Natal em Natal

Wow! Sorry guys! I know I haven´t written in a long time, but there´s been quite a bit going on here on the other side of the equator! Now, though, I´m on vacation for the holidays, so I should have a little more time to write now. This past weekend I went on a trip to Natal with all the other exchange students in my district. Natal is a city to the north of Recife (about 4 hours by car). Like Recife, it is on the coast-- so it has beaches!!! Unlike Recife, you can actually go in the water at the beach! :) (Unfortunately, there are a lot of sharks at the beach in Recife, so it´s not advisable to swim there...) Natal is sooooooo nice. I had already been there once before when I went to visit Marcela -- it is just as cool the second time. The city is smaller than Recife, and has nature preserve areas with sand dunes and desert vegetation. The name of the city means Christmas in Portuguese, so it was Natal in Natal (Christmas in Christmas city!) :) It was so much fun to see the other exchange students again. We hadn´t all gotten together again since our orientation in Maragogi in August. We were really busy while we were there. We visited children in a cancer hospital, went on a dune buggy ride in the nature park area, and had a Christmas party with the rotarians. Just hanging out together and was one of the best parts. It´s hard for all of us to be away from our families at Chrismas, but we are all in it together.

Eu nao sou de ferro!

I am not made of iron. This is a saying here which means basically that people have to rest sometimes - you can´t push yourself indefinately. Somehow, I never seemed to apply this to my life before comming here. Now, though, I can. This weekend I am kind of taking a break: Last night I stayed home, went running in the gym at our appartment, showered, played some music for my family (we each sang our country´s national anthem for eachother, too, which was alot of fun), and watched "The Fantom of the Opera." Tonight, I was going to go to one of my friend´s birthday party, but I was too tired, so I stayed home. I wanted to go, but it was at a club and I just didn´t feel like I would be able to endure partying until 4am. But this is how things are here. People like to go out on the weekends, and a typical day might include getting up early to go to the beach, staying there until late afternoon, eating lunch, going to a bar, then comming home and getting dressed up to go to a club until early the next morning. This is too much for me. I have concluded that Brazilians are, in fact, made of iron. As for me, I like to party, but I also like to sleep. :)

What I did do today, however was go to the beach with my family. We went to the appartment of Clara´s brother Ulysses, and from there on to a marina where he has a boat. Then we hung out there for a while, and took a boat ride. The marina had a restaurant, and we stayed there for a while and had a snack of french-fries (which you eat with a toothpick here...this is actually not as hard as it looks) and crab (which is harder to eat than it looks). :) Then we returned to Ulysses´appartment and had lunch (this was around 5:30pm, really late, but it was still considered lunch). It was alot of fun, but everybody was tired at the end of the day- myself included; so we went home after that.

Some other highlights of the week:
I went to Rotary again and met my counselor! I am very glad to have finally met my counselor, who turned out to be a really cool guy, too. His name is Laercio, and he is a doctor, so he is very busy. Laercio has a great sense of humor. Also, his soccer team is Sport, Nautico´s rival team, and he said he would take me to one of their games. :)

Another exciting thing I did this past week was go to a concert. This concert was at the Brittish Country Club, near Catherine´s family´s appartment. I went with Catherine, her host-sister Rebecca, her friend Claudio, and her mom. This was really alot of fun! There were a variety of musical genres (Samba, MPB= Muisica Popular Brasileira, forro, etc.) The bands were Nos4 and Madeira Delay. I really liked the music, and we all danced for most of the concert. We stayed until around 3am, and then went to go eat a sandwich. By the time we got back to the appartment it was 4 am (I spent the night at Catherine´s appartment). Then, the next day, we went to a churrasco together (BBQ). There was not anything for me to eat there, but it was fun anyway.

Sunday was Dia dos Criancas (children´s day) a holiday on which parents give presents to their children. We don´t have this holiday in the US, but here it is a big deal. We all went to a children´s mass in the Jaqueira Park church, and then came home, where Clara hid presents around the house for Gustavinho to find.

During the week, I continued with my usual activities of school and basketball. Except for wednesday, which was another holiday (dia dos profesors - teacher´s day). There was no school on this day, and teachers had the day off. I went to my guitar lesson that morning, and then, since Clara is a teacher and had the afternoon off, we went to run some errands and go shopping. This was a lot of fun, and a break from the usual routine.

