Lindsey Footit's 4th report
Posted by Bob Hlina
Lindsey is our outbound exchange student who is living the year in Brazil. Please take the time to read her reports and share in this young ladies adventure of a lifetime. Her email address is ljfoottit@hotmail.com and I'm sure she would be appreciative of your efforts to send her a word or two of encouragement. Remember she has taken herself out of her comfort zone to learn how life is in another culture quite different then our own.
Cara Gente,
Another report. It feels like I just wrote the last one. Most likely because I am getting super lazy with taking pictures and writing about what I have done. To be honest, I have no idea where I left off. So if I repeat anything, just pretend it's super interesting.
In early December, I went to Natal ( city 4 hours north of mine) to spend the weekend with all the exchange students in my District. It was super fun. We spent the first night catching up with everyone and then the next day, we went on the buggies and trekked on the enormous sand dunes. At times, the dunes were so steep that it felt like a rollercoaster. That night we had a christmas party and exchanged secret santa gifts and some students recieved surprise gifts from their parents ( mine arrived late, but my mom ruined the surprise for me anyways, haha). The next day we took the famous Rotary group photos, exchanged pins again and then everyone got back on the bus to their cities.
Feliz Natal!!! For Christmas, the grandmother's house was filled with hundreds of different types of pastries, bread rolls, cheeses, meats and sweets. There was more than enough food to feed the family for over a month! Funny thing is that they spent a lot of time eating out as well. Instead of opening presents on the morning of Christmas, people stay up on Christmas Eve (normally throw a party or have a get together with the family) and open presents at midnight. (Well, that's what I think is the tradition, but maybe it is just the tradition of my host family!) Nonetheless, I enjoyed my Christmas here. I gave away pratically all of my Canadian gifts and recieved some very nice gifts myself. However, I must say that without snow it's not quite the same thing, but a year with palm trees and beaches is not such a bad thing. After midnight, I went to a electronic party held in a car dealership building with some friends. I was still dancing when the sun came up and continued dancing until about 7 am. I arrived in the house completely exhausted and slept most of the day. Definitely a strange Christmas for me. Completely opposite of waking up with ease and having a relaxing day with the family.
New Years Eve. I went with my family to the house of one of the uncles, who is lucky enough to own an apartment right on the beach front about 30 minutes outside of Joao Pessoa. It's costumary here to wear white for New Years. It represents peace. Not everyone does it, but it's still a strong tradition because it was literally a sea of white clothing everywhere I went. It's actually really pretty to see, it's almost like a cleansing to start off fresh with white. At midnight, the fireworks went off in Joao Pessoa. Afterwards, the kids and younger adults went down to the water and jumped the waves, asking for things they wish to have this year. Every wave you jump, you ask for a thing/quality or whatever you desire. I did twelve with my friend because that's the number she usually does. It was honestly hard to think of twelve things! Around two in the morning, the younger adults and the adults that think they are still young ( haha, just joking, the whole family basically went) went to Reveilon ( it's the general name for a New Years Eve Party, I think....haha) The Reveilon I went to, was a blocked off party on the beach front. There were two live bands, a dance floor ( of sand, my feet got completely dirty!) and a bunch of tables for people to sit. The price for a ticket was 150 Canadian dollars. I couldn't believe it that my host grandmother paid for everyone to get it and I mean everyone ( her two sons, their children and wives, me, the girlfriend of my host cousin, the friend of my cousin and my host brother, hahah, imagine the price of that!) I saw pratically half of my classmates there, which was nice because I have not seen them since school ended. I danced the night away with my friends and host cousins. It was a enormous party! By the time it had filled up and they were not letting in anymore people, I could barely squeeze through the crowd to get to the disgusting washrooms. When the sun came up, the security guards let people onto the beach. I left at about 7 am in the morning, but many people were still dancing away. One of my friends was only just arriving when I was leaving! Brasilians love to stay up late and exhaust themselves! After walking back to the apartment ( the party was not to far away) watching some locals swimming in the ocean, I went inside and grabbed a glass to get some water. My hands were a bit wet and the glass slipped and shattered into pieces on the tile floor. I took it as a bad sign! I'm thinking that this year, 2009, will not be "my year".
