Update part 2

So I have actually changed families now.

I live with José Alberto, Dalila and Caio in a ten floor apartment in Jardim Aquarius. It is located close to the bakery, nail salon and a big plaza. Most of my friends live close too.

With my new family I have been to their "chacara", country house in Guaratingetá for Easter. We climbed a mountain to a tiny church. It took 35 minutes, weaving between cows, under barbed wire and around cow poop. We had BBQ for my uncle's birthday. Dalila's side of the family is very lively and funny to be around.

I have ate lunch at my grandma's house a few times with my aunt and uncle. It's very traditional, with pictures of all the kids spotting the walls and the classic grandma clutter. They are much calmer than the other side of my family, but my grandparents have the same amount of children. 6 with Dalila being the oldest and 6 with José Alberto somewhere in the middle.

My usual week here goes a little something like this:
Monday - I have high school classes only, Portugues Grammar, Math and Physics. I come home for lunch and head to the gym around 4. My trainer at the gym changed jobs so now Alexandre is the trainer in charge. He loves to surf and is very nice to be around.
Tuesday - Classes this day are "Desenvolvimento" (environmental devolopment), Biology, English and Geography. I come home for lunch, head to the gym a little bit earlier (it takes an hour to walk to and from now) and then I have volleyball at 6 until 7:30. Volleyball today is more of just scrimmaging and it's a lot of fun because it's a mix of boys and girls.
Wednesday - Portugues Literature, History of Brasil, Microbiology and Hydrobiology are my classes for the day. I stay at school to eat lunch at a restaurant near by because at 2 I have to head to the gym at Tenis Clube with the volleyball team. We spend about a half hour there and then have court time from 2:30-4. We get a half hour break before an hour of conditioning until 5:30. Then Maria swings by and we head to our 6 o' clock tennis class in another part of the city. When it gets over at 7 I head back to the house and crash.
Thursday - My classes on Thursdays are Chemistry, Biology and "Gestão Ambiental" (Environmental Management). I come home to eat lunch, head to the gym around 2:30 because I have Rotary meetings starting at 8. At Rotary I normally draw the raffle number, read the invocation and I have been the speaker. The meetings normally get over about 9:45.
Friday - To end the week I have "Direito Ambiental" (Environmental Law), "Quimica Ambiental" (Environmental chemistry), "Projeto" (literal translation: project. Everyone in 2nd year is assigned a group that works on a project to be presented in the end of the year, this class is to prepare things for the various projects. So I do nothing normally.), and Math. I stay at school, eating with girls from class because they have an afternoon class (Projeto again) and I head to volleyball for a routine that's similar to wednesdays. Then I come home and shower and go out for the night.
I go out every weekend to some sort of bar/club with my host cousin, Lucas, and his friends because they are my age. They all go to college during the week but come back home on the weekends. When they are not available I go out with my host brother and his crazy friends. :)

I have made so many new friends now. It took a while granted, but I have friends now that I feel like I've known them all my life. Most of them are on the volleyball team. Bruh is always my doubles partner, Nih hangs out with me because we are the older girls that won't play in tournaments, Laís and Juh who argue about who gets to pinch my face (inside joke), and all the boys get a good laugh with me: Diego, Thiaginho, Felipe, Fernando (who gave me the nickname of Kelsão, meaning more or less "big Kelsey") and Roger. Ana Luiza is my best friend at school, I hang out with her most every break and we sit near each other in class. After school I go to lunch with Dani, Dani, Juh, Flora, Polly, or Lah. Like I said in my other blog, they normally don't go out on the weekends though. My weekend gang is Lucas, Robinho, Bellato, Primita, Jinebes, Kenny and other people who they pick up. They always know how to have a good time.

The longer I stay here, the less I want to leave. Oh it will be hard.

My upcoming plans are:
May 1-10: Amazons trip with exchange students
May 15-16: District conference
May 16-24: Trip to the south with my host family (Foz Iguaçu, Grambado and Florianopolis)
May 27-June 10: My parents are coming to visit
May 29-30: São Paulo
June 2-6: Caragua
June 18: I head back to the US.

I'll try to upload my blog one more time before I go home.