So, I just got back from my short yet fulfilling trip to São Paulo. I had a wonderful time. I had lunch at my favorite place in town, appeared on TV (ok, as a passerby, but still, I was on TV \o/), and got interviewed by an MTV reporter who asked who my favorite cartoon character was (I said Maggie Simpson, in case you're wondering) and, to top if all off (I'm using this expression I lot lately...) I went to see Miss Saigon. Twice.

So, the show was, in one not so short word, fantastic. Everything was amazing, from the sets to the lightning design, from the orchestra to the sound system and from the witty adaptation of the gorgeous original lyrics to portuguese (even with the intense use of profanity, but Im getting used to that on the brazilian productions of musicals *sigh*) to the inspired acting of the whole cast.

Lissah Martins (who, for those of you how know anything about Takarazuka, is the spitting image of Yamato Yuuga.) was a wonderful Kim. She conveyed the right emotions and was singing her heart out on the two shows I went. I got my eyes all wet by the time of Eu te darei a vida/I'd give my life for you.

Nando Prado was, as usual, superb (I'm a huge fan, I have to say). I wanted to punch his Chris right in the middle of his face for beeing so...so...I don't know exactley what to say, but he was great and, apparently, was having the time of his life playing this character. I wish I got his autograph. Maybe next time =]

Marcos Tumura, who played the engineer, was some sort of a limelight magnet. Everything he did was sheer genius, specially The American Dream scene which made me laugh real hard.

I have, however, one little complaint. Even though I was seating really close to the stage (the 1st time I got a center front row and the second night I had a forth row ticket), it was a little bit hard to get everything the cast was singing, specially during ensemble songs like E faz calor em Saigon/The Heat is On in Saigon and Mas que Dó/What a Waste. Although this was a little bit annoying, it didn't compromise my overall excellent impression.

I wish I could go again. Apparently Cabaret will open later this year. May I can get a ticket for the closing day =]

Soooooo! Tomorrow I'm going to São Paulo, the ultimate metropolis of South America! =D And I'm going all out! I'm gonna go to Burger King, Pizza Hut and Starbucks! *-* (it may sound hard do believe, but in brazil we ain't got one on every corner XD). And, to top it all, I got a front row ticket for Miss Saigon! *Snaps for ticketmaster ^^*

It's going to be fuuuuuuuuuuuuuun =D

extremely frustrated with the miss universe results. were the judges on crack or something like that?

ok, that came out a little wrong, but spare me of your judgments for now, ok? This is the second major injustice they do with Brazil (I'm not so sure about this phrase...)! Last year we lost the title now this? Arghhhh, I want to tear Donald Trump's hair from the top of his head >.<

Okay, now I'm better. It's like they say in High School Musical: Open up, dig way down deep.

Just a short (and I mean reallu short) entry: I'm going to São Paulo again! Yay me! Yay my mom! Yay for the cheap prices of the low cost hotels! =D

So, yesterday, July 10th, I handed over my last essay for this semester. I have to say it was a rather boring philosophy paper. Something about philosophy handling the issues stated by philosophy itself. It was somthing along those lines, but I'm not really sure anymore because it's completely out of my system.

So, I thought it was a great idea to post some of these semester's highlights, at least for me. These are presented in no particular oder, just like the miss universe contestants (excluding the opening credits when teh appear in alphabetical order and the final when they, well, crown the miss universe...omg, what am I rambling about? XD)

*I've been impetuous for the very first time in my life! I took a unplanned trip to a city 600 km away from my home out of a whim and I had the time of my life! (a great deal of that is thanks to my travel mate, but we'll get around that later)

*I've been more times to the Rio de Janeiro Opera House this past six months than the previous 5 years! I've watched an opera, two concerts and two ballets! It's been amazing!


*I've met wonderful people, but three of them really stood out: Filipe, Carlos (my aforementioned travel mate) and Luis Otávio. Luiz was like the very first friend I made when I got to college, Filipe was the first person to really open up with me and Carlos was a really hard person to like at the begining, but now it's a really great friend (and a great driver as well! Just to imagine how much I own him on gas...I shriver =P)

There were many other which I'd love to write down, but I would just go on and on and on and on and...well, you guys got the idea, right? And if I had to choose any of the highlights above and forget about the others, most definitely I would pick my new friends. Okay, I stop the BFF talk...for now! ^^

Ok, so I finally fineshed watching Asa's (or should I say Mihoko's? More about that later) Me and My Girl. Here some random thoughts about the show.

* Misa Noeru is the best Parchester ever! And I mean, EVER!
* Kitajima Mami's make up was somewhat fake. nevertheless, her performance as a old english nobleman was really impressive
*Mirio makes an incredibly sexy Jackie. And her performance impressed me a little bit more than Ai-chan's
*People shouldn't have that much fun with a red mantle/cloke XD
*It's Mihoko's show. simple as that. =D
* The DaiGekijou size is impressive. My friend was shocked when he saw all those 2,700 people clapping during the Lambeth Walk XD

Som it's a great show. definitly worth buying if you're considering, especially if you are a fan of mihoko =]

Yesterday I got myself a copy of Stendhal's classic novel "The Red and the black". I've been curious about this book since hearing about Takarazuka's recent production of their musical version of the book, Aka to Kuro. I've read so many reviews about the play, and, most surprisingly, about the main character, the infamous Julien Sorel. I haven't got very far in the novel, but Stendhal's text is quite captivating. Sorel's a flawed hero, a man of great skill, but whose humble origins stop him from thriving the way he intended. But still, he's starting to grow on me, just like Heathcliff did when I first read Wuthering Heights (I kinda like the dark, gloomy anti-heroes. You can spare my of the likes of Mr. Darcy, though ˆˆ').

