Recife!

Hi everybody!

(I wrote this yesterday but then my wifi started acting funny so thats why the times are a littttle off)

I am back in Joao Pessoa, and it seems like I will be here for a while. We arrived earlier today from Recife, which is about an hour and a half to two hours in the car.

We went to Recife for a few reasons, the first and main one was we had to drop Pedro off at the airport. He is off on his exchange in Denmark, and he has arrived safely after quite an adventure of lost tickets and baggage. Anyways, around 10 o'clock on Friday, the 5 of us left for Recife. It was a quick drive, but I was still very tired from my travels.We went directly to the airport where I met my host grandmother and a cousin who spoke very good English. She studied in the USA for a year in college. We just hung out at the airport for quite a while waiting for his flight, talking, and having a good time. We had lunch, then Pedro was off to start his adventure. I was taken all around Recife for the next two days.

We got to my grandmas apartment and relaxed for a while before my host father left to go back to Joao Pessoa for the night. I was shown a bit of the city, then that evening we went out to see Olinda, an older part of Recife. I didn't take too many photos, but like any city at night, it was pretty cool to see. My host brother and cousin got tapioca for dinner (google it I don't know how to explain it :P) and I just had a fresh coconut. I wasn't very hungry so that was all I had but it was amazing. (All the fruit I have tried since arriving here has been absolutely amazing.) They just chop off part of the coconut and give you a straw. Then when I finished they chopped it in half so I could eat the fruity part on the inside. It was awesome. Eventually we went back to the apartment, and I went to bed almost immediately.

The next morning the plan was to do a bit of shopping for things that needed and just to see everything. We also wanted to go to a museum. Unfortunately we never did make it to the museum, but we did do everything else. So they day started off with the very sweet and slightly threatening demands of my host grandmother, saying that I needed to eat more. Directly after breakfast I went for a run on the sidewalk next to the beach. After that we left for a mall. I really didn't have anything to get other than pajama pants and normal toiletries, after that we stopped in a shoe store and that extended the trip for a while. We went back to the apartment and ate lunch, then laid around for a while and just relaxed. I was pretty tired again so it was nice. Then, we went to the house of more extended family. We spent around 4 hours with them and their baby, and I got to make everyone crepes which was a lot of fun for me, and everyone seemed to enjoy them. Once again when we got home I went straight to sleep.

Today, I woke up and ran up and down the stairs a bajillion times or so. Then we had breakfast again, and we left for Joao Pessoa shortly after. It's fathers day here in Brazil, so the whole family was in Joao Pessoa when we arrived, so we have been with them this whole time.

Tomorrow will be my first day of school, and I recently learned it starts at 7am, yikes! I'll write an update about school some time.  The language is getting easier every day, I don't think it will take me too long thanks to my spanish. Thats all for now!
Jonah