well then,

I have been taking potugues classes. Meu familia e muito legal. Those are going well but it is difficult to study when there is so much to see and do and I hear the language so much of the day.

My family is very nice. They made me vegetarian food and are friendly. They are very busy so they dont take me out, but by the end of the day all i want to do is sleep.

On tuesday we had a capaweara workshop. I dont know if i spelled it or anything else right but it is a dance and form of fighting that was traditionally pacticed by the african slaves of brazil. It was a way to be fit and ready for fighting the people that kept them captive because they passed it as a dance. Muito pessona capaweara dancam. So do a little research about it. It is very physically taxing and looks kind of like break dancing at points.

Last saturday I went to the farmers market and bought this really good organic tofu spread. It was 5 reals (pronounces heails) or around $us2.50. I have eaten at three vegetarian buffets that are really good. They are all less then $R12 or $6US.

I made diner for my family last night with meu amigo Carlin (Cody was suppose to come but had a cold). We spent um hora e vince minutos em supermarkado. The first time I went to a grocerystore about a week ago I was planning on purching to beers some garlic and bananas. After waiting in this line for 15 to 20 min, I got up there and she held up the bananas e garlic and said something really fast. Assuming that she was asking if they were mine I said "sim" and with out realizing it only walked out with the beers. It took me a few days to figure out that in brazil you get your bulk items weighed in the produce section. So.. I knew this yesterday, but spent forever finding tofu and finding coconut milk and trying to understand spices. Eventually Carlin and I got out of the store and back to my families house. All the cooking was going well until we discovered that what I thought was a hot pepper seasoning was actually plain dry red food coloring. After a good laugh we ate the okay non-curry dish with my family and they pretended to like it...

O ya...

31/8-6/9 Marine Lab-Key Largo Florida
8/9-14/9 Salto Morato Reserve Parana
15/9-22/9 Curitiba/Homestay, Parana
23-28/9 Foz do Iguacu, Parana
29-30/9 Curitiba, Parana
1-6/10 Ilha do Cardoso Sao Paulo State
7-8/10 Curitiba
9-11/10 Salvador, Bahia
12-14/10 Federal District of Brasilia
15-18/10 Santarem, Para
19-23/10 Manaus, Amozonas
24-28/10 Pantanal, Mato Grosso
29-31/10 Curitiba, Parana
1-28/11 Internship-- i don´t know where yet
29-5/11 Curitiba--everyone leaves and I stay until...
7/3 Sally flies to Miami

Wow.. it is already going by really fast.
I am excited to get out of the city again. It is easy to get overwellmed when you only understand a tenth of what is said. I fell like curitiba is my home in brazil because we come back here through out the trip. I kind of want to do my internship here, but we will see what is available... blah blah.. you probably care that much how I feel and how confusing life is.

Sal is salt in portugues (pronounced differently then my nick name) but it is funny to see everywhere. I saw a bar called mustange sally. There is alcool e gasoline for carros. My favorite brazilian name is Joao. Its said joe-aww-- with a nose sound. I miss people in the us but i dont really miss EUS (USA). There are elections going on now, it is interesting to see all the posters, stickers,flags, etc. In brasil people can vote at 16 and have to vote after 18. They cannot drive until 18 and can drink at 18 (except no one cares as long as you arent 10).

Anyway. I better go do my homework and stuff

-sal