Day 1.

So yesterday at the airport in SLC, Vanessa, the program director, told me that basically, the family I had been planning to live with could no longer host me, and that hopefully Vivian (housing coordinator from Brazil) could find something quickly so I would have somewhere to live.  Yeah, hopefully.

Anyway, when we arrived, we were debating where I would go stay until they could find something, then Vivian says, "Oh, you lived in China?  Would you be okay staying with a Chinese family?"  Uh...duh!  I said I'd love to, so that became the plan.  Whooda thunk that I'd end up living with a Chinese family in Brazil?  Such a crazy coincidence, that as my sister Angie pointed out, it really emphasizes how much of a guiding hand Heavenly Father has in our lives.  The odds of this happening are basically zero, yet here I am!  I am so excited.

 The only thing NOT exciting is that...today I said goodbye to the vegetarian Michelle.  I know, I know.  I couldn't give it up for Tonga or China, but today I did.  Before I left, I told myself that I would not turn down any food from my host family, and today that became the first (I'm sure more will follow) hardest thing I've had to do.  I ate SO MUCH MEAT at lunch.  She cooked Chinese food, and there were 4 dishes on the table; only one was exclusively meat, and I was like, "Sweet.  I bet I can dodge the meat without being obvious and still eat enough to demonstrate how much I like it."  Nope, didn't happen.  My host mom (her name sounds like Johnny, but I'm pretty sure that's not how she spells it) seems to be under the impression that Americans love meat.  So I served myself one of the dishes and just scooped tofu and vegetables, and she was like, "Meat!  Meat!"  And proceeded to serve me several pieces of some sort of meat.  Anyway, that continued to happen...until I had cleaned about 4 chicken bones and eaten 7 fairly big pieces of unidentifiable meat.  I nearly died!  Okay, I didn't.  Although my stomach feels a little funny (but it's probably just psychological...I doubt meat would make me sick so fast), I'm proud of myself.  A lot of people ask me why I am vegetarian, and the honest answer is probably just that I really don't like the idea of eating animals.  It grosses me out.  And since I don't love the taste of meat anyway, it was easy to give up.  But it was really hard to overcome 8 years (yeah, it's really been 8 years since I became vegetarian) of carefully avoiding meat and even picking small pieces out of things...just to not offend someone.  But I think it was worth it.  :)

I went to the mall yesterday with Melissa (my host sister, 18), and it was huge!  We live about a 3-minute walk from this mall; it's the biggest in Recife and the second biggest in all of Brazil.  Almost makes me wish I loved shopping haha.  They did have some cool-looking stores though, so I'm sure I'll spend some time there.  We also live really close to the beach.  I haven't gone yet, but I am so excited to.  Vivian said the water is always warm, and the beaches are beautifully sandy.  (I absolutely love Tonga, but it will be nice to go to beaches that don't tear up your feet!)  Oh yeah, and she also warned me to look out for sharks.  Sweet.  haha.

Okay, and here are some pictures:

Welcome to Brazil!!

 Good morning :)

 Recife

The view from my bedroom window :)

Life is good :)