Hey guys,

It's not like I want to go to Brazil - I live in Brazil and am brazilian. I'm just wondering how many of you have visited or lived here; What cities you have been to, and for how long. Describe the experience of being in its culture, and what you could understand of it.

And obviously, don't only mention the good things (if you had any).

I'm just very curious to know about the different opinions. I already know Insomnia lived in my city for a few months, who else?

i flew over it. looking at the paraná out the window for ages, which was great

Where were you flying to?

bs.as.

bump

Hehehe, like you said, I lived in Salvador for three months. I also spent a week in Rio, which I loved, and an afternoon in Porto Alegre (waiting for a bus to Uruguay), which I didn't love so much...

I loved the fact that everyone was (on the whole) very friendly and accepting. There seemed to also be a real interest in education there, much more so than there was here. I taught ex-street kids aged 17-23 English and they were so enthusiastic and friendly, it was amazing. I would have been terrified to teach the same age group in the UK! In Salvador, I was also massively impressed with how clean the city was- compared to where I live in the UK where there is rubbish on the streets all the time, it was amazing. Rio also has such a great night life, although it feels REALLY different to Salvador. Way more "international" and less obviously friendly (not that I ever felt at threat there). There were some slightly weird things that I won't go as far as to say were bad, just a bit strange. Firstly, everyone assumed that because we were so pale (I'm a redhead, so I am SUPER pale) that we must be American. This meant regularly people would walk after us going "Americana, Americana, I want to marry you and move with you to New York". I think they would have been very disappointed in the reality. I was also living there when the Iraq war started, so people kept coming up to me and going "America- NO WAR", which equally was a bit silly. Secondly, people really didn't understand sunburn and kept coming up to me and going "Oh my god, you are REALLY red, thats REALLY funny. Why don't you try wearing suncream?" Obviously I was already wearing Factor 30! I just burn easily!

Downsides, there weren't really that many. The only downside I would say is that the men in Salvador were quite sleazy at times (and I didn't even own a skirt whilst I lived there, so it wasn't like I was dressing provocatively), they used to pinch us all the time as we went past and pinching is not a massive turn on EVER. They also hissed (and people in restaurants hiss), which I always found so rude- we would never dream of doing that to get someone's attention here! Even after 4 months there, I couldn't bring myself to hiss at a waiter/waitress! Also, the food isn't great. The fruit, I love, the cocktails, I love, but as a vegetarian, I got SO bored of pirao de aipim. Also, when I told people I was a vegetarian, they looked at me like I had said I just liked to kill children for fun.

Overall, though, I love Brazil and I would happily move back there! It is one of the nicest countries I have ever visited.

são paulo for a few days, also visited my godfather in campinas and we went to rio for a day. loved it!