The World is a Caper!

THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG THAT JUST AIN'T RIGHT... :P

Some people have a very sceptical way of seeing life. If I was one of those, I’d start this saying that “It was just another ordinary sunny Thursday at the beach...”, but I’m not sceptic at all. I think everything happens for a reason and there are so many things we just can’t explain... Besides, I live in Rio de Janeiro, the “wonderful”(as it’s known) and misterious city, so it couldn’t possibly be JUST an ordinary day. So I guess I have to start it in another way:

It was ONE OF THOSE days, in Rio. Yes, a day when something HUGE was about to happen. I just didn’t know it yet. Summer is always a time for unexplainable things to happen. A time for deep passions to come up. A time for people to let all those deep feelings show. Time for summerfling! But again, I didn’t know it yet. I was VERY sceptic that day, actually. Sceptic and hopeless. I had been really down for over a month, and I thought I had already had my share of fun for that summer. But as it was a beautiful sunny Thursday, and it was a holiday, I decided to go to the beach with my friends. I thought it could cheer me up a BIT. Just a bit. If I only knew...



Ipanema beach is one of the most amazing places ever. Whoever knows that beach, agrees with me. An amazing view, extremely beautiful people and of course, lots of tourists from everywhere in this world. I was just getting started with my foreigner’s addiction, and I swear that I DIDN’T KNOW IT YET. The beach was quite packed but we didn’t have a hard time finding a spot in the sand. There’s always a blank space, among the crowd. And it was exactly the place where we were supposed to be that day. We sat, asked for some coconut water, and started talking, random subjects.

I blinked, and he was there. So suddenly, I didn’t even see him coming. I watched him from a distance, a glimpse of heaven I guess I can say. He was sitting not too far from us, with 2 or 3 other friends. I can’t really tell because I was completely caught by the vision of that man. I thought he had seen me too, for my son was running after the pigeons and everybody around was laughing at it. It was quite impossible NOT seeing us there. Anyway. Of course that my friends, when they noticed those guys around, made fun at me, saying that we were sitting in the perfect spot. Yeah, they were so right. And one of them said:

- Hey, you gotta go talk to him then.

But what was I supposed to say? I knew I’d have only one chance to talk to that stranger. One chance. After all, he was a foreigner and would probably be leaving soon. What were the chances of seeing him again? How the hell would I run into the same guy twice, without knowing anything about him – where he was staying, what kind of places he liked to go to... Etc, etc, etc. I could tell he wasn’t going to make any moves – foreigners are way more... POLITE, than brazilian guys. And much more discreet, as well. And everytime our eyes crossed each other’s, he would look the other way, kinda shy maybe, but still intrigued, as I was.

- Hey girls, maybe he is not even interested!
- Haha, allright, and I am Santa Claus!!!
- Oh, shut up...

And there we were, trying to come up with some approach-plan.

- He is definitly an european...
- Haha, he is definitely your TYPE, that is!
- Yeah, you bet! – I murmured, lost in my thoughts.
- GO TALK TO HIM, make something up!!!
- I wonder where he is from... I bet he is from London, haha. Wow, such blue eyes, fit body, damn! I definitely have to talk to this guy, but HOW??? I mean, what if he leaves tomorrow and I never even find out what his name is!!!

He was standing up, as he picked up a cigarrete and a white lighter.

- A-ha! Go ask for that lighter NOW!
- No way geeks, we’ve been smoking here for hours, don’t you think he knows we have a lighter anyway?
- DO IT, YOU ASS!
- Noooooooooope!

My mobile bipped. It was a message from Jørgen, the viking, saying that he was in front of Caesar Park Hotel, along with Arild and Knut – the guys from the other post.

- I’ll go talk to the guys, I haven’t seen them for some time, I miss them.
- CHICKEN!!! Hahaha!
- Yeah, that’s me. Be right back, girls. Are you coming, Gui?
- No mom, I wanna stay here playing with Nicole.
- Ok, mommy will be back in a few minutes then.

