Gringas in Action

Dear Moms, one thing there is no need to worry about is us getting good food -- we have been fed very well in Bahia, both in restaurants and by our new friends. This was one of the better dishes at a favorite spot of ours: salmon with shrimp in a passionfruit sauce. Passionfruit is big here and we aren't complaining!! Muito delisia!!On our research boat...in the front you can see the captain and Rebecca...looking at the beach of Praia do Forte.


Rebecca and Leo ready to see many baleias!!


Finally...proof we have actually seen whales!! In the middle of the all-important fluke-up dive. Photo courtesy of Hannah Dalke.

The picture is blurry, but it is the best to show how close we come to the amazing animals.

Barata diving with the whales in the crystal clear water. Jealous...Neto and Rebecca cooking us the traditional Bahian meal, Mocqueca, at the interns' apartment - this time with shrimp.


Of course, I found the kids... they were showing me which plants/vegetables are theirs in the garden at the institute.
Arlete teaching us about compost.

We stopped by an apartment before Souza on Saturday where Hannah helped to knead the dough for these little okra (not jalapeños, Hannah :) ) and tomato pizzas.

Barata and Amanda dancing at Arlete's "Say Goodbye to the House" party
Perfect time for a picture ID during a fluke up dive.

The blows from a group of whales...this is how we spot them in the ocean.

Standard Saturday night at Souza!!!!
Again...we are getting plenty to eat. :)

Us with Luciana...our mom, boss and new best friend!!!

Hannah and Arlete!!!! So bella!!

We are so so so so sorry it has been so long since our last post but we have been busy little bees! In the past week and a half we have gone on two research cruises and then one whale watch each (different boats), we also went on a hike and went ATVing, we also gave our presentations (our mini research project), and have been entering data that has been collected on both the whale watch boats and the research cruises..oh yea, we have also been asked to proof read and give suggestions on a jounral article that the institute submitted but it was rejectd with advice that they need to have a native english speaker go over it...D and I are going through that and hopefully we can help them to get the second version accepted...oh yes, we have also gotten a little shopping in there...in short, we are having the time of our lives!!!!!!!!

So let´s get to some specifics:

The whales have been AMAZING!!! The WW boat I went on caught up with a competitive group of whales and we saw 13 breaches, tons of pectoral fin slaps, lots of head slaps, beautiful tails, and lots of noises....it was breath-taking. I still can´t believe that these massive animals can just throw their bodies out of the water...I managed to get some great pictures and even recorded two breaches on video! The first research cruise Danielle and I went on (since we last updated the blog) was a success, no one got sick, though we were a little sleepy from the Dramamine. We saw lots of whales but nothing too exciting. The second one of this week, however, was AWESOME. We again stumbled upon a competitive group (that actually one of the whale watches found and they saw 30 breaches!!). We witnessed two breaches at once, lots of movements, lots of flukes and all the like. I manned the cruise board (where we keep track of the camera lens length, etc) and Danielle actually HELD a camera in her hand....not to take pictures or anything, but just hold.

BUT, the good news is: tomorrow Danielle and I are going on a WW boat (just the two of us, without the interns or any supervision) AHHHHHHHHH....they are releasing us from our nest. I am going to try and get photo-ids and D is going to try her luck with the range-finder (tells us how many meters away the whale is). Wish us luck and fingers crossed that I don´t drop the camera in the ocean!

Other Things:

We have kind of decided to ditch capoeira....we have subsituted it for home-made excerises and running-ish

Last night, we went to Arlete´s for her moving party, she moved out all of her furniture (she is moving into a different house) and we had a big dance floor so Danielle and I are really practicing are brazilian moves! They ended the night with Leo and Carol switching off playing the guitar and it kind of hit us that we only have a week left with these people.

This past weekend, we had Souza "Sabado" (saturday for you ingles speakers) of course!!! Marcelhino was playing there again and we had to show our support. This was Carol´s (ecovol) last night so we wanted to make sure she had a good send off, and we are pretty sure she did. We got her on the dance floor and even convinced her to sip a smirnoff ice, so I would say her trip was a success.

The other volunteer arrived yesterday, a day later than expected and without her luggage. She is a psychologist at Rice University and also worked at UT-Houston before. She grew up in Germany but now lives in Texas (obvs). She is very nice and Danielle and I have already learned a lot from her, in terms of her thesis, her work, etc. Sher is in her early 30´s. We are excited to have a new addition to our family!!

