O Maior São João Do Cerrado

I met with Amanda and her roommate Isabel and then two of my student friends Wemerson and Paulo and we went to O Maior São João Do Cerrado Northeast Festival in Ceilândia. It was a lot larger than I expected and by about 11 pm when we were leaving there were at least 50,000 plus people there. When you first walked in there were hanging flags and a small house village of shops set up. Then, you walked into a maze of food vendors selling- hot dogs, burgers, acaraje, arroz carteira, yakisoba, canjica, and alcoholic drinks out of pineapples. I ended up buying Paulo and me a hotdog, because I’m obsessed with Brasilian hotdogs, and it had batata palha, cheese, ham, sauces, and other goodies. Paulo helped me open the ketchup packets, because we all know I suck at that and normally spray them all over myself. Then we walked through the rollercoaster portion, and Paulo convinced me into my desire to ride the Kamikaze ride, which is the swinging upside down carts. Amanda and I each bought the 4 for 20 reais ticket deal. The kamikaze ride was insane and luckily it didn’t hold us upside down at the top, like it did for prior riders. Amanda and I ended up giving most of our tickets to our friends to ride new rides, since we have the rides more easily accessible in the US, and one of the friends had never been on the rides. It was great seeing their reactions to the rides! Paulo went a little crazy with bumper cars and his maniacal look said it all. Next, we went back to the concert area, which was a huge concert set up, and watched the Henrique and Ruan set. There was a song or two that I actually recognized the chorus and could sing along (faking my way along I mean). We stayed halfway through the set and ended up heading out about 10:30 pm to call the ubers, and everyone made it home safely by midnight.

Midyear Seminar Fulbright Year 2 In Rio de Janeiro

My first year Fulbright midyear seminar was held in Salvador, but this year we had it in Rio de Janeiro! This year's conference I got the bravery to apply for a position to lead a workshop, and I won the spot. We spent Tuesday-Thursday at Fulbright ETA led workshops, workshops presented by graduate students, Foreign service officers, private sector Fulbright alumni members, and education field specialist Fulbright alumni members. This is about the time of the year when we start kicking into the mindset of- what comes after Fulbright.
Our hotel was right on the Copacobana beach, and my room was an amazing 25th story view overlooking the water. The hotel also had a rooftop heated infinity pool!
On one of the seminar days we spent learning more about the culture of Rio and taking a trip through the city. We got to explore the Escadaria Selaron, and it was my second time there. I bought a capirosca with mango, but it was more alcohol than fruit. We were supposed to go to Sugarloaf Mountain, but it was closed due to the high winds, so instead we went to Christ the redeemer!

Infinity pool on the rooftop

The rooftop view from the hotel

Our view looking out from the hotel

My last seminar conference with Fulbright as an ETA

Spot my name on the presentation list!

My coworker Amanda and program manager Karina

I took a photo exactly here one year ago my first time exploring Escadaria Selaron

Everyone loves a fruit capirinha--> caipirosca

The view from the Christ the Redeemer statue

But first a selfie. The wind was very strong!

My amazing Centro-Oeste Regional group

It was hard to capture a good photo with it being so dark, but we cleverly used a lit sign nearby to help with lighting

  

One of my best Fulbright friends I've made through my second year journey- Maddy 

Cheesin' on Copacabana beach

Escaped for a quick beach walk after I finished lunch early one day