The people could not be any more amazing. Bruno and I have gotten really good at communicating with each other and we've come up with an awesome learning system. We've been naturally speaking to each other in Portuñol (him) and Spanish (me) but now we've started teaching each other mid-conversation. Once we understand each other on something in Portuñol, we'll stop and teach each other how to say it in English and Portuguese. It's working perfectly for us because we both have the same very basic level which is rarely the case in language exchanges. It's been a blast talking -- we've been discussing all the normal topics friends talk about when they're first getting to know each other -- and we obviously have a lot in common. Beyond that, we went out and had some delicious vegetarian food and then walked around Vila Magdalena, a famous area here in Sao Paolo with lots of live music spots. We stopped in a number of places so I got to hear different types of samba. The people around were chill (it's custom here to hang out in the streets around the bars, standing or sitting at the tables, to have drinks and listen to the bands), it was a beautiful area and I loved the music and how the people were dancing. Toward the end of the night, Bruno decided to start speaking to me in more Portuguese than anything else and, although I'm nowhere near perfect, I'm starting to pick up on some of the patterns. Tomorrow will be a real test for me because I'm going to meet his mom, who doesn't speak any English. This'll really be a first because, even though I've been listening and understanding some of it, I have yet to actually attempt to speak it. Yikes!
I'm looking forward to it and I'm so happy to be where I am right now. This whole thing is such an adrenaline rush--it's nerve-wracking to not really don't know how to get around (especially when you're me because no one is worse at directions) or talk to people but, at the same time, I see the most beauty in people when I put myself out there like this and trust in them. And we want to see the beauty in life rather than ignoring it by staying in our comfort zones, right?
Traveling shows the depth of the world's beauty in the kindness and humanity in the strangers you meet along the way. Life is absolutely amazing when you're not too scared to live it.
I wonder if there's any way for people to see what I see in the world without traveling (in this way--not in the leaving-the-country-and-heading-to-tourist-spots-or-resorts way). It's truly indescribable...I have no words to adequately explain the compassion that's grown inside me, the appreciation I've come to feel for the majesty of the world around me, the magnitude to which my mind had been opened, the gratitude I feel toward the universe and the people in it for taking care of me, or the tranquility that's settling in my heart toward all of the things that used to worry me most. All of this is because of traveling. Don't get me wrong - I'm not claiming to fully understand any of these things...but I've come to learn that they're much greater than anything I ever could have imagined. Surely, as a 26-year-old, I have a lot more to learn so I guess that means I have a lot more TRAVELING to do. ;)
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