Kindergeburtstag: When a kid's birthday turns out to be a massive event!

Last sunday, my boss invited a lot of people from the office to come to his son's eight's birthday party. It was supposed to be a soccer party so everyone should come dressed up in the jersery of his/her favourite team (that's the story why I bought a Germany jersery, remember?).

When we arrived at the place, it turned out to be a big party room with foosball/kicker, trampolin, carussel, basketball and many many other games for kids and a part with tables for the older people to be seated with food and drinks and a hell of a lot decoration. They even had people to entertain the kids with soccer games (penalty shots), medals to be won and many more things.

But not only the kids were entertained... actually, the kids did not care much about the whole entertainment... they rather played on the super playground with all these games and possibilites than listening to a lady explaining... Thus, we were entertained. Danceing games for couples, penalty shots (the men even had to sing the hymns of their favourite teams, we women just had to name them), and musical quizzes.

It was a lot of fun, I can tell you and seriously everyone was acting as if we were eight ourselves. Look at the picture and the video of the dancing competition to judge yourself... Our boss and his wife won it by the way, though Warley and Wagner also turned out to be great dancers (some might say Helio being the boss of most dancing judges had a slight advantage) :D

[ooops, youtube just always stops before the video is uploaded... maybe I can do that when I have my own internet and am not in the hotel anymore]

Just Dance...

I went out to a very cool Pub/Club yesterday night. While from the outside it looked very posh, inside it was a mixture of an irish pub and a rock club, decorated with posters of bands from the beatles over kiss to nirvana. It had some space to sit, a nice dancefloor and a stage which was already filled with instruments for the band that would play tonight.

The band came on stage. They had a keyboarder who would have easily fit in a skate punk band with his outfit and piercings, next to him a guy with rhasta hair who could have been Bob Marley's missing cousin on the bass, in the middle the singer with long uncombed hair, a plaid shirt and a voice you could have put on a The Darkness record, the guitar player a big bear with no hair but big tattoes who would have not looked wrong on stage with Flogging Molly or The Dropkick Murphy's and last but not least a nice looking young guy on the drumset who, if he lived next to you, probably would walk your dog and mow your lawn on weekends.
Now, this is a crazy combination... What do you think a band like this opens up with (except for an amazing bass solo from the rhasta guy)?
Yes, that's right, they opened up with "Take On Me" from A-ha! :D Oh, did I mention it was an `80s Party? ;)

I had a real fun night there and it was interesting to see how brazilian girls dress up for a night out... The craziest dress I saw was what looked like a big golden "potato bag" but it fit with the girl that was constantly repeating her own little dance routine somewhere between "The Robot" and "Ententanz" (also known as the Hooters Chicken Song or something). But in general, the skirts are shorter, the high heels are higher (not below 10cm) and the lips are redder ;)
But apparently there is 5 girls on every man in Goiânia, so the competition is big... maybe that's it :D
But even though there were tons of willing ladies out on the dancefloor this one old and ugly guy in a glitter shirt kept hitting on my friend Sthela. Brazilians don't like to accept a "no, thanks" so he was coming back all the time to talk to us and trying to get Sthela to dance with him. His opening line (he tried it more than once with the same line) was always said to me: "Oh, you could you please introduce me to your pretty firend?" After the fourth time I still did not know his name but was so annoyed that I said "Okay, Sthela this is the weird guy in a women shirt; weird guy in a women shirt this is Sthela" Fortunately he did not speak any english, so Sthela and I had a good laugh and he was happy cause he figured I had said something nice about him :D

Now its a nice sunny saturday morning and Sthela, Nathalia and me are going to look for nice furniture... hopefully we find a nice and, most important of all, comfortable bed for me and a nice sofa and puff (yes, dear Germans, a puff... its a Sitzsack and said "poufie"... it has nothing to do with whorehouses) for Sthela.

Sao Joao - Gym Party on the Roof Top!

As everyday I went to the hotel's gym yesterday night and did my usual work out. When I arrived though, the girl at the entrance was wearing ponytails left and right behind her ear and had her cheeks colored bright red and with painted freckles... Upstairs in the gym, the room was decorated and outside on the terrace seats and tables were prepared. However, noone was there yet.

So I started my workout and did not wonder anymore about it. When I finished an hour later and wanted to leave, one of the trainers told me to come back up later for the party. I am "just" a hotelguest, who is thus allowed to use part of the gym for free without really being a memeber, but Daniela said "You are a hotelguest, right? Well, you are here all the time, so you should come up anyways to get to know some more of the 'students'"
I thought that was very nice, especially since they new that, living in a hotel for nearly two weeks and not knowing the traditional brazilian food eaten on Sao Joao's day, they knew I couldnt really add anything to the potluck dinner.
So of course I went upstairs later and met some really nice people. I was introduced to everyone as "This is Anna, she comes from Germany and will live in Goiania" and everyone was really interested in what I do here, and how I got here, and, and, and... :)

My hour on the treadmill was quickly cancelled out by all the food I just had to try (Anna, do you know this? No? Oh, you have to try it, its really good! ... Oh, look, something new, its traditional, you should try it! ... No, but seriously, I made those and all my friends say I make the best! You really need to take some! ...)
But I must admit, it was all very tasty. Food here is heavy, but very tasty.

