1 month already?

So I have officially been here for 4 weeks. It still seems like a couple days ago I finally landed here. I have gotten a lot better at understanding Portuguese. I am really bad at speaking still. I started taking lessons and they are helpful. In my course I'm going to start working on conjugating verbs which is the hardest and yet most necessary thing to learn. Carnaval was fun. It's like one big dance party in the street in Palmital! I watched the Parades in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janiero on the TV. They were very cool and very elaborate. The costumes and floats were large and very detailed. I enjoyed watching them Samba. I don't think as Americans we really understand the work that goes into these elaborate events but it is so worth it in the end. Very cool! I wish everyone could watch and understand Caranval.  Tuesday I'm going on a trip to Sao Paulo with my class. We are going to visit a big college that is going to be hosting a science fair and we will go to the soccer museum. I'm excited. School has been getting better. It is still hard to understand but things but I can mostly figure some classes out by reading the books like math and physics. Portuguese, sociology, and history are hard because there is a lot of writing and reading and it's hard to catch on to what the teacher is talking about.

When talking about Brazil, you can't forget to mention the food. The food here is very different. I eat lots of bread, meat of all kinds, beans and rice. I eat rice and beans everyday and least one meal a day. I eat some kind of meat several times a week. I also have gotten to try Suco. It is the best juice I have ever had! We have this place called Coco Suco in my town. I love it! It's my favorite place ever!

I finally went to the Federal Police station and applied for my ID card. I am now allowed to live in Brazil! I had an issue with one paper not being Authorized and I freaked out a little but lucky enough for me there was a place in town I could go and get it done. Literally every single document I brought to the Federal Police had stamps and signatures all over it. I'm surprised they could even read them with everything scribbled and signed over and over. After that I could breath a little easier though. It was a long bus ride to Marilia and then back again but I'm just glad it is over. No more worrying about papers and time limits. Now I can relax.


Here are some pictures of my new family and friends:

Top Picture: Meeting my host family for the first time. Bia, Marco, William (Jessica's Brother), Jessica's mother, Jessica, Flavia, Me, My mother, and my father.

Bottom Picture: My New Friends. Me, Bianca, Julian (AFS German Exchange Student), Flavia (My sister), and Miriam (Bianca's sister).