(left tic-tac toe in the sand)
(above soap soccer)
Weekend of the 14th of August, 2009
To start my first weekend in Brazil off I went to school on Friday. CONFUSING. It was like they were speaking a different laguage.... oh wait they were. That night it was Maria's (my host mom) moms birthday. I got to taste my first Churrasco, or Brazillian barbeque. It is not like our BBQ, no BBQ sauce but it was very salty. Everything is either salty or sweet here. And all meat. You have for every meal of the day here, meat for breakfast, meat for lunch, meat for dinner, meat for snack and then sorvete (ice cream) for desert.
Saturday was AWESOME. Though I had to get up early it didn't matter. My host sisters' school went to this farm type place. It didn't look like a farm but that is what they called it. There was a beautiful lake and a Volleyball Court (sand), a trampoline, and a soap soccer field. By Far the best game in the world SOAP SOCCER. You play on a large open form of the bouncy thing you have at little kids parties. Then soap and water are put on the court and you play soccer or try to. You fall every two steps. It was so much fun. We went swimming and played Volleyball, and a game of tic-tac toe but you ran and placed bottles in the places to get a row. Sand got everywhere after that though because well, we played in the sand!
Saturday night we went to the mall here in Dourados. They kept complaing about how small it is and how there is nothing there. This mall was HUGE, easily twice as big as the one in Morgantown. There was a little kids place in the mall but it had the big swing that you are lifted in the air and swing that way and a bungie jump type thing that harnested you in and you jumped on a trampoline and you went really high. I wanted to try it but it was just for little kids I asked Flavia if she could shrink me so i would fit the hieght requirements but that didn't go over as planed!
On Sunday we all went to Flavio's (my host father) parents farm. It's not that far so it was a nice drive seeing the country. The entire family on Flavio's side goes to the farm for lunch every Sunday and all the meat that we ate came from the farm. They have Chickens of all kinds, cows everywhere, sheep and lambs, five dogs, two horses, and all these trye of fruit trees none of which i have ever heard of or can say. I did get to try a star fruit. It was sweet and sour and a little tart, it was good just try it. Flavio's mother madethe best sweet bread. It tasted like Hawaiian sweet rolls but warm and without the chemical taste. SOOOOO GOOD.
To start my first weekend in Brazil off I went to school on Friday. CONFUSING. It was like they were speaking a different laguage.... oh wait they were. That night it was Maria's (my host mom) moms birthday. I got to taste my first Churrasco, or Brazillian barbeque. It is not like our BBQ, no BBQ sauce but it was very salty. Everything is either salty or sweet here. And all meat. You have for every meal of the day here, meat for breakfast, meat for lunch, meat for dinner, meat for snack and then sorvete (ice cream) for desert.
Saturday was AWESOME. Though I had to get up early it didn't matter. My host sisters' school went to this farm type place. It didn't look like a farm but that is what they called it. There was a beautiful lake and a Volleyball Court (sand), a trampoline, and a soap soccer field. By Far the best game in the world SOAP SOCCER. You play on a large open form of the bouncy thing you have at little kids parties. Then soap and water are put on the court and you play soccer or try to. You fall every two steps. It was so much fun. We went swimming and played Volleyball, and a game of tic-tac toe but you ran and placed bottles in the places to get a row. Sand got everywhere after that though because well, we played in the sand!
Saturday night we went to the mall here in Dourados. They kept complaing about how small it is and how there is nothing there. This mall was HUGE, easily twice as big as the one in Morgantown. There was a little kids place in the mall but it had the big swing that you are lifted in the air and swing that way and a bungie jump type thing that harnested you in and you jumped on a trampoline and you went really high. I wanted to try it but it was just for little kids I asked Flavia if she could shrink me so i would fit the hieght requirements but that didn't go over as planed!
On Sunday we all went to Flavio's (my host father) parents farm. It's not that far so it was a nice drive seeing the country. The entire family on Flavio's side goes to the farm for lunch every Sunday and all the meat that we ate came from the farm. They have Chickens of all kinds, cows everywhere, sheep and lambs, five dogs, two horses, and all these trye of fruit trees none of which i have ever heard of or can say. I did get to try a star fruit. It was sweet and sour and a little tart, it was good just try it. Flavio's mother madethe best sweet bread. It tasted like Hawaiian sweet rolls but warm and without the chemical taste. SOOOOO GOOD.
Shayla, your entry is fab. You give great descriptions of the atmosphere which helps the rest of us unfortunate folks stuck elsewhere (perhaps literally in my case - we got a rain today which can get these African roads backed up for days) get an idea of what life would be like in Dourados. Particularly fun are your food descriptions! Dang, I want to try a star fruit! As we say in Tanzania, Pole sana (so sorry) about the meat for every meal. We have the same type of issue here except its beans for every meal. Your dad knows how truly painful beans can be on a person's disgestive system... But how fantastic is it that the people there are supplying themselves with their own meat via their farms. It's clear from your immediate trip out to the family farms that there is great respect for farmers there and people enjoy celebrating!
ReplyDeleteOk... so soap soccer... why don't we have this in the United States? That's only the most brilliant sounding game EVER. Thank you so much for the photos!!! Really, the soal soccer one was necessary to totally get the soap soccer game. :) Ok, not to be nit-picky, but next time maybe a photo with you in it, too?
The best part of this for me was hearing about how well your host family is including you, helping introduce you to the culture, and generally being kind-hearted and fun people! Seems like your connection with the family is what will be most important in determining how the year goes. Glad to hear everything is going well.
MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!! hugs hugs hugs hugs hugs
xoxoxooxoxox (from the monkeys, too)
Ruth