And... that´s just about all for now, because I´m not made of iron you know... I need to sleep! :)

Brazilian Elections, and a great trip to the Mata Atlantica, among other things...

A number of interesting things have been happening around here lately. My new classes at CEFET are going well, and I am starting to understand more of what is going on there. Also, there are alot of very nice people in my classes, so that is a big help. I´m also continuing playing basketball at Universidade Catolica, which is really great. We have our first game on Oct. 22!

I´m also continuing my guitar lessons. Right now I´m learning mostly technique (it is classical guitar, so it´s alot different from what I had learned previously). It´s fun though, and my teacher is very good. He is also showing me different examples of brasilian music, which I will start learning how to play soon, I think. There are various styles of music which are categorized acording to rhythm (Samba, Maracatu, Coco, etc.) My teacher also records his own compositions in these styles and was playing some examples for me. How cool!

One of the important occurances here was the election. This took place on Sunday, and it was very interesting to watch it unfold. This election was for Prefeito (mayor of Recife) and Vereador (I think this is some kind of legislative possition, like representative, but I´m not sure it has an exact equivalent). This election was somewhat different from what I´ve experienced in the U.S. Like in America, TV adds are popular, but there is a notable absence of attack adds. Other forms of political propaganda which are prevalent here are flyers (everywhere you go, someone is there waiting to hand you a political flyer) and alto-falantes (I have never seen these in the U.S., but they are very cool! these are large cars with speaker decks mounted on top which drive around the city very slowly blasting political slogans and jingles.) Usually, the alto-falantes have pictures of the politicial who rented them plastered on to the side of the car. When I first saw these, I didn´t realize they were political propaganda, because they play music. On closer examination, however, this music is a jingle with the politician´s name, number, and something about how they´re going to make the city so much better, etc. Another interesting tidbit: alto-falante means "loud talker" in Portuguese. :) I actually got to participate some in the process, becuase one of Bruna´s friends was running for vereadora. We went to a rally for her at Boa Viagem beach, and walked around handing out flyers.

On election day, all of this stops abruptly. campaigning is no longer allowed (only t-shirts and flags are allowed). As you walk or drive around the city you have a strange feeling that something is missing (alto-falantes, carriatas- processions of cars and motorcycles with political banners-, people trying to hand out flyers on every street corner, etc.) It is strange.

The Brazilian voting system is one of the fastest in the world. It is all electronic, and each candidate has a number which is used to vote. Voting here is obligatory between the ages of 18 and 70, but 16 and 17-year olds, as well as older people can vote if they choose to. I went with Clara and Gustavo to watch the process in action. The results of the election are known on the same night. And, because this is Brazil after all, and people like to party, there are parties all over the city that night. Some are for specific candidates, victors of the election, etc. But many are just parties for everyone, reguardless of political persuasion. I went to a party with some of my friends in a park in front of our church (Praca de Casa Forte) there are food vendors, music, and multitudes of people.

The other big thing I did this week was go on a day trip with the other rotary students from Recife. We went by bus to a nature preserve area in the mata atlantica. Mata atlantica is the name of the type of forest which used to cover this entire region, but which now is only there in part. Much of the land surrounding the cities is used for growing sugarcane, so the forest was cleared to make way for this. This forest is very neat. There is a huge amount of biodiversity and some very interesting plants and animals. When we arrived, we took a hike through the forest and stopped at a river, where we went swimming. We also fished in the river and went in row-boats. One of the people who worked there saw a sloth in the forest, but it left before we could see it. The trip was alot of fun, and it was great to see the other youth exchange students again.

Well, that´s about all for now, but I´m sure there will be more adventures to report soon!

Acabou Molesa! (break time´s over!)

I know it´s been a long time since I´ve written, and much has happened here during that time, so I´ll try to sumarize as best I can. Right now my life here is very very busy. (It is 2am and I am writing this, because this is the only free time I have right now, just to illustrate my point...) This is ok though, because all the activities I´m involved in are great and it´s much better than doing nothing. Hopefully I will eventually get things to balance out, but I just couldn´t go any longer without writing anything here!

