Uni

This week has suddenly been quite stressful at school, and particulary with very little sleep. I hadn't studied much before, so this week there were two tests and two group works to hand in, which was even more painful after only three hours rest on Sunday morning and class starting on Monday at 7 a.m.! But okay, we finished everything on time and quite alright, thank god I'm an exchange students and people don't expect the same commitment (yet).

Barretos

Last weekend was a great trip again! Henrique, my German friend Paula's cousin, who lives in Sao Paulo, invited me to spend some days with his familiy in the countryside town of Barretos, about 400km north of SP. Oddly, he didn't want to go himself, but I agreed and so drove there with a lift he'd organized.
His family are some kind of wealthy farmers with several cattle ranches and sugar cane plantations in several states throughout Brazil. However, at this time, they only people who stayed there were on visit: Henrique's sister Adriana with husband and baby, his brother Antenor with girlfriend and a couple of other friends, besides about 5 permanent staff.
Barretos these days is setting to the largest rodeo festival either in Brazil or in the world, according to different sources ;) There is a huge park in the city with a 30,000-seat rodeo arena. Around it, there's some kind of carnival with lots of stands and attractions, besides numerous so-called ranchos which are privately-owned restaurants only accessible to members, where people eat, drink and talk. The whole thing is only busy during the two weeks of the festival, the rest of the year it's dead.
Henrique's family is member of one rancho, so that's where we spend most of the daytime. On evenings there were the competitions in the arena with several disciplines, such as bulldog (riding on a wild bull) or one that looks like playing judo with a 350kg-calf.
Most people were dressed like cowboys with boots, hat etc. so it's probably very similar to rodeo in the U.S. The competitors, besides Brazil, came from Mexico, the U.S., Canada and Australia.
On Friday and Saturday night of the closing week, there is a famous party in Barretos called Festa do Patrao. However, it has nothing to do with the rodeo, mainly rich people from Sao Paulo coming only for the party, as it cost about $110 for two days. I got it for less and went on Saturday with some friends and it was really good. I stayed until 9 a.m. By late afternoon on Sunday, I returned to SP.

Rodeo discipline called bulldog

The Rodeo arena


"Touro Mecânico"

The park

More pics from Iguassu

Iguazú, Argentinian side

On the next day we crossed the border to Argentina to see the other side of the falls. I was happy to get a reduced entrance fee as Brazilian resident ;) The other side is totally different to the Brazilian one. From Brazil you see the whole panoramic view of the falls, whereas from Argentina you can get very close to the falls themselves. And there it didn't matter anymore whether or not the falls were dry because even then it was a huge amount of water coming down. We just stood there for a long while, it was really impressive.
But before that we took a trail through the jungle for 3 km or so, it was a beautiful day and we saw some animals like a capivara (that's like a huge guinea pig that swims in the water), monkeys, alligators, colorful birds and lots of butterflies.

Later that day I returned to Brazil to catch my bus to Sao Paulo. It was full with smuggler who came back from Paraguay. Many of them do that several times a week and were there when the bus got robbed a week or so before! Although it was a long 17-hour ride I slept the whole time and got back to SP well around noon on Sunday.


Jungle

Crocodile

River near the falls

From far away they don't look that huge do they?

Iguassu Falls, Brazilian Side and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay

Last Wednesday, August 17th, I left Sao Paulo for a great trip to the Iguassu Falls! I was to meet my buddy Sebastian, from Cologne, there, who will be on exchange in Lima, Peru for the next five monthts, and who visited a mutual friend of ours in Buenos Aires. As Iguassu is about the same distance away from Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires we decided to meet there and check out the waterfalls.
Thursday morning I went to pick him up on the Argentinian side. However, his flight was delayed by two hours, so when he arrived around 2.30 pm there was not enough time left to see either side of the falls.
Therefore we decided to visit Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, which is just on the other side of the Paraná river from Foz do Iguaçú, Brazil. For all of you who don't know: it's a dirty shithole! Ciudad del Este is the biggest marketplace for smuggled goods and drugs of all of South America! It's probably the dirties place outside of Calcutta and you can buy everything you want, so it's packed with stores, shopping malls and thousands of street stands. Surprisingly, as Brazil and Paraguay are both parts of Mercosur, there are hardly any border controls and the bridge is incredibly busy with pedestrians and trucks crossing in either direction. Additionally, the bridge, which is some 50 meters above the river doesn't have but very low handrails, so it's kind of scary. If you want an immigration stamp you need to you to the office yourself and it looks like the perfect parody of what you imagine as a Banana republic. Some sinister-looking, cigar-smoking fat guy with moustache in a dark room behind a window asks questions about your stay in Paraguay.
On the whole, Sebastian, who had been in South America for only three days wanted to leave as soon as possible, so I just bought a (fake) shirt of FC Sao Paulo and then we returned to Brazil. Sebastian said he never imagined he'd feel releaved coming back to Brazil!
Anyway, as Paraguay wasn't an option and Puerto Iguazú, on the Argentinian side, turned out to be a soulless hicktown we decided to spend the night in Foz, a neat little town, basically for tourist.
After a weird experience with an annoying "hotel guide" we chose a nive hotel and the went to a excellent churrascaria (Brazilian steak house).

