Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday!
I just love the idea of taking at least a day to
thank God for everything
that has been happening to me
and around me!

With lots of gravy I wish everyone a great holiday!

Rio 2016

Rio de Janeiro, the marvelous city, will host the Olympic Games of 2016! Wow! It was a great emotion not just to us Brazilians, but to South America, since it will be the first time ever that the Olympic will be hosted in this continent.

Rio was competing with Madrid-Spain, Tokyo-Japan and Chicago-USA and those cities presented very good proposals. But as Brazilian president Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva said in his speech "The other countries made proposals. We presented a heart and a soul."

Lula, passionately proceed..."It is time to address this imbalance. The opportunity is now to extend the Games to a new continent. It's an opportunity for an Olympics in a tropical country for the first time, to feel the warmth of our people, the exuberance of our culture and the sensation of our joy." I couldn't agree more!

A great moment between Pelé and Lula,
when Rio was announced the winner city to hold the
2016 Olympic Games

As Pelé and Lula in this pic, we are enthusiast people. We don't have any fear and we are not ashamed to show our emotions, doesn't matter how formal the event is. We do have passion for our country and for our people and we truly believe that we are the best, beyond all those stereotypes the world well knows and promotes.

I couldn't hold my tears when the president of IOC, International Olympic Committee, announced that Rio was the winner. In my heart I felt it much more than an announcement. It was years of hard work from very serious people, defending an entire continent and not just a country.

What I like the most about all that is that we are not afraid to show our problems and to address them publicly. For better or for worse we know that we get enough strength, capacity and knowledge to fix them and we are working on it. Some countries prefer to ignore their internal problems while we like to point them up.
That behavior shows our weakness but also it shows our capacity of standing up for our country, not giving up easily. That makes us real.

From left to right, 1st row:
Orlando Silva-Sports Minister,
President Lula,
Carlos Nuzman-president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and
Pelé-football legend,

Look at the faces of those men, those Brazilian authorities! What a beautiful and meaningful photo. Those mature men are celebrating a great achievement with so much joy and pleasure! All of them have the same expression. The expression of passion, of companionship, of togetherness. Oh God, I love this.
They were not in Copenhagen, Denmark, just for formalities. They were completely there, bodies and souls, singing Rio de Janeiro's best-known song "Cidade Maravilhosa" (Marvelous City). All of them got tears in their eyes. Tears we will not forget!

Rio de Janeiro

South America deserves the Olympics. Brasil deserves the Olympics and Rio de Janeiro is very proud to host the Games. See you guys in Rio in 7 years. Ops, we can't forget that the World Cup will be in Brasil. So, see you guys in 2014 and then in 2016!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Dad!

I love you,
I always will!


At my 1st birthday party,
being held by my father!

Today my father would turn 71. Happy Birthday Dad!
I never had any doubt that you were and are the bestest father of all times and always will be. You were there, holding my hand when I was in need of it.
You were there drying my tears and saying that everything was going to be alright.
You were there to remind me I was a good girl.
You were there, on the stairs of my elementary school, bringing yogurt, so I could try it to the very first time.
You never let me alone.
You never made fun of my clumsiness.
You would do everything to stop my hurt feelings.
You were always the one I trusted blindly.
You are the only one who trusted me blindly.
You always made sure I was following my own ways, giving me the security I could come back if something went wrong.
You never judge me.
You never doubt me.
You were always proud of your blondy.
You taught me how to ride a bike, a motorcycle, a car and a life fearless.
You always made me laugh.
You took my problems seriously, and you used to make sure I could see all sides of it and let me choose what to do.
You always accepted me the way I'm, without trying to fit me in any other model.
You were always there for me, by my side, even when I chose the wrong side.
You were always by my side. Always!

It's your 71st birthday today and God gave me the best gift of all times: My father

Snowing Nights

"Just Go" by me

How can we understand what goes inside a woman's heart!
I'm feeling nostalgic and a little confuse I must confess. I'm missing snowing nights. I'm really missing snowing nights.

Not all snowing nights, but the first snowfall of the season! There is something magical about it, especially for a tropical girl like me.
I'm missing, at this moment, walking under the first snowfall of the season, at night.

I'm missing the crisp cold air, bringing snowflakes against my face, my hair... There is an unreal unexplainable beauty about it.

Inside a woman's heart...infinite mysteries, eternal nostalgia, supreme contradiction, atemporal feelings, unreachable sadness, unconditional love, enigmatic solitude... missing snowing nights...

Cuddling time

One day, driving around in Uberlândia I noticed how empty the streets were. It always seemed to be so crowd for me and soon, I got myself wondering where did the people and car go?

This interrogation was divagating on my mind for days. I talked to few friends about it, and all of them just had the opposite thought, that Uberlândia was crowder than ever.

