2013: Wow.

Hey friends!

Sorry, I know it has been such a long time since I've written here, but it's been because my life has been a whirlwind of events....which I will now tell you about.

I think I left off in at the beginning of December. Well, I surprised a few people by going back to Wisconsin to celebrate Christmas with the fam. It was so much fun, but since this is my blog about Brazil, I won't bore you all with Hayes family Christmas story. Because, ya know, some things that happen at home are just not that interesting if you aren't from our family, because you probably don't understand Genevieve's humor. 

My wonderful mother and I at Christmas. Isn't she beautiful!?

Well, I got back to Brazil right after Christmas, but instead of going back to Belo Horizonte, I went to spend New Years in São Paulo, the 3^rd largest city in the world. I met my best friend in the whole world there, Elayna Napoli. She promised me a few years ago that if me and Luan were ever in Brazil at the same time, she would come visit us there. Well, not only are we in Brazil at the same time, but we are also living together in the same city. So obviously, she came to see us and Brazil, and she brought her awesome friend, Jeanette, as well.

New Years was really awesome here. In Brazil, they have a color-coded New Years. For instance, red underwear will start you off with love and passion in the new year (and you might get it on that night too), purple gives you inspiration, yellow will give you economic luck, but almost everybody wears white, which signifies peace and prosperity. Honestly, I was shocked at how many people were using white. Maybe it's just because I was in such a large city, but I felt like I was walking through whipped cream. Everybody had on their nicest white clothes. Anyways, we ended up going to a very fun house party of our friend and danced like fools (gringos) the entire night. Great food, great drinks, great dancing. It was such a blast. We climbed on the metro at 7am to go home and sleep as everyone was going to work. 

Luan, me, Jeanette, and Elayna very "happy" at the NYE party

After São Paulo, we went back to Belo Horizonte for a few days. It was so wonderful to see everyone again. I was really missing my Brazilian home (and a certain special person as well). Showing the girls Belo Horizonte was a great experience for all of us. We did a lot of interesting activities that honestly I didn't even know existed in BH. We went on the outskirts of town to go river hiking and explore some waterfalls and swimming holes to play in. Then we had a big BBQ on the block with close friends of mine. Everyone was loving seeing all the gringos in one place tasting Brazilian BBQ and learning how to make caipirinhas (national Brazilian drink of sugar cane rum, lime, and sugar) for the first time. I think the girls had a really fun time seeing the city I live in. Oh yea, and Elayna loved seeing the capybaras (worlds largest rodent).

Elayna, João, Albert, and Cris taking a swim break on our river hike

When our short 3 days in Belo Horizonte, we all headed to Rio. I've said it before in an earlier blog post, but damn, I love Rio. So here was the plan. I went with my two best Brazilian friends, Maria and Luan, and my two American friends, Elayna and Jeanette. We rented an apartment in Botafogo for 6 days. Then on the last day, my guy, Igor came, the girls went back to the states, Luan and Maria went back to BH, and I stayed with Igor for a 5 days in an apartment that we rented in Copacabana. Understand???? Anyways, I couldn't have asked for a better vacation. Everyday we did something different. With the whole gang, we rented bikes to get around easily, we went to a bunch of different beaches, kayak in the ocean, partying in Lapa street. Then when it was just Igor and I, we met up with some friends, made lots of good food, caught everyone's attention at the beach taking ridiculous photos (see below for a few examples). The apartment we rented was the bomb. We rented from some old German guy who lives in Rio now, but he was traveling to Switzerland for a few months so was renting out his apartment for extremely cheap during the holidays. I was in the center of Copacabana, on the busiest street, everything we needed in a blocks distance, huge bed, totally equipped kitchen, big tub, located on the 11^th floor of the building, so extremely quiet as well. Oh and most importantly, 2 blocks from Copacabana beach. Man, it was the hoooooook-up. On the last day we went up to Cristo Redentor, one of the new 7 wonders of the world. Ya know, the big huge Jesus on the top of a mountain. The site from the top just blows you away. It was so beautiful and powerful up there, I got goosebumps the minute I arrived. It was the perfect way to end a really wonderful time in Rio. This trip was perfect for everyone because we were all really in need of relaxing our heads after/before stressful happenings in our life. Here are the pics of Igor and I messing around in Copacabana....

