Brazil Trip, Days 48 to 64

** Places I visited in Brazil that I've talked about already:

Salvador (& Boipeba), Rio, Niteroi, Paraty, Ilha Grande, & Foz do Iguaçu.

** Places visited in Brazil on the second part of the trip:

"Bonito" (where I swam with dorado fish and snorkled in a river where the water was soooo clear), and the "Pantanal" (the famous Brazilian wetland, visited in the dry season. I saw caymans and capibaras, slept in hammocks, photographed the milky way, and did some light-painting with fire-sticks around camp fires). After the visit to the Pantanal, I, and the friends from the adventure tour that I had joined, crossed the border into Bolivia.

** Places I visited in Bolivia:

The city of Santa Cruz, the city of Sucre, the town of Potosi, the town of Uyuni, and, one of the most interesting excursions of my life: a three-day excursion into the Salar de Uyuni (first day) and the surrounding region of the Salar de Uyuni (days 2 and 3). The amazing scenery kept changing every half an hour as we drove throughout the three days. The colours and the geological formations were incredible. I haven't been this much in awe in front of a natural place since visiting "Torres del Paine" park in southern Chile at the end of 2010. At the end of the excursion, we made our way into Lapaz.

After all this, on the night between August 21 and August 22, my plane landed home, after 64 days spent in South America (Brazil and Bolivia). It's good to be travelling, but it's also good to be home =o).

Brazil trip, the first 48 days

I am in the lobby of a hotel in the city of Foz do Iguaçu, close to the Brazil/Argentina/Paraguay triple-border.

It's Sunday August 05, my 48th day in Brazil.

My trip has been eventful so far:

First, I spent 3 weeks in Salvador da Bahia, a city in the North-East of Brazil. In Salvador, I saw the famous festivities of the Festa de São João, took intensive portuguese classes (agora falo melhor), lived with a host family (grand-mother, mother, daughter, and female dog), regularly played percussion on the streets of Pelourinho, visited the small and rustic island of Boipeba, visited a couple of historic monuments, and did two day-tours with a French tourim agency where I met "F", a nice French guy, 7 years older than I am.

Then, I took the plane from Salvador to Rio. I spent a day visiting some touristy places in Rio, then spent the next 4 days at the house of a friend of my dad. My dad's friend lives in Niteroi, a suburb of Rio. I meant to work on my scientific paper during these four days, but didn't get much done.

Then I spent a week volunteering in favela Rocinha in Rio, one of the largest favelas in Latin America. I volunteered at a daycare center run by a group of women. The kids were not orphans, the parents came to pick them up at 5 PM. The center was clean, and the kids ADORABLE. I got to dress them, feed them, and play with them. The other volunteers and I slept inside the favela, in a clean house next to the daycare center. The streets of the favela were very dirty and stank. The view of the favela, from inside the favela, illuminated at night was amazing. I returned to Niteroi for the weekend.

I was going to do a second week of volunteering, but then I cancelled it to go be with "F" and his son on Ilha Grande, a beautiful big island where no cars are allowed, near Rio. I spent 8 fantastic days there. It was real vacation. The three of us woke up every morning at 8 AM, and decided which little hike to do or which beach to visit. We only had to make sure that we were back on the main part of the island at 5:30 PM, sunset time in the winter on the Brazilian coast. We played mimes and word games, wrote a mini musical, and took crazy pictures.

A few days ago I left "Ilha Grande" because I had booked (back in February 15) a G-adventures tour that starts near Rio and ends in Bolivia. And "F" and his son went back to France. I made my way west, slowly, with the G-adventures group. After "Ilha Grande", we visited "Paraty", then we visited "Foz do Iguaçu" (where I am right now), and tonight we leave on a night bus to visit "Bonito".

To be continued!

Quick Synopsis of the Tibet-Nepal Trip

On June 03, I came back from a 3.5-weeks trip to Tibet and to Nepal.

At the start of the trip, I landed in Beijing. Walked on the great wall of China. Took the world's highest railway (46 hours in a train that smelled like noodle soup) to Lhasa.

Beautiful beautiful Lhasa. Friendly people. Colourful prayer flags fluttering in the wind. Soft tingling tiny bells hanging from rooftops. Incense... And armed Chinese soldiers at every street corner...

