What Adventures!!!!!

OK, long time since I could write...I left Rome on August 24, flew to London, then to New York JFK where my 10:00pm flight to Sao Paulo was CANCELLED...they put us up in a raunchy hotel outside the airport, and I didn't get to bed until 5:30am Italy time.
Got the flight at 11:30am the next day, flew to Sao Paulo, arrived in Sao Paulo, got the van to Paraty which took us over 5 hours (travelling in VERY good and talented company)...arrived in Paraty, AT LAST it took about 2.5 days of travel!!

Arriving a day late, I had little to no time to scope out the town--which is lovely--and meet people before the symposium started the next day!  Lots of people here, amazing energy and SO MUCH TALENT!!!!  Really inspiring and intimidating all at once.  Really full and busy days, lots to see and do.  The event, as usual, was so well-organized...USk is pretty darn amazing.

The weather was mostly cloudy and very cool, and it even poured during my first and largest workshop.

I woke up every morning on Italy time, around 4:30am here, so was sleep deprived, as were lots of others.  Kumi flew from Japan just for this event, a 12 hour time difference!  Internet bad...and yesterday afternoon, the day after the symposium ended, a huge and very unusual windstorm came in, blowing down trees and power lines...so no power since last night!  Electricity just came on now, about 14 hours later...so I can finally access the internet again.

Anyway, the symposium was amazing, I feel so honored and privileged privileged privileged be here and be a part of it.  Thank you, Urban Sketchers!

Tomorrow, I go to Rio de Janeiro with three others (hardworking USk president Jason Das, sketcher Joni Vallon, and our default translator from Luxembourg who speaks maybe 7 languages and sketches too--Beliza Mendes), we're going as a group which is super nice.  I will post photos and sketches of the week, working backwards a little bit.

I got this photo from Facebook, I think--shows most of the sketchers at the finale of the symposium in the main town square! You'll never find me, as my head is turned, looking at Gabi Campanario behind me to make sure I wasn't blocking his view.

OBRIGADA!

Last group photo of the Urban Sketchers Symposium 2014 in Paraty, Brazil!!