Frankfurt, Germany

Me, Josh, & Chris just walking around town!

So on the way to Africa we had a layover in Frankfurt (7 hours) so we took a train into the city, not extremely tourist friendly but still just fun to walk around. There were some great old churches and even apartment buildings and I really liked the "old town" part of the city. We stopped and got a Bratwurst I really only ate a bite, not my favorite and I didn't want to get sick on the next flight. It was good to walk around a bit, but we all started falling asleep on the train back to the airport.

I tried it, but I definitely didn't love it!

Where in the world am I?

Got the title from my friend Josh - thanks! Just as a way of update I'm off to Africa today for two weeks. I'm so excited and just a little anxious because I'm not quite sure what to expect but I can't wait for this experience, and it'll start with our intense itinerary.

We fly Salt Lake > San Francisco > eventually to Frankfurt, Germany (7 hour lay over) > Johannesburg, South Africa (few days) > Swaziland (about a week) > Back to Jo-burg > London, England (6 hour lay over ) > eventually back to Salt Lake!

I think we basically circumnavigate the globe (if that's the right word)! Anyway I'm not sure what I'll have access to while I'm there so expect an update with pictures sometime near the end of September. See you all soon!

Portland & Seattle

I left New York and headed to Portland to spend some time with Shaun & Emily and Maisey before we headed up to Seattle, and it also saved myself one more flight. We did what I love most, ate good food (lots of steak), played some games, and just spent time together. It felt great to sleep in a bit and recover before I head out again.

Shaun has been working up in Seattle during the week so Emily, Maisey, and I drove up on Thursday and stayed with him at his hotel. Friday we met him for lunch went on a "Ride the Duck" tour around Seattle which was very fun and then headed to the Mariners game after we picked him up from work - it was mine and Maisey's first MLB game (and they totally beat the Yankees 3-1).

What a cutie - all decked out for the game!

Celebrating our first time at Safeco Field in Seattle!

Then Saturday we woke up and headed up to the University of Washington to watch the BYU game. We sat with the majority of the BYU crowd and really enjoyed watching the football game. Maisey was really good during both games, only at times it was a little loud. Especially when BYU blocked the PAT attempt in the final seconds to secure a victory. Way too close of a game but I'm glad we walked away with the "W"!

GO COUGARS!

New York

Hey look I'm in Time Square!

Ok it's official I have been in the Eastern US. On our way home from Brazil Josh and I stayed in New York for a day with a friend of his (Thanks again Ashley and Leslie for your hospitality we really appreciated it)! On Friday we took the Subway down to Central Park and walked all over seeing the Manhattan Temple, some of the park, then walked down to Time Square so we saw a bunch of just the regular city then.

Josh & I with the Statue of Liberty over his shoulder - the lady didn't zoom very well!

We headed along the Hudson so I saw the Statue of Liberty from afar and Ellis Island and then we headed to where the Trade Center stood and saw some of the memorials and got some great dipped - ice cream cones and pizza too. By this point I felt like we had walked 20 miles, which may have actually been true so we headed back to Time Square and saw a movie. Then headed back and crashed yet again (all this traveling makes us tired).

I enjoyed my visit to the BIG Apple and thanks Josh for showing me a round and walking everywhere with me, I can't wait to go back and hopefully see a Broadway show next time!

My view from the plane as I left New York - heaps of clouds and gorgeous sunset!

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Our FAVORITE Cafe - Baby Lanches

So after only a short week up in Maceio and San Luis we headed out to visit Rio (Dave served his mission here and I really wanted to see my first new Wonder of the World). We flew in and stayed at a hostel in Copa Cabana- a popular vacation spot for Frank Sinatra and friends, and just walked down by the water that first night and stopped by a market. We found a nice little juice/snack shop called Baby Lanches that night that had some amazing juice - and we were ADDICTED!

Andrea, Me, & Josh up at the statue

Next day started with some more juice then we headed to go see the Christ the Redeemer Statue. It was amazing and it does just sit above the city and it so big you can just see if from everywhere. Of course there were tons of tourists so we had to fight to get some of the pictures but overall it was just so cool to see the statue and the view. After we headed down and got some lunch we made our way over to the Pao de Asucar (Sugar Loaf) where you take a Gondola up and you really can get about a 360 degree view of the city. We got up there and just shorly after the sun set and the city lights all started to come on - this is highly recommended to anyone visiting here (unfortunately my camera died before the sun went down but I'm actually kind of glad because then it's just a great memory I have)! Oh and don't worry we got juice on the way home, then surprise Kareoke back at the hostel so we stayed as long as we could until we finally went back for more juice and some quiet for our sanity, then back to get a good night sleep (yeah right!)

