BRAZIL!

Ok! So I made it! Im in brazil and I survived! The flights were all great, they were on time and not much turbulance. I got some good sleep and met up with nichole in toronto. Our hotel is pretty good, clean and simple and we also met up with heather and william, so we have a little group down here to travel with which is really nice.


The weather is.. great! Not too hot, but warm. We are all wearing flipflops, and apparently blend in, since everyone seems to think im from here and comes up to me and speaks in portuguese. I cant say anything. I wish I had learned more!! But the food is great, the people are really friendly too! Im excited to get to the beach and tan a little.

We've been spending alot of time at this little bookstore that is also a resturant. We met some brazilians who speak english and work there, Vinny and Gustavo. They are wonderful, they brought us to a beautiful man-made lake next to a soccer statium in Belo Horazonte, which we loved. We went to dinner with them almost every night, and ate too much good food. They were so helpful. One night we ended up drinking too much beer and had way too much fun! We are in a great part of the city as well, so everything is fairly upscale and there are that many poor people.

The poor people live in places called favalas, which are basically slums... they are usually just outside or around the city and we have been told various times never to go there. The city is really beautiful, and they have huge trees that look like jungle trees. They have tons of flowers, and vegetation. The shops are really nice as well, but its so strange. At night the shops close up, but they close and bring these garage like doors down, so everything looks poor and crappy at night. They dont have windows to show whats inside the store, cause people would break them and steal everything... they just pull metal doors down instead.

Oh, and Aline is the STI coordinator for my trip. She basically found my job for me and placed me. anyhow, shes amazing! I love her to death. Shes so funny and nice, she has such a wonderful sense of humor!!! We went to lunch with her, had this really great meal. She called a resturant and said she had 5 canadians with her, so they gave her a free meal and girls paid half. It was really fancy. We had meat, but they cooked it on swords. Lol... so these waiters would walk around the resturant, and if you wanted them to cut you off a piece you put a piece of paper green side up and the would come over. It it was red side up they woudlnt. I had lamb, and ostrich, beef, sausage, chicken.. pork, everything! It was such a memorable meal.


Anyhow, I just thought Id msg you guys, I miss you guys but Brazil is very exciting! Its nothing like Korea, they have everything I could ever want, and I didn't need to pack all the bathroom stuff that i did!!


XOXO

Lynds