Summer Part 1: Lefebvres in Brazil!

So I was supposed to go out to a samba club tonight, but considering it just started pouring rain tropical-downpour style I've chosen to do some blogging in my PJs instead =)

Excuse the lack of chronology but although I've updated you on my return to Rio I haven't talked about my summer yet! I'll try to give a summarized version broken up in different parts or else this post will never end.

Let's see...so PUC wrapped up in early December for summer recess and shortly after my parents and brother came to visit me in Rio and then we traveled around Brazil for a bit.

Some highlights from our Lefebvre family vacay:

- Getting brunch at the beautiful Copacabana fort with my parents and lovely housemates from last semester Blair and Monica who are now back at Brown University in the states. *tear*  I am going to miss them, although I have to admit that it's a relief to not be in an apartment that is constantly falling apart anymore...

Monica, Me and Blair at the Forte de Copacabana 

-Getting shown around Rio by my PUC yoga teacher, also named Monica. Monica generously took us all around Rio, showing us some cool local spots that are hard to access without a car such as a cute neighborhood called Urca next to Sugarloaf mountain, Pedra bonita (the place hang-gliders take off from to fly over Rio), and she even brought us to her apartment in Recreio dos Bandeirantes where we had dinner (meat with beans and rice of course!) and met some of her family! 

Enjoying a snack on a beautiful Rio day in the neighborhood of Urca. It is next to a historic military fort and has a lovely small-town feel that made me want to live there! But no more moving for me for a while haha....

-Visiting Salvador (took my family to my favorite street food vendor from my trip there in August =) ), Foz de Iguassu (we ate at a Turkish restaurant for christmas because all other restaurants were closed for the holidays!) and Paraty, an old Portuguese colonial town just south of Rio.

 On the macaco safari boat tour in Foz de Iguassu. The falls were amazing and we kept seeing rainbows form from all the mist and sunlight interacting!

-And of course the grand finale: New year's in Rio! We had a great time ringing in the New Year on Flamengo beach where we rented beach chairs, sat in the sand and just people watched and watched the fireworks--all dressed in white of course! It was less touristy and less crowded than Copacabana beach and it worked out perfectly because we were much closer to our hotel as well so we got home quickly after the fireworks show!

NYE 2014: Reveillon Rio de Janeiro style--wearing white brings good luck!

Also, I finally made it up to Christ the Redeemer! I had hiked up to Cristo earlier in December with some friends (three hours of intense uphill hiking in the heat---overpriced ice cold coke waiting for me at the top at one of the tourist kiosks has never tasted so good haha) but I waited for my parents to come to actually go up onto the viewing platform to see the Christ statue. I can tell you that it's NOT overrated! I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being up there even despite the 100 degree heat and heaps of cranky tourists and cruise ship groups mobbing the monument around me. The panoramic views of Rio are truly amazing from up there; everywhere I turned was a great view and the Christ himself is HUGE! Fun fact: the Christ statue lost a finger last month because it got hit by lightning! I'm just glad there wasn't a thunder storm when we went to see it... haha!

Coming up... a post about my summer volunteering gig in northeastern Brazil! Stay tuned :)

Marie