Happy Halloween!!

Halloween é minha festa gringa favorita! Amo me fantasiar, amo o tema spooky e amo tudo que tem a ver com a data: cores, comidas, doces, tudo tudo!!

Hoje eu e minha duas amigas brasucas vamos realizar meu sonho de todo Halloween: vamos nos fantasiar de Meninas Super-Poderosas!! Nada scary, né, mas sempre quis ser uma Super-Poderosa!! Amanhã mostro pras vocês as fotos incríveis da festa de hoje à noite!

Aproveitem o Halloween e quem sabe assim vocês não passam a conhecer melhor o seu dark side?

:-[

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Home Sweet Hometown

I'll tell you guys tomorrow night how great my weekend was, but before that, I read something that couldn't wait till tomorrow. The New York Times published today under the section "Travel" an article about my dearest city in Brazil: Belo Horizonte, my hometown!

The article is about BH and its famous reputation of being the Brazilian capital of bars! Of course all Belo-Horizontino knows about it and proudly says out loud that "since we have no sea, we have bars to kill the time"! According to the New York Time, there are 12,000 bars in BH (I didn't know that!), which means that there are more bars per capita in Belo Horizonte than in any other city in Brazil.

We, Belo-Horizontinos, surely enjoy this reputation on our free time, so that when the weekend comes, it's always hard to decide where to go: we can go for nice tira-gosto (appetizers) and a beer in the traditional neighborhood of Santa Tereza; we can go for an intellectual cup of coffee amongst interesting books and people at Cafe com Letras; or we can go for exciting board games and gigantic-portion fries in Soho Pub. Each bar has its own charm, so that everyone, literally EVERYONE can find a place to go on the weekend, with or without company.

To read the NYT article in English, you can click here.
To read a version of the article in Portuguese, you can click here.

And one last thing I must say about my city: I miss it! And I miss its diversity of bars too, because here in Sheffield they are pretty much the same: traditional English pubs!

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Novidade!

Se cabeca vazia e oficina do diabo, cabeca cheia e workshop. So porque estou completamente atolada de leituras atrasadas essa semana e hoje tive mil imprevistos e nao consegui estudar nada, tive uma ideia otima nada a ver com meus estudos: criei um afilhado pro IzaNaZoropa! O rebento chama-se IzaNaCozinha e ele surgiu hoje, depois que uma amiga minha pediu a receita que fiz pra gente no almoco de ontem!

Sem grandes pretensoes, o IzaNaCozinha vai so colocar online as receitinhas basicas que eu aprendo e invento enquanto estou aqui na Zoropa!! Espero que todos fiquem com muita agua na boca!

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Soundtrack: forro do Gilberto Gil

Detalhes

Quando a gente muda de lugar, nao so de pais, de qualquer lugar pra qualquer lugar, a gente muda em varios sentidos. A maioria das mudancas e grande, obvia e muita gente percebe, mas algumas sao so detalhes, coisinhas que so voce percebe que estao ali lentamente caminhando pra um outro lado.

Um detalhe que sempre (obviamente) muda quando eu mudo de pais e minha alimentacao. Mantenho coisas basicas (brasileiras) que eu gosto, mantenho alguns horarios... mas em geral eu pego emprestado do pais os habitos, os novos ingredientes e tambem os produtos que so existem la. O engracado da mudanca na alimentacao nao e a mudanca em si, porque e logico que isso vai mudar de qualquer maneira. O curioso e que as vezes eu comeco a prestar atencao em coisas que sempre existiram, tanto aqui quanto no Brasil, mas que por algum motivo so quando estou viajando e chamam minha atencao. Uma dessas coisas que so hoje percebi e o iogurte natural! Talvez porque no Brasil as frutas sao mais de verdade do que as daqui, sempre preferi os iogurtes com pedacos de fruta... mas aqui, me apaixonei completamente pelo iogurte natural e pelo seu melhor companheiro: o mel. Aqui em Sheffield compro um potao de iogurte natural fat free e a unica coisa que faco com ele e colocar uma colherinha de mel... hummm... nao tem nada igual. Alem dessa combinacao classica, tambem comecei a usar iogurte pra fazer tudo quanto e molho, pro frango, macarrao, tudo! Aqui so tem cream e creme fraiche... e eles sao gordissimos! Ai vou de iogurte, meu ultimo melhor amigo culinario daqui.

