annika hagen

in Brazil, Carnival is not enough. They must have several Pre-Carnivals!!

I joined in on this one in São Paulo this past weekend in the district of Pompeia. Amazing fun!

I was told before hand that this was just going to be a small little thing. If this is their definition of small..... holy moly. It was wild, exuberant, full of awesome people and some of the most fun I've had at a street party. From block to block this crowd traveled as one, circumnavigating about 20 blocks in a square. We were entrenched for several hours and I imagine it was going to continue long into the night. What a great vibe, what great stomping samba beats.... the only thing separating me from the rest of the hundreds of people there..... I was the only person not singing along to every song. I have some carnival samba songs to learn! I think I will start with “Me dá um Dinheiro aí” which, as the song was translated to me, goes "hey you, give me your money!"

found this video on youtube to give a better idea - fun to watch even if you don't speak portuguese... there's a quick moment you can spot me next to the bateria dancing. 

i've been coming across these photo-challenges recently and have been keen to try one. however, i haven't quite found one that spoke to me. so i decided to drum up my own. i hope it might peek your interest enough that you will join me... it's pretty simple. take a photo every day - each day has it's own theme that i've left fairly open to interpretation. if you have a blog, upload the photo instruction file and start posting, if you are on facebook create a gallery and do the same, if you use instagram or twitter hashtag #dailybanana. if you complete the task every day for the month of february, there will be a little gift from me at the end. (it will probably be a photo print). i look forward to seeing your daily bananas...

xoxox annika your #dailybanana

see gallery here

after a productive week of portuguese lessons, list making, planning and pink floyd on shuffle, we enjoyed a calm weekend in town. we walked all over the city on saturday, as most of my time here has been about taking little trips elsewhere, this felt like the first real weekend as a local, getting to know my new home. here are some facts and snippets about Ribeirão Preto....

 (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʁibejˈɾɐ̃w ˈpɾetu], Black Stream).

• It's nickname is Brazilian California for its economy based on agrobusiness & technology and its sunny weather all year long. 
• Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese immigrants came to the region for the coffee agriculture. Right after the Abolition of Slavery in 1888, Italians arrived in huge numbers, followed by Germans, Spaniards, Eastern Europeans, and Portuguese.
• During the 1990s, Northeastern migrants came to the region attracted by the economic development of São Paulo state cities, which was widely broadcast in TV documentaries. 
• Ribeirão Preto has a population of 605.114 inhabitants. 
• The climate of Ribeirão Preto is a tropical wet and dry climate, with rainy summers and dry winters.
• The city was founded June 19, 1856, by farmers coming from the southeast of São Paulo State in search of good climate and soil for coffee growing. The fertile soil allowed the highest crop productivity in Brazil.
• By the 1880s the city had become the largest coffee producer in the world.
• The Pedro II Theatre is the third largest opera house in Brazil and the home of the Ribeirão Preto symphony orchestra.
• In 1911 the city opened its first factory, the Antarctica Brewery Company, now part of the AmBev group. The Antarctica factory led to the opening of several beer houses in the city. One of them named Pinguim (penguin in Portuguese), became particularly famous and made Ribeirão Preto nationally renowned for the quality of its draft beer (chope or chopp in Brazilian Portuguese). Many people say that coming to Ribeirão Preto and not visiting Pinguim is like going to Rome and not seeing the Pope. 
• Ribeirão Preto also has one of the first micro-breweries in Brazil, Cervejaria Colorado, founded in 1997. 
• Ribeirão Preto has many parks, gardens and a zoo.
• The city has two soccer stadiums for the teams Comercial and Botafogo. Neither are currently in Brazil's top three soccer divisions. 
• Ribeirão Preto is a big university town hosting 8 campuses: School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto (FMRP), School of Law of Ribeirão Preto (FDRP), School of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters (FFCLRP), School of Dentistry (FORP), School of Economics, Administration and Accounting (FEARP), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCFRP), School of Nursing (EERP) and School of Music (DMRP-ECA).
• The increase in oil prices after the crisis of the 1970s lead to the search for an alternative means of fueling. The solution was found in ethanol (sugarcane alcohol). The region around Ribeirão Preto is responsible for 30 percent of Brazil’s sugarcane alcohol fuel and is considered the largest producer of alcohol and sugar in the world, 
• Besides this, Ribeirão Preto's major products are orange juice, cotton, rice, meat, dairy products, textiles, machinery, steel, furniture, building materials, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and, of course, beer. 
• The sugarcane boom brought a new age of prosperity for the city, which was called the "Brazilian California" during the 1980s and early 1990s. This image of a new "Eldorado" attracted many migrants from impoverished areas of Brazil leading to a rapid population growth and the appearance of slums (favelas) bringing with it the problems of drug trafficking, high violence and crime rates, an unfortunate fact that Ribeirão Preto shares with all other major Brazilian cities.
• The mayor is a woman, Dárcy Vera (from the Democrats party coalition (formerly the Party of the Liberal Front), It is the first time that the city takes a woman as mayor. She was elected with 52,04% of the votes. Her term of office is four years (until December 31, 2012).

click on the photos for a slideshow walkabout town...

