woooo woooo

So I am still feeling like death times 54953 but I am SOOO excited that I will be on my way home on Wed (even though home in the U.S. and even worse AZ). Flight from Bariloche back to BsAs...airport transfer to the other BsAs airport with my 343 pounds of luggage (that will be fuuun)...marathon flight from BsAs to Dallas then Dallas to Tucson...woooo. It´s def 4:30 in the morning here, but I took a xanex and slept allll day today (heavenly...thank god for xanex) so I can´t sleep anymore and I´m super bored. It snoweddddd all last night and today!! Yay...fresh snow (Crazy how I spent over a month on the beach and then a week later I´m in snow). I´m hoping to feel well enough to make it up to the mountain tommorow to take some pictures and see what I´m missing (so sad that I missed out on some prime snowboarding...knee deep powder I hear). I can´t wait to go to the doctor Fri and hopefully find out what is wrong with me...I want to get bettter and it´s so hard to do here without the comfort of home.

I literally cannot believe that I am leaving South America on Wed...if I could bring my family and friends with me to Brazil I would be going back there instead of home (because it is like my new home). I will be so sad to leave because these last two months have been the most amazing months of my entire life. All my pictures and words cannot do justice in explaining what this has meant to me. It will take me some time to get used to being back in the states and I will probably be in denial that I will have to be in Tucson when I could be in Brazil. I am so in love with Brazil...can´t wait to get back to my Salvador and spend more time in Rio and travel the whole country. Argentina does not even compare (sorrry!!!) but Brazil is way more beautiful and the people and language and culture are all so amazing.

This whole trip has taught me so much...I feel like I gained like 5 more years in wisdom and life experience. You can go to school your whole life and never learn as much as you do when you travel to new countries and see and experience different cultures and people. I can´t wait to graduate and travel the whole world. I will never forget this trip and how amazing it´s been, but I´m looking forward to lots more!

More :( :( :(

I am pretty much HATING life right now...seriously. I am in the freaking Andes and I can´t even get myself out of bed let alone snowboard. I worked up enough energy today to take a shower (yayyy) and go out to the store (and find a phone to call my family and bawl about how shitty I feel). I stopped taking a certain medication that I´ve been taking for a while and my body is going through some serious withdrawls so I´m delaing with headaches that you cannot imagine and so much dizziness and fatigue that I can´t go like an hour without sleeping. I´m also just completely and totally drained from all this travel and climate change. My body cannot handle this...I feel like I want to die. I´ve been drinking tons of water and vitamin C and just convincing myself that I´m feeling better...but it´s not really helping. I´m so upset that my trip is ending like this...but I can´t wait to get home and see a real doctor and get better. I finally got to talk to my family and besties today so that made me feel a little better...just hearing their voices makes me smile...5 more days.

:( :( :(

So I think today was my worst day yet here. I definitely passed out in the subway station and had to go to the hospital in a super cool ambulance...I don´t remember much of it because I was pretty unconscious. Em is being really good to me and the doctors were so sweet, but I just want to be home...I´ve been feeling so sick and I guess I just collapsed from exhaustion today. The worst part is that I´m flying out to one of the best places to snowboard in South America tomorrow and the doctor told me not to do anything but sleep. I am so sad that I probably won´t get to snowboard...but I have to focus on getting my body better.

We went to this amazing club last night...I´ve never seen anything like it, it was designed by the same creator of the Eiffel tower. It looks really discreet from the outside then you walk in and it´s this huge place with huge screens on the screen showing snowboarding and music blasting. Lots of fun.

I want to be homeeee!!!! One more week!!!

FREEEEZING!!

So I am officialy freeeezing here...it is so freaking cold...like the winters in Tucson but worse. Saw more of the city today and I love it...it´s just like Manhattan...my dream city. We went to this market in the morning and it was cool...lots of antiques but it wasn´t all set up because it was early. We went to the first soccer game of the season too...crazy and super cold standing for hours. The Argentines love their soccer...just like the Brazilians and all of South America.

We met some Irish guys...my favorite part of staying in hostels and traveling is meeting all sorts of people from all over the world. We met these gorgegous guys from Barcelona that speak some English too...maybe I can meet up with them when I go to Madrid hehe. I am just a little boy crazy here...thank god for the single status. Whenever we run into people that speak English it´s super exciting. And there is a guy at our hostel that is Bahian from Salvador!!! So exciting...someone to talk about Salvador and speak Portuguese with!

So I´m not totally crazy about being so cold but I´m looking forward to snowboarding in like 5 days and seeing more of Buenos Aires before then. Can´t wait to get back home and see everyone...it will be weird going back to reality. And I will miss meeting all these cute international guys ;) It´s so nice to hang out with non-American guys and people in general.

Holaaaa

So I am officially not in Brazil anymore...and freezing my ass off. I left the beautiful beaches and perfect weather in Rio for 4 degrees celcius, but I`m sure I will love it here in Buenos Aires. I have yet to explore because we got in late afternoon and checked into our hostel (which is super nice...in the SoHo area of BsAs). Rio was amazing...so beautiful. We saw the big Jesus (yaaa too bad I´m Jewish but whatever...it´s one of the wonders of the world) and Sugarloaf which was breathtaking. Also hit up Copacobana and Ipanema...4 days was definitely not enough there, I´ll have to go back. It`s kind of like Manhattan with a beach and Portuguese (and more crime)...perfect minus the crime part. Oh and we were going to go into a favela with a friend that volunteers teaching English but we couldn´t because there was a huge police raid earlier that day (since the PAN games just ended...the police are moving in again).

