Bom Dia (pronounced: Bonj-ia) from Brazil! We were just in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Salvador being the city, Bahia, the state and Brazil the country. We arrived on a beautiful morning earlier than scheduled on Tuesday around 0530am. The sunrise behind the skyscrapers of Salvador was breathtaking. The pilot met us at the entrance to the bay and two tugs guided us in. We were one of six cruise ships scheduled to arrive in port that morning. The process of docking, clearing the ship, immigration and unloading 700+ students is a very long process. Robyn, Kate, Shane, another Kate, Kristin and I finally disembarked and walked down the long flight of stairs from the 5^th deck to the dock. The six of us (plus all other 700 students) were stared at and almost looked down upon as being “Americans.” I’ve never felt more vulnerable in my life. It is like the street vendors saw us and thought “oh, rich Americans” and often called us Americanos. You know, they tell you to “blend-in” but that is IMPOSSIBLE here. You stick out like an enormous, swollen, stitched, bandaged, sore thumb. What an eye-opening experience!

Another Thing- PORTUGUESE is hard! I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to communicate with people. The few Brazilians that we ran into who spoke English were very excited to show off by saying “hello!” “Have good day.” It was nice to know that if you spoke in Spanish they often understood what you were saying like “bano” (Spanish) vs. banherio (Portuguese). Needless to say, we did A LOT of pointing and sign language. It was all in the adventure and very fun!

Salvador is divided into an upper and lower city. Four giant elevators (for .05 reals) transport people from the two different levels. The upper city that we visited a lot was called Pelourinho, a very touristy old city. The architecture and cathedrals were mesmerizing. The humid weather and strong sun was definitely an adjustment. We went through the port terminal and walked out into the bustling street. I was a little taken back by the large crowds of solicitors, beggars, and whistlers. The residents of Salvador all look completely different, there is no stereotype “Brazilian.” Salvador was once the capital of Brazil until it was moved to Rio de Juniero and then finally Brasilia. We arrived on the last night of Carnaval (a 5 day celebration that symbolizes the coming together of the Portuguese, Dutch, Africans (slaves) and Indigenous people). Carnaval is a massive celebration divided into three parts among Salvador. (Carnaval takes place throughout Brazil) You had the traditional Carnaval (the one we saw) with costumes and brass bands and then there were the two other locations where camarotes would parade down the streets. A Camarote is a semi truck with a band ontop. The space inside the semi is one big GIANT speaker. It is hard to describe the noise and energy. Everyone was dancing and jumping up and down.

Pelourinho was once a very populated, dirty, unorganized city until the government threw everyone out and cleaned up the city turning it into a touristy site. The families that were thrown out now live on the streets and are often mad at the tourists. An example: We were eating at this internet café (had delicious acai and pizza) and this little skinny emaciated boy kept hounding us for money and food. Finally, the owner of the café chased him out but he kept coming back until I guess he finally realized we weren’t going to give him money. Another thing we had to get used to, were the bodyguards and escorts. It was very comforting to know that there was someone there that spoke the language. Robyn, Kristin and I semi-dressed up for our Traditional Carnaval walking tour put on by SAS. 200 of us SASers, 8 bodyguards and 3 Tour guides walked the streets of Carnaval. We were given some free time but were kept on alert at all times. Although often uncomfortable and sweaty, my money belt came in VERY handy. The day that I did take my camera out I wore it under my clothes. Another neat aspect of Carnaval was the amount of police stationed around the city and the helicopters with spot-lights above our heads. Needless to say we all survived Carnaval and had a great time seeing the festivities, costumes, drums and music.

