tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44397495889848366742024-03-13T03:31:52.926-07:00Maya´s Travel AdventuresMayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-42014198686453955922012-07-04T06:01:00.002-07:002012-07-04T06:01:11.620-07:00New Adventure, New Blog!Hello all!<br />
<br />
I have started a new blog to document my time in Paraguay this summer. Please check it out!<br />
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http://mayaviva.blogspot.com/<br />
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Beijos & Besos!<br />
MayaMayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-6632276837875630772010-11-24T09:16:00.000-08:002010-11-24T09:33:47.614-08:00A Visit from Rio and the US!This past weekend my roommate from Rio, Marina, came and visited me!! It was marvelous to see her, catch up on our lives, and use her as an excuse to do some touristy stuff in Salvador. Also, a completely unexpected surprise from an old friend, Avery Welkin. He and I grew up in the Olympia Quaker Meeting, but I had not seen him in years! It was great to see him and catch up on about seven years of each others lives. <div><br /></div><div>Pictures to come!</div><div><br /></div><div>Happy Thanksgiving! (I made sticky buns today with Danielle! If you don't know what those are, you are seriously missing out and need to visit my grandma to learn her art. I'm still learning.)</div><div>Love!</div><div>Maya</div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-8544483304634247002010-11-16T14:08:00.000-08:002010-11-24T09:16:24.000-08:00Chapada Diamantina<div>November 12-15 I went to a National Park called Chapada Diamantina (Diamond Plateau), inland from my city of Salvador. It was beautiful and wonderful to get out of the city. Unfortunately, due to lack of infrastructure and park development, you have to pay guides to take you almost everywhere and can't just go wandering. There aren't maps or marked trails most of the time, which made me realize how much I miss the national parks and trails in the states! However, I had a great time and swam in waterfalls, hiked, explored caves, avoided caterpillars falling from the sky, and saw some breathtaking views. I would really like to go back sometime with all my backpacking gear and go on a trip! Not enough time or money this time...</div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMNEhJzBdI/AAAAAAAAAM8/da2oEtBKoOI/s1600/IMG_1024.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMNEhJzBdI/AAAAAAAAAM8/da2oEtBKoOI/s320/IMG_1024.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540286337865942482" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Entering the cave Gruta da Lapa Doce</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMNEUwfFLI/AAAAAAAAAM0/Ul_sQVBHOvY/s1600/IMG_0972.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMNEUwfFLI/AAAAAAAAAM0/Ul_sQVBHOvY/s320/IMG_0972.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540286334538552498" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">The view of the main valley from the top of Pai Inacio</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMND7v-UEI/AAAAAAAAAMs/iojeekBMcgs/s1600/IMG_1059.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMND7v-UEI/AAAAAAAAAMs/iojeekBMcgs/s320/IMG_1059.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540286327825518658" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Hiking through the Gruta da Lapa Doce</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMNDSjcCXI/AAAAAAAAAMk/ScW4fBrMlI0/s1600/IMG_1011.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMNDSjcCXI/AAAAAAAAAMk/ScW4fBrMlI0/s320/IMG_1011.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540286316767086962" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Crazy caterpillar, one of HUNDREDS on the ground, falling from trees, crawling up my leg...</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMNCcJvaNI/AAAAAAAAAMc/diEKb5pul3E/s1600/IMG_0986.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMNCcJvaNI/AAAAAAAAAMc/diEKb5pul3E/s320/IMG_0986.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540286302163790034" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">On top of Pai Inacio</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMHSNOFmsI/AAAAAAAAAMU/-bIRzrb55vo/s1600/IMG_0946.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMHSNOFmsI/AAAAAAAAAMU/-bIRzrb55vo/s320/IMG_0946.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540279975963630274" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Our group! Gabriel, Cosme, me, Antoinette, Maria</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMHRTbBqxI/AAAAAAAAAMM/2MxDpxmM7PI/s1600/IMG_0945.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMHRTbBqxI/AAAAAAAAAMM/2MxDpxmM7PI/s320/IMG_0945.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540279960448641810" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Cosme, me, and Antoinette at Riberão do Meio at sunset</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMHQvT3-RI/AAAAAAAAAME/DYngN2af0JY/s1600/IMG_0930.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMHQvT3-RI/AAAAAAAAAME/DYngN2af0JY/s320/IMG_0930.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540279950754969874" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMHQIOlcHI/AAAAAAAAAL8/0SSc_be7j04/s1600/IMG_0899.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMHQIOlcHI/AAAAAAAAAL8/0SSc_be7j04/s320/IMG_0899.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540279940263800946" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Our 14 year old guide on Saturday, Ricardo</div><div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TOMHPsaEVmI/AAAAAAAAAL0/KftWGxLz20Q/s320/Brazilian%2Bbreakfast.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540279932795770466" /></div><div style="text-align: center;">DELICIOUS breakfast at home. I will definitely miss this about Brazil!</div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-47068907214889349332010-11-07T16:54:00.000-08:002010-11-07T17:49:09.103-08:00Salvador Peculiarities<div style="text-align: left;">It was another successful weekend here in Salvador that left me giggling quite a few times. Here are some of the peculiarities I encountered:</div><div><br /></div><div>Since Brazil does not celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving, there are no guidelines as to when Christmas decorations can go up. So starting the last week of October, red, green, and brown decorations have gone up. Trees, candy canes, snowflakes (no matter that the majority of Brazilians have never seen snow), and reindeer. And today, ladies and gentlemen, Papai Noel (Santa Claus) came to Salvador!!! I saw him myself. And he was white.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNdQUp5T1RI/AAAAAAAAALs/uVhKRYNySvM/s320/IMG_0867.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5536982582649148690" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">Danielle and I in matching Santa outfits</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxn4cqU6kQ3b4tRSIfzFi-OJp6LNNOam24CGX1XbVxrTyl5pfZCMY7AnaRPoJyuSMWXlLSIdxEM1Ks74HWC-Q' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;">Santa dancing Rebolation!</div><div>Brazilian bras do not have cup sizes. There's just one number, completely different than from the states where I'm a 34, here I'm a 42. I have no idea what it's measuring and the cups are hit and miss. Needless to say, I will be waiting until my return to the states to buy more sutiãs.</div><div><br /></div><div>The HUGE industrious ants in the grassy place by the road in front of my house have created permanent pathways through the grass. Their routes never change and I have passed many people worried about my sanity as I leap and bound on tip-toe through the ants in order to not get bitten. Those things are DANGEROUS! My foot swelled up so big once from an ant-bite I couldn't walk!</div><div><br /></div><div>I have to do a presentation (in Portuguese) for my political science of a minimum of 45 minutes comparing the governmental systems of China, North Korea, and Cuba. (I only write in my blog when I have tons of school work to do. Extremely bad habit!)</div><div><br /></div><div>Love to you all! I'm excited to see you when I get back!! January 2nd in Olympia!</div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-54532494939303704022010-11-03T08:32:00.000-07:002010-11-08T09:34:56.691-08:00Itacaré! pure beauty.<div style="text-align: left;">I had a long weekend this week with no classes on Monday or Tuesday. Danielle and I took advantage of these five free days to go to Itacaré, a small coastal town about six hours south of Salvador. My friend Ryan told me it was great so we caught the bus at 5am on Friday morning to go. It was beautiful!! An amazing combination of many beaches, rainforest, and interesting people. We stayed at a hostel with a great group of people: 3 Brazilians, 1 Frenchwoman, 1 German woman, 2 Australians, 1 Argentinean, and us, the 2 blond girls from the states. We swam, hiked, ate delicious food, cooked, talked about world politics, played cards, discussed Brazil's societal and political problems, laughed a lot, danced on the beach, trespassed on private property to find waterfalls at 6am, experimented new foods, and made wonderful friends.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGHF9rI7VI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/fDriNsYeS10/s1600/IMG_0712.