Trip to Chile and Peru; going home soooon

Okay, this is from a post I wrote really long time ago and never finished, so I will put it up and then continue a new one...

This first pic is of me, Annia, Lauren, and Johanna in our lovely Peru hats

The second is from the ridiculous hike we did

I have a bunch up on my Myspace, but I need to put them on my Flickr, huh.... Okayyyy, I'll do that after lunch...

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olááá





I get to leave school early everyday this week because my host brothers have tests, so I'm taking some time out to write in here.



Last Thursday I got back from an incredible trip to Chile and Peru, which was definitely the best one yet!!!! Machu Picchu and the entire surrounding area is absolutely stunning; definitely worth seeing. I realize that there are a lot of places that are worth seeing, but I mean this is really WORTH seeing. It is one of the 7 Wonders of the World, afterall (so is the Christ in Rio, though, and I wouldn't go out of my way for that one...). You are constantly surrounded by this spectacular view, and there are so many things to see in the area you could spend a good 2 or 3 weeks just in the region around Machu Picchu. There is a walk you can do called the Inca Trail, which starts out in some other city, and then you walk for 4 days and arrive at the site early in the morning. I would love to do that here one of these years. I need to shape up a little better, though, first.



This trip was a little more expensive, so there were only 8 exchange students who went (including me and 3 of my best friends, Lauren, Johanna, and Annia, which was great), plus a german girl who is living with the Rotary guy who takes us doing a professional type exchange at his agency, Johanna's twin sister who is doing exchange in Ecuador, annnnd MY MOM AND HYLAND! They came as a suprise for me, and it was, unsuprisingly, one of the most suprising suprises in the long history of the suprise, haha. It was obviously really great to see them, although it was sort of a pity they didn't get to come to Brazil so they could meet my family, etc, but that's ok. My mom is about to have a baby (April 25th) too, haha, but she still managed to do the majority of the stuff with us. We did some pretty intensive hiking at some points that she skipped out on, but other than that it was fine.



The trip itself was comprised of 2 days in Santiago, Chile, where we just sort of walked around/took the metro and saw stuff. There's honestly not that much to see there, so it was enough time. We did go to a very nice winery called Concha y Toro, which was thouroughly enjoyable, and also a really neat cemetary. Those were my favorite things. I really could have spent half the day just in the cemetary, but I have a thing for visiting cemetaries anyway; I really like their vibe for some reason, and this was an extra cool one.



Then we went to Lima overnight just to rest, and then in us to Nasca, which is where they have the famous lines and pictures drawn in the sand. It was really cool, but only once, haha - the plane ride over the lines left everyone right on the verge of getting reacquianted with their breakfast. The history behind the lines is pretty fascinating, really. They are these huge animal pictures (the hummingbird, for instance, is 300meters from beak to tail) that were made by taking rocks out of the sand, so they are sort of like shallow ditches that are about a foot wide. It's a mystery how they were made because they are so well calculated, étc. You should look them up on Wikipedia if you haven't heard of them.

After that we went to 3 other cities to go around to various ruin sites, museums, cathedrals, and touristy places to see. A good number of the days we drove around in a van to different places, and that was honestly one of my favorite parts - it's really relaxing to just sit, listen to music, and look out the window because the view is always spectacular. The main city we stayed in was Cuzco, which is about 5 hrs from the Machu Picchu site by bus, and it is the main city in the area. When you take a trip to the region you basically stay in Cuzco for the majority of the time, and make day trips around the region. There is a ton of stuff to see, and the city itself is very cool. It is probably one of the favorite places I have been to. It was an interesting mixture of neat architecture, poverty, Incan remnants, and European influence.

To go to the Macchu Picchu site itself we went by train to a small city called Aguas Calientes(because it has natural hot springs that I was too ired/lazy to go visit, haha). We spent a few days there - the first included going on the most intensive hike I have ever done, on this mountains called Putukisi (spelling???). It was a challenge, but definitely one that paid off. There were parts where you had to climb up these vertical wooden ladders that had been sort of built into the mountain, which was rather disconcerting. It had been raining so they were all slippery, and a good number of the ppl (myself included) have sort of a problem with ladders in general. We made it, though, and at the top it was this really cool view of the Machu Picchu site on one of the neighboring mountains.