So I went to meet the norwegians, and stood there for a little while. It was when one of the girls came with Gui, he was looking for me and she was bored saying that we should leave the beach and go home. I told her that no way I would just leave like that, that I wanted to watch the sunset, that we weren’t there for too long anyway, blablablah, but she was really annoying. I should have said “leave then! I’m staying!”, but I’m an ass when it comes to those things. We were in my car and I didn’t wanna tell her to pick a bus back home. What a geek. I should have done that.

- You’ll see him again, tomorrow night at the club. Trust me.
- Yeah, right. AS IF!!!

I was so pissed off. My one and only chance, gone with the wind. Whatever, I decided to shut my mouth, go home and try not to think about it anymore. But it was hard not to. Since Lars had left, I was really down thinking about him and I didn’t really feel like meeting anyone, you know? But life has it’s interesting way of making things happen wheh they’re supposed to. Friday night stroke. Me and the girls, as always, were heading NOVA LOUNGE. That was THE place on Friday nights. And we were the biggest VIP guests that club ever had. We wouldn’t go ANYWHERE without cheking it out first. So, once again, there we were. There was always a favourit spot inside that we would stay at. On the left side of the dancing room, right next to the steps to the other floors. We got there and after 5 minutes of “looking around”, guess who showed up.

- OH MY GOD! A, look there! The guy from the beach yesterday, fuck shit, I can’t believe this!
- See????? Didn’t I tell you that you would see him again?
- Hell yes, but how would I fucking believe it?
- Hahaha... Now you GO THERE AND ASK FOR HIS FREAKING LIGHTER!
- HA! Of COURSE I will! Gimme that stupid cigarrete!

He was there at the bar, all by himself, checking out the people dancing. I grabbed the cigarrete from A’s hand, and went to his direction, full of confidence. But as we came closer, I just could’t do it. I suck when it comes to making moves. I just can’t do it! But I’m not stupid either, I couldn’t miss my second chance and besides, I’m good at pretending. Haha. So I went to the bar, stood right next to him and asked the waiter for a lighter. Once I knew the foreigner wouldn’t understand what I said in portuguese, I made sure I showed the waiter the cigarrete, and made a move with my other hand, showing that I meant a lighter. It was all I needed. He came to talk to me right away:

- Do you need a lighter?
- Oh, yes please. (like duh!)

And he tried to take it out of his pocket, as the waiter came with ANOTHER lighter. I didn’t want to tell the waiter “Thanks, I don’t need it anymore”, beacuse it would look rude from me, so I picked the waiter’s lighter, used it, and gave it back to him. It was when the gringo there finally gave me HIS lighter.

- Oh... I see you already got one.
- Well yes, I’m sorry. The waiter looked all over for a lighter for me, I thought it was not fair to... Well, thank you so much, anyway....
- Neh, it’s ok...
- ...
- ...



We stood there, side by side, as 2 geeks that really wanted to talk to each other but just didn’t know how to do it. He was facing the crowd. I was facing the bar, in the oposit way. And we both turned our heads at the same time.

- ... (him, smiling, blushing)
- ... (me, smiling, blushing even more)

And we turned away. But it didn’t take us 5 seconds to look at each other again.

- ... (him, really smiling)
- ... (me, really really smiling)
- Hi! :)
- Haha. Hi... – and I looked down to the floor, not knowing exactly what to do.
- What’s your name?
- My name’s B.
- Where are you from?
- Me? Here. Carioca.
- Here? Really? You don’t sound brazilian at all.
- Oh, well. Thanks. I’ve studied english for a long time and I’ve lived in the US... And you, what is YOUR name?
- Alan.
- Oh. Alan. Where are you from, Alan?
- Ireland.
- IRELAND??? Wow.
- Yeah but I live in London.
- I see...

And that went on for a loooooooooong time. And I couldn’t possibly ask for anything else at that time. We smoked some cigarretes, had a few drinks (caipirinha, more specifically), and he turned to me and said:

- Ok, you GOTTA go dance with me! – and grabbed me by the hand.
- Well sure, let’s go for it!

That was SO cute. I felt like I was back to those days in Idaho, when I was 15 and there were those balls at school, where the guys would come to us in a geeky/cute way and would say “hey, do you wanna dance with me?”, you know? But I was in heaven by then, and not just having another vision of paradise, probably because of the sun melting my brain like I felt at the beach the day before. Nooooope. That was REAL. My fairy-tale was coming true. And I could hardly believe that man in front of me. He was... Wow.

And again, like in a movie, we were dancing and he was getting closer, holding my hands and we couldn’t stop looking into each other’s eyes... And he kissed me. Why do I always feel like my feet are up in the air when it comes to such things? Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh it was so nice... So Jørgen and Knut got there at the club, I introduced Alan to them and to the girls, and we all had a blast that night. And it was so nice, the 3 of us – me, S and B – were with our sweethearts and we looked just like one big happy family hahaha. Cute cute cute. It’s weird how we connect to some people as if we knew them for yeeeeears... Anyway. After the night was over, I went to Guanabara with Alan for some pizza time, and then, like the good girl that I (sometimes) am, I drove him to his hotel.

- Wow, I had such an amazing time.
- I did too, it was really nice meeting you, Alan.
- Can I see you again?
- Well, sure... That’d be nice. (huge smile, of course)
- Can I call you tomorrow? I REALLY wanna see you again. I actually want to spend the rest of my time here with you. Every second, until I have to go.
- Yes, sure you can call me...
- My friends are leaving tomorrow, and I’ll be here by myself. I’d really like to see you... I’ll call you when I wake up, so that we can schedule something... Maybe go to the beach?
- Yeah, cool. Call me tomorrow.

And we kissed goodnight. It was around 4 in the morning and I drove home like if I was flying hiiiiiiiiigh in the sky, haha.
Now you ask me if I slept that night... I wouldn’t even know what to answer...

Coming up: what happened next...

February 13th.

It was one of "those nights" when we used to go clubbing - me, S and B. Baronetti was always a good option – that club was a lot cool by then. It was quite crowded, and while B was chilling with her boyfriend upstairs, me and S were... Looking around, dancing, that usual blablah stuff. Suddenly I looked at the bar (I was actually going to grab a Smirnoff Ice there), and... WOW.

- S, do you see what I see?
- Hell yeah, I do!
- I mean.. WOW!
- Yep, indeed my friend!

He was sitting there with another guy and there were 2 girls all over them. They looked... ARGHT, you know? And although his friend seemed preety comfortable talking with those THINGS, he looked a little bit annoyed, I guess I can say.

- Well, whatever... – I said.
- Yeah, definitelly... – S replied.

Somehow he approached and picked up a conversation. I don’t remember exactly what we were talking about, but we went through all that "hi/what’s your name/where are you from/etc" talking, until we started making fun of the whole situation about the girls who were all over them. By then one of the girls was giving me that "I’ll kill you!" look, and I remember mentioning this to him, as he said "no way I’d let her touch you, don't worry". Hm... But the girl was REALLY mad that he had left her there and went to talk to me. Lars said she was a friend of a friend of the girl that Kasper (the other guy) was talking to, and that she was trying hard to hook up with him. But that he didn’t want to. Blablablah, this and that, we were getting along preety fine, when the girl came up to us, grabbed him from behind, pulled his head back and smacked him, right there. He gave me that "what the f...?!" look and I decided to look the other way and started talking to S about that freaking scene that had just happened. I mean, what was I supposed to do? I thought it’d be better to let the guy make up his own mind about that situation. Right? Right. It was when he came next to us again and we started to look for a way to get rid of those girls.

- Well, just go to her and say you’re leaving!
- Yeah, I’ll do that.

