Heading towards the Amazon!

So we have officially entered the Amazon River and here are my first 2 observations:

1. The river is really really wide in places! When we first entered we could not see either sides of the embankment and if it wasn’t for the muddiness of the water I would’ve thought we were still in the ocean.

2. The bugs here are ginormous! They like to come to the ship and I have seen way to many bugs who look like they are on steroids. Also a ton og little mothlike things have been hanging out around the lighting fixtures which is grossing out the girls

I started taking my doxycycline and will continue to take it until after Ghana. Doxy is my malaria medication and hopefully it works! Im a little nervous because it heightens your chances of getting sunburned but hopefully I will be fine. I’m planning a one night overnight into the jungle. At first it was just me and Becca but now a ton of our friends want to go! I think there are going to be over 20 of us, some random and some really fun people. Here are some of them:

· Mandela is this black guy in my econ class who is super nice and I’ve hung out with him a few times because me and his roommate bryan are friends.

· Taylor #1 is this kid from UVA who pretends to be this crazy partier but in reality is just funny and a complete goof.

· Krystal is Becca’s roommate who has a crush on Mandela…could get interesting. She is Persian and Mexican and thinks she looks like Kim Kardashian (she dosent but she is pretty)

· Becca is my bestie on the ship and while we jump between a bunch of cliques we have kind of become known as a pair, because we are ALWAYS together. We also share really similar taste in men, among many other things, I always have a good time when I am with her!

· Jack #1: Lives next to Becca and Krystal and is a big teddy bear and really nice he is obsessed with the Chicago Bears…he is from Chicago so I guess it makes sense.

· Bobby: Jacks roommate who is probably the most annoying drunk ever, its weird because I think he looks like a mad scientist(like complete geek glasses and all) but then he just gets super hammered and creepy, but he is who he is, he def knows my name but thinks I look like an Erica and so refuses to call me Alicia. Other people agree that I look far to exotic to be an Alicia which I think is so weird because no one has ever said that to me before but apparently Jack thinks I look like a Naomi and other people have concurred…so weird

· Eric: Don’t know him a friend of Jack and Bobby’s

· Barbara and the Chapman Kids: I don’t blame them for being the largest clique on the ship but they honestly travel like a pack, so when I invited my friend Barbara to come obvi all of Chapman had to come too lol there are quite a few but all are really nice and a lot of fun.

· Jack #2: Don’t really know him yet but he is really nice and is a D Chi at AU.

· Alexa: met her at the towne she is awesome, and super nice.

· Dave and trouble makers: These guys are always breaking the rules but they also can be serious and are always fun, they are all super metro so it should be funny seeing them in the jungle.

· Katie: One of my faves, I roomed with her and Steph at the Towne so hopefully she comes!

· Taylor #2: another person I met at the towne she is a sweetheart!

Hope that gave you a bit of an idea of how diverse my friend group has become its really all over the place, but I think that’s what makes it so tight is that we are all from all around the country yet we are all able to connect and go on amazing adventures together. I will write more soon!