This is the end

(don't start thinking "of the world as we know it..." - like REM said). It's just the end of another semester. =)

With a great image of the sunset in Recife - the end of a day, as I knew it...

The day the saucers came

(...)That day, the saucer day the zombie day
The Ragnarok and fairies day, the day the great winds came
And snows, and the cities turned to crystal, the day
All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the
Computers turned, the screens telling us we would obey, the day
Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,
And all the bells of London were sounded, the day
Animals spoke to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,
The fluttering capes and arrival of the Time Machine day,
You didn’t notice any of this because
you were sitting in your room, not doing anything
not even reading, not really, just
looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.

(extrait from Neil Gaiman's book "Fragile Things")

So, what are you going to do during the vacations? Hope you won't sit just waiting for someone to call... =)

Plans for the weekend

And here we are, camping at the university until all papers are done...

Well, at least until the library closes - then I'll have to move my tons of books to my "already-disappearing-under-paper-and-notes room", and only God knows when I'll be able to get out of this chaos. So you know where to find me during the next days: at home, ar the university, or maybe during a few hours tomorrow, at the Fête de l'Escalade . You can see some pictures here. And then I'll go back to my books and my attemptions of being clever and coherent!

Enjoy your spare time... If you have any! =)

Christmas Shopping Descontrol

Here we are, almost Christmas and still lots of gifts to buy. (if you started thinking that I must be crazy to say that 2 weeks before the 24th, let me say that normally I buy all my gifts in November - I just hate going inside those crowded stores to try to find something "really great and not so expensive" to my friends)

And another problem is writing the Christmas cards. 22 of them. To be sent before December 10th, otherwise they'll arrive for Carnival. =)

Gotta keep cool....

Shopping in Barcelona

It's imposible not to be seduced by all the great stores and designers that we can find in Barcelona. One of my favourites is, of course, Custo (which I really can't afford, sometimes a simple T-shirt can cost more than 60 euros. But it's still a nice reference in matter of prints and use of colours and shapes). I've seen lots of his collections on magazines and so, but another brand that amazed me this time was a nice and powerful store named Desigual. They do have a folk and vintage accent and everything is so full of energy and youth... If you want to see some of their clothes, you can visit Desigual's website.

And to know more about where, how and when to shop in Barcelona, there's this interesting online guide with some tips and adresses!

Hope you have enough savings... I didn't! =)

Some ideas to come

From a conversation with some swiss friends I had this strange revelation: It's been exactly a year that I'm living in Switzerland, but I still know very little about it!!! The first 4 months I've spent in Lugano, I went to Zurich for a weekend and since I moved to Geneva I've only had the time to visit Lausanne and Montreux in the nearby. What a shame! (specially if I consider that during this year I went to Barcelona, Prague, Vienna, Milan, Florence, Kiel, Lyon, Paris and Brugges, not to mention Berlin...)

Furthermore, during the last days I've assisted to some nice events in Geneva - one of them was the "course de l'escalade", and it is something supposed to have some connexions with Geneva's history - don't ask me, I'll just tell Olivier to write it down for me and then I'll paste the thing here. =) It's such a pitty that I live here, but I don't feel "part of" the city yet - I know it takes time and lots of effort, but I don't want to feel like a tourist forever: I still want to grow roots somewhere!

So, one of my next goals is to buy myself a nice copy of "Swiss History for Dummies", a Switzerland's map, and just explore the country. I have an year and a half before finishing my master, so...

Next stop... Nächste Halt.... Prochain arrêt... =)

Kitsch, luxurious, hedonist...

Jus to put you on the right mood to think about Barcelona... A kitsch, luxurious and hedonist city sang by a kitsch, luxurious and hedonist artist (I love Freddie Mercury)!

Thirsty in Barcelona? Have a Blue Margarita!!!!

Hi everyone,
I've just come back from Barcelona. It was a weekend out (not really, because I had to read tons of paper on the plane to catch up with all the articles I still have to write until the end of the week) due to the fact that a brazilian friend of mine was there visiting his sister. I was amazed about how different Barcelona is from Madrid: instead of a noisy and busy metropole I've found a cosy and chill environment, and it was really fun to have two private guides/catalan dictionaires in the city (thanks, Renata and Guillermo)!
I'll still write some tips about the city, but this first post is dedicated to Renata, her work and the place where she makes some money. =) She's in fact a graphic designer and she has created the Margarita Blue website, which is a nice bar in the city centre where she works as barwoman few times a week. We went there Friday night and it was full of people dining (at Barcelona's dine time, around 11 PM), drinking colourful cocktails or just chilling out with the great lounge music. The place has a kitsch and luxurious déco with mirrors and lights and the website can reproduce it beautifully. Marvelous place, marvelous website to present it!

World Cup on 2014!

Well, FIFA has confirmed that the Soccer World Cup will take place in Brazil on 2014.

In honour to this great new, here it is a TV ad from Guaraná Antarctica (my favourite soft drink EVER) picturing Diego Maradona and a bad dream that he had once...

Have a nice week you all!

