Not a lot new going on here now.
Life has become normal...
The language, just for the normal update, is going better. Now I'm taking some Portuguese lessons to better my conjugation, because Portuguese is crazy...and so that is helping. But I can have conversations now, I can use the future and past tenses, which is a big step.
I've learned to sing some songs in Portuguese, which is neat.
Guitar is still going...I'm practicing more now, which I need to be doing, learning some samba and things like that. Singing lessons are still happening too...but I dont know how well they are going. Singing is much harder then I'd thought.
I'm feeling more Brazilian all the time, I guess that is something that comes with getting comfortable in the other country. I've noticed that I've picked up their cultural habits without knowing it. Just little things that I had noticed were different in the beginning like...when they are eating, they dont change the knife and fork from hand to hand to cut food, they leave the knife in their left hand, which I've picked up now. And when I got here, my host mom thought it was so strange that I didn't wear shoes in the house, and now, when I walk around, I automatically put something on my feet. I've picked up the cultural 'warmness', the clothing style, I've started wearing more jewelery...Just picking up new habits which is strange.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
:D
Over the past weekend I had 4 of my school friends over to make chocolate cookies and watch a movie at my house here. It was really great. One of the first times I've actually felt like I have a solid group of friends. Now I feel like I can say they are my best friends here, and I like them a lot. We started the day messing around on my pretty little laptop, I was showing them some photos, and thought it would be neat to take some with the photobooth program, and we ended up playing with that program for like 40 minutes. After that we watched a little of a concert and then started with the cooking. They had never eaten chocolate chip cookies before. Never seen them before....Chocolate chips dont even exist here, so I bought a couple chocolate bars and cut them up.
So, we made the cookies, and they turned out good...not the best cookies I've ever made, but they thought it was awesome. The problem was that i couldn't find brown sugar here, I later discovered that it does exist here... but I just used regular sugar for the cookies, so they were just a little bland or something. But my friends have not stopped raving about them.
After we made the cookies, I made some iced coffee, a friend of mine brought a pizza, and then we watched the movie and ate. haha. sounds gross, but it was really neat. after the movie we just stayed talking. I can understand almost everything now. I can converse, participate in the conversations. Its really good.
So that was really neat. To have my first little friend thing here. I'm liking here more all the time. Getting more accustomed all the time.
I have the pictures from the day up on the photo website. take a look! :D
So, we made the cookies, and they turned out good...not the best cookies I've ever made, but they thought it was awesome. The problem was that i couldn't find brown sugar here, I later discovered that it does exist here... but I just used regular sugar for the cookies, so they were just a little bland or something. But my friends have not stopped raving about them.
After we made the cookies, I made some iced coffee, a friend of mine brought a pizza, and then we watched the movie and ate. haha. sounds gross, but it was really neat. after the movie we just stayed talking. I can understand almost everything now. I can converse, participate in the conversations. Its really good.
So that was really neat. To have my first little friend thing here. I'm liking here more all the time. Getting more accustomed all the time.
I have the pictures from the day up on the photo website. take a look! :D
Saturday, November 10, 2007
cicmat!
Yesterday was my school's..I suppose its like a talent show.
Each class made up one group, changed the lyrics of a popular song so it's about math, and made up a dance to go along.
I have been 'working' on this project for the past 3 weeks, but nothing got done until this week. Oh so the Brazilian way.
So anyway, my group was called Tropic de Elipse, because the music we chose was from a movie called this (you should check it out by the way, its awesome). The song is from a genre called funk (said funkie hahahahaha) which is like...rap sort of, but its maybe...more melodic, and the beats are a little different. The girls of the group, after deciding that it was impossible to work with the guys, made up a separate chorography, and ended up dancing in front of the stage instead of on the stage. Us girls also took another song and learned the guitar and changed the lyrics and performed this as well.
It was so cool. 'working' on the dance was always a lot of fun, and performing it was even better. We all had matching camo shirts, and when we all got up on the stage everyone started to scream, and I couldn't stop smiling.
I was nervous, but not as bad as normal, not so much that I forgot to have fun.
The first thing we performed was the guitar and song that us girls made up. We didn't actually play in real life, because we recorded the song earlier, but we all pretended. And then after we did the dance, which was the best part. I really hope I can get a copy of a video from someone...because I think it was pretty neat. Everyone was screaming the whole time, and I was just laughing. My face hurt after. Serious.
