I hate saying goodbye. It was really hard watching our group peel off one by one. I had a blast with the girls and it is hard to know when I'll be seeing everyone again. But on the other hand the food on the airline was once again fantastic. Didn't exactly make up for leaving a lot of friends behind, but it was a nice distractor at least.

Flying in over the Cascades covered in snow was a gorgeous treat and made me remember why I love this place so much. I got on the plane in Salvador in 90 something degree weather and got off in Seattle (still in flip flops and a tank top) in something definitely below freezing.

A shock to the system for sure, but it is good to be back. I will be processing this one for a long time.

I can't believe this is it

Well my mae made it out here for the going away party. I was surprised given that today was Sunday but it was pretty cool to see her there. She did have to miss a lot of evangelizing but I think it was neat that she did it to say bye. PLUS she made me a sweet cross stitched towel to take with me. And told me to visit and bring my family. It was sweet.

Though very much bittersweet at the same time. I had to say goodbye to half of the girls as well as my mae within a few minutes of each other. The house we are staying in feels empty now. i want to see people at home so bad and be home for Christmas but now that life is so stress free here, it is very lovely. And warm. And from what I hear, the same can't be said for home.

From what I can tell from my geometric analysis of my bags vs. my stuff I will not be making it home. Hopefully I'll find some magic pockets somewhere inside them.

Epic papering

I will never take the library for granted again. In attempting to write my paper I realized that nowhere in this city is open all night long. And Frances' mae's house is pretty hard to work in. No table and lots of TV all the time. So we went for it...we rented a room in a pousada and stayed up all night working. I used a bed as my table and she used the mini fridge as hers. Slightly epic. And we still didn't finish until seven pm the next day. Not the greatest for my head but it had to be done all the same. PLUS our pousada was hilarious. Our friend Alison came over to visit and wish us well and they were going to charge us THIRTY reais to come up the stairs to our room. Ridiculous. So we went down instead. We basically stayed up on apples and crackers and then were awake to watch the sun rise on a gorgeous day...from inside a window with prison bars. WE never really got to enjoy that day, though we did make it outside for the sunset. And I did finish my paper, so its all good.

I also got to visit my mae to say hey and pick up some random stuff that I left there the first time around. It was awesome to talk to her because she was super impressed that I had picked up way more Portuguese and we talked about much more than the usual religion and food. We exchanged skype info and I think it will be pretty neat to talk with her and keep up on my Portuguese.

On our attempt to reach the house where the group is staying for the last couple nights, Frances and I got locked of her house becasue the key was with a neighbor who is always at home...and wasn't there this one time. So we arrived with no baggage and have been living in borrowed clothes for a couple days. Luckily tomorrow is the day! We are skipping reentry conversations (oh darn) and going back into the city to pick it up. Having a bit of a family gathering tomorrow which means really good food and saying goodbye. Then on to the airport on Monday! I can't believe it. Happy and sad and excited!

Salvador

The pace of city life is so incredibly different from Porto Seguro that I was in a little shock when I arrived. It is impossible not to notice that we are in the city. Taking the bus home from the neighborhood where our friends live, Frances and I had to get off and switch busses in order not to find ourselves in bad neighborhoods on a sunday night (which equals deserted.) Waiting at the bus stop we ignored the usual beggars and a few drunks until one guy (who was very clearly on something) dug a cobblestone out of the sidewalk and started theatening a popcorn vendor. The vendor responded in kind and soon they were both circling each other partly in the middle of the street and partly on the median. The military police on the other side of the street apparently found conversing in a group and making comments to (female) passerby more important to the security of the area than a potential head bashing fight. Luckily some fellow street dwellers that apparently knew the instigator talked him down after awhile. But it made for fifteen tense minutes.

Oh and even though I am working all day and thus living a rather boring life at the moment, we did manage to stop in and see our Chinese comida a kilo restaurant friend. And all of his fruit selection. Even thoug it had been a month and a half he remembered which candies each of us would like when we paid and dug them out of the jar for us.

