Hey friends!
Sorry, I know it has
been such a long time since I've written here, but it's been because
my life has been a whirlwind of events....which I will now tell you
about.
I think I left off in
at the beginning of December. Well, I surprised a few people by going
back to Wisconsin to celebrate Christmas with the fam. It was so much
fun, but since this is my blog about Brazil, I won't bore you all
with Hayes family Christmas story. Because, ya know, some things that
happen at home are just not that interesting if you aren't from our
family, because you probably don't understand Genevieve's humor.
 |
| My wonderful mother and I at Christmas. Isn't she beautiful!? |
Well, I got back to
Brazil right after Christmas, but instead of going back to Belo
Horizonte, I went to spend New Years in São Paulo, the 3rd
largest city in the world. I met my best friend in the whole world
there, Elayna Napoli. She promised me a few years ago that if me and
Luan were ever in Brazil at the same time, she would come visit us
there. Well, not only are we in Brazil at the same time, but we are
also living together in the same city. So obviously, she came to see
us and Brazil, and she brought her awesome friend, Jeanette, as well.
New Years was really
awesome here. In Brazil, they have a color-coded New Years. For
instance, red underwear will start you off with love and passion in
the new year (and you might get it on that night too), purple gives
you inspiration, yellow will give you economic luck, but almost
everybody wears white, which signifies peace and prosperity.
Honestly, I was shocked at how many people were using white. Maybe
it's just because I was in such a large city, but I felt like I was
walking through whipped cream. Everybody had on their nicest white
clothes. Anyways, we ended up going to a very fun house party of our
friend and danced like fools (gringos) the entire night. Great food,
great drinks, great dancing. It was such a blast. We climbed on the
metro at 7am to go home and sleep as everyone was going to work.
 |
| Luan, me, Jeanette, and Elayna very "happy" at the NYE party |
After São Paulo, we
went back to Belo Horizonte for a few days. It was so wonderful to
see everyone again. I was really missing my Brazilian home (and a
certain special person as well). Showing the girls Belo Horizonte was
a great experience for all of us. We did a lot of interesting
activities that honestly I didn't even know existed in BH. We went on
the outskirts of town to go river hiking and explore some waterfalls
and swimming holes to play in. Then we had a big BBQ on the block
with close friends of mine. Everyone was loving seeing all the
gringos in one place tasting Brazilian BBQ and learning how to make
caipirinhas (national Brazilian drink of sugar cane rum, lime, and
sugar) for the first time. I think the girls had a really fun time
seeing the city I live in. Oh yea, and Elayna loved seeing the
capybaras (worlds largest rodent).
 |
| Elayna, João, Albert, and Cris taking a swim break on our river hike |
When our short 3 days
in Belo Horizonte, we all headed to Rio. I've said it before in an
earlier blog post, but damn, I love Rio. So here was the plan. I went
with my two best Brazilian friends, Maria and Luan, and my two
American friends, Elayna and Jeanette. We rented an apartment in
Botafogo for 6 days. Then on the last day, my guy, Igor came, the
girls went back to the states, Luan and Maria went back to BH, and I
stayed with Igor for a 5 days in an apartment that we rented in
Copacabana. Understand???? Anyways, I couldn't have asked for a
better vacation. Everyday we did something different. With the whole
gang, we rented bikes to get around easily, we went to a bunch of
different beaches, kayak in the ocean, partying in Lapa street. Then
when it was just Igor and I, we met up with some friends, made lots
of good food, caught everyone's attention at the beach taking
ridiculous photos (see below for a few examples). The apartment we
rented was the bomb. We rented from some old German guy who lives in
Rio now, but he was traveling to Switzerland for a few months so was
renting out his apartment for extremely cheap during the holidays. I
was in the center of Copacabana, on the busiest street, everything we
needed in a blocks distance, huge bed, totally equipped kitchen, big
tub, located on the 11th floor of the building, so
extremely quiet as well. Oh and most importantly, 2 blocks from
Copacabana beach. Man, it was the hoooooook-up. On the last day we
went up to Cristo Redentor, one of the new 7 wonders of the world. Ya
know, the big huge Jesus on the top of a mountain. The site from the
top just blows you away. It was so beautiful and powerful up there, I
got goosebumps the minute I arrived. It was the perfect way to end a
really wonderful time in Rio. This trip was perfect for everyone
because we were all really in need of relaxing our heads after/before
stressful happenings in our life. Here are the pics of Igor and I messing around in Copacabana....
In other words, an
extremely shortened version of this blog post, 2013 for me started
off in a challenging, yet really progressive and inspirational
manner. I've got this weird feeling that it is gonna keep up that
way.......
Very soon I will catch
you up on the two most recent awesome experiences I've had lately,
the Inka Trail to Machu Picchu and Carnaval, Brazil's biggest
holiday.
I know I keep saying
it, but I'm just so happy here. It's crazy how fast time goes by
though, scary actually. I'm more than halfway through my exchange
(yea, I've already had a crying sesh). I've got a lot of good going
on for me these days. My knowledge of Portuguese is getting larger
and more fluent everyday (as my English goes down the tubes).
Portuguese is such a fun language to learn. It's so interesting to me
that I've created such strong friendships through a language that
isn't my native tongue. I've been in a relationship (GASP!!!!!) for
more than 3 months now, and besides our days to practice English, it
has been in just Portuguese. We have created something really amazing
over our time spent together. It's an experience that nobody could
forget. But like I said, I won't get into the personal stuff too much
here, if you want the details, shoot me a message here or to my
Facebook. Just know that I am so happy being with this person, our
story together so far has been crazy, but the connection we have is
so strong. I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen when
it's time to leave the wonderful BH. Ahhhh! Cruel love!!!!!!
In any event, like I
said, I will catch you up on some more interesting happenings
sometime this week. I hope you are enjoying the posts so far! Hit me
up sometime because if you are my friend enough to read this whole
thing, I probably miss you.
You shall hear from me
soon!!!!!
Beijos,
RJ
