Oi gente

Sooo...it has been a looong couple of days to say the least. My flight to Sao Paulo was ridiculously long and probably up there on the worst experiences of my life list. Flights like that make me not want to travel. The airport in Sao Paulo is another list topper...it was horrrible. It took us over an hour to get our luggage and check it for our flight to Salvador. Our flight was set to leave at 9:05 and we weren´t even done with the luggage disaster by then and we still had to go through security and customs. Luckily our flight took off late...we were the last ones to run on. Thank God for Brazilian time...everything is very relaxed and nothing is on time.

The very first parts that I saw of Salvador were beautiful...so green and tropical. Once we got further to the city it started to look more like a third world country. Emily and I checked into our hotel by the beach (which was so nice) and just slept. Today I got up early to get a taxi and get to my language school for orientation. Of course I called to get the same guy that took us from the airport and he said he could come and 20 minutes later when I asked the fromt desk he had called to say he had to cancel. So I just got another taxi but he had no idea where he was going so I was a little late.

I really like the school and my teacher and there are other Americans there!!! Yay I was so glad because I feel like the only American here. After class my host mom took me to her apartment where I will be staying and showed me my room. It´s nice but it´s a really small apartment. She´s really quiet but her husband is more friendly and not as shy. It´s kind of awkward trying to communicate with everyone here because they can tell I´m not Brazilian by the way I speak, so I´m just trying to get by.

Right now it´s raining hard and probably will a lot because it is winter. It´s so humid! Honestly from what I´ve seen so far, Brazil is not the exotic vacation place that most people think. There are lots of slums (favelas) in Salvador which I wasn´t expecting and I would definitely not go out at night anywhere unaccompanied. Last night I woke up around 7:30 (Brazilian time) to what sounded like all sorts of gunshots and explosions. My best guess is that there must have been something going on in a favela related to drugs. It lasted over an hour and sounded pretty close. Emily slept through it so I just stayed in bed scared to death. It´s so sad that that kind of thing happens on a normal basis and no one can do anything about it because the drug gangs have the most power and they will do whatever it takes to keep it that way.

I´m hoping that I will get to know the city better...I feel so lost all the time and it´s hard to understand what´s going on. I am the typical gringa...all I want to do is improve my Portugese so people don´t stare at me and give wierd faces when I try and speak. I´m definitely feeling a culture shock and it will take me a couple weeks to feel more comfortable. I´ll try to put up some pictures of Salvador and the Barra district (where I´m staying) soon. Tchau!