Good Friday

For not being a very religious person this Easter has started out rather religious after all. Yesterday I took my car to the streets for a rather random drive. I ended up at the Templo da Boa Vontade, Temple of Good Will.




It is an ecumenical temple that is one of the sights of Brasília and it is quite spectacular. I won’t go into detail here, anyone interested can google it, but it was indeed quite fascinating.



When you enter you are supposed to follow the black circular path on the floor to the middle of the pyramid.






Then you will find yourself standing on a brass plate under what is supposedly the largest crystal on earth. After that you leave following the white path going in the other direction, this is symbolizing mankind’s search for balance and enlightment. As I am not only not particularly religious I am also not very spiritual so I did not think much about this mumbo jumbo and would probably not have bothered to do it at all hadn’t it been for the very kind and serious man at the entrance who so kindly explained it to me. So I started toggling along the black path and feeling rather stupid. But after a while I was kind of moved by the spirit of the place and for a while I almost felt nauseous and dizzy, which went all away walking outwards again. Well I suppose it is not so strange that you get dizzy when walking in a circle, but anyway it was a smart thought to build it like that!





In the same area as the Boa Vontade I saw another interesting church that I maybe should find out more about. The Church of Perfect Liberty!! However I don’t feel quite sure that we have the same understanding of liberty.

Today I decided to make a trip outside of the city. It is not very much that you can see or do on a daytrip from Brasília, but I had read about the town Planaltina that is only about 40 km from Brasilia. There they have what is called the cornerstone of Brasília, that is a monument erected in 1922 to mark the place for the new capitol. I also read that the main happening of the year in Planaltina is a festival and a staging of Jesus way to the cross, which is taking place on Good Friday every year. As today is Good Friday I thought it might be a good idea to go there.
Once out of Brasília it was easy to find Planaltina and I almost stumbled on the Via Sacra area where the festival was. As I wanted to have a look at the town first I drove into what I believe was the centre, but it being holyday everything was closed and not much to see. I had no idea of where this monument was and did not see any signs for it (at least none I could understand) so I drove back to the festival area. It turned out I got there about one hour before it was supposed to start (but already many were there before me) but I decided to stay and wait.




I got a little bit worried when I saw the amount of police forces that came just before me. Both the military and civilian police were there as well as the rescue services and civilian defence. I can understand that you need a lot of security when many people gather and I knew the visitors use to counts in hundreds of thousand’s according to what I read, but still the number of security was impressive. I got a little worried that this thing could cause some kind of religious hysteria and decided not to stay very long.

This being in Brazil of course the waiting was long, but once it started it was actually quite impressing and fascinating. It was so many actors and they were really good and “realistic”. As I had made up my mind not to stay till the end and also wanted to come back to Brasília before it got dark I almost missed Jesus! I only met him briefly on his way up Via Dolorosa, but could not even get a good picture as a woman was almost killing me with her umbrella as he passed.










Visitors walking up the Via Sacra as I was leaving. There were many people coming still as I left and it had all started so I suppose it continues untill late.



Although you can not see him it is supposed to be Jesus led away by the two men in black

Where do you come from?

Sometimes when I look at the little "Where do you come from-map" to the right I get completely amazed about where someone has been reading my blog (or at least accidentally happened to click on it). Just noticed one spot in the middle of Saudi Arabia and one spot in the middle of the vast piece of land that is Russia.
Some of the spots I more or less know what persons there are behind. I know some of my friends and family are reading and I know in what places I know people how know about my blog. Others might be explained by the fact that I have written something about that particular place. But others! I am just amazed and fascinated. Please feel free to let me know what brought you to my blog and what you think about it.

Global Shopping

When I was in Ethiopia last year I bought a dress that I haven’t used once since. One of the reasons I haven’t used it is that I haven’t found any shoes that goes with it. It is a somewhat special dress and requires special shoes. I have had a quite clear idea of what kind of shoes I would like, but just haven’t found any, even though I have been looking for them, more or less actively, ever since. So, last weekend when I ended up in one of the shopping malls here in Brasília I all of a sudden saw two pairs that might fit on display in a shop. I went in to try them on. With my poor skills in Portuguese I did only manage to get the shop assistant to understand that I wanted to see one of the pairs, not both and the ones she took out were not great on my feet. And as they were not very cheap I did not want to buy any without being sure that they would fit to the dress.

