Sunday ultimate freesbee at Parque Barigüi - muito quente! Mas muito legal!
Great game, fun people. Playing until sunset and going home with every inch of my body feeling tired and happy :-)
Between people flying their kite, children running around, old man trying out a motorised version of a skateboard, capivaras grassing along the lake, the roasted smell of popcorn, a disco-samba beat from the other end of the parc, young people playing american football or soccer... here we go - Panquecas is our battle cry.
Pedro brought the new freesbees - Beleza! And off we go again running from one side to another of the field, out of breath, speeding, jumping, rolling over after the freesbee. My Portuguese is still poor but somehow between Portuguese/English words, gestures and mimics, the game is just fun and enjoyable!
lundi 5 septembre 2011
samedi 3 septembre 2011
Pleasure and Sound per millimeter!
Sábado - I head off to a veggie lunch with S people! A hidden place where some Thai prepare fantastic Buddhist veggie food. And cheap. Just next to the stadion Couto Pereira in the district named Juvevê. Did you know that the munks of that religion do not eat oignons or garlic because those fruit from the earth connect your lower chacras too much with the earth and drives your energy out of the body, to the earth? Fascinating... I didn't know that.
In front of the veggie place
Anyway the food and meetings again of high quality! Enjoying each other's company, we decide to go to Parque São Lourenço to watch volley, take a walk, have a chat, play freesbee. I have to describe to you the parque São Lourenço: it is really beautiful. The path circles a lake - green launs, trees and a hilly landscape. Here a go-kart (very basic ones in wood with a cross-section plank to sit on) lane spinning down a hill, there a beach volley area, cross over small passios or kiosques equiped with a table, a bench and a grill, so that families, friends and whoever feels like it just can bring on their pick-nick and grill in the parc... At the end of the day th high cedar trees throw their shadow into the waters, where huuuuge fishes swim along, moving the waters for food.
At the parc...Pedro spent the weekend with a freesbee in his hands.
The long shadows of cedar trees and the huge fishes
... wondering if they might eat humans - nobody dared to try to take a swim though
Volley and pick-nick areas
Then the tour goes to a neighbourhood of which I have forgotten the name - a pretty neighbourhood with big houses. Two of Pedro's friends live there. From their house, you see the mountains circling the plateau on which Curitiba is situated. Pedro tells me that right after those tops, the way goes down, down, down to the sea! I wanna go there - fly there.
We make it back to town, and then on to Casinha. Pay attention now. This is the greates place on earth! A little house with a few steps leading up to it, you pass the porch, go back into the garden. Here you pay the entrance, pass by another little house and in the garden, there is a scene, red fabric held over it by bamboos, flowered pattern fabric on the garden walls, a bonfire, some lanterns... So beautiful! And this is the place for alternative, a bit underground, experimental music - tonigh Ruído por milímetro is playing. Two guitars, one bass, a keayboard and a drummer. Só musica! No singing other than space-like voice or whistle, a mystifying harmonica. The atmosphere is superbe! The people here are connaisseurs, locals who know where to go for quality experiences. A beer in the hand, a few meters from the stage, a mixed feeling of chill from the cold night, warmth from the people and the special flowing sensation given by the music - getting close to high :-)
Ruído por milímetro - Atmosphere, chill and warmth...
Listen to this, please! http://www.myspace.com/ruidopormilimetro Muito bom!
...lights, fire and great company!
-and the lightning freesbee-
Leaving for food, a veggie cachorro-quente (literaly a hot dog in Portuguese) on a street corner. Just look at the menu - nice variations on the basic and boring hot dog. Here we have the cosse (slang for seco, meaning dried tomato) or cashew nut version. Really good!
Veggie cachorro-quente on the street corner
- with Pedro, Ramon and Laetitia (Pedro's CS guests) and Louise-
Wondering back down town, the lightning freesbee flew across the squares of Centro Civico. It is always incredible to live a city by night, especially those huge institutional places suddenly seem all the more huge, but also take on this empty ridiculous look next to our light-spirited and happy freesbee game.
