So..what do you do?

It might be a cliche to start this blog’s first story with the purpose of my journey, but for the last three weeks (my first in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) this has been the main question everybody (including myself) has been asking me. It makes sense, as people are very much defined by what they do..but what if, like me, you don’t really do anything?

To be honest, I am doing something, just not something you can put on your Linkedin profile...

The first weeks in Rio and Brazil have been about adjusting to this marvelous city and country, getting to know my way around and starting to learn some Portuguese. For the first week I was under the guidance of my two great hosts Henrique and Helena. Both have been such a great help! We visited most places in Rio, like Ipanema, Copacobana, Leblon, Santa Teresa and Lapa. Last weekend we spent a really great weekend in Belo Horizonte, visiting more friends and relaxing with BBQ´s, swimmingpools and a great football match! Tomorrow I´m leaving for São Paulo for another adventure and I hope to be in Salvador next week as well.

Since last week Sunday my home base has been ´the Mango Tree´ in Ipanema; a great hostel, right next to the small language school, where I have my Portuguese lessons. After a first week of denial I was forced to start asking myself some questions as I was meeting new people and every second question (after: where are you from?) seems to be: So, what is it you do…?

When asked the question I’ve started saying things like: ´well, not much at the moment, you?´ Or I talk about my studies and what I might want to do; finding out then that most people require more explanation than: ´creating worldwide awareness about global injustice...´ I guess hostels and places like these are filled with people like me out to save the world, but still it is hard sometimes to keep a steady course, when everybody is either on holidays with a great job waiting at home, or in between jobs due to economic crisis. I try to explain that this is more than a sabbatical and more than a gap year, this is trying to define what I would like to do with my life, without being all spiritual and rebellious about it.

And so, I have to tell myself almost every day when I wake up without a plan and without an idea for the future to not panic! The right answers are out there, I just have to ask myself the right questions.

Strange how the world sometimes requires you to be ´something´. At the moment I am just a person in search of what I would like to be doing in this world. I´ll be visiting projects, talking to interesting people and, as time goes by, I will try out some interesting things myself. Ideas have already begun to form, I just don´t know how to say them in Portuguese yet....

If you are interested in following my ideas, findings and travels you can register for this blog, so that you receive notification when new messages are posted. I also keep a Dutch blog with a more day-to-day update: florentineversteeg.waarbenjij.nu

For now, just to translate the subtitle of the blog: you are only wasting time, if you forget to enjoy it!