Hello last week of September

Yet another rainy weekend in Rio (that's two in a row!) That's pretty crazy since there are record Highs in Ohio (from what I am told). But rain or no rain, we made the best of it: we spent the day shopping and walking through a cool little town called "Leblon." The ironic thing? We decided to eat lunch at Outback Steakhouse (needed a taste of our roots back home).

On Friday, we participated in the Annual Spaghetti Dinner/Talent Show at the school. This was quite the event. Three of us decided to take part in the talent show, given our great talent (ha!) I played the guitar and had a rap solo, Ashley (roomate) has an incredible voice and thus sung the songs and our newly acquired friend played the ukulele and guitar. We performed Soul Sister (Train) and Down (Jay Sean feat. Lil Wayne aka me). It went really well, we sounded great and the kids went crazy after seeing their student teachers on stage performing, it definitely took me back to my middle school years!

Besides that life is good! Days are passing quicker and quicker lately, so that needs to stop. I don't want it to go too fast!

For now....

Spontaneity has a new meaning!

What a week/weekend! We have been getting more involved in activities outside of school which has widened our network contagiously. Thursday night the gym teacher put on a Samba Class and indoor volleyball for any alumni, teachers, or parents that were interested. Obviously we attended both: the Samba moves have been coming along slowly, but the volleyball skills are superb as always. Both activities allowed us to meet new people in the area, mainly alumni from the school that are in our age bracket!

Friday night was the Middle School Dance/Party, which we were of course asked to chaperon. What a treat! This took me back to my younger years like no other: 6th grade boys who haven't hit puberty running around with other 6th grade boys, 7th grade girls beginning to notice the 7th grade boys, and 8th grade boys and girls trying to sneak behind the stairs for a kiss. Needless to say, we had our hands full! The best part? The student council advisor arranged to have a Crepes Caterer to work the party: a.k.a. anything you can think to eat that will fit in a pancake-like taco. Count for the night? I ate 3 salty crepes (meat, cheese, etc.) and 5 sugar/dessert crepes. Gross yet awesome.

Saturday was packed with a hike through the Brazilian National Forest. On the way up the mountain at 8:30am, this seemed like a terrible idea, all 60 minutes of it. It was the sight that we witnessed when we reached the top that made the day: Breathtaking. From upon the mountain we were able to see multiple islands, beaches, and over 6 different cities including Rio itself. Certainly, a memorable experience that I did expect. Seeing such a sight also kept the motives high as we spent the next 80 minutes literally sliding down the mountain.


The final act of spontaneity was initiated when we meet a friend of a Carioca (Rio native) friend Saturday night. After hanging out for a bit, he asked us if we would like to go on his boat on Sunday. We of course accepted. Crazy. The boat turned out to be a sweet speed boat that we took out to an island owned by the Marina. We spent the day laying by the pool on an island in the middle of the sea. Can it get any better? We then took the boat back and watched the sunset on Rio while on the water. The beauty of this city amazes me everyday. It looks fake...

Spontaneity-filled weekend? I think so.

Tchau for now.

It’s Only Been 2 Weeks???

Most Beautiful Scenery: Botafogo Bay During Noontime Looking at the Sugarloaf Mountain

Biggest Surprise: The difficulty of the Language Barrier. I didn't expect it to be so stressful to communicate! It truly allows you to step in the shoes of the minority (not used to this with English in the USA)

Biggest Close-Call: Taxi driver who doesn’t speak English dropping us off at the wrong street. Fail.

Most Memorable Experience: Feeding a family of monkeys in the park

Biggest Difficulty: Teaching students who only speak English when they have to, are they talking about me???

Biggest Tourist Moment: Sitting on the “Steps of Rio de Janeiro” from the Snoop Dogg Video: “Beautiful Girls”

Most Awkward Moment: Trying to pay with a credit card at the grocery store, “credito?”

All-in-All: Solid 2 weeks, just too many stories to tell!

Fun Fact: The Brazilian Independence day is this Tuesday, September 4th. Monday, Sept. 3rd has no significance what so ever, but Brazilians figure if they have Tuesday off, why would they come to work on Monday? Thus, 90% of the country doesn’t have to work on Monday!

Ola from Rio!!

Well I’m 4 daysish in and having a ball! My flights were not bad, minus my unsuccessful conversation with a group of Brazilians on the plane, who I later found out were trying to get donations for their Cosmetics organization? Anywho, following our arrival, we were greeted by a non-Brazilian looking woman and a very-Brazilian looking man. We were given a quick tour of the area and an escort to our new apartment (which is over 100 yrs old, but looks about as Rio as possible – it has personality). They then took us to lunch – breathtaking! It was on the 30th floor of a hotel. I ate next to a wall-sized window that overlooked the entire east side of the city along the Copacabana beach – easily one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen.

Beyond our magnificent orientation, Rio life has been nice. I’ve swam in the ocean twice already and toured much of the city. Life is very cramped here – often an apartment stacked on 3 other apartments, stacked on a fitness center, stacked on a diner or shop. There are constantly people crowding the streets, speaking a language (Portuguese, of course) that I don’t understand a word of but continue trying to decode. I am currently only teaching a few periods out of the day, giving me plenty of time for planning and relaxing. Life is good here.

I will keep the world updated as I go...