Trip

Tomorrow I’m leaving on a 20 day tour of the northeast of Brazil with about 80 or so other Exchange students.  I won’t get a chance to blog on the trip, but you can follow the official trip blog if you wish.  Here’s the link:

http://northeastdec2012.blogspot.com.br/

Loss of Identity

In America we often identify ourselves by what we do.  I was a musician, a student, and an athlete.  I felt like I knew my place in society, and that I was on the path to achieve what I set out to do.  In Brazil I’m without all three of these parts of my identity. 

I feel so lost without my instruments by my side.  I have to admit that when I entered high school I sort of fell off with my cello and my saxophone.  But now there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t yearn for just five minutes with my cello.  By getting involved with musical  groups has proved to be a challenge here.  Mainly it’s because of the instruments I play.  If I had chosen guitar, then I would have fit right in here!  My host grandfather fixed up a keyboard for Annabella and I to play.  While this is a good opportunity work out my musical frustrations, it doesn’t provide the social interactions of an orchestra or band. 

Some days in school I feel very out of place as well.  I wasn’t given a textbook, so I don’t have any means to study for tests, or do the work.  All of the problems for the different subjects are included in the textbook with space to write.  So I usually read of the student next to me, and try to participate the best I can.  But I still feel out of place.  I’ve never truly felt frustrated in school, it was always a place that I felt like I belonged.  As my language level increases things are getting better in school.  I got my first 100% on a test-granted it was an English test, but considering the questions were in Portuguese, and one was to translate a paragraph, I was fairly proud of myself.

The lack of activities in school here in Brasil is incredibly frustrating for me.  I miss having sports after school-or before during the dreaded swim season!  Haha.  There is an activity center that has many sports, but it is too far for me to walk alone, and I do not have a ride or permission to use the bus alone.  For now I just play soccer in a cement quad near my house. 

I am trying to be patient, knowing that good things come in time. But as someone who was so used to being busy, this is really difficult for me.  I had a meeting with the rotary personal to discuss this, and we are working on finding activities for me. 

Until then I am trying to work out who I am as a person.  Are my interests all that define me?  I think not.  I am using this time to discover who I am within my soul, and I am thankful to have been given this opportunity to do so.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Election

Yesterday was another day for the history books; whether you were an Obama supporter or not, this is undisputable.  It might interest you to know that the US presidential race was widely covered here in Brazil, so I fortunately was not left entirely in the dark.  There’s currently a three hour time difference between Rio and Pennsylvania, so I decided that I would not remain awake awaiting the results.  Instead when I awoke at 6 o´clock for school I immediately asked my good friend Google for the much anticipated response.  Generally speaking, the Brazilian population is in favor of Obama, so when I shared the news at school there were smiles all around.  Granted no outright celebrations, but then again it is not the presidential election of their resident country.

 

This year has made me realize what a big influence The United States of America has on the surrounding world.  While there are undoubtedly habitants of this world that dislike the US with a burning passion, there are many that think highly of our nation.  Our music and movies are world wide phenomenons-some of the music that tends to be infectiously popular here in Brazil I’d rather forget about, but that’s entirely beside the point.  What I’m trying to say is that while we have experienced many low points as a nation in the past years, the world still looks to us as an example.  It would do our nation well to remember that. 

Interestingly enough, I was present for elections in Brazil as well.  The ways in which the candidates advertise here share similarities and exhibit differences when compared to the US elections.  One of the hardest methods to become accustomed to was the jingles blasting from stereos attached to the roofs of cars.  To be entirely honest, when I first arrived I thought that they were actual songs, and I sang along.  Hehehe.   (Side note-to laugh on the internet klike a Brazilian, there are many methods you can use.  The first: kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.  The second: rsrsrsrsrsrsrsrsrs.  The third, and my personal favorite: dghdjsilthrjslbgtrjsl. In this method you just pound on whatever keys suit your fancy.) 