And so he did. Lars was the first danish guy I met. Actually one of the most gorgeous men I ever saw in my life! I swear I kept looking for something wrong, something weird about him, but I just couldn’t find it (no, he does not look that perfect on pics, but trust me on this one!). And it’s amazing how different their culture is, from ours. I really don’t think I’ll go through this topic right now, but I just had to state this. :) So we all decided to leave the place: B with her bf, S, me, AND the guys. B said "let’s all go to our place to watch a movie or something".

- Are you guys in? – we asked them.
- Yeah, definitelly.
- Let’s go then.

Do I have to mention how MAD the "tank-girl" was? Haha.
(we called her tank-girl because she was waaaaaay too ugly, or something)
We stood there at the bar for a while, until everybody paid for their bills, we took some pics, had another drink, and left.

B went with her bf in his car, and I took her car, along with Lars, Kasper and S. We stopped at a gas station to buy some coke, candies, cigarrets, when Kasper remembered that Lars had to be at the airport at 8am to catch a plane to Fernando de Noronha.

- OUCH, it’s almost 6!!!
- Yeah.. Now what???
- Are you packed Lars?
- Yes I am...
- Ok, so we can go meet B at home, grab some breakfast and we’ll drop you at the airport, if you feel like.
- Deal, let’s do that.

So we drove to their hotel, picked his stuff up, dropped Kasper there and went home. And THAT was the problem. We had 1 ½ hour to chill there before going to the airport and everybody was DEAD tired. We sat in the living-room and started talking... FADE OUT. Of COURSE! B’s bf woke me up saying “hey, didn’t he have to be at the airport at 8 or smth?”. “Yeah, why?” – came out of my mouth somehow.

- BECAUSE IT’S 7:50!!!

- WHAAAAAATTTTTT??? LAAAAAARS, WAKE UUUP!

The guy was MAD. He complained about falling assleep half way to the airport, and then, SILENCE.

- Do you have any sunglasses there? This sun is killing me.

- Yeah, take these.

- Thanks.

I drove as fast as I could and we got there just before chek in was over. He turned around, grabbed his stuff and left. Just like that. And then I was pissed off. I mean, HELLO, it was not MY fault if 5 people slept at the freaking couch!!! So when I was going back home - sad, pissed of, crying like a geek - I realized that his glasses were still in my head.

- Shit, now he’s gonna think I KEPT these on purpose!

And I went back to the hotel to give those stupid sunglasses to Kasper.

- Hi, this guy that I dropped here around 6am is a friend of my friend and I REALLY have to talk to him. Kasper “something”, from Denmark, can you please check what room he is staying in?

- Sure, Mam. It’s room number ###.

- Thanks, could you please call him?

...

- Hi Kasper, this is "Me", I just dropped Lars at the airport but he forgot his sunglasses in my car, so can I leave it here and you take it back home for him?

- Eeeerrrrrr... "Me" who?

- Kasper, the girl from the club last night, I just dropped you here 2 ½ hours ago!

- Hmmm... Wait a sec please.

...

(A girl on the phone, in portuguese)

- What??? (pissed off already)

- “What”, what? I was talking to Kasper about a pair of sunglasses that his friend forgot in my can and...

- Are you the girl from last night?

- Uuuuuuhhhhh, yes, and I’d like to..

- Listen bitch, your guy is in the other room, This is MY guy, you got it?

- Yeah, whatever, I think YOU didn’t get me, I just wanted to...

- His room is ##X, this one is ##Y, so KNOCK THERE, DAMN IT!

- I see, have a good day, you too!

Fuck, shit! Now this! But whatever, I’ve had enough and besides, he has my number – if he wants his fucking sunglasses back, he’ll call me when he gets here next week! And I finnaly drove back home. BUT, as I turned around the corner, I saw a nice looking blond guy, in a red t-shirt, hanging at my gate and... WAIT A MINUTE! THAT IS LARS!!!

- What the heeeeeell are you doing here! I just came back from your hotel and...

- I lost the flight, I LOST THE FLIGHT! (smiling)

- Well yeah, I see... I mean YOU LOST THE FLIGHT?! AaaARGHT! I’m so sorry to hear that, but... AAAAAAAHHHHH, you lost the fliiiight! Haha, that is so cool!

