I am starting to get to the stage in culture shock where you start to really notice the differences between your home culture, and your new host culture. Their predictions were spot on, everyday I am noticing things that are different that I had never noticed before. It is so interesting to me how many different ways there are of doing things, and how there really isn't a "right" or a "wrong" way, it depends on the person. It definitely has been one of the biggest challenges so far for me, getting used to doing things a different way. Not because it feels wrong to be doing it different, but because it is hard to break habits that you never really noticed you had, and to form new ones. Some of the new habits that I've formed are:
1. Drinking coffee every morning.
2. Putting the toilet paper in the garbage can instead of flushing it.
3. Making my bed every morning.
4. Eating a really big lunch and a small dinner.
5. Kissing everyone on the cheek to say hello and goodbye.
6. To give cars the right of way, even in a crosswalk.
7. Having my house key with me at all times, because if I get invited to go do something and I forgot it, I am just out of luck.
8. Washing my shoes every week.
9. To not put down a plate or bowl of food on the counter and leave it for more than a few seconds, otherwise there'll be a bunch of ants in it.
10. Putting my hair up all the time, but like a Brazilian, using no hair tie.
11. Taking a siesta after lunch. (my favorite new habit)
12. Going running every night that I don't have rotary or interact.
13. Eating chicken legs, pizza, hamburgers, and lots of other "finger food" with a fork and knife.
14. Wearing flip flops (havinas) all the time, even around the house.
15. Calling older woman Tia (aunt) as a sign of respect and affection.
On Wednesday the 16th, me and Leah walked around town with two guys who were visiting Tangara for the week. We showed them all of our favorite spots around the downtown area, and then walked back to Leah's house and made Brigadeiro, the classic Brazilian chocolate desert. It was a ton of fun because they had been traveling all over Brasil for a month already, and told us all about what they had seen. They had been to some of the cities that we will be going to on our big trip in January, and it made us really excited listening to them talk about how beautiful they were. That night, we went to my rotary meeting, and a lot of the interact kids were there getting ready for a big ice cream event that we had later this week. They were putting labels on little cups, and then put the tickets and the cups inside a bag. We had over two thousand to do, and even though it was a lot of work, it was a ton of fun! One of the boys started putting stickers on me and Leah, and then they all thought it was a ton of fun, and we spent more time taking the stickers off of our arms and back and out of our hair than actually helping.
On Saturday my school had it's big "IPES Solidario" event where there were stations set up in every classroom and in our courtyard outside. My class was working to raise money for our graduation this November by selling clothes that had been collected all year, at a huge stand. It took up the whole outdoor gymnasium and we had piles of clothes set out on the cement steps and on tables. It was really busy, but not that many people needed our help and so me and my friends were able to spend most of the time talking, making jokes and just hanging out. That night I was invited to go with two of my friends from school to their friends house. We jumped on her trampoline (trampoline in portuguese is pulapula, my new favorite word) and ate Salsisha, which is the Brazilian version of a hot dog. It is kind of hard to explain, but it is hot dogs cut into little pieces in a sauce with corn, and you put it into a mini french bread roll. It is really popular here, and everyone eats it with mayonnaise and ketchup.
On Sunday I went downtown with Julia and we got ice cream and walked around. The main street, Avenida Brasil, is about five or six blocks long and is filled with little shops and stands. We are still hesitant to go into the shops because people always come and personally help you. It makes it hard to leave without buying something, and so we just like to window shop. The last week went really well, it has definitely started to feel like a routine now. I keep forgetting that I am in Brasil, I'll go about my day just like I would back in the states. Then I'll suddenly realize that even though the act of walking to the store isn't exciting in itself, I am walking to the store in Brasil. The fact that I was able to have the chance to live in Brasil is amazing in itself. Me, Leah, and Julia will often sit and talk about how amazing and weird it is that we are here.
This past Friday we had interact which is always really fun. I can't remember if I've really explained what Interact is, but here's a quick rundown. It's basically like rotary, but for and run by teenagers. It's amazing. They are so professional and take it so seriously at the same time as having a ton of fun. The kids involved are so dedicated and caring, they want to make a difference and they really do. This interact meeting was especially important because they picked the next president. Being president is a really big commitment and honor, they put in a lot of work and time, but have a ton of respect. After the meeting ended, I went to Leah's house and we watched a movie with her little brother Joao Pedro. He ordered us pizza and we made brigadeiro again. It was a good lazy night at the end of a school week.
