Day Thirteen

Today was a really rainy day, we didn't do anything but lay around until 3 pm to leave and go get our nails done! I had very little sleep, 5am-9am. I wasn't feeling well all night. I am feeling better right now (9:30pm) but all day I have had a massive headache. I had a lot of pastel last night and that probably was not the best choice! But it is my favorite so I cannot regret this! Ligia, Dani, mom and I all went to get our nails done. We leave for Sao Paulo tomorrow by car to see Gabriel (Ligia's brother) marry Carol :). They are a really fun couple and I cannot wait to photograph and attend this wedding! It is my FIRST brazilian wedding. My next brazilian wedding will be Tiago and Ligia's, of course!!! We have to pack tonight and then we head out by 6am tomorrow morning (5am us time). Please keep us in your prayer as we travel wish hours to get to So Paulo from Curitiba! I wil post more tomorrow when there is some down time!!

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel 

Day Twelve

Today was a good day! We went to lunch with Tiago, Dani and Dani's friend Gabriel. I learned how to see, I want a large fry please. We went from lunch straight to the Panoramic tower where you can see a lot of the city! It is so beautiful looking down on all of Curitiba! I was amazed by how much there was to see! We had fun pointing out places that we have been and places that I will go! Also, we found where Ligia's house is! :) It was so tall in the air! It was kind of scary if you thought about how high above ground this tall tower stands! After visiting here, we went to take Dani's friends to the movies and Dani came home with Ligia and I before going out for the evening. Ligia had school but Gabriel took Dani and I to a place where it is all you can eat PASTEL! Little did I know, it would make me very sick! I didn't sleep well tonight because of all the Pastel that I had eaten! I guess it was well worth it! My favorite food here! It was Paola's 27th birthday that we were celebrating there! It was a fun filled night with good conversation with friends from their church! Ligia and I were both really tired from the night before! I had another sleepless night from being sick from what I ate and with a massive headache! I can tolerate this if that is all I have to experience for health issues! I pray that God will keep me in good health! 

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel 

Day Eleven

Today was a pretty chill day, not much going on! I was around the house most of the day and later in the evening the Missionaries came over to our house to teach a lesson on prioritizing God before anything else, how everything else will fall into place if we put God first. Some of you may know the description with a cup full of rice and how each rock won't fit (church, prayer, hope, serving). But if you put the Rocks in first then the rice (the rest of your priorities) will fit nicely without overflowing. It was a neat description. It's nice to be reminded of these things. So often we forget that God knows what He is doing!! We always want to be in control. Let go and "Jesus Take The Wheel"! ;) The missionaries are here from California (Brandon-20) and Washington (Zach-19). They both have to serve here for 2 years. Brandon is almost done, but Zach still has 2 years here. Gabi and I taught them Ligretto. It was NO FUN playing with them! These boys are a bunch of cheaters!! Haha…it was cool though to hang out with them and to talk about the bible and share life. After playing Ligretto we said our good-byes and then I had to wait for Li to get home from school so we could go to John Bull (a club here in Curitiba). It was all hip hop. It was fun but not many people were there for a long time. We  only stayed from 11-4 and not the whole time 11pm-6am. It's a good thing because we had an early morning! I would have just pulled an all nighter if we had stayed that long! There were black lights, strobe lights and a lot of drinking, kissing and dancing. Brazilians are CRAZYYYYY!!! ;) Her friend spent the night here with us and we just hung out for a little while before going to bed. It was an awesome night! The cab ride home was insane. Scariest cab ride I have ever been on. The driver went 100 in whatever measurement they drive. It isn't MPH. Some of you smart people will know. I will look later to add it to this blog :P. Anyways, he was going super fast and he had to run a red light. Mom and Nay..you would have been really SCARED!! Hahaha..ligia explained later that cabs have to do that when it's really late because it's dangerous to stop at red lights when there is no one around. It made more sense when she explained it to me..but in the moment I was like WHAT IS GOING ON!?!?!?…Scary stuff!! More to post on Day Twelve!

