Brazil!

I just got back from a 5-day trip to Brazil with my friend Erica. This is a long post, but it's mostly pictures :) Erica and I shuttled back and forth between her mother's house in a tiny town called Porto Feliz, which is about 2 hours outside of Sao Paulo, and her sister's house in Sorocaba, which is about 1 hour oustide of Sao Paulo. Her sister, Yara, just had a baby three weeks ago. We spent a lot of time with the baby, I got to see Erica's hometown, I learned a bunch of new recipes for traditional Brazilian food, and I gorged myself on delicious tropical fruit. Here are some pictures from the trip:

This is the view from Erica's mom's house in Porto Feliz.



Another view of Porto Feliz.



A street in Porto Feliz near the downtown.



Park near Erica's mom's house.



Me in the park :)



River in the park.



Another picture of the river-- I can't help myself when things are this picturesque!



Erica and me-- goodness I look tired!



Aaaah baby Laina! Ok get ready for a whole bunch of pictures of Laina. She's so cute that I took about a billion pictures of her :)











Aah she's so cute I can't stand it!



Ok, ok last one :)



This is the view from Erica's sister's place in Sorocaba.



I love taking pictures of the sky.



See!



All of the delicious tropical fruit that I stuffed myself with all week-- and it's so inexpensive in Brazil!



This is the most delicious Brazilian soda.



Me with Erica's WONDERFUL friend Elias.



And finally, this is Elias's puppy Leo-- too cute not to take a picture!

Just so everyone knows what an insane trip I had back to my house in Argentina, I thought I would give you a schedule of yesterday's travel:
3:00am- Leave Erica's sister's house, walking, to meet a cab
3:15am- Take a cab to the bus terminal
4:00am- Take a bus to Sao Paulo from Sorocaba
5:30am- Take a metro across Sao Paulo
6:15am- Get on an airport shuttle
7:00am- Arrive at airport in Sao Paulo
8:00am- Plane departs (remember that this is an international flight!)
11:15am- Arrive in Buenos Aires
11:20am- Catch a cab
12:00pm- Finally arrive at my apartment....9 hours in transit!

Ok that is all :) Hope you're all well!

Oldies but Goodies

These are some pictures with some of my former roommates at the evil lady's apartment. They're wonderful and we went out salsa dancing:

Here we have the lovely Fernanda and Pedro.



Me and Pedro :)



Me and Fer :)

My trip to Wal-Mart...

On Monday, I went to Wal-Mart in the hope of finding a few things for my new apartment. After a 45-minute bus ride, I finally arrived. I know that you're thinking-- globalization at its worst. However, there are few places in the greater Buenos Aires that offer the selection that Wal-Mart offers, so for better or for worse, I went. On a random side note, I do sometimes get coffee from McDonald's because it is the ONLY place in Buenos Aires that will give you your coffee to go. After spending about an hour shopping I was ready to pay. However, I had to wait 45 minutes in the checkout line before I could do so. I cannot understand how it takes so long to move people through the checkout line in Argentina. It happens everywhere! It literally takes ½ hour to get out of any grocery. Then I took my 45-minute bus ride home with my new purchases. On the way home, however, I developed a keen understanding for how wonderful it is to have a car. It is so much harder to do pretty much anything without a car, especially if you're trying to transport things such as groceries or new Wal-Mart purchases. Needless to say I have an even more profound appreciation for cars now and recommend that no one in the U.S. take their car for granted!

My new address!

My new address is...

Leslie Hernandez
Charcas 3080 6D
Capital Federal, Buenos Aires
Argentina, C1425BML

I'm free!!!!!!

I am happy to report that I am now out of the wicked witch's apartment-- needless to say it's been a long day. I'm so happy to be out of there! I found a great apartment in a new neighborhood and I'm so excited to be living here.

Today was a super long day because I also bought my ticket and got my tourist visa to travel to.....Brazil! I'm leaving next Tuesday and I am SO excited :) If anyone has any suggestions about where to go or what to do around Sao Paulo, definitely let me know! Here are a few pictures of my new and beautiful apartment:

Hope you're all doing well! Definitely drop me a line if you get a chance :)

I'm Moving!

I apologize for not posting to this blog in a while. Especially after getting back from Montevideo, not a whole lot has happened in the last week, except for the fact that I have restarted the apartment search with a new vigor as my landlady has really become insufferable. I'm hoping to move to my new place tomorrow, but I'm not going to put the address up until everything is for sure. Just know that if you want to send something down here, please don't send it to the address I have posted. Wait a couple of days and I'll put of my new address and pictures :)