After Lhasa, I slowly made my way south west. And on my second to last day in Tibet, hiked the everest basecamp (on the Tibetan side).

I then crossed the border to Nepal where I spent 7 days visiting Kathmandu, Chitwan National Park, and Pokhara. In Chitwan, the temperature was over 40 degrees celsius in the shade. That's one of the reasons I had a shower while sitting on top of an elephant. I will NEVER EVER EVER forget the shower with the elephant =o).

I am now home for 2 weeks. On June 19, I leave again. This time, I am going to Brazil.

They don't make weeks like this anymore!

Thursday evenings I have an awesome salsa class. Sometimes, if I am lucky, the salsa teacher plays one or two forró songs at the end of the class, and we dance to them. And if I am even luckier, I get to dance with someone good, like the teacher himself, or the teacher's assistant 'D', a really nice guy.

Today, at the end of the salsa class, the prof announced that they were short two GIRLS in the upcoming forró workshop (hurray: space for me!), and then he played for us *TWO* forró songs (lucky me!), and I got to dance with the 'D' for *both* of them (hurray again!). By the end of the second song, I was walking on clouds! I made sure to reeeeeeeeeaaaally thank 'D', and walked to the metro station with a huuuuuge grin on my face. =o).

And this happend just two days after "Amazing-Tuesday"! (the day I was asked if I was interested in joining a samba-reggae band). I tell you, they DON'T make weeks like this one very often!!!!

My concerts with the choral society

Not much beats the sound of a very big choir. What seems like a loooong time ago, I was a part of a big choir. It was a non-audition choir, and the level varied greatly from person to person. I am totally spoiled because the very first time I was with that choir, we sang Mozart's requiem. After that, who can quit?! haha =o).

Anyways, this is what I sang with that choir while I was a member:

• Concert1: November 1998, Mozart's requiem,
  +Excerpts from the musical "Rent", at the "EA church".
• Concert2: April 1999, A.L.Weber's Requiem,
  +Excerpts from the musical "Les Miz".
• concert3: December 1999, Opera Excerpts,
  +Excerpts from the musical "Ragtime", at Eglise "St-Enf J".
• Concert4: April 2000, Schubert's mass in G,
  +Excerpts from the musicals "Joseph" & "Superstar", at the FACE audit.
• Concert5: Nov/Dec 2003, Dvořák's mass,
  +International Xmas carols.
• Concert6: April 2004, Fauré's requiem,
  +Excerpts from the musicals "Oliver" & "Miss Saigon".
• Concert7: November 2004, Lord Nelson's mass,
  +Traditional Xmas carols.
• Concert8: April 2005, Mozart's mass in Cmin,
  +Excerpts from "Abba" & 70's music, at Eglist "St-Denis".
• Concert9, November 2005, "Carmina Burana",
  +Xmas carols
• Concert10, April 2006, Brahms's requiem,
  +Excerpts from the musical "Superstar".
• Concert11, June 2006 benefit summer concert:
  "Inspirational songs".
• Concert12, Nov/Dec 2006, Handel's Messiah,
  +??
• Concert13, April 2007, Mozart's requiem again,
  +Various multicultural music.

I miss it sometimes...

Coffee

I used to say "I never drink coffee". Or "I've only drank coffee three times in my entire life". Well, it's the end of an era. Last summer, on the last day of my mediterranean islands trip, I drank a large mochaccino. Now I drink Mochacchinos several times a week, and on some days, more than once a day. Ah well. It had to happen one of these days.

One more song

**I think the date of this blog post got messed up**

MMMmnnnngngngngnngngnnnn why did my dance class have to end??!! I could have danced all night!! During class today, I wanted to pinch myself at least five times --I could NOT believe how much fun I was having!!

Thursday's class is the advanced salsa class, and I still don't look good when I dance (even when I am doing the steps right), but I manage to look ok I think, and boy I am happy to be there!! Today, I got to dance at least once with at least four out of my favorite dancers in the school!!

I'm not sure I've felt this way about an activity since 2003!! Baaaaaaack in the days, I used to wake up on tuesday/thursday mornings and think "yessssss! kali day!" (Kali= Filipino martial arts). Well, now I wake up on Tuesday/Thursday mornings and think "yesssss! Salsa/forró day!".

