Brazil to California : Guest Post

What's with people meeting the loves of their lives on vacation??

Clearly, I am either not taking enough vacations or need to be a little friendlier to the locals.

Ana moved from Brazil to California to be with her now husband!

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Hello, La Mia Vita readers! I'm Ana and I blog over at A+M. I'm thrilled to be here sharing my experience as an ex-pat while Nicole gets settled in Spain. But let me give you some background first...

My husband and I met when he was on vacation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (where I'm from). We spent three days together and after he left, we spent 6 months talking to each other online, until I got a job as an au pair here in California, close to him. We've been married for 1,5 year now!

I've been living in California for almost 4 years now. Who wouldn't like to live here? It's a gorgeous! The people, the scenery, the food, the street festivals in San Francisco... I love this place. But sometimes, you just need to feel closer to home. And in that sense, I feel very lucky to be where I am. There's a huge Brazilian community here in the Bay. For example, I can always find Brazilian food. Or Brazilian groceries.

The most typical Brazilian dish: feijoada (black beans with pork),served with rice and collard greens

Brazilian soda - it's called guarana (a fruit that can only be found in the Amazon)

I even went to a Brazilian festival in a church where they celebrate mass in Portuguese! How wonderful is that? 

I'm very lucky that my husband loves Brazilian food and even asks for me to make it for dinner often. But sometimes, it does hurt to be away from everybody and everything that you know. I miss people getting excited about soccer games and the World cup, I miss the traditional family Sunday lunch, I miss heading to the beach after work. I miss not wearing layers during Christmas time and spending New Year's Eve on the beach. I miss samba and Carnival. I miss being able to cry when my soccer team wins a championship and look around and see everybody doing the same. I miss Ipanema. I even miss the humidity! And obviously, I miss my friends and family. It's hard to not being as present in their lives and have they not been here either.

Ipanema

But I always try to remember that I live abroad for a reason. I got married to this wonderful man that treats me like a queen. And he means everything to me.

Thanks, Nicole, for having me! Good luck on your adventure, you'll do great and time will fly ;)

 xoxo, Ana