In other words, an extremely shortened version of this blog post, 2013 for me started off in a challenging, yet really progressive and inspirational manner. I've got this weird feeling that it is gonna keep up that way.......

Very soon I will catch you up on the two most recent awesome experiences I've had lately, the Inka Trail to Machu Picchu and Carnaval, Brazil's biggest holiday.

I know I keep saying it, but I'm just so happy here. It's crazy how fast time goes by though, scary actually. I'm more than halfway through my exchange (yea, I've already had a crying sesh). I've got a lot of good going on for me these days. My knowledge of Portuguese is getting larger and more fluent everyday (as my English goes down the tubes). Portuguese is such a fun language to learn. It's so interesting to me that I've created such strong friendships through a language that isn't my native tongue. I've been in a relationship (GASP!!!!!) for more than 3 months now, and besides our days to practice English, it has been in just Portuguese. We have created something really amazing over our time spent together. It's an experience that nobody could forget. But like I said, I won't get into the personal stuff too much here, if you want the details, shoot me a message here or to my Facebook. Just know that I am so happy being with this person, our story together so far has been crazy, but the connection we have is so strong. I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen when it's time to leave the wonderful BH. Ahhhh! Cruel love!!!!!!

In any event, like I said, I will catch you up on some more interesting happenings sometime this week. I hope you are enjoying the posts so far! Hit me up sometime because if you are my friend enough to read this whole thing, I probably miss you.

You shall hear from me soon!!!!!

Beijos,

RJ

December?

Hello folks! It's that time of month again! Two marvelous weeks have gone by since my last post.

I need to start out by talking about the weather. It never really occurred to me that December had already arrived, and here's why. My peeps in Wisconsin will understand. As I was walking to the gym in shorts, a sleeveless shirt, and sandals, I broke out in a sweat because of the 90 degree sun beating down on me. I looked at my watch which read that it was the 1st of December. Wait wait, what? I believe last December 1st I was tucked under 8 blankets, with my heavy duty boots and winter jacket, thinking about how I was going to make it to class through all the snow and ice. Oh how times have changed! I still haven't decided which I prefer, though. I am definitely used to the heat by now, something about wearing as few clothes as possible all year long is kind of great. But I do sincerely miss the cold (I can't believe I just said that).

Anyways, the semester is coming along quite well, but is close to an end for Anthropology. These next ten days are going to be absolutely crazy because, WITH PERMISSION FROM MY TEACHERS (*mom, dad, grandma, aunt mary, university of wisconsin madison, don't fret, I got permission*), I will be taking off of the last week and a half of classes to do a little traveling before Christmas. Oh, the luxuries of being an exchange student! Except not. Because this means that I have to hand in all my final papers and assignments 1.5 weeks in advance.......it's not that easy, ok? I can't wait to be done because my summer break is backwards here, so after Christmas, I have all of January and February to relax until classes start up again sometime in March. But while all ya'll back home will finish in May, I have classes until July :(

OK, something about me, that is completely in contrast with Brazil is the fact that I am a morning person. For about half of Belo Horizonte, morning does not exist. Last Saturday, Maeva, Maria, Igor, and I decided to hit up Inhotim, a nature preserve tourist attraction. It's an hour bus ride away, perfect, cheap way to spend the day, have a picnic, and take awesome pictures. The only downfall is that there is only ONE bus that goes there and ONE that goes home. And the bus leaves at 9:15 in the morning, which instantly brought doubt to my plans, because we would have to leave the house at 8 in the morning, god forbid, to catch the bus. To make a long story short, we arrived with 3 minutes before the bus left, but there were only 3 seats left, and there were 4 of us. Damnit! But we were ready for a nice day, picnic, camera, and all. Some stupid bus wasn't about to ruin our Saturday plans. We decided to catch a different bus which brought us to another park in the hills of Belo Horizonte. It turned out to be a really wonderful day. We slept and played in the grass, had our picnic, and walked A LOT. We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather as well. It's that kind of spontaneous, unexpected fun that I will always remember. Here are a few pics from Mangabeiras Park.

