Wednesday, September 10, 2008

lazy in Canada

In Brazil I was way more active than here. I used to play handball in my school team, to dance ballet and jazz three times a week. And dancing makes me relax and it was good to be with my friends having fun, but sometimes we had to work very hard to competitions and presentations. But since I arrived in Canada the only exercise that I practice is walk in the city and sometimes run to take the bus (hahaha). In Winnipeg I played soccer for my school team just because I’m Brazilian, although I’m not very good in it. It was just to make friends and have fun with my best Brazilian friend who is a good soccer player. And I used to walk a lot from friends house to my house, especially late at night when there were no buses.
Anyways, here in Vancouver I’m a lazy! I don’t play any sport, rather take the sky train than walk but sometimes I miss exercises because I’m getting fat here, but times & times I don’t have time to do it or there is nothing interesting to do. Here in my free time I go to touristic places and famous streets, go shopping is one of my favorite actives! But to relax I think the best thing is go to the park and have a nice and calm walk, enjoy the nature, maybe eat something under a tree, or read a book are also good ideas. But I love listening to music, so have a great view in a calm place, listening the music that I like is perfect. Go with friends is also fun, but sometimes you need a time to yourself.
I also love going to my host brother’s hockey games because it’s a different sport and I enjoy it, but I cannot play it at all.
In the winter in going ice-skating, skiing and try to snowboard and I’m sure I’m going to hurt a little bit but it will be great!!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

new friends and the hard "goodbye"


Before I come to Vancouver I was in Winnipeg for 6 months and it was an amazing experience!! I was studying high school and there I met lots of Brazilians so we became very close. They were my best friends, we used to see each other every single day. We studied together, after school we hang out anywhere, sometimes at the mall or at or at a friend’s house, restaurants, and lots of parties... always with about 25 or more young Brazilians from different cities.
They were my family. But after 6 months they had to go back to Brazil and I came to stay a year in Canada, so say goodbye to them was so hard. I went to the airport almost everyday, helped them packing... it was very sad. The bad feeling that I’m not going to see them again until I back to my country. All the fun we had together now are just memories and I have to start a new life with new friends and family in another city. After that I felt so lonely and depressed, it seemed that nobody was good friends enough like them.
I also had this feeling after living in Montreal for a month. It was a short time, but in the residence that I stayed everybody was so friendly and so helpful that I cried when I left them.
Today I miss them all a lot. I miss my Brazilian friends, and people from all over world that I met in Montreal. But we keep in contact, sometimes they call me to hear some news or I call them. And when I go back to Brazil I’m sure the first people I want to meet are my friends. I’m going to visit them in each city in the country and we are going to remember the good times and have lots of fun together again! It is going to be wonderful. Just like the friends that I’m making in Vancouver, I’m going to miss them so bad when I leave = (
But remember: my house is always opened for all the friends I made from other countries! You are all very welcome and maybe one day I’ll travel around the world and go to them cities too. Being an exchange student is so grateful but sometimes is sad...

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Vancouver X Goiania


My home city is Goiania, it’s a small city in the west-center of Brazil near the capital Brasilia. It has 1, 24 million habitants and is the capital of Goias, my state. Goiania is very different from Vancouver witch is a rich city, very modern with lots of ways of transports, in Goiania we just have cars and buses and they all work with gasoline, not energy like here. Is not that common to see lots of bikes and people with rollerblades, but it has lot of motorcycles, which is not good because they just don’t respect the traffic signal, what makes the traffic in rush hours, very bad. The weather is different too, my city used to be very hot and dry, sunny the whole day, making people sweat. Our winter is not cold at all, it’s about 20 degrees Celsius and that’s already cold for us there. We have never had snow. Sometimes we get lots of rain but is not as strong and constantly as in Vancouver. All we need is an air conditioner everywhere and we’re fine. We have lots of parks just like in Vancouver but they’re not as big as here, we have lots of flowers and sometimes you can see little monkeys jumping on the trees, but you`ll never see squirrels, what is very common here. A huge difference between this two cities are the mountains. Here in Vancouver the view is so nice, if you look up North direction you’re going to see lots of mountains some of them with snow on the top while we are in the summer here. Goiania is a very plan city, what makes easier to walk because you don’t have to go up on hills.
Another thing that I love in Vancouver are all the tall and amazing buildings, made of glass. In my city we have lots of apartments, but they’re not as tall or beautiful like here. The sea is another wonderful thing in Vancouver; we can go to the beach when the weather is warm. Beaches here are not as beautiful as in Brazil but is also very fun to play in the sand because the water is veeery cold!
Although I love both cities and I’m having a wonderful time in Vancouver =D.