Every time I come back to Brazil, it’s like everything is boiling hot, and it’s not only the weather. I can feel the effervescence. Everywhere you look around, there’s life happening to its fullest.
I was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro. I feel that ‘cariocas’, which is how we call people from my city, are easy going – we have a laid-back personality. We’re not easy sometimes. I remember that one time I travelled to a beach with many big rocks, and writing on them is not socially acceptable. But there was one single rock that had a graffiti saying “carioca”. Of course, it said carioca! That’s us. We have a little bit of that rebellious energy and adventurous spirt.
For that reason, I always wanted to discover other cultures, other places. I wanted to travel and to experience things through the eyes of locals. I knew I wanted to live abroad, not because I wanted to leave my country, but because I wanted to have a rich, multicultural experience in life.
That’s why I moved to the United States for my high school when I was 17. It was fun, but also very challenging. I had quite a lot of cultural shocks. My transition to Belgium was way easier. Perhaps the shocks I had in the US prepared me for living in Europe, as it was not my first time moving to a new country.
So, after I graduated, I decided to move somewhere else, because I still wanted to live other cultures. My friend told me about Ghent once and, for some reason, it just stuck with me. I feel like it was meant to be. So, I moved here in September last year. I love it a lot, the Belgians are nice and welcoming. But I feel saudade of Brazil.
Saudade is a Portuguese word that is untranslatable. It is more than missing something, it’s longing for it. Saudade is when you feel like you have a part of that thing in your heart, but you still want to be there with it. I feel saudade of my family, the food. Oh my God, the food. Don’t even start me on the food!
At my birthday party, I brought a lot of Brazilian food like pão de queijo and coxinha. My favourite dish is the classical PF (prato feito) that we eat every day. It’s rice and beans with meat, salad, farofa, and even fries. Every time I eat these dishes it tastes like home. It brings the nostalgia, and I feel like I step in Brazil for half an hour and then I’m back.
My family always makes a big barbecue on New Year’s Eve. My grandma was born on December 31st, so it’s a double shot party. There’s loud music and everyone’s dancing and having fun. Then, we unite and pray before midnight comes, and as soon as it comes, we watch the fireworks and the party starts again.
We pray because I think that, in Brazil, it’s a standard to believe in something, even if you don’t have a specific religion. Maybe it’s because we’re more optimistic, but also, we are a very Catholic country, so even when people detach from religion, they don’t usually become atheists. They just form they’re own beliefs.
In that sense, I was also a big folklore kid. I loved reading books about it. I remember that me and my friends would joke about seeing the scary bathroom blondie, the spirit that appears when you say her name and flush the toilet 3 times. I think stories in general are a big part of Brazilian culture. My first memory of watching a soap opera, for example, is from when I was 5 years old.
If you watch the soap operas of Manoel Carlos, you will see people walking in the beaches of Rio, enjoying the beautiful nature with Bossa Nova in the soundtrack. It’s a vibe. So, growing up I had a routine: wake up and get ready to school. After class I would take a shower and watch the soap opera with my family in the living room, followed by the national news broadcaster. Those are things you can’t watch in your room, it’s a communal experience.
That’s what I love about Brazil, we’re very open and welcoming people, even a little bit limitless, and we have an insatiable way of living. We’re always eager for new people and new experiences that the future holds. We have this desire to live.
But you only realize all the cool things you have at home when you leave. You see that everything that seemed normal, is quite special and unique. Then, you notice that you can’t find that everywhere else you go. But I still feel like all these cultural differences are just the way we’re polished, even though, intrinsically, we all come from the same place as humans.
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