Girl Meets Brazil

How I ended up loving Brazil

Well, in February 2009 I was going to study abroad in Valparaiso, Chile for a semester. I really love to travel and wanted to see more of South America, so I decided to spend a month traveling in Argentina and Brazil before my program started. I went to Argentina first and had a great time, but Brazil captured my heart, in more than one sense of the word. I fell in love with the country, particularly Bahia, and with the people, and one person in particular. I spent a year and a half dating him long-distance, visiting Brazil two more times since my first visit, and had plans to go live in Brazil for a while to be with the love of my life. Unfortunately, it turned out despite his previous assurances that he couldn't wait for me to come and for us to be together, he suddenly broke up with me. I was heartbroken, but decided that I had been excited about going to Brazil for more reasons than just to be with him, so I would go anyway. So now my plan is to go to Recife/Olinda for several months, hopefully find a job teaching English, and just take it all in. Can't wait for the music, dancing, beach, agua de coco, and pao de quiejo (oh, and can't forget the brigadeiro!)! Pernambuco, here I come!

Below is what this page used to be about, my long distance "love story." Well, you already know the depressing ending, but I don't have the heart to take this down, so if you really feel like it, go ahead and read below.


I already posted this as an entry, but I decided to make it easier to find. So, here's the story of how my boyfriend and I met. It's sappy, I know, but humor me, please!

It was a warm, tropical, Wednesday evening in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil; February 18th, 2009. I was on vacation traveling around South America and it was the night before the world-famous carnaval was to begin. I was hanging out with my friend R, who I was staying with, his roommate, and a couple of their friends. And while I certainly was enjoying the Brazilian eye candy, I wasn't planning on meeting that someone 'special' on this trip. But apparently fate had different plans.

So, we were walking down the street, looking for a fun spot to stop, listen to live music, and dance (you can find music and dancing all over the place, in the streets, this time of year in Salvador). Suddenly, R's roommate spotted an old friend of his walking along by himself. They greeted each other, and his friend decided to tag along with our group.

The moment I saw him, I had to keep my jaw from dropping. He was so handsome! He had a brilliant smile that practically lit up the street at dusk (or at least in my imagination it did!). Even his eyes smiled. He was just a bit taller than me, and had beautiful milk-chocolaty brown skin, and a perfect little nose. And of course, being the coward that I am when it comes to guys, there was no way I was going to approach him and introduce myself.

Luckily for me, after our group walked for a little while and stopped to buy drinks, he approached me. He introduced himself and asked about me. I was shy, trying to explain in my broken Portuguese (or more like fluent Spanish trying to throw in any Portuguese I knew!) who I was and what I was doing there. But he didn't laugh at my silly mistakes or move on to talk to someone else when it took me several minutes to make simple things understood. He was patient, and sweet, and really made an effort to talk to me. We ended up laughing about our miscommunications and somehow still understanding each other perfectly. Then, we ended up in different conversations with different people as we walked along the road that hugged the coast and watched the waves roll in. But even while I was talking to other people, I'd find myself occasionally searching for him, making sure he hadn't left, and hoping we had the chance to spend more time together.

Eventually, we all found a big crowd of people listening to a live performance of a woman singing samba and other Brazilian music. So, of course we stopped and started dancing and singing just like everyone else! The atmosphere was buzzing with happiness and positivity. And he was nice, but I didn't think I had a chance. I mean, there were gorgeous, half-naked Brazilian girls dancing all around us. Why would he choose me? He was standing a few feet away near some of our other friends, and as I danced I would occasionally look at him, wishing he'd come dance with me. Once in a while our eyes would lock and I would quickly, awkwardly look away.

Finally, he came over to me. Inside, I panicked. I got what I wished for, now what? But I just kept dancing, and he started dancing with me, charming me with his sweet smile and quick feet. After dancing together for quite a while, exchanging shy smiles and occasionally trying to talk over the loud music, he asked me if he could kiss me. I replied with something like, "No, I hardly even know you!" to which he replied by wittily attempting to give me his entire life story in two minutes. He rambled on in Portuguese and I struggled to keep up, but the whole time that smile of his and the gleam of his eye was luring me in! And at the end of him filling me in he said "there, now you know who I am!" Of course, he was half-joking, but it was quite charming. I have no idea how much time passed, but we danced the night away, and eventually I did give in to a kiss. And that was definitely the right choice because oh was it wonderful!

Once the music died down, we all decided to go to the beach and he and I continued to talk and learn about each other. At the end of the night (or should I say the beginning of the morning, since it was almost dawn!) he drove me back "home." When he asked if when he would see me again, my heart skipped a beat. We decided to meet the next day on the beach at two o'clock.

What seemed like a logical plan at 6am after an exhausting night out turned out to be a pretty bad one. You see, we obviously needed to sleep, and me and the friends I was staying with didn't even wake up until two o'clock. So by the time we got ourselves together and got to the beach, it was already past three. Not to mention this was summer and carnaval and the beach was packed. I looked around as we walked trying to find a spot to sit, but there were people everywhere. How was I ever going to find him? Eventually I gave up and sat down, disheartened. As I went for a swim, I kept an eye out for him, but had no luck. Then I laid out working on my tan, still hoping I'd see him pass by, but nothing. Sad that I'd probably ever see this guy again, I laid down for a nap.

Sometime later, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I opened my eyes, and sure enough, it was him! In my blurry-eyed, discombobulated, just-woke-up state, I somehow asked him something along the lines of "how did you find me?" He just smiled and said he had walked up and down the beach a few times until he spotted me! I think I was in a state of shock. He had cared enough to search for me among the throngs of people! We talked and swam, until it started raining. Then we ran through the warm, tropical rain shower into an ice cream shop, leaving my friends behind. Well, we spent my last four days together seeing the city and just having a wonderful time.

He made me laugh, he made sure I knew how beautiful I was, he was sincere, he was sweet, he took care of me, he made me feel safe, he was passionate, he was so intelligent, and most of all, he made me happy.

But then I had to leave. It was the saddest moment of my month-long trip traveling around South America. Tears were streaming down both of our faces, and we were stuck in an embrace that we didn't want to end. I was feeling hopeless, thinking that this could never possibly work. But after I left Brazil, he was all I could think about. We stayed in touch, and although I didn't ever expect it to turn into a serious relationship, he convinced me that what we had was too special to give up. Back in August I had the (unexpected) chance to go visit him for 3 weeks, and seeing him again for the first time since we had met was amazing! We had a wonderful time together and the three weeks passed much more quickly than we wanted! So here we are, more than a year later, going strong as a couple. There have definitely been some really big bumps in the road, and at times it's been a struggle, but it has been worth it. We'll see what the future holds. Right now, we hope that he may come visit this summer, and after that, I may go to Brazil for a while. It's a wild ride, so if you want to tag along, you better hold on tight!

Now you can finally see who we are: