Sunday, October 31, 2010

Brazilian halloween?



So i didn't end up going with my family to villas because i didn't feel that wonderful so i took a nap again (after i had just woken up), but then i did feel better so Bryant and i went shopping for souvenirs. It was succesful i think and i gave me a better feel for mercado modeldo. Then i went home and attempted to do some homework and i got portuguese done but culture class readings still lag in the back of my head just waiting to ruin the weekend fun.

It is the morning of the real Halloween in Brazil, and i don't think i am doing anything tonight because i have school tomorrow but i did go out last night and dressed up the best i could as a last minute thing.I just wore all black and painted my face like a cat and of course i wore my most animal-looking contacts i have. Oh and my mom asked me if i was going to go rob someone, because of all the black and they thought it was funny that i had a cat face painted on, but its only because Brazilians done celebrate Halloween that much. Anyways the club that we went to was cool, it had Halloween decorations and almost everyone was dressed up inside, so i felt totally normal afterwords. The only bad thing was that they kinda killed my excitement for the holiday when the music was not-so-good. Besides the thriller and Micheal Jackson songs, where you just cant go wrong. So we decided that after taking some pictures that it was time to leave, so we did.

A couple of us were hungry so we walked to Frans cafe near my house, it was more like a hike than a walk and in heels lets just say that i think i earned that sandwich. So Bryant and Erika and i ate there and had hot chocolate and talked for about an hour, it was nice and a good ending to a weird but fun night in general. I mean it wasn't the best Halloween but i will be sure to remember the one i had in Brazil.

But today was a fun day that i wasn't expecting, simple in reality but that's made it so much fun. Matt and Erika and i went to the beach for about 3 hours, took a bunch of pictures, ate Popsicle and then met a really cool Japanese guy that lives here in Brazil now. He was so nice and although he said i don't look Japanese, mommy would have been excited! Oh and by the way he knows fluent Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese (native) and English, i want to be like him when i grow up. So after that we went to McDonald's and got ice cream and then bought postcards and candy. It was a fun way to spend Halloween and i loved every moment, Brazil is full of surprises.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Happy Halloween


So Thursday night i went out and then i spent all yesterday sick. maybe it was the fact that i tried to lose weight in one day by running twice and then not eating dinner and then preceded to go out all night and party =not good. Oh well maybe all of that throwing up i did, flushed out my system to whatever i ate, or didn't eat. But i did go to the beach as well and i didn't get tanner, although it is more humid than Egypt here, there were a lot of clouds so no sun was peaking threw.

But today i am going to go somewhere with my family, i think it is called "villas" and i am pretty sure it is by the airport. It is a birthday for someone in the family that i have never met (which is usually the case). but my brother said that they had a pool and that's all i need to know, because that means i get to go tanning. Im still trying to work up to my moms color (see older posts).

One other thing, it doesn't feel like Halloween is tomorrow, i haven't gone to the Evangeline mansion with mom and Steph nor have i been to the spirit of Halloween store. There are no carved pumpkins outside the house (because i live in an apartment) and i don't have a costume or a big bowl of candy next to the door ready to be devoured by children. Oh and besides the trees are still green here and i don't need a scarf. oh Halloween and thanksgiving, at least i have Christmas to look forward to a home, i am going to be in a mad decorating mood upon return to the states.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

ITS HOTTTT

The title pretty much says it all, because i think spring is coming to a close soon and summer is about to start here in Brazil (which doesn't mean very much to the city i am in because its almost the same temp all year long) it is getting hotter and stickier. Sense i have got back from Rio, it has been a new kind of hot in Salvador, humidity to the extreme! I really cant stand it! I get out of the shower and dry off and then i still get hot because i am sweating, ugh. I guess air conditioners do not exist in Brazil outside of cars for the masses, and i don't know how they can stand it.

Well anyways i have to figure out what i want to do this weekend besides go shopping.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Rio De Janiero






So people i just got back from Rio de Janiero yesterday morning at 9am and made it in just enough time to drop off all my stuff and then hurry back to school. I think it was one of the hardest Portuguese classes to get through considering that i had been awake sense 3am and on and off taxi's and plane carrying about 90 lbs on my back (i have a lot of stuff). The city was everything i hoped it would be and more, i loved the buildings, restaurants, the beaches, people, and everything else. So lets start from the beginning?

