I love my family!

Wow its been a long time since I've written...There has just been so much going on! Well I had a wonderful birthday! My family came to visit me and it was one of the best times ever!!!!!!! My mom got here a little early (11th) then my dad and sister Nicole arrived (13th) then Judd and Luke (15th). The afternoon of the 15th I had a big party with all my friends and host families etc. It was a birthday party but the main point of it was for my family to meet all the important people in my life here in Brazil. Well, the party was AMAZING!!!! These people here in Brazil have become very special to me and it was great being able to celebrate with them and my family at the same time! Monday the 16th I showed the fam around my city, Belo Horizonte, a little, and that night we left by buss to travel to Rio de Janeiro! It was an all night trip on a doule decker buss! It was great other then it was freezing cold cuz the AC was blasting so strong! But we finally arrived in Rio and everything was fine. We stayed at a hostle close to Leblen beach which ended up working out great! We sat on the beach and pumeled by huge waves; we went with a tour to visit "The Redemer Christ" (now third on the list of the 7 wonders of the world) and "The Sugar Loaf"; and zoomed up the top of the Rocinha on speedy motorcycles and walked all the way back down. The Rocinha is the largest "Favela" (meaning slum or ghetto) in all of Latin America with a population of almost 200,000 people. It was a very humbling experience for me and my family. There is so much I could say about that Tour...maybe next time I will have time. Well we came back from Rio and had a couple parties here in Belo and then my family all went home on the 22nd. It was one of the bes family vacations I have ever had! It was interesting trying to translate everything for them. At times I would start talking in portuguese with my family and in English with the Brasilians. Luckly many of the Brasilians know english, at least to an extent, so comunication wasn't to durrasticlly hindered. Well this last week I have just been going to school which has been great. The sunday morning I am off agian to travel to the South of Brazil. I am going to Iguçu Falls and varios cities in the south. I will be gone until April 10th, so I probably won't post again until then. Well time for me to get going,

until next time!

-Hope