So I was right about last weekend, it wasn't too eventful. Most of my week at school wasn't either. We had tests starting on Wednesday, which is really boring for me because it's hard to take a test you don't understand. The good thing is we finish school early, so I got to hangout with my friends and they taught me more Portuguese. My last week with my first host family was nice. On Monday we got a pizza and chocolate pizza as a little going away thing for me, the chocolate pizza was so good. On Tuesday we had a fancy Rotary event where I had to wear my blazer and introduced myself to everyone. On Thursday after school we came home and I packed up all my things and we headed to my second families house. When we got there they had signs saying "Bem Vinda Elora" everywhere, which means Welcome Elora. Then my first host family and I had dinner with my second host family. After that I said goodbye, it was really sad, and then they went home and I talked a bit with my new host family, they gave me a tour of the house, and then I got unpacked and went to sleep. My new house it very close to the school so in the morning my two host brothers and I walked to school. After school was finished we went home and had lunch. After lunch we went to my host brothers grandmothers house. She is very nice and has the cutest puppy! After that we did some other things in town, we went for a walk along the lake side, we went to my host brothers English school where I was invited to go to help teach English and we went to a bakery that my host mothers extended family owns. The food at the bakery is amazing. That night we went to bingo, which was kind of boring boom not really into bingo, but it was okay. The next day we my host mother and I dropped my youngest host brother off at his friends house then went to her moms house and I played with the puppy again. After we went home and had lunch. My first host family invited me to a wedding that night, so my host mom got some of her daughters (who is in exchange im Mexico) dresses and let me borrow one along with shoes. Then she took me to get my nails done because she is so incredibly nice. After that we came home and I started getting ready for the wedding. My first host father picked me up and I went to my first house and once everyone was ready we headed to the wedding. People here dress very fancy for weddings. It was a pretty small wedding, but it was so beautiful. I absolutely loved the brides dress. The food was amazing, and so were the candies. My host family let me have a glass of champagne which made me feel very grown up and fancy. There was so much dancing and it was just really fun. By the time I got home it was really late, and I had to get up pretty early because I was going to my friend, Vitória's, house in another city close by because I didn't have school on Monday or Tuesday. My host mother took me to the bakery for breakfast, then took me to my friends house in a small town called Cumari. I met her family, everyone was really nice, and we walked to another one of our friends houses where a bunch of other people were, then we went back to her house andhad lunch. After that we went to our other friends farm where a whole bunch of our friends were. It was really cool! We played cards and watched a movie and made food and just hung out and had a really good time. It was raining, which kind of sucked because we couldn't go swimming, but it was still really fun. Then me and Vitória had to go back to her house. We met up with another one of her friends that I had never met before and we walked around town and met up with some more people. We were all hanging out when a drunk teenager crashed a car literally super close to us, it was really freaky. It's a really small town so everyone knows everyone so it was kind of a big deal and everyone was freaking out. We ended up going home not long after that, we were both pretty tired anyways. The next morning we went around the town some more and ate so much food. I met her aunt and some of her other family, everyone was very nice and welcoming. Then we headed back to Catalão and got açaí and then they dropped me off at home. Later that night my host mothers cousin and her son and his friend came over. Her son speaks really good English so I've been able to talk with him a lot. We had dinner and played monopoly until really late, but I lost pretty early on so I went to bed. The next morning (Tuesday) I woke up and a bunch of people started arriving at the house. I later found out we were hosting a party for my host mothers brother who was turning 50. It was really fun to meet everyone. There was so much yummy food and so many people to meet and try and talk to. It was a really fun day, I really like the family. My host brothers are very sweet and kind, my host parents are amazing and their extended family seems so nice as well. There were a few people who spoke English so I talked a lot with them, I played just dance with my host brothers and their cousins, I got to meet some really cool people from another city. It was a good day.
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The week before last was really fun, probably because I spent two of the days not at school. On Tuesday it was Bia's birthday, so we got to stay home and went to Uberlândia to go shoping. It was really fun! So much better than school. I didn't buy much, just some earrings because I forgot to bring some and a new perfume because I was almost out of the one I brought. The mall in Uberlândia is really nice and has such a nice view looking out over the city. We then went back home and some people came over for dinner to celebrate. The next day we didn't have school either because there was a trip to see the university, but that doesn't really apply to me. We just hung out around here and went into town to my host mothers store. The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, includeding the weeken, except for on Thursday we had like a concert where a few of people in the school who play instruments played and some of the teachers sang. It was super fun and funny and kind of reminded me of Caf Jam but with more dancing and singing along. A lot of people have to write tests around now for university, and they are on the weekends.
