After spending two months in Brazil I am finally not asking myself "what to do?" everyday. I am attending four classes at the University here: Spanish Literature (taught completely in Spanish), Politics 1 (Taught in Portuguese), and Religions of Brazil (Taught in Portuguese and considered a graduate/undergraduate course), and finally there is Soccer (hardest class...). Conveniently I take all sixteen credit hours, which is full time student material, Monday through Wednesday. I know, it's pretty neat that I have a four day weekend every week.
So what have I been up to since Ibitipoca (the waterfall place)? Not a whole heck of a lot.
Mostly I have been going to classes and going to the gym here. From time to time all four American foreigners will organize together and we will engage in some sort of activity, but nothing too exciting. After living here for a couple months I have a grasp on the city in general. I know where to go and where not to go and most importantly where to eat. The food here is tasty but I have to say I miss having all the variety there is back home. If you go out to eat there are zero options for spicy food and there aren't any Indian or Thai places to eat at. I did happen to eat some good pizza and sushi here though.
Anyway, onto more interesting things.
The last two weeks I was able to spend sometime with Kristin and Evan which was really nice. they were both here for a duration of a week one after the other. With Kristin we mostly hung out in Juiz de Fora and relaxed. The night she left, we got to Rio early and I took her to Christ Redeemer which was still as breathtaking as the first time. When Evan came down here we did mostly the same things except that we got two full days in Rio. We got there on Friday and stayed next to the Arcs of Lapa, which I had not seen yet. Since it was Easter weekend, Rio was pretty busy. We got to the hostel, left our stuff there and headed down to Ipanema beach. Came back to the Rio Bohemia hostel and enjoyed the famous night life of Lapa.
The next day we went to see Christ Redeemer but we got there at 12:30 and the next available ticket was for 3:30. Unfortunately, Evan had a flight to catch that night and I did not want to risk not making it to the airport on time. I felt pretty bummed for him, but we went to Pista Claudio by the Sugar Loaf and we were able to see some monkeys up close and to also see a sea turtle. We ended up going back to Lapa grabbed some dinner and Evan ate his last acai beverage.
Here are some pics, there may be a few more to come!
Juiz de Fora at night
Morro do Christo
Social area at the hostel
View from outside the hostel
Arcs of Lapa shot from the hostel
Pub in the hostel (and Tony)
