September 19- September 25

pizza dinner at my house.

Waiting for the spare.

Where we were stranded..

João and the flat tire. one of two.

Keep away. :)

View from Tia Ma's sítio.

volleyball.

blackberries.

they got me. :(

cousins. :)

picking blackberries.

So yet again I am lazy and try to put this off. But sometimes there's nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon.
Saturday 19th (Sabado/Saturday)-
My plans got a changed a little today and I ended up with plans to go to Tia Ma's sítio. But first the boys had judo class and mãe and I went to the mall to get money for me to give to my councelor in case of an emergancy. I got it from the ATM and changed it at the cambio, but we had some extra time because the boys were still in judo class so we decided to spend money! I bought 4 shirts (there was a bit of a fisaco/miscommunication but that's another story) then we rushed to get the boys and head to the sítio. We ended up getting a little lost but soon found our way. We were greeted by Tia Ma, Tio Indio, Vó, Tia Nani, Tio Rodolfo, Rico, Rico, Naty, JuJu and Marie. The first thing we did was go pick blackberries. We ate Bacalhoada, which is a kind of dish with cod, potatoes, onions, eggs, tomatoes and the Benedetto dish didn't have peppers. Then we relaxed, I attempted to help Vó with a crossword a task a little difficult in Portuguese, then had sobremesa (dessert). Vó had made a kind of pastry, with a filho dough like pastry and a kind of cream in between the layers. We sat around the table, talking, then all of a sudden there was a commotion to my right and I look over to find Marie and Rico shoving blackberries in each other face's. Fred was the next victim, though he managed to out run Rico and Marie but couldn't avoid the inevitable, and then Pam was attacked. As Pam was walking by me she said "Run Kelsey" and in a minute I saw why. I was the next target and as hard as I tried I couldn't escape Rico and Marie and soon I matched everyone else. João, Rico and Ciça were added to our group. After we washed our faces and ate some more, I got called down to play some volleyball. It wasn't anything too great so we just ended up hitting the ball around some, and Marie and I peppered till we got too tired. After a couple games of Rummikub I went to get changed to go to a play. Tio Indio commented that he liked me a lot and I was a beautiful girl so be careful with the Brasilian boys. The theater was at another mall in the middle of town on the third floor. The outside was a bit sketch, it looked like it was under constrution, but the theater itself was very nice, padded armrests and everything. I had a great time talking to my friends, Naty, Maria, Mony, Michael, and Maisa, before the play started. The play was a monolouge comedy and I understood most of it. Afterwords my host fam picked me up and we went to eat at Agua Doce. We ate the best dish from the restaurant, Escondidinho (means hidden) mashed mandioca, dried meat and cheese, plus french fries. Then I went home and talked to a friend till really late, then crashed out.
September 20 (Domingo/Sunday)-
I was woken up at 9:30 (so again, not a full night to catch up) and told we were going to the sítio again. This time pai drove so we did not get lost and Tio Nanu, Tia Cynthia, Tutu, Aninha and Tia Cynthia's mom went up as well. We ate a typical lunch then I slept in a hammock for I don't know how long. When I woke up we played some volleyball which turned into keep away till my cousins had to leave one by one. We headed back into the city around 5 and as we were turning onto the Dutra the car made a weird ker-clunk noise so we pulled into the median only to discover we had a flat tire. So we called Tio Indio to come help us fix it. We sat on the curb and waited, in shorts, sweatshirts and most of us no shoes. Once it was fixed we headed home for hamburgers and I finally updated last week's blog after a few minor distractions. Then I went to sleep.
September 21 (Segunda/Monday)-
Tia Ma gave us a ride to school this morning and I met Raquel (their friend/maid). Everything else was pretty normal, but my history teacher (that has never talked to me before) asked me to pronounce Woodrow Wilson because he was having difficulty with it. It was really entertaining to listen to American names pronounced in Portuguese. We went to Vó's house for lunch to eat leftovers and stroganoff. After that, we went home for a bit until gym. Janainina had symptoms of swine flu, so our house was not cleaned today. Mãe took João, Aninha and I to the gym because it was raining slightly and Tio Nanu picked us up. I showered really fast so we could go out later, to a mall of course. I hit the last mall that I haven't been to in São José, Vale Sul. We went to Wal-Mart, to buy groceries and then explored the rest of the mall until it closed. Then we walked outside only to find our car had another flat tire. So while pai went to ask people for spare tires, mãe, João and I had some water and carmalized coconut from a stand outside Wal-Mart. Once the car was fixed and everyone was soaking wet, we headed home. The carton of milk was in my normal seat so I sat in the middle and João hugged me, calling me his "irmazinha" (little sister). Then Álvaro climbed in over the milk and we cuddled the whole way home. At home I talked to a friend who I haven't talked to in a while then realized it was 12:38! I needed to go to sleep.
September 22 (Terça/Tuesday)-
