Bem Vindo Ao Brasil

  I'm currently sitting in a room that must be just under 3 metres long by 1.5 metres wide. It's about 30 degrees celcius and the time has just passed 10pm. I have a lovely layer of perspiration surrounding my body, squeezed out of me by the bullying heat. The open window is a speaker to the natural sounds of the local area - shouts, cars, the occasional bang. The location is Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, and I am 11 days into the second half of my year abroad adventure. Guess who's back to join the fun? Oh yes. Everyone's favourite social-media spamming, shoved down your throat a million times, over-rated travel blog.

  Time to Make Some Mates is BACK people.

    Firstly I have a few apologies to make. Number one, to the country and people of Argentina. I left your wonderful land without writing a tribute post. I could've written a book gushing about the country and experiences it gave me, and an even bigger one of the people that put up with me for 6 months. You're all fantastic and I'm honoured to call Argentina my 'latino home'. The truth of the matter was that my planned time to write that piece was at the airport whilst awaiting for my departure. Unfortunately, in that exact moment, I was fighting the effects of a 30 hour all-nighter that was still very much ongoing (what a legend, I know), and therefore no writing was physically possible. But i love you all and I'll be back soon don't you worry. 

  Secondly, I apologise to all of those that I told I probably wouldn't be doing this for Brazil. I really didn't plan to... but at the end of the day when you're in a place like this too much weird s**t happens to ignore and my impulses to put it into words was prodded too many times by this new, Brazilian stick. I've also kinda realised that I should go back to pursuing my dream job, as a journalist. So if I ditched the blog now, it would look really very terrible to any future inquirers of my passion for the field. After many years, I'm finally thinking of my future - look at me go Mum & Dad (shoutout alert).

  So now for the juicy stuff. Why am I here, on the other side of the world, again? What am I doing here? Why Brazil? Well ladies and gentlemen hold onto your hats because I am about to tell you. As we know, I am on a year abroad from university. Those mathletes out there may have noticed that only 6 months have passed and therefore I have 6 months more to do. As I study Portuguese alongside Spanish, I needed to cover both bases. Therefore as the Argies stamped off my Spanish requirement, my Portuguese box remains empty. Here enters Brazil. 

  I feel like it's kinda obvious why I would come here so I won't ramble on. We've all seen those glorious panoramic shots that the BBC and ITV lavishly laid onto our screens during the Olympics and World Cup. Brazil is FIT and I wanted to come and witness this beauty for myself. Also as Portuguese is only spoken in Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique and Angola, my options were slightly limited. Either way I took the plunge and hopped on a plane to Rio de Janeiro on 4th January, a mere 2 weeks after arriving back at home*. 

  I initially arrived for a holiday with two of my best mates Adam and Dan who - admirably - flew out for 11 days of Brazilian summer in the midst of January blues in the UK. I'll be writing that stuff up in my first proper post soon. Now I have moved in with a lovely, local woman called Teresa who lives in Copacabana and houses foreigners who part-take in a course called Rio & Learn. It's a  language course and I will be doing this for 4 weeks to brush up my now antique-like Portuguese. After that I will hang around in Rio until Carnaval when I intend to 'party hard', just how my university probably don't want me to. Finally, in March, I will move to the mega metropolis of São Paulo, where I will be working in a translation company until June when I fly home (for good this time). 

  Aaaand breathe.... 

  I promise the following posts will be more interesting than this. I've already stored up some great material that dips and dives from weird venders on the beach to favela experiences and an enduring visit to a World Wonder. I've also already had a haircut. They do often say that sequels often never live up to the first, but I'm confident we have more of a Batman Dark Knight vibe here than a Grease 2. I mean, just look at the new colours and fonts we have; you can't go wrong. I'll let you be the judge of that, anyway, but until then keep checking the blog out and I can only dream that it gets the same support and response as it did before! 

Aproveite! (I think that's right..)

*(A third massive apology to everyone for only quickly passing by, especially Mum, Nan and Coralie, I'll make it up to you xoxo)