Where to start? It seems like life has gotten away from me as I’ve fallen into my Brazilian rhythm.
I came to a harsh realization the other day that I will be home in less than three weeks, and start work in less than a month. Where has the time gone!?
TL;DR: Somewhere in this lost time, I’ve lost touch with a few people, so I’ve had several people messaging me this week asking how Brazil is. How do I begin to answer that? Great! Hot. The people are wonderful. The buses make me nauseous. The food is amazing, and relatively healthy. Haven’t gotten Dengue yet. I kinda learned to surf!
Fun Fact: Shower Shock is a real thing. The water heaters are at the shower head, so to get a hot shower you have to turn on the heater. Even then, ‘hot’ is a relative term. But if we take a step back and think about putting an electrical appliance in every shower in the country, usually with live wires sticking out of it, you soon realize that wearing rubber flip flops does very little in preventing electrocution. see example here Other gringoes have been known to call them suicide showers. The trick is to a warm shower is to turn the water down to almost no pressure so that the heater can work at it’s own pace. How Brasileiro.
Longer version:
I promised Shane I’d spend time getting to know Seabra before deciding to travel. I spent my first few weeks there doing little things like going to the library to read children’s books to learn Portuguese, trying to teach an English class, going to the market to interact with people, etc. I enjoyed getting to know a few people such as our landlords, the people in my water aerobics class, and the people that Shane works with.
After those few weeks of only traveling into the national park on weekends, I decided it was time to head out on my own. I went to a city called Itacare for what I figured would be 3-6 days. I fell in love with the beaches, people, and food so quickly, that suddenly I had been there for over two weeks! I learned to surf, met incredible people, learned to cook, new dances, and did tons of hiking and swimming.
Shane was ready to have me back, so I headed back from paradise about a week and a half ago. We met in the national park and spent a weekend relaxing and doing some short hikes.
Then, we went back to Seabra. We were able to help a friend teach his English classes, and visit his family’s home. It was so great to meet a whole new group of people, and see the way that people who live outside of the city live. He also took us to a dance practice that is in preparation for the next holiday festival. It was a dance that lasted almost an hour! Can you imagine practicing that?
I’m quite ready to head back to the coast again. Sunday evening I went into the park and stayed in a hostel with friends, then spent the day on my own doing some hiking and reading by a river. I’ll head back to Seabra tonight.
I’ll be in Seabra until Friday, when we go visit his boss’ house again for the weekend next weekend. After that, I’ll head to the coast Monday on my own. Shane will work for the week and then come meet me, we’ll spend the weekend and a couple of days in Salvador, and then head home! Where has the time gone?
Of course, you’ve just scanned over the things I’ve done. I’m still waiting to take a step back to realize the things I’ve accomplished by taking a gap between school and starting to work.
But I suppose that will just have to wait.