made it!

so i finally made it to brazil :) i´m writing this from my host family´s house, and they´re completely awesome, btw...after a 9 hr flight to sao paulo little bit of stress about almost missing my second plane this morning, i arrived in salvador at about 11am.


the aiesecers were there waiting for me with a big red poster that said, welcome to salvador, johanna! and beijos (kisses) written all over the place. as is customary in latin cultures, we all exchanged a beijo on each cheek as a greeting then headed to the car. what a huge city! although the 3rd largest city in brazil, i wasn´t expecting a city this big! the rolling hills of the landscape made the buildings look like they sat on waves in the ocean, and tall buildings scattered among smaller, colorful houses give the landscape a completely new identity. granted, it wasn´t the most beautiful day since it´s been raining for the past week, apparently. everyone assures me, though, that this weather isn´t typical...i hope so :)

it´s been a full day, for sure, and i´d like to write about it in as much detail as i can, but to be honest i´m so tired that i´ll just put in the most striking parts. i went to a concert put on by a local band tonight with 4 aiesecers (2 brazilian, 1 colombian, 1 american) and 2 other brazilian friends that was completely awesome :) they played alternative/rock kind of music like you might hear in the u.s. or any country i guess, but it had a distinct brazilian flair with the beats and of course the portuguese...speaking of portuguese, what a beautiful language! not many people here speak english, and those that do have varying levels, which i´m really happy about...it means i have to learn!!! hopefully i´ll come back having made some progess in this area. my host family has said that they´ll help me, which i´m really grateful for :)

ok, jump to 2 days later...today is tuesday the 13th, ha ha. sorry i haven´t kept up with this as much as i´d like, it´s been very busy around here :) just to fill in, after the concert, we went to the apartment/house (i´ll post pictures) of some british boys that work with the colombian girl...their apt. was on the 18th floor of the building with a huuuuge balcony...so what did we do? we put on some music and danced! i tried to learn samba but to no avail...ah, well, there´s more time for that :)

yesterday i went to work to meet my boss and co-workers then went to take care of some immigration-type papers...not too exciting. last night, though, i did hang out with my host sister and we stayed up talking for awhile :) i love hearing the different perspectives on everything from moving out to dating to driving, etc. when you guys go abroad, if you have the chance to live with locals, DO IT. you experience more than just what´s outside, ya know? you eat what they eat, sleep where they sleep, do what they do basically...and in my case and many others i´m sure, the whole family doesn´t speak my language (neither do 98% of my co-workers) so i´ve been having "conversations" (note that they´re very basic and full of mistakes and body language) in portuguese when 3 days ago i barely knew a word. you have to, and what better way to be immersed than being immersed in everything?

ok, this is really long...desculpe (i´m sorry), but i´ll try to be better about posting in a timely manner and adding some pictures in the future :)

beijos :)