Author: Heyi Song

Miss every moment in Rio de Janeiro

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I must say that the Rio trip is truly an amazing experience for me. From this trip, I have achieved a small dream in my life. That is seeing a real soccer game in Brazil. In 2014 world cup, at that time I was in high school in China, I have told to my best friends that I really want go to Brazil to see a real soccer game. But it was really far away for me to fly from China to Brazil. And I always heard that Brazil is dangerous and I am afraid of going along. Luckily, I have the chance to go to Rio by this trip. And finally my dream came true. I did saw a real soccer game in the Maracana Stadium. That was really excited! I sat at the first row, watching the whole game and cheering for the victory of the Flamengo team. This experience will preserve in my heart forever.

From this trip, not only my personal experience get richer but also I have gained more academic knowledge. Like we have walked a lot to see lots of fabulous architectures as well as landscape architectures. Like the Contemporary art center, Metropolitan Cathedral, Ministry of Education and Health, and so on. My favorite is the Metropolitan Cathedral. I was inspired by the appearance of colorful windows inside of the Cathedral. The color of the window was emphasized by the deep dark of the other part of the roof. The colors stand out and I get addicted to it. What’s more, going to visit the real architectures can make me remember and understand them better. Oscar Niemeyer and Roberto Burle Marx were then not only a name of a famous architecture or a landscape architecture but also is someone that I have visited their projects in real! That makes me feel I am familiar with them and would like to explore them more.

Culture experience is also a big part in this trip. The food, the local people, the handicraft and the art on the street all gave me a deep impression. I will never forget a lunch with rice, chicken, black beans and mango juice on the street; sunshine and coconuts on the beach, colorful hand-make craft in the hippie fair and the song The Girl from Ipanema by Vanessa on the bus to airport. I really miss every moments in Rio de Janeiro.

Free day experience on beach

I am glad today is free day for us. Because the past few days are quite long days and every night when I went back to the hotel, I just felt so tired that I didn’t want to do anything. Thus, today I decided to spend my whole day on the beach, lie on the chair, drink some coconuts and make up some sketches I didn’t finish in the past days. Yutong and I wake up at late morning and then we walked along street to find anything for our lunch. The street in our neighborhood is similar and unfortunately we went to the wrong way to the beach.But we found a pretty good restaurant by accident–Brasinha. I ordered salmon here and it was really huge parts of salmon and it tasted pretty fresh!image I also found it was really interesting that they cook potato like this. (In the picture) not like fries and it was really good!image After lunch, we walked along the Ipenema beach to the copacabana beach. We rent chairs and umbrella and just lying down on the beach. Copacabana beach has some differences with Ipenema beach. The store here is more bigger and has better restroom. People here are most families. When we tried to take selfies at the beach. A father of a family told us he is a photographer from Bali and would like to take pictures for us. We played on the beach with the seawater and he took pictures freely for us. He was really nice and we took a picture with his daughter. When we lying on the beach, we also saw teenagers playing soccer on the beach. They play really well and I really want to join them.
Lying on the beach for a long time is a good way for me to observe the beach life of Rio.
When we back to the hotel, we felt really sad because this was the last night in Rio and I believed I will miss the day I spend here.
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This is the sketches I made up on the beach. Actually on that day I only drew this one and then fell asleep on the beach.

Botanical garden

we went to the Botanical garden in Rio today. It is a big world for different kinds of vegetations. It is a good place for people to relax and have fun. But when I first saw the two lines of palms at entrance, it made me feel really serious and it seems that I would went into a palace. And when I got deeper into the garden, I felt more relaxed. The big trees created lots of shield places for people to enjoy the cool. And I really like the use of circle in the garden. I always believe circle make me feel more casual and relax. Like there are some circle shape area to plant bamboos and I enjoyed the time sitting among those area (except I was bitten by mosquitoes hardly at that time).image
And small circular lake in the garden is also a beautiful spot. There are some circle shape vegetations on the surface of the water and makes this spot looks harmony.
image What’s more, the circular void surrounds the fountain can be a good public gathering place for people. At the time I waiting for the group here, I saw a overdressed Brazil girl taking photos here. Her father told me that she is preparing for her 15 year old birthday party and that is why she is taking photos here.
imageThis place gave me a good spot to communicate with the local people to understand more about their life.I enjoyed the time I spent in the botanical garden.

Hippie Fair

Today we went to the Hippie Fair at noon. It was not very big. Yutong and I almost visited every small shop. We both interested in finding cute and colorful handicraft. Thus, visiting hippie fair was something we did interested to do. I wanted to find something that are quite special and can represent Rio to decorate my next year new apartment. And when I saw this small map hanging on the booth, I thought it was cute and it looked nice for my room. The old grandma who sold this small map told me that it was all made by herself and her daughter. I also found a really beautiful mirror at this booth. It was made of the tile of a car and I thought it was amazing! We also saw lots of other cute stuff here. Colorful Parrot made by lots of wires, a cute leather bag for packing drinks, lots of beautiful jewelry made by different materials like leather, wire, stone or steel. I also bought lots of stuff today. Like a handmade notebook which has a handmade real spoon on the cover, a beautiful favela painting on the cloth and so on. I think Rio is a really amazing city. People there no matter how old they are, they all really talent! Lots of seniors do their artworks here and sell to people. This is maybe what I want to do when I am old. Making my own art work and sell them to who like them!

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Waiting at the airport

Pre-departure
Now I am still in Columbus waiting at the airport to fly to the Atlanta and then finally to Rio. I am wearing a T-shirt and feel a little bit cold. I can’t wait to fly to Rio to feel the warm. Columbus is now raining and I hope Rio will have lots of sunshine. I can’t wait to walk through the district in Rio and see beautiful Brazilians on the street and also taste the delicious Brazil food. Fourteen hours flight is so long the same as the time I will fly back to Beijing, China and probably I will spend all time in sleeping so that I won’t feel uncomfortable for sitting for fourteen hours. And when I wake up I believe the sunshine in Rio will be shining on me, people in Brazil will smile at me. Everyone in our team now is boring and waiting. Some of them are chatting and some of them are sleeping. Yutong next to me is playing her iPad and keep chatting with me.We both feel exciting about the upcoming trip. I just hope the transport time can pass quickly!