Travel tips!

If the guy you met yesterday calls you “Linda”, don’t slap him! That doesn’t mean that he forgot your name. Linda is Portuguese for saying beautiful!

Washing machine!

I and Jair have secretly been planning to buy a washing machine for Jair's mum and today we could finally do that! A lot of people participated to help to buy this gift; my mum, my dad, my grandparents and Jair's brother thank you all! Without you this wasn't possible!

We got a really nice machine from Electrolux (of course we bought a Swedish machine haha) that also could centrifuge, something that Jair's mum never could dream of! Jair's family has been talking about buying a cheap machine which could only wash and not centrifuge so this was an amazing surprise for her!

The warranty from the fabricant is one year, but after changing store and doing a lot of barging we succeeded to get warranty for 3 years for the outside of the machine, 2 years for the motor and electrical stuff and 10 years for the round thing inside where you place the clothes and we only paid 40 reais extra (160 kr or 16 Euros)! In the first store, which was the same store really but in another place in the shopping mall, the warranty for the whole machine was 140 reais for 2 years (460 kr or 46 Euros). Jair is really good at barging!

Jair's mum got so happy for the machine and told me 100 times to say thank you for my family at home! She was washing right then when we arrived with the machine and when she saw it, she just said: "I won't wash more today!" She's so happy!

Jair's mum and dad with the washing machine!

Travel Tips!

Guys don’t use black socks in your sandals! That gives you a stamp on your forehead which says “TOURIST”! European guys, no offence, but very often German guys do this. Brazil is not dangerous if you don’t walk around the wrong area or wear a very expensive watch, but for God’s sake why you wanna show everyone that you are a tourist?

Typical tourist!

Surfing!

My surfboard arrived!!!!!

Isn't it cute???

Now, I have been surfing for two days with a training surfboard (more soft and doesn't break very easy). I know how to stand up, but not how to separate my feet on the surfboard. I always put both in the back so the surfboard goes like superman up in the air while I fall back into the water... :)

But I'm sure I will learn soon so I can use my cute pink surfboard!

While I was surfing, Jair was bodysurfing.... haha!

Me and my brother

He has been here one and a half month more than me, but I don't think that I will get the same skin color as him anyway!

Travel Tips!

Don’t get scared when the taxi driver don’t stop when it’s a red light, at least not if you are in Salvador after 11 pm or on Saturday or Sunday! In some counties is it legal to drive even though it is red light, due to the risk of getting robbed when you stop the car.

Janine, Jair's sister

Couldn't find a suiting picture but at least there is a taxi in this picture! And Jair's sister is nice to look at :)

Reporting from the ghetto

The third day in paradise!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The flight went alright but I still have jetlag in my body! I fall asleep around 22 every night and then I wake up around 8... That's not normal for being me... everyone who know me know that!

I got the best welcome that a girl can possibly get! Everyone here were so happy that I were coming! Jair and his dad were waving for me as soon as they saw me through the glass window at the airport! Everyone in the favela already knew that I were coming so they were yelling for us when we passed them to get to Jair's house. When we reached Jair's house my brother ran out and hugged me very hard and even lifted me up in the air, saying "I've missed you, I've missed you!"

I'm already a little bit red from the sun and I also have some mosquito bites, but no worries, I'm taking care! Today Jair's going to take my surf board! I'm so excited to see it!

On the air plane!

Today is THE DAY! I'm on the air plane right now, waiting for it to go of to Frankfurt where I have to connect to go to Rio de Janeiro and there I have another connection flight to go to Salvador... Huh, it's going to be a long trip!

Gothenburg - Frankfurt [1h 45min]

Waiting time between flights: 4 hours (some good magazines or a book is required! My lonely planet that I got from my grandma is going to be just perfect!)

Frankfurt - Rio de Janeiro [12h 32min] between 20.15 - 05.17 so this is perfect for my beauty sleep! hihi :P

Waiting time between flights: 3h 17min (this suckssss, at this point I'm going to be tired of flying and WAITING!)

Rio de Janeiro - Salvador [1h 56min] (maybe some make-up and change of clothes... I have to look nice for my fiancé!)

This make the total time for the trip: 1h 45min + 4h + 12h 32min + 3h 17min + 1h 56min = 23 hours and 30 minutes!

Wow that's a lot of time... Let's hope for no delays!

As I'm arriving 10 in the morning to Salvador (14.00 in Swedish time), I guess it will be the beach right after dropping the bags at Jair's house, so maybe no make-up after all :)

Brasil até logo!

Air fashion

Once upon a time, travel by air was just for the rich people...

We, Swedish people, travel a lot both in business and for pleasure. For business trips the Swedes usually dress well, but for leisure trips the dress code is considerably more casual. We care more about feeling comfortable in our clothes when we are going to travel, than looking rich! Especially when it's going to be a long flight...

Brazilian women always dress very elegantly when they are flying, they use shades (*sun glasses), hats, dresses and really uncomfortable shoes... I saw a woman that had really high heels and her husband was sooo short and he and someone else where carrying all her stuff, while she was standing still in her high heels looking like a movie star in a 40-minutes-long queue for the passport control... haha! I tried to look at her face as often as I dared too, to see if she felt any pain in her feet, but I couldn't read out anything at all from her face, she wasn't even walking like she had pain! But I could see that her feet was swollen from flying and that her toes were red of chafes which the shoes had caused!

