Pots

Now a bit to my work. I'm now here in Brasilia to study the interaction of invasive and common plant species in the Cerrado region. To do this, I have an experiment in the greenhouse for which I need 320 pots. Unfortunately, we were not able to find the needed size of pots, so that we finally bought plastic boxes. As these are transparent we had to wrap aluminium foil around them, to protect the roots from light (algae formation; ...). However, the funny thing is that now the greenhouse is looking more and more futuristic! :-) 

Luciola and I and the 320 pots

Grammatic lessons from Carlos (machismo grammátical)

Carlos was a flat mate of Luciola, he just left today. He was very funny, and one evening we started to talk. He then started giving me lessons about important differences in the Portuguese grammatic:

For men; For women

Puto = Gay; Puta = Puta (Bitch)

Toro = Homem que tem muitas mulheres (Man that has a lot of women); Vaca = Puta

Galinha = Homem  que tem muitas mulheres; Galinha = Puta

Aventuriero = Homem  corajoso e que tem muitas mulheres (Brave man that has a lot of women) ; Aventuriera = Puta

....

The meaning of tchao

So far I didn't had huge problems with the language. As I speak a bit of Spanish, I normally understand what the people are talking about and they understand me (or they keep on smiling very nicely, saying yes to everything I say). However I had my first "figura di merda" as we call it in Italian when I went alone to the supermarket. When I crossed people, people used to say "Oi" (Hello) and I answered with a friendly "Ciao!". But they were all starring at me in a weird way, and I couldn't understand why! When I went back home, I told to Luciola what happened, and she started to laugh (once more), telling me that here "Tchao" is used to say "Goodbye!". Of course the people looked at me in an odd way: they used to say "Hello" and I always answered with a "Goodbye"...

Jesus

After this first day full of emotions (the idea of living with a psycho is not so easy to digest), I wanted to buy a diary  for myself to keep all memories. I went to the small shop in the school and a lot of kitschy booklets were starring at me, full of puppets, hearths, flowers,... I just wanted a "normal" diary, not one that projects me back to my sweet teeny years. I finally chose a black-white one that has some smilies painted on it. When I was paying, Luciola started to laugh, asking me if I understand what's written on the cover. I hadn't seen that there was written something: "Jesus é o amigo de todas as horas!" (Jesus is your friend at all hours). I started to laugh and I said "That's great, as I'm very religious"... ;-) Now Jesus is with me at every time, as also when we went to eat something for lunch in another city near Brasilia, some days later, there was written "Jesus" in giant letters just in front of me. :-)

Sergio and the knife

The first night in the new apartment I met Juliana, a biologist that was living there since a week. While we were talking, a guy came in the apartment, without saying a word. A bit weird, I thought. The next day, I met him in the corridor and I stopped him, saying him hello and asking him for his name. The only answer was a whispered "Sergio" and he left.. mhmmm, strange guy.. But I thought that at least he would have been quiet! :-) When I met Luciola (the PhD-student I'm working with), later in the day, she asked me about my flat-mates. When I told her about Sergio, she became pallid and told me "Stef, you have to move from that apartment". I was totally confused and asked her for a reason. She than explained me that the last year there was a Sergio in the house, that corresponds exactly to my description of this guy. This guy apparently threatened the whole flat with a knife because he didn't want to share the unique freezer that is present in the kitchen. He also cut off 3 fingers to a guy that is responsible for the house.

She also hypothesized that this was probably the reason, why I had the chance to go to this nice room (there is only one room per apartment with bathroom AND windows..): no one wanted to live with a psycho! I started to be a bit worried, and thought that this kind of stuff seem always to happen to me! I told her that I really like the new room, and that I would just try to avoid him and close my door when I'm in my room.

After a few calls done by Luciola, where everyone get scared to hell knowing that Sergio came back, (obviously abusively as the police gave him an interdiction to get back to the campus) we found out that the guy in my apartment is another Sergio! I was so released!!! :-)

New room

So, last time I wrote you that I was in a small crappy room without windows. Well, already the next day I was so lucky to get a new room in another apartment. I love this room, it's big, it has an own bathroom and it has WINDOWS! :-) In the apartment there were already two people, but after a few days I had the apartment all for me. It was great! Just hang out a bit, doing my work in peace.. Great! But the quietness didn't hold a long time: the apartment is again half filled with other 4 people. As they are Brazilians, they  have the "talking-gene" fully expressed, and no volume regulation... ;-) However, they seem to be all very nice! 

The living room

The kitchen

My new room with windows

The giant closet: a dream for every woman. 

The only problem is that I have not enough cloths to fill it up! ;-)

The view from the balcony

Brasilia - Primeira Semana

It's now a bit more than a week than I'm here, but I feel like if months have already passed!

The people here are great, the nature too and... the food! Delicious! Everything seems brighter, more colorful and even if I'm really tired, I feel totally alive!

Many things happened in this first week, so I'll subdivide the huuuuge post in small stories. :-)

I hope you'll enjoy!