Machu Picchu itself was, as you can imagine, fascinating. We spent a few hours there with a tour guide, then climbed the mountiain behind it, Wina Picchu, and then Hyland and I walked back together while everyone else did another hike that I thought looking kind of boring, haha.

That's a general outline of the trip. There are obviously about 10,000 details I could add in. Here are just a few snippets: there are lots of llamas and al pacas, the people actually do wear the clothes you see on the post cards, we went to a food market with brains and various other animal parts just laying all over the tables, we went out two nights to a club full of gringos where they taught salsa lessons for free and then had dance music (my salsa-ing is still pretty aweful, though), we went back to Lima before leaving, where we had a really great b-day party on the roof of the hostel for Johanna and Theresa, the German twins and went shopping instead of to more ruins (we were ruinsed-out), when you have a brazilian tour guide terraces=ter-asses, lost of long bus rides (one ws 22hrs), everyone spent a considerable amount of time in the bathroom bc of the food/water, and 3 of us ended up puking, I fought with the hotel lady in Cuzco about stealing towels because I had put my vomit-soaked towels in the basket outside the room so the maids wouldn't have to get them, so that meant I actually stole them, we could understand the Spanish almost perfectly, but barely speak it, they sell guinea pig on the street, but i didn't get it for fear of getting more sick, and there is cool/cheap stuff to buy on eeeeevery corner, at eeeeevery site, in eeeeevery musem, etc.

So, that was the trip.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ok, now we're back to modern time ~~~~

Oh, and for those of you that don't know, my mom had a healthy, happy baby on April 29th, and he is, as far as I know, named Gabriel.

School this year is slightly better. I am in the last year of high school, yet again, as the college thing didn't work out. Johanna is in my class, though, which is very cool, and a lot more people talk to us than they did last year. It's still sort of just a big waste of time, but better than sleeping all morning, I suppose. Actually, today I skipped because I had Lauren dye my hair, and it turned out looking wretched (not her fault - I dunno what happened), so we are going to the salon tomorrow and I'm getting it professionally done. My host mom, thus, took pity on my poor soul and let me stay home. That's why I'm writing in this actually... as if I don't have time to do so regardless of whether I go to school or not. :-P

I have been to a few good shows, and a few good parties. We went to see Ivete Sangalo Friday night, who is sort of like the Madonna of Brazil. It was a good time. I'm not a big fan of her music, but we enjoyed ourselves none the less. It's the sort of thing that's fun to go see/bouce around to, but not good enough to actually listen to. Oh, we did go see this other band a long tie ago called O Teatro Mágico, and THAT was awesome. They are one of the best bands in Brazil, I think, and it was one of the best shows I have ever been to.

I'm still doing Capoeira regularly, although I'm still not very good at it, haha. My host family is still great. I will miss them a lot when I come home, but I am fairly confident we'll see eachother again. My friends are stil incredible, and I don't even want to think about living without them at this point. I know I will see them again, though. Max actually got sent home for taking an un-authornized trip to Argentina. He is flying out today. It's too bad, but he would have been leaving in two weeks anyway, and he said it was definitely worth it. I've lost some of the weight I gained, yay, but I still have a ways to go until I'm totally happy with it. Hmm, what else. This is just a random updates paragraph, if you couldn't tell... My Portuguese is pretty good. I have taken some classes, mainly for the writing aspect of it, which has helped, and talking is no longer a stress; it's just a normal thing. They can definitely still tell I'm foreign, but I get by just fine. I will need to meet some brazilians to practice with when I get back, or I will probably forget.

Next week I am taking a trip with my host mom and sister to the city their family is from, which is in the same state, and another state where the family has a big estate thing (with horses, a house, a lake, etc... yea, they're pretty rich). That should be a nice trip, although I have to miss a few things to go. I met the majority of the family when we went there briefly ths other weekend, but this should be a better visit, and their estate looks incredible. If nothing else I get to ride horses, which is exciting.