A view of just part of the city from the Pao de Asucar

Let me just quickly describe the hostel - we were staying in a room with 6 bunkbeds all 3 beds high = 18 people total. A group of Math students from University of Washington were actually staying in the same place so that was fun to talk to them but I had about a 30 year old man on the bunk above me and everytime he rolled in the night I woke up with a shear panic that he was going to collapse on me. Although I'd definately not trade Josh for his experience - that first night while reading some of our "roommates" decided that it didn't matter if they were in a room with 16 other people, at least they had the courtesy to hang up a sheet on their second bunk - although it wasn't soundproof and poor Josh got the worst birthday present ever. I'm so sorry Josh but just so glad that I was so out of it, we promised that he would never have to stay in a hostel again in a room that big.

How we felt about the "incident" - Josh threw up in his mouth!

Tuesday - Happy Birthday Josh, and what better way to celebrate or cheer you up then with JUICE! Then we went a toured a pretty intense Cemetary that was actually just down the hill from a Favela (these are neighborhoods up the hillside - where people just went up and took the land, but they are very shady and each Favela is overseen pretty much by different drug lords so they don't pay for the land or anything but they kind of pay for protection and they are very dangerous to say the least)! Afterward we headed to this great Botanical Garden (the largest one located in a city) and just walked around - I could only imagine how beautiful it would be in the spring with flowers in bloom. Later we headed to the center of Rio to a huge market, but it was mostly a market for DVD's, Nike clothing, and a bunch of random stuff that I didn't have room for in my bags but it was really fun to see this side of the city. [Oh yeah while there I wasn't paying the best attention and totally fell of a curb, it looked hilarious but actually hurt!] Later we headed back to the juice shop of course then back to sleep with a hopefully peaceful night.
One of the Favelas we walked near by - pretty intense!
Wednesday - we headed down to the beach in the morning (grabbing some juice on the way) and later walked around Copa Cobana some more and to the mall to get some books in Portuguese for Dave. Today we just took it easy and enjoyed being in Brazil. We ended the day and our trip by celebrating with lots of juice - our last time at Baby Lanches (8 times total for our short stay in Rio) then headed back to the hostel and left super early the next morning to wait in line for the longest time ever with TAM airlines - (It was seriously like Meet the Parents when the counter just sits there and types like 800 things to issue us one bording pass - and they suffer from a company wide staple shortage!)
We LOVE the Juice - and Guarana!

But all in all Rio was great and a dream come true to see the sights!

Maceio, Brazil

Well I'm back from Brazil, and what an amazing trip!

We started with a long flight from JFK to Sao Paulo then another flight back up to Maceio. We arrived at 2am just after the rental car place closed so we slept in the airport for a few hours and then woke up to pick up our car. First day we were pretty out of it we just headed to Teresa's house and met some of her family, ate some food and all of us fell asleep at some point or another. Later that night we headed to the beach house where we were staying - thank you Antonio and your family for your hospitality.

The beach house where we stayed - kind of felt guilty it was so nice!

Up in Maceio we toured the city, visited a "safe center" for children, went to the Panaria (bakery) that Teresa's husband owns, had lunch with the Missionaries [Andrea and I were glad that one was American and could speak English to us]. The whole time I tried real hard to understand Portuguese and I was able to get the gist on things and Dave was nice enough to translate some of the rest. Basically by 5pm my mind would be exhausted from so much processing.

The alley leading to Geverton's house!
Next we visited San Luis de Quitingue (sp?) where the kids Kaiizen sponsors live and go to schoot - Teresa teaches in this town also at a public school which is how we found these kids. The city is great, pretty small and surrounded by sugar cane fields for the most part. There are some nicer houses down in the city but as you head up the hills you see how most of the people live. It was definitely eye opening to see these levels of poverty but maybe even more shocking to see how happy people were and how they were able to still make a life for themselves on the very basics.

