The Important Things

Today is my last day in Florianópolis.  It's been my home for the past four months, and I've loved it.  There are a lot of things I'm going to miss, and I'm not feeling even sort of ready to leave.  But I also don't think it's hit me yet that I'm really leaving.

Anyway, this isn't supposed to be a sob story or whiney-post, so...moving right along:

Besides the knot of emotions I feel about leaving, today I have felt SO many different things, and I want to share some of them.

First,  today I experienced the joy of bringing a non-member friend to Church.  Two friends, in fact!

Story one:  Last Saturday, I was sleeping at Lisa's house and had the feeling I should go invite her roommate, Beth, to church with us.  But she was busy talking to Lisa, so I laid down while I waited for them to finish....and fell asleep.  But then the next day, Lisa was like, "Beth says she'll come to church with us next week!"  Turns out, that's what they had been talking about.  Apparently we really needed to invite her because we both got the same feeling at almost the exact same time.  And this week she went with us!

Story two:  When we first got here, our landlady/dona/host "mom" invited us to church with her, and said she'd come to ours as well.  We finally picked a day (she goes to church Tuesday evenings, so we had to wait for a day class was cancelled), and went to church with her.  But this whole time we've been here she still hasn't been able to come with us.  Well, last night as we were walking in (super late at night, as she was getting ready to go to a party) I found myself asking if she wanted to come with us since it's our last week, and she said yes!

Morals of these stories:
1) Invite your friends to church!  It was hard to ask Dalci (mostly 'cuz I'm still shy to speak hardly at all around her), but I did.  And she said yes.  And she came.  And now she has a Book of Mormon and the Relief Society President's phone number.  And an invite to the ward Christmas party.  Could it have possibly gone any better??  I haven't had a chance yet to talk to Beth about anything,  but she seemed to enjoy it and actually tried to listen to everything.
2)  Church leaders are awesome, and the Church is true.  I don't think I've ever been so intently focused on how the lessons are affecting the people around me, but today I kept wondering "Did she need to hear that?"  "I wonder if she took that the right way.." etc., and realized that I really wasn't too worried, because more importantly than anything they said at church, was what my friends felt, and that depends more on God than anything else, and I'm sure they felt the spirit there.  And that's the most important thing.   (Side note: I'm giving Dalci a BoM today.  She got one at church, but already had one I was planning to give her with some marked verses and my testimony.)

Other fun lesson at church today:  You WILL have to do EVERYTHING your last week at church.  After almost 6 whole months in Brazil, I've still managed to avoid saying prayers ...and today they made me say one.  (wasn't terrible, I don't think, but certainly not that good...)  And then they asked me to play piano.  Which I do every other week anyway, but they usually let us know in advance.  And then I bore my testimony.  AH!  Yes, I really did.  In Portuguese.  And it was nerve-wracking, but ended up going pretty well, I thought.

Mostly, I was just proud of myself for doing it all.  It was hard, but it went okay.  And I also wished I could be more brave in everything I do...so that after 6 months in a country I'm not still shy to speak in front of people and do simple things like offering prayers.

Anyway, I can't remember what else I was feeling today, and I have lots to get done.  Maybe more later.  I just wanted to get this written down before I forget it all! :)

Sometimes I do awesome things

Like this weekend.

Kaitlyn, Lisa, and I decided to go to Iguaçu Falls for a few days.

It was incredible.

I'm pretty sure this was the best 3-day weekend EVER.

Here's a bit about the trip:

We hopped on a bus and enjoyed (or at least survived in semi-comfort) the 14-ish hour bus ride from Florianópolis to Iguaçu.  We rode through the night and got to our hostel around 10 or 11.  Not even noon, and we were exhausted.  But we didn't want to waste any of our precious time taking a nap or anything, and we couldn't check in till 12 anyway, so we just headed to the Falls.  

(Disclaimer:  Yes, that means that all of our pictures of us are post-14 hour bus ride on minimal sleep.  Don't judge. :)

They have a train that runs from the park entrance up to the top of the falls, which has the most spectacular view.  But you can also get off and hike out to overlooks and stuff along the way.  A lot of the trails cost additional money (lame!), but we got off at an earlier stop and hiked to all the mini-overlooks leading up to the big one.  

I was SO glad we did. 

The trail was beautiful, and we got to see lots of animals (including lizards, tons of butterflies, coatis, and even a monkey).  It also was really cool, because the view to the falls just kept getting more spectacular.  It was like, "Hey, that's cool"...to..."Wow, that's really beautiful"...to..."This is INCREDIBLE!!!"

So here's a picture of me and Kaitlyn at the beginning...see those cute little waterfalls in the background?

Oh wait.  They're not little.  You get up close and they turn into this:

Yeah, it was amazing.  Pictures really can't even begin to capture how spectacular they were.

