is this real life?

The Intensive Language Class is finally over! I’m not really sure how much it helped, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt. I now have off until March 2nd ☺ Wow, I have a hard life.

Carnaval officially starts next Saturday, but in the minds of Cariocas, it has already begun. Prices have been raised on everything, tourists are beginning the influx, and there are street parties all day, everyday on the weekends.

Since class ended Thursday, Thursday night all the international students had a party to celebrate, which ended with a crazy dance party with our cab driver, and swimming at the beach at 5am.

But even crazier than all that, is what came prior. A pizza rodizio!! Basically, you sit down and every kind of pizza you can think of (and many you couldn’t) comes circling around to your table. We feasted on pizza with shrimp, cheeseburger, palms, corn, fish, and much more. After eating more than enough, they then came out with the “pizza doce” or desert pizzas. Oh. My. God. There was chocolate pizza with strawberries, fried banana pizza, carmel pizza, pineapple pizza, and the list goes on… I’m totally bringing this to America.

Yesterday, we spent the day at a beautiful, secluded beach called Prainha south of Rio. It ended up being quite an adventure. To get there, we took an hour bus, and then hiked an hour (all in 100 plus degree heat). We then relaxed on the beach there for 4 hours and took frequent dips in the cool water (although the ridiculously strong current didn’t quite make for a relaxing swim). Surfers were everywhere which made for an even better view, if you know what I mean ☺



After we had our fill of the sun and waves, we started home. Luckily, an ice truck saw us suffering and let us hop in the back of his truck for a lift to the next beach over. We then walked another 45 mins or so to the bus stop. We ended up waiting there for about a half hour since everytime a bus that we needed came, he passed us by without stopping. Here, busses sometimes don’t stop for you for one reason or another. Maybe you’re too wet or sandy from the beach, maybe you are carrying something big they don’t want on their bus, maybe they are in the wrong lane to pull over, or maybe they simply don’t feel like it. Eventually, we did get a bus home, but it was at the peak of rush hour. Traffic is HORRIBLE in Rio and it took us about twice as long to get home. Still, so worth it!