This past week at school we also had Wednesday off. On Tuesday night Bia and I went out with a few of her friends to a bar where there was live music and people dancing. It was really cool, and pretty fun, but it's difficult because everyone knows all the words to the songs and I don't. It sucks to being able to join in with everyone else, but I still had a good time. School wasn't too eventful, my friends are really helping me work on my Portuguese though, which is good and is really helping. Last night (Friday), my host family went out for dinner. It's crazy that this is my last weekend with them. I'm excited to see what my next family will be like but I'm also very nervous. Most people have to write more tests this weekend, so I think the rest of it will probably be kind of boring, but at least school is almost over! The weekend after the week off wasn't overly exciting, on Saturday we went to a few different towns close to Catalão, and got ice cream. Getting ice cream here is really fun, it's kind of like yogurtys, where you pick your flavour(s) and then can put a whole bunch of toppings on. It was really yummy. Then we headed back to Catalão and went to a bar for dinner. Sunday we just stayed home. This week at school was kind of difficult because on Sunday I got a really bad sore throat, and it continued to get progressively worse until I could barely eat. It was just really sucky to be sick, and everyone thought I was depressed, even though I just wasn't feeling well. Luckily, by Thursday I was starting to feel a lot better, and by Friday I was pretty much all better. On Saturday there was an interact event that I went to, it was a walk to end polio, so we walked all around the city. It was pretty fun, but really hot! Later that day we went out for dinner to celebrate my host sister, Bia's, 18th birthday. We went to a bar I've been to before first and had fries, then we went to another bar and got some other food, and then these delicious chocolate lava cakes with ice cream and strawberries. It was so good. Today (Sunday), we went for a drive to a lake where we took pictures and walked around, it was really beautiful.
It has been way too long since I did an update, almost a month, which I'm kind of mad at myself about. I guess I've been pretty busy and time has just flown by, but I will try to get back into more frequent updates about how things are going. So I guess I'll start where I left off and try to cover all the stuff I've been up to! I'm going to split this post into sections to make it more manageable. UberlândiaOn September 17th we drove to Uberlândia for my host families cousins 8th birthday. My host sisters grandfather also came so it was a pretty cozy drive, but luckily it's not too far, only about an hour and a half. His birthday party was that night, so when we got there we helped set up. It was a batman themed party, and the decorations were quite impressive. There was so much candy and food, and the set up was really cool. Lots of kids were there running around andhaving fun, there was a chocolate fountain and so many treats. And that was before the birthday cake, which wasn't te kind of birthday cake you get here, it was fancy, and so, so delicious. It was pretty cool to get to attend a younger kids birthday party and see the differences between how they celebrate here and Canada. Also on the way home we stopped at this giant store and the had Nutella that said Brasil on it, which was very exciting because I love Nutella. Brazilian ID CardSo right after getting home on Sunday from Uberlândia, I got to look forward to the three hour drive to Goiânia the next day to get my Brazilian ID Card, which let me tell you, is quite the process. The German exchange student and her host parents went with us, so the car was pretty full, so it want the most fun ride of my life, but I survived. Once we got to the police station we had to wait in a waiting room, to go into another waiting room, where we had to wait for them to fill out a pile of papers and just do a whole bunch of stuff that took forever. After that was all done I got to have another very attractive photo of me taken, as well as all my finger prints. And I mean all of them. Each one separatly, all of them together, apparently they don't mess around here. So after that was all done, plus some more waiting, I finally got this magic paper, not even my real card, no, I have to wait another month for that. So this paper has my picture and some other stuff on it and I have to keep it with me, which is fine, it's not really a big deal, but it will be nice to have the actual card. So after all that we did what any three teenaged girls would do when visiting a big city, we went shopping. And I found the Forever 21, which had so much nice stuff, like I love Forever 21 in Canada and all, but sometimes it can be disorganized, and stuff isn't always the best quality, but here it was so nice. So I got a couple shirts, they are super cute, I'm in love. Then we had the awful drive back, and it really was awful. It was like 35 degrees and I'm in this car with 5 other people in the very back where the air conditioner doesn't really reach. Actual hell, but I survived! The rest of my week at school was pretty boring, nothing particularly eventful happened. That weekend I went out on Saturday with Bia and a few of her friends to a bar to drink water, and I ended up meeting a cool guy from the other school in my city who spoke English quite well that I talked to a bunch which was fun. The rest of the weekend was pretty chill, not a lot happened because Bia had to get her presentation about her exchange ready for the Rotary meeting the next day. Goodbye September The Rotary meeting went well, Bia did a really good job of her presentation, and I won a mug, so that was pretty cool. It says Rotary Club of Catalão, which is super awesome and I was excited when I won it. The last week of September again wasn't that exciting, just normal boring school. I started going to the second year class more often to switch things up, and they enjoy making me say funny words in Portuguese that I can't pronounce which I don't really mind, it's funny and all part of bringing an exchange student, you learn to laugh at yourself. And also laugh at the silly selfies other people take on your phone. Inbound Intro Weekend!On Saturday October 1st, my whole host family, another boy from my city who was on exchange in Taiwan last year, the German exchange student Anika and I all piled into the car to go to