Lengthy update time

Four in the morning wake up time for the bus hit me a bit hard. We woke up to the empty room that we had pakced up two hours before and got a taxi to the bus station. All we wanted to do was get on the bus and sleep which turned out ot be more difficult than it sounds. The bus was late. Then we got on and had seats in the front row, only unlike the usual busses that have a door between the driver and passengers this one definitely did not. And the drivers’ choice of music at five in the morning was not conducive to sleep. So we moved to the back of the bus. And then a group of guys got on at the next stop and proceeded to sit right behind us and make loud proclamations about the state of the morning, the amount of fried pastries in their stomachs and other things. It would have been a little funny or at least a little entertaining maybe if my head wasn’t killing me and slepping wasn’t the only thing on my mind. So we moved again to the middle of the bus and after some crying baby episodes, the guys who got on and started playing music on their cell phones, and the section of the road fir which “road” isn’t really an appropriate description, I got some sleep. And woke up to find we were on a standing room only bus. Literally the aisles were packed with people who had gotten on while I was out and had no place to sit. They were squished up against each other and bracing themselves against the seats. What a way to ride the bus for five hours. Oh and the rain and fog were so bad I am fairly sure we were driving blind. I couldn’t see anything out the windows on some stretches. But we made it safe and sound to Ilheus and the airport to commence more waiting. Brazilian pilots delay their planes for overcast skies is the moral of that wait. Three hours of waiting with cloudy skies and a sprinkle or two in the air.

I’m staying with Frances while I’m in Salvador because her host mom’s house is way closer to where we go to work eery day.But we spent Saturday night catching up with a bunch of friends, learning some crazy news about everyone’s projects and chatting away. Sunday we buckled down and worked. A thriller for sure. But there were some great food breaks/conversations over the tops of various laptops.

And now more work. Wow. However last night we did meet Taz and the friend he is traveling with. We went out to where they are staying and met up for dinner and a LOT of fun conversation. We really covered quite a range from fraternity initiation to how to say seal in Danish. And I learned that for a sore throat you should sleep with a garlic clove in your mouth for three days in a row and it will be gone. And maybe stick some up your nose? But talk about morning breath, ew. It was really fun to hang out with them and translate for them to the waiter. Nothing like translating for someone else to make you feel proficient.

In other news, I am leaving in six days, I am NOT done with my paper, and I have NO clean clothes. And a lot of things to do/people to see before I leave the country. Also, I absolutely cannot imagine spending American dollars. I haven’t even seen any in three months (plus reais are way prettier.)

Bye Porto Seguro

Well I am leaving Porto Seguro tomorrow (at five am to be exact.) I can't believe it. Or the fact that I am leaving the country in ten days. I am excited and overwhelmed as I still have a lot of paper writing to accomplish yet the old brain is lagging behind.

Frances and I did discover a super delicious pay by the kilo restaurant with amazing food though. THEY HAVE HUMMUS. In fact it probably is lucky we found it so late because I may well have spent all my money there otherwise. And the dessert! An entire table full. Inlcuding apple cake, cocada (the wonder candy) and tapioca couscous (which may sound odd but might be the best thing ever.)

For the roving AIDS clinic that took us all over town and showed us the ropes Frances and I made dice - out of condoms. (One of the main things they do is pass out condoms to at risk populations.) It was a little difficult explaining the dice over the mirror American thing but he seemed excited. But in an effort to complete our craft we did discover perhaps why no one actually wants to buy condoms. We price checked a bit and found that a lot of them are hidden behind the counters and you have to ask. Also, when we were actually buying them and trying to decide what color to get we could hear the ladies in the store calling us prostitutes (we did buy a few packages, but still.) Not EXACTLY conducive to encouraging future condom purchases. Plus prostitutes here rarely use condoms anyway.

So I'm leaving with a partially done paper, no brain and very little sun. But I still really enjoyed this city. Hopefully someday I'll see it again.

Who really knows

Well yesterday Frances and I saw a spectacularly awkward and incredibly Brazilian display. We were going about our business - taking a break from working (or staring at a computer screen and willing thoughts to appear in sentence form) - with a little walk on the beach. The blue sky was out and it had been awhile so we scurried out. We had no idea what a treat we were in for. We ended up at this little bar/nightclub/beach shack with a good number of tourists (I think there was a mega-bus out front) and just sat down for a little. All of a sudden the announcer/DJ who was making some odd choices already started encouraging everyone to get out of their chairs and exercise. Frances and I laughed (silly us for thinking he was joking) and then looked around and people were starting to get up. In about thirty seconds this man had assembled a sizeable group of followers in front of him on the sand. He was up on the shore and they were all on the edge of the water. Stretching music commenced over the loudspeaker and suddenly a bunch of bathing suit clad people (maybe thirty of them) were stretching on command. After a small break the electronic workout tunes came on and everyone starting marching and arm waving in place. There were a lot of side to side hopping moves, backwards running, and some dance-esque movement for a good period of time. He kept yelling instructions and suddenly they all formed a conga line and were snaking around/working out right at the edge of the water. They then made some tunnels straight out of a good underdog sports movie that everyone subsequently ran through. It was a good time for sure. The best part was that Frances and I appeared to be the only ones who thought anything was out of the ordinary. Everyone else who hadn't joined in all their speedo and bikini glory was just sitting and chatting as if there wasn't an 80's workout video happening behind them.