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Sunday, August 29, 2010

The farm

This is what they have in my state Minas Gerais- instead of beaches, they have farms!

 Banana Trees!
 Oranges!

 Maracujá!!

 Puppies!


 Riding through the coffee plants



 having a barbecue...never complete without fresh oven baked pao de queijo!!! mmmmm miss th
 suuper good fruit salad with a Brazilian touch, sweetened condensed milk


 
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Papaya!








The campo- country- white cows.
Then driving back on the bumpy road to the city listening to Michel Telo...

Me and ET


Varginha is famous for having a UFO sighting in 1996

Açai!


Açai- a dark purple berry that comes from the Amazon- is eaten as a dessert here in Brazil. It comes mashed up and mixed with other ingredients to make a dark purple, cold soup and mixed with other toppings. Here we have strawberry ice cream with condensed milk, choclate with whipped cream, milk and white choclate balls, and strawberrys for toppings. For me it was love at first sight, Delicioooso! =)

My second family


Father- Ernesto, Mother- Claudia, Sisters- Manuela (7), Giovanna (15), Fernanda (17 Me and my little sister =)

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

School and Simplicity


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=)

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

ahh lunch deliciousss!!!


sunset




After eating at a restaurant off the side of a lake.
Suset off my back porch



Varginha





the street


pão de queijo



ahh the whole AFS family! =)




Monday, August 2, 2010

Tudo jóia!!

I can´t put into words how amazing it is to finally be here and eat carne and talk with my sisters and go to barbecues, and tomorrow is my first day of school...!
A week minus a day before today, I got up at 3:30 in the morning to catch a flight at 6:00 to miami. On the first flight I was just staring out the window right behind the wing and watching the flaps tilt and marveling at the beauty of the sunrise and clouds turning pink, orange, yellow, and then slept. I remember waking up to the announcement that we were 35 mintutes away, when I would have beleived there was still an hour and a half. On the second flight, I sat next to the mother of a family flying to Miami as well and then to Peru to help teach english to needy schools for a week. At the hotel, I soon met the other soon to be brasileiros- only five, less than the others there at the time going to Chile and Paraguay. It was very neat to be able to meet and talk to the other people who shared such a crazy and adventurous spirit and we connected as close friends even in the short time that we were together.

The next night, on Wednesday, we were picked up, given tickets, and after checking in baggage, left at security. We then comenced to have some dinner, though my stomach was already a little queasy. We could see the plane outside the glass wall at our table- written on the side "orgulhos de ser brasileiros" pride to be brazilian. Now on the ticket, it said the plane was leaving at 7:30, but Naiomi checked the gate and the screens and it said it wasn´t leaving untill later. However, when we happened to hear our names pronounced with a brazilian accent over the intercom, we jumped up and started walking, then running to the gate to see that they were, in fact, waiting for us. (ai!! nossa senhora-) That flight, I have to say, was a bit more stressful. After nearly (well not nearly, litterally) droping my carry-on on an innocent passenger, I sat in the back between two yong brasileiros, one, if not both was with a big group of brazilians with matching jakets and disneyland souveneirs eveywhere. The first thing I was handed was a steaming hot damp cloth, which I was completely bambuzeled of what the purpose was and nonchalatly put down on the side of my seat. I got a drink every time the attendants passed by, sometimes trying to anwer in portuguese and eventually going back to english when i didn´´t understnd them. I had lasagna for dinner, experimented with the tv on the back of the seat in front of me, slept, and had eggs (bleggh) for breakfast, at what must have been about 4 in the morning. I found my first international flight very different, and entertaining- I was interested in every little thing. The five of us then got off and found ourselves pushing carts and pulling, pulling suitcases back and forth through long twisty lines to where we said we had nothing to declare, and then to customs, and then following an AFS volunteer, pulling more and more down a street, and entered into a room of yellow shirts and funny accents. There was definetely a shortge of Americans there, compared to the Italians, germans, etc. Christina explained to me that most americans prefer to go to Europe or not to go on exchanges at all- and that we were very courageous and special for choosing to come here. Then, we said goodbye and went our separate ways engulfed by the enormity of Brazil.

The first thing I ate here for café da manha (breakfast- literally "morning coffee") was pão de queijo (cheese bread) a very well know delicacy and traditional food of minas gerais. I keep hearing people say that their favorite place in brazil is minas- becuse of the nice people, good food, nice cities, beautiflul country side, and I am falling more and more in love with it each day. We arrived in Varginha at the big alien spaceship structure with all of the families waiting there some even with with welcome signs and all with open arms!!! =) me fez muito feliz
The first weekend we spent having barbecues and settling in- Christina as well as others and my family were very happy that I was able to understand and respond to their questions,- none of the other 4 intercambistas at the time (Lizi-germany, Elie-France, Henrike-germany, and Gianfranco-Ittaly)(Zeynep-turkey was not there yet, so I can´s speak for her) spoke as much as me, and it seemed that speaking and hugging and getting used to the new family wasn´t nearly as hard and stressful as I had origionally thought it would be. Although, I have yet to go to school(tomorrow I will). Some things Í´ve noticed and marveled at are the streets that go up and up and down and the houses that are very beautiful on the inside, stuffed into conrrners and slanted streets, with gates in front of the door and on the windows. Everyone uses clothes lines to dry clothers, flys kites, wears tenis with jeans, and drives motorcycles between the cars on the twisting streets, I am completely enchanted everytime we go for a drive, everytime you turn the corner, you can see a hill full of houses and clothes lines and trees. Well, time for jantar, I will post some pictures soon! tchau!