So after New Years began the most amazing memorable and indescribable adventure of my life. In 29 days I experienced 13 cities, drove 10,000 km, spent who knows how many hours on a bus, and laughed with 48 of the best exchange students.
I left from São Paulo with about half of our entire group. I was so excited, and incredibly sleepy after waking up at 5:00 AM to arrive in São Paulo on time. It was nice to see some of the exchange students that I had already met from my district on the same trip. We traveled the entire day on the bus to arrive in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. There, we encountered the other half of our group. Brasília began our tour of brazil. Since it was a planned capital of the country, everything is very precise, and organized. From an overhead view, the city looks like an airplane. Another cool fact is that there are no walls in the city. The architect didn't want it to be closed off, so the president's house (Palácio da Alvorada) doesn't even have a wall, just a small pool of koi (of course there are armed guards). After Brasilia, we traveled to Lençóis in the state of Bahia. We visited Chapada Diamantina, and natural fresh water pools. One even had a "slide" into the water. After Lençóis we began our beach part of the trip. The Northeastern part of the country is known for its beaches and being incredibly hot. We went to Maceió, Natal, Fortaleza, Recife, Porto de Galinhas, Salvador, Arrail D'Ajuda, Porto Seguro, and Rio de Janeiro . Fortaleza was one of the most memorable cities. There, we went on this sand buggy ride. It was literally insane, but so much fun with the wind in your hair and screaming like you might die. In Fortaleza we also had a BBQ (churrasco) on the beach with music. Another place that I enjoyed was Salvador. In Salvador, we visited the Mercado Municipal that had all sorts of things to buy and a semi-deserted island where we spent the entire day on the beach. To be honest I could write a novel about everything I saw in these places, but there just isn't enough space. There isn't enough space for all of my photos either.....
Last but not least, the most well known city in Brazil, the host of the 2016 Olympics and World Cup stadium: Rio de Janeiro. It was an amazing feeling to actually be in that city that everyone thinks about when you say Brazil. Despite the rain, we toured the city on foot, saw one of the world cup stadiums, went to Florest de Tijuca, had a samba class, visited Praia de Ipanema, went to the top of Pão de Açúcar, and saw the famous Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer). Unfortunately because of all of the rain and fog, we only saw the statue clearly for about a minute, and barely saw anything of the city below. It was still incredible. Each of the different cities we visited had difficulties. Some had different dialects of Portuguese, and some even had new words for things I already knew. At the end of the trip, I learned things and again saw Brazil in another light. Slowly I'm starting to fill in the pieces of this puzzle that makes up the culture of Brazil. I know that even at the end there will still be gaps, but the picture will still be clear enough to grasp the meaning of "Brazilian".
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