On Saturday and Sunday, Henrique and all the other kids in the third year in Tangara had the big test ENEM. It is basically the equivalent of the SAT and ACT tests, but for them, if they don't pass they can't go to college. I didn't have to take it thankfully, and so me and my host mom had a great day at home. We were both in the mood for something sweet, so after café da manhã (breakfast) she made these pastries filled with homemade blackberry jam. They were so good and we each ate two and a half. Then we did the laundry and made pipoca dulce (sweet popcorn) and watched some crime TV shows. We were going to make my favorite pineapple cake, but I went out with Leah downtown and we didn't have time.
On Sunday it was the big Ice Cream event. It was at the huge sport center in town, and almost two thousand children came and got ice cream. I was serving ice cream, and by the second hour my hand hurt really badly, but the sticky smiling faces were so cute that it was definitely worth it. Unsurprisingly, about halfway through the day, I accidentally dumped a whole bowl of ice cream down my legs. It was bad to begin with, but then this really nice lady tried to help me clean it up and just ended up smearing ice cream all over my legs. Everyone was laughing at me, and I realized that I wasn't actually that embarrassed. They were all laughing at me because I looked ridiculous, but it wasn't in a mean way at all. If that had happened in the U.S. I would have been mortified, especially if I had been somewhere where I didn't know anyone like I was at this event. It sometimes amazes me how much that I've changed since I got here, and this was one of those times where I really noticed a shift.
These next few weekends are going to be incredibly busy for me, so I am not sure when I'll get the chance to post again. I hope that everyone has a great Halloween, and that it has been a beautiful autumn. Dad you better send me pictures of Ben in his costume if he goes trick or treating!
Até Então
Liv
Monday, October 28, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
Friendship, Farms, and More Good Food.
This past week and a half has also been pretty busy. Last Sunday me, Leah (exchange student from Canada), and Julia (exchange student from Germany) went to a rotary barbecue with Julia's rotary club. It was out on a farm about a half hour from our city and it was absolutely beautiful. We ate more amazing churrasco (Brazilian Barbecue) and talked with many different people about our home countries, and about our experiences these past two months. A girl who is thinking about doing exchange and her two younger brothers sat and talked with us, and I got to play chess with the youngest little guy. He is the same age as Ben, my little brother in the U.S. and it was really great to be able to play with a little one again.
This is Leah and Julia, I am going to be talking about them a lot this year so I figured you should see who they are. Leah is in the yellow shirt, and Julia's the other one :)
Later on Sunday night, my host family and I went to an event at our church, it was a ton of fun, we watched a presentation and then ate pizza and had birthday cake. My host sister from Cuiaba, Juliana, her husband and little son Heitor were at our house for that weekend and part of the week which was really nice. I love playing with Heitor, and we had a great time playing with his toy cars, and with some other games.
This past week I was really busy after school because everyone in my class learned that I could make friendship bracelets, and so they all picked out colors and I made about twenty friendship bracelets in one week. I am still not done with all of them, and now the other graduating class at my school wants them too, so I have a ton more to make. I have also started running after school because it is so beautiful outside, and I can't just stay in my house. It is helping me practice my Portuguese because I end up talking to people, and I get some much needed exercise. :)
This weekend was really busy as well, on Saturday it was my friend Camila's birthday party. The girls dressed up as guys, and the guys dressed up as girls, it was a ton of fun! I wish I had better pictures to show you, the boys really outdid themselves. It was insane. My best guy-friend from school, Joao Carlos, was dressed in a mini skirt, and a corset with high-heels and makeup. He is normally sort of a cowboy and I never guessed that I would ever see him in a dress. It was incredibly funny. This is me with him after he changed back into his normal clothes, it's really blurry though sorry.
At the beginning of the night they did a runway show and I got a video of Joao, and some of my other friends doing their "walk" down the runway. The one in the front is a girl and all of the others are guys. Joao is the one in the black mini skirt.
(Dad, if the video doesn't work can you email me, I've never posted one before and I don't know if it'll work)
After the runway show, we ate dinner and then sang happy birthday to Camila and ate cake and other treats. After that we all danced and then the guys each threw one of us in the pool even though we were still in our normal clothes, and then soon everyone was either swimming or dancing.
