three months.

I never got to update the blog yesterday, but it was my three month mark living here in Rio. I think that it takes about 2.5 months to really get accustomed to the city, feel like the language can somewhat slip off your tongue, and get to know some of the Cariocas. That being said, it's been an exhausting three months, and I'm so excited to spend the rest of my time here focusing more on my research project and starting activities that I've been meaning to do since day one (ahem, surfing). While I have been looking back at the past few months wondering what I've been doing (have I been wasting time? why hasn't my research project moved forward? why don't i have more friends? why have i been speaking so much English?) I realize that there is really no way to force yourself to acclimate more quickly to the country-- it happens organically. As for the other activities, it's incredibly hard to start taking a samba class when you are running around the city, trying to find housing.

While I wouldn't say I'm compltely settled into the city, I now feel like I have more time on my hands to do things. That being said, this week has been a little gross with the weather, and my research project has needed more attention than the previous month. I'm also starting to realize how little time nine months actually is-- it's really just enough to get a taste of living in another country; that's it. I can already tell that June is going to come too quickly and I'm not going to want to leave.