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Nossa! Quanto tempo!

It's been awhile since my last blog entry and lots has happened. I moved and am with my (graças a Deus) last family. I know have two younger siblings-my host sister is 13 and my host brother is 10. My new house has digital cabel (which I'm super-pumped about-which is why I'm mentioning it even though it has no real signifigance). I'm really liking my new family.

School is just what it has always been-school. Even though my grades have noticably improved.

On the 30th I leave for my trip to the Amazon! Yesssss! I'm mad excited! And almost immediately after I have the Rotary District Confrence, where I will see all my exchange friends, some for the last time. And then in the end of May or early June I am hopefully going on vacation with my family to Caldas Novas in Goias. I'm not sure exactly what it's like but I think its lots of water. Hopefully I'll get a nice tan.

Today I finally saw a movie in the movie theaters! OMG! I waited so long for this day. hehe. I saw Rio, the animated one about the domesticated bird from Rio de Janeiro. It's worth seeing. And I only paid seven reais to get in because I'm a student so I got the ticket at half price. Which made it like four american dollars. And the popcorn and soda were also really cheap. But the popcorn wasn't exactly amazing-not like Capital 8 Theaters popcorn anyways.

And I have finally managed to let my nails grow out a little and hopefully when I get back to the US, they will be nice and brasilian.

And when I think of coming back, I feel sad. My time here went by at super-sonic-speed. And I feel very at home and really love Minas Gerais. E Brasil inteiro. It will be so wierd to just pack my bags and leave it behind. I think wierder that it was to leave behind my American life. Its so hard to describe the way I feel about Brasil and the friends and family I have made here. Brasil is my home. And I have a real life here. And now have two countries that I love and feel completely at home in will always be torn between the two. Sad face. But, it will be nice to be home and see my family, and sleep in my bed, and not move every three months, and eat fast food, and even hear my dog bark. But, I'm definitley going to make the most of my last thee and then some months left here.

Tchau pessoal.
Ate mais.

Viagem dos Sonhos (Dream Trip)

o cristo in rio de janerio (with all the americans)

sugarloaf mountain with mexico's flag

some beach. i have no idea where, however.

maybe the same beach. maybe not.

lençoins at the top of a mountain sort thing with the girls from South Africa.

same mountain. different flag.

lençois.

lençoins.

brasilia at the top of a tower.

temple of peace in brasilia.

some cool "art" in brasilia.

"templo de boa vontade", or the"temple of good feeling", in brasilia where everyone was "purified.

the trip started in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, the state in which I live, and went from there. our first stop was Brasilia, the capital of Brasil. it is a city full of cool arcitecture and neat looking buildings. Then we we continued north and spent about a week doing a lot of hiking, trekking, and swimming in lakes, and at waterfalls-naturey-stuff like that. then we hit the beach. the water in norhtern brazil is so rediculously warm and the beaches were so beautiful. and they had lots of shops and resturants. i loved it. and we got to do like a truely authentic carnival in o linda where everyone dressed up in costumes and we had this band who played typical carnival music and we danced in front of them through the streets while they played music. it was so fun. i ate some wierd things, like stomach with liver bits inside and cow's tongue. and the food was generally less yummy to me-it was deffinitely good to get back to my typical Minas food. but I ate ice cream pretty much everyday-usually more than once a day. and about ninety percent of the hotels had air conditioning so that was a treat. and i got to meet people from all over the world. also pretty sweet. so in all, on the trip, i visited, brasilia, lençoins, maceio, o linda, natal, recife, salvador (two times), porto serguro, rio de janeiro, chapada de diamantina, and i think thats it. but who really knows. so all in all, it was a fun, exciting trip and i got to know what many brazilians refer to as the most beautiful part of the country.

and now i have finally started school again. and i have a new class. which is going alright. it could be going better but i really liked my old class! but i do understand a lot more and have decided to put a little more effort into my studies. i even went so far as to buy school supplies! yay!

carnival is approaching! i am so ready! i think i am going to spend the week in another city that is supposed to have a pretty awesome party and most of my classmates from last year will be spending it there so i look forward to one more bash with them! 

tchauazinho. vai com deus. beijos.