brasila =)

Tomorrow is BRASILA!!! A group of us are going to walk around Manaus (the city we are docking in check it out on a map its pretty far into the Amazon!!! 1000 miles down the Amazon to be exact!!) and try to find an internet café and phone cards so I can call all you lovely people!!!! I am super pumped about Brazil but really just about this whole trip. I can’t describe in words the amount of emotions I have been feeling over the past few weeks but I hope to do it through a few videos I plan to make.

Today we had a “reading day” where we have no classes so I just laid out and finally got some color on my pale body! Everyone on this ship is super tan so it is nice to no longer be called Casper in my group of friends. I had work from 4-6 which I have come to love. I am one of the students that works at the student activities desk where you go to sign out games or balls for sports and we also coordinate and plan the sports tournaments. It’s a sweet job cause I can do homework or whatever really I ant when we are not busy. Some of the other work-study jobs are intense so I really lucked out with getting this work study award. I only have to work 2 hours a day while at sea and I get a $4000 scholarship!!!!

Tonight we had our “pre-port” meeting and we learned all the do’s and don’ts of Brazil. Our LLC’s (living learning coordinators, kinda like Resident Assistants or RD’s) put on a hysterical show of skits. They seem like they are having a lot of fun. I would definitely love to be an LLC sometime in the future, and for those of you who want to study abroad but haven’t yet or don’t have the chance to in college, think about applying to be and LLC on SAS. You don’t have to be an alumni to get the job which is sick!!

So Jake Fitzgerald and I got together today to talk about our plans for when we get home. My whole idea was to do some sort of “Global Awareness Campaign” at highlands and in our surrounding area. I would love to do something more concrete, like raise money for a more specific cause but I truly believe we must educate each other on the importance of gaining a global perspective and from there the idea is to encourage people and particularly high school students to STUDY ABROAD and see the world. There have been so many things in my short life that have completely changed my perspective but none of them have as much as traveling to another country and the in depth discussions you have with people while your there. Then again Jumpstart did and does rock my world and will forever be a huge part of my life but going to another country and learning about other cultures and talking to people about their lives is life changing. I am not really putting into words exactly how I feel which is frustrating me but I will attempt to at another time.

This whole blog thing is tough for me because all I wanna do is run around this ship and meet more people and not sit on a computer and write but I know I will regret it in the end if I don’t!

Anyways back to my plan with Senor Fitzgerald. We are going to have a percent night at the AB&G sometime in June to raise funds for a project called “Freedom and Creation” If you read nothing else on my blog that’s find JUST READ THIS CAUSE ITS AMAZING! SO… Freedom and Creation is a non-profit that an SAS Alumni started. Andrew Briggs is the founder and his goal is to build fresh water wells in areas and villages that are in need. In many places across the world people must travel miles for one days supply of clean water because they do not have access to fresh water where they live.

So Briggs goes into these villages with tons of art supplies and asks the school aged children to create anything they want. Then he brings these pieces of art back to the states and tells the story of that particular village and children and auctions off their artwork. He spoke to us last week and explained that many of the children he meets have never been exposed to crayons or color utensils to create art with. Can you imagine only ever drawing in pencil? How many years of art did we all have in grade school?

With the money he raises he brings back to the village to build wells that cost on average $5000. So our percent night is to fundraise to build a well for a village in need.

.... I wrote this last night. TONIGHT was awesome. TODAY was awesome. GO BRASILA. and GOOOO STEELERS WOOOOOOOO!!