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Daniel Leidl
Days before leaving to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on an IAESTE internship program a good friend of mine, Hugh, wrote in to Rex Murphy's Cross Country Check-up. He commented on the disagreement between the Prime Minister and the Ottawa Press Gallery using the word "circumlocutorily" (sound it out) to express the way Stephen Harper answered the press's questions. The word stumped Mr. Murphy, quoting "I'll have to get back to you on that one." It reminded me of all the beating around the bush, to put it in layman's terms, leading up to my internship and I thought it a fitting choice for the title of this travel blog. So there you have it, enjoy the blog. To read the rest of Hugh's letter go to http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/letters060528.htmlCircumlocutorily
Travel Blog Posts
August 26th 2006
Well today is my last day in paradise, that is my last day at the beach in Porto Seguro. Andrea and I had an awesome time here soaking up the sun. She left early (05:00) yesterday morning to Rio to catch her flight to Mexico City and left me to enjoy an extra two days here. Luckly we met a young German couple who were holidaying here until they go to Bolivia so I´ve been hanging out with them since Andrea left. The tour company we came with, cvc, has been great. We did a city tour on monday followed by a visit to the north beach. This beach is heavily commercialized with bar after bar on the sand where you can enjoy a cold Capirinha before a dip in the ocean, but there are so ... read more
Pick up Andrea del Campo
Published: August 23rd 2006South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » IpanemaAugust 23rd 2006
After taking the 7 hour bus from BH to Rio, I met Marcelo´s driver, Sergio, at the bus station. Yes, they have a driver... It´s pretty cool, he´ll take you anywhere, but the converstion was a little stale in the car, but that´s better than takig a taxi. Because Marcelo was working and busy with classes I got to hang out with his brother Felipe who just returned home from a 6 month stint in Europe where he was going to school in Spain and travelling around. I met Felipe for the first time and he´s a really cool guy. Where Marcelo is very talented in design and art and knows a lot of music, well, Felipe is the jock in the family. The first night Felipe and I met up with some friends I was ... read more
Capoeira is so Guto
Published: August 15th 2006South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte
August 13th 2006
This was my last week playing Capoeira and I´m a little sad now that it´s finished. My last two days were amazing... on wednesday after class we walked to this little lake near by to have a jogo. It was fantastic!! This is what it´s all about... we were outside under the full moon singing songs and playing capoeira. Across the lake you could see the favela lit up by the lights and a couple people from there came out to play with us and they were really good. Guilherme was taking pictures and at the end we had a picture of everyone in my class. Thursday was my last day, we had a class and then a jogo afterwards. At the end, Guto said some nice things about me and everyone clapped their for me. ... read more
August 12th 2006
On Saturday I had my fairwell party at my friend Guilherme´s house. We had about 20 people come out to enjoy some soda, beer and a really nice BBQ. The night before, Guilherme and I bought almost 300 reais worth of food and drinks. We set everything up in the party room of his building including the projector to show the game 7 stanley cup final (thanks Francine!). Let the pictures do the explaining...... read more
I am Espiga, hear me roar!
Published: August 9th 2006South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte
August 8th 2006
After practicing capoeira for almost one month I have shown to the class and my teacher, Guto, that I have learned the 8 different sequences and that I am ready to move on to the next level. Thus the baptismal ceremony.... At the end of every class there is a jogo, a capoeira session if you will, where they actually play capoeira in the roda (circle) and not just practice the sequences. In a jogo, there are no rules... you can do any movement you like to try to out-play your opponent. Before, I was only allowed to watch and clap my hands with the music, but yesterday at my baptismal ceremony it was my first time to actually participate in the jogo. I was called forward by Guto and was matched with Juan, who is ... read more
Cruzeiro vs. Santa Cruz
Published: August 7th 2006South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo HorizonteAugust 7th 2006
Tonight, Felipe and a friend of his took me to a football match of their favorite club Cruzeiro. I´m obviously lacking some pictures, so I´ll try to elaborate as much as possible to convey the scene. First off, Felipe picks me up and we head to a simple bar for a beer. I love these bars and I wish they existed in Canada, but due to the strict liquor laws we have I think they would be impossible. Spread out across the sidewalk are these plastic tables and chairs, usually with beer advertisements on them like Skol or Antarctica. These are good places to just come and talk with friends. We shared 2 bottles and just enjoyed the rest of the day leading up to the game. These bars would only exits in Canada if walls ... read more
August 5th 2006
The day after... two words, my god. What the hell happened last night? Well, let me try to begin to explain... Rafael invited me to Carna Brahma which is an axe music festival (axe is pronounced ashay and it is a type of music played in Brasil usually during carnaval). We met up with 12 of his friends and we all took a rented van to the event. When we arrived there everyone piled out of the van and the guys, including me, lined to take a leak at this bush. After draining ourselves, we made our way up the hill to where the concert was being held. About half way up, I realized that my camera was not on my belt anymore and I had no idea where it was... Kenya phoned the van guy ... read more
August 4th 2006
I knew it was eventually going to happen, it was only a matter of time..... I went out with Guilherme last night to a reggae show and I invited my friend Maria along. It was just the three of us chatting away by the bar, but our view of the stage was at such an angle that it was blocked by the speakers. The show was supposed to start at 10pm and they were playing reggae music off a cd until the band would start, but 10 o´clock came and went and still no band. Everytime a new song would come on we would think... is this the band? is this the band? But upon investigation (ie. walking so we could see the stage) we would find that indeed, no, it wasn´t the band yet. Soon ... read more
July 30th 2006
Yesterday was Fred´s grand party. For the last 4 years, him and his girlfriend´s family have been putting on these cultural parties where everyone is to dress-up like they are from the country (plad shirt, straw hat, patched jeans), dance Forró and eat and drink lots of good food and beer/pinga. I was helping Fred all day prepare for the party getting the drums and chairs and tables. His band was going to play so they rented a huge sound system. The party was great... a lot of friends from work came. At the end of the bands first set Fred calls me up on stage. Again I was introduced as the special guest from Canada. We had planned to do a little joke for everyone. I said something short into the microphone thanking the host ... read more
July 21st 2006
Before this year I never really liked electronic music. I always thought it was kinda annoying (oon tis oon tis oon tis oon tis...). I was introduced to a local Emonton DJ, Luke Morrison, who plays house music. After listening to his cd´s and also downloading some of his promo music off his website (www.lukemorrison.com) I slowly gained an appreciation. Carolina and I were driving to work one day and she pointed out a Paul Van Dyk poster. I had no idea who he was, but apparently the number 1 DJ in the world was coming to Belo Horizonte. Luis from work is a HUGE electronic music fan. Him and a friend flew to São Paulo to see Paul Van Dyk, they partyed all night then came back the next morning. I told him I was ... read more
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