But since then I have been coming back to those shoes in my mind. As I have the dress with me here, I took it with me today and went back to the same shop. The other pair matched the dress perfectly! Almost on the verge of being an over-match, but having looked for so long I could not not buy them once I found them. They did not have them in the size I asked for but strangely the smaller size fitted, so I bought them. I find it very amusing that I now have an Ethiopian dress and Brazilian shoes that look as they were made for each other.

On the other hand I would be surprised if you could not find shoes here to go with anything. There are a LOT of shoe stores here and there are shoes in every colour and shape. I might have to send a suite case full of shoes home.

Garden Action

The most interesting thing (or actually the only interesting thing, or even the only thing at all) in my “garden” is a small tree of the kind that we in Sweden would call “julstjärna” and keep in flowerpots for Christmas (apparently aka Euphorbia pulcherrima). The interesting thing with it is that when I arrived here three weeks ago it was completely green, without any red leaves, so it actually took me some time to realise it was such a tree.



Since then the top leaves have started getting redder and redder. Maybe I should take pictures to follow the transformation. And maybe I should have taken a real “before-picture”. This is the level of excitement in my home!


But now at least I have received a table to go with the one chair I have had until now and hopefully I will also get the hammock that I bought last weekend, up before Easter. That would mean I can actually be out there, which will be an immense improvement to my quality of life at home.

Some Brasília pictures

Posting some city picuters from Brasília. From one of my walks to through the city.






The big open space between the driving lanes along Axio monumental. Close to the TV-tower where there is a quite nice market.








The two towers at the end of the street are part of the congress buildings. Next to it is the Ministry for foreign affairs. Both quite spectacular buildings. One day I will go there without any other business than having a good look and bring the camera.




A typical local commercial center.



A typical residential area, on the Southern wing, Asa Sul.

Fireworks

They really like fireworks here in Brasilia!
I have been here two weeks now and can't even count how many fireworks I have heard. I haven't seen any though. As my apartment doesn't really have any windows and now view at all, I don't see anything but I hear.
Here they also seem to like having fireworks accompanying their demonstrations. That means you hear fireworks also at daytime, which seems like a waste as you will hardly see anything of it.

I've got a Samba Problem

I realise I have a samba-problem! Not only because samba is difficult, which it is, but I also have a more general dancing problem. I love dancing! But I prefer to dance on my own, in my own style. I have never liked or even understood the point in this couple-dancing, where the woman is supposed to follow the man, whether he is a good dancer or not. Why is that?! That is so old-fashioned!!
Here I totally accept that everyone dances “better” than I do, and I also realise that people are only trying to be nice when they try to teach me how to dance and give me lessons. But that doesn’t mean that they all are great teachers. Most of the times they just make me feel very clumsy and useless as a dancer and that is really no fun, when you are out for a good time with your friends. As they realise I am a beginner and foreigner they slow down the speed and fall back to the “one-two-one-two” and “look at my feet” but to me that only means I get completely stiff and loose contact to the rhythm of the music and it all gets very much worse.
As long as I am allowed to dance on my own (or with a very good dancer) it is all just fine, but when things like these happen I rather don’t dance at all.

This is nothing new. I hate “ballroom-dancing” back home in Sweden too and at weddings or parties where that kind of dancing might be expected I always come up with excused for not dancing when someone asks me to dance. Here that seems very much ruder, especially as I don’t know the language so I can make myself understood. And here at least I like the music and like to dance to it, as long as I can decide for myself when and where to move my feet!

That Much for Casual Friday

Yesterday I thought I could go for some more casual clothes for work, as I did not have any planned meetings and Fridays we only work until 13 o’clock. So I choose a light summer’s skirt and blouse and even a pair of flip-flops. However, at last moment I though maybe the flip-flops were a little too casual. Even though I didn’t have meetings booked, my colleagues might have and there might be external visitors at the office do I choose to bring a pair of other shoes for safety’s reason.

What a good idea! It did not take long before I was asked to join for a meeting at the senate, with very short notice. And little later I was asked to stand in for the boss at a meeting in the afternoon at one of the ministries. That much for casual Friday!

