Feliz Aniversário pra Mim

I wanted to write a post to say THANK YOU to everyone who emailed me yesterday and for all the Happy Birthday wishes. 
I also wanted to put up some pictures from my birthday here in Brasil.  
Since my birthday fell on a Wednesday this year and I had a huge Português midterm the next day, I actually spent the majority of the day studying.  A little lame, I know.  
But I had a really nice birthday thanks to a few amazing friends and family.


A few friends from school dropped by my apartment in the evening with a box of really pretty, and interesting flavored, cupcakes.
Left: Chocolate with vanilla sugar frosting and raspberry 
Right: "Frutas Vermelhas" - which means red fruits and I have no idea what the actual flavors were
Bottom: Brigadeiro with pistachio 

One of my friends also decided to create the "Ultimate 21st Birthday Game" to simulate what a typical (drunk) American girl would be doing on their 21st birthday.  The game consists of 7 tasks which needed to be completed in 1 minute and 21 seconds.

Tasks are as follows:

1.  Make a generic "Thank You" speech

2.  Take a birthday shot

3.  Throw up

4. Dance inappropriately to get the boys excited

5. Tell everyone you love them

5.5 Blow out the candle (this one was added last minute)

6.  Eat cake

Since I was still in the midst of studying for an exam, we decided that a taking a shot of water and spitting it out would suffice for Tasks 2 & 3.  

Also Task 4 ended up being a showcase of all my goofiest dance moves.

I have a funny video of this game to share when I get home :)

My roommates also wanted to do something special for me, so they picked up some traditional Brasilian treats for me to try and sang the Potuguês version of "Happy Birthday" which is nothing like our traditional song.  

These are called "salgadinhos" or little snacks. There are many different flavors but these are caju (right) and fish (left).  Yeah... fish. 

Being polite, I tried them both, but I've decided never to be polite again. Enough said.

These treats were delicious, hence the half eaten Strawberry cake, and I forgot to snap a picture until after we devoured most of them.  

Left: "Carolinas" (basically mini cream puffs with different fillings)

Right: Strawberry cake :)

Now to the best part...

I received this package from my amazing friends that made this birthday one of the best I've ever had.  It arrived on the morning of my birthday (great timing) and I opened it up to find letters from all of my dearest friends in San Diego plus some Brasilian money "to buy drinks on them this weekend".  

This little package MADE MY DAY and I am so thankful to all of my friends for taking the time to write me letters and convert US dollars into Brasilian Reais :)

Love you guys!

Jord, Tay, Linders and Emily: Thank you guys so much for organizing this and being such amazing friends/roommates.  I am so blessed to have friends like you guys and so thankful to be living with you next year.

Troy, Kev, Parks, Conman and Chuckles: Thank you so much for writing me letters, you guys are too funny!  I miss you boys and can't wait to see you when I get back to SD!

Maxum: Thank you for my singing card and my gift :) You already know I miss you like crazy.  I Love You.

Florianópolis 4/4-4/8

At the beginning of this month I took a trip to the South of Brasil to a city called Florianópolis.  Florianópolis, also referred to as Floripa, is a small island just off the southeastern coast of Brasil and is the capital of the state of Santa Catarina.   

I traveled with some friends from school and we were quite the multicultural group. 

Me, three other Americans, an Australian, two Peruvian girls, and two Mexican girls all traveled together, and down the street at another hostel a few more friends from Mexico and France enjoyed the weekend in Floripa as well.

We decided to take a bus - a 13 hour bus - because it was much cheaper than traveling by plane, so we left late on Wednesday night and arrived in the afternoon on Thursday just in time to take a quick walk to the beach.

Here is the view of the ocean from the main deck at the hostel

On Friday we spent most of the day at Praia Mole, one of the most popular beaches in Floripa and then enjoyed the evening at the hostel with the new friends we met from all over the world.  I loved meeting other young people who are traveling and hearing about what other destinations they have seen in South America so far.  Some of them had just begun their travels, and others had been backpacking South America for months!

Here's a few shots of the beautiful coastline of Praia Mole

The last day in Floripa the hostel organized a bus to take a bunch of people from the hostel to the north end of the island to an open-air beach club called P12.  

It's located just off of Jurerê beach and has a huge swimming pool in the center of the venue with a swim-up bar and DJ booth.  During the day fun music is played outside, and at night large tents are set up on the other side of the venue to act as a nightclub.  

The other travelers and I were easily the poorest people in attendance and couldn't even afford drinks, but nevertheless, we had a great time.

My trip to Florianópolis was wonderful.  

The south of Brasil starts winter around mid-April, so I'm glad I got the chance to visit before the sunny weather goes into hibernation.  

The only downside of this trip was that I was eaten alive by "borrachudos", a type of bug from the mosquito family that lives near big bodies of water in tropical climates.  When I returned to school the next week my teacher saw the 30 bites I had just on my legs (there were many more on my arms) and immediately said, 

"Oh, I guess no one told you that you have to wear bug spray at the beaches here?"

Yeah... I guess not.