Good Things

Before anything else: this is outside of my window yesterday when the bar down the street was playing this great ukulele music. Usually all the music at night pisses me off, but tonight, very relaxing.



Today's been good. I woke up and grabbed the bus to meet some friends at the Praca da Republica again. As usual, because I can't really speak much portuguese/understand the bus system here, I keep taking the wrong buses despite my family's best efforts. Needless to say I ended up on the other side of down, several reais down the drain. I went back to the Bosque area, and decided to just walk to Susan and Will's general area, a "quick" 25 minutes in the sun. I rocked the bandana and glasses, and rolled up my sleeves, basically trying to look as intimidating as possible as to avoid any potential muggings. Like I said, we all stick out. Hardcore. We got the right bus and headed out to the market. I love the market. I love the whole atmosphere. I ended up buying a cool, very spartan necklace with this frog symbol that I see everywhere. Apparently, says Karina, it's a good luck symbol from an Amazonian legend. Unfortunately, it is only good luck if you receive it as a gift. Oh well.

Afterwards I went over and had lunch with Susan's family and then, since Will lives literally right next door, stopped by there and met his family as well. People in Brazil are so nice, all of the time. I can't get over it. The contrast seems so high from meeting new people in the US. Maybe it's just been Bard being awkward, but it is so refreshing here. People just...open up so quickly. It seems like a lot of Americans, myself included very much so, are slow to warm people. I know personally it takes me some time to feel comfortable enough to just be myself around someone, unless something just clicks right away, which is on the not-as-frequent part of the spectrum. But all the families I keep meeting, it's like 0 to 60. Very cool. Lunch was great, as usual. Nothing beats maracuja juice, which I think is passion fruit, but I'm not sure.

I walked back home, and headed off to Church round 3 with my family, and it was definitely not as intense as last time, which is a good thing, I think. I enjoyed myself, and afterwards we went out to grab hamburgers. In Belem at least, a cheeseburger is pronounced sheeshie-burgar, which I found hilarious. Just as hilarious as they find it when I have difficulty with Portuguese words. So we had a long exchange of me messing up in Portuguese and them messing up in English. Fun. Apparently though, whenever I meet people they tell me I speak Portuguese well. Not that I can say a lot, but I think that I speak it well, as in I don't have a terrible accent. Brazilians tend to be pretty blunt from my experience thus far, so i take it as a compliment, I don't think they are messing with me. But then again, maybe they are. Oh well! That's half the fun. Speaking of Portuguese, I fear for my test on Thursday. But, at least Sao Fransico should be interesting. Packing kind of sucks, but besides that its exciting. I still have a little more biology to read before our trip though. The cool thing about SIT is that you read articles and such, but it's not like a typical semester at a university where you sit around and discuss the article etc. You read it because you need to, in order to understand the individuals we meet with, the families we stay with, and the places we visit. So, if for the next three days I will be listening to lectures in the forest ecosystems, it necessitates that I read Introduction to Tropical Rainforests as well as the articles on biogeochemical cycles and nutrient cycles. I can skip it if I so desire, and it probably will not affect my final grade, but, which I think is better, I will be worse off. It's all about what you put into it. I like learning this way. I read two articles today for a talk at the end of the week on caboclo society. It also will help seeing as we will be in a rural homestay with caboclo families for 4 days. Thus, it makes plenty of sense for me to not only do the reading, but really get it as well. After a lecture on mangroves in a mangrove forest...I actually understand the general concepts of the particular ecosystem. Because I was there, and had to. Very cool

Well, I need to finish packing (or trying to figure out what clothes I can cut out, to be exact) and finish some reading. Maybe. So, boa noite. They're be plenty to update on come Wednesday/Thursday (quarta-feira e quinta-feira, respectively), including my Portuguese test....blah oral exams.