Sunday, November 04, 2007

Again in Düsseldorf

Hi,

it happened again that I had to travel suddenly and unexpected to Italy, this time to take a customer from Peru to an event in the Lago Maggiore. It happened to finish exactely before the 1st of november holiday, and I came again to see my good friends in Düsseldorf.

This time I'm staying with Sergio, a friend who happens not to have a baby yet, what is very rare nowadays, and I believe I will need holidays to recover from this holiday... (I'm not complaining about it!!!)

As always, good things happen when you are not expecting it, and then we start asking why they do not happen when you would like.... Just to make life more complicated...

Below some pictures of the last holidays in Düsseldorf, with all the new babies and kids I got to meet "unexpectedly". Again, I barely had left Düsseldorf almost 4 years ago and my friends started mass production... :))

http://www.pixum.de/viewalbum/?id=2730608

Kisses!

Monday, October 15, 2007

I Should Watch More TV!

Hi,

this weekend I went to Buenos Aires, met 2 friends Renata and Cheila from Brazil and had a lot of fun with them there. Living in Santiago has the advantage to be only 1 hour and 40 minutes from the great night life of Buenos Aires :)

I have no fotos, because some things do not have necessarily to be documented... What I can say is that we exchanged the times we stay awake, and I had my quote of "handsome men" for this year. (Just watching, do not misinterpret my words...)

Yesterday I took my flight back to Santiago, and since we got home at 7am, I had breakfast and went directly to the airport, in order not to miss the plane, scheduled for 12:45pm. Arriving there, I did the check in and went straight to the gate, so I could nap a bit before boarding the plane. The room was empty, so no problem.

I woke up suddenly hearing many voices, the room was crowded with the people of my flight. I stood up to quickly, and stepped over a man sitting in front of me. When I realized what was going on, I started feeling stupid there...

Of course I apolgized, but then I saw that he was talking to someone else, and everybody was asking to take pictures with this someone else. The stepped man smile nicely at me, but I was still trying to undestand the scene.

Until now I have no idea who those men were, I only know that they must be around 50, white, not handsome (I got used to the Buenos Aires standard...) and very popular in Chile. Ah, they must work with sports somehow, because all the men in the room wanted to take pictures with them...

From now on I will definetly start watching more chilean TV, maybe I can recognize those two men one day...

And before I forget, the movie of my skiing adventure :)


Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Snowtime

Hi,

I'm trying to concentrate to write something, but since I'm at work, my colleagues are disturbing me, making jokes... Anyway...

This year we had a great ski season in Chile, and I used it to improve and recover my skiing knowledge. (Ups, my boss just read what I'm writing...)

I got my own ski and boots, and went up the hill to make the place unsafe ;) The Andean are maybe not so known as the Alps for skiing, but the lanes are also great, and the view is amazing.

After three months of snow, many saturdays and sundays, I got to learn some nice styles to go down, and also some new techniques to arrive on my foot, and not as a snowball. After all, the lanes were not so unsafe anymore with my prensence :D

And at the end I threw away my jacket, because it was torn and old. I'm looking forward the new season next year, with a new jacket! Some nice pics are in the link below. Soon I will post a video to show you my performance :)


Kisses!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

New Address, new Life!

Hi,

I finally moved, and now my new neighbourhood is much more peaceful and calm than before! I can even sleep the whole night without being disturbed by any bus or fireman truck :)

It does not have the spetacular view as the old one, but the new neighbours are nice and can sing well. They even let us get close and take pictures of their performance! It's been a very long time I don't have this kind of neighbourhood :D

The ski season is getting into its end, and soon I will post some nice pictures in the web.

Kisses,Lu.

PS: The new view is not that bad...

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Panama Canal

Hi there,

I just wanted to share some nice pictures with you. I've been to Panama lately, and had the opportunity to have dinner with my colleagues in Miraflores, one of the canal's narrower passages.

I got this close to the ships, and luckily had just got a phone with a decent camera :))

We had a table with the canal view, and I can't remeber what I had for dinner... ;)

Cheers!