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGHF9rI7VI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/fDriNsYeS10/s320/IMG_0712.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535353953539648850" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;">Dinner day 1. So nice to be able to cook for ourselves for a change! (all of our food in Salvador is prepared for us by maids.)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGHGAH1Z3I/AAAAAAAAAKE/oWK6RySMYGM/s1600/IMG_0726.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGHGAH1Z3I/AAAAAAAAAKE/oWK6RySMYGM/s320/IMG_0726.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535353954196875122" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Day 2: Praia de Resende (above) and</div><div style="text-align: center;">Praia da Tiririca (below. we were cold...not good since there will probably be snow in Washington when I get back!)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGHGoUb_-I/AAAAAAAAAKM/nFGHwnoN-7Q/s320/IMG_0740.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535353964987154402" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGHG2vyYVI/AAAAAAAAAKc/KmJMT01kVMI/s1600/IMG_0770.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGHG2vyYVI/AAAAAAAAAKc/KmJMT01kVMI/s320/IMG_0770.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535353968859963730" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Day 3: Prainha (the BEST!) with Perrine, from France</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGHGz5zRCI/AAAAAAAAAKU/t59X8G4onxA/s1600/IMG_0755.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGHGz5zRCI/AAAAAAAAAKU/t59X8G4onxA/s320/IMG_0755.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535353968096658466" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGLyvj2d2I/AAAAAAAAAKs/PlDSsulquaE/s1600/IMG_0785.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGLyvj2d2I/AAAAAAAAAKs/PlDSsulquaE/s320/IMG_0785.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535359120891606882" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a>Hike to Prainha<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGLyFvLJFI/AAAAAAAAAKk/gABnmOd3Wdo/s1600/IMG_0765.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGLyFvLJFI/AAAAAAAAAKk/gABnmOd3Wdo/s320/IMG_0765.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535359109664810066" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Prainha (above)</div></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGL0BgTQbI/AAAAAAAAALE/qTkXjhh2KZc/s1600/IMG_0799.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGL0BgTQbI/AAAAAAAAALE/qTkXjhh2KZc/s320/IMG_0799.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535359142888423858" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Day 4: trespassing at Cachoeira de Tijuipe (above)</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGLzt6MMjI/AAAAAAAAAK8/NW0yVbpVMnQ/s1600/IMG_0837.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGLzt6MMjI/AAAAAAAAAK8/NW0yVbpVMnQ/s320/IMG_0837.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535359137628303922" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Day 4: our last sunset in Itacaré at Praia da Concha</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGLzCflatI/AAAAAAAAAK0/N7y6VkFRtDs/s1600/IMG_0821.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TNGLzCflatI/AAAAAAAAAK0/N7y6VkFRtDs/s320/IMG_0821.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535359125973986002" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">My future home!</div></div><div><br /></div><div>It was wonderful to spend so much time out of the city and outside. Danielle and I thought it was hilarious that they expect everyone to hire guides to bring them to the farther beaches (about a 1 hour walk from the city center), especially two gringas. There was no way we were going to pay someone to walk us along a clearly marked path to the beach, but everyone we asked for directions told us we needed a guide. How I miss national parks in the states! It is difficult to enjoy being back in Salvador now with classes, pollution, and violence to worry about. It was the perfect relaxing trip though and I wish I could go back again before I leave!</div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-81511197043776767992010-10-26T16:39:00.000-07:002010-10-26T17:20:00.920-07:00The COUNTDOWN beginsSo not much is new here in Brazil. The second round of elections for Brazil's new president are Sunday so we'll see how that plays out. Things have become very routine here for me, so I forget what interests you all back home. But here are the highlights from the past couple weeks:<div><br /></div><div>I finished midterms today! </div><div>Black Eyed Peas concert!</div><div>Guitar jam sessions on the beach with Brazilian friends!</div><div>Gorgeous, sunny beach days!</div><div>Amazing Political Science professor (he studied abroad in Chile during the military dictatorship there)!</div><div>Dancing to music blasted from car speakers in a parking lot on the beach in the rain!</div><div>Package from home! (chocolate chips for chocolate chip banana bread!)</div><div>Reading books from my childhood in Portuguese with the children in the library where I volunteer!</div><div>Best Mexican food in Salvador!</div><div>Riding along the coast on a motorcycle!</div><div>Learning how to make brigadeiro! (traditional Brazilian dessert. condensed milk, butter, chocolate. YES)</div><div>Showing a Polish volunteer around the city!</div><div>Planning my future! (Nicaragua? Washington DC? Ecuador? Berkeley?)</div><div><br /></div><div>Registering for classes back at Pacific for next semester and looking for a place to live have me missing home a lot! But two more months and I'm there!!</div><div><br /></div><div>Love to you all!</div><div><br /></div><div>PS. Movie you should ALL watch: Onibus 174. It's about a bus hostage situation in Rio in 2000 and gives the social background and reasoning that this event occurred. You can find it on Google Videos with English subtitles. I highly recommend it.</div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-90339519262175454252010-10-04T09:05:00.000-07:002010-10-04T09:41:01.167-07:00OCTOBER!?<div style="text-align: left;">Well time flies on study abroad. I now only have three more months in Brazil! But I have been loving it so much and living it up recently! I am currently procrastinating on large amounts of school work to write you all, never good, but sometimes necessary for my sanity.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have been learning cooking secrets from Lucia and will hopefully not be such a failure in the kitchen when I make it back to the states in January. I am going to be meeting up with my parents and Sierra in Ecuador for Christmas and New Years with my host family there!! I am extremely excited and will cook something delicious for everyone. I have dance class every Saturday and I have been dancing a lot outside of class as well. It's been wonderful and so much fun to actually know the steps now as well! My dance group had a fundraiser on the 26th called Forro dos Sonhos (meaning dance of dreams). We combined it with my friend Marco's birthday party and I danced for five hours straight. The pictures below are from that day.</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TKoB-UCeIrI/AAAAAAAAAJU/iDcMlYyTBLM/s1600/TAU!.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TKoB-UCeIrI/AAAAAAAAAJU/iDcMlYyTBLM/s320/TAU!.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524230062965924530" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">My friend Tauá, amazing forro dancer and friend from school who introduced me to the group where I take classes, Forrozeando.</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TKoB-OnQS4I/AAAAAAAAAJM/SbwkuEYXClI/s1600/IMG_0683.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TKoB-OnQS4I/AAAAAAAAAJM/SbwkuEYXClI/s320/IMG_0683.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524230061509593986" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Friends from dance class (L-R): Luis Pedro, Danielle, me, Marco (the birthday boy), and Fernando (one of the dance teachers)</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TKoB9r1GtvI/AAAAAAAAAJE/yqBce503mPs/s1600/IMG_0682.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TKoB9r1GtvI/AAAAAAAAAJE/yqBce503mPs/s320/IMG_0682.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524230052172445426" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Pedro, Marco, and I at Forro dos Sonhos</div><div>I went to my first pagode and axe concert last Friday, popular music from my state of Bahia. It was CRAZY dancing, full of beautiful people, and great music. This made my third weekend in a row of more than six hours of straight dancing!! I will definitely miss all of that when I get back to the states. I feel like the northern hemisphere has yet to realize how dancing can be a great way to enjoy life.</div><div><br /></div><div>My internship is also going very well. I am helping coordinate an essay writing contest for children of African descent, organizing the placement and arrival of a volunteer from Poland, and various other projects. It's become very apparent to me how difficult continuity and organization is with an organization run by volunteers coming in and out, but I'm staying on top of things as best I can and balancing it with school work.