Lately I've been just playing each day by ear and mostly adventuring around getting more and more used to where everything is around here. My project still hasn't started but I was talking with Vanessa Kanaan today and she says that both the parrot project and my turtle project will start on monday! SUPER excited for this :D In the mean time I just didn't feel like writing about every daily thing I do would really be that interesting. There was one day that was pretty exciting for me though! What did I do? Well, I went on my first solo adventure! It was quite romantic actually. It started like this:
I had been hanging out around the house with not much to do since I didn't want to disturb Vanessa while she was working on her project and Tracy was out and about doing her thing. So Vanessa had a great idea of going out and seeing a new mall that I hadn't been to before! So after a shower and getting my stuff together I was heading out the door. I went to say goodbye to Hilda and she told me that I could probably see the sunset while I was there and what spots she liked to watch it from! So out the door and ready for some excitement I walked down to the bus stop at the end of the street. Here they don't have schedules on the poles or a number to text conveniently like home or anything so you never really know when the bus is going to get there. Sure enough I waited for a good 30 minutes before any bus came! But that's alright, I had a lot of time to kill. So expecting an uneventful bus ride I hop on and scan my card that lets me through the buses turnstyle (here the bus driver doesn't take your fare. They have another guy sitting a little bit further back called the cobrador and he will either let you scan your fare card or take your money and then allow access through the turnstyle that counts passengers. ANYWAYS) I scan it and sure enough - NO MONEY left on my card. But I knew I had a 5 Reias note so I figured it was no problem. Sure enough I had to have a little portuguese conversation with the cobrador about how he had no change and that I needed to wait at the front of the bus for a little. I was very proud of myself for knowing what he was telling me! After that the bus ride was normal.
Next I get to the mall - Beiramar - but walked to the beach which is right beside it to watch the sunset. I thought it might be kind of boring or lonely to be watching the sunset by myself but it was quite the opposite! I watched fish jumping and birds diving into the water. I even had a little bird friend hanging around with me the whole time I was there! It was so beautiful and relaxing to sit there thinking about absolutely nothing. I may even do it more frequently!
Once the sun had set - which didn't take long - I went into the mall to visit Vanessa's boyfriend Wilson at his store. He didn't know I was coming to see him so it was kind of a surprise I suppose but not a very exciting one :P He doesn't speak very good english and I don't speak very good portuguese but we usually can understand each other when we're all out and about. So that was a nice quick visit with him. Then I just wandered through the mall for a while, going into a few stores to check it out. I had a nice conversation - again in portuguese - with a girl who works at Renner (which is like our department stores at home). We talked about where I was from and what clothes I was looking for and stuff. Really basic but still, I'm learning!
Once I was finished looking around I decided to grab some food from the food court for dinner. The guy at the cash register was also very nice to me being patient with my slow talking and responding very clearly for me also. Then it was back home for me! I didn't realize when I was coming into the mall that there were 4 different enterances to choose from so I didn't really pay attention. Sure enough I went out one door beside the one I had come into and turned the opposite direction! It gets dark here very fast and things look quite a bit different at night - at least that is my excuse :P After walking around the whole mall I found where my bus stop was haha. This time my bus ride was completely uneventful; I'm getting used to the system I guess!
So then a bus ride and a short walk later I was home talking to a few friends inviting me over to hang out with them. After being home for about 10 minutes I was gone again on another adventure!
It wasn't a very exciting story but I needed to update SOMETHING for everyone to know that I am doing really good and having an awesome time here in Brazil!
Lots of love to everyone!!
Karen
Karen
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