Capital Fashion Week

I made a visit to the Brasilia Capitol Fashion Week tonight. Not that I have been to any real fashion show before, but I must say I thought it would be more…. fashion. It was not very glamorous. There was not even a place where you could get a glass of wine in the break between the shows (let alone champagne).



I had tickets for three shows, but the first one started already at 17.30 and I didn’t finish work early enough to make it to that one. The second one started at 19.30. This being Brazil I never thought it would start at 19.30, but it got even later than I expected. I arrived about 19.40 and got into the hall at about ten minutes later but the show didn’t start until 20.10. For a while I thought this would mean the last show would get even more delayed, but then it turns out the whole show was over in ten minutes! I might have been able to remain seated as I had tickets also for the next show, but did not really wanted to sit there for so long so I went out to see what was going on in the lounge, which was not very much. Then there was a long queue to get in again so I gave up and decided to go home instead. It was actually more interesting to watch the visitors than the show. As the show I watched was displaying men’s wear, it was actually more interesting to watch the models then the clothes.

However I was really proud that this time I managed to call and order a taxi all by myself when it was time to get back. Not that I understood everything the operator said, but the taxi came! :-)

Where The Streets Have No Name

Well, I don’t think Brasília was the city that U2 had in mind when they wrote the song Where the streets have no name, but it could very well be a fitting description of Brasília. Ok, there are a few streets or roads that do have names, but addresses here are more likely to be something like SQS 403, SHLS Q 716, SHN Q 2 Bloco E or SES Q 807, Lt 29 which happens to be the address of the Swedish embassy. I will not go into details on how to read this, as I haven’t quite figured out all the details about it, although I have started getting the logic behind it. In fact it is probably absolutely über-logical. I will simply quote Lonely Planet again, this is how they describe it:

For example, the address for Pensão da Zenilda is SQS 704, Bloco Q, Casa 29. That means it’s in Super Quadra 704, bloco (building) Q, casa (house) 29. The first digit in the address (7) shows the position east or west of the Eixo Rodoviário (the main north-south arterial road) – odd numbers to the west and even to the east, increasing as they move away from the centre. The last two digits (04) show the distance north or south of the Eixo Monumental. So Pensão da Zenlida is four blocks to the south of the Eixo Monumental and four blocks east of the Eixo Rodoviário (1, 3, 5, 7)

That’s super logical isn’t it!? Adding to this are a number of acronyms used in addresses like SCLN/SLCS for Sector Comércio Local Norte/Sul, SBN/SBS Setor Bancário Norte/Sul and SEN/SES Setor de Embaxiadas Norte/Sul and so on. These acronyms are frequently used on road signs etc. That will be a challenge when I start to drive myself here, as if the traffic wasn’t already a challenge.

Brazilian Teeth

Already in Rio in January I noted that there were a lot of adults wearing braces. The same thing goes for Brasília. I have seen so many wearing braces you could almost believe it is a fashion thing. I will have to keep an extra eye open for that at this week's fashion show.

Another thing that I have noted about teeht here are that many of the others, those who don't have braces, all have very white teeth. That also goes for the expats. I wonder if toth-bleaching might be cheap here. Maybe I should ask someone.

I have been thinking of bleaching my teeth before but never tried it. I am a bit worried wether it really is good for your teeth. If it is inexpensive here I might give it a try. But on the other hand it also trigger this thing inside of me that never wants to do what all the others do. So if a majority has white bleached teeth I all of a sudden feel an urge to keep my natural yellowish. Well, let's see.

A Trip to the Mall

Having finished my first, rather intense work week and considering that it is my birthday tomorrow, I decided to treat myself to some shopping. I was recommended a shopping mall a bit outside city and asked the guards at the gate to order me a taxi to get there. It was a quite nice mall and I found just about what I needed (two pair shoes, two tops and some practical things for the apartment). It was nevertheless very exciting to go shopping without being able to speak Portuguese. It is really striking how few people here speak English. Today I did not meet one single person. Most of the time its works quite ok though, although every time I wanted to pay with my credit card they asked something that I never understood. I thought it sounded like “cash or credit?” but it didn’t seem to make sense. Then I thought they asked whether I would sign or had a pin code, but no, it didn’t seem so either. I felt so stupid, but it worked. What made things a little more complicated was that I managed to sit on my credit card so the card got a knick that made it work less in the readers. In the ATM it did not work at all, so I am really happy I had cash enough for the taxi home. I have to contact my bank to have them send me a new card.