The next day, we decided to go to ARGENTINA!

Yes, the country.

We really did just decide to take a day-trip to another country.

Say whaaat??

Yeah, we're that cool.

Here's us standing on the border.  I really liked that the wall changed colors at the border.  

(Fun fact:  We also liked that---completely unintentionally---Lisa dressed up to match the Brazil side and I wore my Argentina-stripes shirt)

Here's me and Lisa standing on the Argentina side!

Can I just say that, as much as I love Brazil, the view from the Argentina side is WAY cooler??

Because it really is.

You get to walk basically up on top of the biggest waterfall, and you can see the way the water just dumps over the edge.  Pictures really can't capture just how much water is constantly falling.  It also creates a really cool, frothy mist that makes the water look like it has such a fluffy texture.  Pictures can't capture that either.

Some other fun highlights from the day in Argentina:

- Cool hiking trails.

- Going to an island (the boat ride out was included in park entrance!) and hiking up to get a different view of the waterfalls.

- And riding a boat (not free, but significantly cheaper on the Argentina side) UNDER one of the falls.  Not free, but SO worth it.  I think it also made me appreciate the falls a lot more; just looking at them you can tell that there is a ton of water falling, but when you feel the water pounding down you realize just how powerful the water is.  And they don't even take you under the heaviest part of the waterfall!  When you watch other boats do it, it looks super sissy...but then you do it and you're like, "That was totally WICKED!"

Really, words can't describe how incredible this trip was.  

And I know pictures can't capture it either, but they can probably get a lot closer, so here are some of my favorite pictures of the falls:

(Note:  I played a little bit with settings on my camera as I took pictures, but basically this is just how cool it looked.  No post-shot editing.)

So beautiful.

I never knew I had a thing for butterflies

Until this trip.

Well, I suppose that's not entirely true.  I've always thought butterflies are beautiful.

But on this trip, I found myself captivated by just how stunningly beautiful and unique they all were.

I probably took over 200 pictures of butterflies and other insects and animals on this trip.  No, I didn't take the time to upload *all* of them... but here are a few of my favorites:

I really liked this lizard.  I'm pretty sure he was smiling for the picture :)

One of my favorite butterflies from the whole trip
(plus I think the picture turned out pretty well)

Ah, this butterfly was EVERYWHERE.  It was SO cool, but I am so sad I couldn't get a single picture of the inside of their wings; it's a beautiful blue on the inside.  Luckily the outside is so cool I'm still satisfied!

Another butterfly I really liked :)


Then, after spending a full two days looking at the Falls in Brazil and Argentina, we spent our last day at a ridiculously awesome bird park, where I took even more pictures!

Oh ya know, just me hanging out with a toucan.

Did you know there are about 40 different species of toucans?? 

(I suppose I hadn't really ever put much thought into exactly how many types of toucans I thought there were, but I was definitely surprised to learn there were so many!)  

This little guy had a cool green beak and kept trying to get in pictures with people.  I thought he was pretty cool.

Now, you might be wondering:  If I have SO many good pictures of toucans that I could have chosen from to post, why in the world would I pick this one?  You can't even see his sweet beak!
Well, it's because I LOVED this bird's eyes.  

Is that weird?  Probably a little bit.  Then again, maybe not.  Because they really were neat.  

(And besides, you all know what toucans look like, and you can see the whole toucan in the picture I'm in.)

Ha.  Whooda thunk that a toucan could be such a good photobomber??  Lisa got some good pictures of this type of toucan, but this picture just makes me laugh, so I had to post it anyway.  I don't even want to admit how many of my attempts to photograph this particular bird ended up like this... I think he was trying to be photogenic and pose, but he just kept being all...awkward.  Ha ha.
A bird after my own heart. :)

Next at the bird park, we went to an enclosure for hummingbirds and butterflies!

Sadly/frustratingly, my pictures here didn't turn out as well.  But still, it was cool to see so many different types of hummingbirds (some with black and white stripes--those were awesome!) and butterflies with wings that each had unique patterns and ranged in size from about one to five inches.

Really, you had to be there.  It was gorgeous.  I loved it.  But, since you didn't get to be there, here are some pictures of the hummingbirds so you can pretend you were. :)

I just liked this owl's face.  Isn't he so cute??

And then...

Macaws!

They have an enclosure for macaws, too, so you can walk through and get really close to them.  They have huge beaks though...so I wouldn't suggest getting too close.
The thing that most amazed me was how LOUD they were!  Seriously.  You know that sound typically associated with parrots?  The annoying squawk?  Yeah, they totally make that sound.  And then when you get a whole area full of them trying to out-squawk each other, it's ridiculous.  But in a cool way.