Usually when I'm flying, I try to dress comfortable, not ugly, just comfortable. I mean I'm just going to be on an air plane not going for a party like the most Brazilians seem to be convinced of before they board the plane! But this time I'm going to match up to them with nice jeans, high heels (not to high), a fresh long blouse (to be able to open my jeans while on the air plane), necklaces and shades! I'm even going to change clothes in Rio de Janeiro where I have my connection flight for Salvador, as there is gong to be between 30-35 degrees when I arrive there!

Time goes slowly.......

Only six days left in Sweden!

Every time I leave Sweden I make sure to work every day until then, even if I’m leaving on a Sunday or a Monday. I guess that’s my way to deal with my travel fever. I make sure that I have no time to think or getting nervous! Time goes faster when you have too much to do!

This weekend I have worked both Saturday and Sunday so now I have to pack, cut my hair and go shopping for the trip on the evenings instead! But no problem, I'm going to relax on the beach very sooooooon! The salary comes on Tuesday so there is no point to go shopping before then, therefor Monday is packing-day! Thursday and Friday are mum’s days, because Thursday is her birthday and Friday is mum-and-daughter-day as I’m leaving on Saturday. On Tuesday I’m going to cut my hair so after that I only have one hour to go shopping, but Wednesday after work is shopping-day! No worries, there is a lot of time...!?! Time to make a list! Haha!

I feel almost sorry for my mum now! She said that she will never move from us (meaning her kids) but here we go all of us, moving from her! Me and Emil in Brazil and my sister in Lund half a year before she goes to Denmark! But she’s happy for us…!!

Travel facts!

Favela

Cause thats the life when ur

Living in the ghetto and

Eating in the ghetto or

Sleeping in the ghetto

Did you know that the Brazilian economy is the tenth strongest in the world?! But in Brazil there is also one of the biggest gaps between rich people and poor people. One third of the 188 millions of Brazilians are living in extreme poverty.

The definition of a favela is a neighbourhood where people are building houses on land own by the government. The favela grows without any control and has no real roads. The favelas are very often controlled by drug kings and they are also the ones keeping everyone safe inside the favela. Thefts inside the favela are taken very seriously.

Nowadays all the favelas have electricity and water because of the investments the Brazilian government made a few years ago. The government has also tried to move out people from the favelas by building free apartments for them to move into, but that resulted in people selling their apartments short after they moved in there and then moving back into the favela! For the money they gained by this affair they could buy bigscreen TV and some other stuff that they always wanted but never could afford.

Jair's nephew's band inside Jair's favela

Hello mosquitoes!

Next week my lovely white skin is going to be attacked by hungry mini-vampires! But I don't care because next week I'm finally going back to Brazil, WOW I can't believe it! It feels fantastic to be able to say that! I mean that now I'm finally able to say next week and not the 29th of January (which sounds depressingly far away). I feel like I've been waiting for ages!

And this year, I'm really fit for a beach life haha! When I came home from Brazil last year I was 12 kilos bigger, due to fantastic food and sugar-filled drinks...!!! My new years promise last year was to shake it all of again so now I'm back to normal, here I come BEACH 2011! This time, like I have said many times before, I won't let that happen again! No really, seriously, because I'm going to be a surf girl! Jair just ordered my very first surfboard, pink of course! First Jair asked me if I wanted to have a barbie painted on it (because that's my other nickname in Salvador), I just told him, of course not I'm THE Barbie!

Travel facts!

Salvador da Bahia - Little Africa in Brazil

Salvador is the capital of the state Bahia and is situated at the northeast side of Brazil. It’s perfectly shaped as a natural harbor, so when it was founded it quickly became the main harbor for sugar and slave trades. This has made Salvador to what it is today – little Africa! Salvador has a population of 3.8 millions of people and 80% of them have Black African ancestry!

Because of its history Salvador has an amazing Afro-Brazilian culture which reflects itself on music, sports, food, and traditional clothing. Salvador is also known by the name “Brazil’s capital of happiness”, because of the easygoing people and all the parties! I wonder how the people of Salvador became this way, maybe the slaves decided to never work again after they got released and they are still celebrating with a lots of parties?!

People from other states usually refer to bahianas (people of the state Bahia) as lazy and slow, so if you there make sure you aren’t in a hurry! I have never been so relaxed as I’m when I’m there. Nothing matters, time is just a time and the Bahia time is always a few hours after, no rush!

Travel Fever

If I have travel fever... hmmm yes I think you can call it travel fever! But of some reason I feel like I'm not going at all...

Before Christmas my little brother (he's not very small, he's already 21 years old...) went to Brazil. But there was a HUGE problem, when he was going to board the plane to go to Salvador they refused to let him on the plane because he had reserved a flight ticket to stay in Brazil for six months! Apparently you aren’t even allowed to leave Europe without changing the flight ticket! This is a very strange rule, because if you want to stay longer than three months you have to have a return ticket to apply for an extension of your tourist visa when you are in Brazil!

Anyway my brother changes his flight ticket and I was forced to do the same and that wasn’t very cheap…

Now I feel just weird, like I’m sleeping and dreaming about going to Brazil but soon I’m going to wake up and realize that it all just was a dream! I guess that my unconscious is laughing me right in the face right now! Haha!!

Positive thoughts Emma! Really I’m just so happy to be able to do this and to see my guy again!

Salvador

Brazil again!

Back to Brazil!

Now everything is set! I will go back to Brazil the 29th of January and the plan is to stay six months! This time I will be in Salvador, I’m going to stay in Jair’s house together with his family and my brother and it is right at the beach!

While I’m there I will study the last year on my master programme in project leading and an intensive course in Portuguese! If I’m lucky maybe any Brazilian company is in desperate need of a Swedish mechanical engineer! I can’t wait!