Traveling back in time to October......
October 24 (Sabado):
I got up the same time as I would for school and got ready for Maria to pick me up. I rode in the car with João, Maria, João Vitor, and Maria's nephew, Nicolas. I was in the same chalé as last time, with a few new people and a few the same. It was so great to see everyone again, and meet the last of the exchange students that arrived. And slowly the groups started to integrate, Brasilians and Exchange Students. We were told the plan for the weekend and our group set off to do some work with the manuel for this district. At my table was Oscar (from Mexico) and Sarah (from Canadá) and we had a blast doing the simplest thing we could. The funniest part was Oscar asked Alcione (my inbound coordinator) for a bolacha (which is cookie in portugues) when he meant to ask for a borracha (an eraser). I still laugh about it. We had lunch with everyone, french fries, meat, rice, salad, 4 cheese pasta and ice cream and fruit for dessert. My table was so much fun (Deborah from Denmark, Oliva from US, Appy from India, Sarah from Canadá and one Brasilian). Oliva and I took a walk to change because it was so hot and were a little late to the next activity (creating a flag of exchange year, exciting eh?) and we played the hugging game again. It was way to hot to touch that many people. After we had another meeting with Renato (over the same things as before) we went back to the chalés to get ready for the talent show. Arisa from Japão played piano and Sarah played flute and the rest of us found something entertaining to do, some Brasilian boys sang with guitar, the German girls did a dance and I helped Oliva with some cheers. We had pizza and headed back to the chalés. The rest of the night was spent outside, guitar or cell phone music playing and just talking a mix of english and portugues.
October 25 (domingo):
After not sleeping well (cramming 4 girls on 3 twin beds, pushed together) we had to clean the cabin. We cleaned extra well, hoping to get an award in reward. Breakfast was mostly sweet, so everyone picked through what we wanted. Then Alex from Germany asked for our help in preparing a traditional German drink for the country fair. It was apple juice with gas (carbonation for you American folk). Alex, Oliva, Mara (Romaina), Jade (Brasil) and I cut apples and put them in a blender. Alex just wanted the juice so we had to strain out the pulp, and then Alex added too much gas water (carbonated water) and it was really weak so then Alex added the mushed up apple and floated some cut pieces in the top. When we finished everyone had left so we went exploring for the group. Of course we walked the wrong direction. The country fair was so cool! Seeing clothes from India, food from Denmark, postcards of Thailand, a kimono from Japan, and many other countries. All the parents came around and the kids decided which countries they wanted to go to. Then the parents and the outbounds had to do something so all us inbounds sat around talking for a long while. After a typical xurras lunch, we all got ready to go. Once again, that immediate feeling of saldade (to miss) hit everyone of us. We all promised to meet up soon and we were off. I stayed at Maria's for a bit until my host fam got back from Pindamonangaba. After watching some of the highly anticipated (well my house at least) Wizards of Waverly Place Movie, I headed to bed.
October 26 (Segunda):
This week we started reviewing in some of my classes, going back to the beginning of the year. Today was also the first day I went for a run here in Brasil. I was told of two parks near to my house and set off to see them. One was very beautiful but very small. The other was much bigger, but not as nice. I think it's nice to have a compromise between both of them. I only gave myself 10 minutes to get to the gym, and I was dying by the time I got there. A friend came over for dinner and then I watched The Parent Trap with the boys while mãe chatted with Janaina. Then I was off to bed.
October 27 (Terça):
Lunch was at Vó's today, and I was craving some fried mandioca and guess what Ne had made? Fried mandioca. I accomplished many things for Rotary, monthy report, plane tickets, and authorization papers. There was no volleyball at SESC because they were preparing for a dance show, but pai needed the car because it looked like it was going to rain. So we stayed home and played Rack.
October 28 (Quarta):
Just a normal day here in Brasil. I went for a run (an hour this time and still almost died), to the gym, Maria had work so no tennis, but I talked to my parents. When pai came home we had coconut bread and something similiar to cinnamon rolls.
