I miss you all dearly and am so sorry that I am just now blogging. I had every intention of being more consistent with this process but the constant adventures make it a bit difficult!
Lets see... since the last post I have gone to some more Penarol games! I love soccer and it is amazing to watch players who have such incredible talent. My birthday was on september 28th and as I went to bed on september 27th, I suddenly heard fireworks (which at the time sounded like gunshots) and screaming outside of our house! I will not lie, I panicked a little! I though there was some kind of violent riot going on out in the streets! I soon came to find that September 28th is also the birthday of the Penarol soccer team! SO... once it hit midnight on the 27th, every penarol fan went absolutely nuts. There were fireworks and flare guns, confetti, screaming, flags and other things that are illegal and shall not be mentioned! So the next day (my birthday) I woke up and went to class...during the middle of class the doorbell rang and I was told that there was something for me at the door!... My AMAZING boyfriend had sent me flowers! How does he do these things?? It made me feel incredibly special, along with all of the cards and emails I received. That night, Penarol had a huge party to celebrate their birthday (the 120th actually) and so obviously we went along. I just pretended that everyone was there for me! ;) It was a blast, but it was difficult to avoid inhaling all of the marijuana! People were definitely celebrating...
I have also been going to the Alianza once a week. This is the college that teaches english, and they use the ACU students to teach classes during the week. I absolutely love it! The students have so many questions about american culture. It is interesting to hear their perspective and it makes me appreciate the things I have in the states.
I have been getting sick a lot over the past few weeks but I am feeling much much better now! I think I was still trying to adjust to the different foods here. At one point I had some sort of stomach virus that was just not at all pleasant. I was sick for about a week :( The hospital here is really nice though!
There are a lot of stories to tell but now I want to focus on my recent trip to Brazil!!!! It was by far the favorite thing that we have done all semester. We went to see the Iguazu falls, which happen to be the most beautiful things I have ever seen. There were rainbows and trees everywhere. It made me think of what I had imagined the Garden of Eden to look like. The first day in Brazil we went to the Argentina side of the falls (the Iguazu river is bordered by Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay). It was absolutely beautiful! The second day we went to the Brazilian side. You would think that after spending an entire day looking at waterfalls, you would get bored...NOPE. They are just so incredible. I could have stayed there all day. After the falls that day we went to the Itaipu Dam in the Iguazu River. It was pretty interesting but the falls were way better! ;) On the third day we had our "free day". So all of us went to the national Iguazu park and went to the bird park inside. It was PHENOMENAL. There were parrots, toucans, snakes, turtles, butterflies, monkeys, and so much more. There were certain rooms that we got to go inside of and just stand in the middle surrounded by hummingbirds, butterflies, toucans, and parrots. It was unreal. After the zoo part we went and took pictures with a snake!! SO awesome. After we left there, all of the kids headed to a place called "canon Iguazu." It was basically a outdoors activity adventure heaven. We did a rope obstacle course throughout the tree tops, zip lined, cat jumped (where you climb a hug pole and then jump off of the top and attempt to grab a trapeze that is hanging a few feet away), and rock climbed. Now here is the best part....Will and I decided that we also wanted to go rappelling. Where you are harnessed into a rope and you lower yourself down the side of a cliff. So thats what we did! We got to rappel into the Iguazu River, with the falls all around us...It was the time of my life. While I was doing all of these activities I thought about only one thing...how much my Dad would love to be there with me. So when I felt scared to try something, I would think of my Dad calling me a wimp and I just went for it!!
Now I am back home at Casa (trying to recuperate from this week) and getting a ton of overdue work done! This blog being one of those things... Sorry bout that :( Well I will be home in a month and a half and I hope you are all ready for me! I have changed quite a bit...In many many great ways. You should all be happy to know that I workout regularly WITH MY BRACE ON. And my knee has been feeling awesome! Maybe I should get back into soccer?? Thoughts?? Hey fourth times a charm right? :) Love you all, see you soon!
(PS I have added the links to all of the albums from this past weeks trip to Brazil below, please enjoy!)
Rappelling
Iguazu Day 1: Argentina
Iguazu Day 2: Brazil
Iguazu Day 3: Free Day!
