Looks like Plan Z!

hello everyone,

so.. theres been a change of plans, a HUGE change of plans. long story very short, at the end of a long bus-ridden day to sao paulo, i get to the airport (headed for bolivia) only to find out that the documentation i had for yellow fever* wasnt going to be accepted in bolivia, which meant i couldnt even get on the plane.. *as of december bolivia is now requiring visas for US citizens, including a yellow fever vaccination, which ive had, but we didnt know about the visa till after i left (my lonely planet was published in march), and i didnt have the proper proof with me, great. so i literally spent the next 4 hours running back and forth between all the airlines and phones and internet and meanwhile my gigantuan (is that a word?) backpack was painfully going with me. i cancelled my flight to bolivia just in time to get most of a refund, and changed my return flight home just in time to catch the last flight to the states.. that very minute. i barely had time to call my mom to desperately ask her to pick me up from san fran the next morning. it all happened sooooo fast, i couldnt believe i was heading home. but deep down, i was actually really relieved, this whole trip was really stressing me out and i didnt have a good feeling about it ever since we found out about the visa. something is to be said for women's intuition on that one. like i said, this was a long complicated, emotional and stressful story short, there were more details than what i mentioned, everything was working against us. luckily amanda was a saint and helped me through it and we decided we would use our budget and time to take a 2 week vacation somewhere else. and within an hour of getting into my moms car the next day, that somewhere else quickly became 2 tickets to hawaii. hawaii? i cant believe i was supposed to be in bolivia, now im in tahoe, and in a couple days ill be in hawaii. but im SO excited! i was joking that i want to bring a real suitcase instead of my backpack just to be different, (or would that be normal?). and purses that i dont need to zip for fear of getting something stolen (of course ill be careful anyway), and dresses and cute shoes (not that i really own many), because for a 10 day trip i will have room for that stuff in my suitcase, and i can justify bringing it:) we will be staying with a friend of amanda's on some beach that has a name like kahlua, sounds good to me. ive never been to hawaii, and ive really been wanting to go, and now i actually feel like im going on vacation. i think vacation is different from traveling, at least the way that i usually travel.

in the end i am of course bummed that i wont be hiking machu picchu just yet, but i really cant complain about going back to the beach. plus ive had such a good time with friends in just the 2 days ive been home, so its good. 

and, i do have to say that i am really proud of myself, because i figured out this entire problem, worked through it with all the different airline personnel, ALL in portuguese! i was almost beside myself listening to me talk, the words were all coming out so fast, i mean, i was stressed, emotional, totally clueless as to what to do, and i was able to explain everything, ask all my questions, and do everything in portuguese, you guys would have been really proud of me. at one point i was frustrated and i asked the woman if she spoke english, she said no but go on, im understanding you fine, and then she said oh well i speak spanish, do you speak spanish? my goodness, you dont know how hard it is to switch from one romance language to another, even to spanish which i speak so much better than portuguese, and i couldnt do it. i couldnt even think of a single word, which is actually normal in that situation, but it just made me realize how far id come with the language. and that was one good thing about the horror of the situation. 

so, im sure i will put up a post or two from hawaii if you want to read about our daring adventures to a foreign land that im sure will be full of beaching, surfing, tanning (thats a definite), hiking, and who knows what else. south america will just have to wait a little longer, cuz we both promise, we will make it eventually! so until hawaii...  aloha!

i went sandboarding!

it was probably the most exciting thing ive done yet in brazil, though i was also really scared i was going to kill myself. im a skier, the whole sideways thing never worked too well for me, and i heard that sandboarding is a lot more dangerous than it looks (don't worry mom, i didnt even fall!) i pretty much handled it like a pro:) the dunes are huge, and there was a big bowl that we just kept climbing up and going down, luckily it was cloudy, otherwise it wouldve been scorching. only one other guy wanted to try it with me, he crashed and burned a few times, but in the end it was super fun and i would definitely do it again. and ive got some hilarious videos. and it really made me want to try snowboarding again, but i guess that will depend on getting me away from the beach and back to the mountains when its winter time..
a few days ago we (the canadian girls and the english guy and i) took a "lovely" boatride out on the lake to a little village about half an hour along the shore. it was sooooo beautiful, and for the first time since ive been here, i really really missed lake tahoe (people in tahoe dont be offended, im talking about the actual lake) and im sad about not living there this summer, even though i know bozeman will be awesome. i love the ocean, but theres just something about lakes that will always get me. theyre so peaceful, and the houses along the shoreline all make me want to live in them. we ate some awesome seafood and walked to a little waterfall, it was a really nice afternoon. its crazy having the lake near the ocean, its literally the best of both worlds in one place. if only there were high mountains with snow:)...
it was good to have some excitement, because this week has actually been pretty stressful for me, planning my route to amanda, aka la paz, bolivia, by the morning of the 18th. and i know some of you at home think that travel is all sun and fun, but unfortunately, its not, and youd never believe the extent of planning and exhaustive researching ive been doing these last few days just to see if la paz is even possible. in the end, it looks like it will be, though expensive, possible. my plans just keep changing by no fault of my own, and since i was supposed to set off on this 6 day adventure tomorrow, and still didnt know what i was going to do, it was tough. today i received more news that completely changed my plans yet again, but apparently this was better, because i think i finally know what im doing. im going to stay with the canadians for a few days and then bus it to sao paulo where i can catch a flight to santa cruz, bolivia. this means im avoiding "the death train" so mom you can rest easier. ill have a few days in santa cruz to figure out getting to la paz, which will be much much easier once im actually there. then itll only be a couple days till i meet amanda and we start our exciting two weeks to copacabana, lake titicaca, and on to cuzco and machu picchu, yay! after that i might just find a beach and stay there for another month, i like this lifestyle.
on the homefront, were having a goodbye dinner for me at my house tonight, just some of the closer friends ive made, were going to make moqueca, a brazilian seafood dish, some typical crab appetizer of some sort, and tapioca for dessert (no its not pudding), which i made all by myself! pretty much. ill be bringing home some great recipes, and some really great memories. its crazy how one month flies by, but at the same time it feels like ive been here for a long time. im speaking conversational portuguese which was my main goal, picked up samba and forro enough to know that ill forever be a salsa dancer, and added a bunch of new friends to my worldwide collection. so i would say it was a success.
the next few days hopefully ill be stress-free on the beach, then be able to muster up all my energy to take on bolivia. for those of you who have actually called me, i leave brazil on the night of the 15th, so no more phone after that, but i might get a chip in peru too. who knows. bom fim de semana para todos.. ate bolivia!

