After a long long journey, I have finally reached home, back in the usa.
My last week in Sao Paulo was wonderful, checking out new museums, restaurants, areas of the city, and of course just having fun! On the final Friday night, my room mates, host mom, another host mom and friends went to a special samba dancing place where my host mom, Sueli loves to go. Although the facility was only 23 km out side of SP, with all of the crazy city traffic, it took us about an hour and a half to get there!
When we arrived, we went to an 'all you can eat' vegetarian pizza restaurant, more or less, heaven! The restaurant was so cute and all of the waiters carried around trays of delicious gourmet pizza, and we could just choose as we liked. In addition to the millions of regular slices, they also showered us with dessert pizza, such as banana, apple, pineapple, and chocolate! After pizza, we entered the dancing room, where the regulars were doing circle dances from around the world, including Israeli dancing! Who would have thought.
We had so much fun doing the dances with the other locals and then after a while the samba music began (Sueli on the tamboreen), and we all learned to samba dance. Although Sueli has hosted numerous students over the last seven years, she told me that we were the first to come to her dance studio, pretty lucky. The rest of the weekend, I enjoyed one last taste of the great markets, restaurants, parks, and shopping of the city! On Sunday night, Alison, Eliza and I cooked dinner for Sueli and Filipe - Vietnamese style, to give them a taste of our past journey. It was a big hit! Saying goodbye to the family and the city was definitely sad, but I wasn't too upset, because I know I will be back soon! Good thing my visa doesn't expire for 5 years :)For the final four days, the group had a "retreat" in a remote area an hour outside the city in Guararema. We spent these days reflecting on our odyssey and understanding how it will influence our lives as we leave the IHP bubble. On our final night, we watched a slide show of our experience, presented awards to everyone in the group, and sang around a bonfire through the night. Our final flight came to a close as we arrived to Huston this morning to return to the reality of the US and life.
Now that I will finally have alone time again, I will reflect more on my experience and further internalize all that I have seen and learned. This trip was definitely once in a life time and I will cherish all those who joined me on this adventure, the places I visited, and those who helped me become a part of each culture. My eyes are now open to a whole new world, and now I am excited to have some free time this summer to read about world histories, theories, and tales to maintain my new inquisitive self.
On day 2 of IHP, I taught the group a saying Ariel and I try to live by, YOLO (you only live once) so basically experience everything. I have definitely YOLOed around the world and lived life to the fullest!
I am going to post all of my pictures soon, so I will post again with the link.
I hope you have enjoyed my blog!
Stay tuned for my next world travels!
Beijos (kisses),
Jess
