First of all...wow! Rio is beeaauutifuuul!! Its funny because technically, this is their winter time. Umm...70-80 degree weather is their winter? AWESOME! Also, the volunteer house is simply amazing and houses so many volunteers! I took some pictures but they just don't do this place justice. I'm staying in the trendy neighborhood of Santa Teresa, which is a bright and colorful place complete with cobblestone roads and graffiti-covered buildings. Actually, graffiti covers EVERYTHING in Rio...but it just fits in with Rio's "rhythm". I'm currently trying to learn this rhythm so that I can stop being stressed by how intense Rio is, and just learn how to go with the flow.
Yesterday, me and Tanica took the bus down to Ipanema beach. BEAUTIFUL white-sand beaches with sapphire blue waters. We bought a coconut drink and was surprised at how delicious it was. It was so relaxing watching the waves and feeling the tide at my feet. Next chance we get we're going back to Ipanema and then to Copacabana beach and getting us some more coconut drinks! We also went grocery shopping yesterday and it was quite the experience. We've been making and eating a bunch of pasta and just sharing dinner. We have our own boxes that we store our food in and then upstairs there is an outdoor kitchen with pots and pans and everything you need to cook it. Things are pretty pricey here so hopefully we don't spend all our money on food...this particular program only serves breakfast so we're in charge of making our own lunches and dinners.
Something that is getting really frustrating really fast is the language barrier. It took us 5-10 minutes yesterday to order a simple meal from Mcdonalds. I really should've learned a few phrases in Portuguese before coming here.
Unfortunately, Tanica was really sick today and slept most of the day so we stayed in and just did our own thing today. Tomorrow we are going to be introduced to our volunteer projects and then they will be showing us where all the grocery stores, laundromats, and banks are. Our volunteer hours will be Monday through Thursday from 9AM-2PM.
Overall, me and Tanica have been trying to recover from Jetlag and have been taking it easy these first few days. I have also been kind of homesick. Everything here is different obviously and so its going to take some getting used to things, but hopefully we'll get a routine down and feel more comfortable here. We still are really nervous about pickpockets and so we've been hyper-aware of our surroundings. There are A LOT of volunteers, a lot of different personalities from different countries, and we somehow have to learn how to make it work and keep things positive. I plan to lose myself in the service and volunteer work that I came here to do. I know that if I do that, everything will work out.
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