Over these past few weeks, I have gotten very close with a Brazilian family who lives in my neighborhood. We don't live in the safest neighborhood, it is on the outskirts of a Brazilian favela, but a family who lives a few blocks away started inviting Maeva and I to partake in their barbecues and parties. It's a huge family that lives together under the same roof. Uncles, aunts, cousins, moms, dads, grandparents, babies, dogs, the whole sha-bang. In any event, they are such a wonderful family. They all work during the day and then go home to their house, which is conveniently next to the bar that one of the family members owns (his nickname is Barriga, which means "Stomach" in Portuguese), grab lawn chairs, turn up the music from the car sub-woofers, and drink out on the street. Someone makes a huge portion of food, and everyone relaxes. They are so welcoming and have become like a real family for me. They've taken me in as their American son, or my nickname of which I am known, "My blonde" (meu louro). If someone would have told me that my closest friends here would be a family of people, everyone over 35 years old, I would have laughed at them, but everything happens for a reason, and I am so happy to be apart of their big Brazilian family. Here is Maeva and I with Angelita outside the bar and their house at Manu's third birthday party (fairy themed). She is our friend who was the first to start inviting us to their family functions. She has been such an amazing contact for us both.

Lastly, personal life, if you wanna know the juicy details, hit me up folks. Sorry, some things are better left out of the blog. But just know, my friends, that unexpected, unplanned, absolutely beautiful things can happen to any one of you at any moment that will totally turn your life around.

Here is my Brazilian music suggestion for ya'll, definitely worth the listen on this lazy Sunday, enjoy! Seu Jorge: Tive Razão

Level of happiness: Dangerously high. I seriously can't promise any one of you that I will show up in the states after this year is over ;)

Peace, Ardge

November: Nostalgia

Hey Friends! You thought I disappeared. Don't fret, I'm still kickin' it in Brazil.

November is a hard month for me, It is filled with so many things I love about Wisconsin/home. Halloween traditions, my birthday, elections, Thanksgiving, the colors of the trees, the first snowfall of the year, warm clothing, mulled wine, snuggling under a comforter with coffee in one hand, the other arm around the shoulders of another person. Ok, I'm super emotional, I get it.....I grew up with 4 sisters....

Starting with almost November, Halloween always hits a soft spot for me. Something about not participating in American traditions that you do every year is kinda hard to look past. Some of my best memories of autumn involve carving pumpkins. Unfortunately the pumpkins here are very small and very hard. Imagine carving a coconut or something of that size and density of shell. Well in any event, I woke on the 30th of October and the first thing on my mini-feed was a post from my American exchange student friends from Colorado, Kimi, who was also feeling the homesickness of Halloween, and asked if anyone would be interested in having a tropical Halloween and carve WATERMELONS with her. Without hesitation, I replied yes, I will pick up the watermelons and meet you at your place tonight. Needless to say, she was more than thrilled to have company in this very "Americans-in-Brazil"endeavor. I arrived with the watermelons, she had already made pumpkin-chocolate-chip cookies, and we got going. As we were taking out the watermelon guts, and stuffing our face with them, I said I was probably just gonna make a face like I do every year. Kimi, who won a pumpkin-carving competition last year for carving a monster from "Where the Wild Things Are," basically fainted at the idea of "just making a face." She had planned on making a face too, but had already picked out the design for the face of Obama. She is serious. In any event, I ended up making a sun, and I think it turned out pretty cool! She tried making an elephant face, but something went wrong so she went around the whole watermelon, making cool designs and called it "acid-trip." It was such a small gesture, for her to invite me to carve watermelons with her, but it was EXACTLY the night I needed to kill a little bit of homesickness. I am very thankful for that. Here is my watermelon.....

A week later I turned 21.............

I woke up on my birthday feeling like a million bucks. My b-day was on a Wednesday, the first full day of Obama's second term, the first full day of Tammy Baldwin celebrating being the first open LGBTQ representative in senate. Needless to say, I was gleaming. I could have been mistaken for a 6ft tall, 170 lb, blonde fluorescent lightbulb. Went to the gym, then ate lunch with Luan at UFMG, went to classes where my classmates sang Happy birthday for me in Portuguese. These are the lyrics: 

"Parabéns pra você!