(The girl in the blue shirt is Mariana, she is one of my best friends at school)
The next morning I went with my host parents to the rotary building in my town, I didn't know what was going on, all my host mom had told me was to bring an extra change of clothes and my camera. We got there at around 6:00 in the morning, there were a bunch of kids from Interact there and a big bus. We drove about an hour and a half out to this small town to play with the kids because it was Dia de los Criancas, Day of the Children. There were about 60 little kids and we played lots of different games with them and handed out presents and it was incredible. One of the guys from my Rotary club dressed up like a clown and all of the little kids stuffed balloons in his suit and then he danced around and played with them. We also put on music for a little bit and let the kids show us their dance moves.
After leaving the small town, I thought that we were going back to Tangara, but we actually went out to this really small Native community and ate lunch at this small water hole on a river. After eating, we all walked down this trail to a waterfall and went and played in the falls. It was incredibly beautiful, but I don't have any pictures of us at the bottom because I couldn't bring my camera
After the long drive back to Tangara, my friend from interact invited me over to her house to swim and just hang out with her and some other people. We made popcorn and had a really relaxing time swimming and talking. It was a great weekend because I was able to make a bunch of new friends, thankfully today we have school off because it is Dia de los Professores, Day of the Teachers. (Happy day of the teachers mom).
I'll post again soon, I hope that everyone is having a wonderful October!
Tchau,
Liv
Saturday, October 5, 2013
September
Hi again! I'm sorry that I didn't post for awhile, I have been crazy busy these past few weeks. I'll try to go in order week by week, a lot has been going on!
From Wednesday August 4th through Sunday August 8th, there was a huge party in my city called the Exposerra. It's a lot like the Minnesota State Fair, just smaller, but with a rodeo and a huge concert every night. The rodeo starts around 10 and goes to about midnight, then at midnight the concert starts and goes to about two, after that there is a dance party in a different part of the park. I was really surprised because everyone was at the Exposerra, teachers, elderly, little kids, everyone. They also all stayed really late, I saw whole families at the concert at one in the morning. The music that was played for all but one of the nights was music that is liked by both young and older Brazilians, so everyone enjoyed the concerts. It was really good that the students weren't the only one's who went to the expo, because then at school we weren't the only one's exhausted. The teachers were too, and so even though we still had classes as normal, it wasn't as rigorous. I got to go every night except Sunday, and it was a ton of fun! I went with different groups of friends every night and met a lot of new people. They taught me how to dance many different Brazilian dances, and they laughed at me a lot because they thought it was funny how a "gringa" was learning to dance like a Brazilian. The dancing here is so much fun, and everyone knows how. My friends were all really excited to teach me, and I can't wait until there is another event to dance at.
Another thing that we did every night was go on this crazy ride called the samba. It's a circular platform with a seat running around the outside, and the whole things spins and goes up and down really fast.The guy who runs the ride stands in the middle and turns around to try to not fall down, and every once in awhile he will grab someone off the bench and pull them in the middle and try to teach them how to do it. The person usually just stumbles around and when the guy lets go of them and they try to turn on their own, they stumble around and fall onto the people sitting. It was so funny to watch, everyone was laughing and cheering for whoever was in the middle, and when one of my friends got in the middle and was able to do it, there was a huge crowd cheering on the sidelines.
On Sunday I didn't go because it was my friend from school, Andressa's, 15th birthday party. Here when a girl turns 15 it is a really big deal, and they have a big party. For hers, they had rented a patio, and everyone crowded around and ate cake, sang to her, and danced. There were a lot of people from school there, and we had a ton of fun!
The next friday I went to a motorcycle party with Leah, one of the other two exchange students living in Tangara Da Serra. We played soccer and then went to go lay in the grass. A group of little girls figured out that we were exchange students, came and sat down around us and asked us a bunch of questions. Then we played tag and danced and they had us sing songs with them, it was really fun. They would just grab out hands and pull us around the party and they tried to teach us to dance, it was really cute, and all of the parents were smiling and laughing because we were so confused and they were helping us.
The next morning my dad took me, Leah, and Julia to Cuiaba to go to the Federal Police station. It is a crazy four hour drive on this two lane highway. There are a lot of semi-trucks that drive back and forth on those roads, and they go really slow because the roads are really bumpy and the trucks are always over full. Everyone else wants to go really fast, and so it's this crazy leap frog train of cars. We'd be going almost 180 kph and then slow down to 40, and we would pass a line of 5 cars, and then have to quickly pull back in the lane because a car was coming. I am finally starting to get used to the driving in Brasil, but the drive to Cuiaba is still pretty scary :) We spent the whole day in Cuiaba, first stopping to see my host sister Juliana's new house and to see her little son Heitor. My host dad then dropped us off at the big shopping mall so we could look around before going to the Police station. Shopping is different in Brasil, the shops are mostly really small, and the people who are working there help you pick out clothes and one person helps you the whole time you are in the store. Since we weren't really looking to buy anything, and our Portuguese wasn't the best, we decided that going into the shops wasn't the best idea, but we had a ton of fun looking around.