Day 1/2 and 1:
It says day .5 or 1/2 because i arrived at matts house at around 9pm and waited for all of the other guys to get there because we organized a van to take us to the airport at 1230am, because we got a cheap flight that left at 4am and returned to Salvador at 7am. So although they were early they were worth it, it think. So we took maybe the fastest airport ride ever in my life, saying that i have been there many times so far (around 6)only about 20 minutes or so, the driver was flying and without traffic it was awesome. So we all waited in the airport and got some food as we waited. We looked like a bunch of European students backpacking through the Andes mountains with our huge backpacks, we got some looks from the stylish Brazilians who had rolling suitcases with their heels and dress shoes. So we got on the plane and off we were, arriving in Rio at 730am (there time) and off to the hostel we went.

We found the hostel after a long freezing bus ride (Brazilians love their air conditioners) and checked in, it was much like a college house style rather than any of the other hostels that i have stayed at before. Anyways because we were quite tired i took a nap, while some of the others went to the beach. Oh and by the way molly and Haley got destroyed at the beach, a wave attacked them and they got extremely sunburnt. But when i woke up i found something to eat and then went to the store to buy food to cook for dinner (cheaper). We all decided to go to sugar loaf because it was nearing sunset and that is the best time to go. So we hiked the first mountain and then took the cable car to the 2nd, it is free to descend after 7pm so we made sure to wait until after that time. On the way we saw monkeys and i even got to feed one right out of my hand, they are so cute and don't attack you. The sunset and view of Rio was amazing, the most beautiful scenery i have ever seen. You can see everything, the beach, the mountains, the cristo, the may with all of the yachts, everything. So after we went home and all made dinner, after that long day we passed out around 10, and woke up to find out that the rest of the group had arrived in the middle of the night.

Day 2:
Trying to get an early start semi- worked out, got up around 10am and eat some food and coffee. Didn't know exactly want we were doing but we ended up getting a good deal on a tour of the christo, views of the favelas, and to the stairs in Lapa. It was such a good and successful day, we got to see the Cristo who looks over all of Rio de Janiero (mainly Catholic)he was big and so many people came to see him, it was hard to get a good picture but i got some that i really liked. We then iced Leo behind the cristo's back, it was almost the best icing ever. We were then on our way to the stairs in Lapa where snoop dog sang and did his video for "beautiful" in 2003. It is well known throughout to world as being a landmark (although kinda small) of Rio de janiero. I walked all the way to the top and let me tell you, my legs hurt after wards. There were so many neat tiles from all of the world and in many languages, and oh so colorful.

Later we came back to the hostel and go something to eat, which was so yummy, a place called GOWOK, and Thai food place that I, mollie, haley, ashley and erika simply fell in love with, a nice change from all of the Brazilian food that we had been having. I don't even remember the last time i had noodles. So after than we got ready to go out somewhere, we ended up at a small bar close to our hostel, where we all got drinks and then waited for something exciting to happen..i guess we were there to early because nothing was happening. But i did get hit on, which was awkward because i tried pulling the i don't speak Spanish or Portuguese but he spoke English :( and then the bar messed up our check so we had to argue with them for a while... so after that i was ready for bed. some of us came back and went to sleep but we were woken up by the drunk half of the group wrestling... kinda funny actually.

Day 3:
Woke up late and barely made it to breakfast, but i did get yelled at for asking to use the stove but the weird and angry maid of the hostel. But i don't really care because she obviously wasn't satisfied because i couldn't understand her favela Portuguese. So i bought a lighter so that i wouldn't have to deal with her, why cant Brazil just update their stoves? But i got ready and all of the girls and Bryant went to the botanical gardens. It took a little while to get there but we had a nice friendly bus driver that let us know exactly where to get off. I had the most amazing lunch of a turkey sandwich and chai tea latte with a cute little cookie. We ran through the gardens of flowers, trees, bushes and everything else that girls would love to take pictures of. Bryant wasn't the most excited, but i think he liked it anyways. We left when it closed around 5pm and went back to the hostel and got ready to go out.

