Torn

Well, here goes another apology. It's OCTOBER! I haven't blogged since August. That's pretty disappointing, because I really wanted to document things well. There goes that.

In all honesty, I kind of avoided the blog due to an extremely busy schedule and the homesickness wall. I can return to the old blog now, because I think I'm really getting past it. My last post was all about being homesick. And I was. I truly didn't expect it to be like this, but I was downright weepy and sad for awhile. I had some days where I just felt crushed by it.

But, I can honestly say that I've gone nearly a month without tears or much sadness. Now I'm just torn. I'm getting to that place where I am becoming truly happy here. Yet I miss my family and friends a lot. I'll probably feel torn forever now. I'm truly loving Brazil and everything going on here. We have had so much fun making new friends and spending time with family. I'm enjoying learning portuguese, even though it's coming slowly. I'm finding a lot that I love here. I'm guessing I'll never be 100% happy anywhere now, because I have one foot in the U.S. (my family and friends and familiarity) and another in Brazil. Despite frustrations, I really like my new school, my coworkers, my apartment, and my life here. I have a long way to go before I feel totally comfortable, but things are going in the right direction.

Alright, enough philosophy. Let's do a quick update on what's been new in the past month and a half. Then, I promise to regularly update the blog so that I can get into more detail.

Here goes:

• It's springtime. Weirds me out that it's only getting warmer from here!
• We have tickets to the parade in Rio for carnaval. Now if we only had a place to stay! 

We will totally be in the stands! YAY. Okay, let's not talk about how expensive this is going to be. It'll be FUN.

• We also have tickets to Florianopolis (southern Brazil) for our mid-November break. Can't WAIT for this beach town!

• My parents are both planning to visit over the Christmas break (which lasts until January 16th). Very exciting.
• We are hoping to get out of Campinas in the next weekend or two to visit Sao Paulo. I went there a couple times in 2004, but really...it's so big that you could go 27 times and not see the same places. 

Hello, 3rd biggest city in the world!

I'll leave it here for now and promise to come back really soon. Just wanted to update and say that things are good. Very busy, but good. Things get easier every day.