New Domain, Woo Hoo!!

It's been a busy few weeks and you'll all forgive me for not writing when you hear what I've been up to!

First of all, if you're reading this through a navigator (and not a feed), you'll see the URL has changed!! I have bought my own domain \o/

So now you can find this blog forever and (hopefully) always at: blog.polyanadeoliveira.com.

It took me a few weeks to decide what to do. I was thinking of doing something more along the lines of the blog's "theme." Buy "americanizada.com" or "brasileiraamericanizada.com" or whatevs, but when it comes down to it, this is simply my personal blog where I rant and rave about things I've been up to - where in Brazil or the US or not :-) So the creation of the subdomain was the final verdict!

Along with the domain change, the blog will be getting a face lift by one of my uh-mazing web designer friends, so keep an eye out for that!!

I've also posted a little bit of material on the main domain: www.polyanadeoliveira.com (all by myself!) - I'll be using that as just a porfolio of sorts which you're also more than welcome to visit! I've made the pages which allow comments, so feel free to comment away!

A couple of weeks ago I also went to Rio de Janeiro for the second time, and this time I had the chance to go to Pão de Açúcar & Morro da Urca (those two mountains on the water you see in every image of Rio):

How gorgeous?

I came back deathly ill (well, with tonsilitis), and took about a week to recover - booo.

ALSO - as some of you probably already know, I've been saving my reais for a very special vacation. My friend Ana and I are going to embark on a 2 week west European adventure in precisely 14 days! So planning for that has taken up most of my post-work time.

But now that things are almost 100% set, I'll have more time to dedicate to the blog :-)

Hope you've all been well, and look forward to getting back in full swing!

beijoss,

-poly.

For the Love of Soccer... but not Politics.

So Brazil's out of the World Cup... e agora José?

Well, now hopefully people will start to talk about the upcoming elections... but that may not be likely either.

This was my first Cup in Brazil, and being out of Brazil it was a time to take pride in what my country's really really good at - soccer & partying. We would watch the games at home or at our church or at a bar, and then when Brazil won, raid the streets in our yellow, green & blue!

Here in São Paulo, the situation is similar, we leave the office, go watch the game at a bar, get wasted, and celebrate with a post-bar drink at bar number 2.

What kept bothering me though, and what bothered me was that I couldn't stop thinking about this, is that throughout this past month, I saw people hold Dunga, Kaká, Robinho, & Felipe Melo accountable so much more than I have ever seen people hold Lula, Celso Amorim, José Alencar, or Guido Mantega accountable for anything. Well, maybe Lula... mayyyybe. I bet half the Brazilians reading this post don't even know who the four latter are (you're Googling them, aren't you?)

And I've seen this is a trend in Latin America overall, but I feel like Brazil is the worst when it comes to political accountability.

If only we can have as much passion for making our country run better politically and economically as we did for soccer... Then we would really be en route to taking an even more real pride in our country than we have been!

Just a few thoughts - what do you all think? Is there any way we can do this? Or are you just going to be a typical Brazilian and tell me there's no way?