Flying Home.

It's been a wonderful trip. I've made great friends and had fun and different experiences. It's all taught me something about myself and my life. I've learned that our family definitely doesn't hang out often enough. Can we schedule at least a regular monthly get together? Everyone here has begged me to come back, that's right, I'm cool enough to have friends in Brazil!

I've learned to appreciate food in a different way also. When you eat almost the same thing everyday and someone else cooks it for you, it makes you really appreciate having the ability to cook for yourself. Here there are a LOT of heavy people. They aren't heavy because they're eating too much McDonald's or too many chips, they're heavy because food is very social here. If you're hanging out with more than one person, at some point food will be involved. Good food. Homemade food.

In a similar way, I'm understanding more how important exercise is. I can't tell you how much cellulite I saw on the beach, and on people who weren't necessarily over weight. Women of average size who just aren't exercising at all. I often played with the kids while we were here. It's interesting how as you get older, hanging out means that you're going to sit around somewhere, or sit in a movie theater, or leisurely walk through the mall. When you're young you play something constantly. I slept well almost every night after spending time with them, and I felt better in the morning too.

Here's the itinerary:

I'm not worried that my Tam flights say "unavailable" as they are still listed under the correct time and Tam is a pretty small company. Even if something happened with my first flight I have a 3 hour layover which would hopefully give me some time to catch another flight. Let's hope everything goes according to plan.

Wish me luck as I say my last goodbyes, catch my last rays of second summer sun,  zip up my bags, and head off. See you all soon!

Beauty Shots Gone BAD.

Yes. This is the post you've all been waiting for. Multiple times during my trip I asked Yuri to take my picture. It's probably obvious to you guys that I spend more time behind the camera than I do in front. If for some reason it wasn't obvious, it absolutely will be now...

For those of you that are worried, that's a shadow, not a nipple.

This one is definitely my favorite.

Start off February with a laugh!

The Differences!

People don't drink milk by itself and it ALWAYS comes in a box.

On city busses you must give up your seat for: Handicapped, Elderly, Pregnant, Women with small children aaaand Obese people!

People here eat roughly 4 meals a day: Breakfast, Lunch, Misto, and Dinner. Misto is a grilled ham and cheese that people usually eat between lunch and dinner!

No one has a coffee maker. They make coffee in a similar style to a french press and then in goes into one of those dispensers that you often see at business meetings and offices for people to drink from for the rest of the day.

People here buy gas tanks that hook up directly to the stove/oven you don't buy gas from a company.

Dryers don't exist. Just clothes lines.

Automatic cars are RARE and expensive.

Lunch and dinner consists of: Rice, Beans and Meat and sometimes salad. Usually the meat is fried.

Breakfast is usually bread and butter, NOT TOAST, or crackers and jam with coffee or juice.

Almost every store will offer you the option to pay for your purchase in 12 payments. Sneakers, Tv's, Dishes, you name it, you can divide it.

When baby girls are born they get their ears pierced immediately.

Lots of US cities have rats, cities here have dogs. Brazilians call them "vira latas" or "Can lifters"

Mops don't exist. You put a wet rag over your broom and go from there.

Everyone owns a water bubbler or something similar. The water here has too much fluoride to drink.

The phone companies mostly run on credits. Add credits to your cell phone and they only get used on outgoing calls or texts. Generally it's pretty cheap.

Kitchen and bathroom sinks don't have a temperature option. The water just comes out a cool/warm temperature all the time.

Reading for pleasure isn't popular over here.

Drinking is legal in way more places. You can have a beer at the mall, in an ice cream shop, in a nice clothing store, on the beach, just about wherever!

The drinking age is 18 here but I was never carded!

It's common for kids to live with their parents until they're through with college, and not have their first job until after they graduate.

If you order yourself a plain hamburger it will come with: lettuce, tomato, potato stix, corn and peas. Other popular toppings? Ham, bacon, and fried eggs.

Pineapple is not an appropriate pizza topping here, but fish and eggs are. Also dessert pizzas are very common here!

Big Brother the TV show is insanely popular over here. I think Big Brother Brasil is on their 13th season?

Older women dye their hair until they are SUPER old.

I'm sure there are TONS more, but these are all the ones I could think of and the ones I've experienced!

A Brazilian Rainbow

Looks the same as American ones!

The Beginning Of The End.

This was a weekend surprisingly filled with tours. A tour of Guarapari and all its beautiful beaches, a tour of Jabaquara and all it's welcoming people, a tour of Yuri's Grandmother's house. I took TONS of pictures and said my first goodbyes. It was quite a weekend.

Not the best picture, but a real picture of Jaca!

This guy talks SO MUCH!

Pedro would rather go to the beach without sunblock.

Another PACKED beach.

The neighbors found a box of puppies. They were PAINFULLY cute.

Aren't they to die for?

Since time flew by and I didn't post all of my pictures I'm going to do my best to do one or more post per day this week. My last week! Crazy! Stay tuned for more ;)

The Last Ubu.

It's my last full weekend here and we're off to say our goodbyes to Ubu. It looks like it might rain on Sunday, but Saturday looks nice. It'll be a tough goodbye, the realization that I have to return to (cold!) reality. Cheers to Ubu! I'll be sure to get more pictures of ME this weekend! Next post will be Sunday or Monday!

From the roof!

We discovered a very cool rooftop view while in Ubu this past week. We made it a daily habit to go up there and appreciate what a beautiful beach it really is. Here are some of the pictures we took while we were up there!

Pretty cool huh?