I really didn't get. But since my brother and my mother don't live in downtown area, I decided to drive to the busiest spot in the city to check what was going on. Uberlândia has wide well cared avenues crossing the city in all directions, a good traffic system, about 700 thousand inhabitants and a joke that it has more cars than people. So, how come this emptiness feeling got me?

Well, while I was driving my mother somewhere, she commented how crowded the city was and also that it has been complicated to drive around due to the number of cars and pedestrians. I laughed good saying that she needed to see how things work over here, in Taiwan. And then, an answer hit me: Space!
This was the answer for my dilemma. I realized that we do have space in Brasil what doesn't happen in Taiwan.

Just for the records, according to Wikipedia Taiwan's demographic density is 668/km² or 1,730/sq mi, while that of Brasil is 22/km² or 57/sq mi. The difference is huge and it explains the desertic feeling I was having back there.

In Taiwan is almost impossible to get a street with no cars no people and/or no scooters. Usually they are everywhere, anytime day or night! Sometimes it sounds like a flash mob to me, I mean, it seems they all schedule to get out and be in just one place and doing the same thing.
It is really crowded due to the extension of the land and the high number of the population.

Besides that, there is another element that distinguishes my life here and my life in Brasil. Comparing those two countries, it's noticeable that routinely Taiwan is a noisy place and Brasil a quiet one. We speak in lower tone and we don't have this disquietude going on on the streets as here. However inside my home the silence is imperative. I close the windows to block the crazy noisy noise from outside and sometimes the silence is so powerful that I can listen to my breathing.

This never happen when I'm in Brasil. I'm never alone. Even when I'm taking a shower Maria Luíza is talking to me. It's extremely rare a moment of solitude and I do enjoy all the frenzy.

I don't have a loud family but a loud brother. Marcos, my brother, he talks very loud and he loves it. He is an alive party! When we are bored he finds something to do to cheer us up and he always succeeded! Marcelo my youngest brother is low profile, but he is a joker, a practical one and extremely funny! And to complete the circus, my nephew and my niece are very active kids. They talk, sing, dance and there is no space for boredness around them. So cool! I love to hear happy children's voice around. It fulfills a home with so much joy! And I can't forget Márcio and the sound of his cute crying when he is being bathed!

So, as I was saying...there is no way to have a quiet moment if everybody is under the same roof!

Due to my cosmical silence, I get tired of the noisy sometimes willing for a minute without listening to anything...so I drive away. If Maria Luíza sees me leaving and she insists in coming, she doesn't talk much. It's one of our agreements. She knows that I'm trying to calm my mind down.

Here the opposite happens. I have the external noise that disappears as soon as I get home or close the windows because it doesn't belong to me. And in Brasil I have the internal one that follows me in my heart wherever I go!

Well, I've arrived for about 2 weeks now and I didn't go out yet as I'm used to. I went to a mall twice to have dinner, to Taipei to buy a cell phone and to Carrefour once and at 11PM. That's it!

What is going on with me? Am I scared of the noisy and crowdy Taiwan after 3 months in a "desert" or I just want to spend time at home, cuddling myself in my chair with my books, my music, my silence and my feelings? I really missed my nest though.

Besides everything, going to Brasil is always a turmoil of feelings, of expectations and it takes time to put me on the track of my emotions. Every single time I'm back I need to take a break from outside, doesn't matter where I'm living in, to get in touch with this turmoil and re-balance myself. It's a process I face since 1993, when I left Minas Gerais and moved to the south. For sure this was my biggest moving step.

Well, I'm back! Not 100% yet but I'm back home! I miss my friends deeply and I miss going to my massages and to the many nice cafés. But I need to be ready to go out, to get out there. I guess in few days my time will be up and I'll be ready to drive myself into the crowd again.

Wondering...is this just a sensation or one of the many metaphors of my life?

My trip to Nigeria

When I was a little girl, I used to exclaim:
Wow! If I swim straight ahead
I'll cross the Atlantic and arrive in Africa.

Getting out of Victoria Island!
The Government neglect starts...

The Nigeria unknown by its major population!

Victoria Island's Ocean Drive!

Victoria Island, a well cared place.
Funny, I don't like going there. It sounds so fake to me!

Why can't all Nigeria be like that!?
Just "VI", Victoria Island, deserves?

On left, National Open University Of Nigeria.

Cute kids! I had a great time playing with them!
Yep, they got scared!
It's rare an oyibo in this part of Nigeria.

Kay Jah-Ba and Silvester! Great guys!

I love the way kids wear on their school uniforms.
It's so much proudness!

I love the way kids wear their school uniforms.
They look so proud of it!

Cool fancy outfits!
In Nigeria wearing the same outfit is not a problem,
in fact it's a tradition well kept!

A cold rainy day to wash out the hotness of Africa for few hours!

Yorubá kids! So cute and so funny!
We laughed good!