Nothing too exciting happened in school besides the falling asleep in biology (from my 5 hours of sleep) and Monica sitting next to me. Lunch was the normal, meat, rice, tomatoes, potatoes, mango (yum!) and beans that were wayyy too salty. I was introduced to the old maid that was filling in for Janainina and she made us the really excellent tea that made mãe and I very tired. I talked to my parents for a bit and we caught up on each other's lives. Then mãe and I rushed to meet Terezinha at Tenis Clube. They have a pool, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, two gyms, salon, and many classrooms for various classes, way cooler than anything in the US. The coolest part was that to enter you have to have your thumbprint scanned. We then went to pick up bread (white, wheat, sugar and powdered) and ate a little dinner. After Marie got dropped off we headed to SESC for volleyball. The kids got kicked off the court and the adults (myself included) played three on three. There was two other guys my age, and 3 older guys, me being the only girl. But I had so much fun. I haven't played volleyball that hard in about a year. I was sweating so badly. After someone got the ball stuck in the rafters, we sat down on the court and talked (again, friendly brasilians) until they took the net down and we left. We headed home after a wild goose chase to find my SESC card and at home I took a shower and passed out.
September 23 (Quarta/Wednesday)-
And yet again, I was tired today. I'm beginning to think this will be a constant thing. I don't think the rain helped either. Lunch was panqueca, which was similar to enchiladas, with dried meat, green olives, etc. plus rice. Sobremesa (dessert) was chocolate cake and ice cream. :) Then I had gym, today I worked out my legs. Then pai picked us up and we went to get bread (as usual) and I ate a quick dinner before tennis class and Álvaro had a play. Tennis was just as fun, even if I didn't feel like I improved. Again, our car was acting up and decided to run out of gas. I ended my night by watching Drake and Josh with Álvaro then went to sleep before 10 again.
September 24 (Quinta/Thursday)-
Today was a little different. During the day, João asked me if I would like to sit next to him because he has no friends, and thus started my new seat. I had so much fun sitting between João, Breno and Gue who were constantly arguing about the 2 main things in Brasil: Beer and soccer. When I got home for lunch it was bacon wrapped filet mignon, mashed potatoes, condorna eggs, tomatoes and rice. I talked with my parents a little and a friend of mine in Slovakia. After a little dinner I got ready for Rotary and Maria picked me up while mãe had a client. Rotary was good, the speaker had been on exchange to Ohio, and he talked about cateracts and the causes of them. Dinner was chicken, rice (kinda tasted like hay), potatoes, tomatoes and pineapple. We had to wait until the end of the meeting to have dessert, birthday cake. I talked with the speaker and his parents until the last people left and it never ceases to amaze me at the amount of people interested in talking to me.
September 25 (Sexta/Friday)-
Classes today aren't much better than the day before so I borrowed João's review book and went through the entire thing, looking at every picture I came across to keep myself entertained. It was pretty successful. Lunch was leftovers, plus some chicken nuggets. :) I sat down to watch the soap opera with mãe but ended up falling asleep on the couch and missing the end of the soap opera. Then mãe woke me up to go to the gym, because João was at an amusement park and I was a little late in the normal time I go. Then I just relaxed with my family, watching some tv and talking to my friends. Everyone here got ahold of my msn and I had 6 msn chats open, plus facebook! Pai ordered yakisoba from China in box and it was super good. So we sat in the kitchen talking while Álvaro watched tv and João was at the amusement park until he got home around 11.
September 26 (Sabado/Saturday)-
I slept in a lot today, because I was still tired from the week. I was supposed to go shopping with mãe but I thought sleeping sounded better. We had lunch at Vó's, meat, rice, beans, farofa, and fried bananas. After hanging with my family for a bit and ate some pumpkin dessert before I left to get ready to go out with Maria and João. I went with them to watch João Vitor give a presentation at his old school. There was all these booths set up for different topics, like water, Martin Luther King, and the hippie movement. And then there was a presentation over some of the groups in the classrooms upstairs. João Vitor's was over sexuality. It was interesting to learn about in Portuguese. Then I went home to get ready for my friends to come over. When I told my friends to come over at 7 in Brasilian time it really means like 8:30 or later. But we had a lot of fun, eating pizza and talking. The types of pizza were tuna, mushrooms, tomatoes, palmito, chicken and dessert was Nutella and strawberries. Everyone left around 11:00. Then we cleaned up until about 12 and roasted marshmellows over a dying pizza fire. I talked with a friend until 2am then crashed.
September 27 (Domingo/Sunday)-
Today I didn't want to miss anything so I woke up at 10. We ate a little breakfast and then all of my family came over for a BBQ. Vó, Tio Indio, Tia Ma, Fred, Marie, Tio Rodolfo, Tia Nani, Rico, Tio Nanu, Tia Cynthia, Aninha, Tutu and then more joined later. We had traditional BBQ and I tried some chicken hearts. Mima signed on Skype and said hello to everyone. Then at 4 I went to a bar to watch a soccer game with my friends. It was an intense match between the two biggest rivals in the state of São Paulo, São Paulo and Corinthains. Corinthains scored first and Coringãos went crazy, yelling, screaming, jumping around, and pounding on tables. The game ended up a tie, 1-1, so no one will talk about it for a week like they would otherwise. Then I came home to eat some pizza again, brocoli and tuna, and talk to my parents for a bit. Then it was really late and I needed to go to bed.
That's it for the week. Beijos, tchau!
I'll get pictures up soon!