Araxá. The drive was about 4 hours, and again, not the most thrilling experience of my life. When we got there we met all the other exchange students and rebounds and Rotex, everyone was super friendly and nice. We did a circl where we introduced ourselves, in Portuguese of course, and said something about ourselves, but me being bad with names had forgotten everyone's name like 10 seconds after they said it. The. We had the option to go back to the host family's house that we were staying at for the weekend or stay and hang out. Anika and I decided to stay, and I wanted to go swimming, so I went with a couple girls from the USA, an girl from Germany and a girl from India, another couple people joined us later, a boy from Mexico and a boy from Brazil. It was really fun and nice to start to get to know my fellow 4770 inbounds. Then we had a presentation about Belo Brazil trips, and man, did they sound amazing. I was sold on all of them, but I later decided on the Northeast Dream Trip, which is a 30 day trip in January, and the Amazon trip, a 9 day trip in May. We then had dinner, and then played games and formally introduced ourselves, and got a reward of shirts, pins and a waterbottle. Speaking of pins, I got so many awesome pins, my blazer is loaded! Then there was a dance party thing, super fun, and tem it was time to go to our host family's houses. Anika and I, as well as a boy from Germany and a girl from the USA were all staying in one house, and let me tell you, it was a nice house. We each had our own room and bathroom I think, and there were 3 floors, beautiful furniture and two pools. It was so cool. And the couple were so nice, they even said to come and stay with them again anytime. They had lots of food for us and were just so welcoming. After exploring for awhile I went to sleep. The next morning we had a Portuguese class, which was fun because we were all learning together. Then we had the not so fun part, all the rules of being on exchange. Basically all the nitty gritty stuff they have to go over. It definitely wasn't fun, but it wasn't so bad. They made it so we had to get involved instead of just sitting and listening. After that Anika and I actually had to leave, which kind of sucked, but my host father had to get back for some unexpected reason, which I understand. Sadly we missed out on touring around the city, although we really didn't miss out on too much. We said goodbye to everyone, exchanged Snapchats and headed on our way back to Catalão. There is a Dog in the SchoolThe next week at school was as usual, pretty boring. Until Thursday, when I walked into my classroom to see everyone crowded around one of my friends holding a dog! A stray dog that she found in the school. She decided she was going to keep said dog so she kept it sleeping under her desk while the teachers were teaching and brought it out during breaks. It was quite the news around the school. And then the one boy who wine on exchange last year kept telling me it was my dog, and my gift and I needed to take it home, as a joke of course. It was just really funny and made the day a little more bearable. That night I went to a Rotary dinner for my host club. I hung out with the Interact Club. They were selling treats to raise money. There was a giant fruit table at the dinner, it was amazing. The next night we went to the other Rotary Clubs dinner, this time to actually sit and have a nice meal, which was cool. Week OffSo I don't have school this week, it has something to do with Children's Day, which I guess is just celebrating children and giving them time off school, which is cool with me. Last Saturday, Bia and I went over to her friends house and we watched a movie and hung out, then later we went out for dinner with him and a few other people. The restaurants here are really different. For example, at the pasta place we went to, you go up, pick your type of pasta, and then pick what you want in the sauce and what kind of sauce you want. And the price is done by the weight of your meal. Pretty neat if you ask me. Then we all went back to the guys house we were at earlier and hung out and watched another movie. On Sunday, we went over to my third host family's house, which is very nice, and hung out for a bit. On Monday my host family took me to another close by city were they have a replica of the Christ the Redeemer Statue, as well as some awesome lakes and great places to take pictures. It was so nice there. The rest of the week has been fairly uneventful, I've went into town, been to my host mothers store and just kind of hung out. Bia and I went to the cinema on Wednesday night to see Don't Breathe, which is a horror movie. It was in Portuguese, but te good thing about horror movies is that their generally isn't too much dialogue, and when there is, you can usually guess at what it might be. It was actually a really good movie and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, I was kind of worried when I found out it was in Portuguese. So there you go, a crazy long, fun filled update of my life as an exchange student in Brazil! I'm really going to try to update more often so not all of my updates have to be this extensive. So today I have officially been in Brazil for 4 weeks. It's crazy how quickly the past couple weeks have flown by. On Thursday last week both second year classes went on a trip around the city to different historical locations for history class. It was really cool to see and fun to get to hang out with some of my friends from school outside of the classroom. We went to a few places including a historical museum, a church and an old nurse school. On Saturday my host sister and I went to one of her friends houses were a bunch of her friends from the third year class were hanging out. Everyone was very friendly as usual and it was really fun. Then on Sunday we went to my host sisters cousins house again and went swimming and listened to music and ate a bunch of yummy food. This week of school was pretty uneventful, school is still pretty boring, but I'm getting more used to it and it's not as bad anymore. Today I met the other exchange student who is in Catalão, she is from Germany. We both had to get forms and pictures for our Brazilian ID cards which we will go get on Monday. She seems really nice and I'm excited to spend more time with her. Tomorrow we are going to Uberlândia, which I'm sure will be really fun! So my first four weeks in Brazil have been amazing, and I am having a really great time here so far.