I wish I could be friends with these people outside of class the way I was friends with the kali people back in the days. But for some reason I have the strange feeling that I don't fit. Maybe this will improve. Maybe it's only in my head. But in any case, the thursday classes especially are like a very intense daydream.

TWICE today I thought the class was finishing. And TWICE today the prof played "one last song". One of them was forró!! I was SO grateful!! But the third time, it really was true: it was the last song. And I had soooo much energy after that, that I could not just sit quietly in the metro. So I went for a walk. And now I have to waaaaaiiiit aaallll the way till Tuesday for another dance.

Dancing faster than light

An email is when I first heard of it. I got home tonight and there was an email in my inbox from my officemate: faster than light neutrinos. And you know what?! I KNOW WHY THERE ARE FASTER THAN LIGHT NEUTRINOS: IT'S BECAUSE TIME ITSELF GETS SHORTER WHILE I AM IN MY DANCE CLASS!!

Let me explain: speed=distance/time. Smaller time means a faster speed. The one-hour-and-20-minutes of my dance classes are sooooo short ((compared to any other one-hour-and-20-minutes)), that anything moving during that time travels at a speed significantly higher than its usual speed. But since neutrinos already travel at near the speed of light, the time anomaly happening during my dance classes made them break that speed and reach their destination a few nanoseconds earlier. See?! QED =oP.

New Comic

New comic discovered!! An awesome one too!! It's called "The way to your heart". I spent the entire night between monday and tuesday reading it!!

Lucky stars

Somebody up there likes me!! Not sure if it's the maker of the universe, or the universe itself, but I am so grateful!!

Forró is a kind of Brazilian music that I've liked for years. At first it was because of the accordion. Then it grew on me during "the days of the old gym". But I had never danced to it. In any case, it so happens that my two favorite dance teachers are appearently into it these days!! The samba teacher played forró music for the warmup on Monday. So today, wednesday, on the way to my last salsa class of the summer ((I am leaving tomorrow for 5 weeks)), I was thinking: wouldn't a forrozinho be niiice as a goodbye to the dance classes?

Yes well we ended with a forró!! Actually more than one!! And you know how I am always sad at 9:20 because the prof is about to stop the music? Well, I had just started to dread what I thought was the impending end of the last song when the prof said "change"!! Meaning, switch dance partners and dance for one more song!! Hurray!! The next guy just happened to be my very favorite dance partner at the school ((I soooo hope he doesn't think I'm annoying)). And I was *already* in dance-heaven *before* that dance because of the forró music. So imagine afterwards. Lucky lucky me. I once again had the idiotic smile on my face throughout the metro ride and all the way to the apartment door.

Aaaaaand I got the chance to say bye to all 6 of my favorite people at the school including the two profs. The salsa prof even hugged me. So maybe he doesn't think I am as annoying as I thought he thought. In any case, I'll really miss these people, but if all goes well, I'll see them at the end of the summer.

My veggies

My veggies in my garden at the family house. My dad will take care of them while I am away travelling. Tiny-tim baby tomatos, mini chili peppers, sugar snap beans, and green beans. I hope there will be some left by the time I come back!

If life were like a melting candle

If living were like melting a fixed-weight candle, and something fun made you feel like your soul was on fire ((I guess I am feeling poetic)), would you die sooner because the crazy fire melts the candle faster??

I was having so much fun in salsa classes today, twirling and stepping and feeling the beat, that when the class ended, I felt like the floor just crumbled under my feet! Was it already 9:25PM already?? Really really?? where did time go?? I had so much energy to spare, I had to take a walk before taking the metro home.

It's the start of the summer session at my dance school, and once again, I am taking two salsa classes in a row, this time on wednesday evenings ((and two non salsa classes on mondays)).

The beginners' class, which I am retaking just because I can't get enough latin dancing, is from 6:45PM to 8PM. Today, everyone was new, except for me ((but nobody knows I am not new and it's better this way)), and except for the two teacher's assistants, both nice people that I really really really like. The girl is my very favorite person at the dance school. She's ammmazingly good and nice and humble. And the guy is my favorite dance partner, and I would dance with him forever if given the choice. Man I wish I could be friends with these two people. In any case, I did not have forever: I had to content myself with one or two dances with the guy because of the partner rotations.

