domingo, 16 de junho de 2013

The Giant is Awake



Hello, my good friends,

Today I went to a protest here in Berlin to support my fellow brazilians who are changing the world back home. So, I believe it would be nice to talk to you about what is happening in my beloved country, Brazil. In this last week, we have seen several manifestations and protests there. They started because of a 20 cents raise in the tariff for public transportation in São Paulo. But that raise was just the last straw. We are tired. As a nation, we are tired. And now our population goes to the streets demanding for respect.
I am often telling my colleagues here in Germany how Brazil is an amazing country. I love it. I love its nature, its people, its culture. I love the food and the music. I specially love our diversity and I also have an optimistic view for our future. And talking about future, it is often said here that we are finally making it! That our economy is growing and that we are now soon becoming part of the so-called developed world! It is really super exciting! The problem is: it is not true. Or at least not so simple. Let me tell you some facts about my beloved Brazil.
In Brazil, we work for four months only to pay taxes. At least that is what 35% of taxes represent. Besides that, everything there is more expensive. If you live in Rio or São Paulo, your life will be way more expensive than here in Berlin or even New York.
If only we received back all the public services we are entitled to... All Brazilians are entitled to free public education and health care. But no. We have to face everyday how our money is not invested in schools or in hospitals. How a teacher makes not enough money to buy food while our senators are one of the most expensives in the world. We also have to deal with corruption, which steals around 80 billion Reais per year, or 40 billion US dollars.
We struggle with our own safety too. In big Brazilian cities you have a feeling of security that can be broken at any moment. I have never experienced myself any kind of violence. But I know people who have. And we watch the news and we know what to do to keep ourselves safe. So I watch out before walking to my car. I go to malls, not to open spaces. I don’t go out late at night. But even if I pay attention and only walk on the safe part of town, there is always one kind of violence that I cannot run away from. It happens when you are having lunch on a Sunday with your family and an eight-year-old wearing dirty clothes and no shoes comes inside the restaurant to ask for money, because he is hungry. And you loose your appetite. Quickly a waiter will lead the boy out of the restaurant and everything is like it was again. But those few seconds of contact between the two Brazils are enough to make us stop pretending everything is ok. You pay the bill and drive home. Thinking about it in your car. 
This is Brazil. You can think about it while you use the air conditioner of you car. Your amazing car that costs three times the ones you see here in Europe. Or in Chile (or in Mexico!). You can think a lot about what happens in the country, because most likely you will be in a traffic jam. You see, we have a super Government that makes us buy more and more cars, but doesn’t build enough infrastructure for that. Having a car in some of the biggest cities of Brazil I extremely expensive! But we keep buying them, because you don't want to (or cannot) rely on the public transport. In Brazil, you have lousy, unpunctual, and also expensive public transportation. If you have a subway, you have only a few lines. If you have buses, they will be old, crowded and they will often break.
But that is not the worst about my country. What really made me ashamed of Brazil were two things: 
To begin with, our Police is acting like a dictatorial force. They are repressing democratic peaceful movements. They are putting into jail the student leaders of the protests.Now we have political prisioners, just like we had during our dictatorship!
Besides that, our beloved free media was the worst actor of it. The way our media covered those protests... When we saw a movement of people who are tired of being exploited and wanted to express their own ideas, we had a media that turned its back to us. Almost the entirety of our major TV networks and newspapers quickly portrayed the protestors as outlaws. And maybe a few years ago that would have been a very efficient way to shape reality in a way that appraised them. But now it’s different. We have the internet, with twitter, instagram, facebook and youtube.
Remember of the video you saw in the beginning? It is super cool, right? With the special effects and all that... But these ones are even better. These are the videos of a true giant awakening. Be my guest to watch them:

Rio de Janeiro:


São Paulo:


Brasília:

With love and strength!!! Keep changing my country for me! I am proud of you! :)

quinta-feira, 13 de junho de 2013

Dönnerstag da semana

Oi, gente! Tudo bem?

Olha, viver o verão de Berlim tem sido bem melhor do que eu esperava, viu! Ter o sol das 4h da manhã até as 22h é uma loucura! To perdidinho no meu relógio biológico aqui!

