When In Brazil, Do As The Brazilians Do.

After teaching today we all decided that we absolutely could not waste another day of sunshine and headed to the beach. We're practically locals at Copacabana (HA!) and we have all heard so many awesome things about Ipanema, so we decided to head on over there. We haven't exactly figured out when is the best time to take a taxi somewhere as there ALWAYS seems to be a lot of traffic, so our ride seemed to take forever, but we finally made it there.

Seriously, culture difference. The girls' bathing suit bottoms are practically thongs and the guys' bathing suits are Speedos. Claire and I were saying that no matter how dark we get, we'll always stand out as tourists because our bathing suit bottoms will cover our butts. So we're either Americans or Brazilian men. Awesome.

PDA is also EVERYWHERE! On the street. On the beach. Seriously, no boundaries.

We stayed for a couple of hours and were able to catch some of the sunset. Amazing-- loved it!

Sunset at Ipanema.

Day One? Survived.

Oh my gosh, I was so nervous for today! I had a serious case of first day jitters last night and this morning. Of course, everything turned out fine.

We all woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed around 6:30 this morning and ran around getting ready. We snapped a quick first day of school picture before heading out the door. Once we got to school we had breakfast in the cafeteria and then headed on over to Mr. Rundle's office. We hung out there for a few minutes before he took Amanda, Brittany, and I over to the Elementary wing.

Flat Stanely in my supervisor's office

Once Mr. Rundle dropped us off, we met with our supervisor, Barrie. She went over the rules and expectations with us and then took us to our classrooms. I'm in first grade with Ms. Souza, Ms. Cruz, and 19 wild kiddos. We missed a big chunk of the morning lessons, but I was able to watch their Portuguese class and the afternoon lessons.

First grade!

The students were all really excited to have me in their classroom and that calmed my nerves a lot. The hardest part is going to be getting them to speak to me in English. They are required to speak English in the classroom, but many of them carry on conversations with each other in Portuguese. Then they continue to talk to me in Portuguese and, of course, I don't understand a word they are saying. Hopefully I can pick up bits and pieces a long the way, but it's certainly going to be a challenge!

The veranda.

I came home worn-out and exhausted, but excited to go back for another day. So far I love what I have experienced at OLM and cannot wait to really jump in.

At the Copa, Copacabana

After lunch we were all sitting around when we realized that we HAD to get out of the apartment and we saw that the sun was shining. That could only mean one thing-- we were headed to the beach. We grabbed our things, hailed a cab, and set off for Copacabana.

When we got there we just walked around with big silly grins on our faces because we were all so stinkin' happy to be at the beach with soft sand beneath our feet, warm sun beating down on us, and giant waves crashing in front of us. We wandered around for a little bit taking pictures and just enjoying the sunshine.

We walked on up towards the road and wandered down the sidewalk a little ways. We happened across a vendor stand/hut that was selling coconut waters straight out the coconut and knew that we absolutely had to get one for each of us. For 4 reis a piece-- that was a bargain we couldn't pass up.

Brittany, Amanda, Claire and I with our coconuts

While sitting there enjoying our refeshing tropical drinks, we had a ton of vendors coming up to us trying to sell us things. One man was selling henna tattoos, but the only examples he had were of bulldogs and kittens. I like kittens, but come on, really? Another man was really friendly! He told us all about this tour company that would take us places in Rio, but then started telling us about how he learned English because he lived in New York City and now his son lives there and stuff like that. The only other guy that sticks out in my mind was trying to read our fortunes on tarrot cards. At first he asked if we spoke Portuguese and then asked if we spoke Spanish. Claire told him that I do, in fact, speak Spanish, so he had a whole conversation with me. I got really nervous and my face turned bright red, but I did it! I had a full conversation with this strange man in Spanish which is a language I haven't spoken in almost two years. Frankly, I was quite proud of myself.

The awesome sidewalk that I am in love with.

 After enjoying our coconuts, we wandered the streets of Copacabana for awhile just getting acclimated to a different part of the city before hopping back in a cab back to OLM. We made it back to the apartment and kind of had a hard time believing that on our second full day we had got in a cab TWICE and talked to people in a different language. And ordered food. And talked to vendors. And survived. And didn't get ripped off. Goodness, I even kind of, sort of bartered with a man on the beach.

What a good day.

Welcome to Rio!

What a crazy and amazing past couple of days! Friday afternoon Dad, Joey, and I set off for Detroit around 11am. Upon arrival into the city, we went to visit TJ at the Freedom House before taking him out for lunch. After enjoying some fine Mexican delicacies, we dropped TJ off again and then drove on over to the airport. Amanda, Brittany, and Claire were already all waiting there, so I just had to go get my boarding passes and then we bravely set off through security.

Dad, Joey, and I visiting TJ

We made it to the gate with no problems and just hung out getting to know each other. Finally we boarded the smallest plane I have EVER seen in my entire life. Amanda and I were sitting next to each other with Brittany right behind us and every single person who stepped onto the plane was like "WOW! This is tiny!" I'm not kidding, it was unbelievably tiny. The plane ride to DC was pretty short and we made it over there without any problems. Brittany and I went to grab some dinner before boarding the 9 hour, 9 minute flight to São Paulo. Luckily, the four of us got our seats rearranged so that we were all able to sit next to each other or we would have been pretty lonely.

Back when we were strangers.

We got to São Paulo and sat on the airport for what felt like ages. We just sat around on the plane, hanging out, complaining about how much we wanted to be off the plane already. Finally we took off for Rio de Janeiro and our flight lasted all of... 35 minutes. Which was nothing compared the nine hour flight we just sat through.