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel 

Day Ten

I have been sleeping in a lot lately, today, Ligia had to wake me up! As soon as I got up, lunch was served and we had feijoada which is a famous meal here in Brasil, it is meat and beans over rice. It is good, I don't really like a lot of meat though!! :P After lunch, we just waited here and Ligia did some homework while I watched some of the movie Raising Helen. Mom, Ligia and I all went to the super market to get more food for breakfast and lunch before picking Dani up from school. When we got Dani we came back to their house and put the groceries away. I had to hide my Nutella so Gabi (My bother!!) wouldn't eat all of it ;)!! Shortly after getting home Li and I left again to pick up her friend Lucas so we could all go to school. It was neat to experience college here in Brasil. It isn't any different than J Sarge or another community college. It's pretty big though, I don't really know how to describe it. We had an interior design class tonight from 7:00-10:30 and the professor was okay with me being in class with Li. All of her friends were trying to speak english with me. I met a lot of her friends tonight. One girl was using google translate to talk with me! It was so much fun. Tonight, they decided that we are going to have a party here at Ligia's house! This will be fun!! We don't know when yet, but it will be soon! After school, we took Lucas back to his house and then we went to Burger King. Mom was explaining how it's different here in Brasil than America's BK, so I just had to see for myself! It was okay, it wasn't the best but it definitely had a better taste, that's for sure!! When we got home, we just hung out, I ate BK and Li was relaxing after class. Now I am updating all of my blog information for everyone to know what I have been up to! There has been a lot going on!! I am learning a little more potuguese! Boa noite (good night!!) :) More to be posted tomorrow!

Beijos 

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel

Day Nine

 Our famous elevator picture! Rockin Ligia's glasses today! 

Car ride to their campground! 

And here it is! Their house and their campground! There will be more nights spent here and Ligretto! 

Photo shoot time with my loves!

I love these girls! 

I need Ligia's help with explaining these to you but these fall of trees that are well known here in Brasil and you cook the seeds and eat them! I haven't tried them yet but we have a whole bag full of these!

Taking a hike!

Love you Li Li <3

Today I had my first experience of a Mormon church with Ligia's family. Their church service is more like a traditional church with singing hymns and communion every sunday. After church we went to visit the city where Ligia's family has a camping house. It is a tiny little house out in the middle of no where! It's really beautiful though, right in the mountains (1 hour car ride). There are pinheiro trees there (Brazils famous tree) and they have seeds that you can cook that are called pinhao. After taking a hike through the woods and collecting pinhao seeds, we left there and went to eat at a restaurant called Girassol which means Sunflower. I ate a ham and cheese sandwich that was delicious. Their food is so much healthier than what we eat. Ligia bought this cook that is chocolate and honey and it's called pao de mel (honey bread). We didn't do much all day but church, car ride, visit the camp ground, and eat at that restaurant before going back home. Tiago was over and we played more Ligretto! It was a great day in Brasil! I am really enjoying my trip here and I don't ever want it to end! I wish I could move here haha!! :) I needed help on spelling these words so that's why it is posted so late! Sorry about that, a little delay but I am glad I was able to post! More to come soon!

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel 

Day Eight

Today was a very eventful day, there is a lot happening on Saturdays for the Braidotti family! We woke up this morning and went down town to have lunch, the place that we ate at was buffet style. It was very delicious but I couldn't finish everything that I put on my plate! After lunch we went to Tiago's house and I met his mom, she is a very nice lady! They have a really nice home here in Curitiba! We left Tiago's house and went to the mall where I met Ligia's friend, Giullia. We are more desert and walked around the mall. Ligia wants to buy Ligretto so we went to a toy store on a mission to find the card game! We didn't find it so she will have to order it off the internet! We left the mall and came back to Ligia's house to introduce Giullia to Ligretto and we played a couple of rounds of that before leaving to go have some sausage styled hot dogs! Some of the best dogs of Curitiba..and once again, I could not finish my meal! I  need to get on the same track as these hungry Brazilians ;). There is a lot to learn here. Last night I dreamt in portuguese (Li said that's a sign of me becoming more fluent with understanding their language). Pretty awesome! It has only been a week and I am becoming more fluent! I love that I am able to understand what people are saying to me! We left the hot dog place (Josias Hot Dog) and took Giullia to where she will ride the bus back to her city. Ligia, Tiago, and I all went back to her house to hang out before getting ready for bed time. We picked Dani up from a friends house and now we are home about to go to sleep and wake up bright and early for 9am church service! It was a very eventful day, a lot going on! It was really great to meet another friend of Ligia's. Curitiba and the people here are so wonderful! It's a great city! Night life is crazy, but there are a lot of nice places to go where you don't have to drink and dance. You can just socialize! I am excited for tomorrow and what all we will do on Sunday! Last day of the weekend before my new week in Curitiba begins! More to post tomorrow on my memories in Brasil. <3

