Nunnery to Nazarè

And so it begins! After almost of week of living in Bahia (a state in the northeast of Brazil) I am all settled in with my host family in Nazarè. They live in a beautiful apartment which is just a short walk from some historic buildings and the SIT offices where my program is based.

Before I get ahead of myself, I should mention that I spent the better part of this first week (and Rosh Hashana) living in a "nun education center"(aka the nunnery) with the 16 other students on my program. Although our program directors assured us it was not a convent, we had a curfew of 10pm and were constantly surrounded by various religious messages and pictures of the Pope. Although the nunnery may not have been ideal at all times, it was a five minute walk from the beach, the nuns were fantastic cooks, and it is pretty hilarious that this was my first exposure to Bahia. 

We discovered a roof top balcony area that had a view of the outside world including the ocean (with the city of Salvador in the distance... sorry about the roof)

 And the rest of the town of Itapua (the location of the nunnery)

As I previously mentioned, I'm not exactly a Portuguese wiz which is proving to be a bit challenging with my host family. My host brother speaks a little bit of English, but when he is not around, I am trying an Italian/Spanish combo to speak and understand. Sometimes it works... and I think I am beginning to pick up Portuguese with the help of novelas (soap operas, we watched 3 last night) and my very patient host family.