Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas was yesterday and it was full of family, food and presents. My grandparents are spending a few days in Florida with my family and both my siblings were here to celebrate as well. It is nice to cherish the moments we do have to spend together while we are still young. We celebrated this year with Christmas eve pjs, an excessive amount of sweets and our newest Christmas tradition, Thrifty Santa.

Thrifty Santa comes before Christmas and each person receives a present that was purchased at a goodwill, salvation army, or gotten for free. The more revolting the gift, the better. A lot of people don't understand how funny it is but if you don't believe me, I dare you to go out and buy thrifty Santa gifts next year. Go wrap them in some trash bags and have a gift exchange. It won't put you our by much money and laughs are guaranteed. Think of it as a white elephant exchange, but no good gifts allowed.

In other news, I will be headed to Costa Rica in three days and will be spending several days in a portion of the country that is very remote. So remote that it is almost impossible to get there by land. My family will be going by boat and I think it will be an adventure. The place we are staying at is surrounded by natural landscape and I believe that there will be lots of good photography opportunities. Photos to come soon! I doubt there will be wifi where we will be staying so photos may come after the trip.

Until later,
Happy New Years!

Finals Behind Me, Travels Ahead

Esta marcado! Its official! I will be going to Brazil for 11 days before my semester in Argentina begins. With finals in the rearview mirror, all I can see ahead of me is the adventures in store for me as Christmas and the new year come around. Costa Rica, Brazil and Argentina are all on the agenda for the next couple of months.

To celebrate the end of my first semester of nursing classes I got to spend a few days with one of my friends who loves Brazil just as much as I do. She came home with me for several days after finals and we got to pack as much fun into our time together as possible. The downside of traveling so much is having to say goodbye to friends like this one.

Beach Day at New Smyrna

Boat tour of Winter Park, FL