The past week or so has been filled with the necessary preparations for the big trip. Not the most exciting part, but important nonetheless. Since any visitor to Brazil from the United States needs a visa to enter, no matter how long the stay, I had to get my little booty to the Brazilian Consulate to apply for my visa and pay my $170. I ended up waiting around all day the the visa to be processed yadda yadda yadda, and lo and behold, I have a cool new sticker on my passport that will allow me to stay in Brazil for 200 days (sweet, I know).
On Tuesday I went to Dr. Scarfuri, my travel doctor, for my Hepatitis-A booster shot. I already had the initial shot before I went on Semester at Sea, and also the yellow and typhoid fevers. I'm also supposed to take malaria pills for when I trek out to the Amazon but they all pretty much suck. It's either the pills make you sensitive to the sun, extremely nauseous and dizzy, or have ridiculously realistic nightmares. I think I'd rather have malaria. OK, maybe not, but it's still annoying. In any case, the Hep-A booster didn't make me show any symptoms or anything, just made my arm really sore. It's better now though :).
On Wednesday I got exciting news about where I'm going to be living. My address is: Av. Bartolomeu Mitre, 380/404 Leblon, Rio de Janeiro, BR. I didn't get any information about the family I'm going to be staying with except for a name: Dora Jode Pontual. My program director said that it's fairly common for students to be placed in houses that only have an older woman living there. I guess it would be cool to have a little Brazilian grandmother as a roomie. Oh, and here's a google map image of my new home. If you look closely you'll see that it's um, dois, TRES blocks from the beautiful ocean... amazing!
On Tuesday I went to Dr. Scarfuri, my travel doctor, for my Hepatitis-A booster shot. I already had the initial shot before I went on Semester at Sea, and also the yellow and typhoid fevers. I'm also supposed to take malaria pills for when I trek out to the Amazon but they all pretty much suck. It's either the pills make you sensitive to the sun, extremely nauseous and dizzy, or have ridiculously realistic nightmares. I think I'd rather have malaria. OK, maybe not, but it's still annoying. In any case, the Hep-A booster didn't make me show any symptoms or anything, just made my arm really sore. It's better now though :).
On Wednesday I got exciting news about where I'm going to be living. My address is: Av. Bartolomeu Mitre, 380/404 Leblon, Rio de Janeiro, BR. I didn't get any information about the family I'm going to be staying with except for a name: Dora Jode Pontual. My program director said that it's fairly common for students to be placed in houses that only have an older woman living there. I guess it would be cool to have a little Brazilian grandmother as a roomie. Oh, and here's a google map image of my new home. If you look closely you'll see that it's um, dois, TRES blocks from the beautiful ocean... amazing!
Aside from all this craziness, I'm just packing and enjoying my last couple of days with my friends and family and being in New York. Luckily when I get back I'll finally be 21 so I can actually go out without having to wonder if I'm gonna get in anywhere.
Ate logo--
Toninho (in Portuguese people put -inho or -inha, pronounced eeen-you or eeen-ya, at the ends of words to kind of make them cute)
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