I can`t wait to get back to Brazil...it´s so hard trying to speak Spanish after over a month of only Portuguese...I like Portuguese so much better ;) I am completely in love with everything Brazilian and wish I could have stayed much longer. Buuut, BsAs should be good and Bariloche will be amazing (snowboarding on the Andes...woooo yeah). And everything is way cheaper in Argentina...that´s a big plus. I´m not looking forward to going back to the U.S. at all (only to see my family and friends). South America is wonderful!

Beijos...Besos...whatever you prefer...Tchau!

Amazing Weekend

Sorry I haven´t updated in a while...I´haven´t been near a decent working computer. The past week I´ve just been chilling with these cool people I´ve met at my hostel...went to the beach, went all around the city and just relaxed. This weekend I went to this island two hours off the coast of Salvador called Morro de São Paulo with Em and some guys from her program. Picture and words seriously cannot explain how incredible it was...the only way to describe it is to see it for yourself. It was true paradise and probably the best birthday weekend I´ve ever had (except that I didn´t have my family and friends with me). Saturday (my big 2-1) was the best...we took a boat out all day and saw this sweet sand bar in the middle of the ocean (you can see both the tides coming in and hitting each other from opposite sides), got all dirty in this natural mud on the side of a cliff (you put it all over yourself then rinse it off and it makes your skin so soft), then we took this amazing hike up this mountain and saw the whole island from above (so beautiful, miles of tropical forest). It was pretty incredible and I felt so lucky to see everything that I saw. The parties on the island don´t get good until like 1am so we headed over at like 2am and it was really fun. I drank legally for the first time!! (Well, it doesn´t matter here, but if I were in the US it would have been legal). Definitely drank too much though and was not having fun this morning. We had to take a two hour boat ride and I was not excited. The way there we went on this nice catamaran which wasn´t bad but the way back we took this little speed boat thing...everyone around me was throwing up and I was close to joining them. Longest two hours of my life.

I am completely in love with it here and I don´t want to leave!! I´m going to Rio tomorrow... can´t wait. It´s going to be so weird being back in the US...I do miss it (but only sometimes when I´m feeling lonely) and will be happy to see everyone, but I want to stay here forever and travel around Brazil. Oh and it will be nice to not have to deal with people hounding me for money and to buy things...and although Brazilian boys are so cute, most of them are serious creepers. This kid from Rio that I met at my hostel was definitely creeper status last week. He actually speaks pretty good English, but his best line was that my eyes hypnotize him and that everytime he looks into them he thanks God. Haha...definitely laughed inside when I heard that, any guy that says that kinda stuff after knowing me for three days is not going to get very far...that totally turns me off.

I´m going to try and figure out how to post pictures becasue I have so many!! And a little side note...I am covered in mosquito bites...they are everywhere and annoying as hell...I am so thankful that I live in a desert and when I get home I don´t have to deal with that...they seriously love my blood or something.

Beijos e abraçoes...tchau!

Beach Bum

So silly me thinking that I´m now tan enough that I don´t need sunscreen. I got a nice little red tint today...it´s ok though, I know it will be gone by tomorrow. I washed my clothes today (by hand...yes with my own two hands...hope you´re sitting down mom). I was just going to drop it off somewhere and pay someone to do it (my normal thinking process), but instead I did it myself...there´s a first for everything. I felt like a housewife from the 1950´s though...it´s fine every once in a while when I´m in another country or something, but I will not ever succumb to the housewife persona when I get older.

Laid on the beach all day today after my fun with clothes washing. I was daring and brought my iPod, but I was really careful and discreet with it. It´s good that I feel comfortable going to the beach alone and not getting robbed. I don´t get scared very easily and I´m super laidback, so I constantly need to remind myself that I need to watch out for myself. This weird guy asked me if I had a pen today on the beach so he could write down his "contact information" for this girl he was talking to. He asked me in English assuming that I was not Brasilian...hmmm wonder what gave it away (apparently I have American written on my forehead). He was nice but a little off...I think he was taking too many hits of something. He´s from San Francisco but has lived here for 5 years and I think I speak better Portuguese than him haha.

So that was my excitement for the day...enjoying the beach and laughing to myself about how crazy some people are (while that guy was talking to me). Everytime I go to the beach I just soak it all up and enjoy every second of it because I know that in a month I will be beachless.

Oh and one thing I forgot to write about...when we got back from the island on Sat we were in the Cidade Baixa where the boats dock (super shady at night) and this crazy old man came up to our group with a syringe and was like injection...injection trying to offer it to us or something. I literally turned around to a man sticking a syringe in my face. I was like are you serious??...no I don´t want to shoot up whatever you are "selling". He was dressed like he was trying to be a doctor or something...so shady.

So three and a half more days in Salvador...two and a half in Morro de São Paulo (an amazing little island two hours off the coast of Salvador and where I´m spending my bday) then off to Rio...wooo.

Love and miss all my family and friends! I´m really torn...I can´t wait to get home and see everyone but I love it so much here and I know that I´m gong to love Rio and BsAs too...it will definitely be hard to leave.