Aghhh! It's raining so hard right now! I got home from the grocery store a little bit ago (my mae took me to help me learn how to pick out fruits properly!) and was soaked! It's supposed to rain until Saturday-ish, so I'm not very excited. I must invest in an umbrella...

So on Sunday I was totally pooped from my long week of being here and I had every intention of lounging around, until my friend Gustavo and a group of his friends invited me to hike up Pao de Acucar. There are three ways to go up Pao de Acucar: Bondinho (tram), paved trail, and climbing. We climbed! Most of it was walking and crawling on steep rock, but part of it was actual rock climbing with ropes and everything. I had never done that before, so it was a really cool experience and I think I actually did a pretty good job. The whole thing was pretty intense and if I do it again (which I definitely want to, it's just a matter of having ropes) I'll definitely take some more water because I was much less acclimated to the heat than the rest of them. Anyway we finally got to the top, nice and sweaty, right before sunset. Watching the sun go down over Rio de Janeiro from Pao de Acucar was UNREAL. I'm so glad/lucky that they invited me to join them for that, because it was a really great experience. Anyway since it was dark by the time we were going to go down, they let us on the bondinho for free so that we didn't have to risk our lives in the dark. I have a bunch of pictures that my friends posted, but I don't really have time to put them up here tonight. Soon!

Yesterday and today were my first two days of Portuguese class. It's 5 hours with a short break, and we switch professoras half way through. It honestly doesn't feel very long, and I feel like I'm learning a lot the entire time. They're extremely organized with handouts and readers (which we don't have to pay for.... I was astonished) and class schedules. I have a feeling that I'll be able to speak and write Portuguese 10x better than I can now by the time we finish these intensive courses.

Ok well now I must begin on tonight's homework, which shouldn't take too long. I'll try to update with photos soon!

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