Other that that I have been trying to stay sane as the return date starts becoming a thing that is less and less easy to ignore... As was painfully predictable, time flew, and, despite my ever-fluctuating feelings on being here, I do not feel ready to come home. There are definitely things to be excited about - mainly just seeing everyone again, meeting the baby, etc, but I think that after about 2 weeks I'll be ready to leave the country again. It's not so much that I don't feel ready to leave Brazil itself and get back to living a normal life of productivity and stress, it's more like the idea of a normal life back in good old Morgantown, WV just doesn't cut it... We'll see how it goes, though. There's no need to worry about it too much yet.

My friends and I are planning a big going away party for June 7th, which is before the majority of the people leave, and that should be a lot of fun. Plus the Rotary conference is coming up this weekend, which is exciting. It'll definitely be bittersweet to see everyone again, but to know that it's probably the last time for most. There will be plenty of crying and very little sleeping going on, I'm sure.

I come home July 1st, so I'll see you all then. I may write before then, and I may not. It's hard to tell. Right now I am honestly trying to ignore going home as much as possible (which isn't much, haha), and just enjoy the remaining time with the people here.

I hope everyone is great, and Happy Mother's Day (a day late) to all the mommies.

Muito Amor
Alanna

And So Life Continues!

Sooo, I thought that today I might just go out on a limb and update this thing after over 3 months of nothingness. Don't you love me? Now that I'm here, though, I am rather at a loss as where to begin. It would be rather impossible to go into a full account of my life here since Novemberrrr 4th, I think it was; in fact, even doing the highlights seems like an overwhelming undertaking, so I guess I will take more a big picture approach. Oh, speaking of pictures, this picture of all the exchange students at Carnaval - the ones of us who wree in the parade are all sostumes out, as you can see. I will post more pics on my flickr here in a bit.

Here's the big picture: These last few months have turned my exchange into a year of reality that was anything but predictable. I have seen things that have made me feel an endless range of rollercoaster-emotion, and felt things that have made me hardly able to see anything the same way twice. Some days I am totally attuned (is that a word - my vocab. is definitely suffering) to the world around me and my connection to it - or lack thereof, and some days I feel like I am just floating along - numb and almost motionless. Overall I feel happy, but it's a happiness that doesn't always come easily. There are some days, especially after returning from the exchange student trips, when it's hard to care that I am so blessed to have this opportunity. Right now what I want, more than anything, is a little responsibility. I have voiced many times that I (and the others) want more out of this exchange than sitting in the house watching American television, going to school that doesn't count, going out to bars and parties, going to the mall, living in a beautiful house w/ 2 maids and a driver (my new house - the best so far for other reasons) and taking occasional trips.

I really want to have some kind of volunteer work, something that will give me integrity, and make me feel a little more like myself again. For instance, my friend Johanna's twin sister is in Ecuador, and they are required to do something like that, so she has been working as a public chaldren's hospital there. That's what I call being an exchange student - worrying about a little more than losing your beach tan and what party to go to. I am becoming rather Brazilian, and, as my exchange student friends and I have been discovering, that's not necessarily a good thing...

More than ever I have a hard time remembering who I was before I left, and I am scared that the changes will not be as positive as expected. I know that so many people had so many great expectations, including myself, and I know that I'm not living it up like I should/could/would like to be. Wow, I'm sorry to be so negative. That whole thing made me sound like I'm having a rather miserable time, which I'm not at all, I just feel that the time I am having isn't the sort of time that really matters. Each day doesn't seem like too much to put off on working on making myself into what I would like to be, but, after 6 months here, I think maybe it's time to get it in gear. I just don't really know where to start.

Anyway...

After the big trip I took in November to the Amazon and various cities in Northeastern Brazil I started to do a blog post, so I figured I'd go ahead and put some of the interesting bits in this one:

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First I would like to say that this trip was incredible and unique experience for me, not really because of the places we went and the things we saw, but the relationships we developed with one another over the course of the month we had to eat (sometimes in awesome expensive restuarants with unlimited sushi and filé mignon, sometimes in places where the meat had hair - I'm not even kidding), sleep (sometimes in rather cramped, crappy little hotel rooms, sometimes in more luxurious ones, sometimes outside in hammocks), ride in the bus (for as much as 18hrs at a time), fly, go out, stay in, resolve problems, walk the streets, shop (shopping, shopping, and more shopping), see incredible sights, feel disappointed, take ridiculous pictures, hike for hours, talk, cry, laugh, and laugh, and laugh, and laugh together. It was really indescribable, and I have not talked to anyone since that really feels the same about being here after the trip. We will never forget one another, even if some of us didn't really get to know one another, and I have no doubt that there are a handful who will I will never live without. I like the idea of having a couch to sleep on in every continent save Africa and Antartica.

