Adventures of Living Abroad

It was a stressful and tiring week. I am having trouble getting back into the work routine again after having 6 weeks off. The stress at work is self-induced of course as I expect perfection from myself and constantly trying to create the most effective lessons that will help my students. I also started dancing again this week, although I chose to only go 2 out of the 3 days. I decided to ease back into things :) But by the time Friday came around and I got home from dance at 7:30, I was exhausted and just feeling blah. I woke up Saturday morning and felt regenerated. After stopping at the organic market in the morning, I met up with a few friends and we went down to Centro to buy some accessories for Carnival! It still hasn't hit me yet that I will be in Rio for Carnival next week! There was a lot of random stuff in those stores...from boas to wigs to full blown Halloween costumes to a bulk pack of baby doll heads..yes just the heads not bodies in sight. After buying a few thing...

After seeing a movie with some friends, I got into a taxi and told him my address just like I’ve done hundreds of times in the past 6 months of living here. He couldn’t understand the name of the street I was telling him (This happens sometimes when the person either has not encountered many foreigners and/or the person doesn’t feel like taking the time to really listen.) After repeating myself about 5 times, he repeats the name and gives me a thumbs up. We begin driving and before I know it, we turn right. I roll my eyes thinking what long “loop” is going to do. (This happens a lot   - Although there are many one way streets, surprise surprise that the driver takes you on a longer loop than is actually necessary) After a minute or two though, I realize we are not looping around and he is continuing to drive straight in the opposite direction of my apartment. I look out the window and realize I do not know where we are. After taking a minute to process this, I say, in my broken...