Well, talking about the taxi drive home. That was another exciting thing. I had a number for the taxi company, but kind of assumed they would not be able to talk English so I tried to ask for help from an information desk. I showed them the number, said “taxi” and offered them my mobile and pointed to the gate and used all English/French/Italian words that I thought would make sense. But no, it didn’t help. They just sent me to another exit. I thought maybe they meant that there was a taxi stand at that exit and went there, but no, there wasn’t. So then there was not much left for me to do but trying to call myself. First I thought it went quite well. I managed to explain that I wanted a taxi to the specific shopping mall and the specific gate and also gave my name. Then I had expected to get something like a time estimate or a number of the taxi or something like that, but I just could not understand what the operator said. Somehow it seems the harder I try to understand, the more tired I get and the less I understand. After a while she just said “boa tarde Susanne, boa tarde”. That left me wondering if that meant a confirmation, like “good evening Susanne, your taxi is coming any minute and soon you will be at home and have a nice evening” or if it meant “just piss off and have a nice evening whatever you like to do, I don’t give a damn”. Anyway I decided to trust it worked and sat down and waited for a taxi to come. But at the same time I felt I could not just sit and wait for something I didn’t know would come, so when I saw a taxi standing at the parking lot I just walked over and asked if it was free. It was. So to the taxi driver who was possibly sent to the shopping mall on my behalf; I am so sorry and hope you got another customer who gave you a really decent tip.

To be able to get home in any situation I have learned how to say the address in Portuguese. I thought I did a good job and the driver seemed to understand. I could also follow the drive and see that he was driving the right way. But then at a crossing in the embassy quarters I realise he wants to drive to the Swiss embassy. Ok, this is a rather common mistake so I will not blame that on my pronunciation. I am just very happy the Swiss embassy was rather close to the Swedish. Honestly I had no idea where the Swiss was and was just happy to see the sign for the Italian in the same crossing and knowing that the Italian is just next to the Swedish it was not so difficult to point the right direction. I really have to learn Portuguese. Although it will make my life here less exciting. 

The Difficult Name

Of course I have long known that my name is not the most internationally viable name one can have. The very name of this blog is an evidence of that. But here in Brazil it seems to be even a bigger problem than in other places. People just can not handle it. But as the very kind and polite people they are, they try not to pretend that they have no idea how to pronounce my name and that they just can not remember it.

Today I joined some of my local colleagues for a pilates class. The trainer asked a couple of times for my name, but after the class I found out that in addition to asking me, he had asked one of the colleagues several times what my name is and if I do not have another name. While talking about this, the other colleagues joins in and tell me that other colleagues in the office ask them all the time about my name.

Later, one of the colleagues sent me an e-mail saying I HAVE to come up with a nickname. She had just helped me to make a reservation at a beauty salon and had had a very difficult time getting them to understand my name.

I guess my poor parents had no idea I would live such an international life!

Creeps

I don't know why, but it seems the amount of insects in my apartment is increasing. The first days i didn't see any insects at all, but after a while noticed mosquito bites so I realised there must be mosquitos. And there is. Now I have got some mosquito repellant so that problem is under control. Yesterday ther was this strange little creature on the kitchen wall. It did not look very fierce so I let it be. Don't know where it is now. Yesterday I also noticed there is an ant path on the wall behind the TV. Don't know it it is new or I just didn't see it before. A little while ago I saw a very strange creep lying on its back on the floor. I have no idea what it was but as it almost looked half dead anyway I just helped it a little with one of my Hawaianas.

And bang, there another mosquito just died...

Not so luxurious

Just to make one thing straight. This post is not a complaint. I only want to show that a posting like my present doesn’t automatically mean a life in comfort and luxury.

