My host mom.

This is my host mom, Marize, modeling for us before she goes off to her college reunion. She is the sweetest person I've ever met and has the sweetest voice in the world. And I am not just saying that because she bought tortillas for me.

The bread parade

When my host dad said, "I am going to the supermarket to buy bread." I never expected him to buy 10 bags worth of bread. And when I say 10 bags, I mean 10 bags with doughnuts, cakes, banana breads, loafs of bread and other types of bread. Once he got home the table had mountains of bread and all I could hear was: "eat more bread it's good, don't you like bread?" I of course, was polite and ate one of every type of bread... or at least most of them. I mean bread is good, especially when it has powdered sugar surrounding it.

Anyways, if there is one thing I've learned from Brazilians is that they love bread. And when I say love, I mean that there could very possibly be a secluded religion here in Brazil I don't know of that worships bread.

I wish I could've taken pictures of the bread parade happening at the table.

At Praia Mole, the best beach so far.

On my way to the beach, walking up the hill, everything is normal until this goat starts eating something an inch away from my foot. You have to love Latin America.

Why I love Brazil

For a few days now I've been trying to come up with reasons why I love this place so much. The first thing that came to mind was that it was the polar opposite of what I have at home, but that's not it because I love home and while it is very different when you're walking down the street and all you see are buildings painted in vivid colors and you find yourself dodging stray dogs, pigeons that fly at 100 mph heading towards your face and cars, you still feel very safe and Brazil managed to make me feel at home right away. And I don't know if it is because my host family treats me like I am part of the family, with my mom kissing me all the time calling me sweetheart and my brother coming down to chill in our living room to tell us about his day and why he decided to quit his job, but once again these people managed to make me feel at home right away.

The food is great! At first I hated it because all I eat here is bread and potatoes, but now that I found this great shack that sells the best natural juices I have ever tried for a dollar and eating all these starches is actually making me lose weight( don't ask me why, I figured that if I eat like a Brazilian maybe I'll get the chance to look like a Brazilian) I feel amazing. My hair and skin have never looked better and maybe it's paranoia but I think my butt is transforming into the Brazilian butt (a small version of it at least.)

I finally got my routine back, I go to school from Tuesday to Thursday just for a few hours and after it is either going hiking, beach or take advantage of the 4-5 day weekend and travel somewhere. Today, I have my portuguese class for the second time and after that I am either booking my flight to Rio de Janeiro on October or filling out an application to go teach english and spanish to middle school kids for two days to a city in Santa Catarina with all expenses paid.

Maybe I just love this place because I know it will be over soon, people always seem to want what they can't have or is bound to end.But for right now, all I know is that there is no other place I would rather be today, when I am 20 years old and one more year(and a half?) until I graduate. The only thing I can think of changing is having all my favorite people from back home to be here with me, especially the American boy that I miss more with every new day that comes.

Brazilian lifestyle

How can I explain life in Brazil? Some may say that it is a very laid-back lifestyle and while it is for me, as a foreign student or "gringa", Brazilians are very hard workers. I realized their dedication to work when I saw my "brothers" working 13 hour shifts or sometimes even 15 hour shifts, while at the same time their lifestyle is very relaxing once at home or off work. Who can blame them? Here in Florianopolis, they have over 40 beaches, countless hiking trails and so many other things to do to have fun, but when you are a foreign student like me, having all the time in the world to visit all of these places even on a tuesday after school.

Today, I had my anthropology class, 2 hours later I was free and experiencing a 72 degrees weather ready to head to the most beautiful beach. We got on the bus, an hour later we were walking up a hill to witness at the top the most beautiful view: blue water. This blue water thing is a big deal to me, my roommate and I have been asking everywhere and everyone where the blue and green water is, the water that they show in the postcards and google map pictures. People kept saying the north of the island, but we never found the blue water until today. It was amazing, except for the fact that the blue water almost digested Brendolyn, almost leaving me without a roomate, because the current was so strong she could barely get to the shore. But not me, I know my limits and I know that although I know how to swim, I usually just float and if I would've committed the mistake of going into the freezing water just to experience the "blue water" I would've probably died proudly at the beach in Brazil. But there is no time for dying when there's so much traveling to do. Although, for now the only thing left to do is finish writing this post enjoying my new addiction, suco de morango (REAL strawberry juice) and enjoy a nice hot shower because I still have sand in my hair from earlier today.

The roomies

Getting adjusted

The smell of pao de queijo is unbearable at the moment. I've been eating that and japanese peanuts for two days now because all they eat here in Brazil, or at least the places I can afford, is breaded meat, chicken and beef. My classes are great because they are very laid-back and it seems like my facebook is about to explode with all the notifications of new friends and group discussions about upcoming trips. So far, the bus is okay, I don't hate it yet, it is the one place where I can listen to music and relax while sitting next to the window looking at the chaotic street in Brazil.

Every time I speak with a local in portuguese, I astound myself by how they could even comprehend the words and semi-phrases that were coming out of my mouth, but they are very polite and they just tease me and ask me where I am from. Which is better than being completely ignored and frowned upon I guess. For example, today Brendolyn and I went to the supermarket, Angelinos, the equivalent to Walmart and with all the variety and quantity of things that are sold there, not a single aisle had chile, salsa, good candy or big bottles of water. We realized at that moment that we are extremely american and that we were attracting a little bit to much attention by laughing hysterically in the middle of the aisle because we saw that they sold the underwear next to the papayas and maracujas. They did not appreciate our good sense of humor or as they may think, our childish humor. On our way back my umbrella turned over, a bus splashed water on all our clothes and our shopping ended up consisting of gummy worms and hamburger gummies, very worth the 10 minute walk. And once we got home...more pao de queijo!! (Or at least something that looks like it.)

