Yesterday I thought about taking the subway and paying a visit to the best second-hand bookstore in the city: Sebo do Messias. It was a cold day, it was raining a little, and it’s a fact that a cold day = a happy me.

But instead I went to the market, just to walk and practice a little exercise since I work all day sitting in a chair, and surprise, surprise, half an hour after I left home the sun came out - São Paulo being São Paulo, right?

There I bought only a bottle of water and a little protein bar, just so I wouldn’t come home empty handed. Fruits weren’t necessary, there are still bananas and peaches in my kitchen and a little blueberry in my bedroom. Soda or cheap chocolates, well, they aren’t an option anymore, and there isn't much natural stuff on the market nowadays.

How can one be healthy if 90% of everything in a grocery store comes in packages? No wonder why obesity numbers are high, a dangerous sign that not a lot of people are paying attention to.

This September 13th I was able to start reading the book The Ballad of Never After, the sequel of the cutest book ever written, Once Upon a Broken Heart. And just before that, on August 30th, I started reading The Ink Black Heart, the sixth book in the ‘Cameron’ Strike detective series.

Facts that were only possible because I speak English. 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the internet that puts us together is the same internet that breaks us apart. The content is there, the information is there, everything nowadays is there. But in English.

Since the Soviet Union ceased to exist, all important documents, and all that that is necessary to be shared to the world is done in English - it’s not worth crying for that, padawan. Since man began living in society, only one language has been used for general communication.

Latin had been in this position, and so had French. And now, because the US is currently the most powerful nation in the world, English is used to this end.

Although I must say that the luck that I have for reading those two books I so much wished for is not because English is the language used for global communication, but because they were written in English - that is a tremendous coincidence, I admit. 

Can you imagine, the two books I most wanted to read this year were written in the language everybody needs to speak?

It was so hot in São Paulo these last few days that the devil himself wouldn't want to hang out in the city. Sure, most of those days it rained (thank goodness), but still...

Living in a city this hot means having to take a shower really early in the morning if you wish to wash your hair - I could do it at 5 or 6 pm but drying my hair with a dryer would take an eternity (... who has the time?)

And speaking of  "washing my hair", Brazilians have finally discovered that products with hyaluronic acid work not only for the skin, but for the hair too.

(about time, right?)

A few brands already had this component in their products, but only last year Elseve (from L’Oréal) released in Brazil a whole kit that includes shampoo, conditioner, and etc.

Last December I bought mine using a $ 50 cupom I won from PayPal - yeah, I'm still penniless. But that can change if you hire me to be your Portuguese teacher.

- I'm only charging $ 5 an hour

Now, if you all excuse me, I'm going to prepare some classes because my shampoo with hyaluronic acid won't buy itself.

Anne Rios - Brazilian girl writing about Brazilians things

(amodafala@gmail.com)

And now people ask me for Christmas tips like if I had enough money to tip them all. How can I be generous when I am penniless?

Seriously, I’m this close to start crying at the street market.

And even when no one asks me anything, they put their giant box wrapped with the kind of paper people use for the presents they are going to give (do you understand what I’m trying to describe?), making it clear that I’m supposed to give them a Christmas tip.

It makes me feel bad, you know, not being able to give them anything now. They are hard workers, they treat me well, and they have no fault if in my 30’s I’m a total loser who doesn't have two bucks to  tip in.

Now we are on December 11, and at every moment Christmas gets closer, the worst the situation gets. I might as well not leave my house until December 26.

And it’s not like if I don’t want to give Christmas tips, please don’t take me wrong. I just don’t have money, any.

(am I saying “Christmas tip” right?)

I’m well aware, indeed, that being in this situation is only my fault - and not because in Brazil children take infinitely to grow up.

So please, take my example and don’t quit your job for thinking you’re too good for it, or because you only have the hope to find a better one.

Otherwise you’ll live by hope only, and that doesn't put food on your table.

Anne Rios - Brazilian girl writing about Brazilian things

(diceraland@gmail.com)

Isn’t it funny (and even ironic) how this blog is called DiCera Daily News, but rarely I post more than a post by week?

First I started this blog with the intention of having a place to practice my everyday writing, as my marketing teacher, Icaro de Carvalho, is always suggesting. So, as a blog with daily posts, having the word “daily” in the name seemed appropriate. Add to that the fact that, when I was a teenager, one of my favourite shows was Gilmore Girls, where one of the lead characters studied at Yale University and worked at a newspaper called Yale Daily News.

Today I can’t stand watching one episode - I mean, could Rory Gilmore BE more annoying, spoiled, immature and incapable of living an adult life? (not pride to say that I am not that different, but that’s a conversation for another post).

That being said, bringing to my work a name that sounds good when spoken out loud, and that brings me back good memories of a time in my life when I don’t have many moments to treasure, seems appropriate.

I didn’t know exactly how this blog would work, but I knew I wanted to talk about life in Brazil, and show the country, to the world, from a good perspective since Brazilians themselves don’t seem much interested to do so when they’re in foreign lands.

What I also knew was that it had to be personal. It’s not interesting to visit a blog with “technical information”, the readers must feel an emotional connection to keep coming back. The weather is hot and dry? Who cares! Anyone can see this in the weather app.

How does the hot and dry weather affect me, and how do I deal with it? That’s the real “online gold”.

Anne Rios

a Brazilian girl writing about Brazilian things

Those last few days have been hot as hell, with an air so dry that (I think) if you break an egg in the middle of the street, it would cook in a matter of seconds.

But then suddenly, last night, I heard the sound of raindrops on the roof. Not the best moment, probably, since I was in the bathroom (when you have to go you have to go) and had to speed things up to go outside get the homemade soap that I left drying in the sun the whole week.

Once outside, I saw a blue sky “full” of stars and thought: “great, another quick rain…” But that sky was just São Paulo playing with my feelings, because not long after that the rain reached my house, and here stayed for the entire night, with the promise to keep falling all the time the next day.

From where this rain came, is beyond me. The weather app was showing sequentials days with temperatures above 30ºC and the probability of some “occasional” rain. And I confess that that scenario frightened me a bit since my nose was bleeding non-stop for the last few days. But now I’m so happy for me, yey!

I can even go, at any time I want, to the stationery store to print some images I need for my craft projects… speaking of craft projects, I should probably clean up my little studio. I can’t find anything in that mess.

Anne Rios

Brazilian girl writing about Brazilian things