Hello everyone. Hope all is beyond well. Today is my one-month mark of being here in Brazil. It's only the beginning and I already can see how time really flies when you're having fun. I am really enjoying myself ... (click on more to read the rest)
here in Brazil, it's really a dream come true. I wake up every morning in AWE, reminding myself that this is in fact not a dream anymore... but a reality. I am so very thankful and couldn't be happier. My family is really great, I truly feel right at home. I have been very lucky to have siblings who speak English, to really help me settle for my first month, creating a solid group of friends also. I have requested a cut off of all English speaking, which is challenging, yet fun and very necessary, because in order to have change you need to be challenged. So you can imagine, body language has never been so useful to get a message across when words are missing. I live in a 'small town' called Marilia.. (Which seems to me to be enormous, having about 200,000 inhabitants.. It’s the perfect size, for there is still the small town feel when seeing familiar faces constantly) It's currently "winter" here in Brazil, the weather is definitely something I have no problem adjusting to. However, for those of you who didn’t know, it actually gets cold here in Brazil. I learned this the hard way; my packing skills could be questioned.
I started school at the beginning of August. At my school every morning, I check in by scanning my finger. It's very neat, this is one of many things that put a smile on my face in a day. Seeing that 'surprisingly' my entire name never fits into the identification screen. My school is rather big, having about 2,000 students, 5 of them being exchange students. Which is very nice, being able to share the experience with them all. After my first week of school I already had my first school trip. We took a long bus ride to Sao Paulo for a day, visiting a major University for an open house. It was very nice to see this large campus. Afterwards we went to a theme park inside a mall, which I swear, felt to be the size of my hometown Prince Rupert. In the evening we went to the Musical of ‘O Rei Leão’. Which is a childhood favorite of mine, being The Lion king. Obviously the production was in Portuguese, so I can easily say the performance 'looked' beautiful.. While understanding every joke was a different story. It’s all part of the fun, thinking you understand what is going on and it ending up being in a completely different ball field. My concentration cap is constantly in need of being turned on.
I have been to a few Rotary functions and meet with my Rotary club on Monday nights. I am beginning to go more periodically with the other 3 exchange students in my Club. I also joined an Interact club with some of the students in my school, which I am extremely excited about because this is something I've always wanted to be apart of. It is the first Interact club in Marilia, so I fit in perfectly. We meet together once a week to collaborate ideas. This is fun and challenging for me, for the language barrier is present, however, there is no better way to grasp the language than this. We have already done a few projects and have plenty more ahead of us. On August 23-25th, I had my welcome weekend. It was a fun packed orientation, where about 35 exchange students from my District came together. The orientation was at a Ranch resort, here we enjoyed some of the 'winter' sun and of course each other. We had a mini Festa Junina party as well which was a lot of fun dressing up in fun costumes and doing a traditional dance. Another neat thing we did at the orientation was, we planted trees. Each exchange student got to plant a tree, all being side by side. ‘The tree will grow and so will we”, who knows what a year can bring? I thought this was a very sweet thing to do, now its like there is a piece of me planted here in Brazil. At the orientation I also did my first flag hoisting, I hoisted up the Canadian flag with pride. So far, my orientation was the best weekend I had here in Brazil, it was so great meeting Exchange students from all over the world. It’s almost like we are all a little family. I can’t wait to see everyone again in the coming months on trips.
SIM, is a word I use frequently.. When in doubt, YES is the answer. It definitely cooks up some opportunity. One month in on my Exchange and I fulfilled one task from my To-do list for Brazil. SLACK-LINING! Of course slack-lining can be done almost anywhere. Here was a great place for my first time. It's a lot harder than it looks, I'll tell you that. Walking across a rope from one tree to another. It was a challenge I truly enjoyed. Being the clumsy person I am, of course I fell on my face (literally) too many times to even count and I still continued to try and master this tedious task. Another activity I have taken part in here in Brazil is ceramic lessons. This is an enjoyable activity to do, as I go every Tuesday with a friend of mine. Here I am challenged artistically (as I am artistically challenged). There is a running strip down town, on the main road that I use. This comes in handy for my weakness in indulging in massive amounts of BRIGADEIRO. No words along with no limits. This tasty dessert is a great companion of mine here in Brazil. There is also a Sports club near my school that I am joining, where many activities like swimming, tennis and many other sports are available. Also the 7 Rotary Clubs in Marilia have arranged Portuguese lessons for all 14 Exchange students, which I am extremely excited about. As I am really enjoying learning Portuguese; everyday there is always a bundle of new words to absorb. Overall I am constantly keeping busy and I am starting to have a steady weekly schedule, which is very nice as this is now my home.
I absolutely love everything about Brazil; it’s really beyond what I imagined it would be. Everyday is new and exciting as well as challenging. The saying 'you learn something new everyday' couldn't be anymore true. I would like to thank you all so much for making this all possible for me. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, I would be extremely happy to answer. Again, endless thanks. Thinking of you all, I hope everyone had a great Summer! Tchau for now, until next month! (:
