On our own

After having a few glasses of wine at Joao's and saying hi to some of the people living upstairs we hit the hay. In the morning we walked to the university and met up with Vanessa. She showed us around to where the hospital and library is and we registered for our portuguese classes! I'm eager to keep learning because I feel like my most common expression lately is just a blank stare.
Vanessa had another class to go to that evening so Tracy and I walked back to the house (alone!) and then proceeded to have a laid back evening. We attempted to do some portuguese homework from our classes in vancouver; I didn't get much done however haha. I feel like there is so much that is new here that even just walking around is wiping me right out! I was overly tired the first while, more so than just jet leg, so I've been taking my iron pills and I think they're making a difference! Good thing I had them with me otherwise I would sleep through my whole time here!
The next thing I think that Tracy and I need to buy is an alarm clock. We have nothing to wake us up here so we are sleeping the way we normally would at home. Not ideal when there is so much that we want to do!
We're getting a cel phone from one of Vanessa's friends - they don't use it any more and Vanessa has a sim card so soon we will have a better way of communicating with people here.
Today we didn't do too much either. Vanessa was at school and so Tracy and I did our usual wake up routine and then ate some food and did our dishes. We're already finding our way around the house pretty well and everyone is very welcoming. After being sufficiently full we got directions from Hilda (Vanessa's mom - it's about time I introduced her properly) to walk to the mall. I was a little nervous walking around to a new place that we hadn't been before just the two of us, but just like Hilda said - as soon as we turned the corner we could see it! A fairly big mall with a sign you can't miss from any direction. IGUATEMI.
There is no doubt that Tracy and I are tourists... Walking around and taking pictures of the most random things definitely gives us away. Tracy pointed out that a lot of the pictures do a really bad job of actually capturing what everything looks like here. I think it's partially because there are fires somewhere in the North of Brazil and so everything here is covered in a fog from the smoke moving this way.
It doesn't feel extremely hot here yet, or particularily humid, until we start walking around. It's about 23 degress today but it doesn't feel like our 23 at home. The sun doesn't feel like it's as bright but again I feel like that's because of the smoke hanging around.
Vanessa should be home soon and so I should be getting my stuff together. Tonight we're going to the farm! I am pretty excited - I feel like a little kid all the time!
I'll update again in a couple days and show some more pictures :)
Tem um fin de semana feliz!
xoxo Karen