18 June 2012- The Beginning

On Friday I arrived in Recife. I got here on a plane with my sister and many others from my group. The family that I'm staying here with went to pick me up from the airport. The mother's name is Vanda and her husband's name is Lucimario. they have a son and two daughters. The son's name is Lucimario Jr. (from here on referred to as Junior)and the older daughter's name is Laurileide, she lives next door with her husband, Severino, and her daughter Laura. Vanda's other daughter, Lucimar, is also married, but is staying with the family because she is pregnant and says that all the smells at her house make her stomache churn. They are a great family and are always willing to help and show me parts of Recife and talk about the culture. They took me to a small square in town and I ate a tapioca, with chocolate and condensed milk. On Saturday Sara, my sister, came to the house I'm living in and met the family I'm staying with. After lunch we went to pick up the other member of the study abroad that will be staying with me at Donna Vanda's home. His name is Brady Squires. After we brought him to the house, we took a shower and went out to a party that the ward here was having. It was a lot of fun, and we met my sister, and Tawnya (another member of the study abroad) there. On Sunday I went to church here in the ward Jardim Piedade. There were six from the study abroad there. We then went to the beach and I made a castle in the sand. While I was building it, Laura ran through it after some light goading from Junior. After the castle was destroyed I decided that it would be a lot easier to build a pyramid, so we made one really quickly, and when we finished we had Laura run through it as well and so it also was destroyed. Today was the first day of class here in Recife. Just like every other first day of class, today was a day to get to know people and places, as well as a time to understand what we are supposed to do. After class we went to the mall in Recife there we ate lunch (I ate a calzone) and tried to get all the phones tested to see if they would work. After a a short time Brady and I grabbed the bus and went back to the family that we are living with. There I tried to get the papers we need for class copied, so that I could get the reading completed for class. During the wait Junior, Brady and I all played the kinect dance game. We all enjoyed ourselves and had lots of fun. After a few hours the copies were ready and we were able to go pick them up. So everything has turned out well so far.