Day Seventy

Last day in Curitiba..it was a rainy morning so we couldn't go out. Ligia woke me up for my last lunch made by mae and we had lunch together before re-packing a suitcase and the emotions began to flow! It was stress and sadness all balled into one! I packed up last minute items and then made our way out the door. I said see you later to my brazilian momma..I AM GOING TO MISS HER SO MUCH! I WILL MISS THEM ALL SO MUCH! We said a prayer before I gave big hugs and kisses and shared a load of tears! I am so grateful for them all! They have made my time here super special and one that I will never ever forget! We packed the car full of suitcases and made our way to Sao Paulo. It was an easy 6 hour drive. I read my Hunger Games book and listened to music before the sun went down. I am SO CLOSE to being done with the first book! We are staying at the same F1 hotel that we stayed at for Gabi and Carol's wedding so this is familiar territory for me. We had dinner at an italian restaurant tonight and ate some pizza! Very good! We finished off with dessert! We made it back to the hotel to shower and get ready for bed. I have a really long day ahead of me. I will wake up for breakfast, then go back to the room to sleep some and make phone calls before getting on the plane later in the evening. We will make the drive out around 4pm to the airport for me to have plenty of time to get all checked in and go through customs (stressful!). Then I will wait to board the plane and I will take off around 9:10pm Brasil time (8:10pm Va time). It is a 9 hour and 50min flight to New Jersey and then I don't board the next plane until almost 8:30am to go to RICHMOND, VIRGINIA! Yayyy! Home again, home again! I know everyone is really excited to see me, and I am very excited to see all of my family and friends as well!! It will be a very long day and I will catch as much ZZZzzzz as I possible! More to post soon!! Hang in there if I don't get my tomorrow post done until Sunday, it may be a day before catching up! But that is my day for tomorrow, basically! More to post on Sunday when I am BACK IN AMERICA! Man oh man it is so weird to say that! I feel like Brasil is home now! I know that a little piece of my heart will always be here. I really love it here, and I will miss it a lot! I am definitely coming back someday soon!! More to post soon! I love you all and thank you all for the prayers! Please pray for safe travels for me tomorrow!! 

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel

Day Sixty-nine

Last full day in Curitiba, Brasil…a boyyy was it a day! Ligia and I woke up around 9am this morning and I opened my shades and it was BEAUTIFUL OUTSIDE! Bright, clear, blue skies and the sun was shining so bright! I love sunshine! It was 77 degrees outside at 9am this morning. It would have been too much to ask for the weather to stay that way though ;). Li took me to a salon to get mani's and pedi's. I treated her to that for her 19th birthday, my present to her! AND for being an awesome friend and someone that I can call a sister! That took almost two hours for both of us to be done. It was wonderful, very relaxing. The lady asked if I wanted to exfoliate my feet..I agreed, but little did I know…it would TICKLE! It took every bit of me not to kick, I squirmed to avoid the kicks!! She tried to do my other foot and I was quick to say NO!! Haha..that had be laughing for a while! Tears even started to flow! It takes some pretty hard laughing for me to start crying so that right there tells you that it was funny! We left they salon to head back home for some lunch, mae treated us to that..it was noodles (ramen noodles to compare it to something you may be familiar with), beef, broccoli, carrots, and cooked cabbage! Very delicious, this was the first time that I have had this meal and it was excellent! After lunch I packed my second suitcase and cleaned the room a bit. Ligia took a very short nap and guess what..It started DOWN POURING! Not just sprinkles..like actual rain, it got to the point where i literally thought it was hailing. A lot of rain coming out of just ONE giant black cloud. After the down pour, it was quick to clear up and the cloud passed by. Around 2pm we made our way to the botanical gardens, now for the 3rd time to try and go! Lucky for us we made it quick enough to take one picture (in the parking lot) of me in front of the beautiful glass green house. Absolutely gorgeous! I will be back some day to see it for real, and not just from afar! We ran back to the car in the midst of the beginning of what would be a down pour and made our way out of there! There were black clouds that were quick to cover the sky. It was all within a matter of 10 minutes. We got there, it was clear, we walked to the parking lot and it began raining! We didn't want to take the chance of walking all the way to the glass building and it start to down pour! Especially since Ligia has school tonight, no time to get ready again! After going to the botanical gardens, Li took me to a nail polish store, with walls, and walls, and walls of nail polish. I walked in and I felt like a little girl in a candy shop! I didn't know where to begin! It was good that we didn't spend long, because I would have gotten more than I needed! I bought some for friends too so it wasn't all just for me :P. After going to the nail polish store we picked mae up to go to the super mercado, my last trip (for now) to the super mercado! We had to buy food for tonight, Ligia's great aunt was coming over and their aunt and cousin came over as well. It was great to meet their great aunt tonight! We ate and ate and talked and talked! It was a wonderful evening. I am exhausted and blogging half asleep (so forgive me if some of it makes absolutely no sense). Tomorrow is another eventful morning, then lunch, then making our way to Sao Paulo. I don't like good-byes so this will just be a see you later! A little piece of my heart will always be in Curitiba, Brasil. I love my new friends and new family here! They have all been so great to me..so those of you reading this blog who live in Brasil..this is a HUGE THANK YOU TO YOU! OBRIGADA! BEIJOS!!!! More to post soon!