We hurried back to Tangara after our appointments at the Federal Police station because Interact, the rotary group for teenagers, had a pizza party. There were about a hundred people packed into the meeting room and the patio, and the teenagers from Interact were running around and serving everyone the most delicious pizza that I've ever had. They have all different kinds here with different toppings and cheeses. My favorite is Brigadero pizza. Brigadero is really hard to explain, but it kinda tastes like chocolate carmel. It's made out of condensed milk and chocolate powder, and then is cooked until it thickens. It is so good, I could eat it everyday! A lot of my friends from school were there, and so I introduced Leah and Julia to them, and we sat around and talked about the differences between the United States, Germany, Canada, and Brazil. After the pizza party, I went to one of my friends houses where we all sat outside and drank Terrere, a kind of brazilian tea made with lime juice. You put a bunch of the grass in a cup with this special straw, and pour lime juice water into the cup and everyone passes the cup around. It is surprising, but after awhile, I started to really like it.
The next week was really busy with school and studying because the next week was the week where you have tests in every class. Since I am in the third year here, everyone is studying really hard because they have to pass their tests to graduate in November. I am going to write out my school schedule so you can see how many classes they have to study for. Everyday school starts at 7:00 and goes until 12:00.
On Monday I have History, English, Math, and then a 15 minute break for snack at 9:00. After snack we have Math, Organic Chemistry, and Spanish.
On Tuesday we have Physics, Literature, Non-Organic Chemistry, Art, Biology, and Geography. Then we all go home for lunch and come back at 2:40 for Math and History.
On Wednesday we have Organic Chemistry, Geography, Philosophy, Writing, English, and Spanish.
On Thursday we have Physics, Portuguese, History, Non-Organic Chemistry, History, and Math. We go home for lunch and come back for Organic Chemistry, Physics, and two class periods of Biology.
Then Friday we have Physics, Sociology, Portuguese, Physics, Literature, and Religion.
Finally on Saturday we have Writing, Biology, Biology, Physics, Literature, and Geography.
It's a crazy school schedule, and even though it is still hard to understand what the teachers are talking about, I am really enjoying school and am actually learning a lot. The teachers are all really nice to me and tease me when I am completely lost, and when I understand are really excited. I love the relationships that the teachers have with the students here, it reminds me a lot of Artech-Arcadia. The kids tease the teachers, and the teachers tease them right back. A lot of the time, the teacher is sitting in the middle of a group of students that have pulled their chairs around them. One of my teachers, Elaine, walks around the room and will sit on the kids desks and braid our hair as she talks about History, her classes are a ton of fun because she is always teasing us and telling us stories. Another teacher is called Batata (potato) because he is really short and round, he gets so excited that he paces from side to side in front of the blackboard, and tells so many stories that the students often have to remind him to finish the math problem on the board. I also really love school because I get to see all of my friends. The kids in my school are so wonderful, they treat each other with so much respect and love it amazes me that they are only in high school. Everyone is so nice to me, and they are all working really hard to include me and to help me learn Portuguese and more about Brasil and the culture.
These are some of my friends from my school:
The next weekend my whole family went to Cuiaba to visit my host sister, we left right after finishing lunch on Friday and didn't get back until sunday night. When we got there, my host parents and I went to a concert at a local church. It was a really intamite setting because he was just sitting on a chair with his guitar and a mic. We were in a really small church, and his voice just filled the whole room. He sang one of my favorite songs, Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel, but in Portuguese. When it started my host dad who knows it's one of my favorites, got really excited and grabbed my hand and my host moms hand, and then the whole room held hands and sang along. It was one of those moments where I really realized that I am in Brasil, and not just as a tourist, that I am living here and learning the language and the culture. It was a really cool feeling.
