Dans Blog

Rio and Floripa!

2009-12-17T15:14:00.000-08:00

We went to Cristo Rei statue on Corcovado.

We saw Jacas on the way.

Leandro, Jay, and I at Armacao beach.

Lagoa de Peri.

Floripa 2

2009-12-12T16:41:00.001-08:00

Florianopolis Round II

We rented a Duble ...

And went up a mountain called Uribici 2,000 meters high.
The group on top of Uribici!
We also saw this waterfall called Cachoeiro do Avental.
Rafting on Saturday.

The group!

Our Awesome Excursion Driver

2009-11-21T18:55:00.000-08:00

This man was a great driver for the trip. He explained Bahia as "peace." The people we traveled with in the car were also from Sao Paulo. We had a good time together. They even ran into us while we were leaving and told us a meteor hit Utah.

This shows us driving through the big pools of water. It also shows our great driver telling us funny stories of people getting stuck in these waters.

Bahia

2009-11-21T17:32:00.001-08:00

This past week was the much anticipated trip to Bahia. I had heard a lot about Bahia and was anxious to get to know it myself. Jay served his mission there and every time he tells someone that they always react with a little laugh and a smile. Everyone seems to know it as an interesting and laid back place.

On the plane ride over there I sat next to a Bahian. He was great- my first experience with a Bahian. He talked and talked as if he really didn't care too much if I was listening; he just wanted someone to talk to and enjoy the ride with. He was fun to talk and listen to.

Bahia is really a peaceful place. Our Land Rover Driver said "Bahia is peace." Another lady (visitor) explained Bahia as having a type of force that brings a great and happy energy.

I really enjoyed our trip. I couldn't talk enough about Itacare either. It is still a small town that received a paved road only 10 years ago. We made a bunch of friends there in the short amount of time we had, along with a lot of great experiences on beaches, lakes, surfboards/body boards, etc.

Here is me at the airport. (Cheap ticket 230 reais round trip ... not too shabby)

Close to the airport. I like the colors of Bahia. Most things are painted either yellow, green, or blue.

There are a lot of Caucau trees here. These produce the fruit cacau, whose seeds produce chocolate.

Resende beach close to the Pousada.

Me at the Pousade we stayed at, Albuergue o Pharol.

We went on a sweet excursion with Land Rovers.

We made it to a nice beach called Taipu de Fora. This place has clear water with coral reefs making natural pools.

Along the journey we also went through big swells of mud water, stopped to relax, saw big plants, ate caju, and even swam in the fresh water lake.

There are so many fruits in Bahia. This is Jay eating Caju in the mirror. Some other fruits I've never heard of here include the following: caju, umbu, jaca, jenipapo, caja, siriguela, cacau (the seed makes chocolate), etc.
It was nice swimming in fresh water.

This is at Tiririca, the 3rd closest beach to our pousada.

Blecaute

2009-11-07T13:59:00.001-08:00

An older man walked into our classroom to talk to the teacher. He walked through the presenters and made everyone wonder what was going on. I thought he was just telling the teacher to wrap up because we were already 30 minutes over the class time, but thought it was strange that he went right up to the teacher. Then he left.

"Oi pessoal ... em Sao Paulo acenteceu um mega-blecaute."

That was certainly a quicker way to ending class.

Incredibly 20% of Brazil is powered by a hydroelectric dam in Itaipu (the second largest amount next to China's Three Gorges Dam). A shortage went out and most of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were left in the dark. Including me.

It was strange to see. Cars and buses were the only lights, aside from small emergency or generator run lights. I saw Jay in the study lounge and we quickly noted down the closest U.S. Embassy's address and telephone number, then went outside with a darker walk back home.

It felt like we had gone camping. We got ready for bed in the dark and enjoyed the short "campout," with no electricity within miles, in our apartment right in the heart of the largest city in South America.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120299662

In other news I dyed my hair acaju. My teacher in class yesterday looked for "the American" to ask a question and was a bit surprised when he found me. He smiled and amid chuckles from the class he asked "Daniel o que voce fez?" I replied "Eu sou brazileiro agora."

"Funancial Reporting"

2009-11-05T21:53:00.000-08:00

Classes have been going well.
Yeah they're good.
Yeah it's getting busier.
It's been fun.

That is a poem I wrote. It is called "Funancial Reporting." It reminds me of times when you are having new experiences or enjoying what you are doing. And when it comes down to reporting it the bottom line is that for some reason ... it's just ... fun.

Well school has been a little bit busier as the semester winds down. With that (school), preparing for the LSAT, and sight seeing, I've been staying pretty occupied. It's been fun.

Jay and I took a somewhat routine walk to McDonald's tonight to pick up a pair of R$1 cascinhas or ice cream cones. That's like 50 cents in U.S. currency. McDonalds on Avenida Paulista is pretty nice. It's hip and it has 3 floors. We usually go to the top floor and sit right under the air conditioning. It has a cool view and nice pictures on the walls. Tonight we chilled out with our ice cream cones and listed to Britney Spears: "Oops I Did it Again," Nelly: "Ride With Me," and others. It was fun.

It's been getting HOT! That's another reason why we go to McDonalds- it has air conditioning. Our room gets pretty warm and makes it a little hard to sleep sometimes. But it's been fun.

Italian food, Halloween, and the Zoo

2009-11-03T04:10:00.001-08:00

Gregory, an Italian exchange student who lives nine floors above us, cooked us Italian chicken pizza style. He said this is so you know that Italians just don't eat pasta. This is the group below. Julian and Chris (Germans), Jay and Roberto (Americans), Mariana (Mexican), Kristi (Romanian), and Gregory the Italian.

Come and get your food.
Jay and I went to a Halloween Party in Vinhedo with a group of friends. We got dressed up like rockstars. Our custumes were great. People at the party took pictures of our group as well.
This is all of us that went to the dance except Thais.

The girls. Carol, Thais, and Samara

On Monday, the Holiday (Dia dos Finados which is Day of the Deceased), Jay and I went to the Sao Paulo Zoo!

Cool Tucans

Really big snake exhibit.

The snakes were hidden in the bushes so you can only partially see them.

They even had a ant colony.

This is called an "anta" in portuguese. It's Brazil's biggest land mammal.

After the zoo we got a snack, a classic Bob's milkshake at the Shopping Paulista.

Sao Paulo Tour

2009-10-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

Jay and I took a Sao Paulo walk in the center. We walked from our house. After about 4 hours of walking we were able to see quite a bit.

This is Edificio Italia- now the tallest building in Sao Paulo. It is 46 stories tall. Jay and I tried to imagine the 224 story tall building "Burj Dubai" in Dabai in the United Arab Emirates.

This is a famous statue called Monumento a Mae Preta (Monument to the Black Mother). It is built by a unique church where African rites were formaly performed. This statue is about a black mother breastfeading a white child while here kids go hungry. There is a poem about her lamentings as well. Pretty strong message. Oh and there were two banditos getting held up by the cops. You can see the cops gun.
Banespa.
Neat masks and statues
Banespa again
I think this is Monestario Sao Bento.
Here is the Bank of Sao Paulo. This area gives a Wallstreet feel. It is the Wall Street of Brazil.
The stock chart at the Bovespa
Us at the Bovespa! Bovespa stands for Bolsa de Valores de Sao Paulo or the Sao Paulo stock exchange. We saw an exchange student friend, Chris who is from Germany, there on the road.
At the top of the Banespa. The Banespa is a different building by the Bovespa. Banespa is a really tall bank. Banespa stands for Banco do Estado de Sao Paulo, or the bank of the state of Sao Paulo. This used to be the tallest building in Sao Paulo. It was made after the Empire State Building. Great view. Sao Paulo is huge!!!
The tax meter.
This place is where Sao Paulo was first founded year 1554.
We got a picture.
The Brazilian FED.

The cop motorcycles remind me of lego motorcycles.
Statue by the College of Law and one of the statues in front.
Jay and the Theatre Municipal. A pride of the city with its barouqe style and art nouveau features.

The College of Law. This is a really old school with really sweet archecture- a lot of arches with courtyards inside. It is still a functioning school but it feels like you go back in time when you go in. This statue in front of the college is by William Zadig and is one of the most controversial works of art in Brazil. It is a French man kissing an indeginous woman.

Avenida Paulista and the MASP. I'm a little scruffy here... my razor burnt up in Floripa because the voltage there was 210 wats. So when I got back I took a journey to 25 de Marco to get a cheap razor.

Avendia Paulista! Right by our house.
I made it to 25 de Marco. This place is FULL of people.

Igreja do Se on the way. It supposively can hold up to 8000 people.
Big church (Se)

I took a video on top of the Banespa. I ran out of flim so I didn't make it all the way around.

Between Sept. and Oct.

2009-10-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

These are some other things I have done between Sept. and Oct.

Randomly Jeff's mission President and his wife were in the same ward that we visited in Vinhedo.

Bike riding in Vinhedo

Paulo, Keiko, and Jay in Vinhedo.

X-Tudo in Santos

Muscle Beach Brazil

Jogging on the beach.

Went to Santos

Sugar cane juice.

This young guy let me rent some roller skates.

Basketball at Parque Villa Lobos in San Paulo. They play 21.

Juventos 2009. This is the biggest church dance of the year in San Paulo. People come from all over Brazil. They give you a green bracelet if you are single and a red one if you are married. We enjoyed live music, friends, and a small snack downstairs underneath.

They say there were 3,000 people there.

Florianopolis

2009-10-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

"Bom tempos com gente boa"

We have been in Florianopolis since last Saturday. It's spring break or "saco cheio" in São Paulo so we have the week off.

This is Guarda do Embaú

Leaving the Guarda to get on the BR-101

Look at this Sand Dollar I found. This is Leondro on the right he's our friend in Florianopolis.
I bought this ring for 8 reias.
Boats to get to the cool island beach.

This is why they have boats.
San José and Florianopolis.
The group except Samara who took the pic.

Sand boarding.

2009-09-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

I just read the newmanator's blog. Yeah time has been passing really fast. He gave a great overview of our trip to Ubabtuba and Paraty as well. So go and read it! haha thenewmanator.blogspot.com

I'm in the student lounge again today writing this blog post. It's 3:30 here. Jay mentioned how Brazilians are super social. If you know any you probably can understand. The student lounge during school hours is packed full of students. It is definately a lot more full than the library is. There are coaches T.V.s, tables, and 2 fuseball tables and a pool table. Most of the things are being put to good use too. People are always chatting, playing cards, eating etc. Fuseball often has 6 to 10 students around it.

Before going any further... HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISA!!! You are awesome!

Let's get to some pictures hein? We went to Ubatuba and Paraty with some good friends. Good times with good people became the modo. "Foi bom com a gente boa."

Here is me on Sununga Beach. The waves were huge! It was a lot of fun wading out there because water would be close to your waist at one moment then it would be lifting you 3 feet off of the ground the next moment. I saw some kids get smashed inside the big waves. They got tossed around pretty good and came out alive laughing.

When I got out of the water I noticed my swimsuit was a bit more heavy ... sand in the shorts. I scooped out two and half handfulls of sand that had filled my swimsuit during the crazy turning of the waves haha.

To the side of me on this beach there was a Redbull Skim board competition that looked really fun.

Here is a gas station in the beach town of Ubatuba. Coming from the desert of Utah, this gas station looked fake to me because of it's surroundings. More like a Jurassic Park, Universal Studies building waiting to be placed in a movie.

And a Turkey we saw there on the grass. Gobble gobble gobble haha.

