20 Firsts From Brazil

So life in Brazil has been full of firsts for me. There is the obvious ‘first time in Brazil’ and ‘first time studying abroad’ but there’s but a lot more firsts and I thought they’d make a good blog post. I was actually talking to a friend I met in Santarem who is an English Teaching Assistant Fulbright Scholar about firsts and decided it was worth blogging about, which brings me to the first first(?).

1)     Having no shame approaching strangers – I am not necessarily someone who usually avoids asking for help or approaching random strangers for different reasons but here in Brazil I have lost any reservations I once had. I ask people on the street where things are all of the time (many times more than once in a trip).

2)    Paying for a hotel room myself.

3)   Hailing a cab.

4)   Seeing the stars from south of the equator.

5)  Getting to see a PINK DOLPHIN (yes they exist, look it up).

6)  Going to an internet café.

7)   Drinking powdered milk.

8)   Eating heart.

9)   Seeing a hydroelectric dam.

10)  Sleeping in a hammock.

11)    Travelling by boat.

12)  Spending the night on a boat.

13) Working in manioc (cassava) fields.

14)  Going on a trip completely solo.

15) Travelling by bus only to get stuck in the mud and have a GIANT tractor pull us out (this happened this week).

16) Seeing a monkey eating a banana.

17)  Swimming in the Amazon.

18)  Hiking in the Rain Forest.

19)  Getting a cleansing/healing herb bath after swimming in an Igarape (these awesome cold little pond things).

And lastly, spending an extended period away from my family; not a great first, but a first all the same.

Well there’s 20 firsts from my trip!

Headed home in two weeks!

Sarah