The next day Kristin and I left at 8am for Itaparica Island (a trip though SAS). Forty of us boarded our own private boat and motored our way to Ihla dos Frades. The island reminded me a lot of Hanauma Bay in Hawaii minus the thousands of tourists. We were one of a couple groups that had the beach all to ourselves. I’ve never seen so many thong Bikinis and Speedos. The water was 85, air 80 and humid. After getting a little too much sun we boarded the boat and set out for Itaparica Island where a delicious buffet lunch was waiting. Many of the people (middle class) leave Salvador during Carnaval and come to the Island where the population goes from 35,000 to 65,000. It was a very fun, tiring day and felt nice to get to bed early.

Thursday was able to sleep in which felt amazing. While at sea breakfast is only served from 0700-0830 so you have to get up super early to eat ( I know 0830 is late but when you’re on a school schedule with lots of reading its early). Around noon we all set out for Pelourinho to find an internet café. It felt like you were walking in a completely different city from Tuesday night. Carnaval changes the city and today it was regular Salvador. We boarded the elevator and went up to the upper city and found an internet café where we ate acai (accent on the c) and played on the internet for an hour. Everyone got a lot accomplished (including posting pictures on my blog) and it felt very fulfilling to be able to answer emails, read facebook, catch up on the news and blog. Afterwards everyone felt very content and happy to be able to get in touch with home. I bought a Brazilian flag and a pair of authentic Havianas (flip-flops that are made here in Brazil). We headed back to the ship to get ready for our exciting Brazilian futebol game (It is spelled with an ‘e’ in Portuguese). Over 300 Semester at Sea students (yep, that’s 8 luxury buses) made our way through Salvador to watch the Bahia team play. The team is playing at a make-shift stadium versus their huge home arena. The caravan of massive buses snaked through the side streets of this little town. When we pulled up the stadium we were surprised to see what looked like a high school football game at LBHS. There was one set of stands and a small field that many U.S. high school stadiums put to shame. I was thinking- what a scene we are going to create, 300 Americans flooding the parking lot of maybe 30 cars with our 8 luxury buses. Well, it was a scene and everyone was pretty respectful of us. We had our security guards and tour guides with us again. Bahia won 2-0! The crowd was intense. People were climbing fences, shouting, and the beer was flowing. They probably made their entire quota last night with all the jerseys, beer, popcorn, sugarcane, and ice cream that everyone bought. It was very interesting to see that 10 armored guards stood on the sidelines. Once half time was called, the armored guards with their dogs, shields and machine guns swarmed the referees and escorted them off the field. I guess that lots of referees have been shot from the stands over controversial calls made during the game. Like I said, intense. Once the final whistle blew, we were all told to stay seated so we could make a safe and secure exit. All the little local boys wanted their pictures taken with our digital cameras and to be able to see it afterwards put a huge smile on their faces. We made it back to the ship around 0:00 (midnight). Observation: the cars here are either a bus or a tiny fiat, no SUVs. Another observation: I haven’t seen one McDonalds while we were here. That should be in the world record books or something!

Friday, my steward Andrew came in and woke me up around 9am. I was all covered in my bed covers and he didn’t see me and started cleaning. (Lauren, roommate, was gone to Igacu Falls all week). When I rolled over in bed to say good morning he flew through the roof- I scared him and he apologized profusely. Tracy, Kristin and I set off to find Brazilian coffee, Kristin some flip-flops and I wanted to find a free newspaper to mail to my vicarious voyage classroom in Massachusets. We ate at our favorite Bahia Internet Café and shopped for a good 2 hours and only found Kristin flip-flops. It’s hard to stay out for more than three-four hours at a time due to the sun and heat. We came back to the ship early and I was able to get my Peer Advisor application filled out for CLU and do some school stuff-blah. I’m going to try and fax this application in, wish me luck. Also, my cell phone doesn’t work while I’m in port. I can buy a calling card from the Purser’s Desk for $20 but it is only good for 13 minutes. So, for now, it looks like I will be blogging and emailing. I’d rather pay more money for internet minutes than a short phone call. Although I’d love to hear some familiar voices.

