What has been happening, along with an apology for not writing sooner.

In an effort to please my family (and Krista) I have decided to start writing again. I am sorry I have been slacking but I am so busy and the task of writing all that has happened is daunting. I will try and give you the condensed version:

Since I got here i have eaten the most delicious food and made the best friends. 

The food- The food here is amazing. It is all so delicious, but if I see rice and beans one more time I might be sick. It is normally chicken and a small portion of beef with rice and beans on the side along with salad and a new fruit juice

 everyday. On occasion we have something different; for instance today we had shrimp, and beef. Three of my favorite things I have tried are Guarana (a popular soda) Coxinha (a type of snack chicken) and brigadeiro (a candy made from chocolate, condensed milk, and butter. Talk about fattening).

My friends- My friends here are great. All Brazilian people are very nice but

 I feel that I have found some very special girls to spend my time with. I am with them almost every afternoon so we all have gotten to know each other very well. They take me out and show me the city and joke around 

with me constantly. I thought at the start it would be difficult to find people who genuinely liked me but it was so simple. 

I have also had the opportunity to meet about half of the exchange students in my district (and I will meet the rest tomorrow at our meeting in Maragogi). They are all so kind and unique. None of us are the same and we all have different cultures to share! 

I'm Here

I made it to Brazil. It is great here and I love it already. I left NM late Friday and I have been busy ever since.
I left Albuquerque and the nice people let me take my second bag free. I then flew to Houston only to have to rush to catch the next plane to Sao Paulo. I have decided that I love international flying. The plane was huge and everyone was speaking portuguese on it. The hardest part were the visa documents that I had to fill out. Luckily the nice man next to me helped me understand all of the parts I was confused about. Once in Brazil things started to get complicated. I went to the wrong place to get my bags and a man that worked in the airport knew I was in the wrong place and directed me to the right one (I also saw another girl in a Rotary blazer and we helped each other out.). Then my host dad met me and we tried to talk for awhile but the language gap hindered us. Next the hard part began. Once I left my host dad all english stopped. I went to gate 7 like my ticket instructed me to. I did not see Maceio posted anywhere though and I started to get worried. I asked a nice young couple if they spoke any english. The woman responded yes and she told me I was in the wrong place. She looked at my ticket and told me to go back to gate one on the other end of the terminal. I walked back but gate one didn't look right either. I tried to ask some people who worked at the airport but they couldn't understand my portuguese. Then I heard people come running up behind me and I turned around to see the couple who had tried to help me earlier. They said that there had been a change in the gate numbers and that I did not know because all the announcements were in portuguese. The man noticed I was an exchagne student and it as it turns out he used to help manage exchange kids for AFS. He and his wife were from Rio but they had lived in NJ (thus the great english). They were sweet engough to walk me to my gate and wish me a safe trip. It was so comforting to know that there were kind people that were willing to help me without even knowing me.
When I got off the next plane my host family was there waiting for me. Along with another family I had never seen. They ended up being my host mom's best friends. We then went to there house where I had the strongest coffee of my life! I also tried some really good food that is typical to eat with coffee there.
We then left to Arapiraca (I did not know that I had accedentally left my camera in the other families car) and I came close to falling asleep in the car. We did not stop at home right away, instead we went to go visit a girl that lived very close that I had been talking to. I had in the corner and popped out to surprise Magda. She was not expecting me for a few days so she screamed and got really excited. I then went home and I knew I would not be content untill I unpacked. All of my clothes are now in their place and my room feels a little more like home. My little host sister helped me but it was still late when I got to bed (it didn't help that the people here do not sleep and there was music playing untill 4am and people talking in the street).
I woke up today at about 11 and went to the store to get some things for school and some shampoo. Then my host mom and I went and picked up Magda and Karol so they could go on a tour of the city with me and have lunch. After all of this they came back to my house to talk and teach me some portuguese. I intended to keep my arrival at school a secret but they told everyone (I am this towns worst kept secrect). I will tell you how my first day goes.

Beijos,
Erin

A Change of Plans:

I received news about two weeks ago that they were having trouble with my visa. I worked my hardest to get the issues with it solved but it didn't work quite as planned. I had hoped to leave August 8th but that is now no longer possible. Instead of leaving tomorrow I will leave August 14th (six days later). I am a little disappointed but life goes on and everything happens for a reason. I guess I have a few more days here in the states. 

-E