- Yeah, well, I got lost there at the airport, went to the wrong floor or something, so I missed it!

- But LARS, I left you at the DEPARTURE gate!!!

- Well... I’m back!!!

(...) I really rather NOT go through this topic here. But just another statement... IT WAS SOOO nice, everything that happened. Well... ALMOST everything, haha. Whatever. But I had a VERY romantic time, can’t deny it. He told me that his friends were all hanging out at HELP*, every single night, and that was where Kasper met the SWEET girl who talked to me on the phone, at their hotel.

*HELP is a club where you can find... Girls... Ok, not girls but whores, see?

So we figured out that the SWEET WHORE from the phone thought I was a “girl from last night”, meaning another one of those TYPES, who had hooked up with ANOTHER friend of Lars... And that is why she was mad, she thought I was chasing Kasper for s*x, oh my. Then we don’t know why the reputation of girls in Brazil is SO fucked up...! ARGHT.

Next day I took Lars once again to the airport and he finally made it to Fernando de Noronha. We were talking about a party that was supposed happen on the other weekend, so I really expected to see him again.

But that is another story...

Hanging out with these scandinavian guys around Ipanema beach and the at night clubs last year was super cool.

Jeg vil savne det for altid.. :)

It all happened early last year, when I stated hanging out with some "new" friends.
Or, better saying, some new "FRIENDS" - because later I happened to find out they weren't as good friends as I thought. But that's not the point.

One of my friends was dating this Norwegian guy and I was introduced to him, and to some of his friends. We spent the Carnaval of 2005 together, partying like crazy, and I THEN remembered how much I liked to be around foreigners, how nice it is to get to know different people and learn differend languages, different cultures.

The following, as you'll see, was as I reckon, the best time of my LIFE.



JORGEN, ARILD AND KNUT. THE FIRST VIKINGS I MET IN MY LIFE :)

This definition came out of one of my friend's mouth and I LOVED IT!

Come on, "The world is a caper"? It's just fantastic! Think about it. It's a freaking big planet we live in, yes. Sooooo many countries, cultures, things I'd like to see. But I live in a place that is quite PACKED with tourists all the time - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - so can you imagine how many people I get to meet everyday? Truth is, I'm a *gringo lover. I admit it. I love making friends, learning their different languages and all about their cultures, blablablah, so I am not the kind of person who sees a foreigner on the streets and just ignore him/her. I like to talk to them. To be nice, treat them good, make them feel comfortable and that they actually have a "friend" they can count on if anything goes wrong. Or maybe just to join them for a drink, to show them the good places they can't miss here? I mean, I want those people to go back home thinking "THIS WAS THE BEST TIME EVER!" And I have made AMAZING friends this last year. My best friend is a french guy, for example. And I mean it like he is my big brother, not only someone I’ve met and then vanished. I met thousands of people from England. US. Denmark. Norway. Sweden. Argentina. Switzerland. Ireland. Italy. Spain. India. And I could go on naming places here like crazy. But the most amazing thing about it is that those people ARE STILL taking part in my life somehow. We talk over the phone, e-mail, skype, MSN, written letters (!), Orkut, Hi5, blablablah and the feeling that this brings me is just so good. It brings us all together as if they were still here. Or maybe if I were there actually. Are you still following me here?

A-MA-ZING!

That’s why the world is a caper. Cause no matter how far you are from a friend, you can still be near somehow. You can build friendship, even over this crazy internet thing (I thank GOD for internet, by the way!). You can “be” in other places. Connect to people in the most indescribable way, creating this BOND that can last forever! I feel like I know SO many places without even being there, not even once!

I just wanted to tell here how happy I am right now. For getting to know ALL OF YOU. For sharing so much of my life, myself, with each and everyone of you guys. I hope you are all doing good, wherever you are. And that I get to meet you again, like it is already happening, this summer in Rio.

Have a wonderful 2006, my dear friends!