Sorry Im Late

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First sun burn, first days in rio, first hot birthday and having a great time. I mean who would have thought that kenny would be celebrating his 21st birthday in February without having to wear 2 pairs of socks, 2 pants, 4 shirts, and a north face! Even still the streets of Catete Rio are packed with people nearly all night drinking and dancing inthe streets. Charlotte and I have found some very serious guidelines to traveling after experiencing alot of miscummunicationa and problems. So to speak.

First we have found to consider where you are staying. as some of you may now we stayat the art hostel. and this place is jam packed with a bunch of gringos (my new word meaning foreign person) there are people who speak french, spanish, portugese, english, and mixtures of so much more. our room has six people in it and the shower is no bigger than a closet. theres a toilet and a sink and a shower head, no tub or shower curtain. Talk about comfortable 😊. Every one is extremely nice and willing to get to know new people.

Secondly we found that its best you learn atleast four words and four food dishes in the native language of the country you plan on visiting. charlotte and i had not a clue what was ging on when we tried to go out for food and drinks. Thank god for lonely planet because for a few days that book helped charlotte guide us to a few english speaking restaurants, and the book comes with a glossary of phrases and words that may be good to know when you find yourself lost on copacabana beach. "It´s like a game of charades," said Charlotte after discussing a menu with a local waiter.

The last thing we have learned is to just get up and jump into things with caution. Just yesterday our 2 roommates, Barabara and Myada, had to leave the hostel. These two girls went to school together and studied social sciences and are from Saou Pauolo. They spoke bits of english and spanish and were fluent in portugese. they would invite us to all kinds of samba in the streets of Rio and we had lots of fun meeting their friends and joining in on their spanish conversations with whatever little bits of spanish we knew.

My highlight of being in rio so far is of course my birthday and the reason is more than just turning 21. On that day charlotte decided to cook a huge dinner for me and invite all of these people. we had spaghetti bolegnese, salad, toast, and of course we drank heineken. But there we met a good group of friends. there is teddy who is a 19 year old from boston teaches the kids we work with soccer and coaches and refs their games. there natalina a girl from bristol england who is a french teacher in bristol she is 27 years old and works with the kids that charlotte and i work with as well. there is Cen the turkish man who is 31 and used to work for a business doing advertising but now is traveling and taking pictures he just came from ecuador and has fallen in love with rio. there is yasben who is a 27 year old swedish kindergarden teacher and he loves to socialise. Last but not least there is marcella who is 27 and works in the feild of international relations, and is here for vacation reasons.

I am having so much fun meeting new people and learnign new languages. We havent had our first day at work yet although we did get the walk through on monday. slightly nervous but excited. charlotte and I will be intouch soon.

P.S.- sorry for any spelling or gramatical errors, my time on the computer is limited

With love,

Kenny

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