Pra completar minha paixao, outro dia descobri um lugar lindo aqui perto pra comer. Comer quer dizer sanduiche ou salada, nada de pratos quentes. Mas o lugar e lindo e, o mais importante, tudo la e organico e delicioso. Almocei la semana passada: o sanduba foi de pao integral de linho, queijo gorgonzola, nozes e uma pasta semi doce de maca. Maravilhoso o que um sanduiche pode ser... mas o melhor foi a sobremesa: frutas vermelhas com uma calda pouquissimo doce, iogurte natural, mel e nozes por cima... meu deus! Que coisa divina!! O preco do sanduiche foi ate tranquilo, mas o desse iogurte foi facada mesmo - £1.75! Mas valeu cada penny! Juro que da proxima vez que eu for la tiro uma foto pra voces!

Deixo-os agora com a empolgacao do fim de semana que se aproxima e prometo noticias assim que der um tempinho!

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Soundtrack: Gilberto Gil

Weekend update

Here I am!

Sick, but getting better... hopefully until the weekend I'll be 100%!

Last weekend was quiet but good! It was actually new for me to stay in Sheffield the whole weekend, for I hadn't done that since I arrived here! On Friday all my plans were cancelled, so I just stayed home and studied (good for me!!). On Saturday, Roberta and I went shopping in the morning... and we only went back home late in the afternoon! We actually did go shopping, and I got some amazing stuff (hopefully you'll be able to see it in pictures soon)! I got this beautiful Chinese style dress (excuse: to wear at Christmas), a cool trench coat (excuse: my coat is still in France!), and tights (reason: I left mine in Brazil!). It was a fine day... even though I spent a little more than planned!

Saturday night I stayed in and studied (you how responsible I am, right?) and then on Sunday I met Sara and Norah (my Saudi-Arabian friends) for a coffee at Starbucks. There I met by chance some Brazilians and a Portuguese friend, and then I went to the movies for a great flashback: I watched Pulp Fiction at the Union cinema... and it felt good to see it on the big screen!

Last week me and the girls ("the girls" = Karla, Norah, Sara, and Roberta) had lunch together twice. On Wednesday, we went to Forum, a nice cafe close to my house, and on Thursday I invited them to eat chez moi. We had lots of fun!!

The best thing now is the next weekend (and the rest of this week, as a matter of fact)! On Thursday there'll be a Brazilian party here in Sheffield, promoted by the Capoeira Society! Of course we are all going and I guess we'll have a great time there! On Saturday, we're going on a day trip to Liverpool (yeah!) and my dear friend Insun (who used to live in Sheffield and is now in London) arrives here! She'll stay for the weekend and after a drink on Sat night we'll have a great Sunday lunch in my place! Can't wait!

This is it for now... a book waits for me, together with lemon tea with honey and a couple of pills... I hope to get better till Thursday night!!

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Soundtrack: Alicia Keys

PS: Check for some nice updates on my pictures from Brussels here!

Cough! Cough!

Hey y'all!

The weekend is gone, and I stilll haven't written anything here! I do have somethings to tell, but the truth is that now, I'm feeling miserable, so I won't write much! For the second time in one-week time, I've got a sore throat, running nose, and all the other blah blah blah symptoms everybody knows about... especially here in Sheffield, by the way, where everyone seems to have the flu!

I'll update you guys later on this week... and I promise more photos from Brussels and nice plans for the coming weekend!

See ya! Hope to get better soon...

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Updates!

What I nice day I've just had!!

I have to tell you so many things!! I guess I'll start with Brussels, because going there was the best thing I did!

The trip was amazing for several reasons. First of all because the city is beautiful; it's the capital of Europe and it deals very well with the old and the new, and with several different cultures and languages. Even though you can hear basically any language when you walk in the streets, Brussels manages to still have an imagine; an image that composes the city as a whole, not as a fragmented place.

Second reason: I met the most amazing and different people there and everybody became instant friends! It's amazing how in such a short period of time some many people from such different backgrounds can get along so well.

However, maybe the most important thing about Brussels is the fact that it changed me. When I arrived in Sheffield I remembered last year here (crappy year!) and I was so down... The only I could think of what this horrible weather and how lonely I felt here before, even though I had great friends. Nevertheless, after going to Brussels and meeting so many nice people, I figured out that the best places are always where the nicest people are! So it hit me: Sheffield is not an easy city to like, but it's going to be amazing as long as meet those great people that I'm sure are around here somewhere. And this is exactly what I did today!

Today I invited two Brazilian friends I already knew (although they didn't know each other!) to have lunch together. But yesterday, we had lunch with a few of Karla's friends, so I invited one of them too, who also brought another friend!! Basically, in the end, we were five girls (three from Brazil and two from Saudi Arabia) having Brazilian-Mexican food and having so much fun that I felt like I've known them for ever! I love that feeling!

