I am departing for Rio de Janeiro, a lively city in Brazil, this coming Sunday. As I am making packing lists and preparing for the trip I am feeling overwhelmed with excitement and nerves. My travel partner, Sam, is already in Rio and I will be meeting up with her on Sunday. I have been in contact with her which has made me less nervous and even more excited. She says that landscape is quite unique and beautiful, while I have seen photos and have heard stories of the magic of the landscape, I cannot wait to experience it for myself. It is a city that communicates with both the mountains and the sea at once and living on the east coast of the United States all my life, I have never experienced such a unity of water, earth, and city.
Something that worries me is that I do not speak Portuguese. I tried to teach myself some phrases by using an app on the iPhone; the app said a word in Portuguese then repeated the same word in English. I would use this app while I was driving, sometimes with the windows down taking in all the strange looks from other drivers, or while I was at work in garden. Unfortunately I did not retain much but Sam speaks Portuguese so I should be fine. I look forward to being immersed in the language and hopefully picking some up through conversation. For now, I have written important phrases down in my sketch book.
Something that I am looking forward to is the fruit. I have never been a huge fan of fruit but I suspect that that is because it is hard to get fresh fruit in New Jersey (besides Apples). I do love Paw Paw, but Paw Paw is a fruit that is native to New Jersey. I can’t wait for the fresh fruit that grows in Brazil to, hopefully, change my opinion of fruit forever.
I also want to mention that Sam and I are traveling to Brazil to do a landscape architecture study, I will talk more about this in further post, Sam mentioned this is her first post if you want to check that out.
I can’t wait to start the study, experience the landscape and experience the culture! Check back in later for more post.
Here is a song by one of my favorite bands, Thievery Corporation, many of their song are in Portuguese.
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