Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!

I just love Christmas... It is such a happy time of the year... :) I do hope you have all enjoyed your Chirstmas' Eve and that you have a very lovely Christmas day!!!

For some Christmas music, visit the Music page of my blog... 

To see my presents go to my literature, games and cinema pages!

Beautiful animation video

Today a friend posted this video on Facebook, OMG, it's SO beautiful!!! I loved it and had to share it with you!!!

That reminded me of two other animation videos I watched that I really liked, the first one is really funny, the other is a game-retro clip really well done, both are amazing!

Outback

Me and a couple of friends are TAing Molecular Biology to an undergraduate class... To celebrate that classes are almost over (they finished all pratical lessons, now they only need to hand in the final project and do the final exam) we went out to drink at Outback! LOL

It was really fun 'cause several other friends joined in the celebration, it was good to laugh!

Check out the photos (click on them to see them full size):

Ana Lucia's Birthday & Brahma Bar

Yesterday we went to this bar that Ana Lucia kept saying she wanted to go and we never did... Well, now it was her birthday so what could we do? XD

The "Bar Brahma" is a tradicional bar located in the historic center of Sao Paulo, preciselly in the corner of Sao Joao Avenue and Ipiranga Avenue, a very poetic place as it was already sang by Caetano Veloso, a well-known singer from the northeast of Brazil, upon his arrival in Sao Paulo in a song dedicated to the city: "Alguma coisa acontece no meu coração, que só quando cruza a Ipiranga e a avenida São João" ("Something happens inside my heart when I cross Ipiranda and Sao Joao avenue" - lousy unrhymed free translation).

Inside the bar there is always people playing samba and there are presentations at night, it can be music or stand-up comedy. The food is rich, we ate something that might resemble as jerkies and manioc... So good! It is always good to know about different interesting places to go! We had a really good time!

Check out the photos (click on them to see them full size):

And of course, Caetano Veloso's "Sampa" (tender nickname of Sao Paulo):

Halloween

The only reason I didn't make this post sooner is that I was recruting all photos before I put this up...

We here in Brazil don't have the habit of celebrating Halloween, or as we here call it "Witches' Day", but this year we've tried something different...

Since last year's halloween we've been trying to throw a costume party, but we haven't been able to. This year it was finally possible! We managed to gather people who got excited with the idea and we did it! Actually Tati this year decided she was gonna organize it, and being the perfect host that she is, she made it flawlessly!

Me and a friend decided to go as Zombies, I think we were the only girls that weren't dressed in "cute" clothes... But it was funny, we made flesh wounds using latex and when we were going to the party some people were staring... LOL

Check out the photos (click on them to see them full size)!

One exemple of why German is hard to learn

A friend of mine just posted this video on Facebook, and I loved it... It is of a german comedian called Kaya Yanar, showing one reason of why German is so God damm hard! And this is just one exemple of a "problem" you'll have to face from your first German lesson until pretty much the rest of your life... So, as Yanar himself say in this video, you either grow up with the German language or forget it! I don't think it is like that, but we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves when we think we are never gonna learn how to speak German perfectly... Even German people know German is hard! So let's keep trying and accept that we are always gonna make mistakes, and then take this opportunity to learn from them and improve...

* The second video is subtitled in English, but the video quality is poorer...

Brazil's Elections 2010

I've been meaning to gather up the courage to write this post for a while now... But since after yesterday's elections and the results for a runoff election in four weeks, I felt a bit more confident and decided to write about it.
First thing you need to know is that voting in Brazil is compulsory. That itself can explain a lot of the electoral situation we have here nowadays. I don't think that in a democratic country, voting should be compulsory, it should be a matter of choice, there are lots and lots of people that vote only because they have to, and therefore doesn't really mind in who they are voting for, or aren't interested in politics enough to be able to judge who would better represent them in the government.
We should also have in mind that Brazil is an emerging country, and for that it has really developed regions and quite poor regions co-existing in the same country. Have you ever heard that the south of Brazil is richer (in terms of economy) then the north, being São Paulo (SP) the biggest and richest of all? Now take a look at the election results map of this years presidential elections and tell me what you think about it:

Taken from uol.com.br

But why is the southeast state also for Dilma? Well, she lives in this state's capital. Apart from that, taking everything else into account, it clearly shows a predilection of the better educated states for José Serra (the blue candidate) as the other prefer Dilma Rousseff (the red candidate). The thing is, we here from the biggest city in Brazil, the 3rd biggest city in the world will again be disappointed by the election results. I know international news shows Lula and this new candidate Dilma as Brazil's favourite, but actually for us here, it's completely the other way round... The two biggest newspapers from Sao Paulo decided to publicly support Serra's candidacy (it is important to know that usually, the press doesn't take political sides in Brazil). Nobody likes either of them. It's the northeast region the main responsible for Lula's reelection and for the probable election of Dilma. And I am not talking only about people from São Paulo, because I know lots of people, from several states (even some that Dilma got the majority of votes) like Minas, Rio, RS, etc. and I personally know only one person that voted for Dilma. Of everybody I know from São Paulo or else, only one. So please, don't be deceived, Dilma and Lula are not Brazil's sweethearts! No way. I don't know why people are so mistaken.
At least we got a second round, thank God, because we were getting scared about the possibilites of Dilma winning on the first round. Now we have to try and invert the situation. I know it's hard, but we have to try. I liked Marina very much as well (she got 3rd place), and I truly hope that people who voted for Marina now will vote for Serra.
Serra was already mayor and governor of Sao Paulo city and state, he was ministry of health, where he had brilliant ideas (for brazilians: he created the "medicamentos genéricos" and "vacina de idosos", apart from "nota fiscal paulista", which increased the income of Sao Paulo state and invested in Sao Paulo more than the federal government itself, besides constructing several Km of underground). Dilma was only Lula's cabinet chief, it is widely known that she is gonna be just a puppet of her party and people like her because she killed millitary soldiers and robbed banks during the dictatorship (who likes THAT?), well, Serra was a student leader and was forced to leave the country, and since he got back he's been engaged in political affairs. He has a major in engineering in the best university of south america and a master in economy, Dilma never made it to college and in the debates she can't even complete a sentence that makes sense (and aren't these speeches prepaired?). Wouldn't you trust Sao Paulo, the biggest, richest state of Brazil, where he was already mayor and governor, to know if they wanted him for president? Now tell me, who would you vote for?

• A murderer or an exiled (during dictatorship)?
• An engineer or somebody that can't even say a complete sentence?
• A guy with brilliant ideas or a puppet?
• An ex-mayor of the 3rd biggest city in the world and ex-governor of the biggest, richest state of Brazil or an ex-cabinet chief?

SUPPORT JOSE SERRA!!!

All in all, I'm still hoping for a change, for an epiphany, I don't know, for people to realise what's best for Brazil right now. For God's sake, we have the Olympics and the World Cup coming up, and this incoherent lady is going to represent us? COME ON! I can't believe this, I just can't... Another four years of suffering? Let's do our caimpaign and hope for the best on the runoff... :)

Big Ben

Finished another puzzle yesterday... It had only 500 pieces again, which took me only a couple of days to build... The problem was only the small size of the pieces...

Galinheiro Grill and Frozen Yogurt

Yesterday I went out with a couple of friends to a bar at Vila Madalena that I like and they had never been to... Galinheiro Grill! I just love their food... Everything I have ever eaten there was really good and they even have a delivery service... Of course they are really famous for their chicken, with has its own spice and even those who aren't that found of chicken seem to like it! Other portion they are really know for (but we haven't eaten them yesterday are the fried polenta covered with grated chesse... But for a first time we bet on ordering small portions (meia porção) of different things. We started by ordering some beer, and to eat, the chicken, spicy sausage (linguiça calabrea apimentada) and these little, I don't know to trully explain it, meat fried pasties that have this original flavour (samossas de carne). Then we moved to fries (can't go wrong on that one!) and these, again hard to explain, something that might resemble pumpkin and jerkies cake (bolinhos de abóbora com carne seca)... Uhmmmm sooo good! Apart from the food we obviously had a great time, talking mainly (I don't remember how it started anymore) about movies!

