T-1

holy schmoly, intense packing today. we have a whole bevy of climates to work with, ranging from 30C to -10C. super intense! i have laid out all the stuff i want to bring, and am hoping to get rid of 1/4 of it before tomorrow to lighten the load. aiming for yet another 7kg backpack of stuff! :D

another thing that has been frightening me and kavitha a bit is rio de janeiro. the gun crime, the dengue fever... eek! however, over the past week or two, i had quite a bit of reassurance that everything is ok there.

1) i met three brazillian brothers in my environmental auditing class last week who live in rio, and they said that dengue fever is restricted to sketchy parts of town (not so much the wealthier ipanema and copacabana areas.... unfortunately how the world works :( )
2) i remembered that my friend camilla from my central st. martin's packaging course lives in rio, and lo and behold, i emailed her and she has been enormously helpful in orientating us to the city. she emailed a map of sketchy areas in rio, and we even have social plans for the weekend! sweet!

so, rio seems a bit less daunting now! cross your fingers for us!