breakdancing, forest, and more beach

Another fabulous night at Lapa (last Thursday). Breakdancing showcase. Great crowd. The cultural events in Brazil are always top class.









Saturday we went to climb to the top of a peak in Floresta da Tijuca. Big group walk. No chances in seeing any animals in a group like that. Anyway, at least I got out into the forest.

Sunday, the surf bus didn´t come :( I missed my weekly dose of Prainha, so I may go crazy by the end of the week. Instead we went to a local beach next to Pão do Azucar. It was still nice, since it was local and we could interact (a little bit more with Brazilians). I have to stop being afraid that they don´t want to talk with me-- with my horrible Portuguese. I also finally found a nice crew to hang out with in my program: Jack, Melissa, and Abby are all really chill and we move at about the same pace.

Abby and I

I had my first real conversation in Portuguese with a random Brazilian today! I´ve been going to these lectures at the Museu do Indio. One guy I´ve been noticing because he didn´t look Brazilian-- I thought that he was European. So I went to ask him if he was Brazilian, and he was. I would have never had the courage to talk to him if I thought that he was Brazilian. We talked about research, travel in Brazil, field work, and indigenous people of Brazil. If there is one topic that I want to be good at talking about, its my research work.