One Giant Leap

"When Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman joined forces to create the project 1 Giant Leap, they embarked upon a global journey that included Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, India, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, America and Europe, equipped solely with a digital video camera, a laptop and a vision - to capture and weave together a unique fusion of sound, image and spoken word from some of the world's most happening musicians, authors, scientists and thinkers and to explore 'The Unity in the Diversity'."

(taken from their website)

Have you ever seen this DVD? I received it as a gift and it was a marvelous discovery of music, sounds, people, thoughts from all over the world. Nice and unexpensive way of travelling to exotic countries through music!!!!

Next destination: USA

Do you know "frevo"?

Having to carry an umbrella these days made me think about an other use of this banal object: it is, actually, a very important accessory used at a folkloric dance from Recife, which is called "frevo". The word "frevo" is said to come from "frever", a working class dialectal way of pronouncing the Portuguese word ferver (to boil). And I assure you, dancing like this in a 30°C environment can make you boil!

So, enjoy the examples (the first video is the "traditional" style and clothing, that we can see during Carnival. The second one is a concept more modern, you can see that the guy uses a regular umbrella instead of the little one and carries less elaborated clothing):






Well, I know how to "frever", do you want to learn it??? =)

Jack Soul Brasileiro

Just a cool soundtrack for the weekend... This is a very cool song by a brazilian singer (Lenine. He was actually born in Recife, where I come from) which is very famous also in France. Last year he did a major tour in Europe and one of the concerts in Paris was filmed and released as a DVD called In Cité. A must have!!!!!

Enjoy it, and have a nice university break!

Still talking about my country

I found this television ad that shows a little bit of Pernambuco's attractions: the beaches and the Carnival. And the soundtrack is the regional's anthem sung as a frevo (which is a kind of music typic from Carnival)!!!

Soundtrack for the last post

Recife, the Brazilian Venice

Since I mentioned Recife at my last post, I thought it would be interesting to give some other informations about where I come from.

Recife is the second largest city in the Northeastern Region of Brazil, the largest metropolitan area and one of the most important cultural, economic, political and science-minded city in this Region. It is the fifth largest metropolitan area in Brazil and the capital of Pernambuco.

Surrounded by rivers and crossed by bridges, Recife is full of islands and mangroves that magnify its geography. It is known as the Brazilian Venice, thanks to its fluvial resemblance with the European city, and is considered one of Brazil's cultural capitals.

But I think that the most famous thing frm Recife is our Carnival.. But this is a theme for another post.

Enjoy your weekend!


(you can read more at Wikipedia)

"The biggest anything" syndrome

The idea for this post came to my mind while I was reading a newspaper from Recife (the city where I grew up in Brazil). In ten pages I saw "the biggest", "the greates", "the best" associated so many times a local manifestations and personalities that is difficult not to laugh thinking how big is your ego... =) Well, we have some reasons to be proud of our history, but sometimes it's too much!

Here below I show you 3 reasons to be proud of... And one not to.


The biggest Carnival manifestation :


The cities of Recife and Olinda hold the most authentic and democratic carnaval celebrations in Brazil. But the largest carnaval in all of Brazil is Galo da Madrugada, which takes place in downtown Recife in the Saturday of carnaval. More than 1.5 million people smash each other to follow the eletric "trios" and dance the frevo!!! (consider that there are 1.515.053 people residing in the city and 3.646.204 people in Metropolitan Area)


The biggest indoor arena for concerts (in Latin America):



The Chevrolet Hall has a 2700o m2 area, 1000 m2 only for the stage!!!

The richest ecosystem in the world:


The mangrove is a very complex and rich ecosystem on which we can find the largest variety of vegetal and animal species per m2. A mangal is a plant community and habitat where mangroves thrive. They are found in tropical and sub-tropical tidal areas, and as such have a high degree of salinity. Areas where mangals occur include estuaries and marine shorelines.

A curious thing is that we can find mangroves all over the world, but it is so typic in Recife that we even have a cultural movement that took inspiration from it. It was created circa 1991 in reaction to the cultural and economical stagnation of the city. The movement largely focuses on music, with the result being a mixture of local traditional styles such as maracatu and ciranda) with the imported culture of the MTV generation (rock, rap and hip-hop). The original movement named itself mangue bit, mangue referring to Recife's mangroves and bit to the computer bit central to the movement's electronic music influences.


The biggest unemployement rate from all Brazilian capital citiesl:

Such a shame. 16,5% of the population in Recife doesn't have a job. And the worst is that lots of experts say that if we used our touristic potential in a structured and organized way, we could arrive at 8 or 9% only.

Reverend & The Makers @ Berlin

Ok, this will be a "tourism/music/gastronomy" post. =)

The thing is, I can't dissociate Berlin from all the great food I ate and the concerts I went! And since I'm going to be there the 3rd November, I thought it would be great to comment my programme for the weekend:

First of all, the "Reverend and the Makers" concert. They're a new group from England, and they remind me of early Depeche Mode. At their mySpace site you can listen to 4 songs; "Heavyweight champion" is my favorite one. The concert will take place at the Lido, a small club that used to be a cinema.

