The Chance of a Lifetime: Petropolis

A few nights ago I was talking with a few of my exchange student friends while we were washing the dishes from dinner. We find it funny that we were all taught that when you wash dishes, that you are to use hot water. Here, the water leaves the spicket room temperature, and they use this water to wash. None of us have ever seen a dishwasher here in Brasil. Also, it's really rare to find a clothes dryer. But that's simply because the sun's so strong that when you put the clothing on the line, it's dry in an hour.

Just an update on where I am right now. I'm living with my host counselor at the moment while they find a second host family for me. I have more freedoms here, such as using public transportation alone. It has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for me. I'm really enjoying my time there!

Two weeks ago I went to visit two exchange students who are living in Petropolis, another city in Brasil, about an hour away from the central of Rio. My journey there was fairly long. 20 minutes walking to the train station in Campo Grande, 1 hour and 15 minutes on the train, and 10 minutes on the metro. Then I walked 10 minutes to another exchanger's house ín Rio. His host mom took us to the bus station, and actually gave us the money to take the bus, which was $10, so it was incredibly generous.

Unfortunately, the majority of the 5 days I spent in Petropolis it was raining, so we didn't get to do everything we had wanted to. Petropolis is in the mountains, and it's absolutely beautiful. We had plans to go hiking and swim in a waterfall, but the rain messed those plans up. According to Leandra's host mom (The girl with whom I stayed), when it rains in Petropolis there's a high chance of landslides, so it wasn't safe for us to go.

However, we did go out to see the majority of the museums in Petropolis. Petropolis is a really popular place to visit for Brazilians, because it has many museums, and a beautiful cathedral! The Imperial museum is the summer house of the Portuguese Royal Family. They always went to Petropolis in the summer because the mountains make it much cooler. It's prohibited to take pictures inside the museum, but it is beautiful, I can assure you that.

One of the neat things about exchange is that you learn about many different cultures throughout the year, by talking to the other exchange students. While in Petropolis, we each made a dish. Leandra is from switzerland, and she made chocalate fondue. Celia is from New Mexico,and she's Jewish. So shetaught us how to make Latkas, and how to play Dreidel. It's a game of complete luck, and therefore I lost everything. Haha, well I had one piece of candy at the end! I made brownies and ice cream, because I figured that the only thing more american than that is apple pie! Mathilde is from Denmark, and she made us a traditional Christmas dessert. It's like a rice pudding with chopped, shelless almmonds and a cherry sauce. There's a game that goes along with it. There is one whole almond in the mix. The person whose bowl has that almond wins. Leandra won peanut M&M's.

On Saturday night, Leandra and her host family had a wedding to go to. Celia and I took care of doing Leandra's hair, with the help of a youtube video. While they were gone, Mathilde, Celia and I went to a sound and light spectacular that I had seen advertised earlier while walking. It was a neat story about the royal family of Portugal, a video was projected onto a sheet of water and the imperial museum itself.

I've been invited to come back in the fall (our spring), because the weather will be nicer. This way I'll have a chance to climb the mountains, see the waterfall, rent bicycles at the park, and walk around the city. Petropolis was primarily populated by German immigrants, and was planned out by a German engineer. The only Lutheran church I've seen so far has been there. maybe when I go back I can visit the church! :)

That's all for now folks!