Beijos
Tchau

xoxo
Rachel

Day Seven

As you can tell, today was very eventful! It all started out with going to Curitiba's park and touring through a mouth, an ear and a nose. It was very interesting, through the ear, we had a tour with a girl who knew english so that was really neat to hear (haha) about! :P Ligia and I took a walk around the park and that beautiful skyline is her city! I LOVE it!! So beautiful! The tall tower in the 4th picture is a cell tower that Ligia is going to take me to, you can go in there and see the entire city of Curitiba. I am very excited for that trip, I will get really great pictures of just how huge her city is! After the park, we went to a Friday night event that happens every Friday and Ligia and I ate this awesome waffle with vanilla ice cream, caramel syrup, strawberries, chocolate and other yummy goodness! The plate was empty! ;) After that we hung around there to meet up with Adriano, one of Ligia's good friends and I got to meet him for the first time. We stayed there and talked for a while. Then we came home to Ligia's house to introduce Adriano to Ligretto! That was awesome, we played a lot of rounds of Ligretto tonight before going out on the town. There bars here are really nice, they are really fancy and it's a sit down occasion and socialize. It isn't like American bars where you get drunk. It's a fun environment where you just talk with friends. I met a lot of Tiago's coworkers there and met a lot of people who spoke english. It was a good-bye party for Tiago's boss. She is moving to a new city, it was sad to say good-bye but she will be okay! We left that bar and came home again. The car ride from the bar to Ligia's house, I will NEVER EVER forget. It was the best to sing and dance with them haha. We were hoping that we would NOT loose our voice! It was so much fun to hang out with them tonight. They are both so nice!! Yay for another amazing day in Brasil! Good night for now! More blogging tomorrow.

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel

Day Six

It was a rainy day today..we slept in until almost noon! Sleep is good on rainy days, and every day! :P When we finally woke up we ate a yummy lunch (chicken, beans and rice, cabbage, and potatoes. It was very delicious! I also had pastel when we went to the mall and saved some for another day! Ligia and I went to the bank today. Banks here are so official, it is guarded by a lot of police and you have to lock up your purses and jackets. There are glass doors and a glass revolving doors that you walk through and you have to get a number slip for them to call you. It is kind of like our DMV for the waiting portion of the trip to the bank. Out in the streets by our cars are people who stand and expect you to give them money. It is stealing and Ligia explained it to me. If you do not give them money they may do something bad to you. After going to the bang, Li and I met with Tiago and we went shopping and had Pastel!! We shopped for earrings and bracelets for Carols wedding. I bought a beautiful bracelet to wear with my dress! I absolutely love it!! After that, Ligia found the perfect shoes from her favorite shoe store so we went in to check it out! I found these hot pink Nike shoes that were awesome! I didn't get them because I liked other ones that would go with more outfits! I am buying Nikes because these are the shoes that you wear to Samba, and hip hop dancing (a popular dance in Brasil). We will buy them when they receive more stock. Although, I loved the pink Nikes! <3 We left there and came home to get ready to leave again for church. Ligia and Tiago had school tonight. But mom, danny and myself all went to church for a first aid training. I was greeted by really friendly people. I was amazed by how many people knew english! I felt right at home! :) Mom introduced me to two missionaries who are here for 2 years for the Mormon missions. One guy is from California and the other is from Washington. Super nice guys! It was great to meet all of the friendly people! The night was still rainy and yucky but we had fun regardless! I haven't laughed this hard in a really long time with teaching Gabriel, mom and dad how to play Ligretto! Tonight was so much fun! Although Gabriel did cheat! So we gave dad his place! Haha :) Ligia is doing homework tonight and I am just relaxing on this awesome vacation! I really love Brasil, the days are going by so fast! I love that I am able to experience so much and that I have a wonderful family to spend time with! Overall, it has been a really amazing day and I look forward to many more to come! Tomorrow is Friday and I will experience a club for my very first time! More to blog tomorrow!

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel

Quiet Time

This morning it is quiet in the house and Ligia is still asleep so I want to have my quiet time now before it slips past and I never open my Bible. So before this trip I was worried about my quiet time and daily devotional becoming non important to me because "I will have better things to do". Little did I know, God knew the exact page that I would turn to today. This is what I call GOD SMACKED! So I am journaling this morning and I hear the Passion song, Sing Along. Perfect for what my prayer has been for Brazil. And THEN! The big moment comes! I turn to the back of my bible for the index titled Relationship with God and page 403 is listed. I pick this one just because I wanted to. I flip to the page and BAM!! The Title is Not Enough Hours in the Day and it's about a girl named Rachael. Don't believe me? I will post a picture! It is crazy how God knows exactly how to come across to us. Although He isn't tangible, He has no problem with making himself known! This just blew me away! God knew that my worries are not enough time and He knew exactly how to speak directly to me, He called me by name. If this doesn't blow you away then I don't know what will. I love JESUS! He is wonderful, He never ever ever ceases to amaze me. I cannot explain to anyone how much my relationship has grown and how much I love my God. He has kept me strong and He has taught me SO MUCH about life and how to deal with life's little ups and downs. All I can say is thank you, God. You never cease to amaze me. You ALWAYS know how to speak right to my heart.

I love you.

