The year of 2008 passed very quickly for me and 2009 is already at the door.

Life passes more slowly in small cities, at least for me, but not too slowly either. Since the Belgian TV is really bad and my (by IP) TV is even worse, I decided to rent some DVDs and remember interesting things from Brazil.

Firstly, renting DVDs in Brazil is easy. You go to the rental store and get 20 :-) With some magic calculation, they give you something like 5 days to see the movies. Here it’s simpler. Picking up 10 DVDs or 20, you have to return them on the next day! And there’s more, the rental store only opens from 1 pm to 8 pm… if you return after 5 pm, you pay a €5 fine !!! It’s all very magical :-) This explains why our record is of 3 DVDs per weekend (of course, it doesn’t open on Sundays, it’s for Monday). Alias, nothing opens on Sundays here: pharmacies, supermarkets… forget about it! Only restaurants and cinema and look out!

This year we won’t be going back to Brazil for Christmas due to the oil crisis :-). The ticket price doubled, but now it’s only 50% more expensive… from €600 to €900 is what I meant, but at the peak of the crisis it was €1.200. We have to use Skype and Orkut to talk to family and friends. The old email stays as a backup.

It’s in these moments that reason returns and helps pass the saudade. Internet in Brazil is really bad. Even for talking on Skype, it’s tough. Manaus is a cursed city when it comes to Internet. Isolated in the middle of the continent and with the worst and most expensive Internet in the country.

Besides the memories of the capricious Internet, we have a 3-DVD kit to pass the saudade: Carandiru, City of God and Elite Squad. When saudade comes up, it’s just watch one of those movies. Over time, we remember Brazil and, amazingly enough, we only remember the best parts. I was expecting not to forget the worst parts, but nothing is perfect, neither here nor there, nowhere. We end up building an image of a more beautiful Brazil than it really is, but that’s something from an immigrant :-)

Brazil is a very interesting country and our homeland, time doesn’t change this. I still believe that in the long run, Brazil will be much better than any European country, but for now, it’s just a dream.

This year I met more Brazilians, which definitely isn’t good for learning French :-) but helps a lot at this Christmas time. When leaving the country, we learn to appreciate things that before were certain like Christmas dinner and Sunday lunches with family.

Since nothing is perfect, Orkut doesn’t work well here at home. The images and simple pages don’t load :-( If I forget to contact someone, here’s the record of Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. With a 5-hour difference from Manaus, calling becomes complicated.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!

Prettige Kerstdagen en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!

Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes Neues Jahr!