Recap: 1st whole day

Yesterday was my first full day in Brazil, and it was a very very full day.

Phase 1: Avenida Santo Antônio to listen to some popular local music, dance and hang out with Carolina's parents.

Phase 2: Parque Euclides Dourado with Carolina's friends (lots of them.) In Portuguese, my name comes out kind of like Henny. I think some of the girls could tell I was getting tired of having to explain things to people so they asked my full name to see if they could nickname me. This is how I became Elena. After a while Carolina made them stop and try harder to say Renee. I think she didn't want me to feel made fun of or something but I really really didn't mind. It was SO MUCH easier than having to teach every single person I met. I guess I'll just have to be Henny.

Anyway this group relocated to Parque Ruber Van Der Linden for some more hanging out. We met up with her dad and brother again and their friends and then went home to rest.

Phase 3: Esplanada Guadalajara for a concert. Jorge Ben Jor. Look him up. Anyway, it started raining as soon as we got there! We stayed though, got soaked through, and didn't get home til 4:30am.

Here's some Monteiro Family Trivia:

Dad: Pedro Leopoldo
Mom: Lucia Angelica
Brothers: Leo e Pedrinho

Pedro Leopoldo loves jeeps! He's in a jeep club (jipe clube) and had (I'm not exaggerating) over 50 trophies from Jeep events (Jeepcross.) There are a bunch on the table in the photo below, ALL from jeep festivals.

Pedrinho is a large animal vet specializing in bovine reproduction. He is constantly laughing and sneezes ridiculously loud like Jimmy.

A friend of Pedrinho's knows some english from playing Warcraft etc.

The family has an 8 year old cocker spaniel named Dara.

The president of Brazil, Lula da Silva is from Carolina's hometown.

O Primeiro Dia

Oi pessoas! Bem Vindo Ao Brasil!

The trip has been wonderful thus far. Travel was long and exhausting but I can already tell it was worth it. I LOVE it here. As soon as I left the airport and was driving through town I felt immediately comfortable. No worries at all, kind of like it just fit me or something. It's pretty difficult to understand native Portuguese speakers but I'm managing well enough that I'm not at all stressed out or overwhelmed.

Partial view from my living room.

The ocean is behind the skyscrapers.

We drove for over 2 hours to my roommate, Carolina's, home town, Garanhuns, and are staying here at her parents house until Sunday. I met 2 of her girl friends today and one of them walked around town with us. It's their winter festival right now.

The area surrounding Garanhuns looks like this in every direction.

This was the touristy thing to do. I told Carol that Michael Jackson had one at Neverland Ranch.

Here are some of my initial observations. People just tie their horses to stakes on the side of the road to let them graze. There are cows in the open areas by parks in the city and I even saw one just walking down the street. People paint their houses the most ridiculous colors and I think it's great. They drive fast and mostly just care about getting where they want to go. They honk a lot though to make sure people know they're there. It's funny because the way they do it, it doesn't at all seem rude. I tasted a papaya for the first time at breakfast. It tasted like Fruit Loops. The people I've met so far are magnificent! I've even had a grandma make me eat more food.

It looks like we're off to a good start!