Working on Saturday?? Brasilian wedding!! Ouro Preto.

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If you don´t know already, when Brasil plays in the world cup the whole country completely shuts down. Everyone goes home or to a party from work and finds a good television to watch the game. I was told the sale of tv´s before the world cup increases 300%. One electronic store had this sale on that if you buy a plazma tv (a $10 000 tv) before the world cup and brasil goes on to win the cup, they will sell you a second plazma tv for only $1 real.

So on thursday, we took most of the afternoon off to watch the game against Japan. Cool right. Little did I know that you have to come in on saturday to make up for lost time at work. Life can´t be all good I guess. It´s not like I do real work anyways... It´s an internship for pete´s sake.

I didn´t have any plans for saturday, but a good friend of mine at work, Frede, offered to take me to this historic city where his girfriend is from and to go to a wedding of their friend there. We had to leave after work so we missed the actual wedding ceremony at the church, but we made it for the party. Pretty much the same as a wedding reception in canada but without all the speaches.

First thing, the alcohol flows like water. There are waiters walking around with treys of beer and campaign and wine. They float around and fill your glass with whatever you please. I would only have to take one sip of beer and turn my head to see that I have a full glass again. Frede was introducing me to everyone so he had a bussy night translating because no one spoke english there. I had a few good dancing partners too, but no samba yet. I don´t think brasilians are a crazy about samba as I was led to believe. Of course I had to dance with the fun loving aunt... imagine me and auntie Gerry on the dance floor. I was spinning her, twirling her... it was a blast. I think I impressed them with my dancing talent.

And pictures. I was in there like part of the family. I got pictures of everyone. Even one with just me and the bride and groom. If you´re lucky enough you might even see some video clips!

The next day we did a short tour of the city, Ouro Preto. It used to be the capital of the state, Minas Gerais, but now it´s a historic site and a university town. Lots of churches and old buildings, narrow cobble streets and beautiful mountains. This area of brasil has a lot of small mountains. Minas in english means mining and that´s basically the main industry here. I thought it was interesting that I was in a mining city in Germany and now I´m in a mining state in Brasil.

That´s it for now...

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Photos

BUNGEE
Adrenelin junkies bungee jump off this bridge illegally.

Ouro Preto
This is the landscape around this part of Brasil.

Wedding Crashers anyone?
Beautiful girl, great dancer... what more could you ask for??

Frede and his Girlfriend
Frede, or Fredrico is one of my friends from work. He is the one that invited me to the wedding. We stayed at his girlfriend´s place in Ouro Preto.

Cup Colors
Decorations for the World Cup in Ouro Preto against the historic building.

I made some friends
To the left is the father of Frede´s girlfriend. They own a small hotel in this touristy town where we stayed the night. To the right is this awesome guy who danced the whole night and partied like he was 20 years old again

Comments

[chantelle]

see Daniel? now why would anyone ever want a "real job". I think samba is more of a show dance than a social dance. You may have to put in a special request. Or maybe you have seen it and just don't recognize it. How about salsa?

[ahndreea]

yay
i'm glad you're going to bank time for our vacation! sounds like work is annoying you, what with the 2hr lunches and requiring that you work on saturday to make up for friday. in mexico, the nice neighbourhoods are the same as brazil: high fences and all that. it's interesting how the gap between the rich and the poor can be so much wider in other countires than it is here.

[Andres..the costarican]

No title
That wedding looks like it was a lot of fun. It is always hard to see both ends of the scale. Even growing up home sometimes when you see people that are less fortunate than you it gets to you. The bright side of my background is that Costa Rica has a much better distribution. They say...and by "they" i mean...they, that we have the largest middle class in central america. So its interesting cuz you won't see very, very rich people, like you do in Brasil..its more even. Yeah I read that you are taken aback by the wires and glass and walls. You also see it in Costa Rica. They also have gatted communities. Acutally there are more of these in Guatemala. My parents live in one...its nice. Very different from Canada for sure. Oh well...enough blah for now. Take care

[Paul Mac]

I love brazil
Looks like you had your hands full with those sisters at the wedding. It's always so easy to meet people in brazil, it really made my time there very enjoyable. Yea you really dont see much samba dancing there unless your in Rio, is everyone still crazy about Forro ?