We went to a BBQ at another hostel that had drinks and lots of food, it was nice but it was in a distant location and i am glad that i wasn't staying there. We ate a lot and got a little bored waiting for the van that was taking us to lapa so we went to buy some drinks and i took some cool pictures of graffiti in the alleys. But when we came back, the guy that invited us got all butthurt because we were hanging out with him enough, weird because he worked at our hostel and he is kind of suppose to be professional. So we decided to go to lapa buy ourselves and we got there cheaper and just fine. Lapa is one huge street party, with so many people walking everywhere stealing drinks and a lot of clubs bumping their music. Leo, Axel, Matt, and I walked around where Leo again got hit on by some transvestites and gays, and it was a interesting experience. We even saw some hookers working the street, nice huh? and they weren't even wearing pants, just thongs. Only in Brazil.

Day 4:
After that long day i totally missed the morning and kind of woke up at 12pm. I got dressed to go to the beach and then Leo and Axel brought up the idea of going to a favela. So i don't know why i agreed but the next thing i knew i was in the favela named Rocinha, the largest favela in Latin America, with more than 4 million people. We had a guy who had inside connections, so although we were being watched and monitored we were safe. It was a very good experience to see how so many people of Rio de Janiero live, and you wouldn't imagine what they have inside these communities, so many plasmas, electronics, shops, bakeries, and fully functioning communities. Although there are a lot of guns, drugs and violence, it is a safer place than you think. As we left we took a motorbike ride up to the top of the favela and it was so fast weaving through the traffic and people, that it was amazing and takes quite a lot of talent. I even bought a very nice canvas painting of the favela, just before we left.

After this i decided to go to the beach and i took a couple of cool pictures in the water and of the beach, which is so big and spacious. I even bought a bikini that i have been wanting ever sense i arrived in Brazil, which made me very happy. We got some GOWOK on the way home and then later made some dinner and got ready to go out again! The guys went out altogether and the girls split up but we ended up at a bar where we met some Brazilians who it was their birthday! They were so nice to include us and we got some free cake and drinks, met some Australians and Canadians and had a wonderful time. They also played some really cool music which was a flashback moment but was totally awesome. Went home at 4am and passed out.

Day 5:
Our last day in Rio i had a mission which was to buy souvenirs, and it failed. :( I did buy some cool artwork at the hippy fair in Ipanema but i couldn't find the artisan fair in Copacabana. Haley, Mollie and i walked for days up and down the beach catching buses and vans trying to find this place. Depressing because Bryant and Erika found it and bought a lot of cool things. Although jealous of them, i think i got over it and i will just have to search harder to find cool Brazilian things. Maybe i will be able to go back again before i leave Brazil.

So i came back to the hostel and decided that i was hungry. And after i couldn't decided want i wanted to eat for about 2 hours, Haley and mollie came back from the Black eye peas concert that they didn't attend because it was to expensive and we all went out to Route 66, which despite the "American, Californian" name it was their attempt on Mexican food. Surprising it was very good and it was a good way to end our trip in Rio.

Day 6:
Technically their was no day 6 but we had to wake up at 3:45am to get the taxi to go to the airport and catch our plane back to Salvador. It was kind of a long trip to be awake, but we got through it, no one go robbed, hurt, or lost anything so it was a success. We even made it back to school in time for class, perfect huh?

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Penthouses and boats




So school wasn't as bad as i though this week, i did have a oral test and final exam in Portuguese but i think that they went well and i understood almost everything on them, so that's a good sign.

But yesterday we went to a really cool food market where they had tons of fruit and vegetables, we also saw one of the biggest butts in the world. But anyways after that adventure we all went to the beach and hung out and i think i got a little tanner then, but the waves were huge, and the were knocking everyone over! quite funny if you weren't the one with sand everywhere and salt water up your nose.

We went to matt;s house to hang out before we went out but we never got anywhere, we just stayed there for 6 hours dancing talking and drinking. just like a party haha it was fun and his dad wants to have us over again, he is so nice and his house is beautiful! marble staircases and everything!

But the next morning( this morning) i had to get up early to go on a boat for my family and it was a birthday party. I slept about 2 hours, but i couldn't sleep anyway. So this was a 8-hour journey where we went to different islands close to Salvador and swam, walked around, ate a lot of food, and i did a lot of tanning. and i am sure that i am a little sunburned, but it will go away but i am not up to my moms level just yet. I made some friends too and they said i speak good portguesee which i had to because everyone only spoke that, so if i didn't want to be bored the whole time i had to speak up. It was a beautiful day i just wish i had some energy to go out tonight. nescau where are you?

