Story Index:

Ao final
07/13/2014

Son in the sky
07/12/2014

Recife
06/27/2014

Impressions of Brazil
06/25/2014

Vida Dura
06/23/2014

Hawaii Fishing News - May 2013
05/01/2013

Un lugar para mi
09/09/2011

Crossed the border
08/18/2011

Quiero mas tiempo!
07/31/2011

Perched above Medellin
07/23/2011

Yay for a shower!
07/19/2011

New coast for me!
07/15/2011

The ocean calls
07/09/2011

Thick rain, freight train
06/26/2011

Tierra Dura
06/26/2011

Time to dry
06/24/2011

The next quarter century - on we go!
06/18/2011

Rolling with it
06/09/2011

Viviendo la vida
04/27/2011

You live and you learn: Adventures in Bureaucracy
04/12/2011

Snippets of Life - Part 4: La vida hermosa
04/08/2011

Snippets of Life: Part 3 - Las flores y los pájaros de Mindo
04/07/2011

Snippets of Life: Part 2 - An afternoon in Colonial Quito
03/30/2011

Snippets of Life: Part 1 - Fútbol en Argentina
03/27/2011

La diferencia principal entre Ecuador y Thailand
02/12/2011

Mi misíon por cada día
02/05/2011

Me gusta mi linea de trabajo!
01/28/2011

Mi primer fin de semana en Ecuador
01/18/2011

First off, let's catch up: Where's Whitney?
01/13/2011

Day BA
02/24/2009

What a year! 2008 in Review...
12/29/2008

Southeast Asia Superlatives (and not-so-Superlatives)
12/12/2008

One week in Cambodia
12/03/2008

Waterfalls, cliffs, and caves of beautiful Laos
11/09/2008

Beautiful, happy northern Thailand
10/31/2008

One amazing month on Koh Tao
10/24/2008

Daily mission on the islands: Enjoy life!
09/14/2008

Bangkok, Thailand
09/13/2008

Last week in France
09/05/2008

August 08 in Europe
08/24/2008

Failed Cape Melville
07/13/2008

Day trip to Bowen
06/25/2008

Part 3: Volleyball playoffs
06/15/2008

Part 2: Ultimate camping
06/15/2008

Part 1 of... many: FOLK FESTIVAL!
06/15/2008

My weekend of great vistas
06/02/2008

A glorious weekend on Magnetic Island
05/27/2008

Ugh. I'm exhausted.
05/02/2008

New Zealand... ROCKS!!!
04/30/2008

It's been awhile...
04/23/2008

Sushi night at the house
04/07/2008

Thanks for all the letters and mail!
04/01/2008

I finally got to dive the Great Barrier Reef!
03/31/2008

Blues Fest - Byron Bay
03/26/2008

The little things I realize I miss
03/18/2008

Bouldering trip
03/17/2008

Beach volleyball!
03/14/2008

I'M GOING TO THE BLUES FEST!!
03/11/2008

So many new animals!
03/08/2008

time for school
03/06/2008

Whitney saw a wallaby!!
03/02/2008

Pictures for my stories
03/02/2008

Just some observations
02/28/2008

Mailing address
02/27/2008

Rain in the tropics
02/25/2008

Townsville!
02/25/2008

We're finally in Australia!
02/23/2008

The Last Supper
02/16/2008
Vida Dura



Wake up, eat breakfast, go to beach, find restaurant for lunch and watch game. Perhaps change location for following game. Eat dinner.

It's rough.

But actually, I sometimes get restless. It's perhaps a little too simple for me. I've been able to get out a few times for some runs to get some energy out. The other day, I went for a fantastic morning run along the beach. My host Dani and a friend of hers and I were staying on the coast north of Recife, and the beach stretches for miles with hardly anybody on it.



We are now staying with a friend on the coast south of Recife - Porto de Galinhas. Pretty incredible... in the summer. It is not summer.



Ah well, all the same, it's a cute little beach town that draws visitors, so I found my compatriots for yesterday's USA-Portugal game. A restaurant in the town center was certainly the place to be, and man was it fun! So much USA spirit! Everybody decked out and ready to get loud.



It's odd to say, but it's the spirit I was hoping to find during my travels in the host country of the World Cup. I haven't actually come across it yet until yeserday's USA game. Odd, ey? Americans have so far proved to be far more exciting than Brazilians. That very same restaurant today was filled with Brazilians for the game against Cameroon, yet they certainly did not meet the level of the stars and stripes crowd. They were lively, sure, but there was a magnitude of difference in the level of excitement and unity. (*Note: the guy in the photo below wearing the Brazil jersey and exuberantly high-fiving - no, high-tenning - was in fact... American)

Makes me even more excited for the USA-Germany game. : ) Also makes me excited to be in Rio for the later games. Perhaps I will find a bit more energy.





We got back to the house at about 7:30pm this evening, and I felt ready for bed. I'm fighting sleep just so I can wait for a normal hour to retire. It's an exhausting life, this! That being said (in a joking manner), it actually is fairly taxing to be immersed in a new language. I am understanding more and more every day, but often, I charge into a sentence to participate in the chat, and realize I don't know how to express what I want, and I just kinna... say something really simple and not worth input, and back out again. Ha. Oh well.

We watch a crap-ton (that's a metric unit) of tv here. The TV is pretty much on all day. Granted, most of the days have been all World Cup, but I'm also getting caught up with the handful of daily novelas (soap operas) that they have here. I venture to guess this is largely why I get antsy and restless - I've been in front of the TV more in the past 2 weeks than I have in the past 2 years. But, it does play a huge role in the improvement of my grasp of the language.



Posted by Whitney 06/23/2014
FreeStyle Journal 19.03.21
©2003-2011 by Dan Goodell

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