Going to Bahia!

Hey, so tomorrow morning at 6 am, that is, in 7 hours, we're leaving to go to Bahia. It'll take us a while to get there, but it'll be awesome. Salvador (the capital of Bahia) is a really historic city with lots of old buildings and stuff, so it should be fun.

This week was a lot of fun. We went to the beach and hung out all day on Tuesday--by all day I really mean all afternoon, since it was after the CASP. I felt like a tourist on vacation, because we spent a lot of money on a little bit of food that wasn't very good (it was all right), just because it was right on the beach. Then I did something I haven't done since I was a kid: I made tunnels in the sand. It was really cool. There's something about the beach that's just relaxing. It might just be that I've lived my whole life without it that it being something new is cool.

Yesterday we hiked the highest peak in the area, which would have been a relatively quick and easy hike were it not for the girls complaining the whole way. We should have just continued with the 4 guys and left the 3 girls behind (see, sometimes I hang out with groups of more guys than girls) but we put up with it. Anyway, it was an incredible view from the top, to see the whole city and the ocean on one side, and Brazil just going on and on on the other side. The area was also pretty much jungle, so that was an awesome experience.

This last group that we taught was pretty large, but they participated well. It's always disappointing to teach a principle, practice with them, see how well they CAN do it, and then in the final interview at the end they just fall into old habits. Oh well. I guess it requires more practice than just a week can provide. I have a lot of hope for a middle-aged mom, member of the church, who just really got into everything. If she puts into practice the stuff she's learned in her job search, she could get a really nice job even though she doesn't have a lot of professional experience. I'm also excited to see if my new Argentine friend Guillermo, middle-aged Jehovah's Witness, gets the job he wants--spanish teacher. He's the first Jehovah's Witness I ever met and really liked.

Well, I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures in Bahia and post them here. Peace.