My first day of school was the first tuesday after I arrived here in Brazil. It was... well, not as quite as stressful as I had origionally imagined:). I was first intoduced to the 2nd year (11th grade) class and sat down in the middle of their class. I saw rows of little blue desks with many brown-haired blow-dryed girls and boys in white school t-shirts and skinny jeans staring back at me in wonder from the moment the lady who introduced me said I was from the United States. Imediately after the current class was over, I was bombarded with people and questions and portuguese, but was able to keep my head above water, and even respond to some of the questions. I was then taken to the papelaria (bookstore) to buy the school t-shirt, which came in a size for girls that seemed to be made to show your belly. I wasn´t used to the clothing at first, but now it dosen´t bother me as much. School goes from 7:00 in the morning to 12:20 in the afternoon, and then everyone goes home to eat lunch. We have 6 classes a day with two snack breaks when you can socialize or go downstairs and buy pão de queijo (cheese bread), salgados (pastries with various types of meat, cheese, and vegetable fillings), juice, and other snacks. Although, there is almost no need to buy snacks; every day my friends have snacks of their own and always offer some to you.
One of the things that kind of culture-shocked me at school was the absence of rules in school that I was used to in the US and the layed-back-ness of the classes. The teachers wear normal, if not a little more dressed-up than usual clothes, (high heels, pretty blouse, jeans, t-shirt) to school, and there are no rules what-so-ever about touching and hugging the students- it is completely normal. I was even kissed (on the cheek) by one of my teachers upon meeting. The students also have fewer rules; you can have food, chew gum, wear hats, have phones and ipods, fall asleep, and practically even sit in the back of the class and goof off and nothing much happens. Not that this is what my classes are like at all, at least after I changed to the 3rd year. In my classes, there is nothing in the room except rows of desks, a wall of windows, a wall of white board, a couple papers and shelves on the wall, and a modest desk for the teacher, and yet it is everything needed to learn. The students are given more freedom, and knowledge is sucessfully absorved on a simple exchange of voices, small all-encompasing text books, and images on the white board. When we need to use a Powerpoint presentation or watch a movie, we all have to move downstairs or move a tv into the room.
I really adore the simplicity of the things here in Brazil, it´s so refreshing-
The houses are simple (and always clean), with open space and simple accents. On a side table in the living room, there could be just a picture in a frame and a plant, and a tv remote at times. the food is always rice and beans (yes, every day) and cooked the old-fashioned way. There are little shops lining the streets, if you need meat you go to the butcher, bread in the bakery, clothes in the clothes store, notebooks for school in the papelaria, produce in the produce, etc. I love just walking the streets and looking in all the shops. In the grocery stores there is a small selection in the 6-7 iles of laundry detergent, food, and hair stuff, but you can find everything you need. In the cosmetics isle, there is just a bunch of hair stuff (shampoo, conditioner), various types of deoderant, and bars of soap. Everything comes in smaller bags, and there is no peanut butter, I looked. They don´t really have amount of the proccesed cereal, yogurt, and loaves of whole-wheat bread that I was used to, but I don´t mind it. I eat what my family makes; rice, beans, various types of cooked meat (chicken, beef, sausage, bacon,) lasagna, salad, noodles, coke, etc. It is so strange, I think in the 3 larger grocery stores (in this city of 120,000) there is less of a selection than we have back in the walmart in Price (6,000 people). But I like it how it is here better=)
One of the things that kind of culture-shocked me at school was the absence of rules in school that I was used to in the US and the layed-back-ness of the classes. The teachers wear normal, if not a little more dressed-up than usual clothes, (high heels, pretty blouse, jeans, t-shirt) to school, and there are no rules what-so-ever about touching and hugging the students- it is completely normal. I was even kissed (on the cheek) by one of my teachers upon meeting. The students also have fewer rules; you can have food, chew gum, wear hats, have phones and ipods, fall asleep, and practically even sit in the back of the class and goof off and nothing much happens. Not that this is what my classes are like at all, at least after I changed to the 3rd year. In my classes, there is nothing in the room except rows of desks, a wall of windows, a wall of white board, a couple papers and shelves on the wall, and a modest desk for the teacher, and yet it is everything needed to learn. The students are given more freedom, and knowledge is sucessfully absorved on a simple exchange of voices, small all-encompasing text books, and images on the white board. When we need to use a Powerpoint presentation or watch a movie, we all have to move downstairs or move a tv into the room.
I really adore the simplicity of the things here in Brazil, it´s so refreshing-
The houses are simple (and always clean), with open space and simple accents. On a side table in the living room, there could be just a picture in a frame and a plant, and a tv remote at times. the food is always rice and beans (yes, every day) and cooked the old-fashioned way. There are little shops lining the streets, if you need meat you go to the butcher, bread in the bakery, clothes in the clothes store, notebooks for school in the papelaria, produce in the produce, etc. I love just walking the streets and looking in all the shops. In the grocery stores there is a small selection in the 6-7 iles of laundry detergent, food, and hair stuff, but you can find everything you need. In the cosmetics isle, there is just a bunch of hair stuff (shampoo, conditioner), various types of deoderant, and bars of soap. Everything comes in smaller bags, and there is no peanut butter, I looked. They don´t really have amount of the proccesed cereal, yogurt, and loaves of whole-wheat bread that I was used to, but I don´t mind it. I eat what my family makes; rice, beans, various types of cooked meat (chicken, beef, sausage, bacon,) lasagna, salad, noodles, coke, etc. It is so strange, I think in the 3 larger grocery stores (in this city of 120,000) there is less of a selection than we have back in the walmart in Price (6,000 people). But I like it how it is here better=)
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