The Day I Went To Baile Do Hawai

Started at midnight, ended at five in the morning; this party was going to be somewhat interesting….

Baile Do Hawai is an event that happens every year in Sao Pedro (the city I’m staying in) People dress up in fancy clothes and go and listen to a band play…well that’s what I got told beforehand. I thought it would be some kind of graduation ball but really I had no idea what to expect from this day. People had been talking about Baile Do Hawai for WEEKS  before hand, planning what clothes they were going to wear, what shoes to buy, how they were going to do their hair, and naturally I got caught up in that. I decided that I wanted to wear a dress, but instead of going to buy a new one I used a dress I bought back home in the UK and got it taken in to my size (totally LOVE the fact I’ve lost weight since I’ve arrived in brazil, bad side is I have to spent money getting the clothes taken in >.<)



my semi- new dress



I also went shopping with a few of my class mates so I could buy the perfect shoes that went with my dress. After all the shopping, the taking in and the countless hours of talking about Baile Do Hawai the big night finally arrived. I kind of forgot about Baile Do Hawai due to the fact of the whole moving house thing that was going on. But as soon as my (old) host parents had left my attention turned to Baile Do Hawai . It started at 11:30 at night, so my family was going to turn up an hour later. After a quick nap (I get tired reaaally easily…or I’m just lazy >.<) a shower and dressing session I was ready to party. The party was going to be held at the local club which had a swimming pool. I had only been there once and I was egar to see what they would do with the place. The theme of the party was Hawaii and they really did pull it off!  As I entered the floor had been covered with sand.

the sand covered entrance

As you walked in you had the option to have a wreath of flowers given to you, I choose to accept :) They had Hawaiian belly dancers and a massive water fountain. Once you had entered the main area you could see everything. There was a massive table full of fruit that people could eat when and how they pleased. There was a big main stage and a smaller stage. The main stage had a band and was playing all types of music; they even attempted to sing in English. However the smaller stage was playing a type of Brazilian music called Pagode.

I spent most of the night dancing with my school friends to Pagode and only left at four in the morning when my mother decided to go home.  After taking a shower after I had gotten home, it was time for me to sleep in my new bed in my new room with my new separate bathroom. I guess this means that a new chapter of my exchange was starting. :)

The Day I Got A New Family

New house, new people, new rules, new family…bring it on! :D

As much as I refused to believe it, the reality was that four months had passed since I first arrived in Brazil. This meant a couple of things; I was kind of getting used to the whole  having to kiss people on the cheek to greet them AND to say goodbye, my Portuguese was getting so much better and it was time for me to move families.

my first host family <3

I was extremely lucky with my first family; they were and still are an amazing host family and treated me like their daughter, even making me do some chores! (my host mum made me collect water for the house, but I didn’t mind =]) I bonded really well with all three of them and they made what could have been the hardest months of my exchange a wonderful experience. So naturally when I got told that I was going to be moving, I protested. Not because I didn’t think my new family would be nice, but because I was so happy and content with my life in their house. ( I also think I didn’t want to move because of the effort needed to pack my suitcase and actually physically move but we won’t linger on that thought for too long >.< ) But despite my best efforts, I still had to pack my suitcases and leave my first host families house. :(

Before I moved in I knew little about my new family. I knew that my new host dad worked and lived in Sao Paulo City during the week and came home at weekends, I knew that my new host sister went on an exchange to India and she knew how to speak English (thank god!) but she also lived in Sao Paulo City during the week so she wouldn’t be around to help translate during the week (dammit! >.<) I knew that I would have a new host brother who was reaaaaaaally tall and I knew that my new host mum didn’t speak English. That scared me a little, because I could just imagine us trying to talk and it not working out because of the language barrier. (I know we could simply use a dictionary and it would all be okay, but when I’m scared all rational thinking goes out the window! >.<) It was even more of a worry because I had spent the past four months speaking in port-a-glese (a mixture of the English and Portuguese language) seeing as my host mother and my host brother were both fluent in English. I had never really needed to speak complete Portuguese and the idea of having to do that really freaked me out! However I decided the grab the bull by the horns and enter this new house with a positive attitude.

