Hey Dude: Move that Bus!

Ever since the end of October 2013 the traffic in Sao Paulo has gone from something chaotic to total madness. Due to the fact that purchasing a car nowadays has been made easy for anyone and everyone, the number of cars on the streets has increased and this could be one of the major reasons for the madness.

 If carpooling were part of the culture, there wouldn’t be a problem. However, here in Sao Paulo when a car drives by, you mostly see just the driver and no passengers. The public transportation system is neither effective nor reliable. For this reason, the mayor decided to implant many bus corridors (so he named it). In order to do so, he simply transformed a car line into a bus lane on major streets in the city.

Simple right? Wrong. It is a simple Math equation. If a street had four lanes where millions of cars used and there were already traffic jams at rush hour, picture taking away one of those lanes. The number of vehicles did not drop, on the contrary; the number has increased for the car industry did not shut down in the meantime.

You might be thinking by now that I am selfish and against the system implanted in the city. Far from it. I am all for going to work by subway, if there were one that would take me there. Driving to work in the morning is not a big hassle because I leave home an hour early. However, it seems like each year I need to increase five minutes. Believe me, five minutes does make a huge difference.

It took the drivers a while to get used to the changes. If a car is caught in the bus lane there is a fine. Nonetheless, the opposite is not the same. Sometimes the buses decide that it is OK to overtake another bus and simply use one of our lanes. Whenever this happens, I feel like rolling down my window and screaming: Hey Dude! Move that bus!

I believe that the measures taken have not helped those who do depend on the public transportation system. Although the bus lanes are free of cars. The government has not increased the number of buses on each lane. Therefore, taking this kind of transportation is stressing; buses are crowded and people have to stand for hours until they reach their final destination. Not to mention the dangers they face in falling out when the bus takes off or even being pick-pocketed.

By the time the government makes enough subway lines and increases the buses on the lanes for people to leave their cars at home, I will most probably have retired. But I am hopeful for the next generation.

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Photo by : Meire Marion

( November 23, 2013)Todos os direitos reservados a Meire Marion.

When in School

When in school you learn a lot of stuff;

However, you suffer because the tests are tough.

When in school life can be a drag;

Even your back hurts from carrying your bag.

When in school lunch is sometimes yummy;

And you feel happy after a full tummy.

When in school time flies;

Then it is over and you ask why.

Life is a school and we learn every moment.

Wouldn´t it be great

If we passed it with straight A´s?

(Written November 12, 2013)Todos os direitos reservados a Meire Marion.

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A UFO?

                                                  ****** For Joao Santos R.I.P. ******

A small group of three friends (two boys and a girl) always had the habit of going away for the weekend in order to get away from the rush-rush world in which they lived. They used to go to many different places but their favorite was in the state Rio de Janeiro called Itatiaia. The park they used to go camping in was right in the division of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais; a breathtaking place and mysterious too.

Many strange things happened on these short weekend trips. The drive to Itaiaia was around 4 hours long before you reached the dirt road. There were times when driving up that road was a breeze. At other times, though, especially when it rained, going up the dirt road was hard work. But in the end it was worth it.

They’d always stop and set up their tent near a small brook so they could have water and enjoy all that nature had to offer. When they were there it seemed as if time stood still for those wonderful days. The longest they ever stayed was a long holiday weekend, Carnival if I am not mistaken; a whole ten days because they decided to cancel whatever they had to do and stayed an extra four days.

Itatiaia is a great place for UFO sightings. Not that the media gives this a whole lot of importance, but those who are interested and follow studies and reports know so. Besides these three friends agreed that the park called Agulhas Negras ( the highest point of Itatiaia) resembled a totally different planet.

These three friends belonged to a group that studied this phenomenon and met once a week to talk about what they had discovered from other groups around the world. They also went out to the field to try to contact the extraterrestrials. Some amazing and unforgettable stories happened along those five years, which is how long they went on these adventures.

The story I am about to tell you is of a short weekend trip to Itatiaia where the three friends, out-of-the blue, decided to get there sleeping bags, pack up the car and leave São Paulo around four a.m. to make it to the mountain before lunch time to enjoy the relaxing weekend.

The weather was beautiful, warm, blue sky not a cloud in sight. They got there around ten, set up the tent and by the time they had finished it was lunch time. They ate and after cleaning up, each one went on to do whatever their hearts intended. It was a perfect day to get some R & R.

As the sun went down and the temperature started to drop, they started to make some soup to help them warm up at night. All of a sudden dense thick clouds started to enclose them. They naturally got up from where they were seated and tried to find each other for it was getting hard to see. Huddled in the middle of the field, they could not see each other; however, they knew the other was there because they were holding on to each other as if they were dancing to a slow song.

The girl looked up to the sky and said: `What´s that? `

Naturally at this point the boys were looking up too and what they saw was magnificent. There was a ring of colors spinning in the sky right above their heads. It was huge; the size of a soccer stadium. Blue, green, yellow, purple – bright shining lights going round and round.

Suddenly the lights flashed and the girl said: `Well, whatever it is, it has just taken a picture of us. `

In no time, the clouds were gone and they could see perfectly. The full moon was shining bright. It was so bright that we could see far away. The three friends did not speak that night. But at breakfast the next morning, that is all they spoke about. While they were having breakfast, two people were walking up the road. Coincidentally we knew those two people. They belonged to one of the groups that we got information from.

When they saw us we rejoiced because we were sure that we had had a close encounter of the third kind. They told us that they had seen a Mother ship over the area where we were and one of their group members had been abducted for half an hour.

The three friends felt privileged to have gone through that experience together.

Google Images : Agulhas Negras - ( I think this photo is amazing and hope it is not a  fake .)

Google Images - Agulhas Negras

Google Images ( Agulhas Negras - Doesn't it look like another planet???) 

(Written: December 4, 2013 – Based on a true story that took place in the early 90s.) Todos os direitos reservados a Meire Marion.

Doing TOO much at the same time

Nowadays we tend to be doing so much. Time seems short and seems like it is getting shorter and shorter as the years go by. The other day I caught myself doing several things at once. It amazed me when I realized it. Ahhhhhhhhhh! - Multitasking has taken over.

It happened to be a Saturday. I had woken up early, maybe because I was worried about all the things I had to accomplish and simply woke up early although I had set up the alarm clock pretty early for a Saturday. I had breakfast and checked my social networks like I do every morning and meanwhile I was watching an interview with a writer on TV. Three or four different activities at once: eating, reading, writing, watching and soaking in all the info; my mistake, five different activities. It makes you wonder what a powerful organ the brain is. However, I could name a couple of people who do not have this skill of doing multiple tasks at the same time.

After having done this, the TV program changed and I decided to correct some tests; once again, multiple tasks.  You’d think that taking a walk in the park afterwards would slow down the mind. Walking and observing, taking pictures, posting them and thinking of a theme to write about for my blog; still doing more than one thing at a time.

All of this just leads us to today’s number one problem: Stress.

Any tips on how to reduce this stress?

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(Written August 31, 2013)Todos os direitos reservados a Meire Marion.