Notes on our new family: Seriously, I cannot tell you enough how much we love everyone here. The group of interns: we couldn´t have asked for better ones!! They are all very different and come from different parts of Brazil but the love of science and the environment has brought them all together so its cool to see that common thread and witness how well everyone connects. Carol and Leo are wonderful singers (Leo even has a single out!) Amanda and Natali are the dance experts, Rebeca is a surfers girl and was even Miss Beach Girl (or something like that in Salvador) she has also picked up Capeoira really fast and makes us (well mainly Danielle hahahah jk) look like we don´t know how to use our arms and legs, Pamela is the jack of all trades: she surfs and dances. Those are just some little tid-bits, it´s really hard to capture how well we have clicked with each and every one of them. They are so willing to teach us things about their culture and are genuinely interested in us. We are insisting that they all come visit us in NYC (when we don´t have a lot of school work of course) and we are helping Carol and Luciana research master´s and phd programs in the states. In short, we know we have made lasting friendships with these peeps.

Moving on from the interns....we love the researchers as well and we, regrettably, had to say goodbye to Barata (Clarencio) last night. He, Marcos, and the co-founder of the institute (he technically isn´t part of the institute anymore but helps out with videography...him and his wife started the humpback whale project/institute.....marcia (his ex-wife) is the president and other co-founder of the institute...i digress)....they are going on a 2 week expedition down the coast of Bahia towards Caravelas (where the headquarters is located). We are very sad to see them all go, but luckily we have fb to keep in contact!! HOLLER

We have also done dinners with them (and when i say them I mean everyone at the Institute) where they cook for us and things like that, it really has been wonderful....we want to try and make them apple pie or something really american, but the grocery stores here are kinda confusing...and by confusing i mean, they have lots of pasta and frozen stuff and cookies and danielle and i get really distracted...speaking of food, we have eaten really really really really well here....most of all are money goes to the food. Prices are the same in the U.S. so we don´t really get a break there, but for us it has been so worth it!


Other things: Hiking! Danielle and I decided to plan a hike as a nice little Sunday afternoon activity. There is a castle that is about 5 km away from the hostel called Castelo Garcia D´Avila. It was built in like the 1500 ´s and has a story to it. Anyway, we asked the girl at the hostel for some general directions, like "turn at the yellow house" and then tried to quickly memorize this trail on a map (neither of us have a photographic memory per se).....so we set out at 2ish...giving us PLENTY of time to get back before dark, plus I was pretty sure there were signs explicity telling us where to go...i mean, why not!?) WElp, we found the yellow house thing, but it was surrounded by barbed wire and we couldn´t really figure out how to get around that obstacle, it wasn´t until we walked past the yellow house to make sure it was the right yellow and then back, did we realize that there were openings in the barbed wire fence that were big enough for you to slide through into an opening (there will be pictures to follow). After getting through obstacle 1, we walked through a field and came to road....with no signs around....we could go one way or the other....we quickly chose left because that way was "calling" us or something to that effect and we started walking walking walking....and then we came to a reserve sign that had the castle on it so we thought we were headed straight for it!!!!!!!!!!!!! we were kind of right....we walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and then came across some houses and some friendly people and then a car came up....not sketchy or anything...we definitely were not scared! Here, we met Junior, he kindly told us that he was a guide and asked us if "We wanted to know the forest"....we had no idea we had entered the forest reserve and were quite surprised to be alerted of this. Danielle stated we were just going to the castle and that we could walk there, and Junior gladly informed us that the castle was in another direction. After that little encounter, we decided to maybe turn around and try our luck another day (and it was getting close to dark). When we got back to town we booked our ATV trip that would actually take us directly to the castle and to other areas in the forest....BEST DECISION EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First off....I DROVE and D clung for her life....in short, we both were covered in mud by the end (it had rained) and our stomachs hurt from laughing so hard (pictures to follow)!