That night one of my other host sisters, Raquel, flew in to Cuiaba and the next morning my host mom and two host sisters took me to buy a swimsuit. We had a ton of fun trying to find a swimsuit that was modest enough for me, it took us a long time, a lot of trying on, and a lot of laughing, but we finally found one. Then my host brother and little host nephew joined us and we went out for lunch at a fancy restaurant. That night we went back to the Mall to find some school clothes for my brother, it was a ton of fun. My host nephew was with us, me and my host dad played with him a lot while my host mom helped Henrique. We played hide and seek in the clothes racks, and my host dad tossed him around and carried him in the cloth shopping bags. It was also fun because me and my host brother walked around and tried clothes on and made fun of each other. Me and my host brother get along really well. We have a ton of inside jokes, and when one of us is frustrated for some reason, the other can tell just by looking and then starts to crack up, and then we're both laughing. In the mornings, we both roll out of bed and take showers and go to eat in the kitchen. It's pretty early and so we're both tired and usually not to happy to be awake, but we take one look at the crabby face on the other and we're both laughing.
On Sunday, I cooked lunch for my host family, my two host sisters, and Juliana's husband and son. I made pancakes with bacon inside them, scrambled eggs, syrup, and my host mom made rice and beans. The first time that I made pancakes I was really confused when my family cut them up and mixed it together with rice and beans. I couldn't imagine that it tasted good, but my host dad loves it, and has me make it every week. I realized that whatever I make is going to be eaten with rice and beans, I just hope that it all tastes good :) After lunch, we all took a nap, and then drove back around 3. On the way home, Leah the exchange student from Canada called and invited me to sleep over. The next day at my school was a test day, so I didn't have to go so my host parents dropped me at her house on the way into town. Her dad took us to the market where we bought the ingredients to make spaghetti and tomato sauce for lunch the next day. We were trying to find corn chips, but we couldn't find them so we tried to ask a guy for help. He didn't understand our question, and eventually we just said thank you and walked away. We started laughing because of how embarrassing it was, and we laughed so hard that we were crying. Her host dad found us and cracked up because we looked so ridiculous. The next day we woke up and made spaghetti with homemade sauce. It actually turned out pretty good, and everyone liked it. Then the two of us went for a really long bike ride around the city, stopped for ice cream, and just explored. It was a really good day, and when I got home that night I was so tired that I fell asleep right away.
The next weekend was amazing! The Interact club in my city had a camp. Interact is like Rotary, but run by, and for teenagers. The people in the club are really wonderful, and it was a ton of fun. We drove out to this beautiful campsite about 15 minutes outside of my city. There were about 25 kids there, and we all slept in tents. There was a big field, on one side there was a lowered soccer field, and on the other side a big pavilion with a ping-pong table, a Foosball table, and a pool-table. There was also a swimming pool and a river that ran along side it. When we first got there after school on Friday, we all set up our tents, and then everyone just hung out playing games, singing, dancing, swimming, and playing soccer. Then we ate spaghetti and everyone went out on the soccer fields for the interact meeting. The meeting was really moving, it is really amazing to see what teenagers can do to help their community, and how much they mean to each other. After the meeting we all stayed out on the field and played games all night. It was a ton of fun, after playing games, the boys all pulled their blowup mattresses up into the middle of the field, and we all piled on them and played music and sang together. After we were done singing, about 15 of us stayed out there, and they asked me Leah and Julia all about our lives back home, and it was really relaxing to lay outside and to just talk. The next morning we all got up really early and ate breakfast, then we went out to the field and played a bunch of games. After lunch the boys all dragged out a big tarp and got garbage cans full of water from the pool and dragged them out to the field. Me, Leah, and Julia were really confused because then the started putting soap on the tarp. Everyone crowded around and we spread the soap and water all over the tarp and then everyone started running and diving across the tarp. It was so much fun! Everyone was running into each other and falling down and sliding everywhere. Then we did sumo wrestling, and then the girls played soccer. That was a ton of fun because you couldn't really run without falling, and everyone was running into each other or slipping and tripping each other. We were all covered in soap and soaked, and everyone was laughing and having a great time.
On sunday my host dad picked me, Leah, and Julia up in the morning and we went with my whole host family to a waterfall near my town called Salto das Nuvens. It's so beautiful. We ate lunch at the buffet and then went down to the beach. After looking around and taking some pictures me, Leah, and Julia took a nap in hammocks and then went swimming with my host dad and brother. It was a great day.
Last weekend was a little bit of an adventure. On Friday I went to my friend Leah's house to make pancakes for her friends from school and her host cousin. It was a ton of fun, and everyone liked them. After we made pancakes Later that night I had an asthma attack, and I ended up going to the hospital. My host family handled it really really well though, and are now helping me to make sure that it doesn't happen again. The rest of the week went really well, my friend from school had a birthday party which was a lot of fun, we ate more good food and cake (they really love fancy cakes). This past week we had our graduation pictures taken. We all went out to this beautiful farm, and first they took pictures of our whole class, and then we individually went out onto this dock in the middle of the lake and they took more. The boys went first, and when they were done they all jumped into the lake and swam around. Two of my friends from school took me out in the paddle boat which was a ton of fun, and we spent the afternoon running around and talking. I forgot my camera, but when my friends from school post the pictures from that day, I can upload them here. I have one of the pictures of my class.
