Monday August 1, 2011

Hey thanks mom. Turns out a ton has happened today. So we got up at 4am to go to the airport and get in line for the policia federal thing. Waited for 3 and a half hours just to find out that they changed the way you do everything.......starting today. And so you have to do everything online and schedule an appointment and everything. So we went to a LAN house to get online and the administrative secretary Elder Isom found out that all the spots for today were taken. And tomorrow they had a few times but they filled up by the time we got back to the office. So since we live like 4 hours away from the mission office and it costs 35 reals one way for the bus to our area. We get to stay here until Wednesday night. Oh and 35 reals is alot for us considering we only get like 260 reals a month, it's a huge amount for a bus. Anyways, so today for lunch we went to this Pizza Rodizio. Basically the waiters come around with different pizzas and ask you if you want some. I ate a ton. Including dessert pizza. Pretty sure they have the best dessert pizza I have ever eaten. So good! Anyways, the next two days should be fun/interesting. Because we are in Rio. it's so cool here. Awesome views, and I think it's going to rain tonight, so the sky will be way clear and free of smog so I will be able to take some sweet pictures. I hope. Not much new happened this last week, just alot of looking for people with no success finding them. Made some good contacts this week. Sadly they weren't living in our area. So that's a bummer but we'll find people to teach. No worries. Loving my new backpack. way better than that one CTR one that you got for free mom. It was kind of screwed up anyways. But this new one should last for quite some time. It's really nice. anyways tah tah for now I miss you all and love you too. I will send you some pics. If I get some time on the other computer today. this one has Linux on it and itś way restricted because one of the elders is good with Linux and stuff. Bye bye.

Rio Fun Fact:

Parque Nacional de Tijuca is the largest area of urban rainforest in the world, and is testament to the huge success of a reforestation scheme from the Brazilian government. When the Portuguese arrived, the area which is now the city of Rio was covered by dense green tropical forest. As the city grew the trees were felled and the timber used in construction or for charcoal. However, if you look up from the streets of Zona Sul today, the mountains running southwest from the Corcovado are still covered with exuberant forest, the periphery of the Parque Nacional da Tijuca which covers an area of approximately 120 square kilometres, and is maintained by Brazil's State Institute of Forestry (IBDF). In the seventeenth century the forests of Tijuca were cut down for their valuable hardwood and the trees replaced by sugar cane and, later, coffee plantations and small-scale agriculture. In the early nineteenth century the city authorities became alarmed by a shortage of pure water and by landslides from the Tijuca slopes. Eventually it was decided that a concerted effort was needed to restore Rio's watershed and, in 1857, a reforestation project was initiated: by 1870 over 100,000 trees had been planted and the forest was reborn. Most of the seeds and cuttings that were planted were native to the region, and today the park serves as a remarkable example of the potential for the regeneration of the Atlantic forest.

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