Rio - Oslo

A little video that Hugo sent me about Norway. A lot of things are true... With a funny way of saying it, of course..



Takk, mae! Pura vida!!!

So it's been quite a while without writing here. Well, life has been really busy trying to make the most out of summer, without forgetting to work and exploring a bit more of Norway with my parents. Not easy to "work hard and play harder" but I guess someone has to do it, right? And by the way, for people in Rio, Norwegian summer is very similar to winter in Rio. We might even have a very hot week (yes we did!) but we have the same in Rio too...

I've wanted to write about this for quite sometime now, but I hadn't organized myself before. So now, the story has changed a bit, but the background and the feelings are the same.
As a few of you might know, I was in Brazil for 3 weeks, working, back in May. I spent two weeks actually at home, in my room. As my friend Carlinha had told me, the weirdest thing with that was that being in my room, in my house in Rio, felt the same. Meeting some of my dearest friends, having some of our classic talks, walks on the beach... These things hit my soft spot. They are the things that I miss the most about home, and they were all there. The same as usual.

Of course, meeting with friends and family - specially as I made quite a few surprises - was a much warmer experience, big hugs, big smiles and such. But it was all still there. Still, I wasn't complete. I was with my parents, my family, my friends, mom and dad's food, my room, my "Carioca way of life", the sun, heat, even went to the Maracana see Flamengo win the Rio State Championship (link with an update!)...

The thing is I still really missed Oslo, the great friends that I met here, the Norwegian life-style (or at least the way I live it;) ). So when I left Brazil, I was as usual a moment of quite a few mixed feelings. Like one eye crying from the "saudades" that I already felt of all things from home, and the other one sparkling just looking forward to what I would have as I soon as I arrived in Oslo. I knew I had to leave home to get home. Both when I went to Brazil and when I came back to Oslo.

They say home is where your heart is, with time, in learning that if that's the case I have (or will have soon) quite a few homes around... In Rio and Oslo, of course. But also in the USA, London, São Paulo, Brussels, Geneva, Stockholm, Costa Rica, Florianópolis, Sarajevo, Paris, Dubai, Medellin, Prague, Australia, Canada, Germany... and so many other places (some of which I've never been to), making it the best and the hardest thing ever.

I don't wanna make this the longest post ever, so I'll end it here. But for whomever is interested, click on "Read more" where I've pasted a story that I heard at one point in life and that reflects how I feel more and more...

Beijos, abraços e saudades of all of you in all these places and more.

Read more...

I don't know if any of you know, but we are just about approaching Mid-Summer night here in Norway (celebrated on June 23rd), it's just around the summer solstice which means the longest day of the year (actually on June 21st). So I guess this is the right timing to talk about it.

My "celebration" of this event was actually a very cool thing, because it reflected quite a bit of my experience here in Norway.. A simple quick camping trip showed me that.

• Good friends make all the difference - When you have people who have the same kind of wave lenght and follow your adventures, that always makes things better. So when I said that it would be cool to go camping in Normarka, we arranged things to go on the next opportunity.
  
• Unexpected/Spontaneous events- Since I arrived here in Oslo - to be honest, since the end of 2007 - I started following the idea of "Why not?". So in a lot of opportunities I just take chances. We actually left the house at about 9:30pm to be back at 1pm the next day. But still, why not go on a campoing trip... Maybe the bad weather?
  
• God is really awesome - In all my trips, whenever needed, the weather has always been on my side. And that, addeed to several other things that happened for me make it clear: HE is awesome and gives me more than I deserve, no doubts about it. During saturday, it was raining quite a bit. But when we went out there, the weather was absolutely amazing!
  
• Some things only Oslo can offer - How many capitals in the world let you get on the subway and go to the forest for a night camping? And where you get a "Flintstone pork steak at the supermarket? Where you also take your disposable grill for the barbeque? And that you can do all of that feeling very safe always?
  

I think that's about it... But there's a video I thought I should share...

Have I ever told all of you how I ended up here in Norway? I guess this might be a good opportunity.

So this is how it happened. I was at a bar in Rio, chatting with two dear friends of mine: Mari who is in Medellin now and Beta who is in Rio, but I met her again in Budapest and we travelled also through Vienna and Prague on an amazing trip (but that's a different story). We were chatting about basic things in day-to-day life and such, when I brought up the subject that my cycle at my previous job had been completed. It had been a good ride, but I was ready to leave. Actually, I was ready to leave Brazil too.

Then Mari told me she heard about a student organization called AIESEC which could be an interesting opportunity to go abroad. There would be a small lecture at the Federal University (UFRJ) on Monday, and I should attend it to find out a bit more about it. And that's what I did. Gave myself the opportunity to hear more about this "AIESEC" thing...

I loved the idea and everything about it. So I joined AIESEC in March 2008. It was already great to be part of that crowd, with people from a few different places in the world (Equador, UK, Colombia, Netherlands, Poland, Spain) and also Brazilians who were really open to the world.

Soon enough I heard about the opportunity to work at Opera Software (which I had never heard about... ). The initial idea was that if I was to be approved I would have to leave my life in Rio and move to Norway in about a month from that point! During the process things changed a bit, so I was invited to join Opera on June 12th and was scheduled to arrive in Norway on August 1st.

As you have read from my previous posts it has been an amazing, incredible, life changing experience for sure. The people I've met, the things that I learn at work, the things I discover about myself... I just can't put words to it.

So I'm extremely thankful to AIESEC and all the people involved in this process (in Brazil, in Norway and wherever else) for this. And as I didn't have the chance to be a more relevant part of AIESEC in Brazil (I hope I was able to make a difference to a few people there) I'm trying to do so here in Oslo.

And what about you? Are you curious about what AIESEC is? I'll tell you one thing... It's not only about going abroad. It's much more than that. But you'll only find out if you give yourself the opportunity to do so.

Here are some opportunities taking place right now in some of the Local Comitees of AIESEC in the world.

- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil



- Brasilia, Brazil


- Recife, Brazil




- Oslo, Norway



And if you are not somewhere around those Local Comittees you can still look for AIESEC in over 100 countries in the world.