Since the first set of goodbyes I have felt emptier. I have felt more alone then ever. After that month of being able to just let go and be 100% myself with a group of some of the coolest people from all over the world (literally), Brazil, and everywhere else, seems so superficial and fake. I feel like the minute I got home I had to put my cute American exchange student suit back on and pretend to care. Don't worry, I am still enjoying the exchange, as I will comtinue to do, and I think the fact that it's almost Christmas, etc., doesn't help. December is supposed to be the hardest month for a variety of reasons; mine just happens to hit a little harder.

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December did end up being the hardest month, without question. Soon after coming home I went on vacation with my host family to some of the more southern areas of the country. I went to one city, called Curitiba, which I absolutely fell in love with, and then to visit some family over X-mas in a different town, the beach for about a week over New Years.

The trip was good overall, and I ended up feeling a good bit closer to my first host family afterward; however, nothing can really replace being home for X-mas, and my friends are the closest thing I have to real family here. Christmas in Brazil is rather different from Christmas at home, actually. It's not really as big of a deal. When I asked my brazilian friends what they had done for x-mas, I was surprised to find that most of them had gone out to a party with their friends rather than stayed with their family. Family tends to be closer here, so that makes it even more odd. Now that I think about it, though, maybe the reason they don't make it as big of a deal to see everyone as we do is because they are used to seeing family on a regular basis anyway. Mine was comprised of a gift exchange with a mass of extended family on my father's side (all very kind and welcoming - I liked them a lot) and a delicious seafood meal cooked by a gourmet chef in the family. We literally had a salad with tiny squids on it - legs and all. It was better that way, though, because the fact that it felt more like just another party than actual x-mas made it a lot easier not to miss home.

The beach we went to was called Bombas, and it was really beautiful. The water was clean, clear, and a perfect temperature, it was in a little town where everything was w/in walking distance, and we had nice weather, overall. As I stated over and over on the Northeast trip (which was comprised of far too many visits to the beach, in my opinion) to the amusement of my friends, I really don't like the beach much - I have a very keen hatred of sand - and I would definitely never chose it as my favored vacation spot, but I actually had a very lovely time in Bombas.

For New Years we ate at a very yummy seafood restaurant with my host dad's sister and borther-in-law, who had some as well (they are my favorite in-laws, for sure), his parents (who stayed in the apartment w/ us), and my family. Then for midnight we went down to the beach and watched people set off fireworks over the ocean and drank champagne and sang (well, they sang - I didn't know the song). Two of the luck traditions are eating 7 grapes and keeping a seed from each in your wallet all year and jmping over 7 waves. I have my grape seeds, but we forgot to jump the waves. It was a nice trip, but I missed my friends a lot, and I was glad to be home. I was in low spot, for sure, but when I got back I found out that we were all in low spots, so I guess it's normal.

In the beginning of Jan. we went to a party in another city, which is slightly larger than mine, where there are a lot of exchange students. It was the going away party for the Australians, who come and go in Jan. because of their school schedule, and that was a blast, although it was hard to see them go. The rest of Jan. was full of parties and hanging out because it was the last month of summer vacation, and was the lead-up to Carnaval week. It was fun. Now that we have been here for awhile we have learned what the good places are and how to find a party. Don't let that scare you - I am still being responsible and not making stupid decisions. Tania (Mex.), Annia (Mex.), Johanna (Germany), and I - the Prudente Girls, haha - are a lot more conservative with things like that than almost any of the other exchange students, which is nice. I am really happy that we all got places together - truly a match made in heaven, haha. They, along with my other 2 American pals Max (Salt Lake City) and Lauren (central California), were, are, and will continue to be, the most important thing I will take away from this year.

Oh, random note for those of you who don't know, I also got my nose pierced in January, haha.

