Oi! Today was yet another adventurous day in the Atlantic Rainforest. Of course we all met up at the local eatery for a delicious meal made by Camina and spent a few hours learning more Portuguese. Today we reviewed all of the Portuguese learned thus far and learned family members. By the end of the class we made a paragraph, yes we wrote another paragraph in Portuguese describing our family and relationships. After lunch we traveled to Juiz de Fora and are planning to spend the weekend at one of Wagner’s apartments. Here we were able to get great wifi, hot showers, and spend some time without wearing bug spray. Haha! Shalanda, Rebecca, Wagner, and I traveled via Wagner’s car into town. Our first stop was the grocery store. As Wagner roamed around the store gathering items for the dinner he will prepare for us later, the girls and I observed the many difference in their local grocery store compared to ours back in the states. For one I notice all of the new papers, magazines, and books for sale were all sealed so you could not casually read while you are in the store, something I do often back at home because our book section is open to read while shopping. One thing I loved about the grocery store was the wide range of fresh products. Here in Brasil there are a much more variety of fruits and vegetables than the grocery store near my home. After we left the grocery store, Wagner showed us his main office in the city and explained to us a little about his job here. The view from his office was beautiful. When we finally made it back to the house we all prepared for the night ahead, experiencing the nightlife in Brasil. We had a delicious meal then we were on our way. As we walked to our destination we spoke to everyone we came in contact with, in Portuguese. We are all becoming more confident speakers! While we were out we made so many new friends. It is so amazing after less than one week here and with only five days of learning how advance we are becoming, as you all have seen from our video of us introducing ourselves :) Well so far so good, loving it here and living the life of a Brazilian.

Tchau,

Brandi