Adventureland! :)

What a fun day! Austin, our great International Ambassador had four tickets to go to this nice park called Adventureland. He invited Jonathan, Justin and I to go!! I was happy for the invitation!! According to their website: " Adventureland USA is Iowa's largest and most completely family resort. Adventureland Amusement Park contains over 100 rides, shows, and attractions including some of the country's most exciting roller coasters and thrill rides that can challenge the most avid amusement park enthusiasts. There are also plenty of rides for less adventurous guests including great water rides as well as a full compliment of children's rides spread throughout the park. But the entertainment doesn't stop with rides - Adventureland presents a full array of shows in the park - from live music to magic to song and dance - there's always something to suit everyone's taste. Simply the most fun you will have all year! Adventureland Park is a smoke free facility."

We left the cold morning at Ambrose at 7:00am headed to Des Moines. We stopped at McDonalds for breakfast (where you can get free wifi! Awesome! Haha), took some picture with a guy made of wood that we had no idea who that guy was! Lol... And then we continued our trip to Adventureland!

After getting there we had so much fun! The place looks like a small Disney city!! Haha. We first went to "Space Shot" which is the worst! Austin was trying to kill us! (I'm joking, buddy! You're a very nice guy!) When we less expected, we were thrown abruptly really high where we could see Des Moines entirely. That was the moment I forgot English for a couple minutes and started screaming (and praying) in Portuguese! Haha.

It was so nice to see four different continents and countries represented aiming to have a fun time. :) We got all wet during the water rides but we decided to dry our clothes by riding each of those roller coasters! Haha

After that, we were dead and hungry! We had Thai food (which reminds me that you shouldn't forget to tip the waiter. In Brazil it is already included but not in the US! Don't forget it! ), we went to the malls where bought some stuff, met some nice girls from a jewelry store, got surprised when we passing by this store shelves where we found superhero t-shirts, nice wallets, gothic stuff, etc, they also had a small sex shop full of weird toys! It was so funny! Hahaha

When we were coming back, we also stopped at a gas station where you put our own gas (which is different from Brazil). You scan your credit credit and pay for the gas, get the gas pump and...it will stop when it's done! I think it is not that fun during the winter with -30 degrees Fahrenheit ( -34 degrees Celsius)!! 

In short, China, Nigeria, Brazil and the USA had a lot of fun! Thanks, Austin!!!!!

"The Bridge" Group and Friends: A Comforting God's Response

Before arriving in the USA, I was a little but worried about my spiritual life and relationship with God. I wanted to keep being involved with church, Christian work, Christian people... 

A day when I was working as an Interpreter in Brazil with Occupational Therapy students, one of the girls and my dear friend Calista invited me to participate of the non-denominational Christian club/group called "The Bridge". I really felt that that invitation was a God's response to my prayer. And it was! Besides going to St. Paul church I have the opportunity to meet amazing people every Tuesday night at the Chapel, where we pray, worship and study the Bible. In the middle of anguish, God provided me a spiritual refresh through Calista. She took me to a spiritual retreat called "Camp Shalom"! :) 

That weekend was an amazing time when we played games, had s'mores, sang songs, went hiking and studied that book "Love, Sex and Lasting Relationships". It was such an incredible American experience. I also met amazing people who became great friends!! I am always looking forward to moments that we will get together.

Besides having a lovely time with everybody, a friend told me something that is got stuck on my mind until now during one of our group discussion. After saying that sometimes people misunderstand my caring actions and that I'm afraid of people taking advantage of me because of that, he said: "God made you that way for a specific reason [...]". It may be a common sentence but that meant a lot to me. It was like God was restating that I am not perfect, but I should keep up being the individual that He created... Actually it is hard to explain what that meant to me exactly... But I got that and the message was fully received!

I so love talking about God that watching movies (like "God's not dead", I highly recommend it!), or even saying what God has done for us... It is a good way to draw me forward. Tina (my BFF! Love you, girl!) Katelyn, Kaitlynn, Josie, Kirk, Allison, Suzanne, Josiah (my dear brother), Calista and so many incredible people that I forgot their names (sorry! It is hard to memorize names in English! LOL) have taken good care of me and I am really thankful for that! Love you, "Bridge" crew! 

My other friends, Danielle, Jessalyn, Grace, Katie, Courtney, Kaila, Jenna, Maggie, Liz and other great people from North Hall are so welcoming and so supportive that I don't know how to thank you guys.

I also would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to my roommates who are always helping me with everything I need, thanks Jordan, Joe and JJ, my big brother. Thanks the Tome's for making my days so unique in the States, specially Jacque for giving me such a fun, FUNNY and great experience! You know exactly what I am talking about! Love you, amazing lady!

thanks Christine Urish (my mom and her boyfriend, Tom) for adopting me this time while I am here). 

Thanks OT friends for taking me for dinner to celebrate my birthday and for being so helpful and nice to me.

Thanking is never enough. It is a way of acknowledging people for their effort and support towards a cause or someone. I might be forgetting some people, but feel loved by me! :)

May God bless you all! 

And thank you, Lord, for being my everything! 

6th day at Ambrose: Urban Plunge, Ice Cream, Hanna, Games and Acapella

Today I woke up feeling better and went to participate in a project called Urban Plunge (I was on TV! Haha) which provides us the opportunity to help the community. We, the Internaitonal students, went to a close neighborhood where we could help to paint a woman's house. It may be boring but it's good we are helping. It made me think that we are a community but sometimes we just don't act like that, just keeping repeating that as a cliche. Community means we are a group with similarities. We are all human beings, we all may need each other someday, so why not help our neighbor? That was super cool.

When I came back home, my big buddy JJ woke up and took me to the bank to put money in his checking account so we could order my books online, which costed 116 dollars. I can't be more thankful to my buddy. One interesting thing that surprised me was that we didn't wait for one hour or so... We parked there like a gas station and communticated with a lady through the inter phone. There was also a tube that has a plastic cylinder where you put the money, your bank card and your ID in, and then it's taken until the operator's cabine by air pressure where she can help you. I think it took five minutes to get everything done. This a very efficient and fast thing which would be awesome if we had in Brazil.

Later we went to an ice icream party at BeeHive where I finally found my freshman friend from Ambrose who is a great singer (she sang Adele today! Set fire to the rain). She is a very nice girl, really talented.

Well we came back, I showered and I went to "The Main Event, St Ambrose  Univeristy" which was really fun. It was the first time on campus when people had some stuff going on: water balloons, obstacle race (which hurt my elbow, haha), tug of war starts, karaoke, capture the Flagg, giant jengo, popcorn, some cotton candy and this game bellow:

It was awesome I lost twice (for a girl who I don't know and Danielle's friend. Danielle also sings really well. I met her at QC Family Entertainment with Mabil) and and I won twice (JJ and Ramsey. Woohoo... I killed you guys! Joking).

 

To make my evening even better, I went to an Acapella concert to listen to an amazing group called "Six Appeal". I enjoyed a lot with some people I met and some friends like my roommate Jordan (who gave us a performance, dancing a lot! Lol) and his girlfriend and my friend Austin who's an International Ambassador. 

Now I'm back, writing this, feeling much better and feeling so blessed and thankful for everything God has done. See you.