As we blew past the halfway mark of our semester here in Brazil, and as our host mom continually told us to get out and about in the city we figured it was finally time to see what else Rio had to offer besides beautiful beaches, gorgeous people and a never-ending nightlife. The rest of the students on our program were in Sao Paulo for 5 days so it was just me and my roommates on our weekend exploration.

There’s not a chance I’ll fit it all in 500 words, but here are the highlights from my parents’ visit over the first week of break.

There are many exotic and invasive species to be found in the Galapagos Islands, but the Eastern moose is not one of them.  Nor is the black bear, the fox, the porcupine, or any other wild mammal that you might run into on a walk in a Northern forest.  It’s still strange, after years of being on the lookout for large mammals while running on trails in the Maine woods, to hop along the lava rocks here and know that I’m not likely to run into anything larger than a marine iguana (not that a two-foot long lichen-covered male is anything to sc

I credit myself on being a major Pixar buff. Like every Pixar enthusiast out there, I have learned a few things here and there from the movies.