I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to write a blog post! I'll try to write more often, and to write shorter ones, hopefully every week or two. I am also going to upload pictures onto my other blog posts now that I know how, so re-check those out if you want to see them.
Até mais tarde!
Tchau,
Olivia
From Wednesday August 4th through Sunday August 8th, there was a huge party in my city called the Exposerra. It's a lot like the Minnesota State Fair, just smaller, but with a rodeo and a huge concert every night. The rodeo starts around 10 and goes to about midnight, then at midnight the concert starts and goes to about two, after that there is a dance party in a different part of the park. I was really surprised because everyone was at the Exposerra, teachers, elderly, little kids, everyone. They also all stayed really late, I saw whole families at the concert at one in the morning. The music that was played for all but one of the nights was music that is liked by both young and older Brazilians, so everyone enjoyed the concerts. It was really good that the students weren't the only one's who went to the expo, because then at school we weren't the only one's exhausted. The teachers were too, and so even though we still had classes as normal, it wasn't as rigorous. I got to go every night except Sunday, and it was a ton of fun! I went with different groups of friends every night and met a lot of new people. They taught me how to dance many different Brazilian dances, and they laughed at me a lot because they thought it was funny how a "gringa" was learning to dance like a Brazilian. The dancing here is so much fun, and everyone knows how. My friends were all really excited to teach me, and I can't wait until there is another event to dance at.
Another thing that we did every night was go on this crazy ride called the samba. It's a circular platform with a seat running around the outside, and the whole things spins and goes up and down really fast.The guy who runs the ride stands in the middle and turns around to try to not fall down, and every once in awhile he will grab someone off the bench and pull them in the middle and try to teach them how to do it. The person usually just stumbles around and when the guy lets go of them and they try to turn on their own, they stumble around and fall onto the people sitting. It was so funny to watch, everyone was laughing and cheering for whoever was in the middle, and when one of my friends got in the middle and was able to do it, there was a huge crowd cheering on the sidelines.
On Sunday I didn't go because it was my friend from school, Andressa's, 15th birthday party. Here when a girl turns 15 it is a really big deal, and they have a big party. For hers, they had rented a patio, and everyone crowded around and ate cake, sang to her, and danced. There were a lot of people from school there, and we had a ton of fun!
The next friday I went to a motorcycle party with Leah, one of the other two exchange students living in Tangara Da Serra. We played soccer and then went to go lay in the grass. A group of little girls figured out that we were exchange students, came and sat down around us and asked us a bunch of questions. Then we played tag and danced and they had us sing songs with them, it was really fun. They would just grab out hands and pull us around the party and they tried to teach us to dance, it was really cute, and all of the parents were smiling and laughing because we were so confused and they were helping us.
The next morning my dad took me, Leah, and Julia to Cuiaba to go to the Federal Police station. It is a crazy four hour drive on this two lane highway. There are a lot of semi-trucks that drive back and forth on those roads, and they go really slow because the roads are really bumpy and the trucks are always over full. Everyone else wants to go really fast, and so it's this crazy leap frog train of cars. We'd be going almost 180 kph and then slow down to 40, and we would pass a line of 5 cars, and then have to quickly pull back in the lane because a car was coming. I am finally starting to get used to the driving in Brasil, but the drive to Cuiaba is still pretty scary :) We spent the whole day in Cuiaba, first stopping to see my host sister Juliana's new house and to see her little son Heitor. My host dad then dropped us off at the big shopping mall so we could look around before going to the Police station. Shopping is different in Brasil, the shops are mostly really small, and the people who are working there help you pick out clothes and one person helps you the whole time you are in the store. Since we weren't really looking to buy anything, and our Portuguese wasn't the best, we decided that going into the shops wasn't the best idea, but we had a ton of fun looking around.
