Yes it has been a long time since I have written a blog post. I know. I just have been beyond busy that after I get home, sitting down and writing seems like a chore and so I have more or less avoided this moment for a long time. But I can't leave you in the dark forever, so here I am finally giving you a view into my life the past month or so.
Let me start at the beginning of August. If you remember from my last post, I broke my computer screen rendering my computer useless. Well, my replacement computer arrived in Palmital and I was so excited to go get it from the post office. Little did I know that there was a small fee that went along with it. Well i knew there was a fee but when I saw the number, I almost fell over. R$500!!! Which let me tell you is about $250, the same amount as the what I paid for the computer. After much thought and conversing with my mom, I decided to let them send back to the USA. I was quite sad because it was nice having my own space where I could put my photos and have all my favorite pages already marked. My host family lets me use their computer so it's not a problem entering the Internet and talking with my family but sometimes you just need your own space.
So lessons for future exchange students:
1. If you bring a computer, DON'T BREAK IT!
2.Don't ship electronics to Brazil
But some good did come out of not having a computer. I use the computer less because I have to share with my host brother and mother which means I use the computer less. The AFS rule 1 hour a day is not to stifle you but to help you so really, only stay on the computer 1 hour a day.
The second week of August I got to meet Lucrezia the Italian girl who lives in my city. She is really cool and we hang out a lot because she is still learning the town so she needs my help find stores to buy things she needs. When she first arrived she spoke like no Portuguese and even less English making communication very difficult. I have learned a lot of Italian from her as well because she mixes Portuguese and Italian when she speaks. She is really nice and out going and loves to go out and dance. We have become really good friends and she has become friends with my friends as well so it's great hanging out together.
I also joined a gym with two of my friends and go almost everyday. I'm working on building muscles so who knows. Maybe when I return home, I'll be super strong...Hahaha Not! But it is a good idea to join a gym because living in Brazil, it's easy to gain weight which I have learned the hard way but don't use that as a reason not to go here. All my friends go to gyms in my town and it great because there is a trainer who helps you on what exercise you do. For example, at my gym, the trainer writes you a schedual for you to follow depending on what you make to work on for each day of the week. She is also really nice and super funny.
The third week consisted of me doing things normal which includes school, helping Lucrezia, going to my Portuguese class, going to the gym and oh, traveling to Ourinhos to cook traditional Brazilian food of Jorge Armado! It was a two day class and Lucrezia, Elie (Exchange student from the French speaking part of Belgium who lives in Ourinhos) and I. We were split into two groups in which one day you cooked and the other day you learned about Jorge Armado. The cooking part was great because the food was from Bahia in which they use a lot of spice making the food super spicy compared to food here in São Paulo. Lots of people there didn't like it too much because of the spice but I enjoyed it because eating non-spicy food for so long made me miss it a lot. I'm so glad I'll be going to Bahia soon. I can't wait to try the food. All in all it was a great two days of getting to eat and meet new people.
Sunday I again went to Ourinhos. This time we saw a comedy play. It was one man playing the sound effects while a women was speaking. I enjoyed it because I actually understood the jokes because my Portuguese has become much better. I was laughing a lot and hanging out with friends and another great day of memories.
Monday, Lucrezia and I went to Marilía because she needed to give her documents to the Federal Police. I went too because I needed to tell them I changed addresses and to see if maybe my documents were done. 5 months later and they are not done. For exchange students only staying for a semester, you probably will leave without you identification card like Lucrezia. It wasn't really an adventurous day but Lucrezia had all her documents and is official now.
The fourth week of was not very eventful. Just the a normal as I stated above but busy none the less.
The first week of September (this past week) I played futesal with my school for the a competition between all the schools in my city. I only played a little because of course they wanted to win but it was still cool to be apart of the team. They won second place after a close final round. Everyone got a medal but was happy to be in second. I was happy too for everyone. It was a great few days.
Today, Sept. 7th, is Independence day in Brazil. In my city we had a parade with all the schools and different organizations and different cars. I was in it with my school. We went as strikers. We made signs and painted our face with two lines and we yelling and cheering. It was a lot of fun being with my friends. It was a short walk but we waited forever to start. We were just standing around waiting and after a while the sun started to come up so it got really hot. We all went and hid in the shade. When our turn finally came to start, we were all running to get together because we weren't ready. We took lots of pictures as well and I got sun burned on my forehead, nose,and arms.
Also in the past month I have gotten really close with my family. We get along really well and I feel really comfortable living here. I don't have any problems and it's just been great. I'm so happy now. My host brother and I joke around a lot and he helps me with my Portuguese. We get along really well.
So that's been my life for the past month. Fun-filled and crazy and amazing. I also plan on going to Pantanal in October next month and doing a min-exchange. I'll be going to Bahia. I don't know when yet but it will be soon. I'm super excited to be traveling a little father than normal and Lucrezia will be going to Pantanal too. AFS students from all over Brazil will be going too so I'll get to meet people from all over the world. Ah, I can't wait.
For exchange students: AFS trips are expensive but I have heard are worth the money. if you can't go on the big trips, do mini-exchanges! You'll get to live with another family and go to school in another part of Brazil for 1 or 2 weeks. It's a great to get to experience another part of Brazil because Brazil is so big that each state can be different than another.
Hope you enjoy this post. Sorry I don't have pictures. I don't have the USB cord yet to my camera and my host family's computer doesn't have an SD card reader so it makes it kind of difficult. If you want to see some pictures though, go on my facebook and view my photos. There's lots of photos from my exchange that other people took of the things I have been doing.
Cori
P.S. Sorry for any errors. I have lost some of my English while living here. I even had problems reading a fairly easy paper during and English class mostly to my embarrassment but it's true that you loose some of you natural language when you learn a new language but now with my Portuguese I can communicate and understand well. I can joke and ask questions and carry on conversations now with everyone. So loosing some of my English is a small price to pay for learning Portuguese!
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