The Beautiful Brazil

Some time had passed. Anderson and I finally found a time to meet up again and hangout. He had a huge test earlier that week and finally had a brief break from school. Fortunately, I had a brief break as well. We planned a date to meet up again. I reminded him that he promised me that he would tell me of places to go if I ever visited Brazil. He was already one step ahead of me. Whenever we met, he had a sketch of Brazil drawn with the names of some of the states on the drawing.

He told me of numerous states. The first state he talked to me about was the state of Sau Paulo. Now Sau Paulo is a large city with quite a bit of things to do. First of all, Sau Paulo is home to Anderson’s favorite soccer team, Sau Paulo F.C. He has been a die-hard fan ever since he could remember. I, myself, am a huge soccer, or futbol, fan. My team is in fact Juventes F.C. From there we progressed into discussion of our futbol teams and ours was better. I later mentioned that I used to play when I was in high school. He was intrigued by this and asked me questions such as which position I played. After that, Anderson mentioned that Ibirapuera Park was a must see if I go to Sau Paulo. He told me that when you walk into this park, you feel as if you are truly in the forest. He later progressed to the state of Santa Catarina. Now this state was one of his personal favorites. The first thing he told me about this state was that if I want to find some of the most beautiful women in the world, then I need to head on down to this state. I asked him how the whole “dating” scene worked over in Brazil. He told me that you typically ask a girl out on a date. Dates in Brazil are similar to that of the U.S. You go out to eat, watch a movie, or even go to the dance club. However, there is one difference. After the date, if the girl is still interested in dating, she will allow you to kiss her. Now it’s not a make-out session, but it is a kiss. This is so the guy knows whether or not to continue putting effort into the relationship. If she does not allow you to kiss her, then she is not interested. This somewhat clears up any confusion about the relationship that we sometimes see prevalent here in the U.S. This caught me completely off-guard. Here in the U.S. people always tell you to never kiss on the first date because that’s just bad luck. In Brazil, it is a whole different ball game.

He later discussed some of the other states briefly, but the two that he discussed more in depth were the states that I should visit. His wife soon called him asking if he was ready to go since she was outside waiting for him. Unfortunately, we had to end our conversation. We talked about possibly meeting again, but with exams and big exams happening before finals, we were not sure if we would be able to find another time to meet up again. We agreed to communicate over text to see if we could possibly meet up another time. We said goodbye and soon went our separate ways. I never thought to learn so much from Brazil like I have through Anderson. One always thinks that you can learn everything you need to through a book. However, a lot of times it seems that experiences are often times more helpful and valuable then merely a book.