study abroad in brazil.: first day of class.

today we started our first day of classes at ABA.

this morning, our host mom bonnie was nice enough to drive us to our classes so that we had roughly an idea of where we were going (so that we knew what bus stop to get off at) & even though it's not that far away from our house, it was still a 45 minute drive. There is crazy traffic in recife & I always tell bonnie how brave I think she is to be driving in this madness! I'm pretty sure you couldn't pay me a million dollars to drive in Recife. People don't understand the concept of lanes or space or using blinkers or swerving or creating new lanes for themselves, etc. It's total madness. Plus pedestrians do not have the right of way here so it's a tad dangerous & people get run over a lot. Anyways, driving here is crazy!

After we got to our building we received an orientation from the employees of ABA and a quick classroom lesson from our professor vanessa. They showed us around the building & then we talked for a while about our families & what it's been like so far. We also talked more about the committees we are being put in and our responsibilities. I have a presentation already on thursday!

After we finished our class, we decided to walk from ABA to Recife Shopping Mall for lunch so we ate there & spent way too much money on a small amount of food. Oops! We learned our lesson. do not eat at the shopping malls. We then waited for the rest of our group while we watched danillo eat an entire pizza & a half by himself. That was entertaining. Afterwards we went to the VIVO store to get our cell phones figured out with our new SIM cards & it took roughly 2 hours for all of us to get our cards! By that time we were all dying of boredom & ready to enjoy some sun.

A few members of our group suggested that we walk back from the recife shopping mall to our apts. They figured since it was a nice day, that a walk along the ocean would be fine! Jordan said it was roughly 3 miles home, so we thought OK! I suggested we take the bus home today so that we could get home, change and actually go and enjoy the beach..but some other people wanted to see how the walk went. I figured since we've been eating so much a 3 mile walk would be good.

We finally got to the beach & the beach of boa viagem is amazing. It's so beautiful, with tons of huts and stands selling food. There were tons of people walking around down there exercising, playing volleyball, "namorando" and everything else. It was a nice walk until we realized our calves were beginning to hurt from walking on a sand hill, so we went to the sidewalk. After a few miles, michele got a blister and we went back down onto the beach so she wouldn't have to wear her sandals. After some more miles, we went back onto the sidewalk in order to find our apt. Well this walk was actually 7 miles!!!! & with 4 blocks left from home, the rain started POURING and we all got soaked!

But it was a fun time anyways!

When we got back all we wanted to do was shower & relax. Which we did plenty of :)

Our wonderful host mom had a beautiful dinner of lasagna, bread, and salad for us.

and for dessert...

pizza de doce!

we are tired & exhausted from our long day of walking.

& tomorrow we will be taking the bus

until next time!

ps; today we saw so many african people with BLUE eyes. Not kidding. I didn't even know it was really possible, but it is. Vanessa told us that the reason for this is because of the immigrants that settled in recife who were from holland who mixed with the people here. It's not uncommon to see africans with blue eyes. It's so cool!

pss; this is for my mom! today I learned that if you eat mandioca without cooking it first you will die! did you know that?!