We hurried back to Tangara after our appointments at the Federal Police station because Interact, the rotary group for teenagers, had a pizza party. There were about a hundred people packed into the meeting room and the patio, and the teenagers from Interact were running around and serving everyone the most delicious pizza that I've ever had. They have all different kinds here with different toppings and cheeses. My favorite is Brigadero pizza. Brigadero is really hard to explain, but it kinda tastes like chocolate carmel. It's made out of condensed milk and chocolate powder, and then is cooked until it thickens. It is so good, I could eat it everyday! A lot of my friends from school were there, and so I introduced Leah and Julia to them, and we sat around and talked about the differences between the United States, Germany, Canada, and Brazil. After the pizza party, I went to one of my friends houses where we all sat outside and drank Terrere, a kind of brazilian tea made with lime juice. You put a bunch of the grass in a cup with this special straw, and pour lime juice water into the cup and everyone passes the cup around. It is surprising, but after awhile, I started to really like it.
The next week was really busy with school and studying because the next week was the week where you have tests in every class. Since I am in the third year here, everyone is studying really hard because they have to pass their tests to graduate in November. I am going to write out my school schedule so you can see how many classes they have to study for. Everyday school starts at 7:00 and goes until 12:00.
On Monday I have History, English, Math, and then a 15 minute break for snack at 9:00. After snack we have Math, Organic Chemistry, and Spanish.
On Tuesday we have Physics, Literature, Non-Organic Chemistry, Art, Biology, and Geography. Then we all go home for lunch and come back at 2:40 for Math and History.
On Wednesday we have Organic Chemistry, Geography, Philosophy, Writing, English, and Spanish.
On Thursday we have Physics, Portuguese, History, Non-Organic Chemistry, History, and Math. We go home for lunch and come back for Organic Chemistry, Physics, and two class periods of Biology.
Then Friday we have Physics, Sociology, Portuguese, Physics, Literature, and Religion.
Finally on Saturday we have Writing, Biology, Biology, Physics, Literature, and Geography.
It's a crazy school schedule, and even though it is still hard to understand what the teachers are talking about, I am really enjoying school and am actually learning a lot. The teachers are all really nice to me and tease me when I am completely lost, and when I understand are really excited. I love the relationships that the teachers have with the students here, it reminds me a lot of Artech-Arcadia. The kids tease the teachers, and the teachers tease them right back. A lot of the time, the teacher is sitting in the middle of a group of students that have pulled their chairs around them. One of my teachers, Elaine, walks around the room and will sit on the kids desks and braid our hair as she talks about History, her classes are a ton of fun because she is always teasing us and telling us stories. Another teacher is called Batata (potato) because he is really short and round, he gets so excited that he paces from side to side in front of the blackboard, and tells so many stories that the students often have to remind him to finish the math problem on the board. I also really love school because I get to see all of my friends. The kids in my school are so wonderful, they treat each other with so much respect and love it amazes me that they are only in high school. Everyone is so nice to me, and they are all working really hard to include me and to help me learn Portuguese and more about Brasil and the culture.
These are some of my friends from my school:
The next weekend my whole family went to Cuiaba to visit my host sister, we left right after finishing lunch on Friday and didn't get back until sunday night. When we got there, my host parents and I went to a concert at a local church. It was a really intamite setting because he was just sitting on a chair with his guitar and a mic. We were in a really small church, and his voice just filled the whole room. He sang one of my favorite songs, Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel, but in Portuguese. When it started my host dad who knows it's one of my favorites, got really excited and grabbed my hand and my host moms hand, and then the whole room held hands and sang along. It was one of those moments where I really realized that I am in Brasil, and not just as a tourist, that I am living here and learning the language and the culture. It was a really cool feeling.
That night one of my other host sisters, Raquel, flew in to Cuiaba and the next morning my host mom and two host sisters took me to buy a swimsuit. We had a ton of fun trying to find a swimsuit that was modest enough for me, it took us a long time, a lot of trying on, and a lot of laughing, but we finally found one. Then my host brother and little host nephew joined us and we went out for lunch at a fancy restaurant. That night we went back to the Mall to find some school clothes for my brother, it was a ton of fun. My host nephew was with us, me and my host dad played with him a lot while my host mom helped Henrique. We played hide and seek in the clothes racks, and my host dad tossed him around and carried him in the cloth shopping bags. It was also fun because me and my host brother walked around and tried clothes on and made fun of each other. Me and my host brother get along really well. We have a ton of inside jokes, and when one of us is frustrated for some reason, the other can tell just by looking and then starts to crack up, and then we're both laughing. In the mornings, we both roll out of bed and take showers and go to eat in the kitchen. It's pretty early and so we're both tired and usually not to happy to be awake, but we take one look at the crabby face on the other and we're both laughing.
