Northeast Trip part 2

From Lençois we went to Maceió, where we visited the beach, went to natural pools in the ocean, and shopping in a small fair.

The Natural Pools in the ocean

Piscinas Naturais

 The boats to get us to the natural pools

 The beach!

 Traditional Northeastern food, tapioca. I got chocolate and strawberry :) (chocolate e morango)

We drove out dune buggies to here, so beautiful. 

Our buggies!

From Maceió, we went to Salvador, the capital of Bahia. Salvador is the first colonial capital in Brazil, and one of the oldest cities in the Americas.

 Our hotel in Salvador.

 Project Tamar (Projeto Tamar) "The main objective of the project is to protect sea turtles fromextinction in the Brazilian coastline."
Project Tamar More Information

 The boys trying out tight rope walking!

 The view from our hotel.

 McDonalds... super fancy?

 Igreja de Nosso Senhor do Bonfim

São Francisco Church, considered to be the richest “gold church” in Brazil.

Salvador

Talent Show! The people from Australia and New Zealand took 3 people from the audience, and made them try vegemite.

Jordan (Canadian) did a dance of how dancing has changed through the years, from Elvis to ridiculous dancing today.

Just (The Netherlands) showed us his juggling talent.

The Danish people did... this... Some kind of dance, I don't remember what the significance was :)

Germans dancing!

Landon (American) and Fin (German) dancing the dougie.

Ana and Sebastian (Denmark) dancing.

Getting ready in the morning, French style. (With the help of Florent, Belgium)

Sebastian (Columbia), Alexander (Denmark), and Dave (USA) did impersonations of people on the trip.

Northeast Trip part 1

I just got back from a trip of the Northeast of Brazil for 20 days, and I'm going to write about it in installments, because I just don't have enough of an attention span to do it all at once. Vamos comencar.

 Our first hotel, in Belo Horizonte, where we stayed 2 nights (I think)
We didn't really do anything here, just meeting the other exchange students, medical tests, and just free days at the hotel with an amazing pool. We went to our orientation for 5 hours, and we also had funk dance and another traditional dance class.

Our first day on the bus! 

We went from Belo Horizonte to Lencois, Bahia. In Lencois, we went snorkeling and ziplining (I only did snorkeling). We went to a cave as well, with lots and lots of walking, which was really nice.

Ziplining

 Lapa Doce

We also went to Chapada Diamantina, which is like Brazil's Grand Canyon. It was incredibly windy, but such an amazing view, and a very beautiful place.

 Our 5 Star Hotel!

We went to a natural waterslide, which most people complained hurt to go down, but it didn't hurt me at all. Some girl's shorts ripped, as well, but I just didn't have these problems. :) It was really fun, and a really nice trip.

 We also had a presentation of capoeira, a traditional Brazilian martial art. 

November

I've been in Rio for a little over 3 months, and it is starting to heat up here! Summer break is right around the corner, and I am going to go traveling to the Northeast part of Brazil in about 2 weeks. Thanksgiving is this week, and I'm going to be cooking the meal for my host family here, which is a little daunting, but not something I can't handle.

Random thoughts that I wanted to get out of my system!!

Random thoughts that I wanted to get out of my system!! 

When I got to Rio, they were doing elections for the local government, so there were constantly people out campaigning and stuff. Now that that is over... the city seems deserted! You don't get bothered by 100 people a day handing out little pieces of paper or the campaign songs blasted from cars... It is a very different atmosphere.

In New Mexico, you can save a LOT of money by ordering water at a restaurant. This is not the case in Rio. Water costs just as much as sodas and other things... you can't find free water anywhere. Another thing: people rarely (if ever) drink straight from the bottle or straight from the can. They either have a straw or pour the beverage into a cup; they consider it dirty to drink straight from the container.

Some little things!

First off... many, many, MANY of the teenage boys and young men have their left ear pierced... just the left ear.
They will also gauge this ear, but just this ear. Many girls also just gauge one ear...
When girls do not have a hair-tie, they just knot their hair. And it stays. Mine, however....does not. SADNESS. :(

Petropolis

Over the weekend, I went to Petropolis, a town about an hour (by bus) from Rio de Janeiro. I went with two other exchange students. We arrived in the evening on Friday, and from the rodoviaria (bus station) went to pick up Matilde (Danish), and then went to the Leandra's (Swiss) apartment. A little while later, Mathilde (Belgian) showed up, and everyone was there. We went shopping on "Avenida," a main street with many shops and people, for strawberries and pretzels, and when we arrived back at Leandra's house, we made chocolate dipped strawberries, and frosting with pretzels. (I know it sounds weird... but it is good!) After this we watched Mama Mia, and then went to bed. On Saturday, we woke up around 11, but by the time everyone had eaten breakfast and gotten showered, it was around 1 or 2. From Leandra's house we went to Museu Imperial, which is a museum in the house of Pedro II, an immigrant from Portugal, and who the city is named after. (Teresopolis, a nearby city, was named after his wife, Teresa.) That was pretty cool, but no pictures allowed! We had to put on slipper things over our shoes, to not damage the flooring, and if you had a large bag, you couldn't bring it. After this we went back to Leandra's house, and had Swiss style fondue! We later went to Matilde's house, had dinner, and went to Itipava, a small town not really in but not really outside of Petropolis. We got home at 3:30 in the morning, and then we woke up around 12 or so I believe, ate breakfast, went to the Crystal Palace, came back to eat lunch, and then went home! Fun weekend :)

Pao de Acucar!

Over the weekend, the other exchange students and I went to Pao de Acucar with Rotary! It was a HUGE group thing, and it was a lot of fun! We planted trees to help preserve the flora and fauna of Brazil, and we watched a Rotary presentation, in which Matilde, the girl from Denmark, played her flute. :) Pao de Acucar, of the Sugar Loaf, in English, had an amazing view of all of Rio de Janeiro, and of Niteroi as well. It was very cool and worthwhile, though I enjoyed Cristo Redentor more.