Profession: Courage

Sometimes I wonder why someone becomes a firefighter. Everybody dreams of a job with a safe environment and which makes them happy. But firefighters don't have this. So why do they risk their life to save unknown people from death? I guess the answer might be courage.

It's obvious that the salary, even if high, isn't enough to pay for the trauma and danger that these men and women go through every day. After all, when they break through a flaming building, going in the opposite way of running-away people, they have to see many scenes that a common person wouldn't be able to stand with. The natural instinct of a human being is to flee from this kind of situation, but they have so much courageousness that for them the most important thing to do is to help someone in need. Maybe a common job wouldn't challenge them to use their particular assets.

In my personal opinion, what is the most unfair is to live in a society where actors, singers and models are called heroes while firefighters are almost never recognized for what they have to deal with every day. Clearly it's a tough job but it's one that every society needs. It would be great if the society was more grateful to these real heroes.

Greet me!!

There is one kind of behaviour that revoltes me. It is when people don't say hello when I meet them or do that not looking into my eyes. I've noticed some people here in Canada who have this kind of behaviour.

Of course, I have to understand that I am in a different country than the one that I grew up in, and consequently, people act in a different way, so what is wrong for me could possibly be considered `not a big deal` here. In my country, we always greet everyone and it's not uncommon, especially in the morning, to say a brief phrase such as "good morning!" or just "morning!" to people that we don't know but who are passing in the same street as us.

In fact, in my country the way of greeting friends is different: a man and a woman and also two women give kisses in the cheek, while two men shake hands. It isn't offensive in Brazilian culture to touch people. Here in Canada, touching, especially kissing, might be offensive to some people.

I'm not certain but I think that in all cultures, no matter the way, people greet each other. I believe that when someone says "Good Morning!" to me, not only causes a good impression but also makes my day happier as if the person had given me some kind of "good energy" to deal with the challenges of the day. So, if you want to continue to be my friend, don't forget that!!!!

Pearl Jam at the Sambodromo

Awesome. That's the word which describes the feeling of being at the Sambodromo in Rio de Janeiro on that December envening. Pearl Jam, an American rock band that has fans all around the world, played their best in a two-hour concert which amazed everyone there.
The rainy show, which was part of the first tour of Pearl Jam in Brazil, started one hour later it was supposed to and had some problems concerning the entrance but all of this didn't bother the crowd, who had made all tickets sold out days earlier.
The fans sang mostly all songs along with Eddie Vedder, the singer, and were positively surprised when the band decided to play some Ramones songs.
The event ended with the pledge of Eddie that soon they would return to Brazil. If that ever happens, you'd better turn up because Pearl Jam never let their fans down.

Comparing Vancouver to Viçosa

Comparing Vancouver to my city, Viçosa, in Brazil it's quite difficult. It seems to me that there are only differences, no similarities.

In the opposition of Viçosa, Vancouver is a big, touristic and economically important city. My city instead, has few industries and the most important employer there is the commerce. Most people, including me, live there because one big University is located in that place. This is the reason why in vacation period, when most of the students go back to their parents' house, some establishments temporarily close its doors.
The weather of Vancouver is also different from my hometown. Here in Canada it rains more often and - of course - it's colder.

As far as I'm concerned, globalisation has changed many things everywhere regardless of the size of the place. In my opinion globalisation only brought positive things to Viçosa, especially concerning to communication. My aunt studied there 30 years ago and she told me that it was hard to talk to her mother at that time and the newspaper that she used to read was from 2 days before. Now everything has changed, we are able to acess wireless internet and of course we read the newspaper of the same day. I believe that globalisation also brought more people from different places from Brazil, and from the world too, to Viçosa and that is a positive thing.

Challenged overcome in vancouver

Well, my story may not be that impressive, but it is something that happened to me that I consider as an overcome challenge in Vancouver.
Last week, some people from Tamwood decided to do something after school. As we are in a very cold city, we decided to go to an ice-skating place where everybody could have fun.
For me, it would be a great new thing, because in opposite of most of people who came, I hadn`t ever ice-skated before, because I come from a tropical country!!!!!
Actually, I had. But it was when I was 5 or 6. There was an ice-skating place in a mall in the capital of my state and I went there with my family, but that was such a long time ago.
Well, as you can imagine, I fell down many and many times. But I decided that I would complete one lap on the ice without falling. That was my challenge.
It is not easy to ice-skate, especially when we have to turn. People tried to help me achieving my goal, but that wasn`t easy. I almost gave up, but finally, and many more falls later, I did it. It`s a pity that no one was looking, so there are still people who don`t believe that I did it - but I swear I did it!!
Well, that`s my challeged overcome, I am really glad that I could do that.