Recent happenings...

Friends and Family,
Just thought I would tell you all about the recent traveling I have been able to do! On the 15th of January, I went to a city in North-East Brazil called Salvador, the capital city of the state of Bahia. Salvador is commonly recognized as a cultural capital of Brazil. Being the birth-place of Samba [as well as various other styles of Brazilian music], Capoeira, and Brazil itself, it certainly lives up to its name! I went there with my professor of Capoeira and other student to participate in a presentation of Capoeira that took place. Among many things I was able to learn, we had lessons of Tambourine and Berimbau making, and of course, Samba class! The Beaches in Salvador are also some of the best in Brazil, and where we stayed was just a few minutes walking from them. On our last night there we went to a college student concert in the oldest part of the city...very fun. Although we only spent 6 days in Salvador, it was enough for me to want to go back.
After words we all took a plane back to Campinas. In stead of returning to São José, however, I took a couple of buses to a city called Ubatuba [just say it like its written, its a hilarious name! hahaha]. My family was vacationing there and I met them for the last 5 days of their stay there. Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad when we were there, but the beach was still really fun. Also, a few days after we returned to São José, I went to a city called Ribeirão Preto with my new host brother, Leopldo. We stayed with his grandparents and later with his aunt.
Thats the other big piece of news; I have a new host family! I had to switch houses because my old host family is going to have someone live with them for a while who needs a place to stay and there wasn't enough room. My new host family consists of my 2 parents and 2 host brothers, Leonardo and Leopoldo [you can imagine the confusion the first few days hahaha]. Leonardo is 18 and will be moving out most likely at the end of this month to study in São Paulo. Leopoldo is about to turn 17 and studys at a different school called Objectivo. We all seem to be getting along just fine, so thats good news.
That about does it for now, although I'm really looking forward to Carnaval and later traveling a lot more. Other than that....I miss you all! Until next time,
Patrick
p.s.I put some pictures of these trips on facebook, if you want to see them.