On Sunday, after saying goodbye to my “host family”, I went to live with my new “family”-the Yoshima´s. Well, if you don´t know the Yoshima´s, I´ll explain their lifestyle a little: they live in a sailboat, Amarsemfim, and have traveled from Argentina to the US. My dad and Ricardo Yoshima were childhood friends back in Brazil, and the last time I met them…was a handful of years ago.

If you think that living in the Trump Tower was relaxing try living in your own private “island”. Each morning we wake up, fold the beds and sleeping gear, meanwhile, Ricardo (a 5 star cook) prepares breakfast. The slow-moving undulation, the salty smell of the Indian River, the light breeze, and the warm morning sunshine compose a perfect morning-followed by the scent of breakfast. Each morning starts off differently-sometimes we (Ricardo, Helena, Maria Clara, João, my sister and I) go to the park, or do some homework. Life is exceedingly laidback, and basically consists of floating around the Indian River while contemplating the waterfront of Cocoa, watching dolphins poking through the surface, having Ricardo cook the best meals ever, and sun bathe. One of these days, we set up a hammock outside and I laid there. Well, this was one of those “just perfect moments”: the setting sun descended behind palm trees, the water reflected the golden sunshine rays, a light breeze cooled the evening off, and the hammock swung me from side-to-side.

Since we are anchored right in front of Cocoa´s, I got to explore the little downtown for a bit. The town is quite nice-short buildings, lots of cafes and boutiques, a small park, and it has got that tropical-look to it, and it looks like those summer getaways from movies.

A few times so far, we have driven to Orlando to meet up with Brazilian friends (dad´s childhood friends). One time we went to a Brazilian pizzeria, Pie-fection, which was sooo good and since I hadn´t had that good of a pizza in the time I been in the US, I feasted upon the numerous flavors. The following day we headed to Pastor Nasiff´s house for a “churrasco”….again, feasted on some “picanhas”! Well, little did I know that Ricardo was chatting with the pastor about my dad getting a volunteering job at the church; as a result to that, we are spending the next seven months somewhere in Orlando or near it-isn´t life just crazy?! When I thought we had a plan…apparently God had another one.