I don't interact much with the girls in the class. I dance with the guys. And I wouldn't want to have it any other way. Some of the new guys were nervous today. As usual, I tried to be friendly. I counted two who were nearly my height and who had clearly eaten cheese before the dance class. Sigh. When the height is more offset, things like that are easier to deal with. I also counted one snob ((ewww)). The rest of the guys seemed normal and friendly. The teacher was great as usual: decent explanations, funny, kept the class as dynamic as he could. Gotta give him credit for his phenomenal energy. I know that dance is dance, and physics is physics, but I could not help but draw various parallels between things that the dance teacher says/does and things that I do in my classroom. And I also kept thinking of my old martial arts teacher. Maybe more on that later.

At 8PM came the time for the intermediate-level class. It was a little crowded. The two assistants had left. There were many guys that I recognized from having taken either a beginner-level or an intermediate-level salsa class with them. There also were several guys that I had never seen before, and among them, wearing a green shirt, this one blondish shorter version of Kimi Räikkönen. The guy has got style! And attitude too unfortunately: I don't like it when someone counts the beat for me (he did) because I *already* have a very high rhythm conscience, and am already annoyed with myself when I happen to not step on the beat.

In any case, in salsa, good or bad, one dance never lasts very long. You either enjoy it or you don't. And then the next dance comes with a different partner. This evening, some of the dances were so enjoyable I felt like I was on a magic carpet. One guy noticed that I really liked a certain move and said, smiling, "shall we do this over and over?". I really wish I could do salsa every evening. But salsa isn't offered every evening. If I found a second good dance school, I could even try alternating the schools on alternate evenings. Maybe then I could become part of the select clique at this school who always seem to know what they are doing. But then, what would happen to my grand plans of returning to martial arts? I really really really really miss punching and elbowing focus pads! And I always dream of turning Filipino stick-fighting partner drills into a dance *sigh*.

Station V3

Station V3 is the name of a minimalistic sci-fi web comic. I discovered it in January 2010, and I liked it. Spinoffs of Station V3 include Z7, Q16, and Ebb's Children.

Since I haven't read V3 (and the spinoffs) for a while, I don't remember where I had last stopped reading. This blog post is just an attempt for me to keep track of what I did or did not read.

COMIC Z7: last strip read is strip14 (20040414). The crew is complete.

COMIC Q16: read all illuminated strips until strip 100 (20070709).

COMIC Ebb's children: Read all 34 strips. Ebb's ch's live on K7.

COMIC V3: Stopped around Sept12 2009 when the V3 system moved from the Milky Way to the Triangulum Galaxy!

World Map

I've been wanting to put up a world map in my apartment for a while. At first I figured I'll just buy one at the annual poster sale (Imaginus) in September. Then I decided that I wanted something better. So I went to the online National Geographic store, and looked at their "Earth-toned Atlantic-centered World Political Map". It turns out this map is available in 10 different formats:

• Paper (46X30in,$12.95)


• laminated (46X30,$24.95)


• mounted (46X30,$249)


• Postersize (24X36,$12.99)


• Postersize and laminated (14X36,$24.99)


• Postersize and mounted (26X38,$149)


• Enlarged (70X49,$29.95)


• Enlarged and laminated (70X49,$59.95)


• Enlarged and mounted (73X48,$499)


• Mural (116X76) $99

I did not get a framed version because they are very expensive. But I did get a laminated version, and I can't wait for it to arrive!

Galápagos Itinerary

Below is the short version of the itinerary of my upcoming trip to the Galápagos. Refer to the map above for the location of each island. I'm looking forward to the wildlife encounters!