Mas ao mesmo tempo parece que a cidade não pára! Tudo que o pessoal não fez durante o inverno, estão fazendo agora! E acho que a fama de que os verões de Berlim são curtos ajudam a incentivar todo mundo a sair. Mesmo que você esteja cansado e queira passar o dia inteiro dormindo, você se esforça pra ir tomar sol no parque, passear com o cachorro ou ir correr. É assim! Aproveite hoje porque você não sabe se vai ter amanhã!
Bem, mas já que a gente sempre arruma um tempinho pra ver coisas bacanas na internet, quero mostrar pra vocês o que que eu vi de interessante por aqui essa semana! Vamos lá?

Saca só esse projeto super bacana de fotografia que convida os namorados a tirarem foto com as roupas trocadas. Achei super legal!  

Essa reportagem sobre Carly Fleischmann, uma garota canadense autista que conseguiu se comunicar, via computador. 

O blog do Vini Uehara. Adoro o estilo dele, apesar de estar num momento sem ser muito consumista... Ou seja, sem compras!

Na verdade, acho que to mais é vivendo uma vida bem simples.

 E o que vocês tão achando desses protestos todos em Sampa sobre o aumento da passagem? Eu estou é muito feliz de ver tudo isso acontecendo. E fiquei mais feliz de ler esse post sobre o que a mídia não mostra sobre essas manifesta'ões.



E já que começamos a falar de política, que tal ver o blog da Dilma Bolada e se rachar de rir? Adoro o humor dela!


 Beijos!

 


Dönnerstag of the week


Hey, guys! How you doing?

Let me tell you something: living Berliner Summer is better than I expected! It is crazy to have sun from 4 am till 10 pm! Besides having a complete confused body clock, so many sunny hours per day give me lots of fun! It is like this city never stops. Everybody is outside enjoying that the weather is treating us nicely and is doing all the stuff they couldn't do during winter. I also believe that the inconsistency of Berliner Summer contributes to that. People are just not sure they can trust next week will be sunny again. So you gotta go to the park, or start jogging, or just lay outside receiving sun... Enjoy it today, cause you don't know if you will have it tomorrow.
Well, even with this amazing super berliner summer, I found some time to share with you some cool stuff I found this week.. So, shall we?

Check this out this super cool photo project, that invites couples to take pictures wearing eachothers clothes. I liked it!

And have you heard of Carly Fleischmann? She has an amazing and important story to tell us, about how she thinks like a normal girl, even thought she was diagnosed with autism.

Vini Uehara's blog. I really like his style.

Marina Abramovic and Ulay started an intense love story in the 70s. Read this super emotional piece about how it was their reencounter.

And finish seeing this super cool video about the evolution of music!

 Beijos!

 

quinta-feira, 6 de junho de 2013

Dönnerstag is back!



Hello all my friends!

How are you all? I hope the past month was as amazing for you as it was for me! Well, I had so many days with people I love, that I cannot be more ready for the new challenges this summer is bringing to me...
Today our Dönnerstag will be a bit different. I will share some really cool links with you, of course! However, I will do it througout this text... So, whenever there is a link, click on it and check what susprises are there hidden...
My family came here to visit me and it was awesome! I really loved sharing a little bit of my everyday life here in Berlin with them...  We had a roadtrip from Berlin to Amsterdam, passing through Hamburg. Besides that, a friend of mine also came to visit me and we headed to Paris for an amazing 5 days trip.
Well, what can I say? Paris is amazing. All of that History going on... If in Berlin I am surrounded by so many stuff that made this century what it is today, in Paris it is more than that. Almost everywhere you go you have monuments and things that remind you of at least three centuries of History. Things that are directly related to what we have been for the past four centuries. And you can't deny that besides the French Revolution and Napoleon, the city has its special charm, that you can feel whenever you are walking on the Champs Elysée, checking out the museums, going to MontMartre or when you stop by any café... 
But one thing happened. The chemestry didn't hit. I don't know why, but I believe I am not a Paris person. I don't know if it was the french way of bein blasé or what... We just didn't work out. And I must confess: with all their huge impressing monuments, I wasn't as impressed there, as I was in Amsterdam, especially by the Keukenhof, this amazing Tulip Park. I was in Amsterdam with my family (only my middle sister was not there, and I really missed her) and it was really good to spend time together, seeing the everyday life of the dutch people and, specially, getting to see the Tulips! Just take a look and keep in mind the picture did not get even 10% of the real beauty of the Keukenhof Park...
Well, I do believe Paris is amazing and that some people fall in love with the city almost instantly. But maybe I need some more time... Maybe it will happen in our second or third date.

