Letter to a friend

Safe journey! Give a big hug to every member of Frantz clan and send my deepest Love! Drink skoll, eat chocolate pizza, pastel with catupiry, caipirinha, churrasco (B&Q), go for a walk at Gruta dos Indios in Sta Cruz. Stop by Iluminura Livraria Cafe (Sta Cruz), tell Artur he is my little Prince. Go to Morro da Cruz, Catedral & have an ice cream at Marechal Floriano by the ancient trees of Tunel Verde. Tell my father I miss him every day. His books. His sense of calmness. The way he always gives me a good pat on my head as if I was still a little girl. Stare at the night sky and reflect on how enchanting the southern cross really is. Tell my Mum, that every night I search for our star over London skies, and I see planes passing by wishing she was landing here in one of them. Watch the sunset at Aero Club and the small planes with people learning how to fly them. Drink Chimarrao with my brother and tell him I often remember what he once told me about strength, and how important it was to keep going, like a soldier, and like Che Guevara (that in secret inspired him deeply)” Hay que endurecer, pero si perder la ternura jamás”. Spend some time listening to song birds and how mystical they are below the equator. Try to indentify the ‘Bem te vi’ song- my grandmother favourite! Watch the moon rise from the hill’s on the east, staring at this same hills I have spent hours sitting on the top of my window, imagining hundreds of impossible things.Tell my sister Mana that I am still waiting for her to visit me here in London, so we can finally find her an English gentleman who she will fall deeply in love with. Spend an afternoon gaze at Provisorio or Amsterdan bar drinking the coolest beer with pao de queijo and just watch the world go by and how the hours seem to melt slowly in Santa Cruz. Tell my big sister Chica, I miss the time when she was my teacher at school and I could knock at her office asking for a pocket money so I could buy myself a snack and when she open her jewellery box giving me her most special ring just because I was sad. There are few things only family do for you. Give a big hug in Ana C and tell her I miss our time here in London, I’ve enjoyed being the BIG sensible sister for a little while. But most important of all, have yourself a wonderful time!!!! Let yourself to be contaminated by the Brazilian passion and easy going way of life, buy a Havaianas sandals and ‘NO STRESS’ for two weeks. When you arrive in Rio, breath in the beauty that surround a ‘Cidade Maravilhosa, cheia de encantos mil’. Listen to good Brazilian music and come back home with at list one song engraved in your heart. Safe journey my friend. Love, Ana x

(My friend is on his way to visit my sister and family in Brazil)