We tried to surf after lunch/dinner before it got too dark. We got Valeiro's board ready to go and he went out.
Waxing the board. Valeiro did his undergrad at BYU Hawaii, where Natlia, his board, was born.

Jay and I watching. Carol said she liked the back of my hair. I said talk to Jay the hairstylist.

Leandro from Florianopolis.

Brazil vs. Agentina. Watching a little pregame at the house. Then we went to McDonald's at the mall where a lot of people were watching the game. It was nice to get out to the city to see everyone and be with a good group. Foi bom com a gente boa.

The next day: here we are traveling, with Carol driving.

Big waves.

The logistics near the beach weren't always the best. However, it did make for a small beach town feel.

I got this on the way out of Trinidade

We made it to Paraty. This place is like a little taste of Portugal in Brazil.

Here I am with Clever, Valeiro, and Thais in the backround. What cool dudes huh?

Our group minus about 5 others.

Kinda Portguese neh?

Picture before leaving. See Jay's blog for the picture with all of us in it.

Churrasco at night with a little music like "Shimy Each Iord" or "Jimmy Eat World" (group joke). Man this was really good times with good people. It was nice to relax, cook food, talk, and listen to music. "Foi muito bom passando tempo com a gente muito boa!"

Games

After the churrasco we went to the beach. Late night beach relaxation to end the day.

These waves were really big.
Valeiro couldn't help but jumping in. This is him after body skiming.

The next day we went to a beach called Felix. We took a little motor boat out to a sweet island. The guy that took us out there left us there! The poor guy's boat broke down and he couldn't get it to start. He really needs a new boat and make a descent business. Luckily we were smart enough to get a ride with another boat that serviced a different mainland area. That driver said that this has happened before.

Here is the night at about 10 pm, about two or three hours before we left back home. Can you tell we were at the end of the vacation?

It didn't take much to fall asleep. Didn't even need a pillow! Photo courtesy of Samara.

So that was our trip to Ubatuba. The whole thing was fun ... even the car rides. It was good times with good people or "foi bom com a gente boa."

We got home at about 4 am to dodge all the traffic. Hey it was better than our roomates who came from the same place but it took him twice as long.

Side note from FGV. I got a number and will be receiving a jersey for "the team!" I chose number 52 and it's going to say "Daniel" on the back. Tight! Here they have their first names on the back.

Ok pessoal. Ate mais. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISA! Once again. You are surely a shining star in the sky.

Week 2 of Skoo

2009-08-31T20:04:00.001-07:00

I write this looking outside of the student lounge at the FGV on the second floor. I just finished talking with my parents through Skype video! We talked about everyone and everything- 50 minuets worth- for zero reais! I love deals. My heart warms. Carol, a friend that we have here, described a restaurant with a phrase recently that I resonated deeply within me. It is in Portuguese of course and has a good alliteration: "Barato e bom." In English it is "inexpensive and good." Stay tuned for similar stories on barato e bom.

Skype has tons of cool features. Look at these pics we took and shared on line!

So it has been another week here at the GV in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I'm starting to get the feel for this place... I think. We'll maybe not. Sao Paulo is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, 7th, with about 20 million habitats. Running any type of demand analysis would be quite a project. Utah by itself has less than 3 million. Anyway, so there are a ton of people here and a ton of things to do. Stay tuned after these pics...

Here is our room- really clean as you can tell. Our roommate, Roberto from Texas, today said he cleaned his room yesterday and was displeased with himself letting it get messy again. I sort of empathized with him about me hanging up clothes, when he disagreed and said our room always looks clean. He made me think- and yeah we are pretty clean. So I agreed with a soft yeah .. yeah I guess so.

Here I am reading the Jacare times. Ok it was just to pose. More to come on posing and modeling later.
Welcome to our office (In the picture below). This is where we get internet and the only access to Facebook, Orkut, and You tube. Yeah you thought BYU was strict on their restrictions. When BYU allowed Youtube on campus it made National News haha. Anyways we get the groove network ouside our window at an amazing low signal that lets me to do not much more than merely accept and ask for friend request and a few messages.