Friday, July 27, 2007

Holiday

Hi everybody,

sorry for not writing for sooooo long. I'm on holidays, and will write soon when I'm back home. I have many funny news to tell you :))

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday in Düsseldorf, with my dear old friends, and got so many presents (chocolates, Tee and lecker bissen), that I will need a new hand luggage to take everything back with me. Another reason to go shopping :)))))

(Please don't tell anyone in my gym about the chocolates, otherwise they will steal and hide it from me...)

Kisses,

Lu.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Some news after a long long time...

Hi,

sorry for not writing for so long. The last two months were kind of crazy, and I spend most of my time in a plane traveling somewhere...

I remember I wanted to write something about the trip to Atacama, but I forgot what... I can tell you I made some new good friends, with whom I went out already in Santiago, and two very nice argentinian girls, which I hope I can meet some day soon.

General comments: very dry place, with a lot of sand ;) coming inside the shoes, cameras, food bags, etc. Temperatures varies from 30 degrees during the day, to 0 degrees in the night, and -12 degrees at 4000m, where we went to see some wonderful lakes and the Geisers.

Pictures of the trip are in the link below. Pay attention to the picture of Saturno! Yes, I got to see Saturno in an astronomical tour in the middle of the night.


http://www.pixum.de/viewalbum/?id=2535894

Below you can find pictures from my trekking trip to Parque do Caraca, close to Belo Horizonte, the best city in the world despite the quantity of female human beins living there... Actors: Gustavo, Valeria, my sister Kika and the guide I forgot the name... Next time we will spend the weekend there, and will camp on the top of one of those mountains I forgot the name (as always).





That's all for now. Later on I will put some pictures I took from the Panama Canal this week (if I manage to download them from my phone...)

Kisses!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

De Copas - Fiesta del Vino 2007

Hola,

my intention today was to write some words about my trip to the Atacama Desert, but something got on the way and this was postponed to some near future date. Reason is that I didn't upload the pictures yet, yesterday I got drunk and today I just don't want to do it. Want to lay in bed and sleep until tomorrow...

But, the reason I got the power to write today is that yesterday I got drunk in Chile for the first time! Yesssssss :)

Every year they promote a wine party at the end of the harvest season, to allow smaller wine makers to show their wines. It works like this: you buy a wine glass empty, and goes from stand to stand filling it up with the different types of wines. It is great, and I tasted some very good vines I didn't know yet.

So, if you are planning to come to Chile to visit me, this would be a good timing, just reserve one or two days to recover from the delicious wine tasting, and bring some warm clothing to stay outside in the freezing weather ;)

So long, Lu.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Chi chi chi, le le le Colo Colo de Chile!

Hi,

yesterday started as one of those very boring days, with a lot of work to be done. At Nokia we were invited to a farewell lunch, since it would be our last day as Nokians. Lunch was fine, with no surprises. Then we decided to continue the farewell party in a pub close to the office. This is where the big surprise began.

I got there later, because I had some work to finish, and for my surprise the pub where we always go, and is always empty, was full of men. Uau! Then I realized there was a soccer game going on: Colo Colo x Caracas, Copa Libertadores.

Everything was normal, people were behaving as normal polited chileans, with no big noise nor any dirty word. Until the first Colo Colo goal came. For my surprise, they started jumping and screaming like crazy! I have to say I wasn't expecting this reaction from the very polited and shy chileans.

The explosion of passion came when Colo Colo hit again, in the very last minute of the game (the clock was showing 93:xx). They shouted, singed, huged each other, just like any normal Brazilian whatching a soccer game. I felt home for the first time here, and adopted Colo Colo as my prefered team in Chile :)

Now I started liking this place more, seeing that the traditional, extremely polited chilean people can also show some passion, even if triggered by a soccer game. It means something is there, we just have to dig it out ;)

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Carnaval: one of the things you have to do at least once in life



I finally I got some pictures from Carnaval. A crazy friend took his camera, and since we managed to meet there in the last day, he took some pictures and sent me this week. Not to mention that we were sleeping in the same house. We just had different programs...

