Looking Back, Looking Forward

Its hard to believe that I´ve already been here for almost a month. I´m sure that some of you are home feel the same way as I do, it seems like I left only last week, while others feel like you´re ready for me to be back, trust me, I have that part of me too.

I feel like i´ve done so much, but so little that I had in mind, and I have so much to look forward to. Lets look back on some of these things, reflect on my time here and try to look into the crystal ball and see what my future holds:

Things I wanted to do:
Find a church -- I haven´t spent two weekends in a row in the same place and have only gone to church once (just this last sunday). I have, however, found a spiritual bond with Vania, now own a guitar, which i enjoy playing whenever I have the chance, and I´ve managed to listen to Richard´s podcasts, which have been amazingly refreshing. I also have been able to meet with God almost everyday on the beach. It has taught me that church is just a means to reach God, and if walking on the beach, playing the guitar and reading my bible do the same thing, then its just as good.
Find a tutor -- Sadly still not. I have been working on a portuguese book and have had vania correct it for me, I feel like I´m learning a lot, and Vania´s mom is convinced that by the time I leave I´ll be better at speaking portuguese than she is. I feel that although my access to brasilians is limited, it has been good, and I´m definitely getting better and can recognize that. A lot of my reasons behind all of this delay is that I´ve been trying to make it out to Ijui for about 2 weeks now, it will be 3 by the time that I get there. When I was first thinking about a tutor, my thought was, well in a week I´ll be in Ijui, so I might as well not get one... now that i´ve been grounded here for a while, maybe it would have been a good decision. Oh well.. c'est la vie. or I guess in portuguese: esta vida.
Teach English -- Also a negative. I´ve been going to the class that I would have been teaching almost every night with Vania and its been a great place to learn more vocabulary, make friends, and hang out with people for 3 hours a night. Besides, some of them consistently ask me how to say things in english and then return the next night using the vocabulary with me, so its not like I completely blew that one.

If there is anything that I have done its get to know family. I´ve spent two of three weekends in Ponta Grossa and love being there. My cousins there are a lot more like friends than family at this point and I really feel like they think I´m "legal" which is a nice feeling: being accepted, knowing that they enjoy having me around, etc. Wanting to go back because I feel like they want me back. This was the trade off I knew I was going to have to be forced to make (ie: know family or ground myself somewhere), but I´m thankful that my focus has been more on family and less than finding other people to be with because really, they will always be around for me and waiting for me to return... it wouldn´t necessarily be that way with random people I met throughout my journeys.

Looking forward brings me more questions, but I feel like my heart is settling on what I want to do for the next two months. I´ve been attempting to wait patiently for the bathroom to be done at my Tia Ana´s house so I can come and visit her. Sadly, its behind schedule (which I was betting on), luckily, more opportunities are coming up. Jorge and I are going to travel to Santa Rosa this weekend (leave between thursday and saturday) and spend time with more family. His mom is visiting there, so as long as I pay for gas, we´ll go out together spend the weekend in Santa Rosa and then I´ll get dropped off in Ijui when the bathroom is ready, spend 4 or 5 days with Tia and then come back to Porto Belo for 2 days before heading off to Rio to meet up with Ryan (my friend from the UW via Kirstin and freshman year to those who don´t know, who was the only person to take me up on my offer to come visit me) to travel around Brazil for 1.5 weeks before coming back to Porto Belo for 4 days before Ryan has to head back to Seattle. We will be spending some time in Rio, Ouro Preto, Fortaleza and Foz de Iguaçu. It is going to be quite the whirl-wind tour, but I think it will be a really fun time.

After that is the world cup. I´ve decided to spend it jumping from city to city, seeing family and watching the games. First stop I think is going to be back to Ijui for 2 weeks, then Porto Alegre for 1 week, back to Porto Belo for a week and then Ponta Grossa for the first week of July and the world cup final (GO BRASIL). My final thought is to run over to Buenos Aires for a week-ish, hang out with my uncle´s friends and then come back to Porto Belo for another week before calling it a trip. I think I´ll head home the last week of July sometime.

So that´s basically it. I´ll write more drawn out examples of my journeys when I´m actually on them and not just hypothesizing about what they will be like. Hope everything is fine at home (or wherever you are reading this) and that you don´t miss me as much as I´m missing all of you.

beijos e abraços,
Ana

(4 bug bites, craving: a really big hug from my brother, 68F)