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

These are my tanning goals.



Sorry mom, had to post them, i am hoping that 2 more months will work out in my favor. Afro- Brazilian mommy? maybe

to much food!


It is Wednesday and it feels like Monday because it is the first day of school for the week, that being said, tomorrow is also the last day of school for the week, so i guess it isn't that bad. But i did finish and turn in my paper early so i do feel a little better. Anyways...

Everyday (almost, because if i am traveling or on vacation i don't) i go running around the city so that when i return to the united states i don't look like the girl in the willy wonka factory who blew up to the size of a blueberry on steroids. I got a chance to weigh myself and it isn't as bad as i thought because i weight about 62 kilos, and i think that is like 135 lbs, like 2 or 3 pounds off of what i weighted when i got here. Considering what i have been eating, it is practically a miracle. My host family here thinks i am a garbage disposal and cant eat anything so they give me everything they can think of that i would eat for breakfast or lunch but i really cant eat that much. Breakfast consists of eggs, bread, cereal, fruit, chocolate milk-like shake with banana, flan or cake, and sometimes they try and throw a sandwich in there. But i cant eat all that or i will implode my tummy. Lucky dinner is small. but she does try and give me everything she thinks that i could eat for dinner at one time.

So when i get back to Cali i decided that i am going to have a carb fast at least for the first week or 2 before Christmas because bread and rice come with everything here, and i really am in need of some light meals without oil and butter. But i hope that i will have some hard 6-hour hikes soon to even out all the food that i am eating, good thing i have my lipo pills mommy gave me! :)

i am going to go eat an apple and drink some water

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Bored? in Brazil?


It is the day before we have to go back to school after our 5-day long weekend and i think i am bored, in Brazil. Yesterday i decided that i wouldn't sleep until i finished my paper which is due tomorrow, and i finished so today i dint really have anything to do. Most of my friends are in transit somewhere or they are sick. My family here went to their little beach front house about an hour away, and i didn't want to go because my mom told me like as soon as a woke up and i did have one plan today, which was to go running. Which running is still on my list of things to do today. I might go to the beach but it is looking a little cloudy today, so that wouldn't be very helpful for my tanning goals. I really think that i should be a lot tanner for being in Brazil for over a month. I do have a small flip flop tan line though, which i don't think i have ever had before. Oh and i bought one more pair of havaianas because i had never seen these kind and i really wanted something different.

i feel like i should do something because i really need to pay bills and figure out my hostel situations but i don't know what else to do besides what i had already done. I sent emails to everyone but nothing has changed yet, boo :( So today is kinda a BLAH day, i hope tomorrow is better, i mean i do have school but it wont be long because it is already the middle of the week and i then the weekend is soon again. I realized that this weekend i didn't even go out really, i was too tired from all of the sunny day activities. But that means i am pumped for this weekend coming up! yay! now if i could only lose 8 kilos i think my life would be complete!!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Itacare...an adventure.





I just returned from a jungle/forest/beach/plain/hiking/city adventure in the city of Itacare, Brazil. It was amazing and i am really glad i decided to go the day before i went! Spur of the moment is how to live it up here! So we left Salvador at 12:30pm in the afternoon and even got to leave school early, we took a taxi to the ferryboat station and literally ran onto the boat through the area where the cars are suppose to drive in an barley made it before it took off! The ferryboats are really hot and sticky and it is kind of a good thing when you don't find a seat because you dont know what kind of germs are on them.

Anyway after the boat we had to wait for the bus, which was 5 hours long, it should have been 2 hours but they stop at every small town along the way to pick up and drop people off, which is quite hard to take a nap that way. So when we got to the city we tried to take a taxi to our pousada/hostel but the one on my paper didn't exist and no one had ever heard of it so we just went to another hostel called "buddys" which was run by a Irish and Australians in a Brazil surf town, amazing i know. They were so nice and it was only R$80 for the 3 nights and we got 2 rooms that had to big beds and bathrooms inside and with breakfast! the best part is that the pousada came with hammocks! The only bad thing was that they had a cat named dog who wanted to live in my room and i just hate cats, but i am pretty sure it was a drunk cat, always passed out.

