Week Two

Part of São José dos Campos...

My cabin and the Mexican boys at our traditional brasilian wedding party.

My cabin and our ridiculous outfits. (left to right: Giselle from Mexico, Jill from Germany, me, Oliva from Wisconsin, and Deborah from Denmark)

Technically last week: in front of city hall with host rotary presidents and councelors.

The exchange students in São José. Jill from Germany, Kelsey from Canada, Oscar from Mexico and Me!


Another week that feels like 3 months. I feel like I know mostly everything about my town now and I'm really starting to get aquantied with everything and everyone. Life is nothing but good here.

August 22 (Saturday)-

It was another early wake up though it was Saturday. We had to leave São José by 7am to go to Jambeiro for a Rotary Inbound Orientation Camp. I didn't even have time to eat breakfast! The place were we had the camp had 3 lakes, chalés (chalets), recreation hall, dining hall, conference center and more locations to host a lot of people. We ate a little in the dining area and I met a girl from Pennsylvania, Renée. The only problem with this place is that it was built for a Brasilian summer and it was winter and freezing! And I mean freezing, like Yakima's October weather.. Everything is tile and that just adds to the chill. First we listened to hours (well it seemed like it) of powerpoints about rules, expectations, and other "important" things. They weren't very complete so I don't know how much that helped me. To warm us up, Alcione (the Inbound Coordinator) made us get up and dance around.. It was not very helpful. Lunch was really good, because it was warm. We all huddled around the hot food dishes to get warm. There was so many different kinds of food, I can't even name them all here, plus the normal rice and beans. We then went back to the cabins before our portuguese class. We couldn't decide where to sleep so we drew papers... I got "UP" so that meant I was sleeping upstairs with the other American who also drew up. The beds downstairs was the couch individually pulled out. We got an actual bed. We had "class" in the dining hall because it was warmer. We had to practice our portuguese then we got individual cards and had to find the word in a magazine. I was lucky to avó because I knew it meant grandma. Queen Elizabeth was the first grandma I found. There were some random words such as, geladeira (fridge), lua (moon), almoço (lunch) and suitã (bra). After we set up for festa junina, a festival celebrating the rural life. The main attraction of this is a mock wedding. We would have one at ours. The interesting part about this festa is that everyone dresses up in country clothes, like cowboys with boots and checkered shirts and cowgirls with checkered dresses, freckles and pigtails. We also had to wear such outfits. We looked so ridiculous. But everyone looked so ridiculous so it was okay. The actual wedding "ceremony" took forever because it was conga line after conga line, line dancing, circles of people.. After this we ate. The food was interesting... unlike anything I have eaten here so far. And it was not the best food I'd eaten here either. There was a fishing game were you could win prizes from GM, like pens and mousepads. Throughout the night I met all the inbounds, all 19 of them. By the end of the night I was with Amalie (Denmark), Alex (Germany) and Joelle (New Mexico) taking weird pictures of each other. When we finally got permission to go back to cabins we all but ran back to get out of the cold. I hung out in Cabin 1 with Amalie, Anja (Norway), Renée, Luisa (Brasilian outbound) and Constanze (Germany) until I needed to go back to my cabin and finally to sleep.

August 23 (Sunday) -

The weather did not improve overnight. We all woke up freezing, putting on as many clothes as we could. None of us took a shower because the water was cold and the entire bathroom would get soaked because there was no curtain. I didn't sleep well because Oliva all but screamed in her sleep. We wandered down to breakfast in the bright sun, reflecting off the lake. At breakfast the was so many cakes and sweet bread and cookies, which I didn't expect. Then it was back up to the conference center to listen to more powerpoints. But these were more exciting, about the Brasilian trips and ours about ourselves and home country. We had lunch up in the conference center, the traditional rice, meat, sausage, cucumbers, tomatoes and bread. The best part was dessert though. While the first person was going, Kelsey from Canada, they started passing out pineapple and brown sugar. Then I had to go, and flounder in my speech. When I got back to the table there was more pineapple. Then came the banana and brown sugar. By the time we were all full, Mara (Romania), Pablo (Mexico), Oscar (Mexico) and Sarah (Canada), we had finished off nine plates of dessert. And we were worried about getting fat! We took some last pictures then headed back to the chalés to get our stuff. It had started to rain. I went home with Maria, Jõao (next host dad), Valería and Kelsey. I miss the crazy guys from D5060 (there are only 4 boys in my district), but the girls from my district are so much fun. When I got home I unpacked and made some bracelets with Álvaro while watching Drake and Josh in portuguese. Vó came over for a bit and we had a bite to eat, flavored rice. Before going to bed I recieved a chocolate bar, Sufair (like Canadian AeroBar). It was delicious.

August 24 (Monday) -

The day started as usual, 5:30 wake up, shower, getting ready. School was biology, math, history, history, math and physics. I only slept a little in history, an improvement, because it was slides of pictures the teacher was talking about and I didn't understand. After school Fred, Ylana and I waited for Maria. Pai ended up picking us up and I was so hungry because I had had no time for breakfast. Lunch was meat, with mushrooms and wine sauce, tomatoes (fresh), potatoes, and rice. Today we went to the police station to get my id. There we met Anna Laura (German inbound) and got the list of what I needed. It was crowded everywhere we went, the police station, to get copies of my passport. I went to the local bakery with mãe and bought some sweet bread. It had started raining and we went to get Álvaro from school. Mãe had a client so fixed my chipping nails and listened to McFly (A British band) borrowed from my cousin. Then we ate again, corn cake, lots and lots of bread and an apple. I took a quick shower and then we went to the mall. There we looked at phones for me but couldn't buy them, for some reason, and got some ice cream cones from McDonald's. Back home I hung out, filling out paperwork, listening to music and iming people. I was really congested so mãe gave me some vitamin c pills and they worked in less than a half hour. It was amazing. Then I went to bed and get to sleep in a little more the next day.

