Friends, Flowers, and Food

Bom Dia!

There is so much that happened this week, I'm not sure if I'll be able to remember everything. At school, the students were finishing up exams, which meant that I was able to work on my Portuguese books during classes because I can't read or write well enough yet to do the written tests. I tried the multiple choice tests, but I had to use my dictionary to translate each question and answer, so I couldn't make it through most of the test in time. It was difficult even if it was a test in a subject that I really enjoy, like literature, because it would be about books written by Brazilian authors. Even the English class test was really hard. The questions were in Portuguese so I didn't understand what they wanted you to do. My brother got a better score than me because he's been going to English school for a long time. My host dad thought that was really funny, and laughed almost the whole way back from school  :)  Even though I have a hard time trying to understand what is going on in class, I really enjoy school. I have become friends with everyone in my class, they're super welcoming, and kind to me and have helped me a ton with my Portuguese. Now that testing week is over, they said that we will be able go out more after school. I am really glad that I was put in their class, I have something in common with everyone in the class, and the things that they enjoy doing after school are exactly what I love to do. It is amazing how fast you can become close to people, I've only been here three weeks and I already feel like I have known some of these people for years. Yesterday I tried to thank all of my friends at school for being so nice to me and helping me with my Portuguese. My friend Isabelle said "Linda, pode sempre contar com a gente, voce d muito querida por todos nos." Which means, "Beautiful, you can always count on us, you are very dear to us all." I haven't been the new girl many times before, but I was not expecting to make such good friends so soon.

Last Saturday morning, my host parents and I went to the morning market. It was so busy and I absolutely loved it! There were a ton of different stalls set up selling all different types of things. There were tables just piled with fruits and vegetables, a lot of which I've never seen before. Stalls with buckets of different spices lined up, homemade tamales, different fruit drinks, and tables filled with different flowers. Those were my host mom's favorite.

Then later that day, my host mom took me around the city to take pictures because the trees that are in the middle of the roads were all flowering. She said that she always likes to go to take pictures during this time of year. We drove around and took pictures all around the city. It was so much fun, and I was able to see a lot of the city that I hadn't been able to before. That night, I made my family dinner. I made stir fry (surprise) and they really liked it! I even made the sauce that I love, and they liked it so much that now they make steamed veggies and the sauce for lunch every day.

On Thursday, my host dad took me and Leah, the exchange student who is in Tangara from Canada, to the local dance and exercise center. They gave us a tour, and I think that we will be taking a dance class together, and that I will be going with my host mom a lot to exercise. I am really excited because I haven't been able to dance for a while, and I can't wait to start! Me and Leah also have a lot in common, and when we are able to see each other, we spend the whole time laughing and talking about the funny and embarrassing things that we've done or said. When my host dad and I first got to her house, she showed me her room, and we were trying to talk but were having a really hard time. After about two minutes we realized that we were still speaking in Portuguese! We had completely forgot that we could speak in English. We laughed about that for awhile, and then tried to communicate in Portuguese, but we got to excited to have to work that hard to talk to each other, so we switched back to English. 

Friday night, my friends and I went out to a restaurant for dinner, it was for Brazilian grilled meat. They call it Carne Asada, and it is meat grilled on a stick, and then served with sauces, rice, and salad. It was really good. A lot of the restaurants here have completely outdoor seating, it's really nice to be able to sit outside. After eating, we walked over to my friend Isabelle's house where we played karaoke, and then two of us slept over. It was a ton of fun, and I found that I was able to participate without having to focus only on the language. It was a really good feeling to be able to just focus on having fun, and not trying way to hard to figure out what to say. 

Last night my host parents and I went to the Circus. It was amazing! I had forgotten how much I love the acrobatics. My host dad let me get a Maca de Amore, apple of love. It was like a caramel apple, except instead of caramel, it had a red hard candy around it. It was really good! My host mom said we could try to make them at home. The circus was all acrobatic and humor, and I found that I was laughing at the jokes, it was a really good feeling to be able to understand what was going on! The acrobatics were amazing! And the company was really small, everything was done by about 12 or 15 people. They each did a few different things, and it was absolutely amazing! At the very end, they did this amazing thing where three people on motorcycles got in this wooden ball. I can't even try to explain what it was like, but they were all going around really fast, upside down and weaving around. They had to duck their heads because they were so close to each other. I couldn't even imagine trying to do that. It was terrifying and amazing to watch! That was a really good end of a great week!

Today we are just taking a nice day to relax, it's really nice to be able to have a day to just think about everything that happened the last week, and to get excited for the next one. Tonight I am going to make them Honey-Lime grilled chicken, I hope they like it! I think that I am going to be able to cook every Sunday night. I am really excited to be able to cook for them. I'll write again soon!