Hugs and kisses!






terça-feira, 4 de junho de 2013

The five love languages

Have you ever heard of the five love languages?
A while ago my sister told me about this really cool book, that explains how people tend to express differently when it comes to love. Well, I am not a big fan of self-help books, but I decided to give it a try. And I am very happy to tell that it has really helped me!
The book was written by Gary Chapman, an american christian counselor. And you don't have to worry... Even if you are not religious, the book makes a lot of sense and applies to several ocasions in our lifes.
So, shall we? As I said, we have plenty different ways of expressing love. The books calls these different forms "languages". This is how you put your feelings out in the world. Here there are the five languages:
1) Words of affirmation. "I love you". Some people will just not feel happy before hearing these three magical words. But sometimes a "you are very special to me", "I like spending time with you", or "I am so happy with you!" will also do...
2)  Acts of service. Some people love to take care of the other. Things like cooking, cleaning up the room, washing the car. This is something I never really got, which was a problem for me, since this is my dad's favorite way of showing he loves me. It took me years to finally understand that, even thought he wasn't saying it out loud, he was showing it to me everyday with so many different acts of service. I am happy I finally got the message and that now I can say it back: I love you too, dad!
3) Quality time. Some people simply demand and supply the most precious gift of all: your time. To those people, there is no such thing as a weekend relationship! How would it be possible to see each other only for two days in a week? The more the better! Let's have lunch and dinner everyday. Let's go on a trip together. Let's sleepover. But we shouldn't forget the "quality" part of the equation! Just laying around watching tv is not enough. For those people, paying attention is also really important!
4) Physical Touch. And here I find my place! I just love to kiss, to hug, to cuddle... I can spend the entire day together. This is a really important language for me. And living here in Germany is sometimes really hard for me, in that sense. Somedays I just come to my friends and ask for hugs. Afterall, love (and for me that means hugs) is all you need.
5) Gifts. And here we find the most important language of all (at least for the capitalist economy). Giving and receiving gifts has become a must-do in today's society. And because of that, it often looses its meaning. Lots of times people who don't fully appreciate this language, practice it just because they have to. And when this happens, it is really easy to forget the meaning of it all. Usually, when someone speaks this special language, the value of the gift is not the most important. What really matters for this person is the act of giving and receiving. The meaning the gift has.
So... the book keeps going and tells us that we are usually fluent in one or two of those languages (which does not mean we don't like the other ones). What happens is that, when we prefer one of these languages, we usually tend to "speak" it and we also want to "hear" it. In that sense, it is easy to miss when someone is talking another language.
That is why it is so important to know about the five languages of love! So we can better understand our loved ones and even try to speak their own language.
Now... think here with me: how much misunderstandings happen all the time, because we are loving and being loved in different languages? Sometimes the message gets "lost in translation" and then... Then it's gone. Do you think it ever happened to you?
So! Wanna know which language do you speak? Take a quiz here, and tell me which language do you speak! Do it, just like Oprah did! 

 


Beijos!

As cinco linguagens do amor

Você já ouviu falar das cinco linguagens do amor?
Há um tempo atrás, minha irmã me falou sobre esse livro que nos explica que as pessoas se expressam de formas diferentes quando se trata de amor. Olha só, eu não sou o maior fã de livros de auto-ajuda, mas resolvi dar uma chance. E não é que o livro me fez pensar sobre muitas coisas?
O livro é escrito por Gary Chapman, um conselheiro religioso americano. Mas não se preocupe se você não for cristão. Apesar de ser inspirado na Bíblia, ele não é um livro religioso em si. 
Então vamos lá? Como disse, a gente tem diversas formas de se expressar, quando se trata de amor. O livro chama essas diferentes formas de se expressar de “linguagens”, o modo como você coloca pra fora seu sentimento. É também como você reconhece esse sentimento nos outros. Vamos entender melhor falando das cinco linguagens que o livro reconhece?