To begin with, I got off track with my writing because I was sick. I had grippe (the flu - brazilian style) this lasted for about the first week and a half of Sept. It was not an enjoyable experience, and I am so glad to be well now. As my host dad told me, I´ve now had the flu, and experienced a flat tire, which makes me practically Brazilian. :)

Also, at the same time, Eduarda (my host sister) was preparing to leave for Canada. She left on Sept. 2, and will spend a year there. She is glad to be there, but is having a rough time. It really is hard to leave your family and friends and everything you know. She´s only 16, so I know that makes it even harder. Hopefully things will get better for her soon.

Before Eduarda left, we went to various parties: one was her going-away-party here in the salon de festas of our appartment. It was HUGE - multitudes of friends came, and there was music and some dancing, etc. It was alot of fun, but I was still kind of sick, so I had to leave early. Another party which occured right after this one was the Cha de Panela of Bebel, our cousin. This was kind of like a bachelorette/wedding shower party with lots of friends and family.

After I got over my illness, I went back to my portuguese class at the UFPE, which is still going very well. Now, Catherine, who is on a rotary exchange from Canada, has joined me in this class, and we are also studying at CEFET together. She is very nice, and we have a lot of fun together.

I also started taking guitar lessons! The studio where I have my lessons is within walking distance of our appartment, so it works out really well. The style of guitar that I´m learning is classical, so the technique is much different from everything I had learned previously, but it is really neat, and I am looking forward to learning more. I think I will also learn some typical brazilian music, maybe bossa nova or samba! very exciting!

Yet another new development- I´m still playing basketball, but I have now switched teams. The husband of my nautico coach is the coach of the womens basketball team at the Universidade Catolica, a private university here in Recife. He asked me to play on the team there, and it is good, because the other girls are more my age and level. I have been practicing there for a little over a week, and really enjoy it.

Just this week, my classes at CEFET (Centre Federal de Educaçao Technico) started. This is a state technical college, and I am studying Tourism. So far it is going really well. I have various classes within this theme (English, Spanish, Portuguese, history of Brazil, Theory of Tourism, Sociology, etc.) though I have not yet been to all of them. I have class there every day (weekdays) from 12:50 to 5:30, roughly. There are many interesting people in my class and everyone is very nice. Also, it is within walking distance from the UFPE, where my portuguese for estrangeiros class is, so Catherine and I walk from one class to the other. The first time we did this, we went the wrong way and it took 20 or 30 minutes to get there, but now that we know where we´re goining it´s actually much closer. :)

Today the classes we had were Portuguese (not for estrangeiros...) and Theory of Tourism. The Portuguese class started out with the teacher telling the class what we would be learning this semester. Basically, she said the following: "What are we going to learn in this class, you might ask, well... since all of you speak portuguese, and have had various years of studying the language, we will focus on reading and writing on a higher level. Everyone here speaks portuguese, you´re not estrangeiros (foreigners), so we´ll focus on things which will help you in the field of tourism" When she said this, everyone in the class laughed, because Catherine and I are definitely estrangeiros, and we look it, too. The professor didn´t realize that we were exchange students, because we are the first ones ever at this school. After this, someone told her, and it was very funny. :) After this class, we had a break and everyone walked around, or went to get a snack, etc. When we returned, another Professor was there to teach Theory of Tourism. Mostly we just introduced ourselves and then talked about what tourism really is, what jobs people might have, etc. I didn´t understand alot of what went on in the class, and the professor spent the last half hour of the class giving us a lecture about dressing propperly. Apparently she thought that it was inappropriate for people to wear flip-flop sandals to school. My classmates found this somewhat funny and somewhat irritating, I think. In reality, though, Brazil is THE country of flip-flops. They make them here, and everyone wears them. I´m pretty sure that if the school dress-code banned the wearing of flip-flops there would be a mass protest. :)

Oh, and one more thing--- This past weekend we went to my family´s appartment at Tamandare beach for the first time! It is so beautiful, and was alot of fun. I´ll post pictures as soon as I can, and more info on that trip later....

but now, I really must go to sleep!