This guy was kind of funny, too.  He'd go get food then bring it over and sit on the rail and watch us.  Again, kind of scary (as much as I love animals, their big claws and stuff still make me nervous) but super cool.

Just me again, ya know, with some macaws in the background...

(sorry you can't see any of the "traditional" red ones in any of these pictures.  We DID see those, too, but apparently they didn't make the cut for the photos.)

And then just me being cool because I have a macaw on my shoulder.

I think I look like a pirate.

Well, no, I don't actually.

I'm probably too smiley to be a pirate.

But I'm okay with that.

Because it was still awesome. :)

Delicious :)

Remember that time (like 20 seconds ago) when I wrote about eating SO much dessert?  Well, on our way home, Kaitlyn and I decided that, even though we were still so full of ice cream, we needed some sort of real food.

Well, the store we decided to explore didn't have any good food food..but they DID have something even better:

Manioke/macaxeira/yucca chips!!!  We used to eat them in Tonga and I loved them...and they have them HERE in Brazil!  In a store a 2 minute walk from my house!

They even have them salsa flavored, and they are delicious.  It makes me so happy! :)

"Welcome to the Mission"

Yesterday, we (Katilyn, Lisa, and I) went to our friend's house.  She's the ward chorister and is really nice, and randomly invited us over for ice cream!  Of course we said yes, because who's ever turned down ice cream??  Heehee.  Anyway, we went over at 3pm, and figured it'd just be a small bowl of ice cream and some chatting.

That was where we were wrong.

The "small bowl" of ice cream was a SOUP BOWL full of scoops of ice cream, a piece of cake, and some pudding stuff.  It was really good, but boy was there a lot!

We ate, we talked, and eventually finished our bowls.

At which point Vera told us to eat more.

So we did.

When she brought back my bowl with even MORE stuff on it, Kaitlyn and Lisa both sort of chuckled and whispered to me, "Welcome to the mission!!"  Haha.

I've been in several situations in various countries where I've chosen to eat more in favor of not offending someone.  But I think yesterday was the funniest to me, because Vera wouldn't eat more!  After scooping us all seconds (despite our attempts at turning more down), she took her plate over to the sink.  Lisa was like, "What?  You're not going to eat more?"  And she looked sort of sheepish and confessed that she didn't have room.

Say whaat?

Yeah.  Seriously.

Hahaha.  It made me laugh.

Then we finished our second bowl, topped it off with some fresh juice (nothing like orange juice to compliment chocolate ice cream...), and then talked for another hour.

I sure like her.  And everyone, really.

People are so nice.  I like them.

I'm not sure how to end this post....so...the end! :)

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission!

Wow.  Did you hear General Conference?!?  Can you believe they changed the mission age?!!  I heard rumors that they might last conference, but wasn't even thinking about it this time...and then, they did!  My mind is a little bit blown... in a good way :)

Honestly, I'm not sure how this applies to ME yet, but I am so excited for all the changes it means for the church.  I have SO many friends that are starting their papers right now, and here I am, in Brazil, wondering what I want to do.

I've already decided that I am going to serve, the question is when.  And right now, I'm still planning on waiting till at least the end of winter semester, maybe later, depending on what else falls into place.

But I am so excited about this change.

ALSO:

I just loved General Conference!!!  I think I've gotten a lot better at listening with a purpose and actually paying attention during conference over the last few years, and this year was amazing.  Despite a lack of sleep and spending almost the entire 2 hour break on Saturday running around with two kids, I didn't fall asleep, or even come close, a single time.

All the talks felt personal.  All of them were powerful.  And all of them taught me something.

I also had the unique experience this conference of watching with nonmembers.  5 of the other students that are here in Brazil with me from other universities in the US are members of other churches, but they have been increasingly interested in the gospel, and also in being willing to talk about general church-related principles, etc.  They attend FHE with us almost every week, and all of them watched at least one talk with us (Pres. Monson being the favorite...of course!).  They watched his talk at the end of the Sunday morning session,  and then kept coming in for the rest of the afternoon sessions, trying to catch bits of his talks and even listened to talks from the other members.  They seemed sincerely interested, and actually focused...I don't think any of them were watching just because they wanted us to be happy at having been able to share the gospel with them; it was like they really WANTED to listen, and that they were interested in what was being said.

We also had a good talk between sessions about why we have general conference, why we take notes (it never occurred to me that they would find note-taking during church strange haha), and who the different leaders are that speak.

It was so neat.

I love Conference.  I won't share all the really personal spiritual experiences on a public blog, but I did have them.  I am so grateful for President Monson and the Priesthood and that we have a living prophet on the earth today!  I love the gospel, and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ.

PS.  I came to the conclusion yesterday, while on the immediate post-Conference spiritual high of wanting to save the world and be better in every possible way, that if Conference coincided with New Year's, I might actually be able to stick to my New Year's resolutions.  :)

Read ALL the blogs!!