After lunch (around 15h!) we went out to buy our tickets for a day trip to Liverpool next week. Then, I met my Tandem partner! A Tandem partner is a person whose native language I want to learn... and who wants to learn my native language as well! My Tandem partner was born in Jersey, a British island between France and England. Basically, she's British (she has studied here all her life) with a French mother (French is her first language, together with English) and a Portuguese father. She's really nice too, so we had a great time this afternoon, alternating between French, Portuguese and English!

After two to three hours of conversation, Roberta shows up (another Brazilian from my program) and there we go, for two more hours of fun!! So far, Sheffield has seemed much more interesting than last time, especially because I am changed, and I'm trying to make it nicer! The only real problem I'm having here is studying! I can't find time for it! Hahaha! Anyway, I hope to set up a routine for me, so that I can have fun and also study, because this semester I have much more reading to do than last time, and more dissertation problems to worry about!

If you want to see my pictures from Brussels and also from the great gig by Incubus that my brother and I went to in the beginning of October, just click here and go to My Picasa Album! I guess I hardly mentioned the concert here, but it was so amazing! I love Incubus and the city (Bournemouth) is small, but really charming. Plus, the weather was great!

We have great plans for the weekend (starting tomorrow night) and they also include studying! =) I'll tell you all about it later!

Have fun!

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Soundtrack: Ysuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens, remember him?)

Good grief!

Blog Action Day

Dear all,

Today, 15th October, is the Blog Action Day for the environment. In order to call the attention of the world, but especially of the readers of my blog, what I'll do in this post is just to tell you briefly how I changed my point of view and my actions towards the environment since I moved to Europe.

In Brazil, unfortunately, basic needs are not yet solved. For that reason, environmental issues are a little left behind by most people. When I moved to Europe, and especially to France, I noticed that what we can do is simple and can change everythin around us. By resusing supermarket bags, for example, not only did I recycle, but I also felt better. I felt that I was not wasting anything, and that was refreshing.

Going back home in the summer, I decided to implement recycling in my house. At first, my parents were reluctant, thought that it would bring a lot more chores to the day-by-day life. But as we started, they saw that, actually, what it takes to recycle domestic garbage is basically nothing. Instead of throwing everything away in one basket, we simply put things in different bags, one for paper, one for plastic, one for glass, and one for metal. Every week my mom would take it to the reclycing containers (that are everywhere in the city) and that's it!

The best thing about this experience is that it has shown that the only thing we need in order to help the environment is to change a few habits. As soon as the new habits are incorporated, we don't even notice they are there and everything gets back to normal. Another great consequence was the fact that we used to save several used pots in cabinets around the kitchen, in order to try to re-use them some say, what actually never happened! So now we can just throw them in their recycling bags and we don't feel about it! It's a relief to know that we're doing the right thing!

Sadly, though, now that I'm back to the UK, I live in a students residence that does not recycle. That is a real shame, since students (and the university!) should be the first ones to set the example. I'm recycling my own garbage, though, but I would like to see an initiative from the University and its accommodation partners to start recycling in a regular basis.

There you can see a small example of things we can do in order to change the environment whitout changing our lives. What can you do to help?

Brussels

Dear all,

I'm back again! This time, from Brussels!! Last Thursday I went to the heart of Europe in order to give my contribution to the EMA, the Erasmus Mundus Student and Alumni Association. The conference was great and the weekend was even more amazing!

I'll tell you all about it later, because now I have a few texts to read for tomorrow morning... =/

Please don't forget that tomorrow is the Blog Action Day! Let's get moving with your blogs!!

xoxoxo
Iza

***Soundtrack: still Incubus with a twist of Cuban music

Welcome back!

I'm back! Back to Europe, back from Brazil, back to my blog!

** Observacao: nada vai ter acento ou til agora em portugues porque meu new laptop =D e ingles e nao tem essas coisas! Logo logo espero resolver esse probleminha basico!**

Ultimo post em agosto, isso realmente e um bom tempo sem escrever nada aqui, mas tenho meus motivos. Primeiro, o blog chama "IzaNaZoropa", ne, entao quando estou no Brasil acabo dando um tempo, ja que as novidades mudam um pouco de estilo! Segundo motivo, fiquei meses no Brasil so estudando (lendo 24h por dia!) entao as novidades eram poucas, a nao ser que eu tava matando a saudade acumulada de todo mundo: namorado, familia, cachorro, amigos, cidade, comida, etc, etc, etc... Terceiro e ultimo motivo: eu estava de summer vacations! Mesmo que nao tenham sido exatamente vacations e muito menos summer, acabei dando um tempo de tudo mesmo, entao nada de blog por esse tempo.