Sooooooo to give you a look into the future...we have WW tomorrow, Saturday we are hoping to do another excursion where you hike, zip line, "white-water raft" and one other activity that we both can´t remember at this point in time. OF COURSE Saturday night we will be Souza-ing it up. Sunday we are going to shop and buy lots of prezzies for you peeps and prepare and pack for a 3-4 day boat trip (weather pending, and yes, i know we´ve attempted this before). The plan is to leave MOnday, maybe hit up Salvador but sleep on the boat for two nights (that brings us to Weds) where we will be in a town (i can't remember name) but its a little south of salvador and sounds like sao paulo (but sao paulo is really far away so its not that). Anyway, we would get off the boat here and go into the community with Sergio (he´s the one in charge of the children´s coastal patrol group and coordinates a lot of things at the institute) and get to see what he does in the villages. We would spend the night in this town at an inn and then the us and eva would take another boat back to praia do forte on thursday morning (and i guess it will be a lot faster, because we will be getting back thursday...we think...we better). AND THENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN::: Danielle and I will be spending two nights at the Tivoli Ecoresort (seriously, look it up) to wipe the grime away. Our last official day at the institute will be thursday so friday we can relax be the ocean and prepare for rio...(which btw Eva has been there and has given us a recommendation of the Windsor Hotel, because it is right where you want to be when in rio) we are still taking suggestions, so if anyone wants to do research on this, be my guest :).

Presentations: Last friday Danielle and I gave our presentations. I talked about whale social behavior and how they group etc during their migratory patterns (i found it really interesting) and D did hers on the effectiveness of the coastal program (the kids outreach program) and what they can do to improve via the S.A.F.E. method (nice little anagram).

oh yea, danielle gave her first WW information presentation today and she passed with flying colors, she made me very proud and she didnt even shake OH YEA and while i am talking about the shakes, Eva, has the shakes too and she has a foot fear.... so basically danielle and her have really bonded over their weird bodily things (for those of you who don´t know: Danielle is kinda weird about feet and she shakes)

one more thing: luciana makes jewelry, we have bought earrings.....Brazilian Bay is the name of the company....and it is on etsy.com so look it up and support her and her boy!

OK i know this is alllll over the place but I least I spit it out.....my fingers are about to fall off, so i am going to have to say peace out. D is diligently working next to me uploading and captioning pictures to supplement! LOVE AND MISS YOU ALLL!

Proof this is Our Life...

Looking out from the beach - the research boat we go out on is the blue and yellow one in the middle.

Sunset in Salvador.
In Salvador.



At Souza...before the dancing!!

Salud! Out on the "town!" with the interns - Pamela, Leo, Carol, Natali & Amanda - at Souza.

Leo, Carol and Amanda showing us their moves before we were brave enough to join in.

Sad about packing up and moving...again.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow....

Sorry it has been a while since we´ve posted. Everything in Bahia seems to happen "tomorrow" - which is great for me considering I have working on this kind of schedule for about 24 years now. To make it easier, we will try to re-cap our days since last Wednesday...when in fact we did not go to Salvador as planned. We stayed at the Institute, learned about the research being done on whale songs and worked on presentations that we are giving this Friday. (Hannah and I are both fine-tuning exactly what we will be presenting on.)

Thursday:

I attempted to go on a whale watch and got as far as the beach to row out to the boat, when it was canceled because of the wind. I was then able to piggy back onto Hannah´s plans for the day to go to Salvador with Pamela (an intern) and Barata (aka Clarencio, a researcher). We didn´t do many touristy things but rather ran some errands walked around and then hung out by the water, watching the sunset. There were some really pretty old buildings and the area we were in seemed rich with culture - we walked past a museum of modern art and down an alley where they were having a DJ workshop. (It was tempting, but no - I did not join.)

Thursday night we went to Arlete´s house (an environmental researcher at IBJ) to celebrate Natali´s birthday (another intern). While most of the conversation was lost on Hannah and I we enjoyed ourselves - and the wine and delicious cake/chocolate candies. At one point in the night someone pulled out their guitar which was passed around between those who knew how to play. A few English songs were thrown in the mix - including a favorite down here, Jason Mraz`s "I´m Yours" - so we gave our best efforts at joining in. After most everyone had left, the dancing began and I got my first lesson in some Brazilian moves. While we are no match for the locals, we have a fun time shaking our hips all the same.

