good morning!

well hello again - sorry i haven't written in a while, i've been busy walking all around belo horizonte. i've found myself walking here even more than i walk in san francisco, which is i think because i don't know the bus system yet and i don't really know my way around on foot either. last weekend, leslie stayed with us friday, saturday, and sunday nights, and lourdes slept over on saturday. we spent most of the weekend walking to savassi and back (about 10 blocks from our apartment), to the sunday market and back (about 15 blocks, not including weaving back and forth through all the stalls), and trying to find dinner (on sunday night barbara and leslie and i took a lovely stroll around the neighborhood for 25 minutes or so, trying to find a restaurant that we thought was going to be open, but when we finally found it, it turned out to be closed). furthermore, barbara and i walk 8 blocks every morning and 10 blocks every afternoon to and from our bus stop. i don't mind it, i was just noticing that it's sort of a change for me.

books here don't have prices printed on the covers, and the words on the spine are written bottom to top (when the book is standing up on a shelf) and not top to bottom like american books. just an interesting difference i've noticed.

we've gotten a new teacher for the grammar class, denis, and he's a lot more engaging than vanessa, the other teacher, was, but i still don't feel like i'm really learning that much. one thing i did learn is that to have "dor de cotovelos" (hurt elbows) means to be heartbroken.

tomorrow we're going to ouro preto, which i'm really excited about, and i'll write about that and post pictures sometime soon. also, my skype is working great, so if anyone wants to call me, let me know and i'll tell you how that goes. if you have a cell phone, the call is free, and if you don't, you'll get charged long distance to san jose (unless you're already there, of course).