An awesome Rotary weekend in Maragogi, and other life experiences

This past weekend for me was spent attending my Rotary orientation at a beach called Maragogi, about 2 hours from Recife. This was a get together with all of the inbound exchange students from the district, and it was alot of fun! The beach itself is very beautiful, and we did alot of swimming. (This is much better than the beach in Recife, where you can´t go swimming because of sharks.) It was funny though- I was surprised that the water was so salty, I guess I forgot it was the ocean, as this was the first time I have gone to the beach here. Previously I have only been to the beach one time, and that was a long time ago, so I didn´t really think about it, I guess. :) It was really nice, though. It was really fun to meet all of the other exchange students. I believe there were about 30 total, from all over the world. I met alot of really cool people, and even some who live in Recife who I had not known previously. Hopefully we can get together agin soon.

Most of the meetings during the weekend were conducted in english, with some Portuguese/Spanish translation for the few people who didn´t speak english. Most of the people actually didn´t speak very much portuguese, if any. The students from Mexico spoke more portuguese, because they also spoke spanish, which is similar, and several other people also spoke some, but not many. I felt really lucky to have had the opportunity to study before comming here, even if only for a short time. It helped alot. I was able to talk to everyone with a mixture of english and Portuguese, as a few people didn´t speak english, so that was really neat. I only wish that all of the exchange students could get together more often.

When we were first arriving our bus broke down about 1km from the hotel, and we walked the rest of the way there. It wasn´t far though, so it was actually kind of fun. :) Besides going swimming at the beach, we also played soccer (everybody plays soccer without shoes here), had meetings about the rules of Rotary and the exchange trips; hung out with everyone together, played games, and saw a capoeira show. Capoeira is a Brazilian dance which is based on martial arts, and is really really neat. After the show, we were invited to come learn how to dance. Later that same night, a group of Forro dancers came and performed / taught us how to dance forro. This was awesome - I danced alot! Everyone was sad to leave the next day, but it was still a good weekend.

After we got back on sunday I went to a concert at a club with Bruna and Iga. This was fun, but I was very tired from the weekend. On monday I had my portuguese class very early in the morning, It was a miracle that I stayed awake for the entire class. :) After that I came home and slept, then I went to basketball practice that night.

Yesterday I didn´t have class, so I went to a market with Maria Clara, Bruna, Eduarda, and one of Clara´s friends. The market was in the old part of Recife. It was huge with many people. Clara said that the name for this kind of crowd is "vouku-vouku" (i´m probably spelling that wrong but oh well...) it means lots of people milling around. :) It was intense, but fun. There are lots of shops as well as little booths with vendors selling pretty much everything: prepared food, arts and crafts of the area, clothes, shampoo, fabric, discount items, meat, etc. There is one part of the market which has lots of little stalls under a big, permanent canopy -- kind of like a giant building with no walls. This is where they have the butcher shops, fish, vegetables, and arts and crafts. It smells very bad. While we were there, a big chicken got away from one of the stalls and flew up into the rafters. All the people there gathered to watch/cheer/laugh at the people trying to catch the chicken. It was great. :) They did eventually catch the chicken, however, and all the people went back to what they had been doing previously.

More life; and the ever-changing schedule

Actually, we didn´t end up going to the beach, so all the time you were imagining me at the beach, it wasn´t happening-- it´s ok though... :) we´ll go later. We didn´t end up going because my host parents had trouble getting a hold of the lady that comes to clean the appartment before they come (they haven´t been to the appartment in several months so it´s really dirty) by the time they got a hold of the lady, it was too late in the day. apparently you have to go in the morning (who knew?) I am excited about the rotary weekend though... that is sure to happen, too, cause the rotary is really on the ball.

Instead of going to the beach, we just hung out here at the appartment, which was perfectly OK. We went swimming in the appartment pool, watched a movie, and I went to the mall with my sister Duda and a friend. So, it was not in the least bit lacking, just not according to plans. :)

Today I saw a lizard about as long as the palm of my hand, which was near the appartment building, outside. That was my Marty Stalfer moment of the week. Other than that, none to report, because Recife is such a big city there´s not much wildlife to go around. That´s one thing I miss-- nature-- I really like to just walk around outside and see the sky. That´s kind of hard to do here. There was a full moon though, yesterday, which was very beautiful.