Beijos
Tchau

xoxo
Rachel

Day Sixty-eight

Nothing going on today, I took down most of my room and I am packing up a lot of my things. Getting ready for the drive to Sao Paulo this Friday, getting as much packed away as I can so that there isn't much to do when the actual time comes. I signed up and payed for classes today, real world is getting closer and closer. It has been gross all day today, 54 and rainy. I was aware that the last days would not be pretty so that's why I wanted to get as much in as possible while we had pretty days. I still have a lot to do and see but I problly won't get to all of it this trip. More to post soon.

Beijos
Tchau

xoxo
Rachel

Day Sixty-seven

Time..it's all I can think about, it's a very small amount of time left here in Curitiba, considering that we drive to Sao Paulo on Friday early in the morning. Today we went to two places that I wanted pictures. The spitting horse is the first place we stopped at after going to the super market for food. The spitting horse is a well known fountain, and to me, it is very beautiful. So I had to stop by one last time for some pictures. Then we walked down to where the famous statues are. The naked man and woman, and as you can see..they are HUGE! So I had to take pictures of these famous statues as well. It's weird to be saying bye to people and seeing these places for my last time. Hopefully I will be back, I just don't know when. It's definitely a bittersweet good-bye. Luckily we had a beautiful day today, high of 77 and it might have gotten a little warmer than that today. It was gorgeous outside with clear skies, for the most part (some overcast). The rest of the week is supposed to be in the 50s and rainy. Maybe the rain will hold off for me, I still want to go to the Eye Museum (pictures in older posts) and I want to go to the botanical gardens too. Hopefully we will get around to those last two places before I head out! More to post soon!

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel

Day Sixty-six

BAGS BAGS BAGS!! Today, Ligia took me to the mall, party place, and super market. We went to the mall to get a lot of things as souvenirs. I walked out of that mall with 4 bags full of surprises! We then went to the party supply store where I walked out with two bags. 6 total right now. Then we went to the super market to get more things for my family and I walked out with 4 bags there. Yeah, thats 10 bags total. Ridiculous? Maybe. But I had so much fun shopping an finding good prices! I took some video of the car ride today to show what I see when I ride in the car, the cars, people, buildings, and dogs just walking everywhere. It's a whole new world! I wouldn't trade this vacation for any other vacation! It has been wonderful! It's coming to a close and I love these last few days, spending time with a good friend and getting to see a beautiful city! A little piece of my heart will always be in Curitiba, Brasil. When we came home around 5:30pm we unloaded the car and brought everything inside. I sorted through my bags to get everything neatly packed away into my suitcase, it is all in there safe and sound and will be coming to America with me! The missionaries came over again, this evening and they shared their last message with me and we said our good-byes. It's weird meeting people and then possibly never seeing them again, that's just how it is sometimes! I nice to know that they are praying for Tommy, Ellie and Tucker (baby tucker was born 25 weeks old…super premature and is in stable condition, the family just needs a lot of prayers!). Hopefully word will get out and Brasil with pray for this precious baby boy! We had scones, and ate ham and cheese sandwiches. I will miss these nights! My favorite time is our meals in the evenings. Today was a beautiful 75 degree day, with the sun out and shining bright! God's beauty is shining all around me! More to post soon! Stay tuned for more updates!