What's that?  You don't think I've been faithful enough in posting on this blog?  Okay, okay.  I admit that once a month or so is a little pathetic.

I'd like to promise that I'll change and be better....but the fact is that I might not.

It really just depends on what's happening.

And what mood I'm in.

And if I feel like telling you about stuff.

BUT, never fear!  In case you're feeling neglected by my lack of diligent blogging, here's a link to my friend Kaitlyn's blog, complete with videos of our attempts at sandboarding, cooking, and a few other adventures.  [Note:  Her computer is the bandwidth hog/reason I can't upload pictures...so hers has the added bonus of visual aids!]

Check it out:

yoquieroloschurros.blogspot.com

Aren't you so excited to read more about our adventures?  :)

I LOVE HOSPITALS!!! :D

Actually, that's a lie.

I don't really love hospitals.

But I AM grateful for them!

I have now been to hospitals in 3 different countries on 3 continents, and although I hope I get to travel more....I would certainly be fine stopping the list of hospitals there :)

This time it wasn't anything serious; I just needed a blood test.  Another girl in our group has had a weird/sharp/constant pain in her side for a few days and wanted to get it checked out, so yesterday she and I went with Lisa and Geovana to the hospital.

And by "hospital" I mean "hospitals" because we ended up going to 4.

The first one had a waiting time of several hours.

At the second one, they told us there were only four people in front of us in line.  After about 20 minutes of waiting, Geovana came and told us we were leaving, because not ONE of the four had gone.  (Turns out, they were on some sort of shift-change or something, and the doctors weren't actually going to start seeing patients for another half hour, or something like that...)  So we tried again.

The third one was ridiculously expensive.

The fourth one was a success!

All I needed was a blood test, but you need a doctor's recommendation.  So after a short talk with the doctor, during which he informed me that he didn't think my problems were serious enough to need a blood test, but he'd go ahead and give me one just to be safe.  Oh, and he said that the pain and stuff I've been having will just come and go for the rest of my life.

Awesome, right?

Well, I still haven't gotten the results from the blood test, but I'm pretty sure they'll come back normal.  At least, I hope they do!  Either way though, I'm in a surprisingly good mood.  I wish there were something they could do to stop the pain (or that I could just not be a baby about it ;), but life is good.

I have two legs.  I can run.  I can throw a ball.  I can breathe and eat and think for myself.  They seem like little things, but they really are huge blessings.

And I think that makes me pretty lucky :)

Just life.

Hmm, yet another of Michelle's blog's bites the dust.

Just kidding.  I'm not quitting blogging, I just haven't had much to blog about lately.  Plus, I still can't get pictures to upload at an even semi-reasonable speed, so you'll just have to wait for those.

Anyway, for those who still check this blog or want to know what's going on down here, here's some of what's been going on:

Bipolar weather.  Actually, not so much bipolar as just cold.  When I got here from the north, it was obviously colder (given the geography), but now as it moves into "summer", you'd think it would be getting warmer, right?

Wrong.  So many fun plans have been foiled by the rain.  Mostly because Florianópolis is a little bit lacking in cool cultural sites (as far as we can tell, anyway, and most of the people we ask seem to agree), so the main sources of entertainment are hiking and beaches, but it's been too cold.

We have been making a bit of progress on our research projects, and trying to keep on top of school and tests.  Oh, the good news?  Guess who got a perfect score on her first test in Portuguese?  Lisa!  Oh yeah, and me.  Haha.  We both got 10/10. (I think it would have been more exciting to get 100/100...but I'll take what I can get :)  I suppose I don't REALLY have bragging rights, since I think he was a little more generous with my score, given the language barrier, but still!  I didn't fail! :D

Ah yes, and despite the uncooperative weather, we did discover a rather cool ecological park last week.  It's a combination of a zoo and a regular park, but more towards the park than the zoo...  Lots of open areas, playground equipment, stands for popcorn and cotton candy, a few trails, and of course, the animals.  I'm pretty sure nobody would be able to guess in 10 tries which animals they had in cages.

Did you guess?

If you guessed lions, bears, or anything remotely exotic.....you're wrong.

If you guessed rabbits, turtles, or guinea pigs, then congratulations---you proved ME wrong! :)

Funny, right?  I think I mostly found it amusing because those animals were in cages, while the alligator just chilled in the pond and the monkeys were just free in the surrounding trees.  (Caged guinea pigs and wild monkeys?  Seems so backwards, but I guess that's the difference between Utah and Brazil!)

Portuguese kind of plateaued for a while, and while the progress is still sometimes frustratingly slow, it IS coming!

All in all, life really is good.  I can't wait for the weather to warm up again so we can do more exploring and see more of the beautiful landscapes and beaches here, but I really am happy.