Saturday, Kate and I had a mission to find a grocery store. Everyone else was out doing their FDPs or getting back from trips. Kate and I managed to bargain our way (speaking maybe 3 words of Portuguese) with lots of writing and shaking our heads for a taxi ride that cost on $15 Reals to the grocery store. The grocery store was about 10 minutes away and resembled a Vons but was called something completely different. Shopping down the isles was tough! All I wanted was Saltine Crackers, a chocolate bar (you CRAVE chocolate on this ship), and a box of cereal. I only wanted three items, yep, 3 things. I managed to recognize Tony the Tiger on a box of cereal and thought that was a safe bet. I also recognized Nestle con Leiche (which I figured was milk). No luck with the Saltine Crackers but after staring at all these labels of Portuguese, I’m fine with my box of cereal and chocolate bar. The ride home was very interesting. Our next taxi driver wanted $ 30 R to drive us to the port! That is twice the amount we paid to get there! We bargained him down to 20 and just wanted to get back to the ship after our tough day of shopping. This taxi driver was CRAZY. He turned up the music really loud, ran a red light, almost hit and pedestrian and the car had no seatbelts. Luckly, we got to the port safely and seeing the ship was a big relief. I was holding my breath for a while there. Everyone boarded the ship on time. We were scheduled to depart at 2300 but Lauren got up and looked out the window and saw that we were leaving early-2130. We all ran up to the 7^th deck and watched the skyscraper lights of Salvador disappear. This guy Alex, who has a hilarious Southern accent, as well as a bunch of other people and myself gazed at the stars. You can see the Milky Way as clear as day and the Southern Cross that you can only see when you’re on the Southern part of the equator. I also saw the brightest shooting star I’ve ever seen. It is tough to believe that we won’t see land for 10 days. I guess later in the week we are suppose to hit rough seas (two different ocean currents colliding). I’ve heard as rough as 15 foot swells…but we’ll see about that. I might be taking my first sea sickness pills.

Another new addiction of mine is watching TV series because we have no TV! Lauren has two seasons of Grey’s Anatomy (I’m on the second), ER, House, The Office and a ton of movies. I watched the entire season of The Closer that I brought in one week! I can’t tell you how relaxing and calming it is to watch a movie and let your mind escape this crazy around-the-world adventure. My computer has been my lifesaver. Without any distractions and when I want to escape, I end up playing on Photoshop, reading or playing games (yes, board and card games) with people around the ship.

Overall, Brazil is a very beautiful and organized yet chaotic city with very kind and rude people. A place of many contrasts. Like it says on the flag: Ordem e Progresso. Order and Progress! I think that might be a familiar theme with many of the countries we visit. There are large mansions next to frames of burned out buildings. You see men urinating in the corners of buildings and a newspaper stand that looks like it should be in downtown Manhattan, Women in heels with business suits next to a dirty, smelly men with one shoe. Everything has an extreme opposite and it can be found on the streets of Salvador.

Back to classes and ship life! Classes are starting to pick up and I have two tests over the next few days. We have 4 days of classes, then a day off (Neptune Day) and then four more classes. Also loose an hour of time about ever day. We loose five hours between Brazil and Africa. Everyone is really excited for Cape Town, South Africa. We have an inter-port student from Cape Town named Victoria who is really sweet and obviously very passionate about her country. South Africa is our longest stay in port- 6 days. Four of those days I will be on a safari at Kwazulu Natal, the first day I’m visiting a Baboon Sanctuary and the second day visiting Cape Point which is an FDP for one of my classes. I have one day free and a bunch of us are thinking about climbing Table Mountain.

I’ll keep you posted. Next post might not come for a while. I’m starting to get busy with school work.

Good Luck in Bakersfield this weekend Girls! Miss you!

Thanks for the mail. Aunt Kelly, thanks for the picture- brought tears to my eyes.

Grandma- Hope you’re feeling better.

MAIL: If you put my cabin number next to my name it will sort faster (Cabin #4046)