</div><div><br /></div><div>Classes are great, but the next couple weeks are actually pretty stressful. Academics in another language is complicated, so we'll see how I manage to figure it all out.</div><div><br /></div><div>I love you all and hope that things are good state-side for all of you. I have been following the attempted "coup" in Ecuador closely as well as the disturbing number of suicides in the states. It's scary and complicated to be a young person and I hope that we are able to band together in order to show support for those trying to understand their lot in life and find a place for themselves to grow and love in safety. </div><div><br /></div><div>Take your light out from under the bushel basket!</div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-57208829053202834432010-09-12T18:31:00.000-07:002010-09-12T19:00:01.896-07:00Epic Weekend<div style="text-align: left;">This weekend was wonderful. One of those that makes me remember why I love being abroad and never want to go home. I spent Saturday morning painting the inside of the library where I am doing volunteer work. It was a great relaxing and community event with loud music and kids running in and between the stacks of books. That afternoon I went to my first official forro dance lesson. Forro is a type of Brazilian music very popular in Bahia. The lessons are given by university students and it was a very fun and relaxed group of people, not to mention I love forro music and dancing! </div><div style="text-align: left;">Here is a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po2guiyYZ88">link</a> for one of my favorite forro songs.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That night I went with my friend Danielle to a party run by a European exchange group and met a bunch of people from Spain, France, Czech Republic, Portugal, and Brazilians (of course). It was a great group of people and reminded me so much of my times in Rio!</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TI2C9JreJWI/AAAAAAAAAII/vOzNCy1__TQ/s320/IMG_0674.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516209105680606562" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span><div style="text-align: center;">Danielle and I</div><div>Sunday was the 9th Annual Gay Pride Parade of Bahia. I didn't stay long, as it began to rain, but what I saw was impressive. There were at least ten big buses turned into floats with music and people dancing on top. The crowd was relatively diverse with people of all different colors, orientations, levels of costume, and age. I felt like I was back in San Francisco!</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TI2C8n0bRbI/AAAAAAAAAIA/tMrWCp1tCpA/s1600/IMG_0676.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TI2C8n0bRbI/AAAAAAAAAIA/tMrWCp1tCpA/s320/IMG_0676.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516209096591361458" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">9th Gay Parade of Bahia! Homophobia out of here!</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TI2C70Ck_AI/AAAAAAAAAH4/9svcDkeOx2U/s1600/IMG_0679.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TI2C70Ck_AI/AAAAAAAAAH4/9svcDkeOx2U/s320/IMG_0679.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516209082692074498" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></a></div></div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-32173198592126536682010-09-08T19:00:00.001-07:002010-09-12T14:30:37.227-07:00Highlights<div style="text-align: left;">Updating my blog is obviously not my top priority, so here are some highlights of the last few weeks to keep you all connected!</div><div><br /></div><div>University is in full swing now here. It took some time, and frustration, to figure everything out but now I'm set! I am taking introductory Political Science, an anthropology class called Race, Class, and Gender in Bahia, Portuguese, and a capoeira class. Capoeira is a sort of martial arts dance, fight, art form typical to Brazil. It is a mixture of African slave influence in Brazil with the hierarchical presence of the Portuguese, representing the underground struggle in Brazil against slavery. I encourage you all to look up some videos of it online if you have no idea what I'm talking about. It's rather amazing! My class is interesting as well because we're doing history, culture, technique, and practice of capoeira so it's like part anthropology and part physical education. I love it! My professors are all great and the workload is manageable, considering it's all in Portuguese. </div><div><br /></div><div>My host sister left for the states August 28th so now it's just my host mom Ana Helena, the maid Lucia who lives with us, and me. Lucia is an AMAZING cook and I'm going to try and bring some of her skill home with me! A couple weeks of Friday morning cooking lessons and I should at least be able to master something delicious!</div><div><br /></div><div>My friend Dan, from southern California, is a great jazz musician so I have been going to some of his musical expositions around Salvador. He's played with Italians, Brazilians, and other Americans at bars, open air music halls, and art museums. It's been a wonderful connection to have and a great way to meet non-creepy Brazilians. </div><div><br /></div><div>Last Thursday, September 2nd I went to a play with my anthropology professor and some other students at the slum closest to my house, Calabar. It's the same place I have been doing some volunteer work, but I haven't been there recently and never at night. It was put on by a theater student from my university here and was in a tiny house on the edge of the slum. It was a play by a famous Brazilian author called Dois Homens e uma Noite Suja (Two Men and a Dirty Night). It was quite powerful and overwhelming, telling the story of two extremely poor men in Brazil and their different reactions to poverty and desperation. It involved a loaded gun, physical fighting, and complete male nudity all within a tiny room about a foot in front of me. Wow.</div><div><br /></div><div>September 7th is the national independence holiday of Brazil so I had a wonderful long weekend. I went to a city in the interior of the state of Bahia called Cruz das Almas. It's a small city where my host mom was born and raised her kids before moving to Salvador. I LOVED it! Small town, huge farmer's market with crazy produce, friendly people, safety, open spaces, trees, hills, gardens, grass, mud between my toes, animals, bird song. You get the picture. I promise you all that this living in a big city thing will not happen again for a very long time!! I am a child of the rain and trees and desperately need them in order to be happy. As many of you know, I got a tattoo right before leaving Rio de Janeiro of a basic Evergreen tree on my right ankle. I love it and now everywhere I go Washington and my childhood surrounded by nature comes along with me! People of the cities of the world have no idea what they're missing. We also went to Itaparica Island, which is in the bay across from Salvador, where my host family has a hosue. It was beautiful with deserted, white sand beaches and warm water!</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TI1Fm1en0yI/AAAAAAAAAHw/YyHS_wo72f0/s1600/IMG_0634.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TI1Fm1en0yI/AAAAAAAAAHw/YyHS_wo72f0/s320/IMG_0634.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516141652091589410" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Danielle and I</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TI1FmHqCwbI/AAAAAAAAAHo/5KENHk6pRH4/s1600/IMG_0622.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TI1FmHqCwbI/AAAAAAAAAHo/5KENHk6pRH4/s320/IMG_0622.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516141639791460786" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Lucia (my host family's live-in maid), me, and Lucia's daughter Stephanie</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TI1FljImLSI/AAAAAAAAAHg/dEvvKDnApgA/s1600/IMG_0604.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TI1FljImLSI/AAAAAAAAAHg/dEvvKDnApgA/s320/IMG_0604.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516141629987499298" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Danielle, Stephanie, and I</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm thinking of everyone back home now and wishing you were all here with me! It rained here today, but you can tell that summer is on the way! I only have three more months in Brazil and I hope to make the most of it!</div><div>Love to you all,</div><div>Maya</div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-24369795024685305382010-08-16T17:23:00.000-07:002010-08-16T18:44:54.873-07:00Sugary sugar, Religion, and Graduations<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnofoxpyeI/AAAAAAAAAHM/khlRGCv2W9k/s1600/IMG_0515.JPG"></a><div style="text-align: left;">A new week of adventures under my belt! My friend Danielle and I attempted to make chocolate chip cookies but, ignorant of the intricacies of sugar, we used unrefined Brazilian cane sugar that made our cookies into solid sugar balls instead of what they should be. Oops! Who knew that Brazilian sugar was more sugary!? Later that week my host sister and I made a very successful strawberry cake however. Much more delicious.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnYNPMrTpI/AAAAAAAAAGU/-RL2qmk-I74/s320/IMG_0504.