Carnaval weekend...

And what a weekend it was!

Friday I had my first group lessons. VERY nice students so yay wasnt slaughtered like I was afraid of! Managed to teach them the Hokey Cokey and played Simon Says, so I had fun...hope they did too. Then that evening was Mari's (a friend of Gabi's) graduation party....this time I wasnt shocked by the catwalk, party poppers, banners, world's supply of glitter or amazing beer (waiters just walk around filling up your glass...we need to have that in England!). Had a lot of fun, even managed to dance some sertaneja and samba without TOTALLY embarassing myself. Got told by Bruna that I could almost be dancing like a Brazilian...if you didnt really look at my feet properly. Thanks for that. Got home at 5am and collapsed into bed. An amazing first night of our 5 day weekend :)

Woke up late the next day...as in got a knock on my door saying lunch was ready! But was totally recovered and ready to enjoy my afternoon. Went for a two hour bike ride around the city with my boss Denise. Was lovely. Exactly like riding in the Chilterns...LOTS of hills. (My legs still ache!) Literally could not stop smiling the entire ride...was like I AM IN BRAZIL!!!!! I AM ACTUALLY IN BRAZIL!!!! Was a beautifully sunny day and my tan is slowly but surely coming along. Unfortunately I know what will happen. May will be super hot in England and I will come back to everyone being browner than me :( Went out for dinner after a much needed shower to this cool bar that brews its own beer. Had pizza and beer...classy I know. But was so delicious and another great evening that didnt have me home the same day I woke up!

Sunday I sunbathed. Yes. It was that hot. Sat outside all morning just soaking up the rays and desperately trying to learn some more portuguese, it is slowly getting there but incredibly difficult! In the afternoon Gabi took me to her friend's house where we hung out with all her guy friends. It is quite clear that young people are the same wherever you are in the world, as the afternoon consisted just like it does at home of sitting around and drinking beer (only here we were outside in the beautiful sunshine!). They are all really cool guys and remind me very much of when the boys back home get together. Crude conversations, taking the piss of the girls, drinking too much...hmmmmm very familiar! In the evening I went to one of my colleagues Roderigo's house to meet some other new people and attempt to make friends. This was my first outing without Gabi and I was scared that these new people might be like "why are you here?" and "you can't join our group". But it was the exact opposite :) Everyone was so welcoming and even the language barrier didnt stop us gossiping, dancing and drinking. Had a fantastic evening with guitars being brought out well after midnight for me to hear some traditional Brazilian rock. In so many ways it was just like parties at home, but in other ways it was totally different. The soundtrack would change from Foo Fighters to some obscure Brazilian folk song and I loved hearing people talk "normal" portuguese rather than the formal stuff I've been using so far. Was a fantastic night :)

The next day was my first proper hangover day in Brazil...and I'm pretty sure it was the energy drink and not the vodka that made me feel so crap. eurgh. so watched many MANY episodes of friends and slepttttt. The day ended on a high though with a big family game of cards (Mum you probably know this game but it orginated from South America which is cool), its called Canasta and was a lot of fun :) We played for hours on end!

Carnaval weekend passed so quickly and soon enough it was tuesday and our last day off :( Gabi and I had plans for a big night out with loads of people and drove around Cascavel to find NO-ONE willing to come out. However that did not stop us having an amazing time! We grabbed Monica and headed to the same bar that brews its beer....an eventful evening ensued! Firstly we werent served for agessssssssss so we got free beers on the house, yay. After this Monica and I got our drinks but Gabi was told that the bartender couldnt be bothered to make another drink so she couldnt have one. (Was imagining what would have happened at Yates if I had said that to a customer...lol). We found this ridiculous! As did one of the waiters it would appear who, bless him, went behind the bar and made one himself...this was again free...and so it should have been considering the reason it took so long was cause the barman was lazy!!!!!!!! Then one of Gabi's friends came into the bar so he joined us and we chatted in portenglish for a while...he then bought us a round of drinks and paid for our previous ones despite much protesting from Monica and I who had just met the guy. This whole time most of the bar had been staring at us, the quite obvious tourists speaking very bad portuguese, so at this point we got ANOTHER round of beers sent to us from a group of guys. They were really yummy...the beers...not the guys...the guys were old and weird looking..but the beers were cherry flavoured and although they tasted very girly were delicious. We eventually looked at the time and realised it was 2am and we had to drop Monica home...and we had work in the morning! So we left the bar...getting a note from another group of guys who had obviously spent all night coming up with the following sentence in english...

"we want to meet yours" and then drawing a picture of their table and labeling who was sitting where! Quite amusing as we had to keep straight faces until they couldnt see us howling with laughter! Great girls night out :)

Just realised how much Ive written...and I still have more stories to tell! I wish you could all be here with me and be experiencing all of this.

Wednesday was our day back at New York School and was just meetings to talk about the semester. As Tuesday had been International Womens Day we received potted plants from Denise and roses from the male members of staff....was so lovely :) and I now have them both in my room to liven it up! Spent the rest of Wednesday learning how to make a Flipchart on this cool computer programme they have at the school...but in reality it was just Me, Roderigo and Gabi partying in a classroom watching videos on youtube.

It really has been my best week so far and I have lots of plans already in place for this weekend....missing you all :)

Lottie xxxx