Mais um Acai por favor!

Today we visited a public school in a nearby city called Niteroi. We had to take subway, bus and a ferry to get there....and WOW the ferry made me so seasick. I ahd to put my head down the whole time. Boooo motion sickness! The school we went to was called Baltazar Bernadino. It was awesome walking in because the teachers, students, and the director were all so welcoming to us. They had DELICIOUS banana cake and juice for us, a Powerpoint to tell us about their school (such as the sweet extracurriculars they offer....futsol, graffiti, hip hop, drum line, capoeira to name a few). They do a science project every year and go around to public places to tell people about it which I think is a cool idea along with the interdisciplionary World Cup project they did. They had art projects, science projects, history, sociology and math projects all tied to the World Cup....SO COOOOOOOL. We had a great convo with the teachers and a few select students who had a LOT of questions about college in the US.
Again the people there were so welcoming...perhaps the best we've seen (if that's possible!) They practically begged us to stay to have some traditional Brazilian food for lunch (arroz com feijao---rice and black beans, pumpkin, amd they even sliced up a tomato with olive oil for Lara and I since we don't eat meat!) They gave us something called "guava-sweet" for dessert which reminded me ofnatural fruit leather in the US. Aidan quickly bonded with 2 of the male students who wanted to teach him how to say bad words in Portuguese (kids will be kids! haha) and play Lady Gaga for us (YESSSS! I can't tell you how many carioca teens I have bonded with over Gaga oooh lala!)
When we went into the school yard the younger kids descended on us and started chatting with us about the World Cup. Some key words I have learned for communicating with kids here: copa (World Cup), hexa Brasil (their phrase for Brasil aiming to win a sixth World Cup title), nunca Estados Unidos (basically the US hasn't won any cups haha), and bonita (because the girls like to say "you are very pretty" which is funny because they are the ones who I think are so beautiful.)
This was apparently the first time they had seen foreigners and they were so eager to take pictures with us and know if we would take them back to the US. So precious. The kids think America is so amazing. One of the teachers said she had never met and American and was pleased that we were so nice. Yeah you're welcome for giving the US a good rep down here in Rio :) haha. Best line: "Is Obama really black?" hahah Best moment: The boys trying to teach us to dance.
Seeing these kids who are such precious adorable little baby gems smiling and laughing all around gave me chills and such an overwhelming sense of joy. Moments like this are priceless and all I can think of to describe the feeling is the famous line from Les Miserables (yeah Lauren and Meg you know the one...)..."To love another person is to see the face of God." :) I'll have to come back someday to adopt one of these lil ones.
Finally, riding the bus back to Rio we went past all of the sea ports and it reminded me of my value for people hard-at-work. It's easy as a "priveledged American" to develop a somewhat prestigious idea of jobs, work, etc. and sometimes forget that the majority of people this is what "a day at the office" looks like. Much like it does for farmers and such back home. Trade work is a way of life for millions of people and there is so much value in that. So these "day in the life" glimpses of Rio give me a deeper respect for and a more complete picture of what makes this city move. (Both literally and figuratively, of course....)
Last thing, yesterday I had acai THREE times. There are little juice/pastry stands everywhere that sell it. Interestingly it's basically socially unacceptable to eat/drink while walking. People stop at the stands and sit or stand to finish their snack (even if it's only like 5 min.) I think it's neat. But yeah, I'm officially addicted to antioxidants.
Well I am off to eat a delicious meal of all-you-can-eat crepes. YUM!!!! I apologize for the lack of pictures. The hard drive on my computer crashed so getting pics up might might be difficult for a lil while but I will see what I can do. Love and miss you all and I want to bring you all here so I can share all of the beauty Brasil has to offer.