A day in Leblon!

OiOi,

So today we walked around Leblon a bit (the place where the hotel is, and where my homestay will be). It is a REALLY nice, casual, safe neighborhood. there are a bunch of places to shop, eat, and hangout!

Tonight we met up with the guy who runs the Brown abroad program at PUC (whose name is Jurgen) and he drove me to where my homestay will be, and it looks like it is right across the street from the beach!! Then, we drove to PUC-Rio which also looks really safe, and nice with lots of trees and restaurants, etc. THEN we went to a bar in Leblon, and had some caipirinhas. Those are FORTE (ie STRONG) but good. They are made of cachaça, limes, and sugar. That was fun! Coincidentally Jurgen, invited a friend of his who is in Brazil, but normally lives in the US, who is a Brazilian history professor to come to the bar to join us and he knows my Brazilian history professor from Stanford. (Small world, eh?)

oh ya, tomorrow's the Brazil game, and this country STOPS for all futebol games, so all of Rio (and Brasil) will be paralyzed tomorrow after 4 when the game starts. Maybe we will go watch it at a bar or restaurant or something. who knows?!

overall, it was quite a good day today!

Alright, tomorrow we are going on a city tour, before the game, so I need to get some rest tonight.

Boa Noite!!!!

Oi from Rio!!!

Oi! I'm here in Rio after 14 hrs of flying!! Once I got to the hotel I just fell asleep for a while. But, when we were driving from the hotel, I saw a bit of the city and it looked really nice! lots of green trees are everywhere and we passed a big lake that is in the middle of the city. A ton of people were walking with dogs, some big ones, and a lot of tiny poodles which were SO cute and often were wearing t-shirts!

We are in a nice hotel in an area called Leblon, but its winter time and its gotten dark already. It was a bit cold today, but they said that it was unusually cold today and yesterday and that it should get warmer in the coming days.

tomorrow I plan on seeing more of the city and walking around and whatnot, so I'll update more on the city once I see it.

tchau!


p.s. All over latin america, including here in Brasil, are two fantastic tv channels called Warner Channel and Sony Channel, and all they have is American shows like scrubs, gilmore girls, and tons of cancelled american shows, so its nice to just veg and watch them and also fun to watch them with subtitles to see how they translate words and phrases and what not.

little taste of brasil...before i get there.

So, I wont even be at my University, PUC-RIO until July 3rd-ish. But, this tuesday, the University is closed because Brasil is in a big World Cup soccer match. yup! that would never happen in the US, closing an entire university for any sports game.


that is why Brasil is awesome....and is gonna win the World Cup. 'cuz the whole country shuts down and roots for them!

Schedule for the Year!

So, I will be abroad from the end of june 2006 until at least the end of june 2007. I am leaving for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 28 and will be there until the middle/end of December. Then I will be going to Santiago, Chile from January 2007 until at least the end of June.

I am really excited for this year! It should be great and lots of fun.

I am here in Los Angeles for 9 more days, and then I am off to Brazil!

Hope all of your summers are going wonderfully.

First post!

Oi!

This will be my blog that I use to document my adventures when I travel abroad this year! Make sure to check back once in a while to see what's up!

Tchau!