Mas agora ja eram as vacations! O ano acabou de comecar aqui e estaria tudo super promising, nao fosse eu voltar pra Sheffield. Achei que ia ser bom voltar. Gosto disso de voltar, geralmente nao importa onde, pra que, ou por que... sou meio saudosa. Mas dessa vez nao foi bom... Sheffield definitivamente nao fez minha cabeca e voltar pra ca so me traz essas bad memories. Mas dessa vez tem tudo pra ser um pouco melhor que antes!

Primeiro porque meu brother ta aqui na Inglaterra tambem, na melhor cidade que tem aqui: Londres! Nao tem jeito, Londres e tao legal que nem parace que e no mesmo pais que Sheffield! Alem de estar morando la, Dudu e eu vamos dar umas boas viajadas aqui, eu espero, pelo menos pra Irlanda e Escocia, que eu nao posso deixar de ir de jeito nenhum! Bem, isso se a grana da minha bolsa entrar um dia!

Tambem dessa vez vou ficar aqui bem menos tempo, so de outubro ate o final de dezembro, 3 mesinhos. Espero que passe rapido, porque o que eu tenho ouvido falar de Portugal esta me deixando doida pra ir la!! A Becky amou, a Karla amou, a Mari ta indo morar la e todo o povo do Mundus que escolheu Lisboa como home university e bem mais feliz que eu! =) Pois Lisboa que me espere, to chegando!

Apesar da minha preguica bionica da Steel City, as coisas comecaram ate bem! Cheguei aqui segunda passada (depois de um dia de atraso); terca fiquei o dia inteiro resolvendo coisas e quarta ja tava off to London! Encontrei com Dudu (oba!) e fomos pra Bournemouth (que se pronuncia "barramute") ver o show do Incubus!!!! A cidadezinha e linda, pequena, com praia, parques lindos e gramados e tudo mais de lindo que Sheffield nao tem. Pra completar, chegamos la e saiu o maior sol com direito a calor e tudo!! E show foi otimo, tirando que foi muito curto pra ser uma banda tao legal, so 1h e meia! =) Depois da nossa short trip voltamos pra Londres, compramos meu new laptop e voltei pra ca no outro dia, porque tinha um monte de coisa pra fazer!

Agora os planos sao: quinta to de saida pra Bruxelas, pra representar meus coleguinhas Erasmus Mundus na reuniao anual de todos os Mundus do mundo! Vou aproveitar a deixa e ficar la pro fim de semana, ne, e conhecer um pouquinho a Belgica!! Depois conto como foi!

Dessa vez to morando da moradia da fac. E um predio cheio de blocos (de A a V!) de apartamentos de 4 quartos-suite. Entao eu moro, teoricamente, com mais tres flatmates, mas na verdade sao so duas... ou quase que uma e meia. Uma flatmate nao aguentou Sheffield e desertou pra Birmingham e as outras duas sao chinesas, so que uma delas nao fica em casa nunca. So fui conhecer a segunda uma semana depois que eu tinha me mudado!! Alem do mais, uma fala ingles direitinho e conversamos quando nos encontramos, mas a segunda nao fala nada, entao nada de conversa... nem uma palavrinha. A diferenca cultural e muito grande e a distancia entre nos 3 e enorme... e como se eu estivesse morando com estranhos. Uma pena, porque eu tava com esperanca de viver uma active student life com flatmates legais e tudo e pelo jeito isso nao vai acontecer. =( Mas paciencia!

Esse ano tem 6 Mundus aqui, o que e bom! Ainda nao conheco os novatos, so a Becky, mas quarta teremos nosso primeiro rendez-vous! To sentindo muito a falta do meus amigos internacionais do ano passado... Insun, Laurie, David... nossa, to morrendo de saudade deles! Mas e isso ai, a vida continua e os amigos mudam a cada ano quando a gente e um Mundus! Fazer o que... pelo jeito, esse ano vamos ouvir muito os nomes da Becky, Karla, Roberta, Hilda, Lorenza... esperem e verao!

Bem, esse post ja ta gigantesco e ainda tenho mil coisas aqui pra resolver antes de Bruxelas! Deixo voces com o frio na barriga da expectativa de um novo ano e de um novo pais, que eu vou conhecer essa quinta! Prometo muitos casos e fotos!

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Trilha sonora: Incubus!