Second Semester Catch-Up: Installment 3

Part 3 of this semester's catch-up posts:
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Cloudy skies, but "Tudo bem!"
(February 27 - March 7, 2010)

When March arrived, we couldn't believe it was already time to travel again -- we had been back in BA less than a month and had returned from our EFT just a week earlier! However, due to our coordination with Malibu's schedule, the first week of March was our Spring Break (though ironically, it began just a few weeks before the Southern Hemisphere's autumnal equinox). My best friends Hannah and Tyler and I had planned an incredible trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and couldn't be more excited for a week of beautiful beaches and fun in the sun.

Despite our attempts to plan ahead (we booked flights & hotel in November!), there were a few key roadblocks that stood in the way of our "perfect" vacation. For starters, when we began the process of obtaining a travel visa to Brazil, we encountered one of the most complicated and frustrating things we've experienced during our entire time in Buenos Aires. The Brazilian government recently instated a rule limiting the number of travel visas issued per day to 10. In a city of 15 million people, in the peak of travel season, with 25 other Pepperdine students trying to get Brazilian visas as well, and with Rio de Janeiro as one of the most popular South American travel destinations, we knew overcoming this bureaucracy would be no easy task. Thus, we woke ourselves up at 5am, arrived at the Brazilian Consulate at 5:45, and were first in the line of 25 people when the consulate opened at 9. After our fair share of confusion, waiting, technological difficulties, and more waiting, we finally received the receipts that guaranteed us a key element of a successful trip to Brazil: legal permission to enter the country.

With visas in hand and more excitement than we could contain, we checked The Weather Channel for an update on the our trip's forecast. And here we encountered roadblock #2. Thankfully, there were no predicted delays for our flight on Saturday; however, the forecast did show thunderstorms for all of Sunday-Thursday. Despite this obvious a pin to our "best Spring Break EVER" balloon, we decided to keep a positive attitude and hope for the sunny skies despite the meteorologists' opinion.

Our flight left early Saturday morning, and after two flights, 6 hours in the São Paulo airport, and one large realization that our Spanish would be of no use to us in a Portuguese-speaking country, we finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro. During our drive from the airport to the Sheraton Hotel in Liblon (a beach just down from the infamous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema), we talked excitedly about what the next 5 days had in store and crossed our fingers that Weather.com's most recent forecasts of rain would prove to be erroneous.

We woke up Sunday morning to bright but cloudy skies, and hurried outside to soak up all the sunshine we could. Just minutes after settling outside, however, the sky became ominously overcast, and the dark clouds in the distance inched closer and closer. We stayed outside in hopes of sunshine, but deep down, we all knew our luck would soon run out. As predicted, the rains came in strong Sunday night, and they stayed until we left on Thursday. There were times when the sky was overcast and it was warm out, so we did get a bit of time on the beach and by the pool. However, besides the 15 minutes of blue skies during our first morning in Brazil, I can honestly say we didn't see the sun for a single minute throughout the entire rest of our trip. We were extremely disappointed by the weather's turn for the worst, but it was a great reminder that as much as we can plan, there really is something greater in control of what goes on for us!

Despite the crummy weather, we still experienced much of what Rio had to offer. We explored the local streets, fairs, and shops, and we visited Cristo el Redentor in the pouring rain. We ate traditional Brazilian barbecue (think Fogo de Chão) accompanied by authentic Caipirinhas, enjoyed the happy-go-lucky nature of the Brazilian people, and appropriately hummed "The Girl From Ipanema" throughout the entire trip. Our failed plans for a week on the sand caused us to think outside the box for entertainment in a beach town; we all qualified as "troopers," though (as Mom would call us), and enjoyed each other's company so much more than we could've expected. We laughed endlessly, took our misfortunes as good stories for the future, and by the end of the week found ourselves having totally adopted the Brazilian ideology behind "tudo bem" -- all is well!

From Rio de Janeiro, we met up with our friend Erin, whose plans to Chile had been disrupted by the earthquake in Santiago on the eve of their planned departure, and headed to the Argentine-Brazilian border to visit Iguazu Falls. Despite the 18-hour (one-way) bus ride, Iguazu was an absolute redeemer to the the Brazilian rain of the days before. We soaked up tons of sun, took a boat ride under the falls themselves, and spent hours in the Argentine jungle watching butterflies and other wildlife, all the while in utter awe of the incredible creation before us.

Upon returning back to Buenos Aires, we all mutually deemed our entire week a great success. We saw a new aspect of the Argentine landscape, crossed the border into an entirely different country, culture, and language, and made incredible memories that will last us a lifetime. Though parts didn't go according to our plans, we learned the beauty of taking each experience one day at a time, maintaining grateful hearts despite the trials, and trusting in the redemptive sunlight awaiting us at the end of the road.

"Let us acknowledge the LORD;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises, he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth."
- Hosea 6:3
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To view pictures from Spring Break, click here.

Love from abroad,
Margaret