Friday:

Of course, after a week of hearing "tomorrow, tomorrow" when asking when we would head out on the boat, tomorrow finally came the day after our first night out. Despite getting sick, I LOVED being on the boat. We went out with the researchers (and research interns) for the day. The Ecovolutarios (us) did not have a very good first showing though because we all got sick. Hannah was the first to go and had the hardest time in the morning so she laid down in the back of the boat. I was fine unless I was actually puking so I went back and forth from laying down to sitting at the front, but was never able to help out with the distance-finder, etc. The other volunteer, Carol, basically went comatose after feeling sick and was unable to function pretty much for the rest of the day. Luciana was so great and helped her lay down in the back of the boat where she was able to lay under a sleeping bag for the rest of the trip. WE SAW WHALES. There were 3 different groups for a total of about 10 whales. I may have teared up a little when I first saw three of them blow at the same time...honestly its´s indescribable how amazing they are to watch. One of the most exciting parts of the day was seeing a very rare whale behavior called spy-hopping which occur when a whale sticks his head up out of the water and rotates side to side - spying on us!! We were also able to listen to their songs - which were played over the boat´s speaker for a while. Even when we weren´t seeing whales, being on the boat was great in and of itself. We jumped into the water in the middle of the day - which was so clear with huge waves. Being out there for the first time just reinforced what an amazing experience this and how nice everyone who works at IBJ is.

Our best attempts at going out that night were thwarted due to hunger and sleep. (Hannah takes over writing from this point on). We went to one of our favorite restaurants, Bambu Gastrobar and ordered lots of healthy things....it was glorious.


Saturday:

We spent the day at the Institute because Saturday is not one of our days off. We worked on our presentations and chatted with the interns all day. We have already told everyone that they have to come to NYC to stay with us and we are even trying to help Carol (the intern not the volunteer) get into graduate school in the U.S....in short we really do love everyone here!!!! (can´t reiterate that one enough). As I said before Saturday is Cultural Night at the Institute and Luciana picked STOMP. Danielle and I weren´t going to stay for it but we got sucked into the video from the start, it was very entertaining and put us in a music making mood for the walk home to our hotel (we have moved 5 times as of now from room to room and from hostel to hotel....we are back in the hostel right now). Anyway, we got ourselves all dolled up and went to this bar/rest. called Souza, where Marcelinho (he works the door at the Institute) was playing with his band and dad (his dad is actually in the band that I heard one of the first nights I was here). It was so much fun and we were able to fine-tune our wonderful brazilian dance moves.

Sidenote: on one day at the Institute (we think it was Wednesday) we got to participate in the Coastal Patrol program. This is a program that caters to young kids in the community and creates activities for them to learn about whales and the environment. Soooo with all of the interns and some of the other workers at the Institute, we got to pretend to be the kids. It was a little bit challenging because the Instructors started with some exercises to get the creative juices flowing, and they were all in Portuguese, but again, the interns translated things for us. We then made origami turtles , went on a scavenger hunt around the Institute, and participated in a play about the environment. (I was a little tree and Danielle took lots of pictures, it was hilarious!)

Another Sidenote: On Wednesday night D and I went to Capoeira class and have paid 30R to do it for the month. It is every Monday, Weds, Friday, so that is a great deal!!!! The instructor has already given us nicknames....I am the ant and Danielle is the ever graceful sea cockroach. It´s gonna be a fun month and it is a great workout!!! The first part of the class is "moves" and then the second part, everyone gets in a circle and some of the people play instruments and then people challenge each other to "fight." Danielle and I have yet to show our moves in the circle but we have promised ourselves that we have to do it once right before we leave.

Sunday: We moved again, from the hotel back to the hostel and we attempted to do laundry but that didn´t really work out too well. We then walked around town and hung out with the interns in their sweet pad. There was also a gay-pride festival going on so we sat and "people-watched" for awhile, listening to the smooth tunes of lady ga-ga and the incessant techno beats. In the night-time we (this we includes carol, the volunteer) went to luciana´s adorable apartment (she lives down the street from us) for pizza and wine and it was glorious. We met her cute kitten "Miss America" (her american boyfriend has a lizard named Salvador) that brings back big flying cockroaches to feed her family and we chatted about the institute and life things and all that jazz....we love luciana.

Monday aka Today: we got up early and watched the new promotional video for the Institute. It is still the rough draft and didn´t have english subtitles but the animals and landscapes and music were awesome!!!!!!!!! we are now attempting to do laundry again, although only one machine is working today so we are going to see how that works out. We also have to move rooms again in the hostel, unless we can sweet talk one of the hostel workers into lettings us stay in the room we are at. (btw, sunday and mondays are our days off, unless there are whale watches, but today they are canceled, so hopefully we can have some clean clothes). We also plan to walk around town and buy stuff and go to the beach if it doesn´t rain (it always rains when Danielle and I are eating). Tonight the Institute is re-showing the Cove and Danielle is definitely going, I haven´t decided if I can handle seeing the documentary again so I might try to work on my good ol medical school application and things like that. After that it is off to Capoeira!!!