• ***
• 01 May21 Arrive to Quito in the Evening
• ***
• 02 May22 Flight to St-Cristobal , all day St-Cristobal
• 03 May23 St-Cristobal
• 04 May24 Speed boat to St-Cruz, all day St-Cruz
• 05 May25 Speed boat to Isabela, all day Isabela
• 06 May26 Isabela
• 07 May27 Isabela
• ***
• 08 May28 Speed boat to St-Cruz, all day on my own on St-Cruz
• 09 May29 All day on my own on St-Cruz. Will try to take a day trip to Bartolomé.
• 10 May30 Bus then ferry on my own to airport, flight to St-Cristobal, all day St-Cristobal
• ***
• 11 May31 St-Cristobal
• 12 June01 Sail to Floreana, all day Floreana
• 13 June02 Floreana, sail to Isabela, Isabela
• 14 June03 Isabela
• 15 June04 Isabela, sail to St-Cruz, St-Cruz
• 16 June05 St-Cruz
• 17 June06 St-Cruz, fly to Quito
• ***
• 18 June07 Depart Quito Early Morning
• ***

Blue Bison

I almost fell off my chair when I discovered this site a few moments ago!!!! Their drawings are UNBELIEVABLY CUTE!!!! Waaaaaaaaaa!!!! And you can get magnets and mugs and mouse pads and clocks and journals with the drawings on them too!!!! There is always room on the fridge for more cute magnets!!!!

Cream of Mushrooms Soup

Years ago, this recipe was found on some yahoo forum I think. One of the greatest mushroom soups in the galaxy! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 8 ounces mushrooms.
• 4 tablespoons margarine or butter.
• 1 medium onion, chopped.
• 1/4 cup flour.
• 1-1/4 cups water.
• 1 can (10 3/4 ounces) chicken (or vegetable) broth.
• 1 cup half and half (that's the "10-12%" cream found in the grocery store).
• some salt.
• 1 teaspoon white pepper.
• Chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions

• Slice enough mushrooms to measure 1 cup, chop remaing mushrooms finely.
• Cook and stir sliced mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of the butter in a 3-quart sauce pan over low heat until mushrooms are golden brown.
• Remove sliced mushrooms with slotted spoon and put them aside.
• Cook and stir chopped mushrooms and onion in remaining 2 tablespoons of butter until onion is tender.
• Stir in flour, salt, and white pepper.
• Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until mixture is smooth and bubbly.
• remove from heat.
• Stir in water and broth.
• Heat to boiling stirring constantly.
• Boil and stir 1 minute.
• Stir in half and half and sliced mushrooms.
• Heat just until hot (do not boil).
• Sprinkle with parsley.

The original recipe stated: "Yield-- 4 servings; about 1 cup each; 260 calories per serving; Credits-- Recipe shared by: Andrea Rice".

Bon appetit!

Two Chocolate Cakes

One of the best chocolate cakes that I have ever eaten was made by my aunt M. who lives in the middle east. I wish I had that recipe, but I don't. In the mean time, I found this "Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake" recipe in several places online. I tried it twice (with a scale factor of 1.5) and I thought it was great. Not as great as the super chocolate cake that I don't know how to make, but great anyway!

Cake #1:
Ingredients:

• Butter 0.5 cup
• Sugar 0.5 cup
• eggs 2
• Flour 1.75 cup
• Cocoa 0.5 cup
• Baking SODA 1 tsp
• Salt 0.25 tsp
• butter 0.5 cup
• Milk 1 cup
• Vanilla 1 tsp

Instructions:

• In large bowl, cream butter and sugar "until light and fluffy".
• Add eggs, and start beating.
• Sift separately the flour, cocoa, soda, and salt.
• Add half the dry ingredients, and keep beating.
• Add milk and vanilla and keep beating.
• Add the other hald of the dry ingredients, and keep beating.
• Pour batter in a greased pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

A few days ago a friend made me a birthday chocolate cake that also tasted great. Recipe below.

Cake #2:
Ingredients:

• Flour 2 cups
• Sugar 1.5 cups
• Cocoa 0.5 cups
• Salt -- a dash
• Instant coffee 1 tsp
• Baking POWDER 1 tsp
• Baking SODA 1 tsp
• Milk (or orange juice or water) 1.25 cup
• Eggs 3
• Oil (canola) 0.75 cup

Instructions:

• In a processor bowl, process the dry ingredients for 10 seconds.
• Add milk and eggs and start processing.
• Add the oil while processing.
• Process all for 45 seconds (do not overprocess).
• Pour batter in a greased pan and bake for 55-60 minutes at 325F.

Cartoon Bread

Middle-Eastern bread. Indian Bread. French bread. Round, square, and funny shaped bread. Black, brown, and white bread. Multi grain bread. Whole wheat bread. Thin bread. Bread in slices. Bread in buns. Bread in bagels. Do you like bread? I do. As long as it does not contain any dried fruits that is.

