The day of my one month anniversary in Brazil

Well a few days ago it was the 27^th August 2011, and to most of you that’s just another day but to me it’s my one month anniversary in Brazil! yaaaaaay :) now I don’t know if it was planned or if it was just a coincidence but some pretty interesting things happened this weekend…

My weekend only really began at about five o clock on Saturday evening when myself, my host mother and host father headed down to Pirascaba (a nearby city) to watch a strings quartet from Sidney, Australia. They played three pieces, two composted by Mozart and one by Shubert. Most of the audience was adults but nevertheless *eu gostei o concerto* (I liked the concert) The concert finished at around 9:30 so we went out for dinner. And I found out that in Brazil their normal time for dinner is around 8 o’clock in the evening because most people have tea and a snack at around five, as apposed to London, where people usually have dinner round about six, I thought it was pretty strange to eat so late but I was hungry so I didn’t complain. We arrived back in Sao Pedro about quarter past eleven but my night was far from over because I was going to dance the night away at a * balada*

A balada is basically the Brazilian version of a nightclub in England. The balada was called password and the idea was you was given a “password” when you entered the club. There were two copies given of every password, one to a boy and one to a girl. If you found the guy who had the same password as you, you won a prize. The balada was so much fun and I met some really nice Brazilians and only managed to get away at four in the morning! You would have thought that I would be able to sleep all Sunday seeing as I got home so late but that was not the case. I had six hours sleep before I had to be up because on Sunday I was going to visit the city on the top of the mountain.



Renta and I



The city was about 20 minutes drive up the steep mountain but the view was more than worth it. It was a clear sky with no clouds, just brilliant sunshine and you could see the whooooole of sao pedro. I went with my friends named Renta because her family owns a farm at the top of the mountain and she invited me to see it. Ela tia* (her aunt) lives at the top of the mountain and insisted that *eu como com ela e ela familia* ( I eat with her and her family) They fed me *pastel de banana* which is basically flour with fried banana inside, it is one of the most delicious things I have even eaten! After lunch I went to the farm, as I approached the farm I could hear little chirps, as I walked into the room I saw what looked like millions of baby chicks! They were soooo adoreable! They were so small I could hold them in my hand. Renta also had cows, roosters and pigs. On the way home we stopped off and one of the many waterfalls in brazil. It was *muito bonita* (very beautiful) and we watched the sunset. Definitely one of the best weekends in Brazil so far :)



These baby chicks were sooo cute!



Me and my new best friend >.<





      









the family from the top of the mountain



The beautiful waterfall













The day I met my new biology teacher!

Exchange students from England have become almost none existent so I was expecting some people to be excited about my arrival. But the greeting I received from my biology teacher was bordering on ecstatic …

I had been living in Brazil for less than a week before I met my biology teacher. It was the afternoon of my third day in school and none of the other teachers had paid me much attention so I wasn’t expecting anything special from this teacher. As my host sister introduced me as the exchange student his eyes widened, as she explained that I came from England his eyes doubled in size. He asked me where in England I came from and as I said that I came from London he looked like all his Christmases had come at once! He said hello in a loud voice as he strode across the room with his hand outstretched and a massive grin on his face. Me not used to this type of treatment from teachers was up and out of my seat and backing away from him as quickly as possible. I kept backing away until the back of the wall prevented me from going any further. He kissed both my cheeks and pulled me across the classroom to the chalkboard, all the while my class mates just stood, watched and laughed. He began to daw the London eye on the board and asked me if I knew what it was. When I told him that I did he giggled like I told him something embarrassing. He asked me sit at the desk closest to him and he began to tell a story in Portuguese while grinning happily at me. When the class ended and I was leaving he gabbed my hand and put it on his heart and said that I would have a special place their. N’aaawr, isn’t that cutee >.< it may seem lie my biology teacher is a freak but he isn’t. He is so lovely and the truth is he gave me one of the best welcomes to Brazil :)

The day I helped out at the local public school :)

In Brazil there is a massive difference between the rich and the poor, which is similar to other counties, however here the rich and the poor live very close to each other, sometimes just around the corner...