I am so blessed, and life is so very good. :)

Awkward x 10. Plus 4.

My awesome friend Lisa always describes things, and then adds "Plus 4!" to add emphasis.  Sometimes we use even bigger numbers to REALLY add effect.

Anyway, have you ever been the "new kid"?  It's your first day of school, and the teacher asks you to stand up and introduce yourself to the class?  I always hated that.

And it totally happened to me today...but way worse.

Actually, it wasn't that bad...  Technically, tonight was just a cool cultural experience, but one particular aspect of it pulled me way out of my comfort zone.

We (Lisa, Kaitlyn, and I) went to a Catholic church today with Dalci, the Brazilian lady we live with.  The meeting itself was super interesting, full of lots of insights into my own beliefs.  Very thought provoking.  I didn't understand everything, but liked a lot of what I understood.

Then, at the very end...

The pastor was talking and I heard the word "international" and thought, "Hey, that's me!"

Then he said gestured to us and introduced the three Americans who were here doing an exchange program (we had met him before the meeting, so he already knew where we were from/what we were doing in Floripa), at which point I thought, "Hmm....this just got embarrassing."  And THEN...

He called us up to the front.

We walked up sort of awkwardly (ok, maybe it was REALLY awkwardly) to the front, where we stood for a second and he re-introduced us, including the fact that we are Mormons from Utah.

But we smiled and waved, and tried to be un-awkward.

Then they all clapped.

And we walked back to our seats...feeling even more awkward than before.

Ha.

Remember how I hated those days when you had to stand in front of 20 peers and just say your name?  Suddenly, that doesn't seem so bad...

The end!  :)

Another one bites the dust....

I just got home from school and logged into Facebook to discover that another old friend just got engaged.  My roommate, Kaitlyn, asked what I was so excited about.

So I was like, "One of my friends just got engaged."  

We both kinda pause for a second, then at the exact same time, we both start singing:

"ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!"

Ha.  I seriously can't get over how funny it was.

If you're not laughing right now, it's probably just because I can't capture in a blog post how funny that moment was.

Or maybe it's just because you don't have a sense of humor...

But I guess I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.  ;)

Engrish

Never again will I complain about classes in English.

Actually, that's probably a lie... but at least I will complain with added perspective.

Class is SO much harder in Portuguese.  Why, you ask?

Here, let me tell you:

• Classes go FOREVER.  Instead of having classes multiple times a week, most of them just meet once for several hours.  So all my classes are for 2-3 hours.  The worst is my class that meets every Friday night from 6-9:40pm.  Gross.
• It's hard to pay attention.  Even in English it gets hard to focus sometimes in class, but when it takes twice as much concentration as usual to be able to learn anything from class, it gets even harder.
• I sit in constant fear of being called in.  Ok, that's a big of an exaggeration, but not too much.  I'm getting to the point where I understand a lot more of my classes, but still not quite enough to feel confident commenting or answering questions.  Usually the teachers mostly ignore me, but sometimes they pose a question to the class, and my heart beats so fast when they look at me, because I know if they really do call on me, it probably won't go well...
• It stinks being a foreigner in school.  I've lived in Tonga and China, but for some reason I feel a lot more labeled as a foreigner or "estrangeira"in my classes.  
• My Portuguese class is ridiculously easy.  Which is good when I tell myself that it's easy because I'm so smart/naturally gifted at Portuguese...but less good when I remember that I really need to learn Portuguese, so if that class isn't teaching me anything, what's the point? 

But there are a lot of good things, too.

• Lots of nice teachers.  I love not having really intimidating professors.  So far, I feel like I can approach all my teachers with questions (as long as I already figured out how to say it).
• Days when I understand!  I understand way more of my classes than I thought I would.  Some days are still hard, but sometimes I walk out of class and just want to tell everybody, "guess what?  I understood most of that discussion!"
• Friends.  Lisa and Kaitlyn, the other two girls from BYU, are fantastic.  Lisa lives in another apartment, but probably spends more time at our apartment than hers.  They're both better at Portuguese (Lisa served her mission here, and Kaitlyn served in Honduras, so she's picking up the Portuguese a lot faster with her Spanish), and they're super helpful.  Sometimes we feel like missionaries.  It's fantastic.
• This list is a lot shorter than the other, for some reason.  Really, there is a lot more good stuff than bad/frustrating!

And best of all:

• IT'S GETTING BETTER.  It wasn't ever bad to begin with, but sometimes it was a little discouraging.  But every day is a little better than the last.  I already love it so much here, and the next few months are going to fly past way too quickly.
  

Life is good.  So very good.  :)

Thousands of words...

Just to compensate for the lack of pictures.

Haha.

Just kidding.

Well, actually, I'm serious...