Notice my puffy eyes. I have never had this type of swelling in my life. I think it was just a reaction to something. Possibly my lotion. Surprisingly I still have to use lotion because it is supposively a bit more dry here in the winter than it will be in the summer. This was at or near the peak of my puffiness. It lasted for about 3 days.
See a little puffy, but not too bad.
Compared with this. Where did I get this pic? Yeah I am starting an experiment where I take a picture of myself once a month. Then when I am old I could maybe look back and believe that I am old by seeing the changes. We'll see how long I can keep that up lol. Anyways I had the picture on my computer so I just put it in for puffy eye comparison purposes.
So we went to a garage/house party. Here is what a garage/house party in Brazil looks like from the outside.

An "emo" friend of ours from institute hosted a garage/house party with a live band, dancing (including forro, which was the first time I had ever seen forro), popcorn, and about 30 liters of soda- serious. If you've been to Brazil this is probably a pretty typical party, socializing, a little dancing, with popcorn and tons of soda. Am I right?
We went to the party with other friends we had met at institute including Franciane, Cecilia, and their brother Jefferson.

The ground was like sand paper. Not too good for break dancing lol.
We met up at their house to go over there. I broke the record for bowling on the Wii with a 252. Not too shaby for a beginner haha!
This is one of my favorite views (below) that I see just about everyday. Our school is just to left in this picture. This is Jay walking to the bus stop. The Museum of Arts of Sao Paulo (MASP) is that red building with windows in the center of the picture. This is 2 min walking from our house.

We went to an intitute dance. After institute we got invited by a crowd to go with them to an institute dance.

Our Young Single Adults ward leader and me!
Tiago, Jay, and Franciane.
Here is a good view of the dance. Jay, Anieli, and Camila.

Jay and I went to the temple! Cool to go in Portuguese.

We met up with a friend there. Her name is Fernanda. She was an aeromoca. That is she worked at the airport on the intercom- "Atencao senhores passengeiros..." haha. Now she sells expensive clothes at shopping Jardim to famous people.

We played University of Sao Paulo medical school last Wednesday. We lost by 13. It was a practice game but still. Our coach wanted us to work on 2-3 zone for the whole game. I'm finally getting the portguese jargon for basketball here like laterois, armador, postes, curta, ladrao!, homem, rebote, etc. I played about a third of the game and scored about 13 points, which wasn't too bad. Final score was 74-61. Me and a couple other exchange students will play in the ABC league here!

Here is more on Bom and Barato (Good and inexpensive)- All you can eat sushi bar last Saturday on Avenida da Liberdade! 30 reais. Bom e barato. Found a lunch place close by- big plate 8.50 reais. Bom e Barato! On the way out after an evening of pizza (bom and barato) Jay found 100 reais on the ground! He stopped as we all walked. Carol said "what Jay?" Response "It's 100 reais." Bom and Barato!? (it doesn't cost much to pick up money right?) Sortudo.

I said there will be more on modeling and posing. Jay and I will be part of a friend's school project. She studies Men's fashion and needs seven models for her designed clothes. Come on December 2 and 3 to see a runway show of a lifetime haha. The theme is German outfits. I'm part German right?

A Normal Week of Skewl

2009-08-25T15:12:00.001-07:00

Tuesday evening I entered my first class of International Business (in Portuguese) with jeans and a T-shirt on. The teacher started class on the hour, at 9:00 pm. Everyone else in the class was dressed very nice, business suits with expensive briefcases, notepads, and pens. About a year ago I have been noticing notepads and pens. My first meeting with PRI I came with a bright green notebook with a black Dragon sticker on it and I used a black bic pen to write on it. I felt too noticed then as I did in class on Tuesday.

