This is the dream I've been having for a weeks now, but everything's going to be OK. I will be traveling to Manaus, which is the capital city of the state of Amazonas, at one time during my travel through the country. After plenty of research and debate, I am choosing not to get a yellow fever vaccine, even though one is recommended for people visiting the state of Amazonas.
While walking around the streets of Manaus, Brazil, I suddenly hear them approaching. Zzz! Mosquitoes, coming down from the heavens, biting my skin and possibly transmitting yellow fever into my bloodstream.
This is the dream I've been having for a weeks now, but everything's going to be OK. I will be traveling to Manaus, which is the capital city of the state of Amazonas, at one time during my travel through the country. After plenty of research and debate, I am choosing not to get a yellow fever vaccine, even though one is recommended for people visiting the state of Amazonas.
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When I finally arrived at The Rocksboro, which is located on R Street in downtown Washington, D.C., it was close to midnight.
Jasmine Wiggins, fellow recipient of the Frances L. Phillips Travel Scholarship, and her boyfriend, Kevin Edwards, both accompanied me on my four-hour drive to the capital. Wiggins and Edwards are both traveling to Brazil, among other countries, and our paths will cross for a week or two at most in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Since we all needed to apply for a Brazilian visa in person at the Consulate General of Brazil, we decided to go together. By the time I met my Airbnb host, Lauren, at her apartment, it was already late into the night, and I decided to sleep after a long cruise along the East Coast. Photo by Gabriel Smith/Flickr Per an AP press release, Arena da Amazônia will host more international soccer games.
FIFA decided to withdraw its own objection to use the multimillion dollar stadium, and Manaus will host matches in next year's Olympic games. The 2016 Olympic tournament will be centered around the city of Rio de Janeiro, which is the host city for all games next year. Photo by Gabriel Smith/Flickr The multimillion dollar stadium I will visit in Manaus, Brazil will not be used for next year's 2016 Olympics, which deems it useless.
In my statement for the Frances L. Phillips Travel Scholarship, I talked about the possibility of the stadium becoming a modern relic, such as how the arenas and tracks appear in Beijing, China following their hosting of the 2008 Olympics. "If the stadium continues to be rarely used, the jungle and Amazonian weather will deteriorate it, and in ten or twenty years, the forest will consume the stadium and create a modern relic, such as in Beijing," I said in the statement. Per a release from FIFA, Manaus will not host any soccer matches in next year's 2016 Olympics. The Rio de Janeiro 2016 organizing committee listed the city as a possible host for a few matches, but it does not look like the stadium will be used. There are only 100 days left until I step foot in Brazil, but there is still plenty to do before I land in Rio de Janeiro.
I bought my round-trip plane ticket through Delta and have booked an apartment near Copacabana beach with the help of Airbnb, but my work to travel is only getting started. Because the United States forces Brazilians to acquire a visa in order to enter the States, I must attain one in order to travel there. In April, I will travel to Washington D.C. and present lots of paperwork and personal information to the Consulate General of Brazil. Photo by Alvaro/Airbnb Not many people can say they lived next to Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but with the help of Airbnb, I booked my first apartment there.
After contacting 11 hosts on Airbnb, I finally found the apartment that provides everything I need in the location I want and for the price I am willing to pay. Some of the hosts never responded to me, but most others did within 24 hours from my initial message. However, if you use Airbnb, send more than one message. There were a few hosts who did not engage in conversation, and I simply could not trust them. There are only 111 days until departure.
Yesterday night, I purchased tickets to travel to two different countries this summer. As a university graduation present from myself to myself, I purchased a Delta ticket to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, which is where I will stay from May 13th until May 20th. I will see my sister, Hannah Cranford, when I travel there because she is working in the country as a Peace Corps member. This will be the second time I have visited a country in The Caribbean.
I walked out of Carr building and headed straight for the nearest Wells Fargo ATM. Dr. Bettina Shuford, associate vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, had just handed me my check for travel this summer, and I was still in disbelief.
I am still bewildered, confused and baffled. Sometimes, events happen in your life, and you cannot believe they are real until it hits you in the face. Watching the check enter the ATM and seeing the amount of money appear on the screen as it was being deposited into my account was that moment.
On December 12, 2014, I received an email that changed my life.
I officially am a recipient of the travel scholarship I have been desiring for almost a year now, and one day after hearing the decision, I am still in shock. It seems surreal, mainly because I have anxiously mulled over their decision for months now, and although I believed my project was intriguing and unique, I knew other applicants created great ideas and projects. The process was long, but the most nerve-racking aspect of the whole ordeal was the interview. I had to sit and explain my project to six distinguished members of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill community, and each individual asked specific questions about my itinerary, plan and motives for travel. The interview committee was friendly, but pitching your idea to a room full of distinguished faculty is intimidating. I want to express my sincerest gratitude to the selection committee for affording me this opportunity for international travel, and I cannot wait to begin my journey next year. I will use this blog to document my experience of soccer culture in Brasil. If you want more information about my project, click here. If you want more information about the Frances L. Phillips Travel Scholarship, click here. |
AuthorI, Aaron Cranford, am a recipient of the 2014-2015 Frances L. Phillips Travel Scholarship from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and this site is dedicated to my trip to Brasil. Archives
July 2015
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