I'm sorry about the complete lack of pictures (especially since my blog views have drastically declined since my last post with pictures...), but the internet does not like me trying to upload things.

I really did try!  But after waiting for almost a whole hour for one picture to upload less than 25%, I gave up.

I'll try again soon.

But for now, you'll just have to use your IMAGINATION.

Check Your Itinerary

Always.

More than a week before your flight earns bonus points.

The fact is, sometimes you'll find yourself on an island in the middle of the Amazon with no internet and not be able to check last-minute like you were planning.

Yeah, you guessed it...that's what happened to me.

So here's the story:

When we got to Manaus, we heard that the hotel we were staying at (on an island in the middle of the Amazon) would have wireless internet.  So we took off, and I figured I'd just re-check my itinerary right before we left for the airport, even though I was pretty sure my flight was around 4pm on Friday, which was perfect since the group was planning to arrive around noon, leaving me plenty of time to check in, etc.

Then our hotel didn't have wireless.  Or internet at all, for that matter.

But I thought, who cares?  I'll just pull up my flight info at the airport, no sense stressing about it right now.  The only other stuff I needed internet for was blogging, emailing, etc, and it was actually really nice to get a total break from that.

Then Thursday night I realized that the hotel people were letting us borrow the computer behind the desk if we needed it.  I decided to be responsible and check my flight info!  I log in to my email, pull up my itinerary, and see the departure time:  1:00am.  Date?  August 3.  As in, the morning of August 3.  1am instead of 4pm.  So then I start thinking, "Hmm...shoot.  That means my flight leaves in like 5 hours..."

Then I found Vanessa, who sympathized, but said that there was nothing we could do since there was no boat on the island.  No point stressing at that point, so I went back to the party, and enjoyed my last night with the group from Recife.

Next day, I got to the airport and had them change my flight.  Luckily, even though I had technically already missed 2 flights, they still counted those flights towards the cost of my new one, so I only had to pay $100 (yeah, it sounds like a lot, but not bad all things considered.  Plus one of the other girls in my group had to change her flight and had to pay $500!  So I was counting my blessings :)

The flight they booked me on left about 20 minutes after I bought the ticket, so I basically ran threw security and got in line just as the plane was boarding.  Whew.

Next problem:
I didn't know how to get home from the airport.  I had emailed Kaitlyn and Geovana so they would know I wasn't arriving at my originally scheduled time, and that I would be in touch when I could.  But then my flight came so quickly I didn't have time to email them again.

During my layover in Brasilia, I used my extensive knowledge of Portuguese to get help with the internet (HA, just kidding...about the extensive part; I really did use Portuguese!), and finally was able to message Kaitlyn my arrival info, along with a note saying if they couldn't pick me up then (my flight got in a little after midnight), she should send me the address so I could take a taxi.

Well, I got off the plane in Florianópolis, and no one was there.  Sadly, there was also no internet.  So... I figured I was supposed to take a taxi, but didn't know where I was going.  Ha.

After standing around looking like a stupid American for quite some time, I decided that I shouldn't sleep in the airport, so I got a taxi and told them to take me to our university, since I knew we lived super close.

The cab driver pulled up to UDESC and since I still had no clue where to go, and he said it wasn't safe for me to sit there by myself, I had him take me to a close hotel.  The hotel was $150 a night!  I didn't want to stay there, but didn't have any choice...until I realized the hotel had wifi!  So the nice man behind the desk let me borrow their wifi to find my address.  At which point I caught another cab back to my apartment that I had basically been parked in front of earlier. *sigh*

All things considered, I was pretty proud of myself for getting myself through all those situations by myself.  I was proud of myself for not panicking, and for being brave enough to use my Portuguese (yeah, I'd already been in Brazil for over a month and still super nervous about that...).  AND I was proud---and surprised---to realize that I COULD speak Portuguese enough to get through it!  Talk about a learning experience!  I think Heavenly Father maybe let that happen so that I would be forced to talk, and realize it wasn't as scary as I thought.  It's made everything else so much easier since then!

I didn't die, I only got sort of lost, and I learned something!  I think that makes this experience a winner!

Wasn't that a fun story?  :)

Encontro das Águas and the Amazon :)

The Rio Negro and Solomon River (I can't remember the Portuguese name for that one) meet to form the Amazon, but because of the different speed, density, and temperature of the two rivers, they flow together but separately for quite some distance before they completely merge. It's super cool to see; you can literally see a line down the middle of the river!

Cindy asked me to French braid her hair on the boat, and while I was doing it, this cute girl (~10) kept looking at us. [She and her parents were in our group basically the whole trip, but she only seemed to know about 10 words of English and no Portuguese, so we sort of became smile-buddies :) Their whole family was so cute!] Anyway, she kept looking over, so we asked if she wanted her hair braided. She said yes! I'm not really sure why I was so excited, but it was so fun to feel like I made a friend in Manaus. So here's a picture of us with our matching braids (even though I started hers a little lower on her head so you can't actually tell it's braided haha).