When I was a small kid in the middle east, I grew up mostly with what people in North America call "pita bread". This kind of bread is what every family had around the house, and people just called it "bread". There were many other kinds of bread too, but they were more rare and we did *not* call them "bread". They mostly resembled elongated buns and French baguettes.

But when I watched foreign cartoons and/or the muppet sketches on Sesame Street (the muppet sketches were dubbed), the cartoon characters and the muppets always ate bread in slices. *Square* slices!

Then I came to North America. And what do I see in the grocery store? Cartoon bread! A million and one kinds of cartoon bread!

My favorite kinds of cartoon bread these days are the multi grains ones. This "épicerie" article claims that no matter how many exotic grains the bread is made of, at least 80% of the bread is usually made from wheat flour (not necessarily whole wheat flour), and the funny (ground) grains only make the remaining 20%, otherwise the bread would not rise.

I also like reading the names of the grains on the packages. Example: for the "Bon Matin 14 grain bread" the first ingredient is "whole wheat flour", and the second ingredient is the "14 grain mix". The mix includes: Wheat (blé), Barley (orge commun), Corn (maïs), Buckwheat (sarrasin), Oat (avoine), Sorghum (sorgho commun), Rice (riz), Rye (seigle), Millet (millet commun), Triticale (triticale), Sunflower seeds (graines de tournesol), Flax seeds (lin), Poppy seeds (graines de pavot), and Sesame seeds (grained de sésame). I had to google a whole bunch of those because the words were unfamiliar. But it was fun.

Clocky Runs and Hides

They've now created an alarm clock that runs and hides so you won't be able to hit the snooze button!

Cute Animation

Check out this reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaally cute animation (link updated) that I found while surfing blogs!! It's called "Le plus gros président du monde", and it's made by someone named Benjamin Renner, an animator from France.

A Good Wednesday

Lots of good things happened to me today (Wednesday):

** Little Peter Chum has arrived!!!! I was soooo worried about him. The package he was in was a week late. Peter Chum is a 5-cm tall amigurumi character =o).

** I had a very very very very satisfying kickboxing class. Too bad it was the second to last class of the semester. I am definitely taking it again in January.

** I had a full "knot" of "twisted" cheese, with tons of good bread and brown apple juice. I was in food heaven for the second day in a row (yesterday I was at restaurant "Aleppo").

Note: I just looked out the window and it's all white outside!! First snow storm of the season (not counting the watery flurries we had yesterday). Clean white snow is very pretty, but I'll sure miss going to school while wearing my comfy running shoes.

Chili

I'm not vegetarian. But here's the recipe I use for vegetatrian chili:

Ingredients, part 1:
* 2 lobes of garlic (finely chopped).
* 1 medium onion (chopped).
* N hot peppers (finely chopped. If jalapeños, I use 4 or 5).

Ingredients, part 2:
* 1 large can of crushed tomatos.
* 1 tomato (chopped).
* 4 cans of beans (crush the content of one of the cans).
* 1 can of corn.
* 8 Oz of mushrooms (chopped).

Ingredients, part 3:
* 1 green pepper (chopped).
* A few chopped green onions (optional).

Spices and such:
* 1 teaspoon of vegetable broth.
* 1 pinch of salt.
* 1 pinch of oregano.
* 1 pinch of chili powder.
* 1/2 teaspoon of molasses (controversial).

Extras:
* Grated cheese.

Instructions:

• Fry part 1 of the ingredients in Olive oil.
• In a thick-bottomed big pot over "medium" heat, toss in parts 1 and 2 of the ingredients and all the spices. Stir.
• When the mixture starts to bubble, lower the heat to "low", and let the mixture bubble for 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally (play board game during this time!).
• Add part 3 of the ingredients and wait 3 minutes.
• Serve.
• Sprinkle cheese on servings as needed.

The 2014 FIFA Worldcup

In the news: It has been decided that the 2014 FIFA worldcup will be held in Brazil! Imagine the football fever in Brazil! It would be awesome to go watch a game there! But I bet the tickets are already sold out ;).

Giant Lego Man

I found this in August and I thought it was funny! I have always liked Lego.