No words

I really don't know how to describe my experience here as nothing but amazing. I really don't know how many times I can say that this has been one of the best, if not the best decisions/experiences of my life. I think it's noted in that I haven't been able to really update my blog as often as I imagined I would, but here is a short description of events that have passed, and some things might be repeated.
This past weekend Payson, Steph, Henry and Meejin. It was a two-hour busride outside of Fortaleza. I really wanted to sleep on the bus, but the scenery was just so beautiful and out of this world that I really couldn't miss it to sleep on the bus. I can get more sleep later. Also, the bus fare to go was only about $5, I really couldn't miss out.
We had never been there before, but thanks to our portuguese skills, we made it there safely. The bus driver was sooooo nice! We told him where we wanted to go and he let us stay on the bus after our last stop so that we could get dropped off very close to our destination.
We went to the little town of Baturite which is in the country surrounded by lush green hills and tons of fruit trees. We went to a jesuit monastary that was on top of this small hill. It was gorgeous and very much my cup of tea since I am crazy about old architectural designs. It was only $0.50 to get in. Sweet! We went fruit picking, had a picnic and smelled the most delicious mangos on the face of the planet.
After the monastary we did a five minute hike and saw for miles around nothing but beautiful amazon-like forests. It's amazingly gorgeous.
I finally got to go to the beach for the first time after being here for three weeks. The water is delicious. It's not cold and not hot, but nice and tropically warm. Really weird since the Pacific is always ice cold. But you can sit on the beach and drink and capirinhas or aqua de coco straight from the coconut. It's tropical paradise!
I'm really clicking with the group here as everyone makes me laugh. My family is amazing and I am getting along with them swimmingly. One thing that I really miss are vegetables, something I really don't get to eat enough of here, but my aunt makes french fries and gives them to me for free, so that kind of makes up for it I guess.
This weekend we're going to an MST settlement to learn about the movement that has been going on for years concerning the huge difference in the amount of people that hold rights to the land. We'll be sleeping in hammocks, not able to bring our own bottled water and doing the work that they do. I know it's only for two days, but I have heard that this part of the trip is one of the best and most difficult at the same time.
Today at lunch, the man at the sandwich store gave all of teh americans postcards of Brazil so that we could remember what it looks like.
This morning my portuguese teacher laughed at me because I took too long to do an art project, but I am his favorite student, so I guess that makes up for it.
and now I have to go to lecture class to learn about social movements in brazil.
love love love!!