Tomorrow is the day...

This past week I've been dreading tomorrow. All I can think about is going home and how good/bad that is. This week has gone so fast and has been super busy. Monday I went to Assis and bought some presents for my family. Afterwards I arrived in Palmital and Lucrezia and I went with my friend Bianca to the supermarket to buy ingredents for the italian style pizzas we were going to make later. I also bought some food and candy that I wanted to bring back. Next we went back to bianca's house and Lucrezia made the dough for the crust. The dough had to sit for 4 hours so Lucrezia and I went and did some last goodbyes with our Portuguese teacher and a friend. At 9 o'clock we arrived back at Bianca's house to finish the pizzas by rolling out the dough, putting on the sauce and adding toppings before baking them. The pizzas turned out great and they were really good. A little different than what I'm used to. Italians use a little sauce and very few toppings and cheese but it was still a yummy pizza.

Tuesday, I started organizing my suitcases which took up most of the afternoon. I have a big suitcase, a little carry-on, a backpack, and a blanket. Luckily for me, American Airlines allows for 32 kilos (70lbs) for a checked bag because my suitcase weight 29 kilos and 900 grams. I knew right then and there that I was going to have to reorganize a few things because carrying around a suitcase like that is awful. Later in the evening, I went and said goodbye to my first host family. They had asked for me to bring Lucrezia so I did. We stayed for a couple hours talking and then it started raining. I had come by bike so I was at a disadvantage in getting home. So at 8:00pm I ended up going back to Lucrezia's house to wait out the rain because her house was close. My older host sister Ana Beatriz took us by umbrella there. The rain didn't look like it was going to let up soon and it didn't so I ended up getting distracted helping Lucrezia repack her suitcase. This took awhile because Lucrezia's airline only allows 23 kilos (50lbs) and she had a lot more things to pack than I did. It was difficult and she joked the whole time how she was going to wear like 30 shirts so she wouldn't have to pay the excss fee. Lucrezia, her host mom, and I worked until 11:45pm fixing her suitcase, backpack, and purse so she could get it on the airplane.

Wednesday I spent my time fixing my suitcase again. Hoping maybe if I juggled some things around it would make it lighter, which I don't think worked at all. It was still super heavy. After a few hours of trying, I gave up. I had found a few more things that I couldn't pack in my suitcase that my other family had given me so I went to return them and ended up staying to help make churros. Afterwards I went and returned my bike and said my good byes to Lucrezia. I would see her tomorrow but still. I also returned my bike that I had borrowed. I had it fixed up because I used that bike for everything and I had run it down so the next person will have a great bike. Next, I went home and got ready to go out with my friends. They invited me to go out to eat and we went to eat hot dogs. It was a great night. Almost all my friends were there from my class and we were talking and joking. It was so much fun. I knew I was going to miss them all so much.

Thursday morning I went and met Lucrezia at the bus station. She said she wouldn't cry but she ended up crying which made me and her host mom and her other mom cry. Afterwards we got in touch with one of the taxis to pick me up the next morning because my brother was leaving for work and therefore had to take the car leaving us without one. The taxi driver agreed and promised to be there the next morning. The rest of the day was spent around the house reorganizing my suitcase, throwing away trash, and deciding what I needed to take with me the next morning. I spent the rest of the time with my family just hanging around the house because there wasn't anything else to do and I wanted my last day to be with my family. I also made pancakes for dinner for my family to try with the maple syrup I brought for the for Christmas. Now every time I've made pancakes, they always come out really thick no matter how much milk I add. So I have to squish them down or the inside stays liquid. I think it must be something with the the difference in ingredients. Now Brasil does make pancakes but they are very thin, very similar to french crepes, and they come in sweet/doce (with dessert items) or salty/salgado(not actually salty but you eat them with meat and a sauce. The name just doesn't translate into something in English). I wasn't sure what my family would think because its not something they have in Brasil and so far my success rate is 50/50. They actually liked it and didn't think it was super sweet which is what they thought before they tried them and I thought they would think. If that makes sense. They like the maple syrup as well. It was a cool bonding moment with my family. So that was my last week in Brasil.

I think I will make the next day it's own post because otherwise this post will be too long filled with emotions and what happened and it was an important moment in my life and it deserves to be acknowledged separate.

Less than a week

So I have less than a week left until I go home. I'm feeling quite a time strain because I still have lots of things I need to do with my friends. I want to make sure I spend time and see all my friends one more time before I leave. I also have to pack my suitcase but I'm going to do that Thursday. No worried yet. It's weird to think after all this time my exchange is coming to an end. When I arrived, I had all this time and I thought it would take forever to pass but it actually went really fast.

