Goodbye Brazil!

It has been exactly 9 weeks since I landed on Brazilian shores, and today I am leaving again. My partner and I are off to the United States of America; California; San Francisco. Life took over in my last month in Brazil and I barely had time to attend to photos/ blogs/ etc. The experiences I’ve encountered in the last month have been incredible to say the least. I became really absorbed in Brazilian family life, Brazilian social life and really started working with the System. I have cried, I have laughed, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here. I have discovered and come to accept with a warm heart that Brazil is the ‘Land of Contrasts’. For every beautiful sight, there is a shocking contrary. For everything glimpse of poverty, pollution and despair, there are smiles, beautiful smells of Brazilian BBQs and of course the stunning Brazilian nature as a backdrop. For everything which is ‘right’ there is always something which is ‘wrong’ and for everything despondent moment there is also a moment of hope, peace, ambition and contentment. Graduation parties were the theme of my last month in Brazil. Both Diogenes’ and his friends’. They were incredible, emotional moments with a party to match! I remember a moment when I found myself waking up on an unknown couch, wearing a pink cowboy hat having danced all night and pondering ‘how did I end up on this couch… in a random house… in a random city… in Brazil?’. I still question how and why I ended up here and why life in Brazil was not what I expected it to be. I feel I still have a lot to learn about this country. It has helped me grow as a person, by completely challenging all my ideals and beliefs about life. I’ve always considered myself and open-minded and accepting person, and Brazil challenged me to not only ‘talk the talk’ but ‘walk the walk’. When you are challenged with limitations of many sorts, being dependent on someone, being isolated through language, you learn a lot about your own limitations and how to push past them. I’ve had some weak moments indeed, but I feel I have come out of it stronger; stronger than I ever would have imagined. Communication has always been my forte, but here in Brazil I’ve had to exist without this strength. I can’t even remember what it is like to casually joke around with a Sales Assistant during a purchase, or make a joke across the dinner table (other than a basic, generally un-witty, precipitated, well-thought out, usually passed the funny-time threshold joke), or make a passing comment when it comes to mind.

Moving to California is going to be a breath of fresh air in many respects, but the cycle of adjusting, adapting, learning, appreciating will begin again. Diogenes and I are going to live in separate cities. He in Monterey, myself in San Francisco. There are few jobs in Monterey County for me (it is a small area with predominately blue-collar employment). Given we are both young, career-oriented people, it makes sense for us to pursue our hopes and dreams without dependency on each other and our relationship. Naturally, if we are both contented and fulfilled individuals, this will only strengthen our relationship. We will see each other on the weekends and enjoy the opportunities life brings us. UC Berkeley and Stanford and two universities in the San Fran area which I plan to make efforts to connect with in some way. The United States is a country I was always interested in, but never imagined pursuing it as a place to live. However, the closer the time approaches to landing on US shores, the more excited about it I become. The next month or so, but particularly the next week and coming days are going to be another adventure filled with uncertainty and new opportunities.