Nesta data querida

Muitas felicidades ROBERTTTTTTTT

Muitos anos de vida!"

And after classes.....well.....I DID turn 21......and I don't care that I'm in a country where the drinking age is 18 (AKA the rest of the mother effing world)....I DRANK. Gasp. Quite a bit actually. Well enough that I didn't remember the pasta that I made when I got home from the bar. But I won't go into the nitty gritty details....I think my grandmother reads this blog.  

On the weekend, I was planning a small get together with my closest friends to drink and dance, but little did I know that my roommates had something much better in store for me. 4 in the afternoon rolls around and my roommate, Jefferson, ORDERS me to go to my room and says that I can't exit until he says I can. So, I decided to take a nap, woke up an hour later, still couldn't exit. Around 8 pm I was getting pretty restless and hungry, and was expecting people to show up. Then, all of a sudden, I could hear music BLASTING from the common area of our house, and laughter of familiar voices. FINALLY, around 9:30 pm, Victor, my other housemate, orders me to count to 5 and enter the living room. I go in, turn on the light, and all my roommates are standing there, in a room completely decked out in Red, White, and Blue balloons, candies, cakes, brownies, and brigadeiros and everyone starts singing happy birthday. It was honestly such a beautiful moment. Then they gave me my present, which truly captured the spirit of a 21st birthday. It was a roulette game.....of alcoholic shots. Gosh, they know me so well!  Afterwards, my friends started to arrive and the party began to take flight. The music was perfect, I danced allllll night, we had flour fights, we hugged, we kissed, it was such a great night. And it was equally as fun to clean up the next day! (not). Here are a few pics from the party:

My roommates and I

Drinking Roulette

Flour Balloon attack

Dancing Forro with Maria

If you have made it this far in my post, congratulations. A million and one things have happened since my last blog post....but these things are much too personal for a blog post.....(GASP! what could this huge news be!?!). Needless to say, I don't know what the expression actually means, but I am frickin' happy as a clam. In portuguese, one would say, "estou apaixonado." Look it up.

Quando Eu Fui Chuva. When I was Rain - Follow this link and listen, this song is beautiful and the lyrics are perfect. I listened to it about 9 million times since I heard for the first time.

Nostalgia and homesickness: Conquered. Until next time my loves!!! Miss you all so much!

-Ardge

Meet my people

Hey guys!

So, as you all may know, I am kind of a people person. I really like people. I love meeting new people, talking to new people, hugging, kissing, singing with, dancing with (not well), drinking with, and laughing with people. I hold many many people near and dear to my heart and I believe I have made some extremely amazing connections in my life. This does not stop in Brazil. I have met a plethora of marvelous people here in Belo Horizonte. I thought you may be interested in a few key people in my life here:

I need to start with Maeva:

Maeva, Maeva, Maeva, my little Frenchie. What would I possibly do if she wasn't here with me. Maeva has been my rock here in Brazil. The moment I met here on the bus during exchange student week, a few things went through my head: 1) This girl is possible the most gorgeous girl I've ever met. 2) I want to be her friend. 3) Could I be straight? She is really pretty.

Anywho, I told her during exchange student week that I was looking for a new house, and she mentioned that there were a few spots in her co-op near the university. I saw the house, loved it, and moved in a few days later. After less than a week of living together, I felt a really strong connection with Maeva. She is without a doubt the most genuine, kind-hearted person; a true definition and living, breathing, glowing example of what the word "friend" should mean. But she has a wild side too... (which is very important). Please direct your attention to the image below..... 

Maeva and I are like a married couple these days. We cook together, we watch films together, we buy our groceries together, we basically have the same schedules. To any good men out there looking for an outstanding partner, I can tell you from experience that Maeva is worth fighting for. She became my best friend here so quickly and I will truly miss her when her semester ends in December and she returns to La France. Seriously, just stay. 

And now for Maria:

Maria Augusta, another person I couldn't live without here in Brazil. I met Maria as well through our co-op. She was the first person who greeted me with a huge smile when I arrived to see the house. She said she was studying anthropology also, but little did we know that we would have all four classes together (and want to drop the same one). It's truly great being with her everyday. Our walks to and from classes (20 minutes) are filled with great talks about life, old and new loves (we have the same tendencies when it comes to this topic), culture, "evil-plans," inappropriate things, and everything else under the sun. Not to mention the many stops for beer along the way. My favorite thing is when she comes to my window and says in her cute, British-Engish accent, "want to go for a beer, mate?"  