Secondly, the candidates pay many people daily to advertise for them.  This is actually illegal in Brazil, but one of the major problems in Brazil is that there are many laws but little to no thorough enforcement of the laws.  They stand 20 in a row on the side of the road with a flag all representing the same candidate.  Others wear boards advertising the candidates and walk downtown handing out little slips of paper with the candidate’s numbers.  Driving anywhere one could find little yard signs placed in incredible numbers along the roadsides.  The amount of money the candidates spend on the campaign is absolutely mind blowing. 

Election day was October 6^th here in Brazil.  Between the ages of 16 and 18 voting is optional.  However ,when you turn 18 voting becomes mandatory.  My host mother was not born in Brazil, therefore she cannot vote here.  So, the political hour on TV in the weeks prior to the election was a complete annoyance for the entire household.  We were in São Paulo at the beach when the election occurred, thus my host brother Giancarlo could not vote.  He may only vote in Rio.  Nevertheless, he had to go to the polls that day and explain why he couldn’t vote.  Had he not done that he would have been fined.  Additionally, Brazil decides the winners of the election based on popular vote.  My history teacher explained the electoral college to my classmates, and many seemed completely confounded by the idea. 

In elections all over the world I believe there are people who remain disappointed, and those who are excited.  The only thing one can do is remain grateful that we live in a nation where our votes are counted and our voices heard.  Let us never forget that!

My sad excuse for a caricature because  I wasn't understanding the chemistry lesson...

Blessings

How blessed am I?  Three months ago I set out on an airplane alone not knowing for certain what was awaiting me upon departure.  Thankfully I was welcomed into a fantastic host family.  But not only do I have a great living situation here, I have TONS of support back home.  Prior to leaving, previous exchange students warned us that our friends and family might not be as supportive as we might imagine.

However, I have found that this does not hold true for me.  I have received immense amounts of love and support-even from places that I never imagined!  I have the support of my Mom and Dad, and my four brothers.  It’s harder than I ever imagined being away from them, no matter how much we might bicker while together, there’s a lot of love in my family.  I am incredibly lucky to have four incredibly loving grandparents. Not many people my age can say that.  I have my cousins and aunts who have e-mailed and skyped me interested in what’s going on.

I am incredibly grateful for my three best friends: Jananne, Que, and Veronica.  Though there’s a great amount of physical distance between us-with Jananne in London and I in Rio, our friendship still holds strong.  I have my co-workers from Camp Kirchenwald who are always there for me.  They are more than friends, rather more like family.  (By the way Vicky, Kait, Christine, and Jonathan-I really loved wearing the key here).  It should be on its way to you Vicky, if it hasn’t already arrived.  Additionally I have support from countless members of my church, who I know are praying for my safety and well being.   I have the support of extended family, and family friends.  I have the support of many that I went to high school with.

KITCHEN CREW 2009

BEST FRIENDS

On Friday I was having a rough day, so I took a nap after school.  I woke up to my host brother bringing me a package that had just arrived.  I was completely taken aback-I hadn’t asked my parents to mail anything I’d forgotten, and no one had told me of anything that they were going to mail.  It turned out to be from my previous teachers at the high!  It was a wonderful surprise that I very much appreciated.  Thank you all.

THANKS FOR THE ROOT BEER BARRELS-MY HOST FAMILY LOVES THEM!

The saying goes:  You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.  While I’m certain that this holds true in some instances, I think that for my situation it can be slightly altered.  Perhaps it could be rearranged to say:  You don’t know who has got your back until you take a leap of faith.  Thank you all for your kind words, letters, facebook messages, thoughts, and prayers.  I never realized who all stood behind me, and now I can be nothing but grateful.

Curveballs

Being on exchange throws you a lot of curveballs, sometimes completely different from what you were expecting.  Sometimes they’re really hard to accept and move past, but other times they’re rather simple.   Nevertheless, in either situation one usually must improvise to work around the difficulty.  Today was one of those days.