Visiting the sugar cane factory nearby!
The kids were AMAZING - The boys I could keep straight Geverton (practiced his English constantly with us - so fun!), Hudson (pretty shy but he came to hang out with us one day with just Geverton so I think he liked us), and Igelson (just a fun easy going go who's a fan of Backstreet Boys!). The girls were a bit harder to learn their names, mostly because they all sound the same. Bruna Gabriella I could remember the smallest yet kind of a leader of the pack. Then there was Alani, Elaine, and Adalangi - I probably didn't even spell those right. (Alani was a little shy but she thought she might have pink eye so she kept her distance, Elaine is so smart and a very silent leader, and Adalangi is the tall thin model-like girl who's a total flirt her target = Josh).

We also met up with Gominho a kid just from the town that met the group last time and offered to watch their car for some money - they had him come in and eat lunch with them instead and they just can't stand to not have him around anymore. His smile is so infectious and he just LOVES Josh - They were playing in the ocean trying to hold onto eachother through the waves and it was so cute to watch, but we all know Josh is just a big kid at heart!

I have to give credit to Teresa, she is so amazing. Not only is she the most gracious person ever and fed us way to well - including all the great juice that she made, but she has raised a righteous and intelligent family that were so nice and so much fun to be around. She really makes this program run and she is such a stong and amazing women and I can't wait until she comes to visit Utah and we can wait on her hand and foot and return the favor.

One of my favorite memories from the trip was Saturday = Beach Day when in the evening we all played American Football - that's right we lined up a game and gave each team 6 downs to make a touchdown. We tried to explain the rules but the first kick off they started throwing it all over to eachother and Andrea and I just dropped to the sand laughing - so we had to explain again that you can only run the first time, then you only get 1 forward pass each down, that forward pass has to be BEHIND the line of scrimmage, and then I realized just how many rules there are - don't worry we let some slide. I did my best to set up plays and would speak English/Spanish/Portuguese real slow then Marceo would do his best to translate to all Portuguese for my team - we emerged VICTORIOUS though.

Other great memories:
>Dave teaching Geverton and Gominho English - mostly phrases like "Let's Rock" and "You blow my mind" and "I have a crush on you."
>Gominho finding us on the first day in San Luis and calling out to Josh until he turned around and the smile on both of their faces was absolutely priceless!
>They were in the middle of a political campaign but we just kept saying that Teresa should run for Mayor.

>My first time at the Atlantic Ocean - Josh was excited for me too!

>Andrea trying to be polite and nice to the English Teacher at the public school because she thought he was a friend of Kaiizen's - no just really Creepy and he actually sang James Blunt "You're Beautiful" to her and invited us all over to his house (plus he couldn't even really speak English).
>All 4 of us signing autographs and taking pictures at the public school like we were celebrities - actually this was just plain awkward and we hated it but it was kind of funny at first. One of my new friends at the public school - I thought he was cute!
>Dave and Josh teaching a class at the public school and rewarding correct answers but letting them dance with us (Don't worry one student totally grabed my butt!)
>Grabbing some ice-cream where you scoop yourself and top it however you want then pay by the weight it was so good.
>All the good times with Dave, Andrea, and Josh - watching Just Friends and laughing so hard we had to rewind it, fake fighting, Dave being perverted, talking about Bill, sharing juice, and just loving eachother.
>New Friends that we made in Brazil that forever hold a place in my heart!

I'm sorry this is so long, and unfortunately it doesn't even do justice to the week but I hope it shares with you a little of my experience!

Viva la Mexico

Bombay and the boys playing baseball - we used the cars and a stump as our bases!

Well the week is already done and sorry still no pictures added yet a few of our group got sick last night and I did a bit today so I thought a nap was a little more important so that I don't hopefully heave all night on these planes.

A picture of the kids as they were working on their writing assignment

The charter school had a lot of fun and they were great at building relationships with the older kids at the orphanage. We were able to play endless four-square, head to this pool (complete with cement slide - I got the award for going the fastest down), tie-dying and a bunch of other different things.

Hana and I with our friends who played to us a Mexican song from "Utah" while we ate tacos!

Now I'm just re-couping as best as I can and headed out to catch my flights to Brazil for about two weeks. I'll be working there with Kaiizen in Project Educate which is a program where we sponsor 8 kids from the public to private high school in hope of not only graduating but passing the examinations to get into public university which is all paid for by the state. I think all will be the first in their families to do so. I hear they are great kids and so many fun stories about them and I'm so excited to go and meet them.

I'm assuming I'll have some sort of internet access during this time so just e-mail me if you need anything. Love you all.