Girl Meets World

This past weekend was crazy. On Friday we went to Zang's Spanish school and I met the other kids there. Some of them could form sentences but the accents weren't very good. There were like two or three who seemed to be getting the hang of it though. They were all nice though. Some kids had come for just 3 weeks while others were staying for 6 or 7 weeks. My personal opinion is that if you are really trying to learn a language, 3 weeks isn't sufficient. However, if you are trying to just dip your foot in the water and get to know some of the country, then three weeks is a good amount of time. The school is really nice, its got 2 pools which seem to be more for decoration than swimming and it is very open in the foyer. It would be nice to take classes there.

In the afternoon the school offered an excursion to this guy named Robert Brady's house. Basically it was this guy who was super rich and never worked (his parents owned a train company or something) and so he traveled 3 months of every year of his life and collected lots of artwork and items from the many countries he visited. It was an interesting house because of all the artwork there was and how you could see the cross cultural similarities, and some things were just flat out pretty.

On Saturday we ran some errands before we packed and we went to dance Kizomba and Bachata in the afternoon. I met Zang's host brother and his friends when all of us went out to a bar that night. and oh man, so much beer. I left on Saturday night at 11 and didn't come home until Monday morning at around 3am. They are non-stop with the beer here. I gotta start exercising. It was fun though.

Here's us at the bar

Me, Jonathan, Zang and Beto

Now, Zang and I are in Mexico City starting a new adventure

So my friend, Zang, and I initially planned out a trip to visit about 6-7 countries this summer. Well the plan has resulted in an 8 week trip to 4 countries for her and 3 countries for me. First stop:Mexico

Mexico has never really been on my list of top places to go before I die. It was an interesting idea but nothing of super desire. Anywho, when we decided that we were going to go to Mexico, I was like, hey why not? The weeks leading up to coming to Mexico, I honestly was not as excited as I normally am. I was more excited about the fact that this summer I get to go to California for the first time than Mexico. I knew I would be more excited once I finally got here so I didn't really worry about those lack of excitement moments.

The first moment I finally felt excitement about coming to Mexico was on the plane. They served me tequila, sprite and doritos. Yes. Si, por favor.

Yes, I had a second round as well.

Mexico is nice so far, at least Cuernavaca is. Thats the city I'm in until Monday. We've been salsa dancing every night which has been great practice seeing as I haven't done much salsa in the past year. They don't play much bachata here, but when they do, I find someone everytime. Tonight were going to do some more dancing and go to the market. I don't have much time but I wanted to get an entry in while I had the chance.

Until next time, Adios!

Sorry I've been slacking on this for months. I will post pictures from the end of my trip through the Northeast and then I will try to start blogging on my newest trip with one of my best friends this summer. We start this Thursday in Mexico, followed by a trip to California/Cuba, Dominican Republic, and then Panama. Even if the entries are short, I will do my best to update! Anywho, heres the best of Brazil December 2012....

Hello world!

So I have pretty much been the worlds best procrastinator when it comes to updating my blog. However, I have updated photos! Its just the writing part that I slack on. Anyways I have a lot of updates from the semester. I prob wont be able to put them all in the same post but I will try to start on it now at least!

Well back during my first holiday from school, I went to see my friend from middles school in Sao Paulo. It was really great to see her cause it had been so long. I stayed at her house with her family which was very entertaining to say the least, especially with the 3 mini poodles greeting me barking every time I arrived to the door( well actually anytime anyone arrived at the door they would start screaming). They were cute though so I didn't mind it. Sao Paulo as a city was nice but it was very similar to many cities in the US. It was nice though. I did alot of shopping, spending more than I was planning on but all on good items...generally speaking. I got some boots that were on sale that I can use when I return home as well as a few other pairs of shoes. I went out to a club there that looked like some of the nice ones that we have in Raleigh, NC. Sao Paulo was like the combination of a bunch of different cities in my opinion however it was nice to see another Brazilian city and how they live. I put some pictures up. One thing was that I didn't have that "Man, I'm in Brazil!" feeling like did in Rio and Ouro Preto. However, it is a really nice city and pretty clean. Its alot more developed that most of the cities here and its also really expensive. My R$5 caprinha costs R$15 in Sao Paulo =/ going out is very fancy compared to my college town. Both places are awesome but I like Vicosa more for college, everyone knows everyone and we get cray cray here

while in SP, I found a McDonalds and the prices are absurd. Who would pay this much for Mickey Ds?