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506169741366742674" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></div><div>This week I also visited one of the most famous churches in Salvador, the Church of Bonfim, and went to an interesting religious ceremony in the city of Cachoeira (which means waterfall in Portuguese), about 2 hours from Salvador. The church has a room full of wax body parts. These are offerings representing illnesses people are asking to be cured. Some of them were very elaborate and the room was a little bit creepy. The gate around the church is full of ribbons with the church's name. These ribbons, also used as bracelets, are used to make wishes. Each knot tied is one wish and when it falls off the wishes are supposed to come true. We'll see!</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnluDVspMI/AAAAAAAAAG8/UmTUaieU-g8/s1600/IMG_0436.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnluDVspMI/AAAAAAAAAG8/UmTUaieU-g8/s320/IMG_0436.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506184598770197698" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Wish ribbons on the church fence</div></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnjiN5tFNI/AAAAAAAAAGk/jlJBZaFNQ14/s1600/IMG_0444.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnjiN5tFNI/AAAAAAAAAGk/jlJBZaFNQ14/s320/IMG_0444.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506182196423890130" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Wax body parts hanging from the ceiling</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnjiYXXDtI/AAAAAAAAAGs/rA-Ta51ow-0/s1600/IMG_0494.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnjiYXXDtI/AAAAAAAAAGs/rA-Ta51ow-0/s320/IMG_0494.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506182199232630482" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnjhl7Wa7I/AAAAAAAAAGc/c6eg7udABPY/s1600/IMG_0436.JPG" style="text-decoration: none; "></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnjhl7Wa7I/AAAAAAAAAGc/c6eg7udABPY/s1600/IMG_0436.JPG" style="text-decoration: none; "></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnjhl7Wa7I/AAAAAAAAAGc/c6eg7udABPY/s1600/IMG_0436.JPG" style="text-decoration: none; "></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Overlook at a fort by the Church of Bonfim</div><div>The ceremony in Cachoeira was a celebration of the ascension of the Virgin Mary, but a combination of Afro-Brazilian cult and Catholicism tradition. The Brotherhood of Good Death is the name of the group who perform the ritual. They are a group of older Afro-Brazilian women who practice candomblé, which often mirrors or includes many Catholic traditions because of Portuguese influence in slave traditions.</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnjin7WLoI/AAAAAAAAAG0/ei6dinbZk_E/s1600/IMG_0556.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnjin7WLoI/AAAAAAAAAG0/ei6dinbZk_E/s320/IMG_0556.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506182203410099842" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">The statue of Virgin Mary entering the church at the head of the procession</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnjiYXXDtI/AAAAAAAAAGs/rA-Ta51ow-0/s1600/IMG_0494.JPG"></a><div style="text-align: left;">I also attended a graduation ceremony for the Administration department at my university. Graduations here are VERY different than from the states. It was a private ceremony, not sponsored by the university, and those who chose to participate had to pay about $2000 USD. Needless to say there were not very many participants. It was a huge ceremony with everyone in very formal attire and the most european-looking Brazilians I have seen so far. It felt like a social status parade or show. Very interesting to see the differences from the US and Brazil. The family is the center of the ceremonial traditions here.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnofoxpyeI/AAAAAAAAAHM/khlRGCv2W9k/s1600/IMG_0515.JPG"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnofQnCsuI/AAAAAAAAAHE/ZdkSYg7dy8w/s1600/IMG_0505.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnofQnCsuI/AAAAAAAAAHE/ZdkSYg7dy8w/s320/IMG_0505.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506187643169452770" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">My host sister Luize and I in our apt before leaving</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TGnofoxpyeI/AAAAAAAAAHM/khlRGCv2W9k/s320/IMG_0515.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506187649656408546" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">The stage</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">Well that's all I have for now. Again, send me an email or comment. I would love to hear from everyone back home! Many of my friends from Pacific are leaving for their year abroad this month and it's so exciting watching them prepare. Studying abroad is such an enriching and amazing experience. Good luck everyone! Much love from Brazil!</div></div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-64199942234789129772010-08-11T13:49:00.000-07:002010-08-11T14:53:51.851-07:00Brazilian birthday, Rainy adventures, and School!Well hello world! <div><br /></div><div>It continues to rain here in the southern hemisphere where we are currently experiencing winter! There have been a couple beautiful days, but my cold has kept me lazily indoors. Unfortunately, because of my hesitance to bring my camera around with me and seem like the average gringa, I have no pictures to go with my stories yet, but I will search for some from friends.</div><div><br /></div><div>I attended the 15th birthday of one of the girls from the community library in Calabar on Saturday the 7th. Turning 15 is a coming of age for girls in most of Latin America and the parties thrown reflect that. Me and two other Rhythm of Hope volunteers were invited to the celebration which was held in the community center above the library. The orixá god paintings on the walls from the capoeira class that usually meets there were covered, as this was an Evangelical birthday party. The ceremony and tradition was much like that of a Mexican quinceñera. The room was elaborately decorated (for very poor people in a slum of Brazil I was blown away by the obviously huge amount of time and care put into the decorations) in pink with excessive amounts of delicious food and sweets. The birthday girl was in a legitimate white princess dress with hooped skirt and tiara. People danced for her, sang, cried, and then her dad came out to lead her into adulthood by taking away the symbolic doll she was carrying and putting on her a pair of high heels. Usually they then dance, but as it was an Evangelical no-dancing-unless-religious type of party they skipped that part. I had an amazing time surrounded by happy Brazilians and a lot of the children from the library who all helped out with cooking and decorating for the party. It was an amazing community event to take part in.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have been to more of the organizations with Rhythm of Hope and the summer intern left so now it's just me. I'm uncertain as to what my role is going to be there. It seems like a great way to get involved here, but there is a lot of work and organizing required. I may need to wait until I figure out university business before I throw myself into it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of university... I am attending UFBA (Federal University of Bahia) which is a public institution, unlike the Catholic university I attended in Rio. The education system here is very different than the United States and I think both require development and reform before they can truly serve the people. The public universities are completely free for students who pass the entrance exam (they are shocked to hear that public universities in the US charge!). That said, it is almost impossible to get into a free public university (which tend to be much higher quality than private institutions) without a very expensive, private elementary through high school education. Therefore the poor who attend public schools before college and generally cannot afford a private university are excluded from the universities they could afford because of their inability to pay for a quality education. A very interesting cycle of social exclusion.</div><div><br /></div><div>Today was supposed to be my first day of classes at UFBA, but as is custom the professors and students did not show up to class. My friend Danielle and I decided to use this time to explore the campus, which is spread out all over the city. We walked a LONG way, usually in the wrong direction, in intermittent rain dumps but eventually found all of the buildings we were looking for. It took all afternoon. We did manage to make some new Brazilian friends and unlock some of the scheduling mysteries of the school (NOTHING is online. You have to go to each individual department/building. But if you don't know where that is and the campus is spread out all over the city...it poses some problems.) This week I am shopping around for classes, but I'm considering some anthropology, gender studies, and political science. </div><div><br /></div><div>I love you all and let's talk again soon! I love it when people write back, if you can find the time. Interactive blogs and journals are much more fun and make me want to write more! </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm trying to keep balanced here in my new world of Salvador. Remember that wealth and status aren't all that matter! The world is full of beautiful places and people that will survive without capitalism, profit, and new business growth. Please save a free, clean, public beach for me!