I couldnt live in salvador during january..

It is Monday night, and i didn't have school today, it was another one of Brazil's many holidays. I went to the beach today with Haley and Mollie, we tried to go to porto da barra, but it was crazy crowded, the most i have ever seen it, i cant even imagine it in the summer, believe it or not we are only in spring. I am sweating all the time, it is gross. Because i will take a shower, and then sweat as soon as i get out. Same with the beach, go into the water and then when i get out im sweating and the sand is sticking to me everywhere!

i also went to the mall again yesterday with Ashley and we soon discovered that this mall was decked out in Christmas decorations as well! so even though Christmas in Brazil is not cold with hot chocolate and scarves, the decorations do not depict this, Santa is still wearing a huge red coat and all of the trees and ornaments still have fake snow sprayed onto the them. Although they had a lot of Christmas decorations in many stores, it was almost impossible to find a Santa hat, but i found one after searching for about 2 hours. And now i just have to take my Christmas picture at the beach with my red bathing suit on and my Santa hat. I love Brazil and everything, but i am glad that i am going home for Christmas, i don't think i could believe it was really Christmas until i see all of my grandmas super old Christmas house and figurines and my dads Christmas goofy and bears that only see daylight for about 2 months a year, my mom many many Christmas pictures of my little brother by the tree and all of the dogs in our family with their Christmas gear on, oh and not to forget about the Christmas lights! even if they are left up till June, it still feels like the holidays. And right now it doesn't feel that way, unless i want to spend A LOT of time in the mall.

Tour guide... nao tourista!

So this weekend i was suppose to go somewhere, but i decided to stay put and use that money to buy people souvenirs instead. So i met Mollies family who came all the way to Brazil to see Mollie, and we spent time being their tour guides. Thursday night was when i actually met them but then mollies sent them to Fran's cafe to eat dinner before we went out for the night. All we ended up doing was going down to the beach and hanging out.

But on Friday, i registered for my classes for winter quarter at Davis and i got all of them! so i then got ready and met her mom dad sister and their family friend to go to pelorinho with Ashley Haley and i. I got to feel like a tour guide for a while because we had already had so many tours over in the historic center of Salvador for school, we knew where everything was and how to get there! I think they liked it, because they were asking us questions and going into the store to shop. We got them to experience some of the good Brazilian snacks like agua de coco, picole, acai, and wonderful soverte, but they weren't ready for acaraje... So after it started to get dark Mollie showed her parents a museum and then the rest of us girls went to mercado modelo to buy more souvenirs. I am almost done! Although my arms had indents from the heavy bags i had be carrying the whole day, but biceps are even sore, and that's when you know you did some damage. Then we went home at dinner and then went out to Club bohemia with almost everyone who was left in the program that wasn't traveling this weekend. It was fun, they got to experience the Brazilian culture a little more, the straight forward guys, the sexual dance moves, the vast amounts to beer consumed, and no matter how uncomfortable the heels are, every girl is wearing them. But i think they liked the band, the bands in Portuguese always sound better that they do if live in English, but i got them a free cd too!

So yesterday i got up around 9am and got ready to go to the Island of Itaparica, it is the closet island to Salvador and only takes about 40 minutes to get there on the ferryboat and for only 4 reias each way, its a good deal. Mollies family wasn't to excited about the ferryboat ride, it was kinda wobbly for them because i don't think they are used to it, that was my 12th boat ride this trip so far, so it felt fine and normal. But when we got to the island, it was beautiful! I couldn't believe that more people were not there. It had huge beaches that were not crowded and the water was shallow and very warm... like a bath. Crazy because i was expecting rocks and cold water, but it was a nice surprise! After being at the beach for about 2 hours or so, we got hungry so we decided to go eat and found a pretty cheap pizza place and was delicious and had really good cheap juice as well. The only thing that i always forget about, that is one of brazil's faults is there lack of sense of urgency. They take their time for everything, and when you are really hungry or thirsty, it is very annoying. But we got it eventually. But i think we spent more time at the restaurant than at the beach. So we went home just before dark.

When i got home i went for a run and then i changed and met Haley and Ashley at the corner store to buy snacks. We bought everything that you needed for a sleepover, popcorn, cake, ice cream, cookies, chips. etc. It was amazing, we didn't have dinner but we made the best desserts ever! and watched movies, we were going to do our nails but we got lazy and sleepy. So we took some pictures and then passed out. Woke up the next morning watched the world championships for volleyball in japan with Brazil vs. Russia for way to long in Portuguese commentary, and then eventually wondered why we were watching in the first place. But we had a good breakfast, cereal, fruit, juice, and chocolate milk, yum.

So now i am just deciding if i should do my homework or go to the beach?

Eu nao existo...

