New Years and that sort of thing.

So I welcomed in the New Year 11 hours later than normal at a house party which is somewhat traditional for me. The catch was that most of the conversations for the evening were not in my native language and there was much more dancing and music than usual.

Richardo (one of the waiters at the place I am staying) kindly invited the volunteers to a NYE party at his mother-in-law to be´s house. Nine of us headed out at about 11pm for the party and whilst we were the only gringo´s there everyone was very welcoming and we had a great time. There were fire crackers in the surrounding streets, much dancing, much alcohol and much food. And rather surprisingly much conversation. I got kidnapped briefly by the kids (who were terribly cute I might add) and was interrogated on the details of my family, Australia and what I did.

At one point I was summonsed over to prove that I was a vegan (or "vegetariana totale") I answered the usual questions of what I did and didn´t eat and why. This is fairly common, I´ve been the first vegan people have encountered even at home. I am rather chuffed that I could have the conversation in a language other than English. Trying to ask for a bus ticket is another story.

We left at about 4am for central Recife for the end of a street concert and wandered around chatting to people and having much fun. I chatted alot to my new roommate, Lizzie who is from London and is working out at the Botanical Gardens. Hannah claimed she was from Moldvania only to get the response "I like your country" which resulted in many drunken giggles. We stumbled home from the bus stop at around 8am, and collapsed for most of the day.

All in all a good new years.

This year has been pretty good so far, despite the fact that there was a flash downpour on Monday night (thankfully we were undercover) and Tuesday was mostly overcast. It´s still warm and has returned to sunny. Patrick, one of the other volunteers, has started out on the teaching project in the mornings with me and it´s going really well. Beach is planned for the weekend.

I am here until the end of next week and my time in Olinda has gone awfully quickly. I can´t believe I´ll be back in Perth in a little more than 2 months.

Oh and a Christmas picture courtesy of Borisontour to prove I´m still alive.