My First Week Back In Rio!! 8D

Guys, I know I've said this before but it literally couldn't get any better.
When I got to Rio, I took a bus to Laranjeiras, where I used to live, and went to see my old family (my precious 82-year-old Dona Maria and the entire fight club--the 15ish MMA fighters). I hadn't even walked 20 steps away from the bus and I noticed someone walking next to me. I looked over and it was Bernard, one of the first friends I made when I first moved to Rio! (He was one of the guys I met on the beach when I was out running and we all ended up playing soccer, going out dancing and playing capoeira together.) It was such a coincidence running into him there because he's not from that area of the city but it was so awesome. He took one of my bags and walked me all the way to my house.

There, I finally got to chat with Dona Maria (one of the people I credit for helping me learn Portuguese the first time I was here) and some of the guys. They even cooked for me! They're the sweetest.

Then I headed out to check out some apartments. I had five lined up to see but I ended up liking the first one enough that I decided to stay so I moved in that night. I'm living with a small family (mom, dad & 6-year-old son) and they rent out the rest of the rooms to girls around my age who are here studying or working. Right from the start, these girls have been awesome. There are four of us who have gotten close (the other ones are nice but we're never home at the same time so I don't really know them) and we've been hanging out, going dancing, going to the beach and whatever when we can. They're all super sweet and have been really helpful since the very first night, when my roommate, Chris walked with me to the store to show me where it was. They're seriously awesome!! One of the other girls, Clarice, who is particularly hilarious, just moved away from her family for the first time because she wanted to travel and make a life of her own that didn't quite follow the norm. She reminds me a lot of me when I was younger and I'm kind of obsessed with her. She started her own YouTube channel when she moved here and she let me be in the last one! (My Portuguese is horrible but it was fun anyway!) Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqYd46W5-Fw

 The day after I got here, there was a Kizomba Congress (which I found through a friend of a friend that I stalked down on facebook once I saw the word "kizomba" in his profile picture) and I knew I had to go! Obviously, I had no one to go with so I went by myself. There was one other girl in there who wasn't either Brazilian or Angolan and became friends the instant we introduced ourselves. She's from Sweden and she's freaking AWESOME. We've been hanging out every day since, mostly living on the beach, and she's just as obsessed with dancing as I am so look out, Rio! Emilie and I are coming!

It gets better! I've just completed my first week of Portuguese classes and they've been incredible. They're really similar to the intensive Spanish courses I took in Mexico all those years ago and I'm loving it. There are eight students in my class and, including the teacher, we're from nine different countries (Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Holland, Hungary, Canada, Germany and, of course, Brazil and the U.S.). We're all different ages and from different backgrounds and professions, here learning Portuguese for a variety of reasons. All of our discussions have nine distinct perspectives and I love it! Pretty much everyone in the class already speaks English and Spanish (actually most of them speak like 5 or 6 languages...I'm trying very hard not to be jealous) but we do a pretty great job of speaking Portuguese when we're together on breaks and after the class.

That reminds me...after the class! Listen to this routine. Wake up, four hours studying this ridiculously beautiful language with a group of wonderful people, then a few of us always go for lunch (usually sushi), and then we head to the beach, meeting up with other friends a lot of the time. Afterwards, Emilie and I buy a liter of fresh coconut water each and head home together. Some days I go teach for a couple of hours afterwards (but not much right now since a lot of people are traveling) and other days I stick around to watch the sun set. Then I get home and hang out with all the awesome people in my house, speaking in Portuguese the entire time, telling stories and joking around. Seriously. I can't believe this is my life. I couldn't make it better if I tried.

Some particular highlights of the last few days:
1) We were assigned to teach something to the rest of the class at the end of last week (we were studying the imperative verb tense) so I taught my class how to read and write in Korean (just some basics since I only had like 10 minutes), all in Portuguese. It was awesome!
2) Two of my housemates & I went salsa dancing on Thursday and we were out til 6 a.m. There were some amazing dancers there and I got to dance with them a bunch! (I just need to get some non-flipflops for the next time I go...there was a lot of my shoes sticking to the floor and coming off...not ideal.)
3) Tonight my friend and I took a free Jiu Jitsu class (somebody handed me free 3-day passes the other day when my other housemate and I were walking through the main plaza over here and stumbled on a free zumba class that we decided to partake in) and it was awesome. Besides that, it turns out the teacher dances too and he had info for me on where I can find dancing around where I'm living now. Why is everything so perfect?!?

I have my first trip coming up soon so I'll keep everyone updated! :)