This week...

On Monday, I flew into Boston from Atlanta at 10 AM, exhausted from a great weekend, celebrating one of my best friend's bridal shower.  I left at 5AM that morning, so by the time I rolled through the door, I needed a shower and a nap.  Before the 2 hour nap, Paul asked "you want to go to the Marathon for a little bit?"

"No way"

If it had not been for a tiring weekend, I would have been at the finish line with bells on.  Marathon Monday is a great day for Bostonians and it falls on Patriot's Day, where other areas of town celebrate our past patriots.  Little did we know that it was a day for making them as well.

The thing I will always remember about these events will be the sirens.  It seemed that when the bombs went off and when the shooting occurred, every ambulance and police car sounded off.  It was confusing and surreal to be in that kind of environment.  Never once have I felt unsafe in my city, and then suddenly it was a war zone.  And after all that has happened, I still feel safe.  Because I believe that this city works hard to defend justice and protect it's people.  Boston demonstrated that this week.

I'll also never forget where I was and how I felt.  When the bombs went off, Paul and I immediately went to the roof top to look at the helicopters.  We were so confused and unsure of what to do.  Who did this? Why?  When that MIT police officer was killed, Paul and I left MIT not 15 minutes earlier.  When the the sirens rang out and MIT sent text messages alerting us of a shooter, we were back on that roof, worried for our friends that we left behind.  On Friday's lockdown, I was on the roof top again, watching, and sending those police officers my thoughts.  When they found suspect #2 in the boat, Paul and I sat on our little couch on the edge of our seats, listening, waiting, watching.  When they caught him, we were on the roof top, and I gave a whoop of joy as someone down on the street clapped.  We watched everything happen from the roof top and did not feel alone in our feelings.  Because all of Boston felt them as well.

MIT

I am so proud to call Boston my home.  You thought I loved it before?  You don't even know.  It's truly shown me how great it is.  What it really is, is the people.  "What is the city, but the people?" (Coriolanus...saw it on the Boston Common!).  Bostonians are brash, tough, and are friendly if you sit next to one and if you say the wrong thing, you probably will get some nasty words your way.

Yet, what transpired on Monday-Friday showed the character of these people.  I won't show many pictures in this post, because most are gruesome, but have you heard of a terrible event where people were TURNED AWAY from blood banks because they were already well stocked?  3 dead and over 150 people were injured and the hospitals said "no thanks".  Amazing.  Another guy CARRIED THE ARTERY of a man's whose legs were blown off and saved that man's life.  Who does that?  Saints.  These hospitals? Best in the country and probably the world.  There would have been a whole lot more deaths if the bombs weren't 1 mile away from MGH, #1 hospital in the US.   The police shut down the city to catch these two murderers!  SHUT IT DOWN!  Even though a lot of the time it seemed that they had no clue where these guys were, the police said "you will not harm any more people", took the initiative to keep God knows how many people inside, and proceeded to have the biggest manhunt.  Because Bostonians are stubborn and will win.  What happened after the guy was caught?  People went to the Boston Common, the place of the people, and cheered "USA" and thanked police officers.  This city has spirit and heart and I love it.

For the fallen officer on MIT's campus

Walked past Copley Square to find this.

Our families and friends from around the world, thank you for your thoughts and prayers.  You were also the 2nd wonder of this week.  Why?  Because you stood by this great city.  Because Boston's struggles were your struggles.  Our welfare was your's as well and that was truly wonderful to see.  Thank you for all the help and love.

I know this post is a wee bit emotional, but I wanted to write something to memorialize this week.  Although 9/11 happened in my lifetime, I was too young to understand it.  Now, I do, even though it's not quite the same or as large a scale.  Seeing my town getting hurt, hurt me.  When this portion of the blog goes into a little book I will make, I want to see and remember that I was here.  And not forget that even though there is evil in this world, there is also so much more good.  Like Mr. Rogers said "Look for the helpers."

Watch this and see if it doesn't move you

I get sniffly when I watch it.

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Marathon

For those who maybe trying to call us, we are fine.  We can hear the sirens and craziness, but we are safe in our home.  Thank you for your concern.  Keep our city in your thoughts.

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Brazil

Hello faithful followers!

About two weeks ago, Paul and I went on the International Plant Trek to Brazil with some of Paul's classmates and a few from the 2013 class.  We had such a great time with fun people.  Although, I do feel that the SO's had much more fun while the LGO's were visiting manufacturing plants...WE SAW MONKEYS!  What's not to love about monkeys?  I'll get to that story, but first, the pictures:

We arrive in Sao Paulo Saturday and went out and about both Saturday and Sunday.  Our hotel was nice, but I think the most amazing thing about Brazil is the people.  I'm quite sure that Brazilians are the nicest people on the face of the planet.  There was not one person that we approached that was not willing to help to the best of his/her ability.  The language barrier was not as difficult it seemed, since I basically just spoke Spanish to everyone.  I think they appreciated the effort.  The people really want to make sure that we stayed safe and were truly sweet in every way.