Alright we are all updated so we are out out out!!! as always, we miss and love you all!!!!!!

Wamp! Wamp!

So we are still on land...it certainly takes patience and a "go with the flow" attitude when you are completely dependent on the weather. (I´m working on the former, while Hannah is getting better about the latter. :) ) Since we couldn´t go out on the boat, a few of the researchers at IBJ presented the details of the research they are working on. It may have actually worked out better this way so that when we do finally get to go out on the research boat we will have a better idea of what everyone´s roles/interests are.

We are getting ready now to meet up with Luciana and this afternoon we are headed to Salvador which is the city south of us that is apparently rich with Afro-Brazilian culture because a lot of the customs and traditions from the slave days are still practiced and represented. Other than that we are crossing our fingers and hoping for "warm feet" (which is the phrase describing good luck for weather and spotting whales).

Tchau!
D

Warm Feet are the new Happy.

I finally made it!!!! After 21 hours of travel - including a customs check-point that was easier to get through than walking into a Target and a slight seating mix-up because apparently I thought seat 11F in Portuguese should in fact be 14F in English - I arrived to the hostel to find Hannah excited and full of information.

The past two days have already been packed of amazing people, new experiences and DELICIOUS food - again, I cannot believe that we get to live here for another 4 weeks!!

Yesterday I met a few of the staff members of the IBJ (the Humpback Whale Institute) who are all sooo nice and extremely gracious with our lack of Portuguese. Of course the quickest way to become a friend of mine is to offer good food, so we have found a new friend in Clarencio. He cooked a typical/traditional Bahian meal (referring to Bahia, the state we are in) called Moqueca. This is a wondeful stew that includes peppers, coconut milk and a seafood of choice --- yesterday´s being crab meat.

Today was my first official day on the job - which is a really unfair description since I was again able to meet amazing people, get trained, which included learning all about the IBJ, and spend our 2-hour lunch break...okay we may have accidentally stretched it to three...learning how to surf for the first time. As if that wasn´t enough, the remaing of the afternoon was spent at the turtle conservation project (TAMAR Projeto: http://www.tamar.org.br/). We have videos of everything mentioned so far but those will have to wait until I have more time to upload.

As for our surfing abilities, we were both able to stand up on the board...Hannah for short amount of time and me wobbly and with bad form. But we were "up" nonetheless. Though we will have to be more strict about how long we stay out next time, it is nice to know that we can surf for an hour during our lunch break on the pretty days!!!

The turtle project is really amazing and Luciana was nice enough to translate the history of the base, the importance of the work and other fun facts about the turtles and other animals. Again we have some videos that will eventually be posted, but I will go ahead and say that my favorite moments were when we went into a black, cold room to see animals that are found deep below the sea including a newly discovered species of starfish and intense looking eel. The craziest creature in the room though was something that can only be described as an oversized water cockroach! The other amazing part of this visit was that we got to go behind-the-scenes to see the animals that are quarantined for one reason or another.

Tomorrow though is what I have been waiting for- it´s time to go out on the boat to look for the WHALES!!!! We are headed to Salvador at 6am which will be an overnight trip, though we have been told to pack for up to 4 days because, weather permitting, we will stay out on the boat longer. We will let yáll know when we are back on dry land (hopefully at the end of the week!!) and I will try to upload pictures and videos then!!!

MWAH! Boa Noite!!!!!
D

12 more hours til she comes!

DISCLAIMER: the spacebar doesn´t work very well on this computer and my thumb isn´t strong enough to keep track of it for the rest of this post.

So I didn´t give that presentation yesterday, instead I went with two of the interns: Carol and Leonardo ona whale watch tour. It rained a ton and was really really really windy and we ended up having to turn around and cancel the tour BUT I didn´t get sick!!!!!!!!!!! After that I learned how enter data that we record while on cruises (research expedition), the info includes: velocity of thewind,condition of the sea, latitude and longitude, number of sightings, if there was a photo-identification, and things like that. We enter it on a big database where all the informationis compiled. I also entered data pertainingthe whale watchtours and surveys the people filled out. Lastnight we went out to this really cute and fun place for dinner anddrinks, they had a live band and people were doingthe samba and itwas really fun to watch. The interns and Luciana do their best to try and translate everything for me but sometimes they justtalk and i amhaving lots of fun trying to figure out what they are saying. I am already learning lots of useful words in Port. including: Bosta (shit)!!!!!! (sorry parents), but really i am learning a lot of words and i hope to form sentences soon. I plan on having lessons withDanielle tocatch her up to speed.