 *facts sourced from wikipedia

this past weekend we traveled with friends to delfinópolis, a small town located in the neighboring state of minas gerais (general mines), about 2 hours from ribeirao preto. we took a little ferry from cássia across a very large man-made reservoir and stayed in a fantastic little pousada right on the lake....

on saturday we drove for 1.5hrs along some wild dirt roads up into the sierras to one of the furthest of some 150 waterfalls in the region. we hit gold... the cachoeira do ouro! after the exhilarating swim there was a delicious typically brazillian lunch waiting for us at the casinha. along with a big gang of dirtbikers. 

click on the image below for the full slideshow...

 saturday night we enjoyed a little feast at one of the only restaurants in town, a perfect little pizzeria. and sunday we were treated to a boat ride with some of the other guests at the pousada. we got to see some of the new developments along the lake. stretches of farmland that has been there for over a century i'm sure contrasted some of the über fancy modernist houses and sculpted palm-treed lots perched above shipped-in white-sand beaches. it was a rejuvenating and eye-opening weekend to say the least!

(oh, and apologies for excessive photos of cows, i love them!)

It has been almost two months since I came down to Brazil and I suspect it has not yet fully sunken in. I find myself still quite in shock at times. What wild impulse brought me down here? Well, love of course. Has there ever been a better reason for any wild impulse in history? (no). But I believe this level of wild-abandon is somewhat rare and dissipating in our modern times. Where I am from individuals have grown rather smart. They have learnt from scientific sources that this dreamy ethereal floating feeling we call love can be deduced to brain chemicals. So, often the individual is skeptical, cynical and more pragmatic in choosing a mate. Sensing love, yes, but making choices geared more toward self. Which I have certainly done periodically in my life. I have been selfish. More than any other lesson I have learnt in this short time, I have learnt that I am a creature of habit. I might even call myself a little stuck in my ways. I like my usual haunts in my usual neighborhood with my, (however exceptional), usual friends. I have relished in my balancing habits unwaveringly for the last ten years. I love Main Street. I love going for coffee in attempt of attacking writing goals while sitting for long hours at Our Town Cafe or Gene, rarely venturing more than two blocks from my home. How many nights a week for the past few years could I be found at Cascade enjoying a Manhattan and chatting with all the lovely people that place attracts? (Lots!) I like specific local grocery stores for my often unadventurous culinary pursuits. Specific brands of hot sauce, mustard, corn tortillas, juices, cheeses etc etc have maintained a high level of importance in my daily functioning. Maybe something that took me ten years to learn about myself in certain routines living in Vancouver, is that my needs for basic happiness and security were pretty simple; a clean cozy home, a nice view with lots of light that would work to overcome my seasonal defectiveness, my favorite meals (1.quesadillas 2.egg and tomato sandwiches on rye 3.quinoa salads...), little comforts in strategically placed nicnacs in my home; my apple brand technological gadgets, access to decent tv and movies when required, and my friends. Most importantly are my few, very close, very integral to my happiness friends. 

So it is with a lick of irony that I find myself here, all jostled up and without a large percentage of the things that kept me balanced at home. Another key realization in this change that those who know me well most likely know better than I do... I only act tough. I think I am a scared, fragile weakling under the calloused armor.  So unlike what it looks like, my brazen move to Brazil has sort of lately been feeling like a leap that is a little out of my league. But here is how I plan on defeating this thinking.... First of all, deep down this is exactly (and for love), why I am doing this. To shake things up. To change life. To change habits. To be OK in whatever I do, wherever I am. The thing is, realization #37, I am super spoilt. I’ve pretty much always found a way to do exactly what I have wanted to do with minimal effort. In 2005, when I was 26, I made some money from some TV writing I did and promptly took off to Europe to spend it all instead of saving it like a forward thinking adult. I thought I had had it with rainy dreary dull Vancouver and I was outta there! I aimed for Paris for two months, and then Berlin. I thought perhaps I was meant to live like a Parisian. Sure thing, I was very good at it. Daily bicycle rides, fantastic food and lounging around all day in coffee shops and museums. Idillic!! But was I happy? I found out, no not really. As my father has been telling me since I was a child, and a child who was lucky enough to travel a lot... “Wherever You Go, There You Are”. This always sounded so obviously silly and rudimentary to me, but only as I keep experiencing these repetitious pursuits and realizations that the fundamental concept of this adage has begun to really sink in. If I am not intrinsically happy here, it is semi-likely that I will not be truly happy there. 