so many beaches, so little time..

olá! so ive figured out that we are pretty much in september weather right now, summer is "over" and all the students have gone back to university, and its getting cold, but its still mostly nice. so weve been taking advantage of every sunny day and going to the beaches. i hung out with hennia from holland and jeremy from san diego for a little while, which was nice. strangely enough they are both gone now, but such is the way of the school down here. i met a couple canadian girls, we went out the other night with my friend jim from minnesota to see a jazz-ish type trio, the music was amazing, and they were so nice! and we drank strawberry caipivodkas, dangerous! we also all went out dancing one night at a club that plays forró music only. so it was interesting, i was expecting it to be super fun, but it really just made me miss salsa, cuz really forró itsnt as fun, and the guys that i danced with werent really all that great. but whatever, when in rome..
i also went out with ariana and hennia one night to dance samba, it was samba de raiz, i didnt even know i could dance it, but the steps are all pretty similar, and wow, that made the forró seem awesome. i think i just found it boring, cuz the guys werent even twirling me around, how boring is that! but the band was really good. its all about the experience. so i think were going out dancing again this weekend, but now i guess i know what to expect a little more.
as for school, luckily (because shes awesome) we got the same teacher 2 weeks in a row. by the end of the second week we had gone through every single verb congujation, like how to say "if i were you, i would.. and i would have if i could have..." stuff like that, which usually comes after like 2 years of language study. awesome! so now were practicing vocab and conversation and using what weve learned. i gave a presentation in class yesterday about the history of brazil from discovery to independence, and it was actually really cool. i only talked for like 5 minutes or so, but i never hesitated or anything, it was easier than i thought it would be, so i was excited:) i almost feel like i speak more portuguese than italian now, but i think thats cuz its really hard to switch between romance languages since theyre so similar, i even speak portuguese when im trying to speak spanish, so i dont think i need to worry. i just need to go back to italy!
so one thing that has been kinda stressing me out lately is my trip after i leave here, we found out that since december of 2007 bolivia is requiring visas ($100 visas- ouch) for US citizens, so now amanda and i are tyring to figure things out for that. and my route to la paz so far doesnt exist, im tyring to figure out which way to go, cuz paraguay requires a $50 visa too, buses take days and arent the safest, but theyre cheap, and anyone ive ever talked to about bolivia has warned me not to go there alone- i thought, yeah right! like i would! and guess what... now im pretty sure i am, so im trying to be positive about it, im finding out good things that are starting to outweigh the horror stories, so im sure itll all work out. but i only have another week! i cant believe ive already been here almost 3 weeks, actually its not even that, its that i only have a week left. weird. im gonna be in peru before i know it. with amanda! im so excited for that.
so this week its been pretty cold, so i started running again (im training already for the ridge run daryl!) and thats been really nice. near my house is the big highway-type road that goes along the water, its all lit up at night and has ample space for runners, walkers, and bikers, so its super safe and theres always tons of people running, its awesome at night. ive also really taken time to talk to ariana, its so fun. shes probably my best friend here, its just like having a great roommate, we can talk about all sorts of things, and hang out, like girls should. and our director at school has taken some of us out lately too, us being me and some other brasilians, so i always am speaking portuguese. and thats really the reason im here, so by the end of next week im sure ill be able to say im more than satisfied with what ive experienced here. its a lot for a month.
oh- james youll be proud of me, i bought new flip flops, and they work in the rain! and theyre red:) i also got another pair of brazilian sandals, a new sarong and some shirts, oh and i did buy a brasilian bikini top..but only the top, the bottoms here are missing a lot:) im definitely gonna have to send a bag home with amanda, but thats okay! so anyway i think the ice cream in my freezer is calling my name.. next time i write hopefully ill know where im going in a week! hope all is well!! tchau.. jaque (thats how they spell my name here..)