Background

Hello friend/random stranger! Welcome to my blog. Here's what's going on: About two years ago I embarked to the wonderful city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, to study abroad for half a year. While in South America I took two very short trips to Brazil: from the moment I stepped off the plane, I was enthralled: the people, culture, energy, language (it's Portuguese, not Spanish folks!). I promised myself that one day, I would return to Brazil and stay for much longer.



Since then I finished my study abroad program in BsAs (and had the time of my life), as well as my senior year in college and graduated May '05. I spent the summer in Madison and have been hibernating at home in California for the fall and winter months. I've basically spent the last year researching planning and preparing to move to Brazil. This may seem totally random, but let me assure you it took me a shit load of time to get this all together, including

• waitressing at the Nitty Gritty senior year to 1. save money 2. ensure that I could find another restaurant job in the competetive scene in California to save more money
• Taking Portuguese classes at university as much as credits would permit
• researching for hours on end in the computer lab things from visa requirements, English language schools in Brazil, different cities, etc
• attending numerous job forums, sites, centers for working abroad and finding opportunities in Latin America
• hunting down ever-elusive Aiesec staff to get more information and (finally!) join, then checking the database every day
• finding an internship in San Francisco to help train me in the type of work I'll be doing in Brazil
• 5 trips to the Brazilian consulate

I could go on, but by now you get the general idea. So-- the result of all of this is that I'm finally going in January! (the 11th to be specific). I'm moving to Sao Jose dos Campos... it's a city about the size of Milwaukee in the state of Sao Paulo an hour from SP city, an hour from the coast and about three hours from Rio (see my crafty map above). I know what you're probably thinking-- Sao Jose won't be as exciting at Sao Paulo city nor as beautiful as Rio. This I know. But I wanted to be somewhere smaller where things wouldn't be too overwhelming-- especially because I haven't met anyone yet (at least in person) and my Portuguese is... how should I say... at a "working" stage.

Through AIESEC ITA my job will be to fundraise for a local hopsital that performs free cleft lip/palate surgeries on children from low-income families. I've already made several contacts through AIESEC ITA (including Davi, my coordinator who has made all of this possible)... ITA is the best university in Brazil for engineering (like MIT in the U.S.). So I hope to befriend several Brazilian engineering students whom are far smarter than me.

So, there's the background to this (hopefully) year long trip I have planned. There's just one cruicial thing I'm missing-- my Visa!! I'm officially applying this Monday, wish me luck.