So we started off our first day with an amazing home maid breakfast from a lovely lady named Maria Elena and although i was tired we woke up at a fairly good time. A guy named Daniel (young Brazilian) works in the pousada in the mornings and as i was about to cut into a pancake he makes me get up (with fork and knife in hand) and dance forro with him. I wasn't that into it because i was really hungry but he swears i could be a dance instructor of forro, the Brazilians will say anything to flirt. So we decided to try and find a beach to go surf on, and as we were walking this crazy little guy that wanted to be our guide, and although everything was telling me that this wasn't that good of idea, we didn't have any other way to find this beach and we had 2 big guys and 2 girls so if he did anything sketchy we outnumbered him. It was about an hour walk but it was beautiful and there was animals and lizards along the way, we hiked through so many different types of the terrain and saw a tiny waterfall, a pool, as well as restaurants that lead right into the beach water. When we reached the beach it was amazing... maybe 10 people there, huge waves for surfing, white sand and a cute little hut where we bought coconuts and pineapples. We stayed there for about 3 hours and then walked up a little ways to see the most amazing view and to take some pictures, i am pretty sure that our guide had a couple of drinks because he cut off our heads in some of the pictures, which looked quite funny afterward.

Tired and hungry we didn't cook but ate out and it was delicious, all you can eat for only $R15, we then went back to the pousada and started the party! Just hanging out, drinking, playing music, and laying the hammocks. We were going to go out to a reggae concert but we got a little to tired and just stayed in because we had to get up early for rafting! We got up at 8:30am ate breakfast and hopped into a huge "indiana jones" looking car with a bar in the middle and no windows for a 30 minute drive to the rafting place. From there we took some safety lessons and then were off to the river. It was so worth the money, we had real guides, training, vests, helmets, and even video and pictures. During the ride, where the rapids were not big we got to jump out and swim in the river too, and we came to a huge cliff where we all got to jump off! I was first and i thing that was the highest i have ever jumped off into water in my life, i defiantly got the upside down stomach feel. But so much fun, after some more rapids we go to go zip lining into the water, which was fun and i spun around in the air!

But the time we got home, we were starving. So we had heard of this Arabic place and we were so hungry and we just decided to go because everyone in town had raved about it, and it was AMAZING. It was so filling and healthy i am really craving one now. So after that i took a nap and got up and hung out again with all the people and then Haley and i took an adventure to get ice cream and i think i had the best ice cream in the world, it was so good that i wanted more this morning. We were going to go out to a bra later, but leo and i were to tired and passed out and woke up at 430am and then went back to sleep till breakfast.

This morning we ate breakfast (we were the first to wake up being that we were the first to fall asleep) and it started to rain which sucked because i wanted to go to one last beach before we left, but after we took a walk through the town the rain didn't stop so decided that it was our time to go back to Salvador. We caught the 2pm bus back to the ferryboat station. We arrived at the ferryboat station at 7pm and it was a mission for the next 2 hours to get home. We had to rush to try and buy our tickets, and then rush to the gate, where every Brazilian packed into the smallest areas to get to the front, lucky Leo is very pushy and we were able to make our way to the front. We ran onto the boat and got our seats, where the next our we watched government elections commercials and an attempt at "Americas funniest home videos" except in Brazil. I kind of felt like the scene in titanic where the poorer people are all rushing to get into the boat. After the boat docked in Salvador we ran down the stairs and between cars with our duffel bags in order to beat them all out to get a taxi. So we made it home. That is the most important part, besides the fact that it took around 9 hours in total, is besides the point because it was raining anyways.

Now back to school... boo.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Another adventure to come!


I am about to embark on an trip to Itacare, which is about 6 hours south of Salvador and since we have a 5 day weekend, i don't want to sit around and just go to the same places here in the city that i will be in for the next 2 months. So after my hostel for lencois fell through was when i decided to book this one, and can i say that hostelworld.com is not getting a good rep with me because they do not update their website and they often and the hostel may be full and no one will even know that and they have to get their Brazilian mom to call them and figure it out.