October 29 (Quinta):
A friend of mine made chocolate cake for all of us, it was so delicious. After lunch, mãe and I went to the bank. The first bank didn't take Cirrus so we had to go to a different bank, but I got my plane tickets to the Amazon paid for! Rotary tonight was a fundraising dinner at a local restaurant, Macarronada Italiano, where we had four different kinds of pasta, nhoque and mini banana splits for dessert. My table was so much fun, Maria, João, João Vitor, Maria's mom and the youngest guy in the Rotary club Jorge. There was a live sax player, cirque de soilei on the tv (made for some interesting backround pictures), a raffle (Jorge won a skin care package) and lots of chattering. The dessert took forever to come, but our table was not leaving till we got ours. Everyone else was leaving, but we waited. I got in around midnight and passed out.
October 30 (Sexta):
I took a short half hour nap before going running (for less time, but I think I ran more) and going to the gym which was very pleasant. Tonight was Tutu's birthday party, he is turning 6 on the 31st. The place was very similiar to Kid's Castle, but 10x smaller. There was a little soccer field, trampoline for one, nerf cannons, fooseball and DDR. The food was excellent, salgadinhos (little hor'derves, similiar to empanadas, quiches and pizzas), popcorn, pão de queijo, and cotton candy. After singing to Tutu, we had cake (similiar to tres leche) and brigadero (little sweets and chocolate truffles). The joke of the night was that I was 8 years old again, not 18. I even got a party favor! We were the last to leave at 11 and I updated my iPod before bed.
October 31 (Sabado):
Halloween! Well, kind of. When I was woken up, I had about 20 minutes to pack for the sítio. We were the first ones to the sítio and didn't have a key to the second gate, so we past all our luggage and food through the fence and carried it to the house. Five minutes later, my aunt and uncle showed up, great timing. We had more nhoque for lunch. The pool was cleaned out and the trampoline was set up. After some leftovers for dinner and singing to Tutu (today is actually his birthday) and eating some cake, everyone just relaxed. I laid in the hammock, just looking out at the stars and hills. No camera could ever capture that picture correctly.
November 1 (domingo):
I was woken by Álvaro, Tutu and Aninha playing uno in the room, while João and I were still asleep. We spent the rest of the day in the pool. Tia Cynthia's niece, Lia, her SO, Clay, and their son, Pedro came, along with one of Tia Cynthia's 7 siblings, Tia Thais and her daughter Yada and Tia Cynthia's mom. Duda and Claudia came later, so it was basically a big party. We had churrasco (BBQ) for lunch and then everyone went back to swimming. I had a lot of sun so I went to read my book for a bit and ended up falling asleep. We jumped on the trampoline waiting for dinner, pasta, to be done. It was a relaxing night, just talking with family, playing some guitar and being that much closer to nature. I found a book "Around the world in 365 days" (written in english) and it included beautiful pictures of different places in the world. Included in it was Washington State, near Pullman. I was very excited to know a place in the book.
November 2 (segunda):
After breakfast everyone got in the pool again, and after applying sun screen of course. Pedro, Tia Thais and Yada had spent the night and around 11 Lia and Tia Denise came. We had more BBQ for lunch and I introduced everyone to my weird habit of eating carrots with peanut butter. After some more time in the pool, we got everything taken down and packed up to head home. The kids and I played a game where you are going to the moon and an item has to fit a certain rule, that someone makes up, to take it with you and you have to try and guess the rule. Álvaro started with, "I will go to the moon and take with me, cow poop". No one was knew what to say after that... On the way home, Álvaro realized the yellow caution signs showed the arrows exactly as the road would continue. We made fun of him for a bit, then João started interpreting the signs, "swerve right and then continue straight..." and pai called him JoãoPS. For dinner we had hamburgers from Janela Aberta again (mine had egg again. :D) and after talking to my parents, I went to bed around 12, now 6pm back home.