And I say crazy because some things that happens there shouldn't be documented in any way... ;)

When I saw the pictures, the first thing that came to my mind was the winner song of this year:

"Quebraê quebraê, olha o Asa aê!
Quebraê quebraê, olha o Asa aê!"

(This is pretty much what I remember from the song, from the only song I can remember...)

You just has to imagine this music playing and all these people jumping like crazy behind a Trio Elétrico:


Just great!



We had 4 great days of partying, day and night, and this is one of the things that should not be documented: me at the last day of carnaval, before the last "bloco" started its tour, at 2:00 AM wednesday. If the camera could pick thoughts, you would probably see over my head a baloon saying:

"Please leave me alone. I just want to go home and sleep for 3 days, without having to stand on my destroyed feet!"

Do you believe me I was thinking this? Ok, ok, but I swear that when the bloco stopped 5 hours later I was thinking and feeling like this!





And I slept for 3 days...



Sunday, March 04, 2007

Changing the format...

Hi,


my intention today was to describe my diving experience in Chile, but after someone said (very persuasive) that my texts were toooooooooo long and she was bored to read them, I decided to shorten it a bit.


So, resuming my diving experience: it was freezing. It took me some hours and pisco sours to get my brain working again, so I could drive back home. After all people there asked me why the hell I was going to dive in Chile if I could dive in my home country, I still had the courage to get into the water, because you know me: most of the things I have to test them by myself to believe...


But, now that I'm analyzing the situation, I can say that after all those scared faces of me going diving in Chile, having trouble to wear and take off the 7mm suit (I had scratches in both hands after the first try), jumping in a 10 degree cold see, having the brain frozen for a while, and a huge headache for hours, I can see that I will not do this stupid thing again... But for sure next year, if I'm still in Chile, I will have forgotten this and try it again in another city, where they told me the water could be 2 or 3 degrees warmer ;)

Ah, just one more comment, the other 2 tourists were asking if they dive all days all year long, and the instructor said that in winter they do it only on weekends. I (very innocently) told them they should not expect to see me there in winter, and the instructor just laughted and said: I don't really expect to see you here again, at any time...

Well, what can I say? :)

Kisses!



Monday, February 05, 2007

New year, new life, new beliefs

As a well known homeless, or cigano, jitano, zigeuner, nomade, as some of you like to say, I spent Christmas not in Brazil (my last known address), not in Germany (where I spent most of my latest Christmas), not in Chile (my newest "home"). I went to Peru, to spend Christmas with some Brazilian friends who are living there in the same condition I came to Chile. We did a very traditional Christmas party in Lima, with turkey, wine, kids... It was a very long time ago the last time I had such a Christmas party, without everybody getting drunk or dancing until the last drop of beer or wine is served. I got the turkey wing (huge, huge), and of course I will never publish any of the fotos they took of me eating it. Of course, I cannot forget to mention the two bolivian friends who were there because they are as lost in the world as we are, so it is the same, we understand eachother.

I came back to Santiago, worked two lazy days, and the visitors started arriving for the New Year's Eve. What a Party (details will come later)! First arrived Rô, and we spent two days in Re
naca and Vina del Mar. We did absolutely nothing but sleep and sleep in the sun and go to the night club, where we were really affraid someone would soon call us 'uncle' or 'aunty', and the only thing I got was cigarrete's ashes on my foot, which hurt for over a week. Ah, we also went to a friend's beach house and did a barbeque party, which was great and funny!

We "had" to head back to Santiago on saturday night, because we had to do the Christmas party shopping, sleep again and pick Ale and Cassio at the airport to go to the Rapel lake, to the New Year's Eve. We rented 2 houses there, for over 20 Venezuelans, 4 Brazilians (we), some Finnish, Spanish, Swedish and amazinly 2 Chileans! A big party was ahead of us, to start the new year with the right foot.

I don't have to say we had a nice time, nice people, bla bla bla. The important thing was that we invented a new tradition: to eat 12 grapes at midnight, but before eating them you have to put all of them in your Champagne glass, and fish one by one during the 12 bells of mid night. To make it easy for you to understand, here comes the whole story...

