Updates!

Salvador is officially my home, i feel really comfortable here.. i love it! This past week has been filled with fun parties, exploring the city and hanging out with my host family!

At the end of last week our professor took our class out of the classroom and took it to the streets! we went to Pelourinho and walked around and went into different museums as our professor "lectured". I am living in the State of Bahia which is known for its afro-brazilian culture and influence. Way back when, the majority of slavery took place in Bahia, more specifically in Salvador. which is why today the majority of the population in Salvador is black... and the history of slavery/identity/culture in Bahia is what one of my classes is about. So in taking the class out to Pelourinho our professor tried to connect it all together to present day. Pelourino was once the site where slaves were disciplined... but now it is the heart of the city and has the most exciting night life! it was great to finally get there and walk about during the day and see all the beauty that area of salvador has to offer.... by this point i had only been to Pelourinho at night.

Since the weekend, my host family has had a LOT of visitors. on Friday one of my host families old students they hosted from 2 years before came to visit with a friend. the two girls are studying in Rio for a semester and had a long weekend and pasted through salvador! It was great to finally speak a little english with people in my house. The two girls came out that night with me and my friends from my program and we all went to a forro. Forro is a brazilian dance, and its with a partner and its to a folk band that has an Accordion, i didnt really give it that big of a chance, so i hope to test my forro skills many more times while i am here. Also the next night we went to this bar that was free if you came before 9pm... so of course my group got there around 8:30. It was so great to go to a place that didnt have a cover charge. but anyways this place was great because for the first 2 hours we were there they played american music! Ah i have missed it so much, it was so fun to be able to dance and sing along to songs that i knew! they played lady gaga, madonna and like Nelly Furtado... ahhh it was so great!! and then they had a band who came on and sang cover songs that were american and brazilian. it was so fun!!!

On sunday I went with my host family to one of their friends house for lunch. It was probably the first time i felt completely out of my element... i was surround by about 20 brazilians and i had NO idea what they were talking about. usually with my host family i can communicate pretty well, Mary will speak in portuspanglish with me and roberto and leo usually speak very slowly so i can follow. But at lunch everyone was around old friends and the convo was flowing and i could not keep up!! one of the couples there just got back from vacation in California and they kept trying to talk to me about california and one of the guys there was an engineer so he kept asking me questions and it was crazy. Hopefully they didnt think i was some retarded american who couldnt speak. but it was fun to be completely immersed in the culture and be with brazilians outside of my host family!
my host moms parents came into town sunday night and they have been here ever since. Its been great getting to know them even though the language barrier is tough... usually Mary, RObert or Leo end up interpreting what i am trying to say to them. ok kinda weird, but it is customary to not to flush toilet paper in the toilet, but ever since my brazilian grandparents have been here... the grandpa has not even been flushing the toliet. I share a bathroom with the grandparents while they are here and every time i go in the bathroom they seat is up and it is not flushed! really strange.. maybe he is trying to conserve water? its just really weird and i cant really say anything because thats super awkward. Also, there are 6 people sleeping in the apartment but definitely not enough beds... i have no idea where leo is sleeping! haha

I have my first test tomorrow in my Portuguese class... pretty exciting! school really hasnt been difficult, so im excited that things are moving faster now! Also, me and a couple of friends are starting to plan a trip to Rio for our next 5 days weekend!!! Pretty exciting!!

After being gone for a month, i am REALLY starting to miss american food. I feel like ive been eating a ton of meat and potatoes and rice. I will kill for vegetables or something that has a little more flavor!!

Tchau!!