Later on, two guys that work out in this gym brought a guitar and sang live Sertaneja Music, which is the traditional music here... country music, that is. Most of the party guests were dressed up for this day, with plaid dresses, strawheats or plaid shirts and cowboy hats, and knew how to sing a long.
I did not really get into the music, it is not bad, but really, a little whiney... (For the Germans among you readers: The singing is a bit like Xavier Naidoo in portugese, although the music is a little happier)

Most of the evening I spent talking to Cynthia (who introduced me to many people and showed me around), Junio (the personal trainer of the gym who also prefers rock music over sertaneja and who would tell everyone that I seriously jumped into the non-heated pool at night) and Diego, Pedro and another guy whose name I unfortunately forgot (who are the youngest members of the gym with 20 to 23 years). They were very interested in what I do and how I like it here, and of course they wanted to talk about soccer ("Bodouskee", "Swinestygar", and "Balakke" meaning Podolski, Schweinsteiger and Ballack). Fortunately I learned a lot about soccer through my friends, the worldcup and the eurocup so I was actually able to talk to them about some things.

All in all I had a lot of fun, but one last random story stays to be told:
While we were all partying outside on the roof's terrace there was one guy still exercising inside and he was the reason why Diego and Pedro did not get to work out, they were just too irritated... It was a skinny, longhaired, tall guy in a white muscle shirt and colorful '90s shorts. Shorts, meaning short. Really short.
Do you know the episode of FRIENDS where Phoebe has this super active and sporty boyfriend? No? Well, let me tell you: Phoebe's boyfriend in that episode and the guy yesterday have two things in common: The very short shorts, and the fact that they are not wearing any underwear... Like the friends, we could have needed a Gunther too yesterday night, to tell the guy that he is showing way too much skin.

Pictures of Hotelroom View

Here you can find some pictures of the city center... some "Plattenbau" high buildings and, compared to other LA Cities, quite some trees!
And of course, a picture of my first ever soccer jersey :)


And for the really curious ones a little video with pictures of the city! I did not make it myself, I just happened to found in on youtube :)

Winter Weekend

It is winter, here in Goiania. At least that is what the lady in the elevator told me today, dressed up in a long sleeve blouse and a jacket. I look up at the infoscreen and it shows me 21°C and it is not even noon yet...
However, this clearly explains why I was the only person at and in the pool the whole saturday. The otherones must have stayed inside, wrapped up in a big pullover drinking hot chocolate.

But seriously, this winter season here is weird. I was shopping in the big shoppingcenter on sunday, and C&A is selling big boots and warm wollen pullovers. What I needed was new short jeans as my airshipment arrived but is still held in storage until I am able to move into my new home (I am with appartment nr. 4 now and it is still not 100% sure if it works out).

In the end I found great new short jeans, and an adapter for my PC which thus finally works again, and a couple of new CDs which are just amazingly cheap here. My new favourite to listen to while working is the Soundtrack of "Into The Wild" (a movie which you all should watch, by the way, if you haven't done so already).

Last but not least, I bought my first ever soccer jersey! It is a Germany jersey and it says my name and the nr. 5 (-> birthday) on the back! I need it for a party I am invited to next sunday.
Amazingly, what a World Cup and a Euro Cup (both of which I enjoyed and really followed) could not do, Brazil does in less than 2 weeks! :)

Here a little proof on how much "winter" it is:

Fingers Crossed

So apparently all of you crossed your fingers very well!
After a couple of really disappointing appartments, we by chance found a really nice one. Brand new and ready in 10 (brazilian) days... The owner of the place accepted the offer that I put down regarding what has to be done in the appartment and what rent I can pay.
But do not stop crossing your fingers yet, cause the paperwork still has to work out and I do not believe a thing, until I can sign it...

At work I learned a lot about numbers today. I love numbers, don't get me wrong, but this was really really a lot. And a lot of background to understand the numbers...
I was rewarded though with a great lunch. Ornellas, who explained me all those numbers, took me to his home for lunch as his wife had invited me to come over.
This was not just very sweet, it was also very yummy!
Especially the meet, which was cooked with the bones, onion and garlic, some vinegar, spices and wine in a big pressure cooker and it was super soft.
Unfortunately I could not eat as much as maybe brazilians do, because the weather is very warm and the food is very heavy... ...and I did not want to fall asleep in front of my PC three in the afternoon ;) I hope they did not think I did not like it, because I just ate one plate...

It is the weekend now, and I am happy to be able to enjoy the sun for two days, cause it gets dark here relatively early (pretty much exactly when I leave work ;). I brought some sunscreen 50, which I will definitely need and cannot wait to use.
The hotel pool and gym is on the top floor so it also has a very cool view which I so far only saw at night... I will take some pictures and post them, as soon as I have a working pc in the hotel...

Paperwork

Hallo Ben! Schön dass Du auch da bist! ;)

I had thought I would never get to that point, but: all necessary paperwork is done. Now, thats not completely true as my drivers liscence and a home are kinda necessary too, but I can receive a salary now, I am fully legally here, fully employed and on payroll.

I will look at three more apartments this afternoon, and as me crossing my fingers seems to not have been enough effort for my house hunt so far, I ask you all to cross your fingers too!
I still do not have an adapter for my PC, so I will let you know tomorrow if your efforts in fingers crossing and Daumendrücken have helped.