Your daughter,
Rachel

Day Five

Today I was able to sleep in AGAIN! It was wonderful!..Have I mentioned that I love sleep? Well I do!! <3 So the day started out with us getting ready and then going to the mall to have lunch. Dani met us there after school and we looked in some of their favorite stores. We left the mall to come back home for a minute and then turned right back around to go downtown to check out more stores! I bought pens! THEY ARE THE BEST! America doesn't have them..I have a weird obsession with colors, anything colorful and makes color, I LOVE! So I bought a lot of pens today :) I am also in the process of finishing decorating with pictures on my wall so I bought more Scotch Blue, painters tape! Two good things!! After shopping we came back home and Tiago was here waiting for us to hang out at the house. Ligia and I taught Tiago how to play Ligretto! It is an awesome card game from Germany, Carina taught me how to play when I was there visiting her last summer and I bought the game and everyone that I teach loves it too! So we were battling out to Ligretto for like three hours straight! It was so much fun! Now we are just relaxing, Ligia is working on a project for school and I will decorate my room with a lot of pictures and post pictures to my blog later!! Tchau for now! I will blog more tomorrow!!!

Beijos
Tchau

xoxo

Rachel

Day Four

Sleep is a good thing! I have needed to catch up on lost hours of sleep, I woke up this morning at 11 (10am in America). I had breakfast..but not really breakfast. More like lunch!! I had a ham and cheese sandwich. Very different from our sandwiches in America, I love their food so much more. It is so much healthier than what we eat. After our breakfast lunch was served. The two biggest meals of the day, most Brazilian families do not eat dinner. We ate rice and beans, broccoli and ground beef with mashed potatoes baked on top. It was all very delicious. It has been a really relaxing day, I was able to FaceTime with my mom and my niece Avery. She is getting so big, I miss my BaPa girl so much! After FaceTime, Ligia and I went to the mall and walked around before picking up Dani from school. Tiago was over and he was doing homework and when we came home Ligia and Tiago bought Pastel for all of us to eat. If you have ever been to a chinese restaurant where they have those noodles that you put in your soup, that's what the breading was. It was very good!! You can order Pastel with either cheese filling, ground beef filling or both. I ate the cheese filling! It was delicious! I look forward to eating more Pastel while I am here! Ligia and Tiago have night classes every night so I am here at the house and doing laundry and cleaning my room! So unlike Rachel Saunders! I KNOW!!! :) I am growing up! (mom this is for you). I will post a picture of Curitiba's sunset! It was just beautiful! I love it here so much!! More to be posted tomorrow!

Beijos
Tchau!

xoxo
Rachel

Day Three

Today did not start out at all like Ligia was expecting, we woke up with enough time to get to the airport to catch our 10:30 flight out but the traffic was HORRIBLE!!! We left the house at 8am and it's only a 30 minute drive to the airport and we got to the airport by 10:05am. Ligia was not happy about all of the traffic and we really were not happy with the TAM Flight company. We WILL have that man fired!! It was not okay how they treated us. Anyways, long story short..we found a flight (no money lost) and we made it to Curitiba! I was so so so so so so so happy to see Ligia's parents again..11 months is way too long! I love it here in Brazil with them, they treat me so wonderful and they enjoy my company just as much as I love theirs! And I love being with Ligia again!! I am so glad that the plane worked out and that we were able to catch another flight out even though we missed the first one! We came to Ligia's apartment and I met one of there friends Katherine and Tiago! It was really nice to meet them finally and to meet her brother for the first time too! I have decorated some of my room here to make it more like home and to see all of my friends and family every day here in Brasil! We bought a lot of things from the super mercado (super market in portuguese). Ligia has night school from 7-11pm so I was with her parents most of the evening. We have fun talking about everything, they are so funny! It is great to be in their company!! I will post more tomorrow! That is really all that we did today so more to come soon!! Thank you for reading and for keeping me and my travels in your prayers! I pray that God will have many opportunities for me to serve others around here in Curitiba!

beijos

xoxo 

Rachel

Day Two

I am proud of Dani for finding me a converter for these outlets to charge my laptop! It makes me very happy when I can communicate with my friends and family while I am enjoying my stay here in Brazil!! Today, Ligia and I were able to sleep until 11:30 (10:30 US time). We were supposed to wake up and go to a 4 hour church service but we were so tired..we didn't want to fall asleep in church! :P We made lunch  that was really good! Noodles, rice and meat! YUMMY! We then got ready for a party for Carol (Ligia and Dani's sister in law). She is getting married in only TWO WEEKS! Yayy! I am very happy that I will be her photographer for the wedding and reception! We littleraly stayed at her party from 3-10..LONG DAY! But so much fun! Sorry for such a short blog post but we really did not do much today other than spend good quality time together with a lot of girl friends! Stay tuned for more updates!

xoxo

Rachel