#tbt Christmas

Bitchy on the plane to Miami. It’s that point in my life where I start to realize that maybe I need some professional help. PoloGod keeps telling me that I’m crazy. Bipolar to be specific…. Justifiable in his case considering I did kirk out on him.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas, but then again, I hate Christmas. I do need a break though.
All I do is work and train and compete and only one of the 3 jobs I have includes a real paycheck.

One week off.

Two weeks to prepare for Europeans.

Hopefully I warm weather will make me less crazy.

Carioca Christmas 2013

I moved into the Favela in 2013 right before Christmas. 

I lived with Terere's secretary, her husband, and her three sons. 

I spent my first Christmas in Brazil with them. Then I met up with my friend from Argentina on Ipanema beach before heading to Barra da Tijuca to see my friends from the Connection Rio Hostel.

By the time I got to Connection Rio there were beer cans and baby oil everywhere. The house was empty... everyone had gone down to the beach or was already passed out.

They tried to wrestle on mats in the pool. 

Belo Horizonte 2015

This was probably the best Christmas of my life so far. I had been in broke in Brazil for two years and was no longer accustomed to normal things in life like being with family, sitting on real couches, watching or owning TVs, real cups and silverware, not waking up to weed and ak47s and gunshots... 

In 2014 my mom's Brazilian friend came to visit from the U.S. and invited me to spend Xmas with her and her family. It was the first time I got to leave Rio and do normal things. I stayed with her family, visited their house in the historic town of Ouro Preto (black gold), explored mines, saw where Gold in Brazil was discovered and didn't have to worry about all the things that I normally have to worry about. 

Christmas 2015

I didn't have a Christmas in 2015. I went to the beach and longboarded a little. I think I went home and ate oatmeal....

This was a hard time a good friend went to the hospital the next day. 

I was living in Curitiba and came back Rio for a few weeks to do work for the Project.


2016
Apparently, I don't have any pictures from last year. It was my first year back with my family. It was too soon for me to be ok. I made the mistake of going with them to the movies and fell asleep.