Among the Brazilian executives I listened carefully to the teacher so I wouldn’t miss anything. Fortunately a lot of business ideas and words are in English so I didn’t miss out on too many foreign business words. The teacher assigned a group project for groups of 4. I had made friends with the guy at my right so we gathered up a group. Two other members of our group had jeans on as well. I am excited to have this class to get a good perspective on international business and further my Portuguese.

Wednesday evening I came to basketball practice on time. Nothing here starts on time. I give the reason for this phenomenon to the culture as well as the traffic. Honestly, it is hard to judge how a long a bus will take sometimes. So to save headaches they give you about a half an hour. Another school was on the other side of the court warming up with jerseys on. We eventually had about 11 players show up and dominated the other team. Julian, a German, and I are the only exchange students on the team.

Last week we went out to a Rodizio pizza place. It is exactly like Rodizio's but with really good pizza of all varieties instead. I ate about 12 slices of pizza including chocolate coconut pizza, ice cream pizza with banana slices, strawberry pizza, and the classic pizzas. I highly recommend this restaurant on Faria Lima for a good feast for about 20 reais with a drink.

This week we went to a Institute dance. I learned forro! It is a simple dance that is closest to bachata. Anieli, a gal from our first ward in Caixangi, was kind enough to show me the basic dance moves to the popular Brazilian dance. Young adults from four different stakes filled the dance floor and enjoyed the dance and food. The young adults here have been really nice so far and really like to spend time doing fun things. The energy and little sleep they get sometimes amazes me. They are very active people.

First Week of School

2009-08-18T10:04:00.000-07:00

After patiently waiting for the swine flu crisis to simmer, we finally commenced our classes at the FGV! We kicked it off with a Portuguese assessment on Tuesday, and then a night out with everyone that evening at a café nearby. Jay and I have really stepped into the international scene with people from all over the world.

Students flooded FGV on Wednesday, the official 1st day of school. Our classes are in English, taught by Brazilians, with a lot of other students who have English as their second language. I feel like I have an upper hand because of this. Jay and I were put in the graduate level classes because we are close to finishing school. A few other Americans are in the program as well and are getting their MBAs at Pepperdine, New York, and attending other international schools in the states.

As part of the welcome week they had a few activities like "trote" for the incoming freshman. Here they lined up the freshman and walked them around the neighborhood while terrorizing them with eggs, alcohol, hair shavers, flower, cooking oil, and what not. In the end they came out a mess with patched heads.

Yesterday we had our orientation assembly. The Dean of the School welcomed us along with the other international relations officers and Club leaders. They also planned a couple "surprises" for us. Of course it almost wouldn´t be Brazilian if something wasn´t somewhat "surprising." For surprise one, they closed the curtains for about three minutes and then opened them again to Kapoeira people who commenced Kapoeira singing and dancing. Two dancers swung their legs at each other very quickly to the rhythm of the others banging on drums, sticks, and singing.

After their routines they kept playing the instruments and invited audience members to participate on stage. Melina, the international relations officer, called out people to come up. She said let's get more people up here... how about those from BYU. At that I went up. About 15 of us participated in dueling one on one with one of the Kapoeira dancers with the crowd clapping and the other Kapoeira dancers singing and playing their instruments. It was a fun welcome.

After I dueled, one of the students on stage said "You go to BYU? I go to Utah." His dad was a Mission President somewhere in Brazil.

The other surprises were a drum team pounding the guts out of their drums without being bashful at all and then food and drinks downstairs.

Something really cool about FGV is that they get the students involved really well. They have different organizations that anyone can participate in including sports.

Last night I went to the basketball training. I wasn't expecting anything more special than pickup games, however; I realized it was a bit more than that. FGV has a team here and they play against other schools and go to tournaments. We had a full on practice as a team. It had been a while since I have had a coach tell us to run and do drills. Another cool thing was it was all in Portuguese. Fourteen guys were there.

Jay and I with other international students from Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and Singapore/England.
Freshman getting smothered by eggs, flour, alcohol, and even hair shavers.

The crowd anxiously waiting for the Freshman to come out.