I will go back to my book now. Btw, I found him randomly on the back of a shelf of an almost closed bookstore, behind two garfield books. And it was 75% off =] Kinda like destiny, I think ˆ

It’s been a while, folks! Sorry for my long absence, but my college life has been pretty hetic lately. So, I guess we have a lot to catch up!

University is something quite different from what I was expecting at the begining. My high School teachers often told us about how uncaring the college professors would be. I have to admit I always thought they were overreacting a little. Unfortunately, I was proved wrong when my classes begun XD

However, to my complete happiness, we were dispatched to our first congress last week! It was really exciting (even the 13 hour long bus trip from Rio de Janeiro to Ribeirão Preto, where the congress took place) and I got to GO to the lectures of professors from Ivy League colleges! Never in my life I had such a wonderful time. Even with the interpreter translating “Peace” as “Piece” XD

But the most exciting was yet to come! When the congress was finally over, I’ve got a sudden invitation from a great new friend: an extention of our trip! To São Paulo! For the first time in my life, I decided to be spontaneous and GO with the flow. And in the next few lines you’ll see why I don’t regret going with him.

The trip to São Paulo was fun. There we were, with little to no knowledge about the city and it’s complexity. I called my cousins for some help (80-year-old cousins can be a blessing when they are in the mood XD). They showed my friend some of their secret treasures (such as chunk of the Berlin Wall...yep, THE BERLIN WALL) and fed our hungry stomachs. Countinuing with my wave of impetuosity , we bought out of a whim tickets for West Side Story.

I utterly Love this musical. I’m a Sondheim geek, you see? But, unfortunately, I left the theater with the impression that the result was smaller than the sumo f its parts. The cast was sensational, the sets functional and the orchestra was flawless. I don’t know what went wrong, but I think I’ll be more selective with the things I’ll watch from now on. After the show, we took a cab back to the hotel...

The hotel...the building itself was actually pretty good, what shocked me was the location. Me and my friend should have realised where we were after the manager asked if it was ok with us not getting a room with a Queen-sized bed. All was explained when we left the hotel for grab some food at a nearby restaurant. We were at the heart of the gay nightlife! XD

Well, como back later, my dearest reader, to read the resto f my impetuous adventures in the biggest city of South America!

So, as I mentioned before, I went to my future class reunion past Friday! It was everything I was hoping for and more! My classmates are really nice people (at least those who were there were ^^). The course director gave us a litte speech, talking about the classes, our subjects and our responsibilities as the first class of Foreign Affairs in our University. I'm really excited! March 3rd looks unfairly far IMHO XD

So, the class reunion! After the speech, we left the campus and headed to a bar nearby. But it was so painfully hot, we scrapped the idea and took a short walk to nearest shopping center ^^' We had a (really) quick lunch and talked about future, politics, classes, Fidel, Bush, EU, and, of course, TROTE (hazing). The trotes are usually given by our seniors at college, however, we don't have seniors! This has generated a dispute among the courses of the Human Sciences Institute, because all of them want to be our mock-seniors. ^^'

We (my classmantes and I) agreed that we will haze ourselves. Sounds a bit wierd, but we weren't very found of the idea of someone else hazing us. It seemed very wrong. Well, I hope we'll sort things right before the start of the school term (march 3rd to july 12th).

So, until we meet again, bye bye! =D

Tomorrow (Feb 22nd), I'll  enroll  in my college  subjects (a complex thing to be done, actually ¬¬). Sure, I'll have to leave town and cross the bay, but I keep telling myself that it's all for the greater good. After a very hash examination period, I got into my first choice (to my complete surprise =D ). Foreign Affairs emphasizing on Internation Trade =D. Sounds fancy, doesn't it?

So, my subjects: Antropology, Philosophy, Internation Affairs Dynamics, Introduction to International Affairs, Macroeconomics and Polytics. I'm so excited!  =D

After the enrollment, we (me and me budies XD) will go to a bar next to our campus and..."socialize". Oh, well. Nothing can bring people together as as good old glass of beer (which I really don't like. In fact, I try do drink as little alcohol as possible). Which means I'm going to be the sober guy of the group.

Oh, well. It's my life ;-]

Então, cmo eu acho que um dia desses pessoas que falam inglês começarão a ver meu live-journal, eu decidi postar minhas mensagens em portugues e Inglês para conveniência de todos, espero que isso posso ajudar!

Beijundas para todos!

Dinhu_4ever

----xxxxx----

Well, I really believe that someday English-speakers (or readers)will start to read my entries somehow, I've decided to post them in English and Portuguese so everybody would be happy! I hope it'll help!

Well, now, let's get busy!

I've got my test results today, Spanish, Physics, Biology and Math...those were great! I've got an A+(or a 10, as you might prefer)but Chemestry...argh...F...I Hate Chemestry with all my soul!

Tomorrow, dance rehearsals! I'll show everybody my smooth moves in a tux! Juliana, my darling, there are things that I do just because you have asked me to...well, whatever!

Bye, people!

Kiss, Hugs and a lot of low-fat chocolate for all of you! (I'd rather not translate beijundas...ahn, maybe later ^^)

Estou criando vergonha na cara e resolvi movimentar meu live-journal! É a minha primeira tentativa com esse tipo de coisa e espero que com o tempo eu consiga me entender melhor com ele! Minhas habilidades não são desenvolvidas o suficiente para deixar este journal legal,mas com a ajuda de determinados amigos eu tenho certeza que tudo dará certo no final!

É isso aí, gente, até a próxima!

Dinhu_4ever