Suco e Acai

This morning I forced myself to wake up at 6 to finish my Topical Critical Review before the day actually began. Success. I'm pleased with it, which is all that matters. Of course its far too long...about the size of a normal research paper at Bard, and about the same number of sources. So...I'm kind of being an overachiever/perfectionist I suppose...I mean, I was one of the only people who did most of the pre-program reading. Oh well. I'm excited. I emailed my contact yesterday via email for ISP, the head of the Community Health sector of Projecto Saude e Alegria. I tried calling his office Thursday and Friday, but no luck. I'll try tomorrow morning early on. It would be perfect if I could work with their environmental health-participatory epidemiological monitoring program/being on the Abare boat. Considering I did just write a good deal on why it's so important.

So. Ver-O-Peso was fun. Today felt real independent. Taking the bus was a piece of cake, asking how much things cost at the market, bartering, and so on. Plus acerola juice is always good. I also almost never got lost now on the bus. I'm learning. Today my family came back and it felt good to see them and speak lots of portuguese and feel competent. Monday we go off to southern Para and the MST. It's going to be a really intense experience. But very worthwhile. Tonight I'll probably go out with the crew and chill, and tomorrow pack, charge various cameras and phones and iPods, and then go to church with the family before I don't see them for another 10 days. I love the excursions here.

This syllabus is kind of everything I could want to ever study and do: http://www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt/661b.html

I'm thinking it would be mad cool to do a TLS project at Bard on Community Epidemiology in this regard. I'd have to learn more about it first, ie why this ISP would be so important to me.

Today has been real bacana right now. I feel very at ease, very calm, and very ready for the world.

I also just ate copious amounts of acai for lunch, so I need to nap. Apparently thats very normal.