Saying farewell

The last weeks I could not find any time to upload more on blogger. I think you would agree with me that this normally is a good sign. The weeks went by pretty fast but I did all I wanted to do and it was a great couple of last weeks.

My last exams ended in the first week of december, so after that I still had more than two weeks to enjoy the city and the Brazilian culture. Vasco played his last football matches and I visited them all! Unluckily they finished second in both the Brazilian competition as the Latin American championships. "Vice de Novo!" is for that reason a word people used to call me these last weeks.

The city of Rio de Janeiro houses many beautifull nature parks, including loads of trails leading to one of the several mountains surrounding the city. I spent the last weeks of my exchange with my international friend on many of these hills, with as most important achievement the top of the dois irmaos (two brothers, looking over the complete Zona Sul).


My activities in my sport athletics did also demand a large part of my time. The last weeks I had some great trainings together with my Brazilian trainings group and trainer and I think I am ready for next summer season with and European Championships and who knows another "great tournament" in London.

Besides all these nice activities I also needed of course to say farewell to all my Brazilian and non Brazilian friends I made in Rio. To be honest, this was quite a tough thing to do but I think eventually I had some great last days with all these nice people.

Now being back to France, to have a nice christmas in the snow together with my family I think I will never forget the superb last five months. I met some really great people, did things I have never expected to experience and developed my own person in many ways. I would like to use this channel to thank all the people who contributed to this great experience. However I also look forward to be back in the normal cadence of life in the Netherlands and see my Dutch friends and family again.

For now I will close this Blog but who knows will there be a new one in the future....

Abraços, Joeri

The first period of exams has finished and I think I did quite well. My written answers in portuguese will probably not be perfect but luckily the professors are really cooperating. After the exams, I really enjoyed my spare time, because beginning lectures on 1th of August took all my holiday.

After three months living in Rio de Janeiro I thought it would be a good Idea to travel around to see some other wonderful places in Brazil. First, I went to visit my family in their sitio near Petrópolis. After three hours driving in respectively a bus and a car, we finally arrived at their house. No roads, no neighboors and no cellphone signal means that you are probably in the middle of nowhere. However, we really enjoyed the nature and climbed up a yet unvisited mountain.

My second trip was

planned to São Paulo. As one the largest cities in the world it is hardly possible to find your way in the complex system of subways, trains and junctions. We stayed at a house of my French fellow student´s friend, visited some musea and discovered the exciting nightlife of the city.

Integrating: Vasco da Gama, Samba & Baile Funke and Villa Alliança

After nearly two months living in Rio I think it is ready for a new update. Meanwhile some things have changed and I am more and more trying to become a real Carioca. To achieve this, I had to ‘pass’ some tests:

First of all, football (or in Brazilian terms: futbol) is THE main sport in Brazil and for most people one of the most important things in their life. Rio de Janeiro has around 25 professional football clubs, with four of them being favorite for winning the national competition. For me the choice to pick my favorite. Since my both roommates does not favor the same club, I thought it would be best to go a match that would compete both these teams: Vasco da Gama and Flamengo. I joined one of my roommates with the Vaso crowd to the stadium and I would become an amazing Sunday afternoon. Of course, the level of football was not as good as in Europe, but the atmosphere in and around the stadium was really impressive. Large military units had to divide this area of the city into two parts to avoid confrontations. Eventually the game ended in a 0-0 draw, but Vasco played better and had a much more enthusiastic crowd, so my choice was made.

Another very important aspect of the life of Carioca’s are the Samba’s and Funk parties. Both with their characteristic dancing moves make it very hard for a northern European person to participate in it. However, I did my best and enjoyed it a lot. Besides that, the Brazilian people were very kind to help and teach me the Latin American moves. 

Prezados,

Welcome. Via this medium I will try to let you know about my adventures and findings during my period as exchange student in Rio de Janeiro the coming five months. As a student International Economics and Finance at Tilburg University I chose to spent this semester as undergraduate student at Fundação Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro. Why Rio? Why Brazil? In this first blog I will explain my choices, introduce you to the magnificent city and describe my first two weeks as a Gringo in the city of Cariocas.

While applying for a destination of exchange I knew I wanted to choose a country that not only had my interest in terms of beautiful places, good weather and kind people. There are also countries in the world that have my interest as to their increasingly development and their amazing economic performance in times of worldwide recessions and nearly bankruptcies of (former) developed countries. Brazil is one of these countries. I will spare you the boring and complicated delineation, but Brazil last year managed to show a growth of almost 8% of GDP where the EU and USA could hardly get 3%, two years after the global financial crisis of 2007.

How are these major developments possible in a country that tends to have a more communistic than capitalistic regime? How is Brazil, and especially Rio de Janeiro able to manage the two biggest sport events in the world in nearly two years? Questions for a country that most people know of being corrupt, dealing with high level of criminality and having the largest drug traffic in the world.

Let’s go back to my story. On Thursday the 21th of July I left Schiphol for a 30 hours taking trip to Rio de Janeiro. Beforehand, I managed to rent a room in a well located apartment together with two Brazilian guys at the beach of Botafogo. So with Christ the Redeemer looking up to me I arrived on Friday afternoon in a 34°C heat (not bad for a winter day) at my apartment, of course without my luggage. I immediately realized that the Portuguese courses I took in Tilburg would not be very helpful, since Portuguese in Portugal is really different than that from the Brazilians. The first week my roommates showed me the several well-known beaches and the impressive nightlife of Rio de Janeiro. Three years ago I already went here for a holiday so I could avoid the touristic attractions.

As said, it is currently winter here so the second week my lectures already started. After some introduction with the other exchange students (90% from Portugal, some Latin Americans and a few French) classes started. Luckily the first two weeks we could freely join all courses to find the most interesting ones. Eventually I changed all my preliminary chosen subjects. Classes here are really different than at Tilburg University. Smaller groups, more intervention with the students and starting at 7.30am will need some adjustment from my side. However, it is no problem to come one or two hours too late, you will still get the “bom dia” from the professor. At 1pm everybody joins the restaurant to get rice, feijão (black beans) and a large piece of meat. After that most students go to their work. Due to the increasing economy Brazilian businesses have to deal with a serious lack of well educated people, so a lot of students have part-time, well payed jobs. Other classmates install at the library to study. We go to the beach.

The first two weeks went on like this. Monday till Thursday lectures and trying to understand the most important parts of what the professors tells. After that the weekend starts with surfing classes at Ipanema praia, playing futbol in Flamengo, samba party’s in Lapa and much more fun. Next blog I will speak more about that and try to learn you more about the fantastic Brazilian culture. Valeu!