Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
woooooooo boing boing boing busy busy woop!
I like being busy. Correction; I like being busy with things I enjoy doing. For example: dancing, training capoeira, juggly juggly, acrobatics, learning languages, teaching languages….. sound familiar? hence, woooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But with the start of February upon us, my second month here in Rio, it is time to step up 
the training….*ominous tones* yes, capoeira training I now do in the mornings (meaning getting up at 6:45! ouch!) leaving my evenings free for more dance classes, acro and juggling, hoorah!
Currently doing so many sit-ups that my abs will soon look as terrifying as this man´s.
This week I also moved into my new place 
it´s looooovely, I have a spacious room with
pootamatron and internet (feeding the addiction). I share the flat with the owner, who is also a dancer and on Fridays we´ll be doing partner samba dancing at a nearby school in Lapa (the place with the big arches and trams). Here is a pic of him in a dance competition when he was younger:
So rock on! I´m starting to feel much more settled now that I have my own space… I know already, I´m going to be really sad to leave Rio 
but hey I´ve got another few months til that happens, and I´m gonna make the most of it by gumby! *triumphant* ha ha!
bye for now!
Lx
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
mmmmmmmm there is just something about brazilian music that prevents me from standing still. I had a beautiful evening in a bar in santa teresa, where there were various musicians playing traditional songs, mostly samba and forro. I was enchanted! I spent most of my time with the other brazilian women dancing or swaying gently between the cafe’s tables, appreciating the beautiful rhythms and sounds created by the musicians…. contented smile 
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
phew! That was a knackering day, the filming of the Brahma commercial lasted from 10am until 11:30pm !!! A lot of the day was good fun, being dressed in pretty clothes, made-up and re-made-up throughout the day and of course samba-ing to the live samba band and watching the various dancers do their thing… heh heh, Dave, you’d have loved the various girating semi-naked brazilian beauties :p
I was thinking about that actually. It’s a bit of a myth that the brazilian girls are all incredibly hot. You don’t really see many around… but recording adverts… that’s where you’ll find them! And covered in glitter, oh how much did I want to join in with them!!!
So yeah, filiming was long and tiring, and HOT, everyone samba’d until we were drenched (nice), but yeah when the cameras were actually rolling, lots of fun glitter everywhere!!! And all the dancers were really nice… I recieved numerous offers to do free private tuition with the male dancers (how generous! haha).
Oh, and I did another audition the other day (!!) for Heiniken this time, and they wanted circussy type stuff and fire, so I hula-hooped and strutted my stuff with flags and poi… we shall see
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Ha! It’s great! I teach English now every day. I get the obligatory undivided attention of my tutees, an hour of talking about language and lots of time outside the lessons reading fat books about English grammar! I didn’t even now we had count-nouns! fascinating!
I’m going to teach them everything I know about modal verbs today… hmm… must go revise
must, should, would, could, might, may, had better, can, ought to…. oooh, maybe I could use this as their introduction to the conditional?!! I’m probably more excited about this than I should be, huh?
Sunday, January 21st, 2007
Wicked! boing boing boing, I passed the audition for the TV commercial woo, so I shall be part of some group drinking Brahma beer and being very happy about it. Filming is at the end of this coming week… should be fun!
Also I had my first taste of baile funk last night. A huge dance hall packed with sweaty brazilians all grinding and girating to this penetrating, compelling music that just calls you to shake that goood thing 
The music is funk with a dirty thumping beat with a
kind of singing/rapping over it, which tells a story or tells you what to do…. it was a slightly bizarre moment the first time I heard the rapper singing “chao! chao! chao!” which means “floor”, and almost everyone (particularly the girls) starts girating their way, bums at maximum strength, to the floor, where they continue to bounce and grind until the phrase changes!
Bring it on!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved it and danced for hours till I could move no more!!
Friday, January 19th, 2007
This is where I am staying at the moment… and today, I found a room in an apartment in Santa Tereza, which, though slightly more expesnive than I had hoped, is lovely and I think I’m going to take it starting next week
The trams that run in santa teresa are pretty much the only ones that run in Rio, they’re Brazilian-made, rickety and brilliant fun! It’s like a free rollercoaster ride. If you cling on to the side, you dont have to pay a fare and the thing whizzes down cobbled
streets round tight bends that you think might scrape against you, but miraculously don’t… then it goes over the arches of Lapa… weeeeeeeeeeee!!!! don’t fall off!!
Looking at budget *snoooooore* unless a miracle occurs, I will probably have to come back early but if that’s how it is, that’s how it is. Well, I’ve still got plenty long time out here and the sun is shining… I’m gonna go enjoy it!
ciao for now!
Wednesday, January 17th, 2007
I made a decision last night, which has made me very happy.
I went to another capoeira class, and it was sooooooooooooooo good!! This is after a week of being here, no caffeine, no processed food, no alcohol, no chocolate (!!), and the class was pretty tiring, I felt absolutely fanstastic!
It just made me think: this is what I came for! And I’ve been worrying so much about my meagre budget that I was considering not doing so many courses (like an acro course I found, which is quite expensive). So I decided - ok, I’m just going to do every course I think would be beneficial to me and not worry about the expense (as long as I’m not bankrupt!!). If it means I have to come back a month earlier, so be it, at least I’ll be making the most of my time here and not doing it half-heartedly!
yay and indeed woop
Right, I’m off to try out another acro course I’ve found!
Laters!
Tuesday, January 16th, 2007
ooooh lots of interesting routes to follow now!
It seems it would be quite easy to get work at ay number of hostels out here. I´ve already been offered twice! But I´ve also been offered work tutoring English, which would be much better hours - and I´m here to train not to work!
But even better would be teaching poi
Which I might get a chance to do… I went to the Fundação Progresso today, which is a
cultural centre. I found a group who give acrobatics courses:
And popped my head into a dance studio, had a chat with the lady there, who might be interested in running a course for me to teach in poi…. and she mentioned an audition for some TV commercial that was on that afternoon. cool! so I had my photo taken, posed lots and am going to the second audition on wednesday.
But, even better! There was a juggling/spinning meet in the same place as I walked out of the audition! rock on! I met loads of people, did some juggling passing, taught some poi, played lots and lots with stuffffff! and then a girl gave me 3 hulahoops because she´s leaving tomorrow and doesn´t need them. praise be!!!!!!!!!!!
Happpy LOz
Monday, January 15th, 2007
Using this face I will charm all of Rio.
In other news, I went to a great free party tonight on
copacobana beach, played with fire with some lovely people that I’ve met and drank lots of coconut water. Beautiful sunset, lots of bouncing people, hooray for beach raves!
Sunday, January 14th, 2007
I am so impatient.
I noticed I´d been feeling more and more frustrated by not having sorted out my situation here yet (finding somewhere to stay, working with the juggling troupe, making friends with the local juggling types…) as if somehow by not having achieved this in 3 days I was wasting my precious 106 days I have out here. *rolls eyes*
But I guess my impatience hasn´t been such a terrible vice, I now probably have a job tutoring English 1 hour a day, have met some lovely fire-spinners, have found a great area to live in and possible leads to follow into renting a place cheaply there… I´m loathe to say it….. hahhahhahha, no I´m not! I rock!
and I have discovered one of the most amazing things about this country: pinapple juice with mint and crushed ice. Try it, it will pleasure you.