Love from Brasil,

Liv

Almost Two Weeks

Boa Noite,

I can't believe that I've been here almost two whole weeks. I can't believe I've only been here almost two weeks. It feels like I left Minnesota just yesterday, but also feels like I've been here for a long time because of how much I've seen and learned. The days seem to go by so slowly, but at night I can barely remember everything that I did. I can see why the people who have already gone on their exchange year, say that you have to make the most of everyday because your year goes by so fast. I'm sorry that I haven't posted any pictures, I feel really weird and touristy waking around with a camera in my hand. Don't worry though, I've decided that I would rather get weird looks, and have pictures to document my year, so I'll start posting them soon.

 School is still going great, and even though I have absolutely no idea what is going on during class, I have a ton of fun and I get to practice my Portuguese. The kids in my class are so understanding and funny, we spend half of our conversations laughing about something that was said wrong, or a story someone told. Everything with my host family is going wonderful as well, I am able to spend a lot of time with them, and it is a ton of fun! My host mom has been talking me along with her when ever she goes somewhere. To the store, to visit friends, I even got to go to a baby shower. My host dad wakes up at the same time as me an Henrique and makes us breakfast and sometimes homemade pineapple juice. Then he drives us to school. He always kisses the top of our heads before we get out of the car, and then again when he picks us up again after school.

Last night I went out with Henrique and a bunch of our friends from school. We went to a Pasteleria, where we ate these huge pastries that are deep fried dough with different types of fillings inside, I had chicken and bacon, it was so good! Then we walked to one of the guys houses and sat outside talking for almost two hours. Me and Henrique had to walk about 20 blocks home though, which I enjoyed a little bit because a city always looks different when you are walking, then when you are driving. Today we went to a farm to see my host mom's friends new baby. She was so tiny and cute. We just spent the whole time watching her sleep and playing with her little toes. My host mom really loves children and babies, she is going to take me with her when she goes to play with all of the kids at the local Children's Home. That is where she adopted my host sister and brother from, I am so excited to play with all of the kids! She said there is a new baby there that we can see as well.

The drive out to the farm was really the first time that I had been out of the city since driving in from Cuiaba. I had forgot how amazingly gorgeous it is out in the country. The soil ranges from a deep brown to burgundy, bright red, orange, and then light brown pinks. It is so beautiful. There are beautiful long grasses growing everywhere, and then tree's scattered in the fields. There are hills in the distance, and the sky is a really deep blue. In the city almost everyone drives a motorcycle/bike (moto) they are everywhere! Yesterday I saw a man driving, and a woman on the back holding a little baby. Unlike the U.S. everyone wears a helmet, I don't think that I've seen a person without one yet. This evening, my family took me to the Saturday night market for dinner, I had a different type of pastel filled with hamburger, and sugarcane juice. Later we are planning on going dancing, around 11:00. Everyone except me is taking a nap right now before we go, I am really excited to see what kind of dancing it is!

I'll post soon,

Tciao,
Olivia

Fathers Day

It's August 7th today. I can't believe that I've only been here five days. I already feel like I'm settling in. School is so much fun that I don't even mind that we have to be there by seven in the morning. The school also reminds me a lot of ARTech/Arcadia, everyone knows everyone, and the teachers and the students have really good relationships. The teachers are both respected as an authority figure, but also as a peer.  Yesterday it was fathers day in Brazil, and the rotary club in Tangara had a party to celebrate. I had no idea what to expect, and it was a ton of fun! Everyone came and ate some really amazing food, then a few people gave speeches about their dads and why they are important to the club and to their families. Then all of the dads in the room were sent out back. I didn't understand what was happening until they all came out dressed like woman and started parading around the room. It was so funny (: Everyone was laughing and taking pictures or videos. I wish that I had my camera because my host dad looked so proud and so happy to be a dad. Up until then, I'd been so focused on experiencing and noticing what was different  between Brazil and the US, but seeing all of those smiling dads with proud families made me realize that the similarities can be just as important and interesting than the differences. It was a really great night. (: I've decided to try to post smaller posts more regularily, but bear with me, I accidentally must have packed procrastination.
With Love,
Olivia

(Happy Brazilian Fathers day dad, You would have looked ridiculous in the dresses that some of them squeezed into, I laugh just thinking about it.)

My First Days

Bom Dia!

I'm sorry, I am posting a little later than I had hoped, but the past few days have been incredibly busy. On August 2nd I started my exchange. Leaving was really hard, but once I realized that I was about to start the year that I had been dreaming about since I first learned about Rotary Youth Exchange, excitement took over.