After we were full (and boy we were!), we decided to go have desert somewhere else... And we have been stalling to taste these new frozen yogurt places that have been popping all around latelly. I had some before, but not like these new ones... Well, arriving at Blue Berry (the closest Frozen Yogurt place to Galinheiro Grill), we met two other friends we didn't know would be there... Such a coincidence! We sure stayed there for quite a while as well... It was time to decide which combination of frozen yogurt to try, because, for those who doesn't know, you have this frozen yogurt whose texture is just like ice cream, and you can add the most diverse kind of toppings to it... I decided to go for a natural flavoured one with bananas, granola and honey, eventhough I was in doubt about getting a berry flavoured one with blueberries... But uhmmmm it was so good! I really recommed trying some flavours out, you won't regret it! ;)

Chicken

Sausage

Fried polenta with cheese

Frozen yogurt

Some toppings options

PS: OMG I'm getting hungry looking at these photos :(

Rubik's Cube

\o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/

After several internet videos and so on, I finally managed to finish my own Rubik's Cube, which I've had for many years now, but never had the courage to really work on it... But now it's done! =D

The leaves are back!

Today arriving at the university I realised that the trees are starting to grow back their leaves...

It's so beautiful these new light green leaves, I always enjoy seeing them sprout... The trees are so ugly leafless... :)

In front of the Chemistry Institute: University of Sao Paulo

iPhone picture taken by Me :)

Youtube

After I posted this video of the chinese boy in love from Youtube here yesterday, I caught myself thinking of several funny videos I watched in Youtube... Two of them that I always laugh when I see are the ones from a boy and another from a girl after they have been to dentist... Which leads us to the question... What the hell do they put in anesthesia in the US? OMG, this people are completely drugged!!! XD

PS: I'll try to post some videos from youtube I like here from time to time...

Chinese boy in love

Someone showed me this video today... Sooo cute! XD




Which remminded me of this other video:

Prague

Done with my newest puzzle: Prague... It was only 500 pieces :P

Hot and dry

Today at São Paulo:

7h: 16°C / 56% relative humidity

15h: 31°C / 13% relative humidity

It's been hot, eventhough we are still at winter, but the most disturbing is this dryness... It hasn't rained for quite a while, which also prevents the pollution to dissipate... I already have a throat ache that is keeping myself from sleep... How long is it going to stay like this?

Hohenzollern Castle

Yesterday I finished another of my puzzles... This time was the Hohenzollern Castle of 1500 pieces. Well, now I have to choose the next one... Which one should it be?

Click on the photos above to visit this album on myphotoalbum

Achiropita Feast

Since 1926, the Our Lady of Achiropita Feast takes place in Bixiga, the traditional italian quarter of São Paulo. Taking up three streets and presenting 32 tents of typical italian food (pizza, fogazza, pasta, etc.), with decoration and italian music playing in the background, this feast attracts around 250,000 people during the five weekends of its duration.

Yesterday, I went there with a couple of friends from the lab, as we do every year, to pay cheap and eat good food. :) We had a really good time, and enjoyed the food a lot, the only thing is that it is very popular, hence it can get a bit crowded sometimes. And as a popular feast in electoral year, we always meet candidates in the streets... This year was Ronaldo Esper... What a tragedy!! LOL... And he stopped to talk to us... It was all because of Gi that wanted to get a picture with him in the background and Ana that smiled at him when he passed...