A last beer and the night is wrapped up by a surf on the last bus home! I am on another planet, right now! This music left me in a fantastic dreamy mood...
In front of the veggie place
Anyway the food and meetings again of high quality! Enjoying each other's company, we decide to go to Parque São Lourenço to watch volley, take a walk, have a chat, play freesbee. I have to describe to you the parque São Lourenço: it is really beautiful. The path circles a lake - green launs, trees and a hilly landscape. Here a go-kart (very basic ones in wood with a cross-section plank to sit on) lane spinning down a hill, there a beach volley area, cross over small passios or kiosques equiped with a table, a bench and a grill, so that families, friends and whoever feels like it just can bring on their pick-nick and grill in the parc... At the end of the day th high cedar trees throw their shadow into the waters, where huuuuge fishes swim along, moving the waters for food.
At the parc...Pedro spent the weekend with a freesbee in his hands.
The long shadows of cedar trees and the huge fishes
... wondering if they might eat humans - nobody dared to try to take a swim though
Volley and pick-nick areas
Then the tour goes to a neighbourhood of which I have forgotten the name - a pretty neighbourhood with big houses. Two of Pedro's friends live there. From their house, you see the mountains circling the plateau on which Curitiba is situated. Pedro tells me that right after those tops, the way goes down, down, down to the sea! I wanna go there - fly there.
We make it back to town, and then on to Casinha. Pay attention now. This is the greates place on earth! A little house with a few steps leading up to it, you pass the porch, go back into the garden. Here you pay the entrance, pass by another little house and in the garden, there is a scene, red fabric held over it by bamboos, flowered pattern fabric on the garden walls, a bonfire, some lanterns... So beautiful! And this is the place for alternative, a bit underground, experimental music - tonigh Ruído por milímetro is playing. Two guitars, one bass, a keayboard and a drummer. Só musica! No singing other than space-like voice or whistle, a mystifying harmonica. The atmosphere is superbe! The people here are connaisseurs, locals who know where to go for quality experiences. A beer in the hand, a few meters from the stage, a mixed feeling of chill from the cold night, warmth from the people and the special flowing sensation given by the music - getting close to high :-)
Ruído por milímetro - Atmosphere, chill and warmth...
Listen to this, please! http://www.myspace.com/ruidopormilimetro Muito bom!
...lights, fire and great company!
-and the lightning freesbee-
Veggie cachorro-quente on the street corner
- with Pedro, Ramon and Laetitia (Pedro's CS guests) and Louise-
Wondering back down town, the lightning freesbee flew across the squares of Centro Civico. It is always incredible to live a city by night, especially those huge institutional places suddenly seem all the more huge, but also take on this empty ridiculous look next to our light-spirited and happy freesbee game.
A last beer and the night is wrapped up by a surf on the last bus home! I am on another planet, right now! This music left me in a fantastic dreamy mood...
In a penthouse overviewing the city...
Friday - more celebrating at the office. More snacks and champ'. Anabela, a stagiaire who was here for observation traineeship for two weeks, is leaving us. Believe me, we do work in between those celebrations!
Later I get to see a proper penthouse appartment with two storeys, pool, terrasse and all the fancy features. Downstairs, not only you have a porteiro, but also a double fence before accessing the entrance hall and talk to the porteiro. I do get the need of security and feeling safe, but I don't get those fences and walls. I do know that the reality this country is facing is a different one that the European and I do not intend to judge, but when one of the reasons for hiding behind walls, and segregating society in such a way, is 'to protect what you have achieved' it seems to me that the human achievement is quite low, or non existent. It seems to result in walls enhancing and feeding fear of the other, more than offering security. I still need to get this whole social system - with such huge social divergences and segregation; there is many realities to understand before I might be able to see more clearly in this matter. But this sentence, mentionned under a discussion, chocked me quite a bit.