Then they said goodbye and got off the boat, while we headed to a little floating restaurant, complete with monkeys! I have about a million pictures, but since I did an entire post on monkeys before, I'll just post two :)

After that, we went to meet these guys:

Yes, that would be a SLOTH and an ANACONDA!

Yes, I held both of them. Yes, it was awesome.

YES, you should be jealous. :)

In the afternoon we had a hike/nature walk through the AMAZON. They showed us all kinds of cool things, like where certain types of seeds can be found, clove vines (like the little cloves, but it's an entire vine, so you can cut off sections of the vine and use it to flavor tea and stuff), ants that can be squished on your hands to create “Indian Perfume” or a natural bug repellant, and even how to build/set off certain types of traps!

Do I look like I fit into the Amazon?

"I've got a dream!" -Tangled

Have you ever dreamed of swimming with dolphins? Like the ones at SeaWorld?

How about some that were in the wild?

That's what I did today.

We left around seven this morning and boated down the river (Rio Negro/Black River, not the actual Amazon River yet) to a place you can swim with the pink river dolphins. Yes, they're pink. They also have a sort of goofy-looking bump on their foreheads, but they were still so cool!

We divided into two groups to get into the water, standing on a little platform close to the dock. They also had two guys down by us with fish to attract the dolphins (because ya know, the ones in the river aren't trained to jump and do tricks on command—they're legit!). As the dolphins would swim over to get the fish, sometimes they'd swim right up against your legs, but we could also reach out and pet them as they tried to get the fish.

After both groups had gone, they let us go back into the water and swim off the dock as far out as we wanted, and the dolphins just kept swimming around us as we tried to see and touch them some more.

I was a little nervous, even though dolphins are way more friendly than the piranhas we saw yesterday...

It was super fun, though! I swam way out, and had a few swim right under me! It was SO COOL.

My life just keeps getting better and better!!!

I cannot get enough of how awesome this is.

What did you do today?

I hope you did something awesome. Oh, you want to know what I did today? Well, let me think:

I road a boat to a teeny resort (for lack of a better word; it's like a hotel, but it's bungalow-style and miles away from anyone else) in the middle of the Amazon.

We went fishing. Yes, I caught a fish! Cindy got an awesome video of me freaking out; I'm not exactly a born fisher, apparently. (Although I did catch the second highest number of fish in our boat.)

Oh yeah, and besides catching a trout/sardine something-or-other, I caught a piranha!! Yes, you read that right. I CAUGHT A PIRANHA. In the Amazon. With a little bamboo fishing pole.

I'm not sure I have ever felt cooler.

That is, until about a half hour later when...

I held an ALLIGATOR! Actually, it was a cayman(sp?). They're basically small alligators.

We rode out at night, and the guys will stand on the front of the boat and shine a big flashlight around until you see the light reflecting red in their eyes. Then they kill the motor and go up super slowly so they don't run away. Then they reach in and grab them right out of the water with their bare hands!! Crazy, yes? And also super awesome!

So yeah...I hope you did something awesome today.

Because my day was fantastic.

Best day ever? Check.

Manaus

I'm in Manaus. It's very cool, but only in the metaphorical sense. In the literal sense, it is not even close. But I like it :)

We woke up super early today to get here. (No, I'm not just a college student who says anything before noon is early; we met at 3:15am.) We couldn't actually check-in right when we got here since it was still before noon, but they stored our stuff while we went to explore the city.

The coolest thing we saw was this old opera house:

I don't remember specific amounts, but its estimated value is astounding! Probably because it has so many cool features and designs like...:

This fantastic floor design, made of several different types of wood (all from Brazil).

Another cool floor. I thought this was less-cool, until we found out that the two colors of wood are meant to represent the Solomon and Black Rivers, which flow together to form the Amazon. (Pictures of the actual rivers to come!)

Beautiful pink marble from Portugual.

And gorgeous chandeliers and just overall grandeur in the entire building.

I loved it!   

Fortaleza for real

So in the middle of Fortaleza (the city), there's a fort, also called Fortaleza. We weren't sure where it was, and as we were walking around trying to find it, Vanessa asked some guy where it was, and he was like, “You're IN Fortaleza!” I got the feeling he was annoyed at us for being dumb tourists, but I thought it was funny he didn't even realize we were looking for a famous fort. Whatever.

We stopped at this beautiful cathedral (I think it's the second biggest in Brazil, but don't quote me on that...but it's definitely in the top 5).

My favorite part was just walking along the beach, though. I know I still have a long time here in Brazil, but I am going to miss beaches so much. They're so peaceful, and I love watching the waves. I don't think I will ever get tired of the ocean.

