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!