I'm going to be new in town...

Hi Bee,

Minas International is a great resource and organization for you to connect with.  It is a not for profit organization that connects English speakers living, working and doing business in Minas Gerais.  There are social, business/education and community development going on every month including the monthly Lunch Bunch that is a casual get together every 2nd Thursday of the month from 12:00-13:00. There are always new faces so you'll never feel like the new kid on the block.

You can check out the website at:  www.minasinternational.com.  Also MI is on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Hope to meet you when you get here.

Maxine

Hello Bee,




On behalf of the entire Expat-blog Team, welcome on board. I hope your participation in the forums will be both enjoyable and informative. Don't know how much of BH you've already seen in your past visits, but there's lots to explore yet and you'll love it I'm sure.

Just remember that you can't stay longer than 180 days on a UK passport. The Visa Waiver Program agreement with the UK, unlike other countries, provides for extension of your initial 90 day stay for and additional 90 days consecutive. Other countries can't extend the stay. For them it's 90 days in Brazil and 90 days out of the country.

This is based on a "rolling" year, not on the calendar year if you were thinking that don't be mistaken. After 180 days you must exit the country. Also the clock keeps running on the day count even if you should pop out to visit one of the neighboring South American countries during your stay in Brazil, so that won't help you stay longer either.

The only way you can stay longer than 180 days in a year is with a Temporary Visa such as a VITEM-IV Student Visa or a VITEM-V Work Visa.

  Cheers, 
  William James Woodward – Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

Bee,

As you can see from James' message - he is a wealth of excellent information about living in Brazil!  I've gleaned lots of good information from him since I've been a member of Expat-Blog.

Maxine

Regarding Portuguese, you can take a look at fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php - there is a lot of very good material (text and audio). Moreover, the content is in the public domain. I worked through the 2 volumes of Portuguese Programmatic that are available on this site.

In addition, I have joined Mixxer language-exchanges.org/ (also a non-commercial site), where it is easy to get in touch with Brazilians who want to learn English and who would help you with Portuguese.

Hi Bee Jay

Well, I like to talk with people from other country. We can have a conversation when you get here! I teach English for Brazilians and I can help you with the Portuguese. Let me know more about your arrival here and we can meet. I have some other friends that speak English too and a British friend just like you. So contact me OK?

Bye

Hello,

I'm Brazilian and American Citizen and if you want to talk Portuguese or English or to know the city just contact me.
[email protected]

Hello all,  Thanks for your messages and sorry for my lack of response previously but trying to get everything sorted back in England prior to leaving took all my time instead of making plans for once I got here.  However I have now arrived in Belo Horizonte as hoped and am beginning to get my bearings and embark on learning some Portuguese: a task which unfortunately also ended up on the back burner before leaving.
I'm planning to come to the lunch on 12th and hope I may meet some of you there.
Bee