Me and Vanessa, so much better after a night of sleep in a real bed! :)

Some things are better left unsaid.

Trips to hospitals in Brazil sort of falls into that category. But not completely.

Things worth mentioning:

Fabulous doctors and nurses. Seriously, they were so nice. I made friends with a bunch of them, and they even laughed at my lame attempt at jokes in Portguese (true friendship, right?). I think I was way more nervous before going to the hospital than I was actually going in to surgery.

Family. Even from thousands of miles away, my sister answered so many questions and helped me figure out what needed to be done, and not to be too nervous about it. (Thanks, Angie!!)

Modern medicine. I don't know how they would have treated something like this 50 years ago, but I'm glad I'll never have to find out!

Vanessa. If you ever have to go to a hospital in Brazil, she's the person to go with! This incredible lady deserves a huge pay raise (or a fantastic mansion in heaven). She has 4 kids here in Brazil with the program, the youngest is 13. She left them all to spend over 20 hours with me at the hospital. She spent the night in a chair. She translated all the awkward doctor questions. She made me laugh. (And she didn't judge me for crying.) She has been like a second mom to me for the last few weeks and I am so sad she'll be headed back to the states soon!

Prayer. Probably the most important on my list. Thanks to prayers from myself, family, and friends, the trip to the hospital could not have been better. I mean, it was still a trip to the hospital. But everything went smoothly, the results were positive, and I didn't even die! :) I think I can attribute my lack of fear and confidence in their medical skills to prayer as well.

So that's pretty much my day in the hospital in Fortaleza, Brazil!

Sea Turtles

Our second day in Salvador, we went out to a sea turtle sanctuary.  They're famous for their work with the sea turtles, but they also had some sharks, sting rays, and other fish in the mini-aquarium/display we visited.

It was so neat to see these!  They had life-size models of the different types of sea turtles, and they were huge!  The biggest can get up to like 6 feet long!  This guy was about 5:

 (Crush, anybody? :)

 Shawndeen, Tawnya, and I petting the sting rays.
Tawnya named the big black one Adolfo, and I named the two grayish-brown ones Flotsam and Jetsam :)

Tawnya and I hatching and being turtles

 SUPER cute baby turtles!  This little guy was about 1.5 inches long!

(Again...Squirt?  Finding Nemo, anyone? :)

Sharks! :/

With a cool reflection of coconut trees...

And me by yet another of these things.

But hey, it's a sea turtle.  It's not like I could pass that up! :)

Salvador

I loved Salvador.  It was SO pretty.  It's also one of the most dangerous cities in the world.  Hey, you win some, you lose some...right? :)

I have so many beautiful pictures, but it takes forever to upload (and I doubt anyone really wants to see ALL the pictures I've taken) but here are some of my favorite city/landscapes, and some of the churches and sites we visited.

 Isn't that a spectacular view??

Statue of Christ.  

Salvador means Savior in English, and I love how many churches and statues of Christ they had around the city. 

 Me and Tawnya :)

(She's been my roommate since we left Recife, and it has been so fun!  I think I get a better workout from how much we laugh together than any amount of time I've spent in the gym...)

 Me, Tawnya, and Johnny walking on the beach

 Farrol da Barra

This was the first fort in Brazil, and is also a lighthouse

 Me and Tawnya being cute.  And excited.  And showing off our cute matching braids.

 us putting one foot in the door of the lighthouse (haha Tawnya)

 Me and Shawndeen on top of the fort

View of/from the top of the lighthouse

 Then Brady and I climbed out onto this pier 

 Some sort of government building.  I don't remember exactly what it is...  But I really liked this picture of it :)

 We heard this was "the best ice cream in Salvador", so of course we had to try it.
I believe it!

 Inside a museum with a cute lady who was dressed up in traditional Bahian clothing

 We saw so many cool churches, I don't actually remember all the details or which one was which.  But they were so incredible!  I love how intricately decorated they all are.

This church was wall-to-wall with gold.  The pictures (no flash) just don't even begin to do it justice.

 Another cool church.

We even got to attend mass!

It was quite the experience.  This guy is carrying in a sacrifice/ donation?  I don't know what exactly they were calling it.  But they had a ton of people carrying stuff in!  Oh, I also got some sweet videos of people singing and clapping, but they take too long to upload...  Keep your fingers crossed/remind me, and maybe I'll post them when I go home. :)

And TOTALLY irrelevant (and almost un-cultured compared to everything else we saw that day...), but for the "Tongan clan" especially:

I found the coconut wireless!!

Haha.  that's all I could think of when I saw those phone booths decorated like coconuts.  Who knew they existed, huh?

We should invest in a phone booth like that.

Just sayin'...