Today was kind of fun. Besides the test that i had in Portuguese, it was good. I went to a bigger mall today, that was called iguatemi, and although it took about an 45 minutes to get there, it was interesting about what i found. As soon as i got off of the bus there was a huge Santa statue outside the mall and inside there was also a huge Christmas tree there. But perhaps the best thing about that mall was the ice cream, it was amazing, and it made me really happy! I also found a funny shirt that says "I don't exist" in Portuguese with a picture of Santa on it, kind of a sad shirt for me. But i was thinking like why would they even make that kind of a shirt?! Anyways my trip to the mall is always quite interesting and i always bring my camera, so that i can never miss something weird or funny in foreign countries.

I tried to go out tonight, but it was kind of a fail. We went to this hostel party, but it wasn't really a party so some people bought some drinks and then we all went down to the beach and just talked and walked for a while. Except there was a weird guy sitting with us and making weird sounds, i am pretty sure he was drunk too. So we left early, and walked home, it was pretty safe.. but no one person is going to try and jump 8 people, at least not a sane person.

well i register for classes tomorrow, i hope i get everything i want!

oh elk grove, i miss you?

AS of now i am sitting in my house and no one is home, and i hear the freeway right behind me through my window, i can always tell when it is late or really early because there is usually no sounds and no cars. But although i am kind of getting sick of Salvador i am not going anywhere during the long weekend because i want to save moeny so that i can buy people presents back home. I also want to go to the beach, i love it there, even though i don't get into the water that much i just like being in that kind of atmosphere. It nice, even if there is a lot of people around.

I think i am going to try and go to a different beach this weekend so i can experience further parts of Salvador, which i think will be good for me. I don't mean to complain, but Salvador smells bad a lot of times and it is quite un-appetizing. It smells like pee, dog poop, and fried food on the streets and sometimes in certain areas. I have never experienced a country that has such beauty but smells so bad... whatever i guess it is a trade off of some sort. Elk Grove for sure smells better.

I am getting ready to go back home, i am missing a lot of things like milkshakes, Thai and Vietnamese food. Most of all i miss my bed, because i think that someones bed is the most important thing, my sister would agree that there is nothing like it! So as i sit here trying not to think about the essay that i have to do in Portuguese and about how i have to read 60 pages and do 3 outlines about the Black Power Movement, i really miss some stuff from home.

Where Alcohol is cheaper than water...

I just got back from the Cachoiera trip that nobody thought would be worth it, but it was. We were only gone for a day and a half, but it still felt like longer because we got out of Salvador, which was good. We went with the entire group so it was good to get to hang out with everyone all together. We started out by getting up at 6am to be able to get taxis and be at the ferry boat station by 730am. And although we were on time, with maybe 5 minutes to spare our tour guide shows up at 7:29am saying that we are early. But it is Brazil and that means that anything on time is still early and if you are at least a half an hour after the time your suppose to be there, your still early and on time.

So we got on the boat, and it reminded me much of the boat trip that i went on with my mom but funner because i was with all of my friends and there was no language barrier. And they had fruit and water juice and soda for us and we all brought snacks. Although they ran out of water within 2 hours because being in the sun that much makes 40 kids really thirsty. We first sailed for about 2 hours towards an island that i don't remember the name of, but i am sure that nobody really lives th;ere and it is just a little stop off in the bay for boat tours. But nevertheless it was really cool because there was this huge pier about 40 or 50ft high that all of us jumped off of. There were these stairs that we very old and were high for the tide, but i wanted to pull myself up so i tried and it didn't work too well and i totally scraped up my knee and it was bleeding everywhere. It stung when i jumped back into the salt water too, but i think it will heel fast because i am putting stuff on it. So after that some of the people that couldn't swim got off during the low tide and then when it was time to go it was high tide and they had to be rescued to get back in the boat because they were scared. Quite comical if you were watching because it wasn't actually that deep, but whatever, i bet that they are not scared of bridges.

So then we went along sailed for another 3 hours on the river to get to the city and we went on the top of the boat where we were sunbathing and taking a bunch of cool pictures, mostly of our butts, but when in Brazil or butts in Brazil? I got some good color though, where as some people got burnt. When we arrived we got off and went to the hotel and took a quite city tour, which was small because the city is small and they took us to a cachaca making plant where they make flavored alcohol. Then we walked back to eat dinner, which we devoured because it was a long day and all of us were so hungry, it was a buffet, but only until we ate everything gone.

I went swimming a little bit after i ate and then I took a shower and changed into clothes and went downstairs to hang out. we brought our own music and alcohol to have a little party where the pool was. It was fun besides that fact that after i was nice and clean Axel picked me up and i got thrown into the pool, lucky Rachel was there to take my camera before he took me down with him in the water, and she filmed it, convenient huh? There were so many people getting pushed into the pool, but i was the only one that was fully clothed, oh well. It was fun though and then i got cold so Haley and i went to sleep.