Beijos
Tchau

xoxo
Rachel

Day Sixty-five

It was an absolutely beautiful day, all day today! This morning was a little chilly, but that sun was shining SO bright! I am thanking God for such beautiful weather, and I am enjoying it for the next couple of days before it rains some more! Brasil is just sad to see me go, that's why it's raining so much! ;) Down to 6 days now, it's so crazy..I just keep thinking and looking back at old blogs at my first week, I feel like it was just yesterday that I was enjoying Sao Paulo with my girls! And now it's time to say my good-byes! It has been everything I imagined it to be and so much more! Today, was a day of good plans but there were car troubles so we charged the battery up and drove a different car back to Li's we had planned to go to the Botanical Gardens but there were far too many people there, none of us really wanted to go there today. We will go there on Tuesday when there is more sunshine! I say everything happens for a reason, why be disappointed if I know God had that planned way before we got into that car. Why be discouraged when God was problly saving us from something that could possibly be more tragic. I told Tiago, it could be worse! And it's so true..especially from the news and what happened in CO..I just keep thinking how much I take for granted and how much I should just smile, enjoy, and know that God is in control (rambling..sorry!). Anyways, when we got the car stuff figured out, I decided we needed an updated elevator picture, so we took that before going to have some famous HOT DOGS! This is going to sound gross to all of you Americans until you actually try it. Hot dogs cooked in tomato sauce, with mayonnaise on the bun, then put the hot dog, ketchup and mustard on top of that and the perfect topping is canned corn. The perfect combinations. If your a picky eater, of course you won't like it. But if you are willing to try new things then try this! So delicious, one of my favorite snacks ever! Gabi and Carol came over too to eat some hot dogs and hang out for a while. It was a good night! Great company to be with while I am here. Even though we had car problems today, it was still a great day! OH and I forgot to mention, the cute little chubby baby (he's 6 moths old) in my picture, he kept me entertained today in church service, and his 3 year old brother with the blue marker all over his hands, face, and clothes! Yep, great sunday ;) More to post soon!!

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel 

Day Sixty-four

I always have trouble thinking of creative ways to start off my blog each day, so I will just ramble so everything eventually is said. I woke up today and we got ready to go to the mall to have some lunch. We were there for a while, eating and shopping. The food is always so good! That is definitely something that I will miss about Brazil. After the mall, we came home and Li left to take Tiago back to his house and then I stayed here while the rest went to the mall. I was able to shower and get myself ready for the evening! We were going to go to this hip hop performance but it was too expensive (25 reais) and they were only accepting cash and none of us had cash on us. So we left to go to Mustang Sally's instead! We had Nachos locos and I had a delicious italian salad! So good! After Mustang Sally's we were jamming in the car and doing the dougie..yeah, Brazilians can dougie! It was a fun car party! We made it back safe and sound and now we are just hanging out at home and we will get ready for a new day tomorrow! I hate to see the days going by so fast but I am loving Brasil to much! We have A LOT planned this week! Crunch time! My last week in Brazil! Oh so bittersweet!! More to post soon!