The next day was about visiting the Brazilian side of the waterfalls. Here you get a panoramic view on all the waterfalls, over a lenght of several kilometers. As people had kept telling us that the falls were extremely dry, only 20% of the normal amount of water, we were curious to find out.
Indeed, the first view was disappointing: as in the picture below, everything that had once been waterfalls were now only rocks! No more waterfalls. We followed the path and had several nice views over the valley and the rocks. Then in the end we could finally see the rear end of the valley, the "Garganta do Diabo" (Devil's Throat). Even now it was still a hell lot of water coming down, so we walked around and checked it out from different perspectives.
On our way back we saw some funny raccoon-like animals, called coati, that walked around the park.
When back to Foz, the day wasn't over yet, so we went to the Itaipu Dam, which retains the Paraná river and which, according to the tour, is the largest construction build by man in the 20th century. It's the most powerful hydroelectric plant in the world, even more than the Three Gorges Dam in China, and produces 90% of all electric energy consumed in Paraguay and 25% of all electricity of Brazil!

Street in Foz, Brazil

Dry part of the waterfalls

Sebastian and me on the Brazil side of the falls

Coati Raccoons

Border between Brazil and Paraguay

Itaipu Dam

Birthday

On Thursday night I invited all exchange students and Brazilian friends to a bar near school. It was so much fun that we stayed until 3:30 a.m.
Afterwards, two Brazilian friends (girls) were so drunk they had a car accident (drinking and driving in Brazil - another chapter I'll have to tell you guys about one day).

Elisa, Barry and David (U.S.)

Turma da Nina ;)

My roommates: Raphael (Farina/Princesa) and Thiago
My 'buddy' Jad!

Stadium

I have been twice to the Morumbi Stadium of São Paulo lately. Once for the semifinal of the Copa Libertadores (South America equivalent to our Champions League), where FC São Paulo beat Chivas from Mexico 3-0, and then for the first final game where São Paulo lost, unfortunately, against Internacional (Brazil).
Both times I went with a bunch of other exchange students from FGV and some of our Brazilian "buddies", who had organized everything. My "buddy", Jad, even invited my for the Second game.
For the final game, my friend Rodrigo, whom I knew from his exchange to Germany, came over from Florianopolis.
Even though the stadium "only" has space for about 70,000 fans, which is less than I thought, it's still a great atmosphere when 70,000 sing, scream, jump and light smoke bombs, especially when São Paulo scored some goals!
On our way to the semifinal game, something funny happened, too: Our cab suddenly ran out of gas because the driver had not checked before. He even didn't have any money to buy more so he had to borrow some from us and then walked away before he came back with some fuel in a plastic bag!

"...a tricolo-o-o-o-or!"

"???, me, Pent-Ji, Mafe, Jad"

Didu & me

First days

During the first days after my arrival I stayed at my buddy Zandor's. However, his family lives in Saúde neighborhood, about 40 minutes or so by bus and subway from University. Therefore I wanted to find my own place as soon as possible.
At school there is a blackboard with offers and I only checked out two appartments before I decided where to stay.
I now live in a shared appartment with two other Brazilian guys who study at the same university. They are great guys, although a little bit messy. The appartment is on the 20th (!) floor of a building about 10 minutes walking from my university in Bela Vista neighborhood, about 3 blocks from Avenida Paulista, which is the main business area of Sao Paulo, with lots of banks and skyscrapers. It's not too bad to live in such a building as it's very safe. You have to pass security check of both the complex and the building and then you need a key to access the elevators. The complex consists of five buildings and in between theres is something like a little park with flowers, fountains and children's playgrounds. Additionally, there is a huge supermarket two blocks away, so that's pretty convenient.
The only thing is that the appartment is lacking some important things so I'll have to buy some stuff by myself. Everything else is fine!