</div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-50801766460465944752010-08-02T08:04:00.000-07:002010-08-02T08:45:42.982-07:00Week One: rain, dancing, and volunteering<div style="text-align: left;">The rain has been cramping my exploration style, but it has noticeably gotten better this week. Every Saturday night there is live jazz at the Modern Art Museum, right on the bay. I went last Saturday because one of my gringo friends was invited to play. Despite the rain, there were plenty of people and musicians to make the venture worth it.</div><div><br /></div><div>The next day I went to a dance lesson in the historical center of Salvador, called Pelourinho. The class was of orixá dances, the gods of candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion combining bits of Catholicism and African traditions. Each god, or orixá, has its own dance and during ceremonies members become possessed by the different gods and how they dance indicates what orixá is possessing them. It is much more common in Salvador than Rio.</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TFbjxoDZvLI/AAAAAAAAAGE/mJVw8jBgpwc/s1600/candomble+2.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TFbjxoDZvLI/AAAAAAAAAGE/mJVw8jBgpwc/s320/candomble+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500834436584422578" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Candomblé ceremony in Rio that one of my friends participated in so I got to go!</div><div><br /></div><div>Tuesday night we went back to the Pelourinho to see the popular Bahian singer Gerônimo sing with another gringa from my program who was invited to sing with him. It was a great show and it hardly rained at all!</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TFblQY0RAmI/AAAAAAAAAGM/EM_WGc8icbI/s1600/Geronimo.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TFblQY0RAmI/AAAAAAAAAGM/EM_WGc8icbI/s320/Geronimo.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500836064581976674" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Gringos at the Gerônimo show</div><div>I have been walking and running around my neighborhood and discovered some great stores tucked away! An artisan ice cream shop and Mexican restaurant! I have also gotten in contact with an NGO that works with Brazilian community organizations within Salvador. Check them out at rhythmofhope.org. They help struggling groups network, brainstorm, fundraise, and find volunteers. I have gone to a couple of their organizations with the current intern and it looks like a wonderful program! Hopefully I will be able to get more involved as I settle in. I visited a capoeira class for street children and a community library that was hosting a poetry reading. I am going back to the library today, it's in a favela about 5 minutes walking from my house.</div><div><br /></div><div>Coming to Salvador from Rio shows me just how diverse Brazil is! I'm so glad I took the opportunity to get to know to extremely different parts of the country. So much is different here: food, music, favelas, language, buses, people, universities, etc. I am trying to pick it up quickly and thank goodness I speak Portuguese already! </div><div><br /></div><div>Normality does not exist.</div><div><br /></div><div>To Do (for all of you): Read <i>Half the Sky</i>. I finished it in Chile and it was absolutely eye-opening and inspiring.</div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-11938341419287491482010-07-23T17:17:00.000-07:002010-08-02T08:02:35.788-07:00Goodbyes and Changes<div style="text-align: left;">I have made a new semester resolution: WRITE IN MY BLOG MORE! This should be easy because I have internet in my new house. So no excuses!</div><div><br /></div><div>My semester in Rio de Janeiro ended July 7th. It was hard to say goodbye to all of my new Brazilian and international friends, but hopefully I will see everyone again someday, somewhere. July 11th I flew to Santiago, Chile for ten days in order to get a new visa. It was extremely cold, especially after 6 months in Rio, which may have permanently weakened my tolerance of the cold. I returned to Brazil on the 21st and moved to Salvador, Bahia the next day.</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TFbdgmGUOwI/AAAAAAAAAF8/wow1b4ldDX4/s1600/IMG_0412.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/TFbdgmGUOwI/AAAAAAAAAF8/wow1b4ldDX4/s320/IMG_0412.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500827546932230914" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">In Pichilemu, Chile (3 hrs from Santiago on the coast) wearing EVERY layer possible to stay warm.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>I am now living in Salvador, in NE Brazil in the state of Bahia, with a nice Brazilian mother, daughter, and empregada (live in servant). The program here is very different from Rio, more like the one I participated in in Ecuador during high school. Much more cultural and experience based and only 25 students from the US, in comparison to over 500 international students in Rio. The academic director is an anthropology professor! I start classes in the beginning of August at the Federal University of Bahia, though I have no idea what classes I will be taking yet. Everyone else has been here a month already, so I have entered as the sort of late comer who already knows Portuguese and a lot about Brazil. It's funny to see all of their reactions to things that I now consider normal and don't think about at all!</div><div><br /></div><div>So far I have been recovering from my trip and not seen much of the city. I live in a relatively ritzy part of the city called Barra, about a 10 minute walk from the main beach. All my meals are provided by the family so I get to eat some DELICIOUS Bahian food! I just have to avoid gaining over 15 pounds like I did in Ecuador... Today we went to a percussion lesson in a social organization in a favela that provides percussion, circus, and art classes for kids in the community, as long as they prove they are attending school regularly. It's very interesting for me to compare the favela dynamics here and in Rio, as well as tons of other things. Studying here was definitely a good choice and I'm really excited, though I miss Rio and everyone there a lot!</div><div><br /></div><div>Lots of love to everyone! I miss you all and hope you haven't forgotten about me! </div><div>Beijos.</div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-20524837323929934542010-04-07T11:47:00.000-07:002010-04-07T20:54:02.501-07:00Easter and rainSo this has been a rather eventful last week or so for Rio. We got a long weekend for Easter, one of the advantages of living in a Catholic country and going to a Catholic university. On Easter day I woke up at 5am and went with a group of friends to an island about an hour from Rio called Paqueta. We rented bikes and rode around the island for a couple of hours. There were beautiful views, beautiful houses, and great parks. You can only get to Paqueta by boat, and there aren't any cars on the island so the only transportation is horse-drawn cart and bike.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S71Qydbv8PI/AAAAAAAAAFs/CK0a9B4CY3c/s1600/24265_431565294740_733649740_5391607_346600_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S71Qydbv8PI/AAAAAAAAAFs/CK0a9B4CY3c/s320/24265_431565294740_733649740_5391607_346600_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457607151267606770" border="0" /></a>The girls!<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S71QyFTiy-I/AAAAAAAAAFk/GjBAFc5-wSE/s1600/25886_1387343213293_1523430441_30945842_4820640_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S71QyFTiy-I/AAAAAAAAAFk/GjBAFc5-wSE/s320/25886_1387343213293_1523430441_30945842_4820640_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457607144790739938" border="0" /></a>After we took another boat to a city across the bay from Rio called Sao Goncalo. I have a good friend (Brazilian) from my university who has family there. They live on the outskirts of the city in a very poor neighborhood and welcomed us into their home for Easter. My friend's aunts fed us the best meal I have had so far in Brazil. There was fried chicken, chicken salad, pasta salad, roast, two rice dishes, flan, homemade jello, and chocolate cake. We all ate SO MUCH and had great conversations and laughs with his aunts, uncles, and cousins. Many jokes were made at my expense, as the only blond-haired and blue-eyed person in the group, but it was all fun. After lunch we played soccer with some of the neighborhood kids before starting the 2 hour, 3 bus trip back to Rio. On the way though we enjoyed a tumultuous bus ride along a dirt road and made friends with two ADORABLE Brazilian girls, Joyce age 4 and Jessica age 6, who even shared their Easter chocolate with us. It was definitely one of the best Easters I've had.