November 3 (Terça):
Because I didn't get to go to the gym yesterday, I went for a run and to the gym today. I also got to start new excercies and meet some new people. Pai brought home pamonia, a sweet tamale type thing, and couscous. We went to SESC and I joined the game in progress. I am proud to say I knew about half the people playing. I got pulled away to get checked by the doctor (so I could go swimming) but by the time we got down there, they weren't in but I got to go swimming anyways. Really all I wanted to do was sleep, too much exercise for one day. haha. We came home around 10, one of the last ones to leave SESC.
November 4 (Quarta):
School was good, and I went for a run and to the gym (with more new exercises) after lunch. I had tennis classes today as well and one of the guys we normally play with, Leando, is in Switerland so it was just Maria, Julio and I. I think the fatigue is finally setting in, because I was super tired.
November 5 (Quinta):
I made the mistake of falling asleep in physics today, and my teacher caught me, asking me if I needed to step outside. Needless to say, I will never fall asleep in that class again. Though I understood most of the chem review questions, I guess two years pays off. I meant to do my blog after lunch, but procrastination got the better of me. It was so hot! Thank god a little rain cooled everything off just before Rotary. I made another mistake at Rotary. I got a glass of what I thought was juice.. However it was cachaça, rum. A rotarian saved me from too much embarrassment. The program was about an ex exchange student's trip. He went for 3 months to Salt Lake City, and did so many things in 3 months. Maria had another meeting afterwards so I hung around with the wives of my club president and another rotarian. I got home just before 11pm.
November 6 (Sexta):
My portugues teacher didn't realize that I was an exchange student and was getting ready to yell at me for not having the workbook. Luckily I know enough portuguese to avoid trouble. Aninha was over for lunch and wanted the hard-boiled cordona eggs warmed up. Well they then proceeded to explode all over the kitchen. I talked too long to my parents on Skype and only got in a little run before gym, so I went out afterwards too. I showed my family my going away slideshow, there were so many great pictures in it.
November 7 (Sabado):
Lunch was at Vó's and we got there right as Tia Ma and Marie were leaving. We watched Twilight (in portuguese with english subtitles) then mãe and pai called all their friends over for a BBQ at 8. So naturally everyone showed up at 9. The joke was that our house has two outdoor showers, and my house in US has a swimming pool but it's cold, and here we have not just one, but two outdoor showers. I met many of my family's friends and we had a great time, BBQing, playing guitar, and just talking. The last couple left around 1 and pai had something to eat, mãe was cleaning and we got to talking.. And before you know it, it was 3:30am. So we went to bed.
November 8 (domingo):
I was woken up saying people were coming over for more BBQ. It was just family: Tia Cynthia, Tio Nanu, Tutu, Aninha, Vó, Tia Ma, Tio Indio, and Fred. The last 4 left before we even had dessert, warmed pineapple and creme ice cream. I had a great time talking with my aunt and uncle about Brasil and US. Then I watched Evan Almightly with João and Aninha. We had some pasta (very similiar to the kind I have back home) for dinner and I got to talk to my parents again. Then it was time for bed.
November 9 (segunda):
Mãe had made an excellent dessert (condensed milk, milk, egg and bread) for lunch. I went for a run and to the gym as normal. The only people in the park were workers taking down the Christmas lights, though I don't know why because Christmas is coming up... It was refreshing to run in a little cloud cover and chance of rain (it did rain on me, right as I got to the gym). I had a great talk with Lincoln about different body parts in english (apparently elbow is a pretty word) and rock climbing (he was a guide for the local trails, before he was trainer). I ate mostly fruit for dinner, mãe had bought some, and it was all excellent (peaches, pineapple, apple). I killed my first huge bug here (it looked similiar to a cockroach. :/) and I called it a day.
Well that's all for now. Beijos, Tttttchhhhauuuu!
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