School.

Well, today was my first day of school.
Last night it was very very hard for me to fall asleep. I was thinking and thinking about school and what it was going to be like, if the kids would like me...all that stuff.
I had to wake up at 6, and I probably fell asleep at 12:30...so I was not running on much sleep.
But I got to the school. I had been there before, to register, but I had not been in the school yet.
It is a Catholic school, all ages. So the 1000 people that I thought would be my age, are in fact, mostly 5 year olds. Which is kind of disappointing.

But anyway, the not speaking Portuguese thing...not going so great. I was trying to figure out where I needed to go with my host mom, and how to get everything in order, but communication is so hard!
Im getting better at speaking, slowlllllly. Soon-ish (a month) I will know more or less how to say things. I'm so excited to finally be able to speak. It will be so much easier.

Finally, once things were figured out at school (they had an english teacher come and help) My host mom and one of the receptionists at the school walked me to my class. I'm in the upper story of the school, at the very end of a hall. I arrived a little late into the class, so I felt awkward trying to find a seat. Everyone had already found a seat. But I sat down on the fringes of the class, and was introduced to everyone by the teacher, who said "this is sommer, she is from america, she does not speak portuguese, be nice to her"(in portuguese of course). After I was introduced to the class, a group of girls in the center of the class called me over to sit with them. I would call them my friends now, they showed me the school today, and talked to me...or tried to talk to me.
I kept my portuguese/english dictionary very close to me all day, and I've started a notebook of words to remember, and the dictionary is very very useful.

School here is different. All the students stay in the same room all day. One classroom. and the teachers move. Very strange. The first period of the day....I dont even know what class it was. haha. I could not understand anything, and everyone was asking me questions and it was crazy. But I was not able to associate the subject the teacher was teaching with anything.
My second class was biology. I could understand the majority of what was going on. Probably because science words dont really change between languages. DNA is still DNA and prokaryote is still the same. So I was thinking 'hey! I can speak portuguese!!' haha!
Then "lunch" came, which is like a snack/break time. I was trying to talk with people, mainly the girls from the class, and it was difficult (so much for thinking i could speak), but we were able to communicate for the most part. If people are patient with me and speak really really slowly, I can usually understand.
After "lunch" we went back to class, the next lesson was portuguese. agh. hardddddd. I pretty much have given up on trying to understand what they are talking about subject wise, and just concentrate on learning the language.
The portuguese teacher is very good at communication, so most of the time I knew what he was talking about. Conjugating verbs mostly, but advanced.

After that, school was out for the day. I think that is not normal...usually there is another period and then you go home from lunch, but today, 4th period teachers were not there or something.
So I got out of school at like 11:10am. Pretty sweet.
Normally I'll get out at 12:00 and then go home to eat lunch...do homework. hopefully I'll have good friends soon, and I can go out in the afternoon with them too.

Overall, school was fine. I had really no reason to worry about it. the kids are nice, there aren't many my age, but that is ok. I will meet other people other places.

While I was waiting for my host dad to come get me at school, the kids from the other school got out, so all of them were walking past. Already I recognize some people, and some of them stopped to say hello.
So I saw a boy named Hanns, he speaks perfect english (he went on an exchange last year to the US). and his friend that I met in the mall real quick. Also a few of Thandara's (host sister) friends.
People here are nice. I think I'll find friends soon. I already have some.
I'm very excited about meeting people at my art school. They should be neat. I dont know when I start that, but hopefully soon.

So now, I suppose normality sets in.
thank god.