To answer some questions that were put to me before I came here; No, I do not live in a big villa, and no I do not have a full set of house maids and gardeners etc (until yesterday I didn’t even have a vacuum cleaner). Yes, there is a pool and a tennis court, but on the compound and not in my garden. My place is just off the parking lot and “my garden” is about 2X2 metres. I don’t know exactly how big my apartment is, but I think it is best compared to a student’s apartment for two students. That means there are two more or less identical bedrooms, a bathroom, a small kitchenette and a narrow living room, that is actually an extended terrace opening out to the 2x2 m garden. It is all ok, what is not so good however is that the whole apartment is basically lacking windows. The door out to the garden is a glass door, but that is basically the only source of natural light. It means the place is very dark and isolated as there is no way where you can look out of the apartment. My first impression when I saw it was that no Swedish architect can have constructed this, no Swede would ever build a place for human habitation without windows. Later I found out the architect of the whole complex is indeed Swedish, but I gather this extended terrace/living room was not part of the original plan. Or he just had a bad day.

In the kitchen I have exactly; four plates, three glasses, four mugs, four knives, four forks, tree tea-spoons, one cutting knife, one frying pan and one cooking pot, one jug and one plastic bowl. That is all. It might be all fine if you are just staying here for a couple of days or a week maybe, but for six months it might be just a little too meagre. It is not much you can or want to cook in that kitchen. I have now arranged for a vacuum cleaner, an iron and ironing board and also got a new TV (although I still haven’t managed to get the connection to the satellite dish working) which all are huge improvements to the place. However I have not managed to do something about the smell in the wardrobes so I can only hope that my clothes wont catch too much of that rather pungent smell.

So, as I begun, I don’t want to complain and I hope there will be a chance to change housing after a while, because this place is rather depressing. What I want is just to show that it is not all that luxurious.

City Planning and Planned City

While driving around Brasília I cannot help wondering how they were thinking when they planned this city. “Ok, we are going to build a completely new and modern capital. Hey! Let’s build it in the shape of an airplane!!” Some plans are obvious and somehow makes reasonably sense. Like I can understand that you put all the administrative and representative buildings in one area and the original plan of having commercial centres in every residential block makes sense, although it might not have worked out exactly as planned. But why putting all hotels in the same area?

Driving through the southern embassy sector you find some embassies that seem to be placed completely randomly and others according to some plan. For example I find it hard to see a plan behind having Lebanon, Mexico, Hungary, Indonesia and Slovakia next to each other, whereas it is easy to see the logic behind placing the Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland) as neighbours as well as having Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Uruguay and Argentina together (although I don’t see the logic in putting Serbia next to them!!). However, some locations are so surprising or unexpected it is hard to guess if it is by coincidence or if someone put them there by will, just to annoy or provoke them or maybe force them to cooperate. Hence you will find that Greece and Turkey are next door neighbours, as are Netherlands and South Africa as well as Russia and USA.

A First Glipmse of Brasília

From Lonely Planet Brazil: "With long distances and harrowing sixlane highways connected by spagetti junctions to negotiate, Brasíla is not really a city for walkers."


So what is the first thing I do on my first day in Brasília. I go for a jog in the morning and then for a walk in the city. And ok, I can agree on that this city was not built for walkers, but on the other hand, just because of the fact that there are no room for walkers (no side walks) you can walk everywhere. Between the above mentioned highways there are plenty of green spaces where you can walk and it beeing highways that you need to cross, means at least you only have to look out for cars coming from one direction at a time.

I don't really know what to say about my first impression this far. It is a very different city, it is fascinating and interesting and I think it might work, but I don't know if I will find anything charming and cosy about it. We will see. However some first impressions are at least that it is anything but crowded and there is lot of green. I knew that it would be nothing like Rio, but I must say I did not expect it to remind me more about Harare that Rio.


Here are a few glimpses from my first walk in the city.





View from the Embassy district (one of them) towards Lago do Paranóa.





Flowers on a tree





One of the junctions





The Catedral Metropolitana





Inside the cathedral








Museu Nacional

Arrived in Brasília

So, I just arrived in Brasília! Not too much to say after having seen just the way from the airport to the embassy and a supermarket. But it is very green and lush and looks kind of nice. A positive first impression! Somehow it reminds me a little of Harare, but I think it might just be that it is at approximate the same latitude so I guess the light is the same and maybe the climate too.

It was a bit of a strange feeling going to the supermarket to do some shopping the first thing in the morning before 7 pm, freshly arrived in a new country where you don't speek the language. I felt a little bit lost, but still I like it. Just walking around among the shelves and see what they have and try to figure out what you want. And, actually, this is the first time I am posted in a country where I at least have sat my foot before! :-)