Getting through customs and getting our luggage was absolutely no problem-- which is so lucky! Melanie picked us up and brought us back to the apartment. We were here for a New York minute before going out to dinner at Porcão. This restaurant is absolutely incredible. It's located across the bay from the Sugarloaf and had panoramic views of the bay and the mountains. And the food-- oh my gosh! We got some of the food from the buffet which was exponentially better than a Hometown Buffet and then when we went to sit down they kept bringing food, such as vegetables, calamari, shrimp, and french fries, to the table. While we were chowing down on all that, the waiters brought around all different sorts of meat on a stick and then would shave it onto the plate. It was so much food. We were in such a food coma afterwards. Then Melanie drove us around the different beaches and it put all four of us to sleep, so luckily she brought us back home so we could go right to bed.

Our personal alley.

The apartment that we live in is really nice, but definitely an adjustment from the Senior Apartments that I have been living in! We had a hard time adjusting the first night, but it's gotten easier with time.

On Sunday we explored Botafogo on our own. We had our first Christ Statue sighting!! Everyone else was just walking around carrying about their business and all four of us stopped to take pictures. The day that the statue doesn't take our breath away will be a very sad day, for sure. We survived dinner and grocery shopping on our own, without a translator. All in all, it was a pretty calm day on the Brazilian homefront.

This morning we woke up and had various orientations at the school. We met so many people, I can't even remember them all. There's so much information coming at us that I cannot even begin to recall anything when I need to. We had our fingerprints scanned and our pictures taken, so now we're official!

The entrance to our school.

The superintendent, Josh, took us out for lunch at a local buffet. The food here is fantastic, I wish that everyone could eat food as wonderful as this. We don't have much on the agenda for the rest of the day or tomorrow-- fingers crossed for some time at the beach!

Being here in Brazil reminds me of Costa Rica so much!! They both have that whole Latin American feel and it feels so homey and wonderful to me.

Ready Or Not.

"But I could be having a ton of fun-- I could be laughing with my kiddos, or hang gliding off a mountain, or visiting the Christ Statue, and I'll still miss you. "

I have experienced every possible emotion within the past three or four days. One second I'm over the top excited, but then the next second I'm on the verge of tears. Today is the day though, ready or not, here I come.

Alpha Delta Pi has senior retreat every spring semester, basically to just celebrate the seniors and everything they bring to the table. They hand out their wills, we have a violet circle, and each senior receives letters from people who are important in her life. After last senior retreat, Karen and I went back to our little Clayton 806 and made lists of people who we wanted letters from. That way, when this year's senior retreat rolled around, we'd know we were getting letters from all the right people. Obviously, neither one of us will be attending senior retreat this year, but we still wanted those letters, darn it. So towards the end of last semester, we began contacting the people on each other's lists. We then swapped letters right before Karen left and now we both have a hefty stack of letters to read while we are far from home and homesick. Holy cow, talk about feeling the love! It is so hard for me to not open each and every one of these letters right now. I am so blessed to have so many incredible people in my life. I cannot express what it means to me to know that so many people took time out of their busy lives to write these letters.

Love letters from home.

 I'm so blessed to have all these wonderful people in my life, but that makes it that much harder to leave them all behind.

I'm excited, I'm nervous, I'm happy, I'm blessed, I'm terrified. See? An emotional roller coaster. It's only the beginning, but I have a feeling it's going to be a pretty good ride.

All set for Rio-- Cool-Aid too!

Seventeen Days and Counting.

Seventeen days. I leave in seventeen days. I still don't have my visa. To say that I am freaking out a little bit would be a huge understatement.

I sent in for my visa over Christmas break and it was supposed to take ten days to process. I should have had it in plenty of time. Dad called me today and said that my visa was sent back saying that I paid too much money and had to send it back with the correct amount. Dad said that he's going to try to get it sent out tomorrow, if it gets sent out on Friday, it would arrive on the 27th. Absolutely not okay with me. I would have liked to have it ahead of time and not have to worry about it.

I guess there's not much that I can do, but I'm really freaking out about it.

The End of One Chapter, The Beginning of Another.

I just finished my last, and only, final of fall semester. Which means that my next step is spring semester and my student teaching in Brazil. To say that I'm not nervous would be a complete lie. To say that I'm not sad would be an even bigger lie. This is an incredible opportunity and cannot wait to be there and be living this whole experience, as opposesd to sitting in Ohio and talking about it, but I'm also quite sad. Sad that I'm going to miss my last semester in Ashland, sad that I'm not going to be with my friends for our last half of senior year. But I've also been realizing how blessed I am to have had these four years here at Ashland. I've met incredible people, experienced amazing things, been given opportunites that I never could have dreamed of, and learned more than I had ever thought possible. I'm sad to go, but happy that I'm at a place that is so hard to leave.

Sappy stuff aside, I received my plane ticket yesterday! Actually having it makes everything seem so much more real. I sent in for my passport the week before Thanksgiving and then received an email from Dr. Ellis the week after Thanksgiving saying that he needed my information by noon that day so that Our Lady of Mercy could get our plane tickets. Guess who didn't have that information. I called the passport agency and they were pretty helpful, but I didn't get my information. I finally received my passport on December 10, sent it to Dr. Ellis who sent it to OLM, and I received my ticket on December 12. Despite the mishaps with my passport, I'm still flying with the other girl from Ashland and the two girls from BG-- thank goodness!

We'll be flying out of Detroit the evening of January 27 and making a short stop in Washington DC before continuing on to Rio de Janiero. Then three months later, we'll hop on the plane late April 29, fly into Houston, TX, and then fly home to Detroit. We'll get in before noon on April 30 and I'll have to come right back to campus for class. I'm so glad that I'll be back here for a week before graduation-- just enough time to squeeze in some more memories and laughs before walking across that stage on May 5.

It's. Really. Happening.