Ahhh sorry!

Okay so I have been a bitttt back logged on the blog. Quick summary of my life thus far. Kept working, continued hanging out with AIESEC kids, I went to Lake Pampulha with Andres, worked some more, Firdaus came to visit, Andres left for a 5 week road trip across south america, Firdaus and I went to Salvador and chilled at the beach, Firdaus came back to BH and chilled here, worked a bit more, barely got my Brazilian ID and almost had to go to jail, Soraya the new trainee from Peru came to work with me at CasAzul, found out that it is illegal for foreigners to teach in Brazil so had to stop teaching, got a cold.

Now to elaborate, yea work has been good but last week I found out that I have been teaching illegally and now I have to stop. That has thrown a bit of a kink into the work that I was doing, but I will keep working. I was doing other things other than just teaching so I will just keep working on those things just doing it more now.

Firdaus coming was AMAZING. I was so happy to have someone here who knows me and I can just not think around. Salvador was a nice change, but I didnt feel as secure there as I do in BH, so that was interesting. They have a much stronger culture there because Salvador was the head of the slave trade back in the day, so the Afro-Brazilian population is much stronger. They did have more roots then here in BH, but I am still sticking to my BH love. I was really happy Firdaus got to meet all the @BH kids! I think they were ready to take him in as our newest trainee!! It was really nice to have him here, but I think it made me miss home more. I am really missing home now that I have a cold and feel like CRAP.

So because I am feeling icky I am done blogging for now, but I will include a list of things I want back home:

-2 trolley stop "surfer" dogs
-1 PT's 4oz burger with fries
-Kraft Mac and Cheese (spirals)
-Carpeted floors
-tap water
-Driving around with Lauren at home
-Franklin Street Pizza Pasta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Carolina pasta
-Pink sauce on penne
-Meatball sub
-Tomato basil bisque
-the bread
-the people that work there that know me by name
-My really fluffy bed
-Watching movies with Firdaus
-Shopping at Olivers
-Sunrise biscuits
-Terrazzo's Lasagna
-my mommy and daddyyy
-my car (generally American safe traffic)
-target
-Harris Teeter
-no extra fees for just spending money
-my closet
-washing machines
-beans and rice NOT being part of my daily diet


There are more... but I cannot think of them right now; however, this does not mean that I want to go home. I only make the list of things I miss because the list of things that I love about Brazil would not even be possible to make!!!

I cannot decide if I like the people or the food in Brasil better...

...I think I only give up my love for food here because I had one lunch today that was just okay. I have a feeling that tomorrow I will go on continuing to love the food here!! But seriously, I cannot get over how amazing the people here are. For example, last night we were going home from hanging out with a bunch of @ers. Because it was dark we all piled in Philipao's car (yea not easy for 6 people to fit in a small Brazilian car. We were headed home (me, Japa (I think that is his nicname is short for Japanese... but that is just a theory) and Guilherme) when Philipao decided that we had to go to Praca de Papa (Pope Park). This is a park with the most beautiful view of the city for when the pope comes to BH (said Bay-Ahgah). He decided that we had to go tonight, because I will probably go again, but just in case, it was not right for me to not get to see this view. It is true. Doing something like that always gets put off because it is so easy to go, but then you never do and you really miss out. ANYWAYS, so we went to Pope Park. My word. It was brilliantly amazing. I love looking at the city from the hills as it is. Andre (Colombian who I work with) makes fun of me as it is because I gasp at how pretty BH is every time we pass this one spot in the favela where you can see the city. The view last night put it all to shame. It was so incredibly beautiful to look out and see so many twinkling lights spanning out over these huge mountains. The sight of it could inspire poetry from me.. and we all know I do not do poetry. I cannot say enough times how beautiful it was! BH is a really large city, but I stay in one little area most of my time and the only time I leave is go to work and that is just spacing out on a bus for an hour. From so high up, you could really see how enormous the city really is. I felt like such a small dot on the globe. If one city could be so big, what am I in the big scheme of things...? We wont go there for now though...

Last night was amazing, nights like that when I cannot get my camera to work to capture the beauty, it is when I really really hope I never lose that memory for the rest of my life. I cannot decide what I liked more though, the view, or the 3 @ friends all working to show me the city, to get my camera working, to keep me from getting frostbite, etc... Yea, I love Brasil!

Oh! Speaking of awesome @ friends... I almost forgot my afternoon! Sunday afternoon me, G (my host who will be G from now on because his name is too long and takes too much thought to spell right), V (trainee from Finland), Victor (Romania), and Jin (China) and I all went and played around the city some. We went and walked around the big park here for a bit. It was really pretty... a bit trashy but nice. It reminded me a bit of the lake at peidmont park but trashy. Like the water was nasty and you held your purse close, etc. Oh! funny: there were amusement rides in the park too! It still struck me as very interesting because in its basic structure, it is like an american park, but when you look closely, it is tropical and wonderful!

Okay I will return to blogging in a moment after yelling at facebook for a few moments. Thank you for your time.

my brain hurts...

Yea... my boss speaks no english. At all. Seriously, none. It is a bit difficult because I am still trying to understand what the NGO does exactly, and that is hard when he cannot really understand what I am asking. Also, I think he may be the one person who can talk more than me. That makes understanding what he is saying very difficult because he says so much that I cannot get an idea as to what is being talked about!!! I know he is well meaning and there are people to translate between us, but its just frustrating! Anyways, I am learning very quickly!!!

Working in the Favela is like nothing I have ever done. It is one of the better favelas and I actually feel really safe there because I have been walking around a lot with Andre (the colombian trainee who has been there 4 months) and Luis (the boss) and people know me as someone who is there to help. It is just so sad. It is nothing at all like any poverty in the states. The houses are just made with what ever materials they can find, the streets are unpaved, clothes are worn and old, and shoes are a maybe (which is NOT okay because there is dog poop and broken glass all in the streets). They do have some infrastructure, like some running water and electricity but it is just a different world. I feel so lucky for everything that I have every day when I go there. One thing that really struck me was that Luis was telling me about the culture there being not reading for leisure. No one does... I will elaborate more later. Right now, time for lunch. Yay!