fionaistravelling

It's been nearly four weeks since my last proper post (the last post got in there so you'd know I was still alive!)  There was so much going on pre - and during -  carnival that I never had any time or inclination to just reflect - most days I hardly knew what day it was and collapsed into bed exhausted, ready to get up and rush off for the next day's packed programme. ....  Now Carnival is over, you'd think it would be 'rest time' (i was told yesterday that it's officially 'depression time' ) but the city council has launched a series of Summer Concerts, yesterday being an amazing one with the fabulous Afro Brazilian group Ile Aiye   - they've been going since the 1970s and were the first group to only have Black members.  Black people here talk about not being 'slaves' but being 'descended from kings and queens' (I've put this in inverted commas but can't find any references, it's definitely something I've heard ...

Dear fionaistravelling blog readers Writing a travel blog post  represents about three hours of sitting down and reflecting.  And although I LOVE  doing this writing, I've never been a big one for reflecting over the years...   I tend to get on with the next project or the next thing rather than sit down to write up how the last thing went.   BUT every minute of every day while I'm living this travelling life, I'm thinking of it in terms of my travel blog, and while I'm experiencing things, I'm also writing about them in my head.  I eventually started recording my conversations with myself, which will help for the longer version of this post.    One thing about Salvador is that it's not a good idea to go out with a good phone - so my photos are all about context and subject rather than photo quality.... but there you are.  There are lots of places to go to get photo quality.  On here you get my odd way of looking at the wo...

Several paragraphs about Portuguese lessons and Portuguese Grammar start this blog, you can skip down to the asterisks if you want***but who knows, it might be interesting even for those of you who DIDN'T do a four year languages degree or a two year bilingual secretarial course....  Language Matters I never really trained as anything in my life, apart from as a bilingual secretary (and maybe, later on, as an 'oral historian' or an 'educationalist', which aren't really proper careers.   I did a French and Italian degree which always makes me think that I got a degree in 'ordering the beer on holiday' - but if I'm anything, I suppose I'm a "linguist".  I spent two years at different times living in French speaking countries, and my French is still pretty good.  I learned Spanish in my late twenties to go to Peru, and my Spanish is a bit better than my Italian because I never really had any connections with Italy or Italians.  I did some ...