we are privileged

Yesterday I did a photo shoot a little outside of SP. I had to take a bus home on the way back... It took me 2hours to get home. It's not so far, just the traffic at 6:30pm makes going from A to B a very difficult thing indeed. I was lucky to get a seat on the bus... soon it was packed and there were a lot of people standing. These girls started talking to me and telling me how they get up at 4:30am to be at work at 7:30... then they leave around 6pm and get home again sometime between 8 and 11pm, depending on traffic, weather etc.

Then they went on to tell me how they once took the wrong bus and ended up on the opposite side of town ... how they spent all their money getting back and also got home very late... All this they said joking half laughing at themselves... I sat there in awe at how most people live here. It's a little different then Europe where people work 9 to 5 jobs... that take them 20 mins to get to work and STILL everyone is in a crap mood all the time!

I wonder sometimes what it is that makes people happy and why the poor countries seam to produce such happy people while the rich countries where everything functions people are always grumpy and unfriendly.

It's a mystery to me.

away a while

A lot has happened since last time I was here....

My mother had this great idea to sell their apartment and buy two smaller ones.... One for my parents and one for my husband and I. This way we would rent it from them or rather it would be like paying a mortgage but instead of paying a bank we'd be paying my parents.We get to have our own place and not a rented or borrowed one and plus we can live close to them. For practical reasons it's much easier to be close by.. plus their neighborhood is much nicer and closer to work.

This was little more than a month ago. They sold their apartment and bought a new one in less than a week. I spent the past couple of weeks helping them pack and unpack again in the new place. Also been looking frantically for a home of our own.... And am very impatient to finally have our own little place.

Also got a great job for a couple of days photographing one of our coasts touristy beach towns Guarujá... if only I could get more work like that!!!

On a completely different note: winter seams to have arrived suddenly just today! I've been freezing all day wearing a scarf and now it's only 21h30 and i'm in bed under the covers...

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today I moved back home.

One year ago today I arrived in Sao Paulo with little more than a few cardboard boxes and a suitcase packed mostly with books clothes, negatives and cameras... We had pretty much no money just debts.

Today, finally, my husband has managed to finish paying off his bank loans... (they paid his university).

I would never have guessed that one year later we would be looking for a place of our own in the truest sense of the word... somewhere to build our future on.... a place that we can decorate, paint, sculpt to our likings and where we can imagine sometime in the future possibly starting a family there.

My parents are growing older, (aren't we all!) and I am happy to be here for them after so many years.... just as they are here for us and always have been. I see them happy looking to the future with us, supporting us and it makes me thankful and so glad to be here!

...and to celebrate all that, here's a photo of my favorite place!

Things that drive me mad/ things that make my day

Things that drive me mad here in SP:

-Lack of organization in large corporate supposedly professional companies.

-Ugliness

-People who throw trash on the streets

-Extremely crowded busses full of sweaty people

-lack of respect towards others

-Loud obnoxious people

-bad quality stuff

-The way people drive

-The fact that there are buss stops which are impossible to see and that have no signs to let one know what buss stops there

-How expensive mushrooms, asparagus and other food like that is

Things I love and that make me smile:

-How the guy who sweeps the streets every morning smiles and sings while he works

-When someone offers to hold my bag in the bus because I'm standing and they're sitting

-How people aren't afraid of people, how they strike up a conversation with anyone anywhere under almost any circumstance

-The flexibility

-Crowded busses with sweaty people who are tired have worked all day and are still in a good mood

-The market

-The heat

-Generosity

-How plants grow much faster and stronger

-Nature

When things fall into place

Well, I was planning to go to the beach this weekend but then we thought it was going to rain so decided to stay after all. As luck has it, I was called up to do a last minute shoot. A fellow photographer friend of mine was unable to take on a job so she kindly passed it on to me.

The pay is bad to say the least, but a job is a job and at least there's some reward... Right now my priority is to work!!

The shoot consists of a "making of" for an add. I have to photograph 4 singers in the studio, while they're recording the song that will then go on the add... if I understood correctly.

I can't put up any photos yet, but hopefully soon...

In the end it didn't rain, but still was worth staying in town.

Tradition

It's carnaval at the moment here in Brazil. Now as most people know, this is a BIG deal over here. I think this is a particularly special occasion for people who aren't so well off. There are many many people here who live from and for this, literally... all year round they prepare for these couple of days of craziness.

Yesterday we went to the street carnaval close by my parents house. The men went dressed as women and the women as men. It was a big big crowd of people... all happy and smiling. There was maracatu (drums) and we all went along walking around dancing to the music... It was really beautiful...

Tradition is important I think... Not all of them, but the things that we repeat in time and that keep us together and happy... like family traditions.....

Speaking of which, here's a photo of my youngest cousin from last Christmas.

Back soon!

xoxox

absent but not really

I haven't posted in a while...

Lots has been going on. I went to Rio and fell in love with the city. I had already been there twice before years ago but somehow this time was different... I found it so beautiful in comparison with Sao Paulo...

I do love SP, but it's damn ugly!!! Whereas Rio is just beautiful and of course there's the sea... ah the sea....

Anyway, am working on some projects... stuff that will bring more work in. Have started a computer class... getting my act together. Can't be left behind when it comes to computer programs or you can forget work altogether!

But back to uglyness... Its not really necessary, not at all. I've started to make a list of ways to change this... It will take time but its not impossible, someone just needs to begin doing something about it!!