The Libertyne

Editorial: The Libertyne
Magazine: Unknown
Models: Josh Beech and Will Westall
Photographer: Danilo Giuliani

(source)

Hellooooooo boys...

(maleeditorials.livejournal.com)

Here's to...

coming home reeking of booze and cigarettes...
from a bar where i was able to reconnect with my past, whether i wanted to or not...

"omg hi! its been so long! i havent seen you in years!! what have you been up to?"

"dude, omg, so whats up??"

"yeah man its been yearssss! how are you? what are you doing now?"



i knew there was a reason i didnt go to bars in streetsville.
and it turns out that all of SSS class of ... 2005 (thanks sasha..) was out at the cock and pheasant tonight.
How do I sum up the last 4 years of my life to you in a clear and concise way, that will keep your attention and not alienate you, in a bar over loud music and yelling from the table next to us?
"Um, yeah life's been good... I just got back from a 6 month adventure... half of which was spent in Brazil... yeah life's been pretty crazy.. So what have you been doing? .. Just school? Oh well, thats pretty....... respectable....."

wow, life.

i miss my CWYers.
Can we rewind to the last 3 days of the program in montreal?
can we go back to the night where we counted down the seconds to the end of the program?
I was so ill prepared. I promise I'll be able to deal with it better the second time around......

"A que horas, nos vamos emborra?"
"Vai emborra agora??"

I really need to get into the habit of not speaking Portuguese when I have the slightest bit of alcohol in me... no one can understand what I am saying....

yeah..

wtf why is it that all of a sudden there are all these references to australia and australians everywhere?
and why does it bother me so much?



good question!

another (set of) good question(s):
Since im back in canada and no longer half-way around the world volunteering and speaking portuguese, will this blog go back to the way it was before i left?
full of wit and fashion and music news?
or will it continue to be somewhere you go to read about how much i hate my life?
will i post more outfit posts because now i actually have a wardrobe, and dont wear the same uniform of aa hoody, aa deep-v, and skinny jeans?

will i ever update my flickr?

does anyone even read this any more?

is the whole point of making posts tagging them?

I'm home.
and let me tell you.. it's kinda anti-climactic. but it hasn't been the only thing lacking a climax in the last couple days.
(pun very much intended)

I feel so extremely weird walking into the rooms of my house. It's like I'm home... but I'm not. Everything's exactly the same, and instead of feeling at home.. I feel like I've been displaced again.
I woke up a couple of times last night, kind of freaked out to be in my own bed.
The blankets are too heavy, the mattress too soft, the pillow too high... but it's my own bed! In my own room! It's so weird to wake up in the morning and look over to my right and not see someone else sleeping across the room from me.

I miss my group. I feel sort of lost wandering around without any of them around.
I don't feel like unpacking. I want to live out of my suitcase forever.

last night in valleyfield

When I come home, I will make you all sit down and look through ALL the photos that I have from the program.
That includes all the ones that I have on my camera, all the ones from Manoel Viana that my homologue (counterpart) gave me on a DVD, 3 DVDs full of pictures from Ayman, all the ones on the other participants' facebooks, AND on orkut. :D
I don't care what we've been told about editing the photos down... I know I'd enjoy seeing 20 pictures of sunsets in Brazil.

I'm so excited I cannot wait to be home. 6 days seems way too far away!
My train ticket is bought, my bags are packed, 6 months later and I'm finally coming home!
4:40pm (approx.) Sunday December 21 - I'll be in Toronto.
See y'all in 6ish days!

1 week left.

I absolutely cannot believe that I'll be home in a week.
I packed today, and all I have to do is finalize tmrw and I'm done.
I'll probably be unreachable for the next week so, for those who care, here's the schedule for the next couple of days.

Tuesday 16 - leave our homes in Valleyfield for Camp Bosco
Wednesday 17 - Camp Bosco
Thursday 18 - Teary goodbyes to the Brazilians at the airport, arrival at the hostel in downtown Montreal with all other 30 Canadian participants
Friday 19 - Hostel
Saturday 20 - Hostel
Sunday 21 - HOME!

And so begins a week long drinking binge.. it started Friday night with a party at Lorna + Tamara's house, continued last night with our Goodbye party for the families and work projects, and will continue at Camp Bosco with our Brazilian friends during their last 2 days in Canada and our last 2 days together. And then its 3 days in downtown Montreal with all our other Canadian friends that we've only seen twice during the last 6 months. There'll be 40 participants and one supervisor.. we'll have workshops during the day and nights off. So far our group of Canadians have already decided to go to a drag show, go tobogganing down Mont Royal, visit le Musée de Beaux Arts and the Andy Warhol exhibit and go drinking/clubbing.
With $44 for meals for the 3 days... we'll see how we do.
I'll see you guys soon!

uh yeah

inspirational, self pep-talk posts are only possible when im not hating life, so part 2 will have to wait till im in a better mood, drunk, or will never see the light of day.

in other news, drunken trampolining is probably the most fun you can ever have in life - just make sure you dont throw up...

also, curling is a lot harder than it looks. its also a lot more fun (surprisingly) than it looks.

what's not fun is having the hour walk home in the dark against the wind, in the snow in -25 degree weather.

but heres a fun picture:

Things I have learned...

