Goodbye Brazil.

By the end of our three-week long adventure all over South America (you know, after the FIVE MONTHS we spent living in South America!), Lara and I were POOPED. We had done so much flying, bussing, and walking around that we could not bear to do anything else. On our last day in Rio, we decided to just relax in the small town that Daniel lived.

Although, as couchsurfers, Lara and I expected to prepare our own food, Daniel's mother and grandma refused to let us eat our 3-minute noodles hahaha. They insisted on cooking for us all the time and the food was seriously too good to turn down. This dish they made for us was some sort of cheesy pasta with soft-boiled eggs on the top. I know that sounds like nothing you've ever eaten but wowwww it was so good! P.S. Yes, that Tapatio was ours.



We took a little walk around town and stumbled upon a small farmer's market. Lots of home-cured meats and artisan salsas.



The city kind of reminded me of San Gabriel, or even some parts of Pasadena. So suburban, so leafy.



That is all. We awaited the hour of our departure by napping on our cute little makeshift beds. It was a looonnnnnngggg trip back home. To quote one of my facebook statuses, "OFFICIALLYYYYY on my way home! Saturday: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to São Paulo, Brazil. Sunday: São Paulo, Brazil to Montevideo, Uruguay and then Montevideo, Uruguay to Santiago, Chile. Monday: Santiago, Chile to Miami, FL. Tuesday: Miami, FL to Los Angeles, CA. Woooooooo ♥". Crazy huh?



All in all, my time in South America was incredible, unforgettable, life-changing. Although I felt very homesick at times, I would recommend it to anyone. You would think that six months in a foreign country, away from all that is familiar to you, would teach you so much about the world and life and other cultures... but if I could say it without sounding horribly cheesy, the truth is that it teaches you so much about yourself.

Can't wait for my next adventure.

♥ ♥ ♥

P.S. Because I lagged it so terribly in posting all of my South America pictures, I thought I would treat you with a few pictures of us enjoying the nightlife during our backpacking trip. For obvious reasons I didn't take my camera out at night so these photos are courtesy of mi amiga Lara's digital cam.

As they say in South America, fin.

Our Last Days in NYC

The last few days in New York City were ice cold -- which means I was not very motivated to remove my icicles fingers from my gloves to take pictures. Since there aren't too many left I thought I'd share all of them in one last NYC post.

How could we visit Manhattan without paying tribute to the thousands of lives lost on September 11, 2001?



I was eager to see the memorial site but, after seeing it, I felt that it could do with some improvement. It is comprised of two overwhelmingly large marble rectangular fountains, each of which represent one of the World Trade Center's towers. The marble is inscribed with the names of all those who lost their lives in the attacks. And... that's it. I guess I expected more of a tribute. Music? Maybe a wall with a poem? Flags? A video? Slideshow?



We lasted all of fifteen minutes outside admiring the fountains before we hurriedly ducked into the museum/souvenir shop on the way out. That was more like it. Besides all of the NYPD and NYFD swag they sold, there was a photo montage on the walls depicting the events minute by minute. What I, and most people in the room I daresay, found most moving, however, was a short documentary that was playing on loop on a screen in the room. The video followed the lives of 6(?) people whom were all directly affected by the terrorist attack in different ways. I don't know if there was anybody in the room not crying or at least fighting back tears.

We thought we would spend the rest of the afternoon in Soho and Greenwich Village but IT WAS SO FREAKING COLD! After snapping a few pictures outside of NYU (mine & Bailey's future school????) we hopped on the subway and headed back to our hotels.



Dinner at Shake Shack. Omg. I could go for a shack burger with a caramel shake right now.



I *think* that night we went to another comedy show, which was hilarious, except for a cow-tipping, homophobic, socially awkward comedian. Urrbody else was coo tho.

Okay don't make fun of us, but for our last night in the city and we had to do SOMETHING to celebrate!!! I have absolutely no photographic evidence because I was too busy stuffing my face but, that night, we ordered empanadas for delivery at like midnight. If you are ever in NYC, order from Empanada Mama! I can't even describe the mouthgasms we had that night. Shout out to the caramel + cheese empanadas we had, complete with a fat scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Anyway, on our last day in New York, we contemplated going to get some more empanadas hahahaha. Instead we returned to one of our favorites, Georgies. I really wanted pancakes but they made me get a poopy lobster burger :(



We had a long, slow lunch and then walked over the the McAfees' hotel. On our way there, Marie & Jazzy intercepted us to let us know that somebody on the street offered them tickets to the David Letterman show!! Our flight to LA left that afternoon but we had just enough time to watch the show and then get to the airport.



We were reallyyyyyy excited for the show and then I'm pretty sure everybody fell asleep. Ummmmmm why didn't anybody tell me that David Letterman is that boring! My God! Can't believe I wasted hours of my life at that taping. I guess it was a cool experience, though.. Kinda. It turns out Tina Fey was on the show the next day, so maybe that would've made it better.

So that was the end of our trip to NYC! I hope you've enjoyed reading about it and seeing our pics :)
I'm almost done sharing pictures from my six months in South America too. THEN WHAT WILL I WRITE ABOUT?!!?! (See "Day Zero Project").

heehee. bye.

See more of my trip to New York here: Part I, II, III, IV, V, VI, and part VII. ♥