However, I am often good at arguing against this statement on basic surface levels. I convince myselt that I am sure to garner more happiness when living in a big, active, lively city than I would in a po-dunk town in anywheresville. This could very well be true. I may well be happier living in São Paulo than I will be living where I am now, in Ribeirão Preto, where I followed my love to, as it was the most sensical move at the time. He was not ready to move to Vancouver, as he has many projects on the go here, and we didn’t want to spend more than the three months we had already spent apart. Plus, I was flexible. Thing is, and I knew this going in, that in Ribeirão Preto I am not finding the little niches of trendy shops and cafes that I have always sought after in all the traveling to interesting places I have ever done. Creature of Habit. I am out of my element here. I have not yet grown comfortable enough to ride around town on a bicycle, (this is not much of a pastime for the city’s inhabitants, not that I have yet noticed anyway). Perhaps A). because it is extremely hot or in contrast, under tropical downpour most days. and B). because I don’t have a bike. Coffee culture has not hit Brazil in the way it has in the first world. People don’t sit around drinking venti lattes tapping away on laptops or fixed into books. Laptops aren’t carried around and showcased for fear of theft. Hard realities here keep people from experiencing the freedoms we have at home.

Last on the list of materialistic gravitations I am growing more conscious of, the aesthetic trends I am used to, the free-spirited wear-whatever-you-want attitudes of Vancouver and many other big cities have not yet hit this one. Which is fine. I certainly don’t need to be surrounded by hipsters. But to give oneself a sense of belonging and in the pursuit of feeling grounded, we as a society generally move to places and neighborhoods to be surrounded by people who look like us, so that we feel more secure in ourselves. We like to feel like we can relate to the people around us, even if we don’t ever plan on actually talking to them. Then, in getting over the fact that I have not yet found my herd of aesthetically like-minded individuals and to overcome the division to find out what lays beneath (I imagine people are essentially the same beneath the layers wherever we go these days), I am then further restricted by the language barrier. The obstacles begin to feel like they are piling up. So as an answer to many friends back home that may have been thinking after I left, what a brave move, how lucky is this gal, moving to Brazil! How glamourous, how impossibly fortuitous.... I say overall yes to all this, I am lucky, extremely, it has been glamourous, in fact rather fairytaleish - a beautiful man, with a beautiful family in a beautiful warm country. Yes I am super stoked on all these facts and I do not take any of it for granted, but there is a reality underneath and it is the same one I would face wherever I go. 

Maybe many of you are reading this and thinking of how you would relish in the chance to live in a foreign land, away from all the humdrum habits of home, and I would bet a good chunk of change that most of my adventurous friends would be better and stronger and less fearful at doing it than I have been so-far. But perhaps this is not the time to compare oneself to another and more a time to reflect on self and how to swallow the reality that we are who we are against any landscape. I am here. I am tackling fear, uncertainty and breaking out of destructive ways of thinking just as equally as any one of my brilliant, enlightened friends are back home. Trust me, there is little difference. If I stacked up all the things I now miss about Vancouver and found that they tremendously outweighed all the lovely things I have found down here and thereby made an equally wild decision to move back home again, I would bet anyone interested $100 bucks that in two weeks I would be crying about the weather and not finding enough work and how expensive the cost of living is and how lonely I would be. So certainly the answer here is, get over fears, learn a new language, find work and most fundamentally to one's inner happiness, pursue Love. Inside and Out. Quell negative voices in head. Break old patterns and find new and inspiring ones. Soak up and learn as much as you can about yourself through the experience. Soon enough, my surroundings will conspire to comfort me into a new home.

For this opportunity to have landed in my lap, it is true, I could not be more fortuitous. Surely it is ironic that the small handful of staples and routines that created a sense of security in my old life, the little things that made me happy (close friends, bike rides, working in film and very specifically utilizing the english language, the freedom of knowing my way around a city and knowing many of its inhabitants, access to mexican avocados, corn tortillas and hot sauce) are all at present time not even remotely available to me. At this I suppose I can only laugh, make peace with the gap in comforts and carry on. Into myself. Back to basics. Me, my love, my writing and photography tools and the determination to make this new life work. Thank you for reading my first real blog post on moving to Brazil. The newsflash is, life ain’t too different down here. There are still such things as procrastination, self-doubt, and fear, as well as personal discoveries that the most important things in life are good relationships and self-empowerment. I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be a big year from many of you good folk back home. I wish you all the best in tackling the things that hold you back and enjoy the prospective confidence that we can all attain our goals for this year. Beijos a todos meus amigos maravilhosos que você deu-me a força fazer isto. For those of you in rainy slushy wet Vancouver, I hope you can take a minute out of your January blues to reflect on how truly awesome, free and safe the city you live in is, and when dreaming of greener pastures to remind yourself, wherever you go, there you are. 

p.s. today i found rye bread and am very happy that i could enjoy my family's favorite sandwich, the european style tomoto and egg : )  

p.p.s. so as not to go completely cold-turkey on all the comforts of home, anyone wanna send me a care-package with dark chocolate, corn tortillas and valencia hot sauce? (i’ll love you forever!) 

and in the meantime, who can identify these fruits?....