In the morning, we made our way to the beach. I can´t remember the name but it is just a small beach close to Pão de Açucar. There is a Naval Academy close by so there is less danger of getting robbed here (that is always a danger in Rio). Silvestre, Gustavo and I took a walk on a path around the coastal mountains. We saw many people fishing and even someone harpoon fishing for octapus, pretty cool. When we got back to the beach I had to get a cococut to drink the refreshing water inside. How perfect is that... sitting on the beach, drinking out of a coconut! It´s what every beach holiday must have. I was only missing the little paper umbrella. Finally it was time for me to go swimming. To the ... read more

Frede invited me to watch a group of his friends who get together and play Forró (pronounced Foho) which is a specific type of Brasilian music played in the northeast. He refuses to call themselves a band, just some friends who play together, but they are playing at this party on friday and again next weekend. They rent time at this music studio where they can practice in a sound-proof room. I was sitting through almost 3 hours of Forró and then they bust into "have you ever seen the rain" by CCR. Of course I took to the mic. After we went to this sandwich joint called Kibocão and chowed down. Rick would love it here because they put what is the equivalent to potato chips in their burgers. Burger barron, eat your heart out!!! ... read more

Just some pictures of people in my office and maybe the odd story... I will continually update this adding pictures etc... Tectran does transportation consulting and design. For example, the government might ask them to do an engineering study on the viability of a new roads project or Tectran might be asked to design a parkade for a new shopping centre. ... read more

Work for the most part is pretty boring. Like I said, a typical internship consists of you sitting in front of your computer trying to look busy, but in fact, everyone knows that you are doing absolutely nothing and they are ok with that. For example, one can occupy the entire day doing simple things on the computer like checking your email, chatting on msn, googling things that interest you, listening to online radio (if you are lucky enough to have earphones), writing travelblog entries, etc. Here are some of my favorite online Radio stations... 1) CBC radio 1 - a good source of local Canadian news for when you are out of the country and some all round good talk radio 2) CBC radio 2 - Classical music is always nice when you are working ... read more

So Monday I went out with a friend from work, Frederico. He plays keyboard with some bands here in Belo and I´m always asking him to take me to one of his show so I can see him play. I went with him after work to watch him play, but on the way there the car was over heating. We had to pull over on the freeway to check out what was wrong. The fan in front of the radiator wasn´t working. We waited a while for the engine to cool down and then had to make our way to the nearest gas station to see if we could fix it. The traffic was bumper to bumper, but we decided to see if we could make it because we were so close. We were running late, ... read more

First off, I would like to thank Rinse for the reminder that Brasil played France this weekend and lost. I´m pretty sure I watched the game. Yes, It´s true... Brasil is out of the world cup having lost to France 1-nill. I told you that the people here in Brasil were a little worried this might happen. twice before, France had been the team to eliminate Brasil and somehow they managed to do it again. If Brasil had french fries, they´d change them to Samba-fries godammit!! We watched the game at one of Caro´s friends place. They have a penthouse appartment with nice patio (Rinse, I know you´d love the PATIO *Dutch accent*). BBQ of course, lots of roasted meats and cheese, and ice cold beer (I think I already explained how in Brasil they drink ... read more