Oi!

Hello from Brazil! Max and I left Montreal Monday afternoon. We traveled around 20 hours from Montreal to Atlanta, Georgia to Brasilia, Brazil to Belo Horizonte, Brazil. We got lucky with free upgrades on our flights, so we had extra leg room and the entire row to ourselves 2/3 of the flights. Neither of us slept well, but we were fine watching movies and pretending we were comfortable :). There were actually two guys from Columbus on our flight, one of whom has a son who plays lacrosse at Dublin Jerome! It's a small world.

We got bored between flights.

While we were waiting for our bags in BH, Max saw an ad for Corteo! It definitely increased my excitement level and woke me up after the long day of traveling. I'm so grateful to finally be here.

We had about a half an hour ride from the airport into the city. It was immediately apparent that we were in a different country. Not only is it extremely lush and tropical, but the temperature was in the upper 80s and the humidity felt like Texas. I hear it froze in Ohio yesterday, so I'm happy to be wearing shorts and flip flops. We drove past many poverty stricken favelas on the way in, and it broke my heart for the Brazilian people. I felt really blessed in the cab headed to our hotel realizing that these people are barely surviving. It was also a reality check for me when I thought about how much my materialistic belongings have no worth after we leave this world. They're just things, and most people on our planet manage without them.

When we arrived at our hotel, we were pleased to have a shower where it's possible to stand without touching all four walls unlike in Montreal. Max took some great pictures of our view of the city! It's great to see trees in the midst of concrete. My mom would love that.

 We were exhausted, so we snuggled up and took a long nap before heading to dinner with some of the people that I work with. It was so thoughtful of them to invite us, and it made my first day of work a lot less awkward as I wandered around. At least I wandered around and occasionally bumped into people I knew! We ate at a Brazilian steakhouse, and we had endless amounts of the best grilled beef I've ever had called picanha. The food here is so fresh and delicious; I can't stop eating the fruit!

We ate dinner with three families who have small children. I am missing my nieces and nephews so much, so it warmed my heart to be in a family atmosphere once again. I'm blessed to be a part of such a wonderful cast, and I know this already after only two days.

Yesterday (Wednesday, I headed to site for my first day of work. My day mostly consisted of meetings and meeting new people, but I also got to fly with my new paradis family and watch the show from the audience! It took me about 5 minutes to adjust to the height while we were training, but I thought it would take much longer! It's going to take more time have better air awareness, but that's something only time can fix. Visuals are much different flying on stage where there are spotlights shining bright and everything else is pure darkness. When I was getting passed from guy to guy, it was hard to tell where up was! Only time can fix this, but it was a great feeling to work with the team.

It may be cheesy and totally uncool, but I don't care; Yesterday was everything I've dreamt of since I was a little girl. I'm aware that repeating show after show after show will continue to change my perspective as a performer and acrobat, but I hope the passion I felt yesterday continues to dwindle within my soul throughout the remainder of my career with cirque. There is nothing quite like the innocence of the first day, and I hope I never feel "too awesome" to admit that my first day on the job felt like Christmas mixed with endless amounts of candy and puppies!

On another cheesy and totally uncool note, watching the show last night brought me to tears. I know I'm a 'chick', so my point isn't that I cried but that a part of myself was touched. I had a moment when I realized how blessed I am to be in the position that I'm in. Most people don't have the chance to fulfill their loftiest goals. While I was sitting in the audience, I realized that God has handed me all of these blessings on a golden platter. In return, I hope I never take this for granted and that I never make this about myself. The show is also very spiritual for me because the story is a funeral and the juxtaposition between life on earth and life hereafter. The mixture of feeling so blessed and watching a show where there are characters as angels present was an ironic twist. Anyways, thanks to my cast for touching my spirit. I'm blessed to be here with each of you.

Tonight, Max will be able to watch the show from the audience with me! I couldn't be more excited for him to watch the show. He's currently with another guy who is here because of his wife, and they are doing Crossfit together. It took him less than 48 hours to find someone to be a meathead with... go figure.

Dream big everyone. Until next time...