One of the things I agreed to before I left for Brazil was to go to school in my host country. My school is called Convivio and I’m pretty lucky because it’s a private school. The parents of the school pay monthly for their child’s education. However five minutes around the corner is a public school. It’s for the children whose parents can’t afford private schools. But it’s not like public schools that we get in e England. Most of the people who sent their children to public schools can’t even afford the basic necessities such as toothbrushes and toothpaste. So the local rotary and interact club (a rotary club for children aged between 12 and 18) decided to do something about it.

The week before the interact club and I spent a couple of hours making gift bags to handout at the school. The gift bag consisted of three toothbrushes, two tubes of toothpaste, a bar of soap and a bottle of talcum powder. We then tied red ribbon around the top to make the bag loo pretty :) we also had nappies to give to the local public nursery. By the end of the night we had made about 100 gift bags ready to give out.  The following Thursday I was driven to the school and met the principle of the school and the teachers of the classes we were going to hand the gift bags to. We lined the children up outside and made sure that every child had at least one bag. You should have seen the grins on their faces! They were sooo happy and soo grateful!! It made me happy to see them happy so I think it was time well spent :)

The day I joined the local gymnastics club

Life in a new country can seem abit lonely, especially if you *nao falar* (don’t speak) the language. So to try and conquer the fact that I don’t speak fluent Portuguese get I decided to join a few of my local clubs…

the district governor of my rotary club in sao pedro teaches gymnastics at the local school, and seeing as I stated in my application form that I had practised gymnastics sine forever she was very eagar for me to join the class. She also wanted me to show the girls that she taught some cheerleading moves seeing as cheerleading doesn’t exist in the part of brazil that I'm in. upon arriving at the club I soon realised that just like everything else that has happened so far the gymnastics club wasn’t what I expected. Instead of the artistic gymnastics that I used to practice in London, they taught acrobatic gymnastics, which involved flinging little kids in the air and catching them while attempting to look somewhat graceful at all times. They wasted no time in getting me involved in the lifts. “This is going to be somewhat interesting” I thought as they placed a rather fragile looking child into my hands and told me throw her upwards as hard as I could. The ceiling had pretty low ceilings and the girl was millimetres away from smacking her head against the ceiling as she flipped herself over. To my surprise the little girl walked off unaware of what happened by what happened as I stood there clutching my chest because I could have sworn that my heart has stopped beating! The rest of the evening carried on with a few close calls but no causalities. I was asked if I wanted to train regularly and even take part in a competition with them. I gladly accepted and now I practice gymnastics with my new club every *terca-feira e quinta-frira* (Tuesday and Thursday) :)

The day I arrived in Brazil :’)



the sun on the day that I left England



On the 27^th of July 2011 at 6:05 in the morning I landed in one of Brazils biggest cities; Sao Paulo. Why I hear you ask? Well in the year of 2011 to 2012 I get the pleasure of calling myself a rotary youth exchange student :’)

After an exhausting 11 and a half hour flight with my fellow exchange – Millie, I managed to make my way though customs and security to meet my new host family for the year at arrivals. As I turned the corner, Millie and I were greeted with a massive banner and huge round of applause. We were suddenly surrounded by people hugging and kissing our cheeks as we stumbled through the crowd. As overwhelming as it was, it was lovely to know that we were welcome in this new country. I said goodbye to Millie because we wouldn’t be living in the same state and walked out airport to start my life as an exchange student living in Brazil. :’)

the amazing view from my house!

The area I’m in is called Sao Pedro and it is about three hours away from Sao Paulo City. As we drove away from the airport towards Sao Pedro I began to notice that all the massive buildings started to melt away and there was more and more greenery. Looks like I was living in the countryside of Brazil I thought it was *muuuito legal* (very cool) seeing as I have lived in a busy city all my life. As I arrived at my new house all I could look at was the view, there was a maaaaassive mountain within walking distance!

As I was unpacking my things in my new room I thought I might be able to sleep the rest of day away ( England is five hours behind Brazil so I was pretty jetlagged) but nope the Brazilians had other plans for me! My host sister had been invited out and asked me if I wanted to come with so I agreed. I met all of my host sisters friends and watched a movie, in English thankfully, and got home just after midnight and so ended my first day in brazil :) pretty cool way to start my life in a new country don’t you think? :p

one of my host familys =]