Itanhaem beach getaway!

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The past weeks highlight was without doubt the trip 25 exchange students took to Itanhaem!

Before going further into details about that trip I want to summarize the past week. The other "highlight" of the week was a mid-term in Brazilian Economy. A sign of school becoming more and more serious. We basically have assignments every other day now, so less time to have fun unfortunately. Of course I was able to make time for some parties last week. A few home parties became a cheap solution to many of the other more expensive places we tend to end up in here in Sao Paulo. So apart from a few parties, school and working out, nothing big happened before the legendary trip to Itanhaem.

Itanhaem is a small beach city about a 2 hour bus ride southeast of Sao Paulo, south of Santos. It was a friend from our exchange program, Derice, and her Brazilian friend, Marcela, who invited us to spend the night at Marcela's beach house from Saturday to Sunday. Saturday morning Kristian and I pulled ourselves out of bed early and took the bus to Itanhaem where Marcela drove us to her house. After a slow start, where some people were more tired than others, we kick started the day with strawberry daiquiris around 12 o'clock. This pretty much set the standard for the rest of the day. Of course other daiquiris with fresh Brazilian fruits were enjoyed too....

Some alcohol in the blood loosened up the mood and a few hours later we had a few more beers at the beach, enjoyed the waves, played football (8 of 10 boys with blisters), seen a few drops come from the sky and spent time with BOB. As time passed the group headed back to the house to enjoy Brazilian barbeque... Getting more and more influenced by caiprinhas and beer, we started to be afraid of running out of alcohol and food, so me and 2 other friends collected some money. Our shopping made sure that the evenings supply was secured. Unfortunately this meant that I missed out on a lot of the good meat, a factor that made alcohol consumption more influential than it was supposed to later that night.....

Being close to the beach, partying, a night swim is of course mandatory. 20 students went for a great dip in the sea, filling the beach with laughter and smiles. Proof can be seen in pictures on facebook. The evening continued and more barbeque food was consumed as well as more alcohol. Overall a perfect evening!

The next "morning" the sun turned up on the sky and we happily enjoyed that for a while before we headed back to Sao Paulo. Some earlier than others....

The last two days we have mostly focused on school, but we have also been cultural. Yesterday, Tuesday, we went to MASP (Museum of Art in Sao Paulo). Here Kristian, Luisa (one of our Swedish friends) and I saw Picasso's, Rembrandt's, Monet's and Van Gogh's, not really understanding why these painters were so influential on cultural history.

Kristian and I also spent a few hours in the Sao Bento area, trying to find a costume for this Friday's big Giovanna costume party. After a lot of searching we found what we were looking for, so now we are looking forward to the end of this week!!!!

Now I have to get back to school and do some mandatory work!
Take care and live life every day!

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