Today was Independence Day in Brazil, so instead of going to school, I had the day off. Because of that one of the guys from school had a little party/get together thing, so me and my host sister went. It was really fun to hang out with people I have met at school outside of school. Then today I got to sleep in, which was so nice, and then my host sisters and I went over to their cousins house. She has a pool, so we went swimming and played cards and had some really yummy food. After that we came home and went for dinner at a neighbors house. Overall it was a really fun day off.
So I've officially stated my third week of school in Brazil. It's crazy, time has been flying by. School has gotten a lot better, I'm starting to make lots of friends and I don't find it nearly as tortuous as it was at first. Exams are currently going on at my school, so we have normal classes in the morning and then after our first break we go into our test room where we sit and write 4 exams. It sounds bad, but they are really short and most people finish within 2 hours, after that you get to leave and are done for the day. I try to do some of the tests, but it's difficult for me to understand most of them. Last Monday I had my first English class here, it was nice to understand for once. And we had a potluck breakfast so I got to try a bunch of yummy food. I brought maple candies for my classmates to try and I think people liked them. This past weekend my host sister and I went to Uberlândia, which is a bigger city. We went on the bus Friday night and then got picked up by her aunt that lives there. We got pizza and watched a movie. On Saturday we went to the mall and to the cinema and saw the movie Nerve, which was really good. That night we went out with my host sisters aunt, her son and her friends for dinner. On Sunday we went over to my host sisters aunts friends house, went out for açaí and then headed to the bus station to go home. It was a really great weekend.
So today officially marks the week-aversary since I left home to go on this crazy adventure. All in all, it's been a pretty great week. I try not to think about home too much, I know that it's easier to jump into the new culture, but it's hard not to wonder what people are up to. It's just about the end of the summer which means everyone will be getting ready for another year of school, a lot of my grade will be starting a new adventure as well, university. It's crazy that that could have been me, although I'm really thankful it's not. Already I've met so many awesome people. Everyone here is so friendly and wants to take you places and show you things. I really like that. Today the other second year class tried to abduct me because they wanted me to be in their class. And I've had so many people invite me to go out with them places. Nothing particularly eventful happened today. After school I went to my host mothers shop for a bit, then did a few things around the city with her and my host sisters. And I finally got all my school stuff! I have my student card, my shirt (that's the uniform at my school) and all my books. Now that I am settled in a bit more I likely won't be posting as often, more just when something noteworthy takes place. I'd also like to thank everyone who has taken time out of their day to see what I've been up to, it means a lot to me.
School today was good, I'm starting to get the whole schedule and everything worked out. Today we had (more) chemistry, Portuguese, math and physics. Apparently the schedule today is the worst. I talked a lot with a few girls in my class and I'm starting to make friends, which is really nice. After school I relaxed and then I had another Rotary meeting tonight with the other Rotary in Catalão. It went well, I was with my host sister and a couple of her friends which was fun. Overall not the most exciting day, but I'm so excited for the weekend so I can sleep in. Getting up at 6 is not fun, I feel like I'm going to fall asleep in class.
Today was my second day of school. I was in a different class, which I was very worried about at first, but everyone was very welcoming and quite a few people could speak English. They asked me lots of questions and helped me out when I didn't understand the teacher. Today we had Chemistry, Geography, Math and Philosophy. I liked that I knew how to do all the chemistry ad math questions and that it was really easy for me because I've done much more advanced calculations in Canada. Philosophy and geography are pretty boring because I don't really understand, it will get better though. After school we went home and had lunch, and then I went and had a nap and relaxed for a bit. Then my host sister had to go to the eye doctor, and I went with her and my host mother. After we went home and me and my host sister got ready to go out to meet one of her friends. We went to a restaurant and I got Açai icecream win strawberries and a Brazilian candy, it was so good. My host sisters friend was very nice and I had a great time hanging out with her and my host sister.
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