And then, well, I'll be in Kreuzberg, so... Mini-pizza + ice cream + T-shirts + books, so I think that I'll come back to Geneva absolutely poor ("I'll work for food"!!). =)

Emo

I'm still feeling very emotional, as you can guess by this little picture above. It's hard not to feel nostalgic about home after spending 20 days in there, among my family and friends (and, wow, we have summer down there!).

Well, if anyone is interested in discovering where I come from, the Embratur's (the Official Agency for Tourism) is a great place to start. They have pictures and infos about Brazil, its cultural's manisfestations, itineraries and so on.

And just to make you dream of beach and sun, here's a picture of Recife, where I live:

"The slowest train in the world"

You might imagine that, being a Brazilian, my entire body shivers just to imagine the snow that is to come during winter... Brrrr!!! And you can deduce that I'd be the latest person on Earth to organize a trip to the Alps, in the middle of the snow!

Well, you're wrong: this winter I'm truly motivated to take the so-called "slowest train in the world" (The Glacier Express, by the way) and amaze myself with the outrageous panorama. And don't worry, I'll be comfortably sit inside the train, where is warm enough!

In fact, here are some informations about the two circuits proposed by the Rhätische Bahn:

The Glacier Express: Goes from Zermatt to St. Moritz and vice versa."Pass at 2’033 metres in altitude. A panoramic trip through the Alps in the heart of Switzerland.he Glacier Express travels a beautiful route between the sights of the Graubünden holiday region, the sunny Valais region with its glacier landscape, and the beautiful regions of the South." Don't you feel tempted????






The Bernina Express: "The greatest alpine delight in Graubünden: There is twice as much to see as before along one of the most beautiful railway routes in the world - on board the Rhaetian Railway panorama coach. The journey begins in Chur, continues along the Albula route into the Engadine and keeps on going - without cogwheels - over the Bernina Pass down to southerly Valposchiavo, over the spiralling viaduct at Brusio and on to Tirano."


Aren't they cool, these small red trains?

Berlin to eat =)

Hello everyone!
I'll not only talk about things I've been doing in Switzerland, but also in my trips to the countries nearby (specially Germany, personal interests...). Yesterday I was chatting with a friend and she asked me about nice places to eat in Berlin, so here are some indications:

Rasas - Indian Restaurant
A cosy and pretty atmosphère just in the middle of Charlottenburg. I have really good memories of my wanderings and walkings through this neighbourhood, and it's natural that you get hungry after all this exercise so... Enjoy it!!!! (I strongly recommend the Khumbi Gosht - lamb with mushrooms in a spicy sauce)

Brasserie Desbrosses @ Ritz Carlton
Don't get amazed, it's a restaurant inside the 5-star hotel Ritz Carlton, but it's still affordable (specially if you go there for lunch and ask for one of the menus). Perfect for impressioning your girlfriend - and still having some money left at the end to pay the parking. I had the baked goat cheese on rocket leaves with roasted pine nuts, roasted beef with bacon served with vegetables and 2 sauces (it's only made for 2 people!) and mille feuille of caramelized apple with ice cream and passionfruit sorbet... Unforgettable (and it costed us 90 euros for 2 people)! And if you can still walk after eating, you're at Potsdamer Platz - cinema, theaters, shopping, it's all there!

Yellow Sunshine
A healthier alternative to all the Berliner's Currywurst: go grab a vegetarian one! (and I mean it, it's hard to believe that there's no meat inside Yellow Sunshine's wurst) The menu is 100% vegan, bio, eco, and even the energy they use is environment-friendly! I chose the Vegan Cheeseburger with french fries, freshly made orange juice and a chocolate muffin for dessert. Enjoy also a walk through Oranienstraße and Wienerstraße, it's a very indie neighbourhood with lots of small cafés, artists and shops (I fell in love with some T-shirts there - still have to go back to Berlin to buy them!).

Back to the action

Nice weekend: cinema, hedonism and nature!
This beautiful picture you see is from "Le Salève", where I went to yesterday. I had to go to France to have this amazing view of Geneva and the lake, but it was worthy: the fresh air, the sun, the quietness really recharged me, now I'm ready for another "brain-killing" week!
For more informations about the Salève, just click here.

Ideas for the weekend

Here I am again with my texts and my ideas. This time I wanted to talk about thing to do in Geneva this weekend and I had absolutely no idea of what to write when I received this e-mail from one of the Master's participants talking about the Short Films' Night (check out the programme here). My hero!!! It was really what I needed now, a nice evening by the cinemascope lights, just trying to get inside the caracter's lives, toughts, feelings... So, see you there???

A great song from Depeche Mode!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello everyone!
Due to my first "Internet and new Technologies" class I'm supposed to create and administrate a personal blog, thing I've never thought of before (prejudice or laziness, I still don't know). I hope you enjoy reading what I'm going to post here during the next days (in English, so that everyone can understand it). I'll try to give you a glince of my life in Switzerland, places I see, people I meet and so on... Hoping that it won't be as boring as it sounds!
And for a nice start, here's a cartoon that can explains my mood on these days... I'm feeling very very emotional, even with automatic doors.
See you at the next post!