Something else sad happened to my city. A girl from my city was living in the Kansas studying English. She went home for the new year and then left the 2nd of January and died on the airplane after experiencing discomfort. No one knows what the cause of her death is. People in my city think it was heart problems while stories from the US say that she was smuggling drugs but they are all just stories.To get her body back to Brazil her family had to raise R$21,500 or US$10,750. That's a lot of money. They were able to raise the money in 4 hours. Yes my little city of 23,000 people raised R$21,500 in 4 hours. That's pretty amazing and yet sad as well. My condolences go out to the family. I miss my mom and would hate for the last time we talked was on skype. My friends are all worried for me now to go on the plane. They keep saying to get up and walk around and drink lots of water and such.

All for now,

Cori

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas even though it might be a little late. My Christmas this year was quite different than what I'm used to. First of all, Christmas is really weird when your sweating because it's so hot and not even a snowflake in sight. Second, no real Christmas trees are put in houses. only little plastic trees. Third of all, very few people actually decorate their houses. It usually just includes a tree if that, although some people do put lights on their houses which I thought was the most festive thing yet. Really the only thing that felt like Christmas to me was going to church and being with family and well the commercial side to Christmas as well. 

I guess I should explain more so you understand a little more about Christmas. I'm used to lots of decorations, a large tree, lights and snow for Christmas. My host mom doesn't like decorations because there is no where to put them and she has to clean them. So no decorations and well right now it's summer so no snow either and it doesn't even snow in São Paulo even in winter. I did how ever go to a family party and my host mom's family is huge so there were lots of people. Monday or Christmas Eve we left for Candido Mota which is a city close to Palmital. We arrived at my aunts house where she was already setting up tables and chairs and warming up some of the food. At 7:00pm we went to church for mass. You don't have to go to church but it can be a good bonding time with your family and it's a good way to understand the culture of Brazil. After mass we went back to my aunts house. People had already started arriving. It was only 10:00pm and we weren't going to eat until 12:00am. We sat down and there was beer and soda passed around and little toasted bread to dip into different types of sauces. Everyone was talking and catching up. Santa Clause or Papai Noel made a vist to the kids and he brought presents. The kids were so happy and surprised. It was great. At midnight, we all cheered and and hugged and said Merry Christmas or Feliz Natal. It took awhile because there were so many people to hug. Then everyone got in line to get food. there were various types of food. I don't think there is one type of food for Christmas but there was rice and beans of course. As well as a couple different types of meat and a tropical salad and couscous. There was also lasagna. We stayed up until 3:00am when everyone left to go home and sleep. The next morning after everyone slept in late we had breakfast and then got prepared for a BBQ with some of the family. BBQ's are great and delicious. I think I'm going to miss going to Brazilian BBQ's. Anyways, there was more salad and rice and beans and beer and soda and talking. It was a great time.

A week later, like usual, is New Year's Eve. I went and celebrated with my friend Bianca. First we went out to eat which was very busy. Almost everyone went out that day. My host family went to Candido Mota again while my host brother and sister and I went to Dub's for a New Years dance. I went with my friend Bianca like I said. I went and had dinner with her family but it took until 12:30am until we could eat. While we waited we were super close to where the city had a fireworks show set up. I was so close to the fireworks I could see all of them. A friend of Bianca brought other fire works that Bianca's dad blew off. It was this carboard tube and you hold it up towards the sky after you light it. these weren't tiny fireworks either. They were the big coloful fireworks that you usually see in shows too. It was kind of scary and one time a piece of wick blew off and landed on Bianca's sister's shirt and burned a hole in it as well as burning her hair as well. There was also hugging and happy new year wishes and champagne. She was mad. After we ate, Bianca, her boyfriend, a couple other friends, and I went to Dub's to go dancing. It was great. I saw a bunch of my friends and the music was great too. It started off with a DJ who played house music and then there was a band that played Axé (pronounced a-shay) music. It's kinda similar to samba but it's not samba. Afterwards there was another DJ who played more music. Some people stayed until 6:00am but I only stayed until 3:30am. 

I went to sleep at 4:00am and woke up and 11:00am to go to Candido Mota to have lunch with some family. We stayed for a little bit before going home. When we got home I fell asleep because I was still tired from the night before and took a nap. It was fun to experience the holidays in a different country.