Concerning school, which is always a frontier full of new developments, my schedule will be changing yet agin! I seriously believe that organizaing a college schedule here is like herding cats. Today I couldn´t go to my portuguese class, because I went with Cate the Canadian and her host mom and sister to the technical university on a tour. It turns out her host dad is the director of the university, and the university is very good, just different from the UFPE. It has alot of courses in mechanics, engineering, sciences, etc. It also has tourism, which is what Cate and I will do I believe. This course includes many different areas of study (theory of tourism, languages such as english, spanish, and portuguese. history of Brazil, Art History, management, statistics, etc. ) Also, I believe that the class takes some trips around Pernambuco to better know the region.

The only problem with this is that my painting class is also during this time-slot, so I have to choose. I can´t skip either class. Overall, it would seem more enjoyable to take various courses at the UFPE, and make my own schedule, however, I talked to my family about this situation, and they think it would be better for me to go to CEFET(pronounced seh-feh-tee) (the technical university that has the tourism class) for a number of reasons. First- I will have class every day guaranteed- which is better. I will also have class with all the same people, so it will be easier to make friends that if I had a potpourri of classes from the UFPE. Also, this class is an actual program for which I will get some kind of diploma, as opposed to just an assortment of classes. Also, my schedule can be synchronized with Cate´s, which would be nice for both of us. Although I can´t continue with the painting class, I can do other things. I might want to take lithography (available in the mornings) one or two days a week. I also have the option of taking guitar lessons at a place not far from the appartment (maybe- we are going to look into this) I think this will be the better solution in the long run. The only problem is that classes at CEFET don´t start until sept. 15! that´s one month! In the meantime, I think I will take my portuguese class, as well as maybe lithography and guitar lessons... this is all tentative. :)

In addition to this, today was exciting because Iga Pauline- the exchange student from poland who is staying with Marcela and Eduarda (friends in the appartment) arrived! we went to pick her up at the airport and I got to re-live my arrival experience. Also we ate Açai at the airport- it was very good! Iga is very cool- she doesn´t speak any portuguese at all, but she does speak english, so I was helping translate. Marcela does speak english, but she will be leaving on friday as an exchange student to the US: Pensylvania-- and nobody else in the family speaks english. (they deffinately don´t speak polish either). This could be interesting-- I am going to help them as much as I can. Iga is very nice, though, and I´m sure she´ll learn portuguese quickly once she starts school. :)

Lot and lots and lots of news from the Brazilian front

Well, I haven´t written much in the past week, but that´s not because nothing noteworthy has happened. On the contrary-- So many noteworthy things happened that I didn´t have time to write! Don´t worry though... I have been keeping track of the goings on here in Brazil and will now report them to you! here it goes:

The end of last week was rather uneventfull... My family and I hung out at home (when they weren´t working) and watched the olympics. It´s really cool to watch the olympics, even in the U.S., but it is especially neat to watch them here and know that all around the world, so many other people are doing exactly the same thing-- that it is the same here as it is in Springfield, MO, and everywhere else. It´s really neat. :)

Another noteworthy thing that I did with my family was go to church. Clara, Eduarda, and I went to adoration on thursday at a different church (this one is kind of near the Nautico stadium). It was really really nice! I felt like I understood more of what was going on, even though I didn´t understand everything. One thing about going to mass here that is really cool is that the churches are always packed. No matter the size of the church, people are always standing in the back! In the US this only happens on holidays, basically. Also, the music is very good. We also went on saturday night to the weekend service, and at this mass, one of the songs they played was one we have in the U.S. too! For Nanny, who might know it, :) the name of the song is "Lord, You Have Come" or "Pescador de Hombres" (spanish version) It was in portuguese, but it was the same song-- I know because I could kind of tell what the words were, and they meant the same thing! it was so awesome, it made me feel so much better to hear a song that I knew. Also, it was one that I like alot. It is hard to explain, but sometimes, when you are far away from home, the smallest things can really mean alot.

Sunday was father´s day here, so there were various festivities relating to that holiday. At church, they had a special father´s day reception, and then on sunday, our family celebrated by going over to Clara´s sister´s house for dinner with a bunch of her family, after the Nautico game. It was fun to meet everyone (I already knew some of the family, but not all of them...)

