Traveling abroad

It's a good thing to travel abroad. You only get a narrow, highly skewed view of the world if you only see it through movies, books or tv shows. You have to travel abroad to get a full spectrum view of what places are like. I have a few friends that have traveled to Israel recently, and they have all told me that you really don't see what Israel is like from what the media shows you. It is a beautiful country, rich in history and tradition that really needs to be experienced first hand.

That being said, I had the opportunity to travel to Brazil when I was working on my undergrad back in 2005. It was the trip of a lifetime. I was there for a little over a week, and had a blast. I took over 300 pictures in that time period. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! 

The people there were very friendly. You could meet them in the morning doing their jujitsu on the beach and they would invite you to join them at their house for dinner. Very helpful as well. While they didn't seem to expect you to actually know the language, they do appreciate you making at least an attempt to speak it. Smiles abound everywhere you look. 

Soccer is the sport of the land, and they are all carnivores. At least I remember having to hunt for a vegetable while I was there. It was so bad, that when I was coming back, the overcooked broccoli in the airplane meal looked good, lol.

I'd love to go back. It was wonderful. And in case you are wondering, yes it is just about exactly as it was portrayed in Fast 5, except for the traffic. I will NEVER complain about traffic in the states again after experiencing the traffic in Rio. Imagine this: Atlanta rush hour during Gay Pride week with Dragoncon, Birmingham at rush hour, Jacksonville, FL at rush hour, DC (well really any time of the day), Chicago, ALL COMBINED. I now know where drivers that didn't make it in the NASCAR circuit go to keep driving. They move to Rio and become cabbies. Three inches is a good following distance, and if you leave six, the driver in the other lane may decide to come on over.