Today I actually gave the whale watch presentation inEnglish and I did a purrrty good job. I was a little nervous because there were a lot more people thatunderstood English today than port. so i had a full house (there are a lot of french people here and thehostel is packed and they are making us move rooms back and forthand its kind of funny)...moving on we went to go on the WW tour but it was canceled dueto the weather. It has been raining a lot and very randomly so its kind of funny...carol has yet to go on a boat, i still fear for her.

I just got back fromwatching the documentary The Cove.I guess it wonan oscar, it is PHENOMENAL butvery heavy, everyone should watch it and it has givenme a lottothink about in terms of animals and scientific researchand things like thatin general. I am learning a lot and havingso much funandCANNOT wait for Danielleto come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Oh, we may have thechance to go on a 5 day research cruise stopping in other parts of Brazil, dependingon the weather. OKi have to go, my thumb really hurts!!! LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!

BOATS, WHALES and PUKE...OH MY

Soo after a little misunderstanding with my driver and the people at the hostel, everything has worked out nicely. The hostel is pretty, we have bunk beds and no air conditioning and last night the power went out for about an hour, but those are just minor details. Now for the important stuff: I have been trained in the history of the humpback whales and the Institute I will be working at: Instito Baleia Jubarte. We will be aiding researchers in photoidentification of the whales, each whale has a unique pattern on their fluke (like a human fingerprint) and one researcher Clarencio (Danielle he is married) is studying the fidelity of these animals to their breeding ground. Another researcher, Marcos, is studying the whale song and drops a hydrophone into the water to hear them. I am not exactly sure what he is studying but he is very nice and is in a band (don´t know the status of him D). In fact, tonight he is playing on the beach! The girl in charge of us, Luciana, is so nice!!! She interned at the Institute for two summers and was just hired on in January after graduating. There are also 6 interns (5 girls and 1 boy) and they are all biology majors and receive credit for working at the Institute. Along with the actual research part, we will also be helping out with the whale watching companies that are partnered with the Institute. Today I have to give a speech to all the English speaking people that are going whale watching about the history of the whales and the Institute and some guidelines. The Institute focuses on environmental awareness and education to the community to help preserve the humpback whales and their environment. FYI, the humpback whales come to Praia do Forte to breed and give birth and migrate to Antarctica (sandwich islands) to feed.

OK so yesterday I went on the research boat with Luciana, Clarencio, Marcos, and three of the interns. The boat is owned by a father and son and they are the captain and co-captain (more on them later, gotta get to the good stuff before i have to leave) we also have a cook. WE SAW TWO WHALES!!!!!!!!! lots of flukes and dorsal fins and it was sooo cool...so cool that i puked....and then i felt better.

Carol, the third volunteer arrived yesterday, she is 43 and from London and very nice and interesting. However, she has never been on a boat and gets car sick, bus sick, and plane sick....and is into homeopathy (cool, i need to talk to her more about this!! it is nice to have a friend) so she won´t take medication, I fear for her.

DANIELLE I CANNOT WAIT FOR YOU TO COME!! COUNTING DOWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

love and miss everyone and will provide more details and hopefully pictures! (danielle bring your camera cord, I have a flash drive, and maybe bring another lock for me) k lata

I'm in MIAMI

I am on my way and am anxiously awaiting my reunion with Danielle: 96 hours and counting. My level of excitment has been raised...slightly.

Brazil, Here We Come!

After months of anticipation (and thousands of questions from Hannah), it is finally time to start the countdown until we are in Brazil! GVI has less than a week to come to their senses, re-think their decision and retract our acceptance to the "Volunteer with Humpback Whales" program. (Which also means Hannah and I have less than a week to move out of our respective apartments, find a place to live in NYC for the fall and learn portuguese...but at least that leaves little time to stress.)

Honestly though, I can't believe we are getting this chance and am so grateful to come face-to-face with one of my biggest fascinations: WHALES! Here's to hoping the Humpbacks actually show...

MWAH!

D

(The following is the response from Hannah when she was asked to write a welcome paragraph to our blog. Guess which one has the harder time hiding the stress.)

here it is:

im kind of excited