And So Begins Week Two! By: Katy Jane

Today marks not only the 14th day of our trip, but also the birth of Katie Bunny (a new nickname for Katie CA Katie, in order to differentiate her from me, Katy Jane). This morning we arrived in Buenos Aires via overnight bus from Puerto Iguazu. We are staying in a nice hotel for the occasion, plan to go out for dinner, and might even be putting on a little make up. We are joined here by Katie Bunny´s friend Justin, who has also been traveling around South America.

So much has happened since the last post, I´m not even sure where to begin the update! We spent a bit more time in Florianopolis after the last post, the highlights of which were meeting some very fun Brazilian frat boys, hearing an awesome DJ at an awesome club, and meeting our Brazilian grandma, Edith. Florianopolis is a city on an island called Santa Catarina, and has some of the best beaches in Brazil. The boys we met took us to one of them, and it was gorgeous, in spite of the fog and drizzle (which has been following us around until recently). Despite being unable to surf or sun bathe but we were glad to be in a nice, low key beach town.

On our second or third day in Floripa (which is what the locals call Florianopolis), we were at the grocery store shopping for our dinner, when we realized that we were getting side ways looks from an older lady, dressed all in blue. Oh no, we thought. We´re being the loud americans taking up all the space in the vegatable aisle, and we´re making this woman very, very angry. As we go to move and mumble apologies in Portuguese, we hear (with a slight southern twang), "Oh don´t wory about it girls, I´m just interested in hearing you speak English." This is how we met Edith, a smart, savy, worldly, generous and endlessly intersting woman who brought us a ton of sunshine in the middle of a literal rainstorm. In the veggie section, Editth told us of her education, and we of ours. Born in Brazil, but educated in the states, Edith came back to Brazil with a degres in Thanatology (the study of Grief) and a vision to start a church and eventually to open a home for the eldery. Towards the end of our grocery store discussion with Edith, after exchanging hugs and condensed life stories, we were invited to said home for lunch the next day.

Fast forward a bit, Edith picks us up and gives us a little tour of Floripa and takes us to the nursing home, where we are introduced to a ton of lovely, older Brazilians. We eat lunch with Edith and her friend Georgia, an America who followed her destiny, and her husband, to Brazil over forty years before. Lunch was great! Georgia told us all about her world travels, and we shared our travel plans with her. Edith intoduced us to all of her friends at the nursing home, all of whom were so excited to talk and include us in not only lunch, but also their city and to some extent, their lives.

After lunch, Edith invited us back to see her home, a gorgeous converted Azurean cabin (From the Azores, the islands of Portugal. Many came to Brazil and built these funny, sturdy little homes with no windows. Edith and her husband fixed theirs up and put in a TON of windows). We talked about politics in the US and Brazil, travel, Edith´s and her husbands work as missionaries, and ate delicious coffee flavored candies. We were so lucky to be able to sit around a darling living room and talk with smart, eloquent grownups with excelent opinions and wonderful insight. It was very refreshing after the frat boys, and reassuring in general that there are exceptional people in the world that the universe sometimes throws in one´s path. All day we spent with Edith, I kept säying "oh, we´re just the luckiest girls in the wholeworld. " And we are. Aswe finished out political discussion, and Georgia left to go home, Edtih offered not only to take us back to where we were staying, but insisted that we bring our laundry (now soaked after having been left out to dry.. in the rain) back to her house and use her dryer. The sggestion of which made us cry. Actually. There were tears in our eyes! How could someone be so graciosu and kind to 4 strangers! This was a lesson for us all to learn in pay-it-forward, and as Edith drid our wet clothes, she brought out a schmorgasboard of tea, and cookies, and hot choolate, and meat and cheese. And then we really were the luckiest girls in the world.

This serendipitious tea party marked the end out our time in Floripa. Edith helped us call the bus station to make arrangments to get to Iguazu Falls AND THEN she took us to the bus station after having made us a snack pack for the 14 hours overnight bus. Meeting and then leaving Edith were two of the happiest and saddest moments to far on the trip for us collectively. We had more adventures in Floripa, including an epic night at a night club (got in for free, danced all night, met the mayor, got into the VIP section, made some nice funny friends), but encounterng Edith really trumped evertying, in terms of life expereince.

Oh, I just realized I am short on time. We have some museum exploring to do today in Buenos Aires, so I will have to end this post here. We areall happy and healthy and so so so excited to be in the land of yerba mate, delicious breakfast croissants, and the best dulce de leche ever. I apologize for my spelling and typing errors - there is no spell check and I also can´t go back and edit for some reason, so all my mistakes have to stay. Please don´t thinkthat my four years of ocllege are in vain! Hope everyone is well well well!

Love and hugs and kisses,

j,k,k,l, and j

ps for marcus - world 4,us 10