We went to a Currasco on that Saturday because they had a discount for women at R$29 which is reallllly CHEAP if you didnt know. I tore it up.
Not to mention I finally ate torta de limao. Before I had only eaten the ice cream, and even better than the ice cream and the cake is Mousse de Limao(lime mousse), AHH SO DELICIOUS!

This is the entrance to the store of a really popular brand of sandals here in Brazil called havianas meanin hawaiians

I've been going out quite a bit in Vicosa and other cities near here. I've been to a party called Nicoloco where there were over 10,000 people, mostly college aged. This is one of the biggest college parties here in Brazil and it happens here in Vicosa. Also easily one of the best parties I've ever been to. They give you this shirt to wear called a 'abada' and it is basically your ticket into the party. And heres the best part of not only this party but of 90% of the parties I go to here...Free drinks, all night. ;0

I also went to Ouro Preto for the 'festa do 12' which was the celebration of the 12th of October. It was greatttt to say the least.

Fun times with nice people. I met lots there, and forgot more lol

The most interesting party so far however has been this party they call "cervejada" which could b called something like a beerfest. The interesting part about this party though is that they take the beer and they throw it around. You play in the mud like a little kid. I think more beer gets thrown around than actually drank. I wasn't excited about this party before I went but once I got there and got dirty it was amazing. Very unique idea.

I have many more stories with better details and more pictures...but I have to go. But I will write again soon, I have to talk about my trip that is coming up!

Lovelovelove.
May God bless you even more than He has blessed me.
Michelle

Lets see. Last week I was going to write a longer entry but then we went to this commemoration dinner at the school for the 85th anniversary. I thought there was going to be free cake....well there was, but they ran out! I did go up and talk to the Dean of the university though. I didn't have much to say to her, just wanted to meet her. She spoke English very well.

I've been teaching English classes here to make money outside of my financial aid. I currently make enough without the finaid to sustain living and have a social life and travel a little bit. So I plan on saving as much of the finaid as possible for when I go backpacking in December. I teach at the University, an English school called FISK and I give private lessons. I enjoy all of the classes. The most interesting recent update as far as teaching goes is the newest student I acquired. He is 8 and speaks perfect English. However he is learning to read and write it. I feel like I'm trying to teach him to read like how my mom taught me. Its also interesting to try to figure out how to keep a 8 years old attention for an hour and a half. I like it though, hes pretty obedient and respectful. I think I'm going to try to make up some type of game to keep his attention for longer periods of time.

In December I am planning to go to backpacking from here, Vicosa, to Fortaleza which is in the North East of Brazil. I plan on going along the coast and having the big cities at the main points and stopping in small towns as well. I'm meeting alot of the people from UFV that are from the north east and I'm hoping to have some of them show me their cities when I go because everyone will be on summer break at that time. Currently the list of big cities is the following:
Vitoria
Porto Seguro
Illeus
Salvador
Recife
Natal
Fortaleza

This is a picture of Illeus

this is Natal, Natal is the portuguese word for Christmas...Quem sabe, maybe Ill spend Christmas here?

Hello Porto Seguro. I haven't even met you yet but I have a crush on you.

I'm thinking about spending New Years in Salvador or somewhere in Bahia right now. I am so certain I am going to love the north east. The whole image of it is what I have been hoping to see so I will have a month to explore it. I also love almost all of the Bahians I have met as well hahahaha

Classes are good, I am understanding most things but I am hating reading in Portuguese. I need to practice it alot more because reading these long texts are a paiiiin and a half.

I am goin to Sao Paulo this coming weekend to see one of my friends from middle school. Crazy how longs it been, but its going to be awesome to go see her and Sao Paulo. I also plan on doing a loootttt of shopping because things are cheaper there and I need a lot more clothes, especially shorts, to adapt to the weather thats coming. I came here hoping that the clothes and such would be as cheap as Costa Rica but I was wrongg. So I have been doing ok with clothing to this point but I def need an update. Plus its all happening right after finaid is goin to drop, so it all works out ...and I finally get to buy my Brazilian bikini!

I really love my life. It's like somedays I sit and just think about where I am and how God has put me through things so that I can better appreciate where I am and where I am going. Not every day is perfect, but life is good. I have moments where I miss my family and my friends but I still love where I'm at and I look forward to the day I can share all of it with them.

Volleyball is going great. I'm going to the touranment in October which is going to be awesome. Its about 4 or 5 days and all those who I have talked to say that traveling with your team for the tournaments are the best part and with how crazy fun my team is I'm sure it'll be a trip to remember.

I'm obsessed with this song right now. The lyrics as beautiful. She is coming to Vicosa at the end of the month but I am not sure if I'll be able to go yet because I might be in Rio...