In all, it is always very animated, and an interesting event to attend to!! =D Check out the pictures (click on the photos to visit the album in myphotoalbum and see the images bigger and comment the pictures)!

Life is Drama

New page added!! Cinema/TV

Play and Believe

New page added!! Games

iTunes pick of the day

As of today, the Music page, will be updated on a dayly basis with something I am calling as "iTunes Pick of the Day", everyday I will be clicking "play" in my iTunes library, see what comes and post it there... It will definatelly be the most different kinds of music, all of which I enjoy listening to... The songs will always be accompained by lyrics and videoclip (I will publish the first song to play in iTunes that has a music video)...The first song is already available, here is a link for the label "iTunes pick of the day", go check it out!!

Literature of Truth

New page added!! Science

Unload

We usually get revolted when we see someone throwing garbage on the streets, don't we? Well, today I witnessed something even worse... As I was on my way to the university I saw this guy walking down the street, he obviously wasn’t just anybody, he was rather well dressed... I hadn't even realized he was eating something until he threw the package, or the paper that was wrapped around what he was eating... directly into a drainage well!! Now come on, the main reason why people shouldn't throw garbage in the streets (besides keeping our streets clean and because it shows a lack of education, hygiene and sense of society) is because when it rains this trash goes together with the water down street gutters and option 1: ends up in our rivers, option 2: clogs the drains! Then why, why on Earth would someone just throw trash inside it? So that it doesn't need to rain for it to get obstructed? To pollute our rivers even more? It is not a god dammed trash can!! ¨&%&#!%@$!

Sorry about the unload, but seriously, I had never seen anything like it... Throwing garbage in the streets is already dumb, but in the drainage well is even dumber!!!

Music is Feeling

New page added!!! Music

Read in Order to Live

New page added!!! Literature

The beginning...

I have always found it interesting the idea of having a blog… But I used to wonder… What the hell am I going to write about? Then came the first idea… I have already lived through so interesting situations and seen so many wonderful things in my travels, not that I have traveled around the world… faaaar from it… But I still have a lot to recommend and stories to tell… Why not then create a blog about travels? Where I could, little by little, tell a bit of these funny events? It is decided then, I will create the “Around the World” blog to share all that.

Then came another idea that kept also bugging me… I have so many public profiles in these so called “social networks” about subjects I really enjoy… Tripadvisor, for my travels, Goodreads for my books, Raptr for my games, last.fm for my music, and of course Twitter, Facebook and an online photoalbum, who doesn’t have one of those? There are other not so relevant profiles, but still they are part of communities I belong and I would like to share them. So, I have all these profiles and nowhere I could connect them all, show that I am not only interested in that particular subject.

Together with this thought came again the blog idea… I don’t love travelling alone, I also love reading, watching good movies and/or TV series, playing games, etc. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a blog that comprises a bit of everything? But… Wouldn’t it get confusing and all the information would get lost? Moreover, I love those cute little thematic blogs *_*

And at last came the final idea… It may not be the best, but in my case it was what left me more at ease: why not build a blog network? One of travels, one of literature, one for music, one for every subject I wish for, with one single “key” blog connecting them all together? Whoever wants to get a panoramic view of all I have/post will visit only this single one. On the other hand, who is looking for only an specific type of blog, or subject would follow just the one they are interested in… Crazy? Yeah… Megalomaniac? Hell, yeah… Will I ever be able to go through with this? No idea… Mainly after taking into account the life of a graduate student (which I would also like to have a blog about)… But then, it is what I decided for… It is what I feel like trying… So… Let’s go!!

PS: Brazilian friends, don’t be mad at me for writing in English, I started it in Portuguese, but then I remembered that everything else I have is in English (my photoalbum, my Twitter, my Facebook… then why not also this one?) Besides, I know most of you can perfectly understand, and it is an incredible practice for me (maybe I should consider making a blog in French? Or one in German? XD)