has changed everything for me and now the world feels so much more accessible and real. I'm finding that every where I go, there are both good people and problems, and when I hear about them on the news I really feel them now. Traveling really changes the way you see the world. "Culture" has always been kind of an enigmatic thing for me; it was something that I was always told was a big part of me, but I never really felt it, and I figured that ultimately, people are pretty much the same everywhere. I'm finding that people do feel the same things all over the world, but their reasons for feeling them are much different--and that is culture. Culture is in every little part of a person and it shapes so much of what you think and do, and when you're in one that's different from your own it stretches you and shapes you and challenges you in so many ways.Brazil was beautiful and breathtaking.
Iguazu Falls was indescribable, but I have a whole 4 gigabyte memory card full of pictures to prove how hard I tried to capture its beauty! Even then, I couldn't capture it completely. My favorite part of the trip was the morning we spent in a Guarani village--the Guarani are indigenous Brazilian people who still live as "Indians" (for lack of a better word) trying to preserve their culture. The chief came out to meet us and took us 
around the village, telling us about their heritage and showing us things like the jaguar traps that they've built, the plants they use to make medicines, and the school they've built for their children to learn about their culture. It opened my eyes in so many ways because from an American point of view, you look at them and feel bad because they're living in "poverty." But the funny thing is, they don't feel like they are! They have small "modern" houses built for them right next to their huts, but they just hang their laundry to dry in their houses and live in their huts instead! Most of the time they don't even use the modern houses that others have built for them because they prefer their way of life instead. It's amazing. The Guarani are such beautiful people and I was so humbled to be able to visit their village and see life from their point of view.It's been a couple of weeks since we got back to Montevideo, but I haven't been blogging because I've been trying to really be present here. We only have ten days left in South America, and the thought of that is so sad to me that I'm trying to live every moment that I possibly can doing all of the things here that I love. I've been going out with my Uruguyan friends to drink mate in the plaza at night, visiting the markets during the day, and hanging around the casa with the wonderful people that I live with. Oh, the people here--that will be what I miss most. These past few weeks, Casa ACU has finally become like a family. We've been growing closer and getting to know one another and it's been so much fun. There have been frustrations, as there always will be when you're living in a house with 16 females and 4 males (I don't know how those poor 4 guys have managed to put up with all of us!), but living with my friends has been one of my favorite parts of this whole experience. After this semester, I'll be living in a house of my own and it's sad to think that I'll probably never be able to live in a big community like this again. I love eating all our meals together, watching The Office together, always having someone to talk to, and living with our professors so that if we oversleep in the morning they just come wake us up. As much as I miss everyone back home, I don't even want to think about leaving these people yet.