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S71Qygr2i1I/AAAAAAAAAF0/NTu6RFkxl58/s1600/24265_431565224740_733649740_5391598_5345141_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S71Qygr2i1I/AAAAAAAAAF0/NTu6RFkxl58/s320/24265_431565224740_733649740_5391598_5345141_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457607152140454738" border="0" /></a>The whole group<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">So now for the rain. Rio is currently experiencing the worst tropical rainstorms in over 60 years. Tuesday the 6th was the hardest rain I've ever seen and it continued all day and night. My apartment was out of power and water for 20 hours and the streets all around us were under at least a foot of water. When we finally did regain connectivity to the outside world, we found out that almost 100 people died and the city had completely stopped. The rain is supposed to continue all week. Classes have been canceled at all institutions for the week and many businesses were closed for at least a day or two. I finally ventured out of my home today and there is mud and sand washed all over the streets from the hills. All of the people who died were in the hillside slums, called favelas, in Rio and the surrounding cities. When natural disasters hit, the poorest suffer the most damage and loss while the wealthy watch on their televisions and complain about the inconvenience.<br /><br />This is a <a href="http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/0,,GF81194-5606,00-VEJA+IMAGENS+DAS+CHUVAS+NO+RIO+DE+JANEIRO.html">link</a> with some great pictures of the flooding. Many of them were taken right near my house in places I pass everyday!<br /></div></div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-64864268156661062922010-03-30T18:10:00.000-07:002010-03-30T19:26:28.168-07:00Almost 2 months in 1 post...Take a deep breath!<div style="text-align: left;">Dear friends and family,</div><div><br /></div><div>I am alive! And it has become clear that I will never be an avid travel-blogger, but I will attempt to fill you in quickly and keep up better now that I have settled into a routine here in Rio. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Carnaval</b> was a great experience. Not quite all the glamour I was expecting, but definitely full of glitter, samba, sun, cheap beer, and very little sleep. Rio fills up with foreigners for carnaval and all of the cariocas (Brazilians from Rio) flee to other, more remote cities. Carnaval in Rio is characterized by street parties called blocos that include heart pounding drum lines and samba singers. There were over 100 blocos everyday of carnaval, all over the city. I LOVED the drums and went to multiple blocos everyday of carnaval. Many people get dressed up in costumes and it is a great excuse (not that Brazilians need one...) to make-out with random people in the street.</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KkhUBWwoI/AAAAAAAAAD8/80-7_l0J26Q/s1600/IMG_1115.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KkhUBWwoI/AAAAAAAAAD8/80-7_l0J26Q/s320/IMG_1115.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454602990916125314" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Dancers from the samba school Salgueiro, last year's winners</div><div><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7Kkh-nQsnI/AAAAAAAAAEE/NLZf-eIovoM/s320/IMG_1086.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454603002349400690" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Partiers at the bloco Suvaco do Cristo (Armpit of Christ)</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Iguazu Falls, Buenos Aires, Buses</b></div><div>Immediately after carnaval, I left with four friends to Iguazu Falls and Buenos Aires. We spent two days exploring the Brazilian side of the falls and then another day on the Argentina side. The pure mass and strength of so much water was overwhelming, one of the most awe-inspiring things I have ever seen.</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KnaF4xS5I/AAAAAAAAAEU/sBz-v-9JG3g/s1600/IMG_1386.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KnaF4xS5I/AAAAAAAAAEU/sBz-v-9JG3g/s320/IMG_1386.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454606165397818258" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Iguazu Falls!</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KnZvzkl4I/AAAAAAAAAEM/hYaPpuKsLZk/s1600/IMG_1371.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KnZvzkl4I/AAAAAAAAAEM/hYaPpuKsLZk/s320/IMG_1371.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454606159470434178" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div>We then bussed to Buenos Aires and spent six days being tourists in a wonderful city. We went on a city tour, spent an afternoon in La Boca listening to tango and admiring artisan crafts, went to a tango show in the oldest tango club in the city, visited the Eva Peron Museum, rented paddle boats, wandered around the city on foot, visited a planetarium and an old Jesuit church with underground tunnels, explored the port, and went to a soul shaking drum show at a popular cultural center, as well as ate large quantities of bread, steak, and dolce de leche. We also met people from all over the world and had an AMAZING trip. Even though we did almost no pre-planning, the trip went perfectly and was one of the best times of my life. Oh yeah, and my friend Garazi and I saved $200 USD each by taking the 40 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires back to Rio. It was actually pleasant and definitely worth it!</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KsOuAOxfI/AAAAAAAAAE0/5o7kE4pPwTM/s1600/IMG_1800.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KsOuAOxfI/AAAAAAAAAE0/5o7kE4pPwTM/s320/IMG_1800.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454611467566237170" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Jesuit tunnels used to protect the city</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KsOfb_rAI/AAAAAAAAAEs/gx-vXI5GQhs/s1600/IMG_1662.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KsOfb_rAI/AAAAAAAAAEs/gx-vXI5GQhs/s320/IMG_1662.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454611463656156162" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">La Boca</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KsN8SRj3I/AAAAAAAAAEk/EwHvotKIgzw/s1600/IMG_1631.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KsN8SRj3I/AAAAAAAAAEk/EwHvotKIgzw/s320/IMG_1631.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454611454220144498" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Plaza de Mayo and La Casa Rosada</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KsNYdYMRI/AAAAAAAAAEc/8vM6OAA2E9k/s1600/26285_343224031878_503541878_4151411_6797699_n.jpg"></a></div><div><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KsNYdYMRI/AAAAAAAAAEc/8vM6OAA2E9k/s320/26285_343224031878_503541878_4151411_6797699_n.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454611444603040018" style="text-align: left;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 239px; " /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Showing some love to a toucan in the tropical bird park</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S7KuQnBuW1I/AAAAAAAAAE8/wS_i4VlkGd4/s320/IMG_1739.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454613699076447058" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">Jenny, Garazi, me, Michelle, and Jessica</div><div><b>University</b></div><div>I started classes at PUC March 2nd. This has thrown off my feeling of perpetual summer, but I'm thankful for that. The bureaucracy and inefficiency of PUC's administration has been very frustrating to deal with, from copy houses with hour long lines to manual registration with two+ hour long lines!! I am taking one Brazilian anthropology class in English that is providing the opportunity for some great fieldwork. The rest of my classes are in Portuguese, including Portuguese level 3, Community Development, Photojournalism, and futsal (indoor soccer). I am enjoying all of my classes immensely and it has proved to be a great way to meet Brazilian students, though the size of Rio makes it difficult to meet up with them outside of school. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Volunteering</b></div><div>Today was my first day of volunteering in a public school in the favela Vidigal, near my university with a program called Educari. Twice a week I will help an English teacher with 10-12 year olds and co-teach a Spanish class to 13 year olds with a friend from my university. I think this will be very challenging and take up a lot of time, making curriculum and lesson plans, but I am very excited! The school has a unique history. It used to be a private school for the very wealthy families that lived in the area. As Vidigal grew, the wealthy families moved away and the private school was turned into a public school for children from Vidigal, in one of the nicest buildings in the area.</div><div><br /></div><div>I miss you all back home, but am having a wonderful time here! If there is anything you would love to hear more about, let me know! Sitting down to write about my experience can be overwhelming, since so much is new. So give me direction on what you want to hear about!</div><div>Love you all!</div><div>Beijos,</div><div>Maya</div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-67208122451008848192010-02-05T09:56:00.000-08:002010-02-11T04:53:29.545-08:00Pedra da Gavea<div style="text-align: left;">I finished the Intensive Portuguese Language Program for Foreigners last week so I am now on summer break and Carnaval is just around the corner! I have been participating in lots of pre-Carnaval activities that include large amounts of dancing in the streets and dressing up. While these are all very fun, the highlight of my summer so far is hiking up Pedra da Gavea.