The Rythm of my Heart...

Ba-boom.
Ba-boom.
Ba-boom.
Close your eyes and imagine this heartbeat echoing all around you.
Now open your eyes and see a stage ahead through the haze of smoke, musicians creating the heartbeat and playing as if that heart was all they had, and all around you people are moving to the heartbeat as if its the only thing keeping them alive.
This was my experience on Saturday night. Once again at Caiobá beach, some American friends and I went to a concert of Brasilian reggae for the night. Having never listened to much reggae music before and having never been to a concert in Brasil before, this was a very new experience for me, but it was amazing! The atmosphere was relaxed but still somehow full of electricity with the excitement of the bands playing and the amount of people there to enjoy the music and each other's company. Even though I didn't quite understand everything that was being said, just being a part of the heartbeat was an awesome experience.
disclaimer: I did not take part in any other liberating subtances. ;o)

In other news, we made a nice little touristy trip to a place called Morretes, a tourist stop in the mountains, and then visited a few other small towns in the area. The popular thing is to take the train through the mountains in order to see the awesome viewpoints and scenery. And it was pretty awesome. In Morretes we ate comida barreada-a food local to Parana (the state I'm in right now). The food consists of a type of corn meal mixed with meat (it looks kinda like bbq) to which you add rice and banana. Now I was a little concerned about adding banana to my carne e arroz, but it was actually really good! Good enough so that it didn't taste right without the banana in it. The mixture of sweet with meat was really surprisingly yummy. By the way, there are bananas everywhere here- they eat them all the time! And did I ever mention before that Brasilians love ice cream? Because they do! Especially McDonalds ice cream. (yes, they actually have McDonalds here, but the ice cream is definitely more popular than the food).I tried a McFlurry here that was probably the best I had ever eaten- cookies with fudge in just a small serving. I had some really good ice cream at a nice little 'sorveteria' as well. The mango and maracuja ice cream is some of the best. ;o)

But I digress.

Among the small towns that I visited, we were in Antonina, where there was a really pretty church at the top of a hill overlooking the bay. A friend and I wandered down to the bottom of the hill and found an old and decaying building right beside the sea. It had huge archways opening onto the water like doorways to the world, and when the bells at the church started ringing as I stood amidst the stones and rubble, it was like being inside a poem. I loved it.

This 'fin de semana' there is a group of students going to Iguacu Falls, and I'm really looking forward to that. I promise that as soon as I can, I will get pictures on the computer for you all.

While in America my heart beats, here it beats to the rythm of reggaie, church bells in the distance, and the sea in my ear. (not to mention the rooster down the street, the dogs in every yard, and the constant fluidity of Portuguese.) I love it. :o)