Day 5

Day five is our free day in Floripa and I personally took the opportunity to catch up on sleep and do a little bit of work to catch up in the real world. If it means giving up one morning to work in exchange for enjoying everything that we’ve had a chance to enjoy this week I’ll do it ten out of ten times. After most students had a chance to enjoy lunch downtown they made it back to the hotel and dragged me out to get some air. First we went up to check out the view of Floripa from the hotel roof and saw the famous Brazilian favelas. 

A little bit later we took off to do a bit of exploration in the city. Having seen downtown the day before I was tempted to check out two things: shoes stores and sports stores. I seemingly come back with a new pair of shoes from every major trip I take and love to browse even if I’m not looking for anything in particular. (Spoiler: I came back with new sandals.) I was dying to get a Brazilian soccer jacket as well, but walked away empty handed. We got to see a strip of shops, a bit of the coastline, and the market. Of all pieces of the culture I’d like to bring back to the States, the market may be the one I’d like to see most. I believe that most families will only do their shopping for a day or two at a time. After work it’s time to go to the market and collect what you need for a handful of meals. As a result you don’t have a great deal of food storage at home and meals are all very fresh. I had to try some fruit myself, so I grabbed a couple bunches of grapes while a couple students tried the coconut water.

After our tour came the highlight of the day. We opened up a very cool sushi restaurant within walking distance of the hotel (Heads up: if you arrive at 6:30 you’ll be the only people in the restaurant.) Six of us went all out and ordered a massive boat for the table to give us a chance to try everything they had to offer. Being the only people in the building, we had the full staff staring at us the entire time. It probably didn’t help that we were American and spoke Portuguese. Although it was uncomfortable, it became entertaining really quickly, and a great meal became a really fun evening between laughing at ourselves and the entire situation. 

 

See you manana