Athena - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Birthday Celebrations

Night #1 of my bday celebrations
Tiffany, Me & Lula-- 3/4 of the Traveling
Tarheels

One of the things I was most looked forward to on this trip was celebrating my birthday in Rio. I was almost born on Christmas but I showed up a little late. Usually my birthday is sandwhiched in between the holidays, visiting family, Christmas shopping/returning and New Years. Very rarely is my birthday the main event. Well, this year it sort of was and I'm glad for that because I wasn't exactly looking forward to this birthday.  Turning this age (somewhere in my 30s) reminded me of all the things I don't have in life-- husband, kids, established career-- while so many of my friends do have these, so I originally wasn't very excited for my birthday this year. But I decided to focus on what I do have-- amazing friends, a wonderful family and a crazy five month trip in South America-- and go out and enjoy my birthday.

Athena - Recife, Brazil - A Brazilian Christmas

Feliz Natal! Merry Christmas! Even though I'm far from home, I'm still celebrating the birth of Jesus, we're just doing it Brazilian style. I always enjoy seeing how other cultures celebrate holidays. To me it's a good way to better understand the culture and a nice way to interact with the people. Tiffany and I were very excited to join our fellow Tarheel, Bruno, and his family for Christmas dinner at their house. Only Christmas dinner, as we would learn, isn't on Christmas. It's on Christmas Eve, which is the big day to celebrate here in Brazil. I'm glad we found this out because Tiffany & I were planning on having dinner on Wednesday- Christmas Day, instead of Tuesday night.

On Christmas Eve, Bruno and his wife picked us up and drove us around part of Recife that we hadn't seen before. Then we headed to Bruno's parents apartment for dinner. Their place was on the 35th floor of their building and had amazing views of Recife; there were balconies on both sides of the apartment. We started out with just Bruno's immediate family and then aunts, uncles and some cousins came by. Bruno's entire family was very warm and welcoming. Everyone made us feel like we (Tiffany and I) were really part of the family!

Tiffany - Brazil - Random Acts of Kindness....Brazil Style

We have truly been blessed to meet some of the nicest friends during our travels throughout Brazil. Forming these relationships is what motivates me to keep going after over 2 months away from other friends and family members….especially during the holidays.
To begin, our classmates from UNC who are from Brazil have been absolutely great! Luisa, Enzo, Victor and Bruno have all been SO excited to give us tips, recommendations, directions, etc. UNC definitely recruits some of the most amazing people.  In addition, we have also met some new friends along the way.
Sao Paolo

Athena, Sheikh and Hugo

Victor, one of our UNC classmates was nice enough to put us in touch with a close friend. We stayed with Hugo during our stay in Sao Paolo and absolutely had a blast. Not only did Hugo put up with us women for the entire time, he also introduced us to one of his friends, Sheikh. Hugo and Sheikh ventured out with us around Sao Paolo and even participated in some our touristy activities. On our last night in Sao Paolo, Sheikh was nice enough to invite us to dinner at his apartment which had beautiful views of Sao Paolo.

Tiffany & Athena - Pernambuco, Brazil - Signs that You've Been Traveling for Too Long

We have now been traveling abroad for two and a half months. Since we've adjusted to life outside of the U.S., we've noticed several things we would once consider to be weird, now appear 'normal' to us. These normal things are really just indicators that we've been gone from home a little too long.

You know you've been traveling too long when you....

- look forward to getting clean clothes from the Laundromat

- do the happy dance after getting adequate water pressure & hot water in the shower

- forget what language is being spoken in the country you're in

Tiffany - Brazil - Salvador in the SUN!

Pelourinho, the historical center of Salvador

Queijo Coalho

When we went to bed last night the weather report didn't look so good. We woke up expecting a day of thunderstorms and a trip to the mall and movie theatre. After a short morning walk, we were preparing to head to the movies when out of the window we saw an unfamiliar figure...the sun!

Athena - Salvador, Brazil - Singing in the Rain

At the Lighthouse  (Farol da Barra)

Rain, rain go away- that could be the theme for our time in Salvador, Brazil so far. But Tiffany and I are determined to still have fun. Yesterday, we landed here at 4:30am and settled into our apartment. I use the term apartment loosely, it's more like a bigger hostel. Since we didn't sleep a lot the night before (a 2 am flight will do that to you) we slept a lot yesterday. Finally we grabbed some food and it started raining cats & dogs. We ended up staying in the restaurant for a few hours, waiting for the rain to stop before we walked back home.

Athena - São Paolo, Brazil - Another Adventure Begins

Hoi! (Hello)
   This is the beginning of my third day in São Paolo and Tiffany and I are sitting in a lovely French cafe, having just finished a late breakfast. It's been a whirlwind week so it's nice to take some time to slow down and just be still for a little bit. São Paolo has been wonderful so far. We are staying Hugo, the friend of one of our UNC classmates, and he is an awesome host.

Hugo & Tiffany at the Afro Cuban Musem

View from the Sky Bar

Athena - Argentina- The End of San Juan

It's the morning of my last day in San Juan and part of me is very happy to leave, part of me is a little sad. I was bored here, to be honest. I didn't know what to expect, but I thought it wouldn't be this small of a town. I mean tiny, like teeny tiny. For those of you from Michigan (my home) the airport here is smaller than the old MBS airport, which is to say it has less than 5 gates and is about the size of a large barn.