Anyway, in that penthouse was a little party/gathering of people from the office, architecture students and friends. The compagny was nice and the evening just relaxed.
Later I get to see a proper penthouse appartment with two storeys, pool, terrasse and all the fancy features. Downstairs, not only you have a porteiro, but also a double fence before accessing the entrance hall and talk to the porteiro. I do get the need of security and feeling safe, but I don't get those fences and walls. I do know that the reality this country is facing is a different one that the European and I do not intend to judge, but when one of the reasons for hiding behind walls, and segregating society in such a way, is 'to protect what you have achieved' it seems to me that the human achievement is quite low, or non existent. It seems to result in walls enhancing and feeding fear of the other, more than offering security. I still need to get this whole social system - with such huge social divergences and segregation; there is many realities to understand before I might be able to see more clearly in this matter. But this sentence, mentionned under a discussion, chocked me quite a bit.
Anyway, in that penthouse was a little party/gathering of people from the office, architecture students and friends. The compagny was nice and the evening just relaxed.
vendredi 2 septembre 2011
Jazz at Wonka bar
Thursday is Jazz festival in Curitiba - Fabiano invites me to join him down town for some good jazz.
Largo da Ordem is the old part of town, the historical, the original core of Curitiba. The buildings are low, colourful, with a touch of colonial feeling I would say. It is the same part of town as where the Sunday market is held - remember me telling about my first Sunday in Curitiba... That's the one. Well, I wouldn't have wondered there at night, although Fabiano tells me it is safe enough as long as you stay close to the street with the bars and clubs and don't deviate over towards São Francisco.
When we arrive the bar isn't opened yet. So going around the block we reach an open bar - the bar is inside but the people stand outside, even though the temperature is chilly. The bar bears the name of a notorious Brasilian soccer player who apparently had a tender feeling for drinking - and actually died alcoholic... Still people remember him for the great player he was before quitting and spending his money on the bottle. The bar is decorated and covered with pictures and features referring to him. A beer - a Brasilian Bavaria - and a chat, then we turn back to the jazz club.
Yeah...might look crapy but I had a quality evening here!
Wonka's is a colourful place: the walls are covered with graffiti-like paintings upstairs and huge patterns wallpaper downstairs, in the basement. Here is the stage, between heavy masonry walls and under solid vaults. More Brasilian beer - a Devassa, this time (meaning 'libertine girl'). And the concert begins. Tonight the jazz is of a nervous kind, many notes and terrific musicians eager to show off their virtuosity. The bassist is incredible! The drummer can't help some carnaval beats in his solo. The guitarist is in his own world and the keyboard player jumps off his seat from time to time while throwing a bunch of hysteric high notes at the audience. Incredible evening!
Some friends of Fabiano are there as well and I end up explaining the delightful and useful basics of Portuguese I have picked up until now: Frio da porra! for cold days, Planejamento urbano because it is always useful to be able to tell what you do in life and Senta là Claudia! for the local ones, when you want to send someone to hell (and especially if the one isn't too bright...) - I'll give a ful explanation for those who desire ;-)
Fun, nice people and great music! How much more could you desire...?
Largo da Ordem is the old part of town, the historical, the original core of Curitiba. The buildings are low, colourful, with a touch of colonial feeling I would say. It is the same part of town as where the Sunday market is held - remember me telling about my first Sunday in Curitiba... That's the one. Well, I wouldn't have wondered there at night, although Fabiano tells me it is safe enough as long as you stay close to the street with the bars and clubs and don't deviate over towards São Francisco.
When we arrive the bar isn't opened yet. So going around the block we reach an open bar - the bar is inside but the people stand outside, even though the temperature is chilly. The bar bears the name of a notorious Brasilian soccer player who apparently had a tender feeling for drinking - and actually died alcoholic... Still people remember him for the great player he was before quitting and spending his money on the bottle. The bar is decorated and covered with pictures and features referring to him. A beer - a Brasilian Bavaria - and a chat, then we turn back to the jazz club.