1) Palavras de afirmação. “Eu te amo”. Tem gente que não se satisfaz enquanto não escuta da outra pessoa essas três palavrinhas mágicas. “Você é muito especial para mim”, “eu gosto muito de você”, “estou tão feliz ao seu lado” também serve.
2) Serviços. Tem gente que adora cuidar do outro. Fazer comida, arrumar o quarto, lavar o carro. Meu pai é assim, sabe. Até eu entender que essa era a forma que ele expressava seu amor por mim, eu simplesmente não dava valor. E depois sofria quando ele não chegava e falava em voz alta “eu te amo, meu filho”.
3) Tempo de qualidade. Há pessoas que simplesmente demandam e oferecem seu bem mais precioso: o tempo. Para essas pessoas, não existe namoro de fim de semana. Como compreender que eu vou ficar cinco dias inteiros sem ver o meu amado? Quanto mais, melhor. E qualidade também! Nada de estar perto do outro o domingo inteiro vendo Faustão. É preciso atenção!
4) Toque. É aqui que eu me encontro! Adoro beijar, abraçar, fazer cosquinhas e simplesmente tocar. Adoro cafuné, chamego. Pra mim essa é a forma mais íntima de se expressar o amor. E a minha preferida.
5) Presentes. A mais incentivada nessa nossa cultura capitalista! Por isso, muitos nem são fluentes nessa linguagem, mas a praticam tanto. E se esquecem que o que interessa não é o objeto presenteado em si, mas a mensagem que ele carrega: o “eu te amo”. Geralmente, quando a pessoa gosta dessa linguagem, pra ela não importa tanto o valor do presente em si, mas sim o ato de dar, de trocar alguma coisa com alguém.
Pois bem, geralmente falamos fluentemente uma ou duas dessas liguagens, o que não quer dizer que não gostamos das outras. Na verdade, quando temos preferência por uma dessas liguagens, nós gostamos de nos expressar por meio dela e também de receber carinho por meio dela. E pra falar a verdade, não há nada de errado com isso... Cada um é cada um. Cada um tem direito a ter suas preferências.
Mas o conhecimento é bom para sabermos compreender melhor nossos amados. Pare pra pensar em quanto desentendimento pode acontecer quando nos “amam” em outra língua… A mensagem pode simplesmente se perder no caminho e aí nós nunca chegaremos a compreendê-la. Será que isso tem acontecido com você? Eu tenho certeza que comigo acontece várias vezes...
Na verdade, acho que todos deveriamos nos tornar poliglotas nas liguagens do amor! <3
Agora me digam o que vocês acham dessas ideias? Faz sentido pra vocês?

Beijos!

domingo, 2 de junho de 2013

Notre amour






– Mas e pra que serve isso? – perguntou o senhor, com seus cabelos grisalhos, à mulher.

– São cadeados, meu amor... – disse ela, enquanto forçava os olhos pra olhar mais adiante procurando pela Catedral de Notre-Dame.

– Isso eu sei, né! Mas por que tantos cadeados nessa ponte?

– Ah, são os casais que fazem isso... É pra ficarem presos um ao outro. Se você vier aqui, prender um cadeado nessa ponte e jogar a chave no rio, o amor fica seguro e os dois ficam juntos pra sempre. Como que amarrados um ao outro – explicou ela sem dar muita atenção a ele, enquanto olhava no mapa.

– Hum... Cadê o nosso cadeado, então? Vou ali comprar um... – disse ele, como que resolvendo um problema prático, que acabava de apresentar-se a ele.

Nesse instante ela parou o que estava fazendo e olhou nos olhos dele:

– Querido, estamos juntos há 40 anos... Dá pra ficar mais amarrado que isso?

Ele sorriu. Deu dois passos na direção dela. Passou a mão em sua cintura, trazendo-a mais pra perto. E a beijou.


Notre amour







– So… What is this all about? – asked the man with gray hair.

– Those are padlocks, my love... – answered her, while looking for the Notre-Dame.

– Well, that I can see! But why are there so many locks in this bridge?

– Oh, that! It is just a silly thing young couples do… It is supposed to make a couple locked to one another. You should write the names on the locker and put it here, in the bridge, lock it, and throw the key away on the river… That should keep the love safe and also make the couple stay together forever. It is like if you were tied to each other – taught her, without caring much, while looking at her map.

– I see… In that case, I will buy a locker for us – answered him, as if this was a new practical problem he had just recently realized.

In that moment she finally stopped doing her things and looked up. She turned to him and said:

– Oh, my love… Do you really think we need this? We are locked to each other for the past 40 years. Do we think it gets more tied than this?

He smiled at her and came a bit closer. With his hand around her waist, he pressed his body against hers. And then, they kissed.