August 25 (Tuesday) -

My routine is now to wake up, do my hair/get ready, eat breakfast and go to school because I shower in the afternoon. My breakfast is always light, toast and peanut butter today. At school I had biology, biology, history, history, history, and chemistry. For lunch just Fred went with me today. Lunch was french fries, another kind of meat, vegatables (green beans, carrots, tomatoes). Then pai left so we had to wait until he got back to go to the police station, in the meantime I took a nap in front of the tv. Marie invited me to a movie later. I ate dinner (breads, apple and chocolate cake) and waited for Marie. She was a little late getting to my house but Gabi, her and I still made it to The Proposal on time. It is a little different going to Brasilian movies. First it's cheap, about 3 bucks to go on a weekday. Second, you pick your seats before you go in the theater. The movie we saw was in english but had portuguese subtitles. After the movie we went to go get my id picture in the mall. Gabi's mom picked us up and she kept losing the parking ticket. We laughed the entire way home about the movie. I watched some more tv when I got home and again fell asleep on the sofa. Hopefully I am finally catching up on my sleep.

August 26 (Wednesday) -

I now have a routine, but breakfast was french bread and chocolate milk. School was, math, chem, biology and then repeated. Both my chem and biology teacher tried to talk to me.. I hope I said the right answers to the right questions. Ylana and I went home together and we made a quick stop to fix the car's gas flap. Lunch was meat, brocoli, sausage and a kind of beans (it's cousin) and rice. Then it was time to get my id. It had gotten so much warmer! It went from a February day to a May day in a matter of hours. I was so happy driving in the warm car, listening to Brasilian music. We went to the bank but had a problem paying for the id because my debit card was not working. We also went to get a copy of my passport so I have a mini passport in my wallet. At the station, Jill was there and I got my id, plus getting fingerprinted! After that we went to the mall to get cellphones! It took hours (or at least felt that way) and lots of negotation but I now have a new samsung phone. :) We then had to go home to save the house from the boys and save them from each other. Dinner was more bread, apple and chocolate milk. I took a shower after that and starting watching Pirates of the Carribean (2) with Álvaro. I ended up asleep on the couch again.

August 27 (Thursday) -

Life continues as usual. I had 2 pieces of toast this morning with peanut butter. School was normal with chemistry, physics, biology and math. However I didn't go to math. Some friends from school asked if I'd like to go get açaí with them because they didn't like the math teacher or the lesson he was teaching. So I went with João (a different one, haha), Gue, Vikki, Felipe, Breno, and the guy from Argentina. I copied Gue's choice of açaí and orange juice. It was much less sweeter than João's with condensed milk. I talked about a lot of things with João and Gue because they spoke english. After school I went with Ylana to wait for mãe. Lunch was oven-toasted bread with oregano, and "little" spaghetti, though I didn't eat that much after being full from açaí. I started to read a book Marie let me borrow, in portuguese, translating as I went. Then mãe and I went to SESC to exchange tickets for a piano concert tonight. SESC is the local "cultural center", with a gym, swimming pool, theater, outdoor court, excerise classes, free internet, and café. Also a park is right outside with Japonese gardens, lakes and life-size models of the first airplanes in Brasil. It was so beautiful. We stopped by the bakery again to get more bread, adding potato bread this time. We ate dinner (sugar bread and potato bread) and I had to get ready for Rotary. Maria picked me up and I made an appearance at Rotary but had to leave early to go to the concert. I ate dinner with them, something weird I can't even describe. Mãe texted me and I went outside to the waiting car of mãe and vovó. The concert was an "experience". The woman that played must have been 70 years old and she played all of her husband's studies first. It was decent music and I was tired so I slept for a couple songs. Whoops. It was just too hot in the theater in my outfit and the theater was very small. Then we went to drop vó off and pick up our sleeping boys from her house. At home we all went to bed.

August 28 (Friday)-

Breakfast today was more potato bread. I didn't have time to pack a snack, good thing I take extra. At school I had portuguese, portuguese, physics, and then repeated. My second portuguese class was literature and the teacher was talking about art so I took a little nap. Fred went with me after school today. Lunch was chicken, brocoli, zucchini, rice and beans. I then talked to my parents for a long time on Skype and then my cousin came over and we left to go watch movies at her quieter house. We walked to the corner movie store and rented I love Valentine's Day and the Nanny Diaries. First we watched I love Valentine's Day in english with portuguese subtitles and ate lemon and chocolate ice cream, plus lots of popcorn. Then was the Nanny Diaries but we watched it in Marie's room because her dad was coming home and the living room would be really loud. I sat in the hammock and Marie was on her bed. My "dinner" was french bread with ham and cheese (two things I normally don't like) and chocolate milk. Both movies were good but we both liked the Nanny Diaries more. Then my other cousins, Rico and Pam had come over and Marie, Fred, Rico, Pam and I sat in the kitchen talking, laughing and drinking Guaraná. Soon Álvaro joined us. Then we got picked up to go home. I ended my night watching the sing-a-long version of High School Musical 2 in portuguese with Álvaro cuddling with me.

That's it for this week!