2009-08-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

Ok. I am still figuring out blogging. I figured out I can post more than 5 pictures on one post. So from now on I'll change that.

Jay and I went to Rio de Janeiro! We really lucked out on this trip. In Sao Paulo, where we were living near the temple, other study abroad students were living too. We ended up making good friends with them and doing fun things like going to a soccer game, movies, etc. They were all at the end of their program. At dinner one evening we were all talking and one of the members in the group invited us to join a group of them that were going to Rio to stay with her family for a few days to rock climb, see Rio, and be on the beach. Of course was the obvious answer! Super fun trip!

We took a bus over night and Lani and her mom picked us up in the morning. We couldn´t really get to talk to her mom right away because of the crazy driving at that hour. At their house we took a nap and then woke up to a nice french toast breakfast and juice with an outstanding view of Ipanema beach and the city of Rio. Incredible.

Rio is an amazing city with the steep mountains and green landscapes with gulfs and beaches. I told Jay he should propose on top of one of these mountains as we hiked Sugar Loaf mountain in the afternoon. The cable car costs 40 reais. Or you can hike around the back with climbing gear for zero. Super fun.

The next day we took another adventure up Pedra da Gavia. We met up with some of Lani´s Dad´s friends, Chris and Kyle, to hike early in the morning. At the top we took pictures and had a nice lunch while we waited for Chris to check the area for good para gliding conditions. When he said it was a go we all helped him with pictures, and getting the shoot up for him to run off of the 2,500 foot high cliff and fly towards Rio and the beach! He glided in the air and we could see him with prominent objects like the Christ statue, the famous favela of Rocina with 600,000 people, Sugar Loaf, and the beach.

To clean up from our hike we went surfing on Ipenema Beach. Vera, the mom, gave us some manwhiches with french fries and fruit then off we went to the beach. On the sandy beach, Lani gave us some top notch surf lessons that helped us catch some waves. Afterwards we buried Christian in the sand, played volleyball, and then went home to eat and watch about a whole series of Heroes until we were really tired.

On sunday after priesthood meeting, I stood up to leave for the next class and heard someone in the back call out my name. I turned to the back and saw my buddy Eduardo Amorim from BYU back from his internship in Sao Paulo and staying with his parents in Rio de Janeiro! In the evening after we took a long walk on the beach, we all all met up at Eduardo´s place and hung out with him, his family, and friends. I have to mention this day that we ate ribs, fries, salad, etc. and brownies for lunch with the missionaries as well.

2009-08-10T19:53:00.001-07:00

2009-08-10T19:45:00.000-07:00

If it Has a Mechanical Bull...

2009-08-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

If it has a mechanical bull, then you know it's a real party.

Tons of people, food, dancing, and a DJ. The announcer said that I was from Texas when I mounted on the bull.

Friday

2009-08-01T12:54:00.001-07:00

The temple is pretty close by. Nice!

Jay won a gold fish at the festa! It died the next day.. aww. Ok he didn't really but tons of kids did. This reminds me of a phrase a guy said to me on the bus here with less than 24 hours in the country. Some lady was doing a crazy street performance w/ a costume that looked like a guy dancing/mugging a lady while traffic was stopped. Then she jumped out from under the costume and put here arms up. The man sitting next to me, without having said anything to me ever before, turned his head and said "only in Brazil."

It's been fun :)

The Way There

2009-08-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

We left at noon on Tuesday and arrived in Sao Paulo at about 1:30 pm on Wed.

Jeff and I got some Carl's Jr. during our layover LA. Smoothest airport get away I've had.

We ran into study abroad students! We are sharing our apt. with 4 other BYU study abroad students for a few days. Kinda cozy right now as you can see from the pic- four beds and no floor. We all went, to the SP soccer game. Tri color eh meu amor! Se tu nao existe; nao quero sorrir

mais!

Sao Paulo won 2-1 against Gremio

Dan's Blog

2009-08-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

Student exchange at FGV in Sao Paulo Brazil.