Weekend Events May 3-5

This weekend couldn't have been better. Really.

It started off with my family and I going to get pizza on Friday and, boy, did I eat. It was a nice night, very relaxed and a great meal to start the weekend off with.

On Saturday I went to a friends house in the city next to ours, Timbo. My friends name is Vanessa and she's an exchange student from Venezuela. She's apart of my exchange family.

The day started off with us going to the botanic garden that they have in the city and going to an event for Rotaract and Interact. It was a picnic in the part where they donated books to people who wanted. It was nice to see all of the happy kids getting to pick which book they wanted. After everything finished there and the sun was setting, Vanessa and I went to a really great sushi place downtown. We ate so much sushi, and I can probably go for more still! We finished and went walking around the town so I could see all of the tourist destinations that they have there. We went to a famous bridge, a few hangout places, the city park, and a pavilion where they were having a folkloric dancing event (Don't worry, we all joined). We ended the night with some swimming at 2am and pizza. Couldn't have been better.

Today, Sunday, was fun as well. We ate homemade pasta with the family and then headed to Morro Azul, a popular tourist destination in the state where you can see until the beach. We didn't get to see the beach but it was so much fun to go still.

It's crazy that I went to these places my first day in Brazil and now, here I am, about to leave and seeing it all again. You start to think back about who you were the last time you visited and all of the expectations that you had for your exchange versus what it actually was. In a way, this place has seen you grow.

This weekend was amazing and I hope to see Vanessa a lot more times before I leave, and hopefully again sometime in the future if everything ends up working out with her country's current situation. It's hard for her. I couldn't imagine not wanting to go home. I couldn't imagine being scared to go home. I know she's a smart girl and she will figure it all out, and if she ever needs anyone, she has a friend in the United States. Always.

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