Anyways i am looking forward to the weekend because this week has been a fast but kind of stressful. We had our midterm exam in culture class and then we had a composition in Portuguese, which i did the night before because i thought it was homework (dork). I haven't been feeling to good either, probably because i have been stressed and having some womanly functions issues that are not exactly ideal for the beach. I even didn't run yesterday, which is a bad sign, but i ran today and it wasn't too successful i walked half a mile and ran about 3/4 of a mile. Tomorrow should be a better day though i will get up and run then eat breakfast, which always consists of chocolate milk (which is never a bad thing) and then go to Portuguese class and off to a ferryboat and bus ride adventure. It is suppose to take 6 hours in total, 1 hour on a ferry boat and then 5 hours on a nice bus, which is a good thing, i like charter buses.

So i hope everything so over smoothly! I am about to pack to go to a beach within Brazilian paradise, and i really hope that i see some monkeys and that they let me hold them. But the hardest part about going to an island is finding the right bathing suit! decisions...

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Mollie's birthday weekend!




September has gone away, and now October has arrived, so far October has been great! This past weekend was Mollie's birthday and now she is no longer a teenager, is turned 20! On Thursday we all went to the beach after school and hung out there for a while. It was an eventful time because we discovered "crunk wine" which is a cheaper wine than a 2 buck chuck, but i am pretty sure its made from apples. An old man con-ed one of the girls into pouring him a cup of it to, quite hilarious. Then some "low- key" creepy guy tried to take pictures of us and then film us, it was funny because leo then tried to start a fight, protecting us 8 girls! we then went home and went out later that night to a club called 30 segundos, which was open bar, and i can say that some people take advantage of that a lot!

The next morning, on Friday i got up at 6am (when i came back from the club at 3am) and got ready to go to Praia do Forte, which is a city about an hour and a half away from Salvador and has a wonderful beach and turtles, bars, shops, and restaurants. It was such a nice get away day trip for the group! 8 girls and one guy! The beaches were not crowded and the water was warm. We also went to see a turtle exhibit where they have 300lb turtles, baby turtles, turtle shells, and bones. It was the best R$6 spent, according to Haley, who just adores the turtles. So the only downfall about this trip is that we had to take the bus, and i just dont like buses that much, but you cant beat it because it was only $R13 for a roundtrip. We got home around 7:30pm and i took a shower and was getting ready to go to sleep, and molly tells me no. So i got ready within 10 mins and was about to embark on a very long night.

We met outside the hotel and walked to McDonald's to meet the others and surprising it wasn't a bad walk for 10pm and for 3 girls in heels, thank god. So we go to the store and buy chocolate and water, and then go to this area about 35mins away from our houses, where all the locals are and nobody speaks English. We were with on of the girls host brother and his friends so we had "protection" haha but i cant think of any other band that i would have liked to see more. They are called "Sexta do beat", and their songs were playing everywhere when we went to the island of morro de sao paulo, so naturally i loved it. And it was beside the fact that they are the best dancers in the world and so happy to. We should defiantly make a zumba dance to one of their songs. But although it was an awesome night and we sang happy birthday to molly in English and Portuguese, we returned home at 5am, so i had been awake for almost a full day! I was quite tired.

Saturday morning, there was no Saturday morning for me, it was only Saturday afternoon, being that i woke up at 130pm. I ate lunch, then i went to Shopping barra, where i bought my sister a Brazilian bikini! Its so cute! but if she doesn't like it, it can just be mine! Because i clearly don't have enough at 12 already. So after shopping i went home, showered up and got ready for the next funfilled event of the weekend! Karaoke!

About 12 of us girls and Bryant, Joao and Leo all went to this place called Bond de Canto with the birthday girl to sing to her! It was a very cool place, a couple stories with pool tables, a bar, a dance floor and a stage all accompanied with the silliest funny hats to wear! We bought molly drinks and then all sang the spice girls, micheal jackson, and shakira throughout the night, it was a blast, and although we had plans the fell through with a cake, we managed to get her a piece of it, with chocolate a girls favorite! I hope mollie remembers her birthday well because she was pretty "happy", and we were there for 6 hours! It was so worth the R$5 cover charge to get it and it was a nice change from the club scene here.

So now i am waiting for lunch so that i can go to the beach again, in one of my many bathing suits and tan once again!