Well, these past few days have been CRAZY, to say the least. Rewind time with me, if you will, to the end of February. My friend Ingrid, a dancer in the Brazilian cast, invited me and Jessica to her home in Rio. Her parent's picked us up in the port and took us to the National Park, where we took pictures in front of a waterfall and drove through the luscious scenery. The forest smelt of pine and made me miss home and think longingly of camping in the woods. We drove through the city on the way to their apartment, seeing the construction that was taking place in anticipation of Carnival. We relaxed in the comforts of Ingrid's room while her mom cooked us a beautiful meal. I ate scrambled eggs while the others enjoyed the meat she prepared, along with the rice and beans. She brought us Romeo & Juliet for desert, cheese and jam that is to die for :D It was so nice to get a peek into the personal life of a Brazilian family and remember how alike we really are, despite living in a different country, in another hemisphere, and speaking a completely different language. In some ways, our Ingrid life and my own are so different. But then I see how, because we are human, we are in more ways the same.

When we docked in Salvador, I decided to venture along the streets, my main goal was souvenirs. I hummed along to the music playing in the streets and lovingly looked at the small shops and vendors. Salvador's markets have possessed my attention; they are full of great finds from unique belts made of recycled bottle caps to beautiful canvas paintings. Today I was on a mission to find a specific man who sells jewelry made from everyday objects-dice, matchsticks, mirrors, etc. I bought earrings that were spoons wrapped around a seashell and another pair that had a purple crystal tied to a tiny key. After that I headed to the very building in front of which Michael Jackson filmed his music video for "They Don't Care About Us". This building sells pictures from the production and captures how Michael helped promote Olodum, and help the children of Brazil. It was crazy to walk in the exact place the legend was years ago.

In Ilheus, a new port for me, Derrick, Michelle, Jessica and I got off to explore the cute little town. We walked around for a bit before stopping into a whole in the wall place for some grub. It was my first dinner experience in Brazil and boy was it hectic! Our party was separated to different sections of the booth, it was that crowded. It's quite a thrill to be in the middle of mayhem and not understand a word anyone is saying! I had the best grilled cheese of my life, seriously, it was with a cheese that I don't think we have in the states. So delicious! We stopped at a vendor to get ice cream cones, thinking it was chocolate and vanilla. It actually turned out to be chocolate and coconut, which was an interesting combination. Not bad, but I prefer vanilla. The Brazilians use coconut in the most peculiar way; I've had it in a yogurt form (too weird for me) and seen it served in the salad bar. I believe coconut should be reserved for a desert topping, and shouldn't overwhelm the other flavors. Afterwards, we walked back to the center of the square and wandered into the church. It seemed like an older church on the inside, but the outside must have had recent renovations because it looked brand new.

In Ilha Grande, a group of us journeyed on a one hour hike to a giant waterfall in the middle of the island. It was exhausting; lots of step inclines and the heat of the Brazilian sun had us sweating uncontrollably. We felt very accomplished when we reached the waterfall and took a victory swim in the cool water. There were a few Brazilian boys who attempted to flirt with us girls and show off, only to make a fool out of themselves when one of them tried a dangerous stunt and slid into a rock. Boys will be boys, no matter what part of the world you are in. The hike down was much easier, and we treated ourselves to acai once we were back in town.

The cast took a personal hit a few days ago; one of our dancers was fired. He had become my close friend and things have gotten a lot harder on the ship without his charisma and sense of humor. I'm grateful that he lives in the states and especially because his home is in Boston and that's just a hop, skip, and a jump to Chicago!!! Sebastian and I learned in rehearsals that we had been living in LA at the same time, he had been there a year before me. It's crazy to think how different our lives would have been if we had known each other then. But everything happens for a reason and I'm glad he is in my life now! We have already discussed about taking classes in NY together and he is auditioning for various new dance jobs as we speak. I'm glad that he is pushing himself to take a next step and making the right choices for himself and his career.

We recently learned that Whitney, our original Girl 1, will be returning to us on the 21st. The company told us that Tatiana had her visa and everything was good to go but she made a decision to not come, something about her own career needed to come first. So then they said they would be sending a singer from Argentina who, according to the people who knew her from her previous contract, isn't a very good singer. She's a Girl 2 and struggled with the Girl 2 songs, so I don't know why they would promote her to Girl 1. Plus she doesn't know either of the shows, which would mean so much work for all of us! And she would most likely join us in Europe, meaning we would miss a lot of ports for rehearsal, places that we only go once! So Whintey is the best choice out of all the options, and I'm glad that she will be returning. Less work for us! YAY! So I will be enjoying my last few shows as a "singer" and bitter sweetly return to my position as underpaid dancer.

The last thing I have to blog about is regarding my most recent and greatest adventure yet. Last Ilha Bela, I went on a Discovery Dive of a ship wreck. I don't think I can do this anywhere else in the world because everywhere that I've looked into, you have to be certified to go scuba diving. But here, I was taught the bare minimum (as in, how to breath and the signals) and then the guide did the rest for me. He never let go of me, which is good because I would have floated away. It was such a rush and there's nothing else like it in the world that I can compare it too. I freaked out at first, when I was strapped into the heavy equipment, breathing with a tank and we were descending into the water. My mind was screaming profanities and I thought, what did I sign up for!? But I knew that I would only make things worse if I panicked. So I focused on breathing. This was hard because I had to think about not breathing in with my nose, which I always do. I also had to make sure my ears popped before I blew my ear drum out from the pressure. This was easy enough for me though, I just swallowed and they popped right away. Once I got into a rhythm of breathing, I began to look around and take in my surroundings. I was Ariel, the Little Mermaid. I was swimming with the fish, breathing underwater just like them! I tried to grab a few of them, but even as I swam through the schools of fish, I realized I would fail miserably as a shark because I wasn't even fast enough to touch them! I tried to understand the wreck and put together the pieces of the ship but it was like working on an ancient and rusted puzzle. The guide took me this way and that, around the massive ship. Like I said, I would have floated away without him because I was LOST. I came across the mast at one point and as I gained more courage to explore more, I couldn't help but get that eerie feeling, like it was a ghost ship. We were only under for 40 minutes and I ended up throwing up when I was back on the boat. I blame most of it on my curse of sea sickness but it could have also been extreme anticipation and thrill. I can't wait to get certified and travel around going on various dives. Once we were back on land and met up with our scuba diving instructor, Roddy, he informed us what ship we had just seen and the history behind it all. I was curious because where we dove wasn't that far from the island's coast. I thought all ship wrecks were in the middle of the ocean, like Titanic. So why was this one so close to shore? The ship we explored was an English ship called the Velasquez. It sank in 1908 near the lighthouse. Roddy explained that the island Ilha Bela was a place where sailors hid the slaves they were carrying until they could smuggle them into Brazil. The laws had been changed- you couldn't buy a slave but you could own one, so they was an underground market. Pirates would turn the lighthouse off so ships of the trade would crash and they could steal all of the products. Then the pirates would capture the people of the sinking ship and sell them as slaves or even keep them for their own use. The island was named after Princess Isabel, who freed the slaves in 1888. Of all the time I've spent in Brazil, scuba diving has been my highlight. I am leaving Brazil this time feeling completely fulfilled after all my new experiences, the knowledge that I've gained from this vibrant culture, and through the changes that are shaping me into a new and better person.