Sometimes when the days never seem to end, and when the 21st of December cannot come fast enough... it helps to think of the things that I've gained from this program.

6 months is a long time. It doesn't seem that long when you're living it, but when it comes down to the last couple of weeks... you start to feel how long it's been.
... how long it's been since you have seen your friends, how long it's been since you've been in your room, how long you've spent with the same people without any additions...
It's hard to look at the bright side, when every morning you just want to come downstairs make some toast and leave without having to greet everyone with a big smile on your face. (I like my host-family, I really do! It's just tiring.. always living in someone else's house for the past 6 months..)
But enough bitching. Yes it has been 6 months of being away from home, but I definitely gained some things out of it. (Woohoo, forced cheeriness and looking at the brightside!)


1) I've learned a new language, whilst improving another.

I can understand Portuguese pretty well now. My Portuguese is actually pretty much on par with how my French was before I left for the program... which is actually amazing, considering I didn't study at all before I left. I remember being at the camp in Montreal before leaving for Brazil and feeling so overwhelmed when everyone started studying during the evenings and quizzing each other...
I've improved on my French. I can understand a whole lot more now than I could before. I've (unfortunately) picked up on a lot of Quebec slang, but hopefully NOT the Quebecois accent. I could barely watch TV in French, but I've been to the movies and have been able to understand the films and enjoy them... all in French and no subtitles! I've also been reading books here in French.. although it was a graphic novel... (Persepolis) and the pictures helped, but I still understood the French!
I've also gotten accustomed to talking in Franguese. Where I begin in French... but end up speaking in English with a couple of Portuguese words thrown in for good measure. This is sort of the norm within the group.. so I apologize in advance if I come home and speak retardedly for the first couple of weeks.


2) I've learned about 2 new cultures.

I've learned a lot about the culture in Rio Grande do Sul - the Southern-most state in Brazil. The town we stayed in was incredibly traditional, and kept most of their customs, and I was on a team to teach the rest of the group about the culture of the region. I learned about the traditional dances of the region... and we even took classes to learn 2 of them to show to the group. We also dressed in traditional clothing for the day, baked a traditional cake, and learned how to lasso!
Living in a different country for 3 months gives you time to discover and appreciate the cultural differences in all facets of life. I learned how to eat beans and rice everyday at lunch. I learned how to have churrasco almost all week. I learned what churrasco was (basically giant slabs of meat spiced with salt and barbecued over a charcoal fire)... and I learned how to eat incredibly salty food, all the time. I also learned how to make some of the food I ate while I was there.
I also learned to appreciate and love a Brazilian music. We went to a lot of bailes (dances) while in Manoel Viana and we all learned to dance traditional gaucho dances to bands playing gaucho music. But also going to parties and hanging out with some of the young people in the town, we also got to know a lot about the youth culture in the town... (which honestly was incredibly hilarious and will make for a lot of ridiculous stories for you guys when I get home) and as well the music that they listen to. There was a lot of American hip-hop and pop, but there was also a lot of Brazilian funk, that although the Brazilian participants seem to hate... we seemed to love. (Enough to search it out and put it on our ipods upon our return)
Also, I learned how to appreciate Canadian culture a lot more. At the beginning of the program, the group was given the task to put together a spectacle of sorts to show the town what Canadian culture was. It was pretty hard to do. Canada didn't really have a culture... or so we thought. But upon our arrival in Valleyfield, by wanting to show our Brazilian counterparts what Canada was all about, I think we were all able to discover things that are an integral part of being Canadian (Tim Hortons being one of those things...).
I've also learned a lot about Quebec culture. The typical Quebecoise dishes - Pâté Chinoise... Poutine... (I've also learned that poutine is the best "I'm drunk and fucking hungry" food and that it really is okay if I have eaten a poutine for every meal on a weekend, not including breakfast, and that cheese curds are the most amazing snack food ever). I have also seen a lot of Quebecoise movies, and they've all been really good. It's weird because they kind of have to do their own thing here... so they have their own movies, their own TV shows and their own music.


... okay so this list looks like it might turn out to be a long one... soo I think I'm going to do it in installments. Look out for part 2 coming up next.