</div><div><br /></div><div>Pedra de Gavea is one of the highest points within Rio and is the most difficult urban hike. So naturally we decided to climb it on one of the hottest days of the year. But at least then we'd be safe from rain which turns the steep trail into a small river, right? Wrong. Our plan was to hike up in the evening, see the sunset, spend the night up at the top, see the sunrise, and then hike down the next day. The hike was very steep and included lots of vertical rock scrambling, but we made it up in just over two hours before the sun set. The view from the to is absolutely amazing. You can see all of Rio de Janeiro, the Christ Statue (I think we were even higher than the statue), Sugerloaf, and far out into the ocean.</div><div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S3P8VnTdJ1I/AAAAAAAAADU/7wOGYFtceyU/s320/IMG_1163.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436966623424358226" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The beginning of the trail, and this was the easy part...</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S3P8WD9WsXI/AAAAAAAAADc/a03teO8L814/s1600-h/IMG_1178.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S3P8WD9WsXI/AAAAAAAAADc/a03teO8L814/s320/IMG_1178.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436966631116288370" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">The view of Zona Sul of Rio de Janeiro</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>We could see lightening in the distance which made the view even more beautiful and awesome. Soon the storm headed our way so we retreated off the top of the mountain and down to a small cave we had seen on our way up. It was too dark to attempt descending and with rain the trail becomes a small river anyway, so we spent the night in the cave with a strong storm blasting the rocks and trees above us (Thank goodness we weren't in California or there might have been a fire! Tree burning was definitely happening.). Luckily we stayed completely dry from the tropical thunderstorm and were only a bit cold, nervous, and unrested. Early the next morning we went back up to see the sunrise and were blown away by its beauty and our survival of the night.</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S3P8WtlS5pI/AAAAAAAAADk/tWJFovv7Cto/s1600-h/IMG_1213.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S3P8WtlS5pI/AAAAAAAAADk/tWJFovv7Cto/s320/IMG_1213.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436966642289665682" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Our cave and band of happy adventurers!</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S3P8XOkuVvI/AAAAAAAAADs/owwcJmREMkI/s1600-h/IMG_1235.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S3P8XOkuVvI/AAAAAAAAADs/owwcJmREMkI/s320/IMG_1235.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436966651145639666" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">The moonset and sunrise.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>We were back down by 10am and ready to sleep the day away. It was quite an adventure and we bonded a lot as a group, you have to when you're spooning in a cave on the side of a mountain during a thunderstorm in order to stay warm and telling stories and asking questions in order to keep your mind off the situation! All in all, worth it and I appreciate my thin Brazilian mattress much more after attempting to sleep on a rock!</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S3P8XQGYq1I/AAAAAAAAAD0/FUcEUHz6sHc/s1600-h/IMG_1278.JPG" style="text-decoration: none; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S3P8XQGYq1I/AAAAAAAAAD0/FUcEUHz6sHc/s320/IMG_1278.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436966651555261266" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-90003730756058087452010-01-28T13:47:00.000-08:002010-01-28T14:59:17.203-08:00Petropolis, Jardim Botanico, Bureaucracy, and Futebol<div style="text-align: center;">This Saturday we went to historic Petropolis, the city where the Portuguese emperor stayed for some time. It is in the mountains so was very beautiful and we saw some great museums and old churches. On Sunday my friend Lauren and I explored the gorgeous Jardim Botanico near where I live. It's a huge urban park and inside you almost feel like you aren't in such a huge city. It will definitely take a couple of visits to completely explore.</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S2IVGT6C_RI/AAAAAAAAACY/MLAlIDMGBes/s1600-h/IMG_1005.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S2IVGT6C_RI/AAAAAAAAACY/MLAlIDMGBes/s320/IMG_1005.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431927298729377042" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div>Large, Catholic Church in Petropolis. Long live colonialism!</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S2IVHXqOy0I/AAAAAAAAACo/2eo7adKghJ0/s1600-h/IMG_1064.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S2IVHXqOy0I/AAAAAAAAACo/2eo7adKghJ0/s320/IMG_1064.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431927316916652866" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div>Jardim Botanico, absolutely gorgeous.</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S2IVHBj1MgI/AAAAAAAAACg/ODya48p4lX4/s1600-h/IMG_1040.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S2IVHBj1MgI/AAAAAAAAACg/ODya48p4lX4/s320/IMG_1040.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431927310984229378" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div>I have now officially registered with the Brazilian Federal Police! As many of you know, last semester I learned to strongly dislike and distrust bureaucracy, but I have now realized that Pacific's bureaucracy is NOTHING compared to what it is here. I should have known because of my visa craziness, but oh well. Another cultural experience. To cut it short, it took 2 days and 10 hours to finally have my passport looked at for 10 min and approved. And I will have to leave Brazil in July to get a new visa for my second semester. Fun times.<div><br /></div><div>On to more exciting things... The insane thunderstorms have calmed down and the sun is out again. Which means lots of beach time and exhausting games of sandy soccer, consequently why my foot is now swollen and purple, but it's worth it! I'm one of the only girls that plays, even in our group of foreigners, and that definitely gets some laughs and catcalls out of the Brazilians (not that really white gringos trying to play soccer isn't funny enough already!)!! This Sunday is the classic game between two Brazilian teams, Flamengo and Fluminense, in Maracana stadium. Maracana stadium is the huge soccer stadium in Rio that will be the centerpiece of the upcoming World Cup and Olympics. This is THE GAME TO SEE!! And we got tickets for $20 Reais (about $13 USD)!!!!!! I am so so SO excited. </div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S2IVF52Gc3I/AAAAAAAAACQ/ETKjnXc9kpQ/s1600-h/IMG_0971.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S2IVF52Gc3I/AAAAAAAAACQ/ETKjnXc9kpQ/s320/IMG_0971.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431927291733504882" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div>Samba jam session on Ipanema Beach with instruments, singers, and dancers.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div>Portuguese classes are over next Thursday and then begins the craziness of Carnaval and real vacation. Plans are being formed to try and go to Argentina, but we will see how that goes. My friend Melissa and I found an adorable little cafe and bookstore today that made me think of school and Olympia. Too bad books here are crazy expensive! Oh yes, and I tried cashew juice...a very strange and bitter experience. Also, there are these evil little ants here that get in EVERYTHING! No food or glass is safe. You have been warned.</div>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-7496964624239940262010-01-15T12:53:00.000-08:002010-01-22T10:56:54.534-08:00First Two Weeks in Brazil: SUCCESS<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S1nzlS148qI/AAAAAAAAACA/iTGRwa6LF-k/s1600-h/IMG_0941.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S1nzlS148qI/AAAAAAAAACA/iTGRwa6LF-k/s320/IMG_0941.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429638647810421410" border="0" /></a>This is Rio from the top of Sugerloaf Mountain. The mountain to the right is the Christ statue and I live to the left at the foot of it. Such a beautiful city!<br /><br />Today I finished my second week of Portuguese classes and had my first written exam. And got robbed! It was inevitable and I'm actually surprised I made it two weeks. My friend Lauren and I were walking in broad daylight around the lake near my house and four teenage guys ran up, surrounded us, and pulled out a knife. We handed over our phones damn fast and they ran off. We were a little shaken up, but we're fine. It's a good experience to have had and now we know what to be aware of for the future.<br /><br />My Portuguese has gotten a lot better and the heat isn't quite as stifling. I've been kept very busy with Portuguese classes Monday through Friday, which is really tiring, and then taking advantage of being in such an amazing city. My university took us on a city tour of some popular tourist destinations, which was fun, and then I've been exploring the beaches and parks some with other students (alone too, but that might end today).