After the show, practically the entire school went to the Avenida, which was cool. Sat down, had dinner and talked with bunches of friends.
Brazil is good. I'm liking it here.
photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/sommerbrazil/Cicmat
Each class made up one group, changed the lyrics of a popular song so it's about math, and made up a dance to go along.
I have been 'working' on this project for the past 3 weeks, but nothing got done until this week. Oh so the Brazilian way.
So anyway, my group was called Tropic de Elipse, because the music we chose was from a movie called this (you should check it out by the way, its awesome). The song is from a genre called funk (said funkie hahahahaha) which is like...rap sort of, but its maybe...more melodic, and the beats are a little different. The girls of the group, after deciding that it was impossible to work with the guys, made up a separate chorography, and ended up dancing in front of the stage instead of on the stage. Us girls also took another song and learned the guitar and changed the lyrics and performed this as well.
It was so cool. 'working' on the dance was always a lot of fun, and performing it was even better. We all had matching camo shirts, and when we all got up on the stage everyone started to scream, and I couldn't stop smiling.
I was nervous, but not as bad as normal, not so much that I forgot to have fun.
The first thing we performed was the guitar and song that us girls made up. We didn't actually play in real life, because we recorded the song earlier, but we all pretended. And then after we did the dance, which was the best part. I really hope I can get a copy of a video from someone...because I think it was pretty neat. Everyone was screaming the whole time, and I was just laughing. My face hurt after. Serious.
After the show, practically the entire school went to the Avenida, which was cool. Sat down, had dinner and talked with bunches of friends.
Brazil is good. I'm liking it here.
photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/sommerbrazil/Cicmat
Friday, November 9, 2007
Stuff
It's been a bit since I wrote., but I dont know that I have much new to say.
Life here has become normal, but it wont stay like that for long as I am moving houses and being completely uprooted in 2 weeks.
The date for me switching houses has been set. The 25th. And the closer I get, the more prepared I feel. At the beginning, the thought of leaving my current family made me sad and the idea that they would be 'replacing' me with another student made me ridiculously jealous, but now, I've accepted that I have to move, and I'm actually kind of excited.
The Rotary's set up with moving houses, I think is a good and bad thing. There are a bunch of kids here with AFS, another exchange program, and they all talk about how ridiculous it is that we have to change houses. But its good because you get to experience so much more of your host country. Meet family friends of 3 different families. Know 3 native families inside out. And that is something that not everyone can experience.
I have been thinking lately about how not many people actually get to do this. Actually get to see a country for what it is. I know Brazil. I am as close to a Brazilian you can get without actually being one. I live in the home of natives, go to school with natives, eat their everyday food, not the food of restaurants, go out with them to the local spots. They incorperate me into their daily lives, and that is how you really should experience a country. When you travel as a tourist, you see what they want you to see. You encounter the norm, the fakeness of pretention, and you truly dont get to see the real country, or know its people. I'm a different nationality this year, and its a new life.
I've pretty much accustomed now. I'm speaking well enough to have conversations, and I understand enough to know what is going on 90% of the time. I am making more friends all the time, learning more about life here. My goal, which I'm not sure I will achieve, but I want, at the end of the year, to be mistaken for a Brazilian. Now, its difficult in my city to be mistaken, because there are very few Caucation people here, but in the south of Brazil, when I go there, I will see. Already, people have mistaken me for a native, but that, of course, was before I talked to them :p
I'm trying to speak without an accent, but I think that is impossible at this point, there are just some things that you have to live in the country from childhood to pick up...or else, live there for a long time. But I'm training now. I started a Portuguese class with the English teacher of one of my friends, and every class, he has me read passages in Portuguese, and helps me with pronunciation. Explaining sounds and how letters phonetically work. Which is strange in Portuguese.
I'm going on Summer break in a month, and I'm so ridiculously excited. I think that, of course, its going to be boring sometimes, but there is no way it is more boring then being at school. So it should be good. And I've met so many people, I think I'll have things to do a lot of the time.
I'm excited for my summer days here. Lazy and hot, but full of festas and swimming, and just relaxing. Making friends. Having a coconut in the shade. haha.