My host family.

After a long day learning about Brazilian culture and an overload of information about what I will be doing in my four months here, Brendolyne, my roommate, and I were picked-up at our hotel by our new parents. The mother, Marize, was very excited repeating, " As minhas filhas, as minhas filhas," as she hugged us and then our father, Mauricio, stood there smiling as he hugged his wife. I call them mother and father because they asked us to call them by those names. 10 minutes later we arrive in the house and are received by a weiner dog and Sara, a very cute dog and his type is unknown. Communication was strange, both our parents speak little english and very fast portuguese, I speak what I call portunol (mixture between spanish and portuguese) and you could say that my roommate feels dizzy whenever she is spoken or exposed to any portuguese. We could barely ask the maid for an umbrella that would serve as protection when walking through a thunderstorm on our way to the bus stop that is a block away ( the thunderstorm has been going on for 15 hours now.) But it's only our fourth day here and we are hoping for the best when it comes to our ability to learn portuguese. Other than that, our family is perfect, 3 dogs, 1 fat old black cat, mom and dad, and two sons, a thirty and a twenty-six year old. So friendly and nice that we almost couldn't believe it and it made us freak out at night, making up stories that this is what happens in horror movies; a perfect family receiving foreign students in a huge house, feeding them until they explode with delicious food and providing the most comfortable accommodations just to murder the students in the end. I almost killed my roommate when she put those thoughts in my head, we laughed about it afterwards. These people are harmless, don't you worry mom and dad, we are just in shock of how nice these people are.

Florianopolis

Meu primer dia no Brasil

20 hours. That is the amount of time I spent flying today. No window. No aisle. Simply stuck in between two brazilian women that found bird watching and kung fu panda very fascinating. The saying, "It's not the destination, it's the journey," seems completely unreasonable after my experience; yet the true hero of my journey was Advil p.m. that made me pass out for more than 7 hours.

The great thing about being in a foreign country for the first time on your own is how completely unaware you are about what you are getting yourself into until you are there, in the point of no return and trying to communicate with very fast-paced speaking locals about how to get to your connection flight (Brazilian airports are not very organized.) But the good news is that I am here and it is beautiful. There is no place I would rather be studying abroad in. The streets are filled with old people playing chess, weird men attempting to jump through a circle surrounded by knifes just for the opportunity to sell two dollar creams that supposedly help you loose weight and absolutely no traffic lights or stop signs anywhere, which made my walks a whole lot more chaotic and entertaining.

The first person I met was Will, a student from Boston from Brazilian ethnicity that was adopted by americans; here for the first time in hopes of finding his biological mother with nothing but two clues: first name and owner of a milk farm. With no portuguese knowledge or expectations of Brazil, we spent the entire afternoon together strolling around downtown getting completely lost to the point that not even the locals knew where our hotel was. But it didn't matter because we encountered our best discovery yet: pao de queijo. The most exquisite thing a vegetarian can eat and bad news for people that may care about my weight, because it looks like this is all I am eating here since Brazilians seem to have ham and cheese sandwiches only everywhere we go.

Other than that, just a normal night in Florianopolis drinking dollar beers with very friendly people and the funniest drunk old people I've seen in my life. Other than that, it's just me passing out in my hotel room getting some rest before I wake up to breakfast on the roof with the most beautiful view eating pao de queijo.

Florianopolis, Brazil

This is the beautiful island of Florianopolis or assuming I am already a local, Floripa. It is an island and the capital of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. According to wikipedia, not a very reliable source in my opinion, the island has more than 42 beaches and I am thinking this is the perfect time to finally learn how to surf. Also, I apologize for hurting your eyes with such beauty.

My man

The countdown begins

My plane leaves in exactly one week, my baggage is not ready, I still need to buy more underwear and my parents seem to believe that I am completely unprepared for this trip. Yet, I still find time to start a blog for all the people I wish could fit in my luggage and take them with me, so they can know a little about what my career and life goals are and why this trip is such an important factor to make those goals a reality.

As most of you know, I am studying journalism and international studies. I still remember the day I decided to study this instead of going to veterinary school. It was senior year in high school and I was obsessed with traveling novels and photography and one day I took a picture of a homeless guy sitting on a bench with a plastic bag in his head reading a newspaper, and I thought: "Why does this man seem to be completely unimportant and yet, he intrigues me so much it makes me want to know his story?" And then I became obsessed with photographing strangers, which I've come to realize it's weird, but at the same time it makes them part of my world without them knowing it and gives me hope that I can someday be the same to a reader or maybe just a stranger. At that moment I decided that I would tell stories about those who have been forgotten and wander in this world unnoticed and give them a voice or just a chance to feel alive by knowing someone thinks they are worth it. This takes me to my other obsession that is the world's culture. Therefore, people, culture, writing and photography are what my thoughts go into most of the time. Which brings me to what I am doing in this trip. For four month I will be studying and analyzing feminism in Brazil and how women are affected by this movement due to the very popular movement in Latin American cultures that is Machismo or “masculine pride,” to then come back to the United States and compare both cultures and try to find a way to promote equality between men and women. This study will be documented through photographs, videos and journals, creating a type of documentary that I will put together with hopes of it creating a change or trigger some movement in the neurons of the ignorant and stubborn. I will also be perfectioning my neophyte Portuguese and will be traveling to places that my limited saving allow me to visit.

This is just a brief introduction to what my aspirations for this trip are and a glimpse of what I am trying to do with my life. Wish me luck and I will see you all in a few months.

Love,

Ana