Farewell Sonia!

Sonia left this afternoon for her flight back to California and I already miss her! Yesterday Bethany and I went shopping to pick up some gifts for her family and she showed us a store nearby where they sell nature/organic stuff. (I bought some wheat germ for my yogurt and oatmeal.) We parted ways for the rest of the afternoon, but they came over to my place after mass to paint nails and chat. They surveyed some of the music on my computer and we talked about first impressions and continued our usual discussion on relationships. This morning we were all going to go running at 7:00 in Campo Grande, but everyone ended up canceling b/c it was drizzling. I went running anyway and I had one of the best runs that I’ve had since I’ve gotten here. We spent about an hour together before lunch and then Bethany and I saw her off on the bus to the airport.

I’ve been here over a month and starting today, I’ve resolved to actually start doing all those things that I came here for. Bethany and I have agreed to make our best effort to talk to each other only in Portuguese and I have asked Conchita if she will let me read to her out loud everyday from a book that I have so that she can correct my pronunciation. (I read to her for about 30-40 minutes this afternoon and it reminded me of reading bedtime stories with my parents. We’re reading Agosto by Rubem Fonseca which is a historical fiction about the murder of a politician. It’s great that I’m reading it with her b/c she explains to me parts of the history that I wouldn’t otherwise have understood.) I’m going to capoeira tomorrow and my goal is to make it to 2-3 classes a week. I know that will be hard once classes and volunteering gets going, but I’m going to try. Bethany and I went by the CIEE office this afternoon and asked about volunteer opportunities and we were told that they would take us in small groups to the different projects, but that they wanted to wait until we had our class schedule set first. I asked specifically about working with children with AIDS and I was told that I could, though that type of work can be very emotionally challenging and few stick with it. I insisted and they agreed to take me once classes start.

This evening I’m going to an opera with Bethany at the theater near Campo Grande. The opera is Tosca by Puccini. Tomorrow Portuguese class starts.