Yeah...might look crapy but I had a quality evening here!
Wonka's is a colourful place: the walls are covered with graffiti-like paintings upstairs and huge patterns wallpaper downstairs, in the basement. Here is the stage, between heavy masonry walls and under solid vaults. More Brasilian beer - a Devassa, this time (meaning 'libertine girl'). And the concert begins. Tonight the jazz is of a nervous kind, many notes and terrific musicians eager to show off their virtuosity. The bassist is incredible! The drummer can't help some carnaval beats in his solo. The guitarist is in his own world and the keyboard player jumps off his seat from time to time while throwing a bunch of hysteric high notes at the audience. Incredible evening!
Some friends of Fabiano are there as well and I end up explaining the delightful and useful basics of Portuguese I have picked up until now: Frio da porra! for cold days, Planejamento urbano because it is always useful to be able to tell what you do in life and Senta là Claudia! for the local ones, when you want to send someone to hell (and especially if the one isn't too bright...) - I'll give a ful explanation for those who desire ;-)
Fun, nice people and great music! How much more could you desire...?
jeudi 1 septembre 2011
Views over the city...
I don't know how much I have told about the flat where I live right now. It is in Bigorrilho, close to Parque Barigüi. The street is Padre Anchieta - one of the main structuring axes of Curitiba. Here passes the expresso bus or 'Tubo'. The good connectivity given by the transportation system has sustained a logic of high rise buildings and density around those transportation axes, so that as many people as possible live close to collective transport means. It makes it easy for me to get to the office for example, even though I have to cross town.
It means as well that I actually live in one of those high buildings, on the 10th floor - with view over the parc! Check it out...
View on the street and to the city side (Batel district)
Sunset scenery over Parque Barigüi - be envious...;-)
It means as well that I actually live in one of those high buildings, on the 10th floor - with view over the parc! Check it out...
View on the street and to the city side (Batel district)
Sunset scenery over Parque Barigüi - be envious...;-)
Pastel and brigadeiro
Wednesday was Fernando's farewell party at the office - yes, again food and drink. I know what you must think: when do we actually work? Well, we do in between the food and coffee drinking ;-)
Fernando bid farewell with pastel de carne é pastel de queijo - typical food from here. Meat or cheese wrapped in dough and deep-fried. Fat and delicious!
Pastel
Then we had Valeria's nice tuna mousse. Some fluorescent drink which tasted quite nice - Italian apero from the Veneto region apparently. Fruit salad and... brigadeiro.
Brigadeiro in the making...
Brigadeiro - done!
Basically a mixture of condensed milk, cacao and butter, cooked until boiling and agglomerating so you can make small balls, that you cover with chocolate. Like a chocolate truffle, awfully sweet and fat, but quite delicious! As Ariadne told me as she was preparing it, 'I made a deal that the calories stay in the can and do not blend with the other ingredients in the pot...' I would like to believe her :-) Her version was though a bit different - a flan variation of brigadeiro. The mixture was pourred over fresh strawberries and set for cooling in the fridge.
Proper bakeries...
Well, when you are abroad you must somehow miss some stuff from back home...Even though you are in a country with such variety of fruits and vegetables!
Here I miss proper bread, that feeds you and has something to bite on! So yesterday when I got home it was baking time - Love those rolls! Here bread is white most of the time. Integral bread or cereal bread is soft as the British toast bread. And the good bakeries I was assigned to sell as well white bread, soft and moist and with sugar or banana on top if possible - for breakfast.
Here I miss proper bread, that feeds you and has something to bite on! So yesterday when I got home it was baking time - Love those rolls! Here bread is white most of the time. Integral bread or cereal bread is soft as the British toast bread. And the good bakeries I was assigned to sell as well white bread, soft and moist and with sugar or banana on top if possible - for breakfast.
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