This brings me to the Nautico game! Well... I´m sure many of you have already seen the pictures from this game, but if you haven´t, check them out! The game was between Nautico and Santos, a team from Sao Paulo. Because they came all the way from Sao Paulo, there weren´t alot of fans for the opposing team, and the stadium was filled with huge numbers of Nautico fans. Going to the game was a really neat experience-- I had never been to a professional soccer game before, and the atmosphere was very intense. Lots of people, music, cheers that the whole crowd knows, fireworks and people throwing confetti and ballons out the windows of nearby appartment buildings. Actually, one of the balloons landed on the field during the game, but nobody seemed to notice. :) Nautico won 1 to 0, so eveyone was happy after the game. They played the nautico theme song and some samba music over loud speakers as we were exiting the stadium. It was so much fun!

Monday was spent mostly running errands. We took Gustavinho to his futsal (indoor soccer) practice, went to pick up some documents for Eduarda´s exchange, and did various other things. Also, I met another exchange student: Catherine from Canada! Monday night I went to basketball practice.

Tuesday was very exciting because I started school! I now have my painting class every wednesday from 2 to 5:30pm. That´s right-- it lasts 3 1/2 hours! After the class, my brain was completely fried. :) I am looking forward to the next class next week! The class was very enjoyable, but it was also very difficult. No one there really speaks much english, though a couple of the people speak some. Fortunately, the professor is nice and understanding, and the class is small; around 8 people. We spent the first class discussing the plan for the semester and what supplies we will need for the class. We also talked some about technique, and looked at various examples of student work. The first painting we will work on will be of a beach landscape. I believe we are going soon to a beach near Recife to take pictures and do a preliminary sketch. How cool!

On Wednesday, I had my first Portuguese por Estrangeiros (Portuguese for foreigners) class. This went very well. There are alot of interesting people in the class, from many different countries. It´s mostly college age people, but also some older people who are here working. Thre are people of many different nationalities and experiences, including two other Americans, and alot of Germans. One of the Americans is a specialist in tropical medicine, here studying dengue fever, and the other American is a missionary who is here with his family. I think that this class will help me improve my portuguese, which I need to do very badly. I also think it will be alot of fun, so I´m looking forward to it.

Another exciting development of the week: My host sister Eduarda got her U.S. visa!!!!!! She is going as a rotary exchange student to canada, but needs both visas because her district is half in canada and half in the U.S. She had alot of problems getting her visa, but now she has it, so it´s every good news.

Also on wednesday-- Eduarda, Catherine, Catherine´s host sister Rebecca, and I went to see "the mummy" at the movie theatre. This was a fun outing! Then I went to basketball practice.

That night, I gave my American gifts to my host family. It worked out well and was a good opportunity to talk about what everything was, and share some things about my culture with them. It really was alot of fun. :) Everybody really liked the Reeses peanutbutter cups that I brought, and little gustavo and his friend were covered from head to foot in temporary tattoos with pictures of cowboys and indians, that I bought at the cowboy museum in Oklahoma city.

On thursday, not much happened. The only notable event was Eduarda´s english lesson. Her teacher came over to the appartment for the lesson. His name is Alexandre, and he spent some time in the united states previously, but he is Brazilian. He is a very nice guy, and I sat in on the lesson, which was interesting. Also, he learned that I had brought peanutbutter from the U.S., and he really wanted some, because they don´t have it here, so I made him a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich.

Today is friday. basically nothing happened. As of yet, I don´t have a class on thursday or friday, just on the other days of the week, so I had a lot of free time today. I think that I may get more classes later, but I am not sure yet what they will be. The one thing we did do today was go to a going-away-party for one of Eduarda´s friends who is also going as an exchange student to canada. Also, I am continually amazed by what people can carry on bicycles here. I have already seen people carrying multiple jugs of water (the big ones from water coolers). Today I saw someone carrying a rocking chair in one hand while steering the bicycle with the other, riding down a very busy street. Yikes!

Tomorrow I believe we are going to Tamandare beach for the weekend. This will be my first trip to the beach so far, so I am excited! that´s it for now-- I´ll write more later. :)