaleza, and São José and the lagoons.
- Take thousands of photos of EVERYTHING.
- Raise enough money for Escola Popular to be able to buy one piece of land for their new school (not personally, but be there when it happens.).
- Watch a football game in the stadium.
- Visit Salvador and São Paolo
I like to think of this list as a living document – somewhat similar to the Treaty of Waitangi in fact – so I will update it when I remember the other things. And I’ll add comments every time I finish a new one!
And don’t worry…I will complain about things again…
rosieinrecife said,
July 21, 2008 @ 6:57 pm
Update 1:
OK I think number 7 has been sufficiently accomplished. I am now going to concentrate on the rest…3, 13 and 8 are underway, and I think I missed the boat on number 10…I haven’t seen the little fella for awhile.
But I’m on the look out for another poor soul to save…
susan hunter said,
July 24, 2008 @ 4:57 pm
so whoos the lucky brazilain to accomplish number 7!!?
love mum
ps you dont have to answer that if you dont want to!!
rosieinrecife said,
August 7, 2008 @ 1:21 pm
Hahaha…no one, but I’d prefer to do the other things from now on…boys are too much effort and work
rosieinrecife said,
August 15, 2008 @ 4:10 pm
ok…
Capoeira – Tick
Botfriend (*shudder*) – Tick
Tan – Underway (as my sore and peeling skin will attest to)
Portuguese – Underway
Photos – Underway
I’m totally running out of time to do everything on this list!
rosieinrecife said,
August 24, 2008 @ 8:32 pm
Number 14 has been officially and very reluctantly completed. I think I didn’t realise just how awful it would be when I wrote it down….suffice to say, now I’ve taken it off for good. If you can’t remember it, you’ll have to sweet talk me…although trolling through the blog may also enlighten you.