We came to the conclusion that she is the girl, Brazilian version of me. 

I can't even begin to explain how much she helped Maeva and I out with everything. Bank accounts, school, Portuguese, cooking, everything. If you are reading this, Maria, thank you, your help never went unnoticed.  

Not only is Maria a best friend to me here, she is great with everyone else in the house. Also, one of the most passionate people I know. I can't imagine that anyone would have any problems with her. If they do, they can talk to me and we can duke this one out. 

She also sleeps a lot during class.....

You must know about Luan:

Another important figure in my life here in brazil, but surprisingly, I've known Luan now for over 3 years. I met Luan when I was on my first exchange year in Budapest (hence the Hungarian flag). Luan and I didn't see each other much in Hungary because we lived in different cities, but when we hung out, it was always a memorable time. This is a person who I can never imagine getting mad, yelling, frowning, or crying. Such a happy, wonderful guy, who happens to be studying Social Sciences in the same building as me. needless to say, we run into each other a lot. And we have Anthropology of Death together. 

It was so funny when I called him to tell him I was applying to study in Brazil. I told him on Skype, "Hey I'm going to study in Brazil! But unfortunately my university only has one program right now in Belo Horizonte at UFMG. Do you know it?" 

Silent pause on Skype...."That's my university!!!!"

Folks, the world is so small. Now Luan and I have a relationship based on three different languages. We met in Hungary and spoke in Hungarian and English, continued to speak in English over the years we were separated, and now we only speak in Portuguese. Crazy how the world works this way, huh?

This was us three years ago in Hungary.....it ain't a pretty sight.....

And finally as far as specifics go...my roommate, Jefferson:

Surprisingly I don't have a picture of Jefferson and I together, but here is a pretty one of him and Maeva. Anywho, about Jefferson. Actually I should state, we don't go by Jefferson and RJ in the room, we are Amigo-Jefferson and Amigo-Robert. We are really, really good at sharing a room together. We have not had one problem to this day. Only one heated discussion about social issues due to misunderstandings, language barriers, whatever, it happened. In any event, we have become more than just roommates, we are really great friends. We have pillow-talks at night before bed and when we wake up. I play obnoxious music to get him going in the morning, and he throws his sandals and other random objects at me. It's a healthy relationship.

When he first moved in to the house, he joked around with me a lot. Almost to the point where it wasn't funny anymore, but this never ended up being a problem. Because I ended up joining in. We have laid out three rules so far in our room. 1)You can't say anything bad about Aquarius', 2) You can't say anything bad about Scorpios, and 3) You can't sleep naked (that was his doing, not mine, uggh). Jefferson and I have already learned a lot from each other and I believe we will continue along this path.

Here is Jefferson in his natural environment:

These four people are just a few examples of the types of friends I have made here. I didn't even mention the people of the anthropology department, the rest of my roommates, or the other exchange students that I have had the pleasure to meet.

The things I said about the people in this blog post are not subject to change. I only plan on meeting more people. 8 more months is a very long time......

-Ardge

Alegria

So I have decided to try out this whole blog-business. I'm pretty excited. Enjoy, my friends.

Alegria no Brasil = Joy in Brazil

It's been (almost) 3 great months in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.  I don't even know where to start. I flew in on July 26th early in morning. Luckily, I was welcomed into this great country by finding R$50 on the ground (25 bucks-go me!) before I even made it through customs. But, let's hang out on the first days for a short grip.....

I arrived in the airport in Brazil, only to be greeted by three Brazilians, Luan (my friend who I met in Budapest 3 years ago), Pedro (a Brazilian friend of my American friend), and Albert, a friend of Luan. Instantly these three guys became awesome contacts here, introducing me to so many Brazilians and showing me all the best spots in Brazil. Although school has started by this point, and I don't have the opportunity to see them as much, they all still remain very close friends to me and continue to help me when I most need it.