On Sunday, I cooked lunch for my host family, my two host sisters, and Juliana's husband and son. I made pancakes with bacon inside them, scrambled eggs, syrup, and my host mom made rice and beans. The first time that I made pancakes I was really confused when my family cut them up and mixed it together with rice and beans. I couldn't imagine that it tasted good, but my host dad loves it, and has me make it every week. I realized that whatever I make is going to be eaten with rice and beans, I just hope that it all tastes good :) After lunch, we all took a nap, and then drove back around 3. On the way home, Leah the exchange student from Canada called and invited me to sleep over. The next day at my school was a test day, so I didn't have to go so my host parents dropped me at her house on the way into town. Her dad took us to the market where we bought the ingredients to make spaghetti and tomato sauce for lunch the next day. We were trying to find corn chips, but we couldn't find them so we tried to ask a guy for help. He didn't understand our question, and eventually we just said thank you and walked away. We started laughing because of how embarrassing it was, and we laughed so hard that we were crying. Her host dad found us and cracked up because we looked so ridiculous. The next day we woke up and made spaghetti with homemade sauce. It actually turned out pretty good, and everyone liked it. Then the two of us went for a really long bike ride around the city, stopped for ice cream, and just explored. It was a really good day, and when I got home that night I was so tired that I fell asleep right away.
The next weekend was amazing! The Interact club in my city had a camp. Interact is like Rotary, but run by, and for teenagers. The people in the club are really wonderful, and it was a ton of fun. We drove out to this beautiful campsite about 15 minutes outside of my city. There were about 25 kids there, and we all slept in tents. There was a big field, on one side there was a lowered soccer field, and on the other side a big pavilion with a ping-pong table, a Foosball table, and a pool-table. There was also a swimming pool and a river that ran along side it. When we first got there after school on Friday, we all set up our tents, and then everyone just hung out playing games, singing, dancing, swimming, and playing soccer. Then we ate spaghetti and everyone went out on the soccer fields for the interact meeting. The meeting was really moving, it is really amazing to see what teenagers can do to help their community, and how much they mean to each other. After the meeting we all stayed out on the field and played games all night. It was a ton of fun, after playing games, the boys all pulled their blowup mattresses up into the middle of the field, and we all piled on them and played music and sang together. After we were done singing, about 15 of us stayed out there, and they asked me Leah and Julia all about our lives back home, and it was really relaxing to lay outside and to just talk. The next morning we all got up really early and ate breakfast, then we went out to the field and played a bunch of games. After lunch the boys all dragged out a big tarp and got garbage cans full of water from the pool and dragged them out to the field. Me, Leah, and Julia were really confused because then the started putting soap on the tarp. Everyone crowded around and we spread the soap and water all over the tarp and then everyone started running and diving across the tarp. It was so much fun! Everyone was running into each other and falling down and sliding everywhere. Then we did sumo wrestling, and then the girls played soccer. That was a ton of fun because you couldn't really run without falling, and everyone was running into each other or slipping and tripping each other. We were all covered in soap and soaked, and everyone was laughing and having a great time.
On sunday my host dad picked me, Leah, and Julia up in the morning and we went with my whole host family to a waterfall near my town called Salto das Nuvens. It's so beautiful. We ate lunch at the buffet and then went down to the beach. After looking around and taking some pictures me, Leah, and Julia took a nap in hammocks and then went swimming with my host dad and brother. It was a great day.
Last weekend was a little bit of an adventure. On Friday I went to my friend Leah's house to make pancakes for her friends from school and her host cousin. It was a ton of fun, and everyone liked them. After we made pancakes Later that night I had an asthma attack, and I ended up going to the hospital. My host family handled it really really well though, and are now helping me to make sure that it doesn't happen again. The rest of the week went really well, my friend from school had a birthday party which was a lot of fun, we ate more good food and cake (they really love fancy cakes). This past week we had our graduation pictures taken. We all went out to this beautiful farm, and first they took pictures of our whole class, and then we individually went out onto this dock in the middle of the lake and they took more. The boys went first, and when they were done they all jumped into the lake and swam around. Two of my friends from school took me out in the paddle boat which was a ton of fun, and we spent the afternoon running around and talking. I forgot my camera, but when my friends from school post the pictures from that day, I can upload them here. I have one of the pictures of my class.
I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to write a blog post! I'll try to write more often, and to write shorter ones, hopefully every week or two. I am also going to upload pictures onto my other blog posts now that I know how, so re-check those out if you want to see them.
Até mais tarde!
Tchau,
Olivia
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