Either way, first stop in Sao Paulo, el Mercado Municipal

It's just a meat sandwich...and it was gross

El Mercado

Tons of pretty fruit

Our friends

Spices

The next stop, the Cathedral

The sign above says LGO...of course they made the MIT

After our weekend galavanting around the city, the LGO went off to see Dell, and the SO's (Kendall, Alanna, and myself) all went out to hike.  I don't have too many photos from that adventure, but it certainly was one!  

We used nothing but public transit and it was fairly smooth sailing...until we got more on the outskirts of the city.  We had to take another bus, but we did not seem to find where to catch it and basically lost faith in it.  So we walked around, trying to find another bus stop.  We made it to another one and had the most ridiculous break down in communication I ever witnessed.  I spoke Spanish, the bus drivers did not really understand it.  We tried a taxi, and the taxi kept telling us no, which seemed odd, since we knew where we wanted to head toward.  But everyone was insistent on it.  Not that way.  So, we talked to some police officers and they told us that the way we wanted to go via taxi was dangerous.  Thank you Brazilians for looking out for the stubborn Americans.  

So, instead, we went another direction and saw this huge beaver looking thing at a public park and it looked awesome! Unfortunately, I do not have those photos, because I forgot the camera battery.  Sadness.  But this is what it looked like:

Now that's a beaver!  And it's adorable!  We called them Beaverje, but they are called Capybara

When we finally made it to the reserve that we originally wanted to hike, we found it was closed.  WHY?!  However, a nice man was at the gate and he seemed to understand we came a long way...AND HE LET US IN!  We were in a haven, all by ourselves.  We did a nice long loop, and enjoyed the beauty of the nature around us...ALONE!  We got a beautiful view of the city (which is ridiculously massive by the way...3rd largest in the world I think...there are bigger cities?!).  We also saw monkeys!  Tons of monkeys!  Too bad, no pictures.  I'll update once I get them.

A view of Sao Paulo

Again...but jumping!

We went home after our epic day and the next day, while the LGOs were at GM, we went to a small little artisan town.  It was a quieter day, but it was pretty little city.

Through the Looking Glass

Here's Paul at GM:

The next day was the fly to Manaus, the city in the Amazon, but first, we went to the beach!  We didn't have too much of a beach day, since it poured 2 hours after we arrived.  Luckily, we were eating lunch when the worst part hit and we did get to enjoy an hour or so of sunshine.  

Beach

The last day for the LGOs to visit a plant was on Thursday and they saw Samsung while the SO's just visited the city.  

The LGOs seemed very impressed with how welcoming Samsung was and even some of the workers took us out on the town that night to see live music.  We had a great time, no matter how disgustingly hot and humid it was (it was 100% humidity...even Atlanta can't compete!).

Friday was AMAZON ADVENTURE DAY!  We got to climb a 40 meter tree and swim in some wonderful water with a waterfall.  We enjoyed it, despite how hungry we got.

Learning how to climb

Adorable

This is specifically to gross out my mom.  My elbow looks busted, but it's not

Hanging around

Going up

At the top

Walking about

Waterfall

Hunger games to us

Shout out to the North Cobb folk!

Swimming downstream

Flower

We had a great time and we were exhausted when we came back to the hotel.  But that did not deter us from our last day out in Manaus.  

This is the opera house that is basically world famous.  It was built by rubber barons who were too bored with living in an enormous rainforest, so they created this beautiful opera house, still functioning.  

Fountain

The top part was neat

We then headed down to the water.  Manaus is situated on the Rio Negro, which is a tributary that nearby flows into the Amazon river.  When the two rivers meet, the do not immediately mix, but keep this weird division, which you will see later.  We decided we wanted to take a boat out to see the Meeting of the Waters and through some haggling, we got an awesome price for an awesome experience.

Connor and Alanna

Gas station..on the water!

Flag

Meeting of the waters

When you touch the two waters, the darker one (Rio Negro) is WARMER than the light brown (Amazon).  It was strange.

For David

We didn't too much else, but what an amazing adventure and what a wonderful way to learn about Brazil.  We came home, tired and me bruised, but very thankful.  We are fortunate and have just fallen in love with this little planet called Earth.  I will leave you with this last picture of the MIT folk, hanging around.  Now, I must get my laundry and enjoy the 70 degree weather!!!  

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