So I had another lucky day. One Sunday, my whole family was invited to pass the day on a friend's gigantic boat ( by gigantic, I mean it had a bedroom, bathroom and living room, and two motors that knocked through the waves as if they were cotton). We started off in Jacare, the name of the place where there are restaurants and docks on the Paraiba River. It's fairly close to where the river meets the ocean. We all got on board and cruised for half an hour, where we arrived at the Red Island ( literal translation). It's a spot in the ocean where boats often go and park for the day because its fairly shallow and people can swim with ease. That day, it was full of boats, ski-doos and kite-surfers whipping around. We spent about 3-4 hours there relaxing on the boat and swimming in the ocean. The owner of the boat was not actually there with us, only his wife and a driver for the boat ( I have no idea what you would call that...). NO, instead he was in a helicopter. His helicopter to be frank. When we were leaving, he decided to strip down to his swim trunks, get out of the helicopter and jump 15 feet into the water to get to the boat. It was a pretty neat site, but I don't think his wive was very impressed. Supposedly, he likes to do ridiculous things often. Everyone was in awwe of him and I wanted to go and give it a go myself! Nonetheless, he is a very nice man and sure knows how to grab the attention of his fans. Afterwards, we went cruizing on the river as well. It was absolutely beautiful. The river was even pretty than the ocean because of the forests and houses scattered along the river beaches. My favourite part was seeing the color of the ocean and the color of the river side by side because the waters cannot mix due to the different densities. Luckily, I only burned a little bit on my face! Not bad for a white girl during a summer day in Brazil.
Since it is summer, I have been doing lots of relaxing. I spent a few nights at a friend's apartment on the beach. Here, it is common to own a house or apartment in a suburb 30 minutes outside of the city. Many people that live in the interior come to coast for January and live in their summer homes. When I was at my friends house, we went walking on the sand streets (literally, they are horrible streets to drive on) and there were so many young people just chatting after dark. Every other house has a small get together going on. It's like one big party pratically. I love that idea of life. Just living on month with everyone together, relaxing and having a break from stress!
I have been going out a lot as well ( Brazilian life for you!) to clubs, restaurants and concerts. Joao Pessoa has a summer thing called Festa Verao, where there are four/five big concerts for every weekend. I went to the first one with my host brother and a handful of cousins. Here, everyone has to wear a concert t-shirt. All the girls cropped and decorated theirs because they were too huge. For every show there is always two levels, Camarote and Pista. Camarote is the more expensive one and has a blocked off area. Plus, they have different colored shirts. Concerts here are really different than in Canada. Walking to the outdoor area, ther are hundreds of stands selling fast food, bbq, drinks. Some people just set up shop outside the concert and have a good time listening to their music. There were three different areas, which is similar to some concerts in Canada, but one area was a blocked off electronic part. Completely opposite from the other bands that were playing.
Right now, I am in a hotel room in Brasilia, the capital of Brasil. I'm currently doing a trip with other Rotary students. One month, one bus and a numerous cities/beaches in Brasil. It's called the Northeast Dream Trip, but it covers other parts of Brasil as well. Today was the first day of the trip. Brasilia is completely different from all other cities in Brasil. It is only 48 years old and was constructed with a modern theme by a Brasilian architecture ( I'm sorry if I spelled that wrong, I seriously cannot speak a language anymore!! Not portuguese, not english, not even my horrible french). It is a very organized city. There are pratically no stop lights and the shape of the city is the shape of a airplane. When I got here, I was not too enthused to begin speaking english again. I never speak english here. I don't want to speak it, but then I realized that english is the language of exchange students. That no matter what country, the majority of the students speak english. It's sad for the english speakers, but it's really fascinating to know that there is a universal language that connects all of the students. Yes, it is cheezy, I know...
I have to say that I am so proud to be in the Northeast part of Brasil. Even though everyone comments that it's the poorest part of Brasil, it's not as if everyone is poor. It's funny, many things here in the Northeast are hard to find in other parts of Brasil. Lots of different types of food, for example, are much more available here. Plus, the accents are much more attractive! It's like comparing the french of France and the french of Quebec.
Anywho, I am sure that this trip will be amazing! I am really excited to spend a month travelling in BRASIL with Rotary International Exchange Students! Woohoo. Thank you mom and dad for paying! Thank you Rotary for picking me! Until the next report.
Ate mais,
Lindsey