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!