Rotary Exchange Student - Jess Mokrzycki's September report from Brazil
Posted
on Oct 02, 2013
Prince Rupert Rotary Exchange Student Jess Mokrzycki has been in Brazil for two months now.
HERE IS HER SEPTEMBER REPORT ...
Hello there! Hope all is beyond well with you all. Two months have seemed to slide by. Oh how I love Brazil. 'Never been better'. This is a great way to describe my current ... click on more to read the rest of Jess' report.
.. feeling!
Happy as can be as now adapted to my everyday life here in Brazil. With activity packed days, the weeks just fly by. From a first time Brazilian manicure to a requested 1 inch hair cut that turned into 3, things have been great. While getting more and more adapted and familiar with my town and keeping busy with things such as school, portuguese lessons, casual gym visits and what not, I look at the calendar to see...month two has came to an end.
I enjoy going to school as I start to understand more and more everyday, it really puts the cherry on top. I've been taking some time by challenging myself. How you ask ? Well lets just say that the "A Pequena Sereia" (The Little Mermaid), along with plenty of other children books in the mix have been keeping me occupied. You got to start somewhere! I was given the opportunity to present a power-point of Canada to my class, which went rather well. Also I have enjoyed myself by going to another school other than my own with the host parent of my friend who is a singing teacher and helping the students and singing songs with them in both English and in Portuguese. This is something I really enjoyed to do and know I will continue to do this, this year.
I attend Rotary meetings every Monday night with the 3 other exchange students in my club. I also had a meeting with the Governor, which was very nice. I've been involved with a few Rotary events this month and also, had some projects in the works. With my interact club we had a book festival where we collected many children books later donated and also came up with plenty more projects for the near future. I really enjoy helping out as much as I can and take any opportunity I can to get involved.
At the beginning of September I went on a little trip to a tiny bity town for the weekend, which was great for me in many ways. With a change of scenery and a push for language, the weekend was rather good as I tagged along with someone who spoke no English at all. (hand signals and dancing were brought to a whole new level). I find myself feeling SO proud when I can carry on a conversation. However you can imagine what the language barrier may be like when you tell a somewhat serious story and someone laughs and says 'That's so awesome'.
Its all the fun of it, having many words be somewhat similar. I can simply say I'm dangerous instead of feeling tired, which slips in some confusion. This month my mini family of exchange students (15 from my town) celebrated 2 birthdays. Google Translate only helped us so much, when trying to share a taste of home, with good intentions, we scream "birthday, birthday, birthday", instead of the obvious. It's really great to have a large group of exchange students to share lots of time with. I have some news for you, I've become to really discover Açai, delicious fruit and a tasty dessert I don't fail to enjoy. As an after math, I've tried Zumba here, it's a mix between intense samba and funk, you can only imagine the outcome of this with my wonderful coordination. It's never a dull moment especially with my extra kilos of awesome. YES, you read correctly. I've also visited an 'Asilo' (which is an old folks home) with two friends of mine to see what we could do to help, with plans of doing a project in the next few weeks which I'm really looking forward to. Another thing I did this month, which I think was one of the main highlights of this month would have to be going on a long bike ride covering just about my entire city from one side to the other with my host father. Forgetting about the obvious, sunscreen, you can only imagine what the two hours brought. (I felt very patriotic.) Speaking of weather, I had a little scent of home, as pouring down rain (well warm rain) with a mix of thunder and lighting, (which I loved) spring has officially sprung. From really hot to cold days, bouncing back and fourth, I'm getting suited up for "Summer".
As October sneaks in, my final month with my first host family has come, anyone know where the time has gone? September has been great and I look forward to my third month as many events will be coming up shortly, I can't wait to post in my next monthly report already! I hope the tip toe to fall is treating you all well!
Please feel free to message me anytime, I'm always happy to answer questions. Also, endless thanks to you all for making this all possible, I am so very thankful. Until next month, Take care!