I couldn't possibly write about the last three months all in one blog post so I am going to sum it up in one short paragraph. Here goes nothing: Arrive in Brazil, university has strike for two months, hard time finding things to do on a regular basis, slightly unnerving/disheartening, Rio de Janeiro with 27 other exchange students (AMAZING!-you can ask me about the deets if you really wanna know), drinking and clubbing, cheap school cafeteria lunches (sometimes yummy, sometimes mysterious/questionable), school starts, anthropology, don't understand anything (will elaborate on this later), hot brazilians, random homesickness, Brazilian co-op, Maeva, Maeva, Maeva, Maria, Maria, Maria. I think that just about covers everything...

...which brings me up to today, October 21st, 2012.

I feel so comfortable here in Belo Horizonte. I have grown so accustomed to the Brazilian way of life. For example, lunch being the main meal instead of dinner, little baby-coffees (super strong) instead of my massive mug of American jo, the heat/humidity (still sweaty ol' RJ that you all are so used to, but it's becoming more tolerable for this cold-blooded WI boy). I love my co-op, or as we call it here, republica. I live with 14 other people. Yes, I said 14. I am the only American, there is one French girl, and 13 Brazilians. But anyone who knows me would understand that living with 14 other people for me is a cake-walk. The house is huge, two fridges, two stoves, lots of tables for doing homework and having big meals, 2 bathrooms with 2 private showers per bathroom, and 4 toilet stalls separate from the shower rooms. The ONLY problem I face with this co-op is the damn location. Unfortunately, we are located extremely close to what appears to be the end of the world. Although it's only a 20 minute walk to the university, we live in a very industrial neighborhood, with factories galore. It's hard to explain, but we are extremely secluded, you wouldn't know such a big house is hiding at the bottom of our hill if you were just walking on the street. Complete silence, besides for the military base on the other side of our fence. 6am and those army boys and girls are chanting away. I feel like I have a room in some nature reserve because we have some many animals around here, MONKEYS, owls, snakes, spiders (shh, don't tell Sarah Elmore), f***ing mosquitos, tree frogs, geckos etc. etc.

Anywho, School. School is going....well.....it's going. My university, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), doesn't have my specific major, Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies. But that doesn't matter. Just being here in Brazil couldn't be a better "course" for my specialization/future aspirations. So I decided to study anthropology this semester and social sciences next semester. How come no one ever told me that anthropology in Portuguese would be so damn hard to follow...geez! It's one thing studying college courses in another language, but it's another thing beginning a whole new major in another language. Poor planning, Robert J? Yes. But in any event, I am understanding more and more everyday and the COUNTLESS pages of texts of Radcliff-Brown, Kroeber, Rivers, and Levi-Struass are helping me break free from my original basic knowledge of Portuguese. If I'm lucky though, I can find them online in English.

My classes: Anthropology of Death, Social Organization and Relationships, Anthropology in Cinema, (feel free to ask me to elaborate on these), and 3 intensive Portuguese classes for foreigners: Intermediate, Oral Production, and Academic Writing. Needless to say, my Portuguese has traveled leaps and bounds since I first arrived.

I am going to write a separate blog post about the special friends I've made thus far, but just know for now that I am making friends left and right and have met some really amazing people. More on that in the next blog post.......

It may appear from my pics on Facebook as though Brazil is one huge party for me. Filled with delicious drinks, hot Brazilians, beaches, delicious foods, and fun parties. Well, this is partly true. But now, being in the middle of the semester, I have settled into a really great routine that seriously isn't much different from mine in the US. Gym in the morning, studying during the day, classes in the afternoon/night, fun on the weekends. Totally comfortable

If you were at all worried about me, you can tuck those preoccupations under the covers. I am one happy foreigner here in Brazil.

-Ardge

P.S.- Enjoy my pics on Facebook! Next blog post is soon to come.....this is kinda fun....

P.P.S.- If you haven't yet, check out this article! I made it on the cover page of a Brazilian news website in an article about "foreigners views of Belo Horizonte." I will be happy to translate for you. 

http://noticias.r7.com/minas-gerais/noticias/jovens-estrangeiros-descobrem-em-bh-a-capital-da-gentileza-20121014.html