My host mum drove me to my new house in the middle of a thunderstorm. It was only five blocks away from my old house and I could easily walk back and forth between the two whenever I wanted but at that moment in time, my old house seemed to be on a completely different planet to my new house. As I walked in I saw a group of new faces (that I now recognise to be different members of my new family) all smiling, waiting and watching me. I kind of felt like a goldfish >.< I was shown around the house and shown my new room, which included my own separate bathroom and shower (I was very surprised at this, I mean I don’t even have a separate bathroom and shower back home!) and before I knew it, it was time for my old host family to leave me with my new host family.  I suddenly felt a massive rush of sadness and I realised that this chapter of my life with current (now old) host family had ended. No more trying to hide as my host father woke me up at six in the morning to go to school, no more waking up to the sound of my host mum playing the flute on the weekends, no more listening to my host brother and father screaming at the T.V as they watched their team play football every Sunday afternoon and most important, no more trying to speak Portuguese and knowing that if I didn’t make any sense, I could just speak in English and they would understand. My sadness must have registered in my face because my host father called me over to sit next to him and we sat their hugging as my old host mother talked to my new host mother. All too soon, my old host parents were driving away and I was being left behind with a new family. But there was no time to mope around and be sad, because I was going to a ball the very same evening…

Read my blog post; “The Day I Went To Bailie Do Havwaii” to find out what happened for the rest of the night :)

The day of the leaving party at school

Four teachers, three different year groups, one classroom, a lot of Brazilian food and no lessons…sounds like my type of day (Y)

So the day had finally come! The final day of school! I just had to sit through three more lessons in school and then I would be free for the summer holidays! However today was not my final day because I, along with my classmates would be returning back to school after the holidays.  However a member of our school family wouldn’t be returning, our Portuguese teacher, due to the fact that she is pregnant! Everyone was pretty upset to see her leave, even I was and I had only known her a few months! Because of this, everyone decided to throw her a leaving party, but not just any leaving party, a WHOLE SCHOOL leaving party! This means that all the three year groups that would be in school in the morning were invited to celebrate her pregnancy.

The planning started weeks in advance, with everyone in the class donating 10 reias so that they could buy food and buy a meaningful present for her. In my mind I thought this meant a card and some flowers but the students wanted something way more special for her!

my class with the  portuguese teacher :)

The last day of school came and we finished out first lesson early so we could set up for the party. It was going to be held in my classroom because it was the biggest of all three. Everyone was told not to tell the Portuguese teacher that there was a party being held for her, we all wanted it to be a surprise :) we drew a picture of a baby on the chalkboard and wrote her a little message as well. It was finally time for our lesson and all three year groups ran and hid in our classroom (not an easy task!) As soon as she opened the door she was greeted with a massive round of applause! She instantly burst into tears which made most of her students well up…it was all very emotional!  After she had composed herself it was time for her to open the present we bought her, everyone has put enough money together to buy her a new pushchair and 10 packs of nappies for her unborn child!

the note we left for the portuguese teacher

This made her well up once again; she thanked us all and said that we always had a place in her heart forever. That was it, everyone started to cry!  After the crying had stopped everyone’s attention turned to the food table. It was full of Brazilian savoury and sweet snacks (my diet sooo went out the window at that point!) that everyone fully indulged themselves in. And in addition to that there was Coke, Fanta and Guaraná (the BEST soft drink invented ever!) for everyone to enjoy.



my portuguese teacher
 with her leaving gifts!

After about an hour, everyone had eaten as much as they could have and was sitting around chatting with each other. The bell rang to signal the end of the class so the other two years groups left us to clean up the classroom, what fun(!) we said our final goodbyes to our Portuguese teacher (which started another round of tears) and bless her heart, she even came and gave me a hug and said it was lovely to teach me, how sweet!

Oh, just as a bit of fun, we drew a little face on her tummy, and the name of her unborn son on her forehead…just cause could >.<

The Day I Went To My First Churrasco

Fresh meat, live singing and friends around me, what could be better? :)

It was the birthday of one of the Rotarians at my club so he invited us all to his house for a churrasco. A churrasco is a Brazilian – style barbecue and I guarantee I have never seen anything like it. It includes every type of meat that you can think of. One meat that I got to eat that you wouldn’t find in the UK is “linguca” it’s a Brazilian type chorizo-style sausage. I wasn’t too fond of linguica so I stuck to chicken for most of the night. There was a man who was hired to cook the meat so the family could enjoy the evening. Another thing that we don’t get back in the UK is “farinha” It’s basically flour that you dip your meat into before you eat it, strange huh? The family also hired someone to sing and play the guitar while everyone was eating and socialising. Just like when people are hired to sing back home, Brazilian singers have a book of standard songs they play so everyone there knew all the songs…apart from me of course! While all the adults sang and danced the songs that were being played I sat quietly and listened to them sing while watching the stars.  It would have been such a perfect night if it wasn’t so cold! While the adults relived their childhood days, all the children had gathered inside of the house. The house had a karaoke machine so obviously we had to have a go! After a few hours of very loud singing (from adults and children alike) it was time to sing happy birthday. However what I didn’t realise was there was three birthdays that we were celebrating. This meant that there were three MASSIVE cakes, and we sang an extra-long version of “parabéns para voce" (happy birthday to you) at about midnight my host mother decided to go. I don’t know if it was because it was a school night and every child there did have to sit an exam at 7AM the next day (but this is why I love Brazilians, they didn’t let a small thing like exams get in the way of their fun!) or because her husband had just started singing into the microphone >.< after a long round of “thank you for coming” and “goodbyes” we finally managed to leave. As soon as I got into the car and I was away from all the loud music and good food I was suddenly exhausted. But it was worth it, I got too eat some of the best meat Brazil has to offer AND I spent the night with some of the nicest people in Brazil :)

