Feliz Ano Novo!!! Happy New Year!!!!

I am in Rio de Janeiro!!! And it's Janeiro right now (January)! lol. It is very beautiful. I am staying in Mamãe's sister´s apartment. It over looks the lake that is the accumulation of four joining rivers. In the center there is a big lit up Christmas tree that changes color, mountains surrounding the lake, and a huge statue of Jesus on the top of one. It is really very breath-taking. It is night so there are pretty lights reflecting in the water. The silhouette of one part of the mountain against the sky looks more like a part of the sky missing, like somebody took a bite out of it. It looks more like absence than substance, which is strange because the sky is just air and the mountain is rock. It is funny how nature can play with the eyes.
Yesterday I arrived in Belo Horizonte and then today drove to Rio. I stayed with Mãe's other sister. She has eleven siblings, what can I say? Lol. It is really awesome though!! There is at least one hundred people on her side, I can't wait to meet most of them. Tomorrow I will go out to see more of Rio de Janeiro! It's really exciting for me.
The day before yesterday I got my legs waxed, armpits, and...yes....a bikini wax. I knew it had to happen eventually, I mean, I am in the country that invented it and not only that but going to a city full of beaches where I will wear my new bikini. The bikini which I chose not for the pretty colors but for the fact it had more material to cover my behind. It is bigger than all the other ones but it still shows part of my white- (as white as I can ever get lol) Canadian-bum. LOL. The bikini wax really didn't hurt as much as you'd think, thankfully.
When I was still in Paracatu Matteus talked to my Mom and brother on msn. My mom explained what knock knock jokes to him are and told him some. I had to explain when the pun-line when there was a play on words etc. I never understood before how it was like to speak another language, and how to communicate fully with somebody who speaks English as a second language. You have to think how each thing could not make sense, and then how to explain it using another thing. I love how I use the word "thing" it is really very helpful in explaining this lol. Afterwards we watched videos on youtube, one guy said a knock-knock-joke. Today Matteus said to me that he thought it was cool when the guy had told it. When I asked why he said it was because he thought just my mom had invented knock-knock-jokes! LOL.
I just remembered this other funny thing that happened. We were eating and my host cousin needed the knife. He speaks English. He said, "Could you pass the knife, I need to cut the cheese." I giggled and told him what that phrase means in English. He replied, "but I really need to cut the cheese." English expressions can be so strange. I dunno if you find this amusing, but I really do. Heheh.
I need to mention that there was a baby in the apartment in Belo, his name was Enrique and he was adorable with enormous eyes. He is my host cousin too I guess. Lol. I have a lot of those. It rained when we were driving today and when we got close to Rio there was lots of fog. we could only see the lights on the car ahead of us. It was really...exciting. But not as exciting as the sign that had the monkey on a vine, warning people to be careful of monkeys crossing the road on vines!! That gave me a thrill.
Anyway, I will write more later about Rio!! Boa noite (good night)!

<3 Emily Rose

P.S - Oh yes, I almost forgot....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!! Oh, oh...and MERRY BELATED CHRISTMAS!!! :)