I've talked with two Brazilians (Brasiliero) today and both encourage me to visit the Northeast. While my original plan was to just visit São Paulo I am now thinking that I'll find the easiest way to visit as much of the country as I can. Since Brasil is nearly the same size as the continental US, I suspect that there is a lot of diversity among Brasil's many areas. I think I will not plan travel within Brasil until I get there. I currently have bigger things to be concerned about and I have little mind to waste if I want to learn every word I'll need in Brasil.
A look at Brasil's history (Wikipedia is great, isn't it?) today shows just how unstable their country has been since its inception. Though I think that is a good thing, I also think about how short a time the US has been a constitutional democracy. It's really a matter of time before we change dramatically. The industrial revolution that made the US wealthy is changing dramatically and our political system is honestly strained by the inherent weakness of representative democracy. Without strong checks and balances, the systems of governance and justice are as tyrannical as lesser systems of government. What does this have to do with Brasil? Brasil's young democracy has had serious problems in the recent past. Corruption and economic injustice are problems both countries are continuously fighting. As we learn to combat these problems we can improve our societies by sharing our ideas.
Since this is my first post I want to keep it short. I'm learning a ton of Brazilian Portuguese with Busuu and I intend to finish the B2 training before I leave in 1 week. That will make me an intermediate Portuguese speaker in about 3 months of learning over 1 year. The podcasts help and the PDFs should come in handy at some point, but of course the two things that really made learning fun for me was talking to native speakers and the writing exercises which are corrected by native speakers. Amazing really. I enjoy learning but this makes my day every time I go on Busuu someone new is making me work hard for my conversation. Brazilians are so friendly.
Read more »I am a hacker, a self-employed programmer, an open-source advocate, a scientist, and an independent security researcher.
During January 2-10, I only had to work a few hours and the rest of the time I could spend on my own interests. I worked on a few new projects and looked around the city a bit more.
Read more »Christmas in Berlin is known as Weinachten. It's a festive time where people hang out in great number downtown and have good fun for the whole family. The markets (markts) are very busy and interesting each with their own unique attraction. The carnival rides were way too dangerous for me to consider riding. I listened to a guy read Red Riding Hood (in German) to a crowd of all ages nearly all drinking gluhwein (aka Glogg or Mullwine). Gluhwein is very tasty (festive taste) and can be either cheap or expensive depending on what it's made of and how much profit the vendor wishes to make. Either way drunkenness ensues for hilarious result.