I (me, Luciana) saw 2 glasses of champagne full of grapes on the table. Then I asked someone what the grapes were for. A Venezuelan told me we had to eat one grape per bell at midnight, and this would bring luck. It was already almost mid night, so I started shouting at my friends in portuguese that they had to put 12 grapes in their glasses, and we had to dring them at midnight. They followed my advice and in a few seconds their glasses were full of grapes. At midnight everybody was fishing their grapes from their glasses, and eating them happily and drunkly. At some point in the night, I saw again the 2 champagne glasses with grapes on the table, at the same point they were before, and started asking whom they belonged to. Then one of the Venezuelans commented: what a nice Brazilian tradition, to put the grapes in the champagne glass! .................. You can imagine the other 3 Brazilians looking at me with question marks in their faces, and me looking at the person with the same question mark... Following dialoge followed:

Me: What? Brazilian? Are you drunk? Someone from Venezuela told me to eat the 12 grapes at midnight.

One Venezuelan: We eat the grapes, but not from a champagne glass...

Me: So, who put those grapes in the glass?

Another Venezuelan: You!

Me: NO! I saw it, and asked what the grapes were for!

Still another Venezuelan (there were more than 20...): Ah, those were my grapes, but some drunk person put champane in them, so I lived them there...

Another Venezuelan: Luciana, you stole my grapes to give your friend, now the other girl is fighting me because I stole her grapes and gave my husband! (I was overruled!)

And the discussion continued... Until now we can't agree who is responsible for the new Brazilian-Venezuelan New Year's Eve in Rapel tradition...

But I have the proof I was not drunk, and didn't invent everything:



After that my dear friends went back to Brazil, and I thought I would go back to normal life for a few days, when an aunt called and said she was going to arrive in Santiago two days later, just like that. All the mess started again, but I'm just used to it. I had some few days of 'tranquility' in Lima (working), came back, left my visitors at the airport, and slept for 3 consecutive days...

Last weekend I was awake againg, and had the amazing idea to go diving in Chile. Well, this is another story I will tell later, because I'm still in shock, and my fingers freeze everytime I remember the experience...

Kisses!

Friday, January 05, 2007

After a long long time...

Hi people,

after a long long time, I'm back... Since last time I wrote, many things happened.

First, I moved in my 'new' appartment. It is funny here... All the lamps were missing, and I had only 2 tiny wires coming out of the roof where a lamp was supposed to be. My next question as a tipical electrical engineer was: what am I supposed to do now? Shit... ;) But since I have very nice colleagues here, Gonzalo volunteered to fix all my lamps! Yeah!!! :D Beside that, his wife Ema went with me to the shop and helped me buy all the lamps for the ap. It was very nice. Then she and Gonzalo came to my appartment to fix everything. I bought food and drinks and was waiting for the party to begin. But that went a little bit different than planned...

They brought their son Lucas and a cousin, Carla. Very nice kids, indeed. They got chocolate, coke and cookies while we were doing the hard job. After a couple of hours, when I got in the room where they were, they were already doing the party, and the carpet was flooded with coke and smashed chocolate... Me, as a newcomer to carpets and kids (never had such things before), was astonished with the scene. I just didn't know what to do... But my hero Ema came and solved everything with toilet paper and some water. Amazing! And I started loving kids again ;)

Well, I got then a matress from another colleague and a sleeping bag from Lucas, to wait for my things to arrive in Chile. After a few weeks of waiting, living with a matress, heating system and one set of dish-glass-fork-knife, my things arrived and I could change clothes again. I bought the missing stuff like sleeping couch and bookshelf and started living again. Ah, before I forget, Ema also found in the Internet a fridge for me, and buying this fridge I got 18 litres of coke for free and a DVD player for 10 Dollars. Nice, don't you think? Such things happen only here... By the way, I still have 15 litres of coke left. From the 3 we consumed, about 1 is somewhere down deep in the carpet, but the important thing is that I can't see it ;) That's the view from my living room:






Now with the Sunset:


Well, that's it for today. See you soon.

Cheers, and a happy new year!!!