Right now a lot of the kids are freaking out studying. My senior friends are taking the huge college entrance exam now, named vestibular, and they are studying like crazy. To enter college here you just have the grade from this test. There is no matter of essays or interviews or going to meet the college. You go where you get accepted and can afford to go.
And then the kids in my grade are freaking out about some country test, I think it is something like a standardized test in the states. But when that stuff is over, there will be more people for me to go out with.
I'm starting to worry about what I'm going to do when I go back to the states. With college and stuff. I know that I will be ok. I can deal with what I need to do to graduate. Just that I think I'm going to have a slightly lowered work effort when I first arrive, and I'll have a lot to do. I still have to take the SAT and ACT, I have to get 6 or more credits to graduate. I have to get my college applications worked out. Figure out what I'm doing with my life...oh jeez. Its a lot that I will have to deal with, and it will be hard to go back to real life. All though this life is pretty real too, just that there are different priorities.
I know that this year is worth it though. Whatever I will have to do to re-cooperate I will do. Just worrying like I do.
Life here has become normal, but it wont stay like that for long as I am moving houses and being completely uprooted in 2 weeks.
The date for me switching houses has been set. The 25th. And the closer I get, the more prepared I feel. At the beginning, the thought of leaving my current family made me sad and the idea that they would be 'replacing' me with another student made me ridiculously jealous, but now, I've accepted that I have to move, and I'm actually kind of excited.
The Rotary's set up with moving houses, I think is a good and bad thing. There are a bunch of kids here with AFS, another exchange program, and they all talk about how ridiculous it is that we have to change houses. But its good because you get to experience so much more of your host country. Meet family friends of 3 different families. Know 3 native families inside out. And that is something that not everyone can experience.
I have been thinking lately about how not many people actually get to do this. Actually get to see a country for what it is. I know Brazil. I am as close to a Brazilian you can get without actually being one. I live in the home of natives, go to school with natives, eat their everyday food, not the food of restaurants, go out with them to the local spots. They incorperate me into their daily lives, and that is how you really should experience a country. When you travel as a tourist, you see what they want you to see. You encounter the norm, the fakeness of pretention, and you truly dont get to see the real country, or know its people. I'm a different nationality this year, and its a new life.
I've pretty much accustomed now. I'm speaking well enough to have conversations, and I understand enough to know what is going on 90% of the time. I am making more friends all the time, learning more about life here. My goal, which I'm not sure I will achieve, but I want, at the end of the year, to be mistaken for a Brazilian. Now, its difficult in my city to be mistaken, because there are very few Caucation people here, but in the south of Brazil, when I go there, I will see. Already, people have mistaken me for a native, but that, of course, was before I talked to them :p
I'm trying to speak without an accent, but I think that is impossible at this point, there are just some things that you have to live in the country from childhood to pick up...or else, live there for a long time. But I'm training now. I started a Portuguese class with the English teacher of one of my friends, and every class, he has me read passages in Portuguese, and helps me with pronunciation. Explaining sounds and how letters phonetically work. Which is strange in Portuguese.
I'm going on Summer break in a month, and I'm so ridiculously excited. I think that, of course, its going to be boring sometimes, but there is no way it is more boring then being at school. So it should be good. And I've met so many people, I think I'll have things to do a lot of the time.
I'm excited for my summer days here. Lazy and hot, but full of festas and swimming, and just relaxing. Making friends. Having a coconut in the shade. haha.
Right now a lot of the kids are freaking out studying. My senior friends are taking the huge college entrance exam now, named vestibular, and they are studying like crazy. To enter college here you just have the grade from this test. There is no matter of essays or interviews or going to meet the college. You go where you get accepted and can afford to go.
And then the kids in my grade are freaking out about some country test, I think it is something like a standardized test in the states. But when that stuff is over, there will be more people for me to go out with.
I'm starting to worry about what I'm going to do when I go back to the states. With college and stuff. I know that I will be ok. I can deal with what I need to do to graduate. Just that I think I'm going to have a slightly lowered work effort when I first arrive, and I'll have a lot to do. I still have to take the SAT and ACT, I have to get 6 or more credits to graduate. I have to get my college applications worked out. Figure out what I'm doing with my life...oh jeez. Its a lot that I will have to deal with, and it will be hard to go back to real life. All though this life is pretty real too, just that there are different priorities.
I know that this year is worth it though. Whatever I will have to do to re-cooperate I will do. Just worrying like I do.
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