The Day Of My Presentation In Portuguese

Talking about my host country…no problem! Speaking in Portuguese…I’m getting there :) speaking about my host country IN Portuguese…ha ha ha…you are joking right?

So seeing as I’m an exchange student I am expected to write and deliver a presentation about the culture, the differences and basically the interesting facts about my home country. Seeing as exchange students from England have become almost non-existent everyone was VERY excited to see what I would produce…no pressure then. >.< The designated date of my presentation was the 21^st November. I didn’t really like the idea of having to stand in front of a group of people who could speak Portuguese fluently and attempt to speak Portuguese, but my rotary club were like elephants…they never forgot! A week before the 21^st I had to accept that I was indeed going to have to give this presentation so I might as well stop complaining and start writing. As the 21^st got closer and closer I felt myself getting more and more nervous. I tried to explain this to my host family but they told me there was nothing to worry about and I should just stay calm, easy for them to say, they didn’t have to give a presentation in a language they are not fluent in!

The morning of the 21^st came and it felt like judgement day. My host mother was nice enough to let me have the day off school to finish my presentation and squeeze in some extra practice. My presentation was going to be during the rotary meeting in the evening. The day seemed to fly by, one minute it was eight in the morning and the next minute it was half seven at night and I was being driven to the meeting. In true Brazilian style I turned up late to my own presentation >.< The bad thing about this being that everyone was already there waiting for me. As I walked in and was greeted by everyone I realised there was no going back, this was it, it was now or never. I know I’m making it seem like I was being walked to my own execution but that’s what it felt like, I was sooooo nervous!

the brazilian and
 british flag together <3

During every rotary meeting they have the flags of Brazil and the Sao Paulo state hanging, and because it was my presentation I was asked to bring my flag along so they could hang it up with the Brazilian flag. I felt a pang of pride as I watched my British flag flying next to the Brazilian one. >.<

After a brief introduction about Rotary Youth Exchange and how people in our community could get involved it was my time for my presentation, it was my time to shine! As they set up my laptop to my projector I asked my host father if he could read out my presentation for me. He laughed but what he didn’t realise was I was being deadly serious!

I kept my presentation short and sweet, it lasted about ten minutes, but only because I had to wait for people to finish oohing and awwing as I showed them the wonder that is my country. I talked about the differences between England and Brazil. Oh and I had to let them know that people in England don’t drink tea every day at five o’clock. That was a big disappointment for them! >.< 

the lovely people who
listen to my presentation

Looking back I think I made a mountain out of a molehill when it came to my presentation. I only had to use the phrase “como falo…” (how do you say…) once and the rest I spoke completely in Portuguese and everyone seemed to understand. One English teacher was so impressed with my Portuguese (or the fact that I came from the UK >.<) he invited me come and share my story with his students at the school he teaches at. So when school starts again in February I shall be going to different schools attempting to speak in Portuguese, so I have all the nerves to look forward to again…great!




two mums, a dad and the president of
 my rotary club and her husband :)

The day volley ball was played with water balloons

Playing volly ball in the rain with water balloons? Only in Brazil: p

It was a dark grey day in brazil, ( hard to believe I know :p ) It was a Thursday morning which meant we had physical education (P.E) Here in Brazil they only have P.E every other week for an hour which is different to back home in England. They also don’t have standard uniforms for P.E which is another difference between my school here in brazil and back home in England. But the major difference between school here and back home is while back in England we played tennis, football and did athletes, here in Brazil they play volley ball…with water balloons strange or what? >.< it looked like it was going to thunder storm so I made the sensible choice not to play this week along with several other students, however the majority of the class into t-shits and shorts ( some didn’t even bother to change and got their school uniforms soaking wet!) and spent the best part of twenty minutes filling up water balloons. With that done it was time to play. I don’t know what I was expecting to see but what I did see was twenty something students throwing water at each other while desperately trying to hide behind their fiends so they wouldn’t get wet. It was one of the funniest things I have seen since I have arrived in brazil and it confirms that the people in my class are just as crazy as me, so I think we are going to get along just fine.