In school my classmates asked if I could bring something in for a surprise party tomorrow for what I guess is the hall monitor of sorts.  I’m not entirely sure what her job title is to be honest.  Anyways, I said that I would make a cake, so they attempted to write my name on the board under cake.  I didn’t realize they were struggling because I was attempting to read Harry Potter, but when I looked up they had crossed out the letters Ketlr and had written “a Americana” instead.  Haha.

When I got home I decided that I would try to make tandycakes, even though if I did I would probably use up my peanut butter.  Anyone American who has ever spent an extended amount of time in a foreign country will tell you that this is a depressing situation.

Around 5 o´clock I made my way over to my host father’s house (not a very tiring journey seeing that it’s just next door) and asked if I could make the dessert there.  He looked over the recipe and said that he had everything.  But then he realized he didn’t have vanilla extract, so he called his wife and she brought some home on her way from work.  Turns out he didn’t have flour or baking powder either…but we took care of that.  Everything was going well until I tried to take the hot milk/butter mixture out of the microwave and I spilled it.  So I cleaned up the mess and estimated how much I had spilled and put more milk and butter in the microwave.  Did you know that about 2 tablespoons of milk and a bit of butter after 2 minutes in the microwave sort of hardens?  Well it does.  But you know me, I just threw it in the mix anyways!  The ovens here are a little funky, so I had to estimate the time-I’d like to think I did a fairly decent job!

Thankfully I didn’t use up all the peanut butter in the jar, so I still have a bit of comfort food left. :D  But, he didn’t have chocolate, and neither did my host family to improvise and put on top.  So, instead we improvised.  I put chocolate sprinkles on top.  I suppose that life throws you curveballs anywhere you find yourself, but it seems that on exchange I have experienced more than any year!

My Tandycakes!

School

What I Love

-Gym class-every Thursday for half an hour after school.

-Everyone is friendly

-No cliques

-No assigned seating

-If I don’t understnad the material like in Chemistry, the teachers don’t mind if I read in portuguese to improve my vocabulary.

-Teachers treat their students as friends.

-I have a uniform shirt and can only wear jeans or the school gym shorts (spandex).   I don’t spend time thinking about what I will wear to school-not like I did much of that anyway…

-My school has a cinema room.

-They have fish, birds and tiny monkeys on school grounds.

What I’m Not Accustomed To Yet

-If a teacher is absent, there’s never a substitute.

-Students remain in the same classroom the whole day, the teachers change.

-It’s very hot for me, but normal for the other students, so they don’t turn the fans or air conditioning on.  By the way, each room has a small air conditioner.

-Classrooms are equipped with desk chairs, not a separate chair and desk.

-Lack of technology-nothing but whiteboards.

-Absolutely no decoration in the classroom.

-10-20 minutes of the 50 minute period is generally wasted by the teacher writing out notes to be copied on the whiteboard.

-EVERYBODY writes in cursive, whereas the USA has fallen out of the trend of even teaching it nowadays.

-All of teaching is done lecture style.

-Teachers will talk to their students about their personal lives at times.

-There is no such thing as plain notebook paper here, everything has designs.  Though it is nice to look at, I don’t believe it’s worth the added price.

-In general the people in Brazil are very extroverted, so when talking in class it often sounds like a shouting match.

Five of my classmates and me at the school science fair.
 (It was quite early in my exchange, so I didn't have a group to work with.)

The Beach

I spent the past week at the beach!  By now you know that I’m living in Rio, so I suppose you’re imaging that I was bronzing by the waters of Copacabana or Ipanema…however that would be a wrong assumption.  Very reasonable, but mistaken nonetheless.  Actually, I left Rio all together and ventured for São Paulo!  The population of São Paulo is greater than that of the entire country of Chile!  It’s difficult to fathom, I know.  My host mother’s brother and his wife and two daughters live in São Paulo.  My host uncle is named Silvio, like his father.  His wife Flavia, and two daughters Rafaelela 13, and Carol 8. 

