One Year In Brazil

Feliz Ano Novo

2010-02-08T16:48:00.000-08:00

I think the women in my family missed the 'you are suppose to wear white' notice. Besides the fact that people wear all white and the fireworks. Everything is pretty much the same. The fireworks are set off by people in their own backwards because they dont have a big firework show like we do in the States. There is still the big gathering of friends and family with the barbeque, the drinking of champaign at new year. Don't worry non-alcoholic for those not allowed or too young to drink it. It was super fun! Great Food!

Feliz Natal

2010-02-08T16:38:00.001-08:00

Christmas is more low key in a way. With my family, we travled to my host dad's parents house and stayed for 3 days with his family. Mostly hanging out and spending time with family. Instead of getting a gift for everyone they played "Secret Santa". I didn't see as much worrying about getting gifts for everyone with anyone in town. You got a gift for those who were closest to you and may b not eve a gift but a card. It seemed more like the way we should be in the US. It had a more feel of what Christmas should be than the departmant stores favorite time of the year.

Parabéns pela Formatura!

2009-11-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

Nov. 27

I went to Flavia's Formatura. Which is like a graduation prom type deal. Except thier is a little well a lot different. Starting at 8pm there is a dinner for family and close friends and they toast and have a big congrats to the graduates and stuff. That goes until around 11pm. At around 11 most of the adults leave and they have the dancing and partying, That doesn't end until like 3 or 4 in the morning. And if you are graduating and you don't pay that fee for being able to attend the dinner and prom then you don't go unless some one gives you one of their ten tickets. Apperently it is really expensive.

let's go out tonight Nov.21

2009-11-30T09:54:00.000-08:00

Went to a concert! It was a lot of fun I got so tired though I was litterally falling over by the end of the morning. Yes morning! It was like 4 am before it ended and then another 30 min drive home. I was exhausted. If anyone knows me they know I can't stnd country. But here i have to make the distinction between me not liking American country and Brasilian country, they are o different and I like country music here in Brasil. And that is a good thing because that is all people in Dourados listen to.

Pantanal and Bonito Nov. 2 to Nov. 8

2009-11-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

We did so much in one week it was crazy evryday we did something. Most days we had to get up pretty early. We were in Pantanal Nov. 2nd to the afternoon of Nov. 4th. We went fishing, horseback riding, on a safari, and hiking. There were so many alligators it was insane. They walk so weird. It was so gorgeous though. We hung out in the hammocks whenever we could. There were an insane amount of awesome people o the trip. We shared traditional dances from each country and had fun learning bad words in other languages.

Bonito was incredible my favorite part of the trip. They say that Bonito is even better then the Amazon they just don't have as much publicity and such. We in Bonito from the night of the fourth til the morning of the eighth. We went to the waterfall park, rafting, snorkeling, and to the caves. We went out to dinner every night and I tried Jacara alligator. It was actually really good. While we were at the caves we ran into another rotary group and there was a guy from WV in the group and we are both going to WVU next year. After getting back to te hotel one day after dinner I was going through my stuff because I was going to take a shower and i lifted up my towel and a taranchula was in my stuff. It was so scary, I screamed and my roommates saw why and we all ran screaming out of the room. One of the shaporones came and got it but i am sure we woke the etire hotel.

Good Times at the Farm

2009-10-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

All I have to say is...... "I LEARNED HOW TO DRIVE A MOTORCYLE" okay more like a mo-ped but still.

...and saw a beautiful sunset.

At the farm you cant help get your feet dirty but this is just ridiculous.

Family, Friends, and the farm

2009-09-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

riding the horse
peacock
mall!!!!!!!!

Not to much has happened, mostly just hanging out with my host family, going out to dinner and going to the mall a lot. It is odd because you dont go to the mall to shop ever you go to hang out. I have been to the mall every weekend and I have not bought one thing there because you buy things down town. I have only been in a couple of stores at the mall but I dont think I would buy anything there unless I was shopping for my grandmother or a five year old. But there is an arcade at the mall which is AWESOME!!!

Flavio, my host father has a brother who has the coolest house. It is really new age and all white and going from the front door to the living area you walk on glass over water it is the coolest. I was disapionted that there weren`t fish it that water. But he did have three peacocks one male and two female. The male was really beautiful.

The farm was so much fun this weekend we got to ride horses finally. One of the sadals was being repaired so we couldn`t ride for a while. But we did and I loved it, it brought back so many memories. I had a blast. The horses they have are so funny because one is really old, nice but doesn`t really want to give anyone a ride anymore. The other one is young but so lazy. She is fine once you get on her and stuff but she just would rather be by herself in the feild.

It is a big thing here to drink this type of tea when you hang out with your friends. It tastes like green tea with a mint after taste. You sit around with your friends and just chat and pass this drink around (only one). It is drunk from a metal straw type thing that prevents the leaves from getting into your mouth. The drink is just refilled with cold water when the liquid is gone.

Weekend Number TWO

2009-08-31T08:59:00.000-07:00

The Canadians in district 4470

All of the Uniter Statians in district 4470

Ellen (from Canada) petting a lamb on the farm

Three Exchange students eager and exhausted

the symbol

I am climbing in the bamboo... you got a problem with that??

August 20 to August 23, 2009

On thursday August 20th, I got on a bus, and had a three hour ride to Campo Grande. Arriving at 9:15pm in a strange city by myself. To my knowledge a Rotarian was to meet me as a got off the bus... but he was told the wrong time to pick me up. I was in a strange city, no cell phone, and not knowing how to use their pay phones. That was a good time. after about an hourof being scared half to death of the homeless wanting money from me... Luiz arrived. It was amazing he was like my savior. Apparently miscommunication happened along the way and he was told that the bus arrived at 10:15pm. Yeah it was totally fine i wasn't worried or terrified at all. But all in all it was okay.

Friday morning we got up and I met a Canadian, another American, a Mexican, a F renchman, and a German and we all boarded the bus for an eight hour ride to Araçatuba. It was however awesome to meet more exchange students. I found out that I have a personality twin living in Canada. We are totally the coolest Rotary Chicks in BRAZIL. When we arrived in Araçatuba the eight of us parted ways and went with the people who we were staying with. I was with the kid from France, we stayed with a really nice family of three. However their house smelt of dog when wet.

There are about forty some exchange students in our district. There is a guy from India who is really funny. He loves himself and he won't change schools to be with the other Rotery students in his town because he is famous at his school, everyone knows him. There are kids from Finland, Canada, United States, Sweden, Mexico, France, India, Germany, Hungary, Denmark, and Iceland. On Saturday, all exchange students from distict 4470 met at the chairman's farm... to have a meeting. But after the meeting was over we all had a great time trading pins and cards and SWIMMING. It got really hot that day. When dinner time came along we went to a local, hip, retaurant type place ... and then we went to the club. You know kind of a low key evening!

Sunday rolled around and the long eleven hour drive began again. I didn't back to Dourados until around 1:30am on Monday and so my host parents let me sleep in and I didn't get up in time to make it to class. OH DARN IT!!

All in all... I am ready for a low key weekend!!

First Weekend!

2009-08-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

(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.