So if I were to summarize the week between Carnaval and the start of orientation, I could probably do so with about one word: beach. But it was certainly fun, and for those of you more interested in the various happenings on said beach, continue reading...
Natalie, Andres and I met up with Ray on the next day. Ray seems like a very cool, down to earth guy, and once we had met him, we set out for the beach, for neither the first nor the last time. We walked along the beach, chatted, and sunk our feet into the warm sand.
The next day, we met up with the other major group who had come early for Carnaval. Carmen, Khalya, Arissa, and Fiona. Oddly enough, and one of the big coincidences of this trip, I already knew Fiona; we went to high school together. We met up and spent a great day on the beach, just relaxing and reading. I am not a great swimmer, and everyone was treading water, deep in the ocean. While fortunately I am a strong enough swimmer to save my life, and I did join them, for every stroke they took I felt like I had to take five. Soon tired, I went to the shore, and decided it would be cool to be able to do a handstand. I had never done one before, but I had plenty of time, so I just kept jumping up, failing, jumping up, failing, and as the sun waned I was still jumping up and failing. But I actually started to get it by the end, and I decided to join the group after that. From then on, I resolved to work on handstands just a little bit each time I go to the beach, and my resolution has surprisingly held steadfast, although as I write I have not been to the beach as much (class and all).
This is a picture of the beach from Carmen's apartment
The sun eventually went down, and our hunger pangs had long since commenced. As clamors rose for food, we began our search. Carmen and Khaylah, decided to go with the food at hand, a rather expensive (by Salvador standards) restaurant, and the rest of us felt cheap, so we decided to go to Habib's, the restaurant Andres said was close by. We walked down the street, with danger levels steadily increasing with the gathering darkness. Up one street, across another, right left, etc, we winded our way deeper into the city, with us asking for directions in our broken portuguese, and them sending us to multiple different habib's. Just as murmurs of rebellion and just giving up for McDonald's (yeah, it is here too) were growing, we sighted the following beautiful sight:
Notice how dark it is... it was pitchblack, and we were hungry!! In Habib's there were multiple advertisements for different types of food, and it all looked so delicious in a way that only commercials can make it (especially with a lot of exercise and not too much food under your belt). I was really hungry so I basically tried just about every item on the menu that I didn't know how it would taste, which actually was a lot, and I ended up eating all of it, and then proceeded to act as the garbage disposal of the table, volunteering myself for half finished milkshakes and the like.
We actually decided to go night swimming after that, and enjoyed a cool dip in the ocean.
We met up with the group again the next day, went to the beach again, read and did handstands again. I was very adept at finding things with my feet that day. I was able to find two separate rocks with my feet, one while swimming, and I kicked a shallow rock, and one while doing a handstand, and as I fell down, landing on the corner of my foot, and finding a rock. I also had the good fortune to find a sea urchin with my foot, and I gingerly stepped around things after that.
The sunsets were pretty awesome!
We went to a fish festival afterwards in a hip area of town known as Rio Vermelho. Getting a dinner of tapioca crepe things, we sat in Rio Vermelho, enjoying the sights and sounds. We tried to help a dog out and give it some food, but it quite visibly refused it. We placed several different food items ranging from shrimp to veggies, and it pushed the plate away. Afterwards, in the actual fish festival (and I wasn't really sure what to expect either, I mean, this place could be really fishy ;) ) , it turned out to be a concert of sorts. At first we kind of moved with the music, but rather staidly, so I decided to join the fray, and we had conga lines and (tame) mosh pits. We also met a Brazilian gay man, who was thinking that the guys in the group, including me, were gay, me mainly because I was wearing a collared shirt, which apparently in Brazil screams gay. The things you learn right. He actually turned out to be a pretty cool guy named Andre, and he has promised to take us out to a real samba place.
The next day, guess what......drum roll please......MORE BEACH
I will say that life was pretty idyllic during that period. I mean, who can complain when they have a cool coconut in their hand, lying down on a beach on the coast of Salvador, Brazil?
We practiced some of the Brazilian dances, and Khaylah taught me how to correctly pop lock and drop it (important stuff for any future employer, really marketable skills that). Fiona, Ray and I went nightswimming after that again, and this time it really pushed my limits as a swimmer. I am actually a terrible swimmer, always having some fear or inability (not really sure why I am so bad at it). We swam out to a pier of sorts, and had to lift ourselves over the slimy, and slippery rocks, which was easier said than done. Crawdads or some similar aquatic looking cockroach were swarming along the sides, so it was kind of interesting to see. We all swam out further, and finally made it to a set of boats that were moored in the ocean. We climbed aboard, and Fiona and Ray continued on out, while I decided to head back early and call it a night. We ended up crashing at the girl's apartment that night; I slept on the tiled floor.
On the last day before the program, Ray, Andres and I just chilled around the apartment, relaxing before the start of the program and the end to our freedom.
We had A LOT of time on our hands
And then it was orientation...
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