March 18, 2007

First off, thank you for all the emails about the blog. I am glad people are enjoying it :) I will try to update it once a week! This week I stayed very busy with schoolwork. I know it is hard for you to believe… but I do teach! The students need a constant reminder to be quiet and speak in English but besides that have impressed me with their work habits and ability level. I am looking forward to taking over more of the class as well as trying out teaching in the 8th grade. I also started coaching volleyball this week. For any Hamline v-ball girls who read this: Preseason heat is NOTHING compared to what these girls practice in. The gyms here are outside...yikes. I work with the 8th grade team and we practice from 3:30-5 and the sun comes at such a bad angle... yikes. The girls are drenched in sweat (and so am I!!) by the end of practice! I expected their playing level to be better than it is... but I am still enjoying it.. and learning various Portuguese words!! There are two other coaches who are both male. One speaks zero English and the other is Brazilian who has good English. It finally rained here on Friday. I guess it had been about a month. Sadly, the rain does NOT cool things down, it just adds to the humidity! Last night I spent the night on the town. I met a girl who is working in Rio for a community service project. She is originally from NY but went to Harvard. She took me out with some of her friends (that she met at puki (sp?)). We went out the dinner (starting at 9!), went to a bar where some other friends were celebrating a birthday, and then went clubbing at about 1 am. The music was great and the dancing was even better. It was similar to other clubs I have been in… but for a number of reasons also very different! It was a great night, which I ended a little after three (I am sure the place was open past 6am) by successfully taking a cab home by myself!! Yay. When I was with these girls they also introduced me to the public busses…. Not sure how much I will use them but it was an experience in itself! This morning after only a few hours of sleep I got up to attend a Walkathon for Cancer sponsored by a HS group. We walked around the Lagoa (7km I think)… it was a cloudy day which made it for a nice walk. I don’t think I could have done that with the sun shining down on me, I was hot enough as it was! I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you!!