On the 29th of July, as my family waved me off at Mallorca airport, my dad suggested that the family might come to Brazil to visit me during my time in Florianopolis. At the time i assumed that this was some well intentioned idea that would prove that they cared about their oldest son despite not being there to wave him off from heathrow, but that would likely never materialise. You may think that i was being overly cynical, but considering they made it up to Canterbury about three times over the five year period i was at school there, you can understand my position. Anyone with a rough grasp of geography will know that Brazil is quite a bit further away than Canterbury. 

So when i was told that an arrival date had been decided and that a rough intinerary had been devised i was pretty shocked. I was delighted of course, being away from the Englanders for 3 months made me realise i actually like them a bit, but i was also a little bit anxious. Many people on their years abroad don't want visits from family and friends because they view the time as a very personal experience, completely seperate to their lives at home. This was not my issue. My worries were linked to the daunting prospect of making sure everyone had a good time, which in the case of my family means a careful balance between finding enough sun for my mum, enough culture and beautiful brazilian girls for my dad, enough bizarre and life threatening activities for my brother Tom and enough time to play PSP for my brother Will. Whats more, given that none of them could speak a word of portuguese, it wasn't going to be easy.

Before their arrival on the 20th of October, I had a really good beach week in Floripa. I hit my first brazilian poker session, which was really enjoyable, partly because it was nice to sit around chatting and having a few beers but maily because i won. I put my 50 reais winnings to good use as we had a great couple of nights out. Sunday night in particular was an awesome experience, an authentic brazilian samba experience in an old fishing hut by the sea, with a crazy old man dressed like a sailor handing out filthily strong caipirinhas. The crowd was a bizarre mixture of students, pensioners, and cougars (predatory older women) but everyone seemed to be loving it.

  On the tuesday we got up early and embarked on the famous trail of Lagoinha del este, a serious 2 hour hike over a mountain to a secluded beach only otherwise reachable by boat. In order to maintain the natural beauty there are no bars or restaurants on the entire beach, which is lovely unless like me you eat your entire packed lunch on the journey there. We were also the only people for quite sometime, until having walked a bit further down I encountered a local man who, having identified me as a tourist by my pink swimmin trunks, started hurling abuse at me in portuguese accusing me of coming to the beach to ruin the nature and cut down trees like i had in my own country. I tried to calm him down by assuring him that my lack of equipment would prevent me from doing any tree cutting even if i wanted to, but this didn't seem to help. A few hours later having completed the trek back, we went to see Figuerense hold on to a 1-0 win to really push their chances of promotion. Its a shame i won't be here to see them play in the first division.

The Englanders arrived at the airport at 9am the following morning armed with a series of things i had requested from home as well as some lovely additional items that my Grandma had slipped in. When you have a jewish family nothing is done half heartedly and i now have more percy pigs than days left in Brazil. As a result i am trying to incorporate them into as many meals as possible, although pasta pesto and percy is still not working for me.

After showing the family around the uni and having lunch at my house we headed up to where we stayed on the north of the island. I was delighted to find that as well as being right on the beach, the resort was able to provide all of the aforementioned family requirements (bar the beautiful brazilian girls which greatly upset my dad). Because we were staying in low season the rest of the clientele were varied, and we were almost certainly the only europeans. There also seemed to be a group of weightwatchers equivalents, which considering the resort operated on an all you can eat buffet basis for all three meals, i found a little counterproductive.

Although we did spend a lot of time within the resort, either by the pool or on the beach or trying out quadbiking and surfing, we spent a day travelling the island with a guide. It was nice for them to get a sense of the Island, but lunch in a little restaurant by the sea was the undoubted highlight. The calamari and prawn risotto were amazing and like everyone that eats there we left a little message stuck to the wall.

On the saturday night i left my family in the resort to join a group of friends to go to Oktoberfest. As there were 15 of us we hired a minibus to do the 2 hour journey to Blumenau and so we hit pre-drinks with a 'Simply Red' concert dvd playing in the background (strangely this was the only one the driver had). I wasn't quite sure what to expect when i arrived but on entering through the gates of the event and being greeted by the smeel of sour beer and vomit, i knew it was going to be a cracking night.....Henrik Von Inglunder had arrived.

The place itself felt like something out of Harry Potter with its narrow cobbled streets although the fact that many people were wandering arond in tall pointy hats may have been a contributing factor. We had a great time wandering around, dancing to traditional folk music, chatting to random people and drinking lots of german beer. At about 2.30 am me and my friend Luca decided that we were quite hungry and wandered over to a little stall selling roasted chicken on a stick. To our horror within 20 seconds of purchasing it, our delicious dinner fell on the floor. Normally i am a firm believer in the 5 second rule when food falls on the floor, but the mixture of beer, grime and god knows what else that covered the street made me reconsider. We asked the man who was serving us whether we could have a new one as he had many left and the stall was closing. He consulted his boss who was  an angry old woman who just said 'no.' We tried to argue, but she wouldn't budge and so in a fit of rage, Luca picked up the chicken from the floor, threw it down again and started jumping on it. Definitely the funniest moment of the night. The minibus picked us up at 4am and drove us back to Floripa, from where I went back to the resort.

After a couple more days in Floripa, we boarded a plane to Rio de Janeiro, somewhere I had really wanted to visit. We had  two full days in Rio but considering we only had such a short time there i felt we saw a good part of what the city had to offer as well as having some time to have a swim on Copocabana beach where we were staying. I liked a lot of what we saw but if i had to pick a favourite, the view from the top of christ the redeemer was pretty breathtaking, even more so than the view from kite hill on the heath which i know hampstead residents will find hard to beleive.

Our time in Rio was also marked by the regular appearance of a funny little man from a jewellery store who failed to get the message that my mum had no interest in buying any of his collection of neclaces, rings or bird sculptures made from precious stones. To be fair to him, he can't be falted for lack of effort, he followed us around the entire time, up mountains and across the city,  hiding behind newspapers, climbing trees hanging onto the underside of cablecars, just so he could try and persuade us the ruby eagle was worth the investment. Silly man.

Whilst my parent had to leave on the friday morning i stayed on for a couple of days with friends of bright sun and 30 degree heat, which involved seeing more of the beach and the nightlife as well as a ride through a favela on a moped which was amazing and terrifying in equal measure (I was terrified by the driving not by the favela). On the friday night we went to a street party in Lapa (one of Rio's many districts) with my friend Lucy who is working in Rio at the moment and some of her mates. It was a really good night and the streets were still packed when we left for home at 5am. The only slightly hairy moment came sometime during the party, when two guys tried to pickpocket me. Although i managed to shake them off, between them they could have easily come back at me and taken my things. Instead to my surprise they just looked taken aback as if to say 'i can't believe you won't let us just mug you, how selfish'. Although baffled, i was delighted to hang onto my stuff.

The following night we had a relaxed dinner and some drinks at the hostel bar as some of our group were heading back to England. Meanwhile the rest of us were heading back to Florianopolis where the summer had finally arrived...