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel 

Day Sixty-three

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIGIA!
Today was a celebration of Ligia's 19th birthday! We had lunch and then sang a different kind of Happy Birthday song ;) I got video of it! And had some delicious cake! It was a giant white cake that was basically, angel food (if you know that type of bread), strawberries on top and throughout, AND a lot of whipped cream! So good! Ligia wanted to have her friends come to a restaurant called The Fifties, basically a really great burger place! So she had to leave around 5 to grab tables because they didn't hold any reservations. The rest of us left the house around 7:30 to get there and eat some food before going to the club! There was 17 of us all on one whole side of the restaurant, it was a lot of fun with great food! I ate a Pic Wrap (sounds like Picky Wrapie when you say it in Portuguese) We sang another Happy Birthday song for Ligia and she had some dessert. We made a lot of commotion with our loud cheers and a lot of claps! It was a wonderful time of celebration! After dinner, Tiago drove two of Ligi'as friends, Ligia and I all to a club/bar called Mondo Birre (Mon-do Bee-he). We had a lot of fun there! The night just kept getting more and more interesting! Everyone was amazed that I was American and some didn't even believe that I was! I met Bernardo from Massachusetts (Living in Curitiba) and Louis who attends Penn State when summer is over. They were both super nice. And I had some conversation with other people too but it was cool talking to people who had fluent english. The rest just tried talking to me with the little that they knew. And I talked some in Portuguese and told friends the words that I know. We stayed at the club from 11-3am and made it home around 4am. I didn't go to bed until 5am and woke up at 12pm. It was a great night with amazing memories to cherish forever! I am down to 8 days left. It is crazy how fast the time here has gone but I have loved every second of it! I am enjoying every last bit of Brasil as much as I possibly can! I want to thank everyone for their continued love and support. And more importantly, PRAYERS! Thank you all so much! More to post soon!

Beijos
Tchau

xoxo
Rachel

Day Sixty-two

Today Ligia and I went out to try and do some souvenir shopping, where I wanted to go has closed and turned into something new within a couple of weeks. It caught both of us by surprise! We came home and watched some television and ate some chocolate pizza and some home made soup! YUM! We went to church around 7:30pm and we were there for more soup eating. They had a competition as to whose soup was the best, there were first place, second place, and third place winners. It was a fun night with some games to play too! Today went by really fast! Tomorrow is Friday (Ligia's 19th birthday) so the birthday festivities will start tomorrow and we will party all night at the club! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIGIA, LOVE YOU! More to post soon!

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel

      

Day Sixty-one

The count down is 10 days until I'm back in AMURRICAH! The time is going by way too fast, it needs to slow down! Today makes TWO MONTHS that I have been here, I have loved every second of my time here. There is so many things that are different but I have adapted and I know the ways of the culture pretty well now. I know dos and I know don'ts, you learn A LOT when spending some of your life in another country! Today, we had lunch with the missionaries (elders) and spent a good two hours just sitting around the table and talking. There were some good laughs and different crazy stories that were shared. We talked about horses, cars, motorcycles, and guns haha..we talked about different countries and how the USA is different from Brazil. It was a lot of fun and the food is always so delicious. After lunch, the missionaries left and the girls made there way to school to make payments for Ligia's school. The line and wait was far too long so we are waiting for tomorrow to make the payments. We left her school to go to the mall to pick up Dani and to do more "shopping" (looking really..) the sales are awesome..the LINES are not ;). I can handle the lines if the prices stay this great! We left the mall to go to the hair salon again for mom to get her hair cut. After her hair cut we came back to the house and Tiago and Ligia ate some grub before going BACK out for PIZZA! I was having a serious craving for some chocolate pizza..! So I treated Tiago and Ligia to it as well, we bought two large pizzas, one of which was chocolate and I ate way too much! But I said that there is always the gym ;) AND this is the first and last time that I will have chocolate pizza for years..SO might as well enjoy it now! We got the pizza and went back to Tiago's house to eat! We came back to Ligia's house after eating the pizza and now we are getting ready for a brand new day and new adventures! I loved today and I love my time here. I am so happy here! Thank you all for continued prayer and for supporting me! More to post soon!

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel

Day Sixty

We had lunch at the mall today and we were there for a couple of hours. We did some looking, because SALES have started! Sales is a very good thing, here in brazil. EVERYTHING is too expensive, so when sales hit, it's usually good! We came home from the mall and we just chilled for the rest of the evening. Tiago drove Ligia and I to the movie store to look for Avengers but they still didn't have it for us to rent. Instead, we just came home and chose one that we already had. We relaxed the rest of the evening and got some rest for the next day! More to post soon!

Beijos 

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel 

Day Fifty-nine

It was a chill day, nothing much going on, again haha. It was a movie kind of day today! Hopefully events will pick up soon so I can see more of Brasil, as of right now it's been rainy, cold, and windy! Temperature was 40 degrees today. It is supposed to be like that all week! I need SUNSHINE! Praying for beautiful weather! 12 days left here in Brasil. Back to the 100 degree weather soon! More to post soon!

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel 

Day Fifty-eight

Sunday is a day of rest here in Brazil, and that's exactly what I did all day long. We had lunch here, it was noodles, ground beef, olives, and boiled eggs. Carol and Gabi came over to eat lunch too. When lunch was over it was a lazy sunday for me. I took an afternoon nap around 5pm and then woke up around 8pm. Ligia's friends came over (not to my knowledge) and I walked in to a room of 7 people sitting around the dinging room table. 4 of which were complete strangers to me at the time. I have got to say that was the most awkward that I have felt while being here. I felt bad because it was one of her friend's birthdays today and I was the visitor, rudely asleep in her room when everyone else was at the table having a good time, eating food and eating cake. It caught me by completely surprise and almost a little shocked too. Things became less awkward as the evening went on, but I was still a little confused. After everyone left 3 hours later I took a shower and headed back to bed. More to post soon!

Beijos

Tchau

xoxo

Rachel 

Day Fifty-seven

Today marks exactly 2 weeks left here in Brasil..my time has gone by WAY TOO FAST! I have loved every second of my vacation here and with the people that I love dearly!

Today we went out to celebrate their cousin Tiago's birthday, I explained it like I was in the Hunger Games (can you tell that's what I'm reading?)..literally though, we walked in and it was a GIANT room full of tables with one buffet styled place with plates, forks, and knifes. There was a line of people wrapped around to get plates of food. Once you have your plate (mine had rice, potatoes and bread on it) you sit down and there are guys with a ton of steak on skewers and they slice off whatever you want to eat. They keep coming around as if it were a marry go round and you just spin the little people to whatever you want to eat. It was quite the entertainment of the afternoon! They kept coming by with all sorts of ham, and meat, chickens heart (yuck), and anything else that you want. Name the meat and they were probably coming around with large skewers and cutting it off for people to eat as much as they wanted. And that is where the Hunger Games comes in..see my point? If not, you either have not seen the movie, or have not read the book! :)) After that event we made our way back home to freshen up and go out to see this beautiful opera theater made of nothing but Iron! Absolutely gorgeous, I will post pictures soon! I walked up to this bridge made of nothing but iron as well and underneath me was a body of water with HUGE coy fish and ducks. To my left was a gorgeous waterfall and the bright blue sky with the sunshine shining brightly! Just a gorgeous landscape for our evening. We took pictures there and did some souvenir shopping for my family. I found some good things for decent prices! I can't wait to show off everything that I have gathered for loved ones back home! After leaving that theater we tried some hot red wine. It had ginger and cinnamon added to it, it was too got for my likings but it is a recipe that I can take home with me! Afterwards, we got back in the car to go to a bakery and get fresh bread, ham, and cheese to make sandwchiches as our snack. My family just made it back from Myrtle Beach today and I was able to FaceTime with them. My parents were very tired so we will try again soon! Overall, another great day here in Brasil! I am sad to see it come to an end but I am enjoying every last second that I have here, while it lasts! Thank you to everyone who has followed the blog from the start until now and who has shown me love and support throughout my travels! I love you all and I cannot thank you enough for all of the prayers! More to post soon!

Beijos
Tchau

xoxo
Rachel