I made it-- and finally posting!!

Hey there everyone! Sorry for the long delay in posting to this, but I have had problems with the blog: 1. My internet access has been very limited - this is the 4th time I have been on the internet since I have been here. 2. Two times ago when I was here I tried to log in and it wouldn't let me, saying that I had an invalid password with a menu all in Portuguese. Today I tried the same user name and password and it worked so who knows... I have been in São Paulo for 3 weeks now and everything is going just fine. We have had intensive language and culture classes almost everyday, and every class that we have is in Portuguese! I can feel my Portuguese coming back slowly, and most importantly my confidence to try to speak it. My host family is really nice, I have a married couple just a little older than my parents with a 24 year old son that lives at home. The parents only speak Portguese, but the son speaks pretty good English. Although he is not home very often during the evening when I am, it is a nice break at the end of the day to be able to speak English to someone when my brain is mush from too much Portuguese. I have met some really cool people here, mainly other American students because we have pretty much been together all of the time for the past 3 weeks. That part is definately a cultural experience as well because we all come from different states with different backgrounds and study very different things. We just got back from a weekend trip to Paraty, a city on the coast that was important for exporting gold that was found in the interior of the country. It was a cool, old city, and we got to spend a day on a boat that stopped for us to swim off of some islands and another day hiking in a state park in the Atlantic Rainforest. It was a nice break from class, but I was ready to come back and get back into Portuguese. I leave in a week from today for Salvador, Bahia, where I will spend 6 months taking classes at Universidade Católica do Salvador (UCSal). I am very excited to live there and experience the laid-back culture that I've heard so much about. My friend Sarah and I are going to get to Salvador around midnight on the 9th and stay at a hostel there in town. Our orientation there is the 10th-13th, which means that we start classes and move in with our new host families on the 13th. Hopefully I will have time to post between now and then, and even more I hope I can figure out how to post some pictures online for everyone to see. Take care, and brightest blessings!! <3 <3