I guess I got bored because I couldn't find a tour to see some of the surrounding sites, I wasn't sure what to do here and I couldn't quite figure out the schedule of things here. Businesses kept closing when I thought they would be open. I was too late or too early for dinner. I couldn't get in sync with the rhythm of life here. So I ended up spending quite a bit of time in my hotel room, much more than I thought I would. My hotel was further away from the city center than I expected, about a 25 minute walk. And it's super hot here, like almost 100 degrees hot.

Athena - Argentina San Juan travels, riots and other misadventures

My travel plans for my last week in Argentina changed on a dime. I was reading lanacion.com (Argentina's leading newspaper) and saw that my first stop, Cordoba, was in the midst of riots. I asked my roommate what was going on there and after showing her the article to make sure. I understood it correctly (it was of course, written in Spanish). We quickly agreed that I should t travel there. The police were on strike, because they wanted higher wages, and some people began rioting and looting local businesses. I reached out to the hostel I planned to stay in and the guy said that no one was in the streets, everyone was staying inside. Nope, definitely not going there now. I thank God that I found all of this out, because I was literally ready to go there the very next day.

Waiting at the Buenos Aires airport at 3:30 am

Tiffany - The Netherlands with My Second Visitor!

We are actually in this picture

My second visitor from home came to visit this week and in just 5 short days, we explored Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Rome! Esi is one of my best friends whom I have known for almost 9 years and since the day we met, we have been like sisters. Our first stop was Amsterdam. Two aspects of Amsterdam that I found surprising: 1)  Amsterdam is one of the most diverse cities in the world (I had no idea!) and 2) it’s numerous canals and modern style row houses make it absolutely gorgeous. For most people, two things that come to mind when Amsterdam is mentioned are the Red Light District and legalized marijuana. Although we didn’t partake in the legalized marijuana which came in the form of everything you can imagine (truffles, brownies, cookies, etc) and in shops on almost every corner, we did take a brief stop the Red Light District and were both surprised by how “in your face” the prostitution is. We briefly considered taking a guided tour of the Red Light District given by a former prostitute but opted to see the Anne Frank House and Van Gogh Museum instead which by the way were both amazing and inspiring. We had limited time but I think that tour would have definitely been one to remember.

Our second stop was Rotterdam, the 2nd largest city in the Netherlands. One of my classmates at UNC, Joe,  has a girlfriend who lives in Rotterdam and recommended that we check out the city while in Amsterdam because it is only 40 minutes away by train. We stopped there for a few hours and walked all around the city. We were excited to see another city and both surprised by how diverse it was and how super friendly the people there were. We ended our evening in Rotterdam with margaritas with Vivian, my classmates girlfriend who is also completing her undergraduate degree in Rotterdam. I am loving exploring different cities and thrilled by the fact that I am meeting some great people along the way. Next stop....Roma!


Rotterdam

 Amsterdam

 

Athena - Argentina & Brazil- Las Cataratas de Iguazu - Iguauzu Falls

Las Cataratas de Iguazu - Iguauzu Falls


   Then we got back on the bus for three more hours until we arrived at the town of Iguazu. After settling into our hostel we passed the afternoon by chilling in the pool and the a few of us left to walk around the small city. Our tour guides cooked an asado (barbecue) for us. The menu was literally meat (all kinds of beef and sausage), bread, wine. That's it, no side dishes. Must say the chorizo sausage was my favorite. Though it was a painfully slow dinner because there were 50 of us and the meat only came off of the grill bit by bit.

Sunday
  We spent our first day at the waterfalls on the Argentinian side and the falls were amazing. I won't even try to describe them with words...checkout these pics instead. We got really close to the falls and there were places were you could fall of the edge if you weren't careful. We also took a boat ride in the river and, of course, we went underneath one of the falls. It was both awesome and scary; I couldn't believe I was literally underneath one of the coolest waterfalls in the world. Oh, and while we were there we saw a proposal, and of course she said yes. None of us knew the happy couple but it was a wonderful sight to see.

Brazilian Side

Argentinian Side

Me on the boat ride, before we went underneath the falls

More Iguazu pics -Athena-Argentina & Brazil

Most of you know that I'm having technical difficulties on this trip (my laptop died) so please forgive me if some things appear put if place. Here are more pics from Iguazu Falls that I couldn't put in the first post.

Butterfly on my shoulder

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Athena - Argentina - El dia de accion de gracias - Thanksgiving Day

El dia de accion de gracias - Thanksgiving Day

In Argentina Thanksgiving Day is just another day, but I wanted it to still feel like Thanksgiving. At least to me. So I decided to treat the day like a holiday. I slept in, then mosy-ed around in my PJs. Since I couldn't have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner I decided to stuff my face (in true turkey day style) with all my favorite Argentinian foods. That meant lunch at my favorite pizza place, deserts from my favorite bakery, a couple of glasses of sweet white wine, and of course a steak dinner and more wine (channeling my inner Chantel, lol). Then I finished the night with some ice cream at home. Yummy...and super full. I'm sure that I ate about 4,000 calories in the day, but it was definitely worth it.