I love how women carry their babies.
They look so comfortable!

Excuse-me lady, wanna buy a nice underwear?

Boxers by the wind!

Twin girls helping their mother, getting some clean water.

Very rainy day.
I didn't know that water could fall like this in Africa!
Yet, stereotypes falling down once again!

Rice and Beans, perfect match.
Plus fried plantain to sweet it.

Beautiful and strong Nigerian women!

This boy never smiles.
I took a lot of pics and he just didn't care to see them!
Very cool serious boy!

Great smiles, great friendships!

Okra or lady fingers.
Those don't look like lady fingers to me.

Sunny Sunday afternoon at the beach!
With clothes on!
Very uncommon scene for a Brazilian girl!

You always have fun when you have the Atlantic for you.

Always!

If I swim straight ahead,
I'll cross the Atlantic
and arrive in Brasil.

Sunday Morning, a very elegant Nigerian lady is
probably going to church.

Saturday Night...

Saturday Night Fever Chill

5:32AM of another Saturday night.
The bottle of red wine is empty.
I just drunk the last drop.
Tomorrow is up in Taiwan!

Harm

I don't know what can be

worse or more dangerous in my hands,

better on my fingers:

a well sharp cuticle nipper

or a dull one!

Traveling, Staying, Missing

I started writing this post in Brasil and I didn't finish it. It's very hard for me to finish things when I'm there. I try to take control of my time, but in a way or another I end up with my To-Do list just the way I left it.

Every single time I go to Brasil, I make the commitment to do every single thing I wanna do and guess what? I don't do it! I don't visit the friends I wanna visit, I don't eat the food I wanna eat, I don't go to manicure/pedicure as often as I wanna go and so on. I neglected even some doctors. I feel as my time doesn't belong to me over there. I never get it!

So, since I'm home now, I'll finish the post below that I've started long ago.

Wow, I don't remember being this long without posting anything.
Well, let me see...

My nephew was born on 21st, one day after my birthday and just like my oldest nephew and my niece, he was born on 21st, but in different month. What is amazing about it, is that my father passed away on 21st and this day, of all months, was a very sad day for me, but now, those beautiful human beings came to cheer this day up. Thanks guys!

My nephew is so so cute! I really mean it! He seduced and seduces everybody around him for real. Everybody says that Márcio, my nephew, was born "already raised" because he seems that he is 3 months old already!

Just to keep things on normal level, I'm sick. I got a flu, but not the swine one, just a normal flu that is letting me lazy and I just want to be in bed in a dark room and in silence. The fever is high, but I'm already medicated. It will be over soon. The annoying about it, it's that here in my hometown, people are going nuts because of the swine flu and nobody can sneeze or cough around anymore. I mean, polite sneezing or coughing with your hand blocking the virus to get out of your mouth. If you initiate a sneeze, people immediately give you a weird look.

I'm staying at my mother's because I don't want my newborn nephew and my sister-in-law to get any sick. You know she is nursing.

Anyway, here in Minas Gerais, my state, there is no winter whatsoever. It's hotter now than Nigeria was and I do mean it. Winter now just means one thing: dry season! Days seem even hotter than 15 years ago when I was living in this town. All that my dilemma about what to pack was a really a waste of time. If I could anticipate such a weather I'd pack much lighter . In this 25 days I'm here, I didn't wear any long sleeve yet, just summer dresses and I'm so very sure I will not wear any.

Well, things are pretty ok over here. I have spent a lot of time with my sweet niece Maria Luíza. In fact we are together as rice and beans. We get along very very well and she is definitely my pal. I love the way she talks and conduce herself. It's a little lady and not just a 6 years old girl. Oh boy, I have a lot to learn from her.

Besides my cold, I'm not spending much time at my brother's simply because I have no practice or skills whatsoever with babies. So, if I can't help I think is better not to disturb. I became the delivery lady though. Everything the ladies in charge of taking care of the babe and Marly, my mother and my sister-in-law Márcia, need they ask me and I'm ready to go... or to come.

My fever is a little higher now. Better take a rest.

My fever lasted about a week. It was a hard time for me because I couldn't even read, but also I had a wonderful nurse who took a good care of me. Thanks Maria Luíza! Yes, my niece was there by my side all the time. One afternoon, she was sweeter than ever and I spent all afternoon long resting my head on her lap. We watched Barbie's movies, cartoons. She made me juice, fed me and overcame me with her caress and love! What a doll!

Maria Luíza and I had a great time. Even though we didn't do almost anything on your list, we did a lot. The time to say goodbye was pretty hard on both of us. I couldn't see her eyes full of tears...oh poor thing. She was trying her best to keep me there at least until her birthday now in September 21st. I wish I could!

