Hello friends and family! I'm writing this blog for two reasons: 1) I want to keep anyone who's interested in my travels updated without having to send out mass emails or make a million really expensive phone calls. 2) I type way faster than I write by hand so I'll write in here when I'm too lazy to write in a diary.
So I arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, yesterday around 2pm. My flights were no fun - in the first one there was an obnoxious little boy sitting right behind me and kicking my chair the entire time, and the second flight got rerouted and had to make a two hour stop in Puerto Rico. You know it's sketchy when the pilot announces, "Well, I've never had to do this before in my 25 years of flying and I hope I won't have to do it again." Nothing was seriously wrong, but it was definitely an unnerving situation and needless to say I couldn't really sleep.
Since I arrived, until a couple hours ago, I've been pretty much surrounded by other UC students. They're fun, but I'm also definitely looking forward to making Brazilian friends. Oh! It was kinda crazy... a couple hours after getting into Rio I was walking down the street and ran into the one Brazilian that I knew before coming here. His name is Gustavo and he came to Berkeley for English classes and we've been in contact through emails since I met him. We didn't plan to meet up or anything but we happened to run into each other the first day I was here. Small world, huh? Also, a boy in my program named Chris was on the same flight with me from JFK to Rio and he's from Clairemont and is a Berkeley student... and I hadn't met him before. Small/big world stuff amazes me.
So if you'd like to know where I'm living, you can look at Google Maps and see where Leblon is located. It's a really rich neighborhood with a lake super close and the beach just as close. I also am probably in the safest apartment in Rio. It's on the 16th floor of a high-rise apartment that has a locked gate and a doorman AND security guards outside. It's also on a street that has minimal car access and there's a cute kid's park right outside my front door. Leblon is also known to be a very safe neighborhood as it is, so I really am in no danger in this spot. My host mae (I can't figure out how to do Portuguese accent marks on this PC!) is pretty great. She has two of the cutest cats I've ever seen and she's been extremely accomodating. I've only been in her home for a few hours and I already feel very comfortable. She made me some really good pasta and took me to the grocery store and showed me a few points of reference around the neighborhood. Pretty much, I have a very ideal living situation.
So I think this week we have orientation and then next week we start Portuguese classes. Then PUC classes start in February I believe. There's so much going on here that it's hard to keep up with all the information they're throwing at us. PUC is the university I'll be attending; it's a private catholic school where the rich kids go, but it's supposed to be the best school in Brazil. I'm really curious to see how well I'll do in the classes, as they're all taught in Portuguese...
Well I am getting very sleepy as I have not had a real night's rest since... Saturday? I don't even know. And we have orientation at 9am (3am Pacific Time) so I should get some sleep. Boa noite!
PS- email me! My email is megasike@gmail.com (haha it's a dumb email but I've had it since the 8th grade...)
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