The Day Before...

I leave tomorrow night for Rio, and I'm sitting here in my room on Sam's bed looking at all my clothes and belongings scattered around the floor.  It really didn't hit me that I'm actually about to leave my life in DC until December until this morning, when the visual emptiness combined with Sam asking me, "So are you like, freaking out??  You leave forever like tomorrow!!"  It was then that I realized that I am, actually, really, leaving tomorrow night.  However, the reality of it is not quite in focus, I'm still concerned with stupid things like which tie to bring and to whom I should pass on my leftover frozen vegetables.

As I've been walking around DC for the last few times and saying goodbye to my girlfriend, friends, jobs, and of course Jing, it's definitely been an interesting experience; a ton of excitement mixed with sadness too.  But just remembering the two short years ago when I came to DC is enough to remind myself why I'm going to Brazil, or anywhere.  With this trip I hope to gain experience, knowledge, perspective, and understanding--not even as much in class as in life.  Someone told me once that in my "field" where indecisiveness runs rampant, the best thing to do is just the next thing you can think of, so for me, this is it.

But enough of the seriousness.  Clearly all the above is true, but I might also add that I'm headed to the culture capital of South America, the first place the Portuguese arrived in the New World, the fifth largest country on earth, one of the modern wonders of the world, a city of six million people, the home of samba, caipirinhas, and the most famous stretches of sand on earth.  (I've been doing some reading...)  And on that note, I hope to have the time of my life.

The point of this blog is to keep in touch with friends and family, and to document through pictures and anecdotes what I encounter on my first ever, real-life attempt at pretending to be Latin American.  I hope you enjoy!