From Brasil I went to Paris for about 5 days. It was amazing without being redundant. I guess going to Paris is always a amazing experience. I have been there a couple of times and I don't need map anymore to go where I wanna go. This time I stayed in the Quartier Latin, in front L'Université Paris-Sorbonne. From my window, almost covering it as near it was, there was the majestic dome of its chapel. The Théâtre L'Odéon was just 2 blocks away as the Panthéon and the Jardin du Luxembourg also around the corner.

I had a wonderful time there. As it's summer time almost all small museums and galleries are closed for vacation. French style! So, I spent my time going to bistrots to have a glass of champagne at sunset time, then I take time to walk by the Seine river without any rush. Also I spent a lot of time reading in those little charming cafés where you can stay for hours and nobody will disturb asking you to leave.

I didn't go to any tourist spot this time, besides la Cathédrale Notre Dame. I go there every time I'm in Paris firstly to thank God for such a wonderful life and also to feel the smell of centuries of burnt candles. I love it so much. As soon as I step into it, I close my eyes and I let that very particular smell get into my heart. It takes me back in time in seconds. The smell will always be there, impregnated on those secular walls that have been the silent witness of history. I just love it.

Besides many other places, I also went to Centre Pompidou, but it isn't a touristic stroll for me. It's pleasure and work and a must go. I spent the whole day there looking and appreciating Modern and Contemporaneous Art exhibitions.

I told you, I really had a great time there. I will post pictures soon.
I'm finishing my unpacking task, organizing my closet, my house and my academic life and I'm almost getting over of the jet-leg.

Getting rid of the jet-leg seems easy comparing to the knot I have in my heart for missing my nephews and my niece. Guys, you are so especial to me! I love you with all my life, heart and soul!

Ramadan

Happy Ramadan

to all Muslims!

I'm back home!

Nigeria was wonderful, Brasil was perfect and Paris unforgettable. Yep, I'm back home and ready to face many changings and challenges and reality!

I miss my routine, I miss blogging, I miss my silence, I miss my books, I miss my friends and most of all I miss having the key of my home in my purse.

In a way, it's good to be back home.

I remind myself!

There is nothing that I love the most than the surprises of life!

Plans changed!
Life changed!
Trip changed!

Everything change,

but

I remind myself!

Get Together!

I'm still packing. I mean, it's all planned but still packing. It's the make-myself-very-tired plan. In a weird way, it works.

I'm so excited but I already miss my Taiwanese family. I got so attached to the Mania Spa girls that they became my family as much as I love them!

Last night they all came to my house to a little get together party. We had fun! Among wine and cheeses we spent a great time together, took lots of pictures and played with Mei-Hua's girls!

Thanks girls! Thank you for friendship, for your love, for your caress and thank you so much for taking care of my health with such attention!

I love you all! See you guys in August!

Mei-Hua and Ci!
Thanks Ci for massaging me every week for 1 year!

Cheers! Let's celebrate!

My beautiful Mania's girls!

Let's get together when I get back!
There is KTV on my building!

Travel Planning

Things are busier than ever and I'm trying my best to manage everything.

In few days I'm going to leave for almost 3 months trip and I do have a lot to do and I do mean a lot! I have this weird thing that I do need to leave my house spotless before any trip. And as I'm really afraid of airplanes, I stressed myself good cleaning the house on the day of my travel, this way I get at the airport exhaust and as soon as the airplane takes off I sleep off.
I'm doing this for long time and somehow it works!

An issue I'm facing now is packing! Usually it is a pretty easy thing for me, but I'm facing some challenges to do it neat and tidy.
It is a challenging because I'm going to 3 continents: Firstly I'll go to Africa and even though it's the coolest season now in Nigeria, it'll be pretty hot for me. Then I'll go to America, South America folks and it'll be winter in Brasil!

As almost everybody knows, Brasil is a tropical country and for about 2 months or less we have really cold days from central to south of the country. For this reason is very rare to find a house with heat system and this make the few cold days colder. And as I'm very sensitive to cold, I do need to pay attention on what to pack to take "home".

Keep traveling... After spending 43 days in Brasil and meeting my new-born nephew and going through the "to do list" my 6 years old niece Maria Luiza is preparing for us to do together, I'll go to Paris for a week just for fun. In Europe, in August, will be summer time and I want to enjoy Paris almost 24 hours and that means just one thing: walk!

All my "what-to-take" lists are almost ready. I mean, listing everything makes me organized and takes my mind out of things I already listed.

Well, I guess that once again this blog straighted things out for me. I just realized that the packing will not the that challenge as I was previously thinking. After all, I'm going to sunny places even though it will be winter in Brasil. Yeah, I guess that's it!

But besides the packing issue I need to organize my academic term to pack as well. And books! And reading and research materials! And notebooks! And portable hard drives!

Maybe all those worries are just me stressing myself out as usual! But you know proper prior planning prevents poor performance!