This morning we woke up and ate breakfast and it was almost as good as the breakfast that we had in Itacare, which was amazing. But they did have nescau, so i was very happy. So we took a small tour again and then got all of our stuff and went to lunch. Lunch was at a Fazenda, which is a Portuguese/Brazilian style ranch and they had a lot of food and even passion fruit yogurt type of dessert and they had a pool as well. The view was the most amazing part, and Erika and i took a lot of pictures, because i think it is in our blood. Her Chinese dad, and my Japanese mom handed down the obsession to take pictures to there offspring. So then we left and were on our way back to Salvador, on one of the most bumpy rides in the world, but i cant expect much more, because i think Brazilian roads are extremely uneven and their vehicle makers haven't yet invented suspension.

So Salvador here i am and now i have to write a paper about racism. :(

American souvenir?

Tomorrow i am off to another adventure in Bahia, we are going to this place called Cachoiera, which means waterfall in Portuguese, but yet this town has no waterfall... so oh well, i guess we will see how this goes. But we are all going to be together so that will be good and it will be a wonderful time to take some more pictures, which everyone in the groups knows all to well that i love to do way to much.

The election happened this Tuesday in the USA and a lot of people here in Brazil in the program were mad with the outcome of the GOP winning the House back and the majority of governors. But i was happy, because i am a republican, and although 94% of my friends and colleges here are not, and are liberal, i wont change my mind or what i think, we just wont talk about politics, it would only end badly. Even if i don't look like a "republican", what ever that might mean. We are all so young anyways to fully comprehend and understand everything because we do not live on our own yet and we still don''t have our lives put together yet, only college students.

Today was a weird week at school because we didn't have class on Tuesday and almost nobody even went on Monday so we only watched a movie, but we had class all Wednesday and Thursday so i feel like our weekend was cut a little short because we are going on this trip and i have only had one beach day. But a lot of us went out to this bar called, "Whats Up?", yea i know what your thinking, and yes it is really called that. Although the name was very lame and makes you laugh, it was a fun place and it was open bar and only 15 rieas for girls, but it was kinda far, so that was the down side. A lot of my friends got pretty wasted, which for me it quite entertaining to watch, no matter how much they don't remember.

So today i went to the fair today in Salvador where they had booths for different kinds of food from Italy, Spain, Germany, Bahia (Brazil), Arabia, the Orient, and the United States. It was kind of funny because i was so excited to get a milkshake, but at "The United States of America" booth they didn't have them yet, only on Saturday. I hate that about Brazil, the menus are never what they actually have on the menu, so i stopped looking and i just asked what they had instead. So i got a brownie, which was quite good, so i got a little bit happier after my dreams were crushed from the lack of ability of milkshakes. I think they were a little confused on what American food was as well because they have enchiladas and quesadillas on the menu... which last time i checked is Mexico, and it also made me laugh a little bit that the food from the "USA" booth were packaged in McDonald's bags. I finally decided to eat some Spanish food, which was very good, i think it had a lot to do with the fact that the people working in that booth were from Spain, which confused me at first because i thought there Portuguese was so clear and then i realized they were speaking Spanish, good job Jessica. The next little issue that was laughable was that they had "The Orient" like Oriental food right? No its only Japanese food here, i think if you are Asian or anything Asia, it is considered Japanese, so the Japanese flag, yakisoba, tamaki, and sushi was representing the Orient over there.

Oh and now i have reached my goal of having equal amounts of bottoms and tops of bathing suits here. 15 baby :)

Iiye Aiye celebration!

Yesterday we had school, it wasn't really worth it because there was only 5 people in my class when we usually have 13, but i went anyway. But last night i think i really got a feel for the Bahian culture because i went to Ilye Aiye's 37-year anniversary celebration in the Liberdade district of Salvador. This was celebrating Black culture in Black with a huge party, there was samba, acaraje, feijoada, cervejas, and awesome drumming groups and performers. I am not sure how long the party lasted but i left at 2am and i am pretty sure that it went on all night long. When we finally reached the favela district of Liberdade there was a huge street party that had been going on sense before sunset and it didn't look like it was stopping anytime soon, our taxis could barley fit threw all of the people dancing and talking to each other. I felt so crowded but happy and excited at the same time to be in that environment that i would have never found on my own in Brazil. One of the girls in the program, her dad is the director of the program and its anniversary so she got us availability to the tickets, and it was so worth the 20 reias.

There were so many beautiful people there, i was wondering were they all were sense i came to Salvador. And not only did i see Afro-Brazilians but all colors and ages too. Everyone was invited and it was amazing to see all the races and colors dancing and singing along together for the same purpose: to just be happy and celebrate. The music was unbelievable, i have never heard as good music live as i have here in Brazil, they are amazing and they had wonderful dancers and costumes too!