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S1nzjtetrzI/AAAAAAAAABg/F3qXIZhIsdw/s1600-h/IMG_0880.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S1nzjtetrzI/AAAAAAAAABg/F3qXIZhIsdw/s320/IMG_0880.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429638620601233202" border="0" /></a>Maracana Soccer Stadium. Home of Brasil!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S1nzkDpjDgI/AAAAAAAAABo/qGAK2rgy3S8/s1600-h/IMG_0901.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S1nzkDpjDgI/AAAAAAAAABo/qGAK2rgy3S8/s320/IMG_0901.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429638626552253954" border="0" /></a>Historic downtown Rio de Janeiro.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S1nzkrLMHpI/AAAAAAAAABw/qjX92fw4noA/s1600-h/IMG_0912.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S1nzkrLMHpI/AAAAAAAAABw/qjX92fw4noA/s320/IMG_0912.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429638637162339986" border="0" /></a>Sambodrono, where the famous Samba School parades happen during Carnaval.<br /><br />One thing I love about my bus ride to school, and Rio in general, is the amazing graffiti. It's on almost every wall and some of serious works of art. There's political, social, gang related, and just drawings. I will try to get some pictures up soon. It definitely brightens up the already beautiful city.Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-4192004506479930892010-01-07T12:53:00.000-08:002010-01-15T12:53:10.149-08:00Eu não falo Português.And so begins my semester at PUC-Rio. "I do not speak Portuguese." I appear to be one of the only international students here for the intensive Portuguese program who has not studied the language at all, ever. I tested into level 3 of 5 with the online test (Portuguese and Spanish are similar), but the oral test put me in level 1 as my pronunciation and actual knowledge of Portuguese is pretty nonexistent. It's a strange position to be in, but I am loving it!<br /><br />Today was orientation so I met the 130 other students who will be here this month. There isn't as much diversity as I would have liked, at least half of the students are from California! Mostly from UC Berkeley, UCSB, UCLA, and a couple of other UC schools. Apparently PUC and the UC system are very close; they even have an official representative with an office on campus! Other than that there are numerous other undergraduate students (the majority), grad students, entrepreneurs, army wives following their husbands, and travelers.<br /><br />PUC is only a 15-20min bus ride from my house, which is convenient. The campus is beautiful, though pretty empty now as the school is on vacation. Classes start Monday and are Mon-Fri from 8:30am-1pm.<br /><br />I definitely have much more freedom here than with my host family in Ecuador. I have my own key to the house and no real restrictions except boys aren't allowed to spend the night. I am truly enjoying myself so far and just need to get some more reais out of the bank, buy a cell phone, and learn to speak Portuguese!<br /><br />Tchau! MayaMayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-46678006981003046162010-01-06T07:29:00.000-08:002010-01-06T07:37:10.162-08:00BRAZIL!I arrived in Brazil this morning at 6am in insane heat and humidity. I met two other international students from my program, both from France, and we managed to communicate in a weird Portuguese/English/Spanish dialect. There was some confusion about family living situations which left me homeless for a couple of hours, but now it's sorted out and I am in a different house than I originally thought. I am living with a woman named Erminia who is a psychotherapist and has had many other students from my university stay with her. She informed me matter-of-factly after I arrived that I was now her daughter forever, which is fine with me! We live on the 9th floor of an apartment building close to a huge lake, 15-20 minutes from my university by bus, and about 30 minutes to Ipanema beaches. Tomorrow I have an orientation beginning at 9am in my university and Portuguese classes begin on Monday. Crazy exciting!Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-36671918408044144532010-01-03T16:02:00.000-08:002010-01-04T07:50:29.907-08:00New Years and Salinas<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S0IMrTxjkRI/AAAAAAAAABY/bowdTSI8VoA/s1600-h/IMG_0758.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S0IMrTxjkRI/AAAAAAAAABY/bowdTSI8VoA/s320/IMG_0758.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422910839489532178" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">We got back from Salinas, a beach town, yesterday after passing the weekend there in a borrowed house with my Ecuadorian family and three aunts and cousins. It was chaotic and crowded, but thus is life in a huge Ecuadorian family.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S0IMq5LyZfI/AAAAAAAAABQ/d5Y4z2I9he4/s1600-h/IMG_0721.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S0IMq5LyZfI/AAAAAAAAABQ/d5Y4z2I9he4/s320/IMG_0721.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422910832351798770" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">We spent New Years Eve in the house with mostly immediate family. At midnight it is tradition in Ecuador to burn paper mache dolls, called a</span><span style="">ñ</span><span style="font-family:arial;">o viejos, to represent the passing of the old year and welcoming the new one. Every house on our block contributed a doll to our huge exploding bonfire of paper mache, firecrackers, and gasoline. It is also a tradition to eat 12 grapes in one minute and say a wish for the coming year for every grape you eat. My younger sister Caroline fulfilled another tradition by running around the block carrying a suitcase, representing her desire to travel in the new year. After that we had a family dance party and ate a huge dinner of pig.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S0IMqf23xLI/AAAAAAAAABI/1cmjHpc1KTs/s1600-h/IMG_0771.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/S0IMqf23xLI/AAAAAAAAABI/1cmjHpc1KTs/s320/IMG_0771.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422910825553183922" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />We spent the weekend at the beach swimming, eating shrimp, bartering with street vendors, and dancing in a beachside club. And tomorrow I go to Brazil!!<br /></span>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4439749588984836674.post-38392351849279571032009-12-30T09:24:00.000-08:002010-01-06T07:41:29.844-08:00The Plan.Many of you know that I will be spending 2010 in Brazil studying abroad through my university. I will be in Rio de Janeiro the first semester and Salvador do Bahia the second semester. I will be taking mostly anthropology classes, though possibly some history, political science, and art classes as well. Oh yes, and lots of Portuguese classes! I will be living with a different host family each semester, in Rio I believe my host family lives in Copacabana, which should be interesting and crazy!<br />I leave for Brazil the 5th of January and arrive the 6th. Right now I am in Ecuador once more visiting my host family from the exchange program I did in high school with AFS. I was supposed to arrive here in Ecuador on the 23rd of December, but because of bad weather in the U.S. I didn't arrive until almost midnight on Christmas day. Despite my late arrival, all of my Ecuadorian family stayed to see me and three cars overflowing with people met me at the airport and escorted me home. It's so wonderful to be back and see everyone again! Not much has changed, which is wonderful and strange at the same time. I seem to have fit right back in, except for the mid-90 degree weather, 50% humidity, and swarms of mosquitoes. But my Spanish is working really well! Everyone has been complementing me on it and someone on the bus yesterday thought I was from Argentina because my Spanish was so good!<br />So far I have spent my time here reconnecting with my family and yesterday I went around the city with some of my friends from high school who are now studying in university and working. We went to my friend Andres' university also and it made me really excited to start classes again. What a nerd I am. I also went to el Parque Historico with my family and the exchange student they have living with them now from Germany, Julija.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/SzuW2ilSs8I/AAAAAAAAAAw/aiPth4v4Wbw/s1600-h/IMG_0616.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/SzuW2ilSs8I/AAAAAAAAAAw/aiPth4v4Wbw/s320/IMG_0616.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421092440210846658" border="0" /></a>Afterward we went to see all of the ano viejos, paper mache dolls that are burned on New Years Eve. There were a lot of Michael Jackson dolls this year. Tomorrow will be New Years craziness and we are going to the beach for the weekend.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/Szue1rKRQAI/AAAAAAAAABA/nGSjSK_3TP8/s1600-h/IMG_0638.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gIuaMWPc-Pk/Szue1rKRQAI/AAAAAAAAABA/nGSjSK_3TP8/s320/IMG_0638.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421101221426577410" border="0" /></a>I hope everyone has a wonderful new year and I will try to write again soon.<br />MayaMayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03637064432938097986noreply@blogger.com1