We arrived in Brazil and were taken to what we were told was our hotel for orientation, which in reality is a religious retreat which rents out rooms to groups every once in awhile. Needless to say there are Jesus and Virgin Marys all over the place. The location is pretty isolated and outside the city but it is very pretty, but I´m sick of it. The food is phenom, and everyday it is a different meat a different fruit a different nut made into some other sort of meal that tastes fresher than anything I´ve eaten in quite some time (or ever).

Aside from shamelessly trying to flirt with the gorgeous flight attendants and drinking the free beer on the plane, I´ve had pretty much no contact with any native Brazilians aside from the program leaders and the retreat employees. So I cant wait to get out of here and into the real program
Now some highlights

- i found out about my host family which is a HUGE family in Fortaleza, I have only been notified of 8 members, but I was told that thats only half of them. Apparently they are incredible people though. Additionally, my hostmom is a hair stylist and has her own salon which is the first floor of the house, so obviously my hair will remain looking fabulous.
-the weather is crazy hot or crazy rainy or crazy humid, but consistently crazy on the upside its doing wonders for my skin and hair, never been softer.
- tonight we had a capoiera group come in and perform/teach which was incredible for a number of reasons, as the members of the group were all youth of varying ages that through this program are given a means to make a living, explore their culture and be engaged in something positive and rewarding in numerous ways
-iwill probably be doing my independent study program on funk carioca and its subcultures in the northern region, which would be pretty incredible as i would be living within these communities and immersed fully within the culture, the music, the parties and the violence which is the scary part

all in all things are going well i enjoy my surroundings brazil is beautiful in many ways, and i suppose the fact that theres no cold water and tons of mosquitos is a pretty sweet deal for the other countless benefits

bom noite

p.s. i´m already fluent in portuguese

I suppose I leave soon for Brazil so let's try this thing out.

Brazil's national motto is "Order and Progress" two things I can't live without.

Good people.

Bye!