My host mother, Annabella, Giancarlo and I left Rio on Friday for São Paulo via coach bus.  Six hours later we arrived at a bus stop and were met by Silvio’s driver who transported us to their house.  The girls were still in school and both Flavia and Silvio were at work.  The cook had prepared pasta for us however.  São Paulo is an interesting city to say the least.  Everything is more expensive in São Paulo, but it is also the best place to make money.  My host uncle owns three English courses there.  In Brazil it is very common to have a house maid that comes a few times a week, even in middle class families.  But to have a driver, cook, and maid who come every day is a sure tell sign of wealth. 

On Saturday we left for the beach!  Unlike Rio were the city is not separated from the beach, we had to travel two hours and a few odd minutes to arrive.  Before we arrived we stopped to eat pastels.  Pastel is a type of pastry that is deep fried and can be filled with anything.  Generally speaking, cheese is almost always included.  Usually they are not this big!

Pastel.

We arrived and settled in to the beach house-which is in a condominium.  After eating a late lunch/dinner we went to check out the beach across the street!  Annabella, Carol and I ran into the welcoming waters with our clothes still on.  I had forgotten that I was wearing white shorts until I was already drenched…But hey, you only live once!  We were welcomed to the beach with a private firework showing……Well that’s a lie.  There was a wedding on the beach and at the reception they were setting of fireworks. 

The condominium has a tennis court above the garage, and I was able to play three times.  Silvio, Carol and Rafa all play-Silvio and Rafa very well, Carol still learning.  Silvio called Fabio the tennis instructor to come three of the days we were there.  It was nice to have the beach right across the street to cool off in the waters after a good workout.  We got even more of a workout in the waters as we experimented with the sport of Stand up.  Essentially it’s a surfboard with a paddle.  I tried two different days with two different instructors.  The second day I was much better and didn’t fall nearly as much!  It’s more difficult than one might imagine balancing yourself while traversing the waves. 

Each day we woke up to a beautiful breakfast-the fruit is absolutely delectable in Brasil.  Add a bit of granola and I’m just the happiest person alive!  We spent the day beachside, usually with finger foods brought to us by the staff of the condominium.  That was a bit odd for me to wrap my head around, but I simply reminded myself that different is neither right nor wrong, it’s simply different!  The sun is much stronger in Brasil, and I did get a bit burnt.  However, almost all of it is faded and nothing peeled. 

On Monday evening my host father arrived having driven 7.5 hours from Rio to arrive.  So on Tuesday we went on a banana boat to an island.  Essentially it looks like a big hot dog that can seat ten people.  It’s attached by rope to a motor boat that pulls you along at lightening fast speeds…well maybe not quite that fast XD!  On the return when the boat was turning into shore Giancarlo leaned the boat over and we all tumbled into the ocean laughing.  No need to be worried, we were all wearing life jackets.  The waters at the island were so still, like a pool, so there was little inhalation of salt water done there. 

The evenings were generally spent in house playing board games, or watching movies.  If not we spent time with new found friends.  Two boys aged 11 and 14.  Their father knows Silvio and we ran into them at the shopping center one night.  We had good old fashioned fun playing hide and go seek and swimming in the pool of their condominium.  They are actually from Argentina, but as they moved to Brasil when they were quite young, they don’t have an accent as I do.

On Wednesday, our last night they joined us for Silvio’s famous pizza.  It was delicious but much different from American pizza.  Brazilian pizza is incredibly thin, but tasty nonetheless!  The drive back to Rio didn’t seem very long but it was a little over 7 hours long.  I mentioned in the last post how driving is crazy here.  Let me explain.  Curling around the mountains everybody sped up rather than slowing down.  Tires squealing are not an unusual sound here in Brasil.  But we made it home safe and sound, and that’s all that matters.

Learning to make pizza.