It's just a priviledge to see your mind at work.

This trip keeps getting better and better. I've only been here for a week, but it's already been one of the greatest adventures of my life.

We spent the day yesterday working on our projects. I didn't get too much done, but I did find one of my sites! I'm actually going to be working with three sites instead of two, because I'm going to find areas where one forest fragment is bordered by both pasture and eucalyptus. This will make my statistics more relevant since I'll be making comparisons of more similar locations and eliminating some extraneous variables.

I also went for a run yesterday with Kaitlyn and Aylesse. It was definitely my best performance so far; we ran for about 45 minutes without stopping and I didn't feel like dying at any point. I've also been doing three-minute abs with some of the girls. We're gonna get our shit under controoooool. Hopefully.

Last night was SO much fun. More fun than I've had in a long time. We left IPE at about 10pm and drove for an hour to get to this barn-esque club in the middle of nowhere. When we first arrived, there were only a few people inside and no one was dancing. Amanda and I promptly drank a bottle of grape juice/the worst wine I've ever tasted. Then we moved onto liquor... I can't remember the name of it, but we drank a very sweet Brazilian liquor that tastes like honey (it's made from sugar cane).

Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good. But I managed to pace myself and stayed alert the entire night (we left at about 4:30am). Go me. And I turned down all of the drugs that were offered to me! (Aren't you proud, Mum and Dad? Don't answer that.) I danced allllll night. With everyone. It was so much fun. A reggae band--Mahnimal--started their set at about 1:30. And they were awesome. I danced my pants off. (Figuratively, no worries.) Some of the other students had some interesting...encounters...but I won't mention any since I'm trying to stay away from any and all drama. The gossip here is incredible. Everyone knows everyone else's business. And there has been some business, for sure.

Most of the group went to Sao Paulo today for a Macy Grey concert. I stayed behind with about six others and we spent the day watching Grindhouse. Such a relaxing afternoon. This is the first day in my recent memory that I haven't had anything to do all day... and it was wonderful. Stress free! I had planned on going for a run, but everyone else was hungover and no one would come with me. We're definitely going tomorrow morning though.

They haven't given us our schedules for next week yet, so I'm not sure what's going on tomorrow. We'll probably be working on our projects or doing a lab. I think it's going to rain again, so hopefully we won't be outside all day getting wet. I plan on doing some reading too. I just started Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer and I'd like to finish it soon. I want to read a lot of books this summer; I never get to read for pleasure during the school year because I always have so much assigned reading. There's nothing quite as satisfying as finishing the last sentence of a good book...