AT SEA & BRAZIL 1

well the past 6 days on the water have been a blast! I'm definitely starting to meet more people and I'm feeling more and more comfortable around the ship. We had classes everyday while the boat was rockin and rollin...(That's an understatement by the way). I absolutely love all my classes so far. Global studies (the required course) is the lease interesting for sure...its really just a bunch of small lectures about globalization...BORING ha. My poetry class that I added at the last minute may be becoming my favorite class, which is a relief. There is only 8 people in it and that just makes it even better. Great conversation about the poems and u get to know the people in ur class on a whole other level too.
Well that's enough about boring school, let's get to the good stuff. We arrived in Brazil yesterday morning and I immediately wanted to do something. I made a friend a few days ago on the ship named Becca and she wanted to go walk around town. Now this would be a cool idea normally but this was a GREAT idea with Becca. Because she speaks fluent portuguese, it was her first language. Also, she made friends with the police officers on the boat checking our passports who offered to walk around with her and her friends. Sooooo me and becca and the two cops walked around the city in the morning, went to the zoo as well...and then got an excellent brazilian lunch. I felt safe as hell all day too, I mean I basically had body guards and a translator, who could ask for anything more.
Today samantha and I start our 3 day adventure into the amazon! We started out day on a river boat going to a local small town in the trees that would neverrrr see know about unless u do something like this. They talked about how the water rises in a specific season and floods the island these people live on. There houses are on sticks, literallyn to keep them off the ground...they don't look very sturdy though. It is extremely surprising that they stay standing. Then we walked through the area a bit and arrived at a hut where a man was making rubber. We watched them cut the rubber tree and get the liquid, heat it up, and make a rubber ball. Soooo cool! I would have never guessed that's how it was made if I hadn't done this. We then had lunch made by locals on the island...it was a hugeeee feast. Very good food, although most of it was fruit so my plate looked much less colorful than everyone elses :/ hahaha.
We are now on the river boat heading to our hotel, the tiwa amazonas ecoresort, look it up if u want to see what it looks like. They have pictures on google if your interested. I'm super excited to get there because we have been sitting in plastic chairs on this river boat for the last 2 hours, I'm over it to say the least. I will check back in after the 3 days!!!! Tonight, alligator hunting...wish me luck ha. Can u imagine, ME alligator HUNTING ahhahahahahah. Wow...out of my comfort zone for sure.
-me-