I had a one and a half hour flight to Detroit Michigan, from there I had a ten hour flight to Sao Paulo, and then a two hour flight to Cuiaba. I was with Elise, another girl from Northfield who is going on exchange in Brazil, on the first two flights. I probably would have gotten lost or really confused if we hadn't been able to navigate the Detroit airport together. Unfortunately we didn't get to sit together on either of our two flights, but it turned out alright. During the first flight I practiced Portuguese and slept a little. During the second flight, I got to sit next to a boy who was coming home from his exchange in the US. We talked until we fell asleep, and he gave me lots of advice for my year. When I woke up, about four hours into the flight, I found that my water bottle had leaked all over my backpack and Patagonia bag. I had to take out all of my stuff, and because I couldn't put in back in the bags wet, I decided to try drying them out by using the air vent above my seat. :) It actually worked pretty well, and I had it all dry by the time my flight landed. When we landed in Sao Paulo and got off the plane, I got pretty nervous, the airport was HUGE and I had no idea where to go or what to do. I only had one hour to figure it out, so I was really stressed, but thankfully a woman saw that I was completely lost and helped me figure out what to do. After that I only got mixed up once, but a really nice couple helped me find our gate. We had been sitting there for about 30 minutes when we noticed that there weren't as many people in the gate that had been there when we  arrived, and that even though it was almost time to board, there wasn't a plane in the spot. We figured out that they had switched our flight to a new gate and we had to run to get to it in time. From Sao Paulo, I had a two hour flight to Cuiaba. I sat by a woman who was from Brazil and we spent the whole flight talking, she helped me with my Portuguese and told me a lot about Brazil. When we got off of the plane, we had to walk from the plane to the entrance of the airport. The baggage claim belt was pretty small and hardly any of the people could fit around, but everyone was talking and if someone's bag came and they weren't in the front, the people who could reach it would get it for them. A really nice man helped me get my bags off the belt and load them on my cart.

Then I walked out to where the people were waiting. Right away I saw my host dad holding his little grandson, they were yelling my name and smiling, then he walked me to where my host mom and host brother were standing. I was hugged and then we headed out to the car. My little host nephew is the cutest baby I think I've ever seen. He has these huge brown eyes with the longest eyelashes, and when he doesn't understand what you say he looks at you and goes Eh? It is really adorable :)

We drove back to my host sister's house in Cuiaba and had a really good lunch of rice, beans, and different meats in several sauces. It was really good. Then my host parents drove me and my host brother Henrique to the mall in Cuiaba. Henrique's friend Amanda met us at the mall and then we all took the bus to her house. We had a ton of fun watching music videos and when her mom came home we all danced to the music and ate cake. Later we walked to Amanda's friends house and then all four of us walked to a pool in the neighborhood and talked while dangling our feet in the cool water. When we got back, they noticed that I was really tired after my flight and so her parents drove me and Henrique back to his sisters house. We watched a little TV, and then I went to bed.

On Sunday, we started the morning with a really big breakfast with lots of different fruit, bread, cheese, and juice. Then we drove the two and a half hours to the city that I will be living in, Tangara Da Serra. On the way we stopped at a roadside shop. It was a cluster of small thatched roof and open walled rooms, one where they sold different homemade pastries and drinks, one where there were bathroom stalls, and another where they had chairs clustered around a TV. There were chickens and dogs running around everywhere, and there were little kids playing. I wish that we could have stayed longer, but we had to get to Tangara Da Serra for a huge rotary barbecue, it was a ton of fun, and I got to meet many rotary members. After that, we went back to the house and I watched some TV with Henrique. Then my host mom, dad and I went on a walk around the main part of the town. There were so many people sitting on the sidewalks in lawn chairs, listening to music and laughing, it was really loud, but exciting.

Monday was my first day of school, I was really nervous before going because I'm not very good at Portuguese yet, but I really wanted to make friends. I didn't have to worry at all, the girls in my class came up to me right away and everyone was helping me to understand what they were asking or telling me. They didn't hesitate to correct me when I was wrong, and when we couldn't figure it out, we would just laugh and move on to another topic. In the middle of the school day, we went out to the outdoor gymnasium. The kids all sat on the cement bleachers while the principal and teachers were taking, suddenly one of the girls next to me raised my hand. I was really confused because everyone was looking at me, then the principal made me get up and walk to her. She kept asking me questions, but I couldn't understand her, I would have normally been really embarrassed, but everyone in the gym was smiling and when I walked back to my friends, they all cheered. I really like my school and the people in my class. Then  Henrique and I went home for lunch and then to one of the girls from our classes house to swim. That is all for now, but I'm sure that I'll have much more to post later :)
Tchau!