At the beginning of February was Carnaval, which most of you are probably familiar with. Before I came here Carnaval was about the only thing I knew about Brazil, apart from the fact that they do ridiculous bikini waxes (don't ask, hahaha) and they spoke Portuguese. We had an exchange student trip to Rio for Carnaval which was, of course, awesome. Carnaval itself was different than I expected. I was expecting a big party, but it was really just a big show. You sit in stand along this paved walkway about the width of the interstate, and watch huge groups of people in crazy costumes and insanely elaborate floats walk/dance down from about 10:30PM to 4:30AM. There are 12 big samba schools in Rio, which make the costumes and floats and sell them to people to be in the parade, and they all have about an hour to display their stuff, so it's split into two nights. It doesn't get boring, though, there is plenty to look at, and you can always go eat pizza to get a break for the noise. You really have to go to understand what I mean by crazy costumes/floats. When I saw the costume I would be wearing I was disappointed, but they were actually really good ones. Everyone but the special samba girls wears these ridiculously huge, ordaned costumes with feathers, sparklies (I would have like more sparklies), bright colors, etc, and even if they are goofy up close they all look good from far away. Of course some of the people have really amazing costumes (huge feather angel wings and armour, sparkley fireman, haha, edward scissor hands, big dresses, etc), and the richer samba schools have more impressvie stuff, but everyone looked good. The floats were crazy stuff like people doing gymnastics and bounsing on trampolines, a ski slope w/ ppl skiing down it, giant moving animals (those were common), people in big rings you attatch your hand and feet to and then spin all over the place, lots of moving parts, lots of really attractive people, etc. There was one samba school that had a float that was banned because it was just a pile of naked dead bodies with a guy playing Hitler on top, so instead they covered it in a white sheet and had people with gags and a Jesus on top, and a banner that said, "you can't build a future when you bury the past." I'm all for free speech, but I do think the holocaust one was just a little out of line. It's supposed to be this big happy party - there is a time and place for everything, and that wasn't it. That school was weird, though, in general.

Actually being in the parade was absolutely incredible. We got to go back stage to where all the people were hanging out in their costumes and stuff (the guide didn't let us take our cameras, though, and i will never forgive him for that), and then we found the people with our same costumes, lined up, and went out (that whole thing was about 2hrs). It was funny because the guide had todl us that they don't allow foreigners in the school we were in, so we were talking to eachtoher really quietly so that no one would hear our accents, but then we got there and walked into a group of huge German guys who informed us that almost all the people were foreign, haha. Actually, one Brazilian lady got really mad at us for walking up close to the front because Brazilians get the front spots. We weren't even trying to get in the front - we were just walking around, but she freaked out and was cursing us to her friend. I was like, chill lady, it's Carnaval!

The actual parading was a blur. There were cameras and thousands of people watching/singing/dancing all over the place. Actually, one guy ran up and took a pic of my face - Imma be the next cover girl!!! Haha, not, but it was kinda cool. I hope it's a good picture, wherever it ends up. I was on the end, which was neat, because I could see all the people on the sides and I was more likely to get on TV (which I didn't - poo), but at the same time it was rather stressful because they have like these samba drill sargeant guys who run along the sides screaming at you to SMILE and LIFT YOUR ARMS and SING and GO FASTER and GO SLOWER, etc. Of course it ended too soon, but it was an incredible experience.

I don't know if I mentioned this (I started this a few days ago), but after getting back from the beach I went to my second host family. In that family I my parents were named Valter and Cássia, I had 2 brothers named Fabio (18) and Valter Júnior (16) and my host mom's grandma lived with us. That family was good before I went on the trip - I liked my host mom a lot, and they were very chill. However, they had recently suffered a a financial crises and were forced to sell the house while I was at Carnaval. The new house was tiny, and they were all really stressed over the move, Fabio's college stuff, etc, so I was not exactly welcomed home with open arms. I never became friends w/ my host brothers, really, and was sleeping on a matress in the grandma's room. I didn't care so much about that, really. It was just crappy because I could tell they didn't really want me there - my metaphor was that I was like a cat - they fed me, and were nice when they needed to say something, and they let me come and go as I pleased and just lay around all afternoon, but I wasn't really part of the family at all. I was really happy when I came home and was informed I was moving.

I moved back to the subdivision I have lived in this whole time, which is where I will stay, and into a very lovely house on the same street as my second had been. This family is by far the best. I am really happy that I finally ended up in the kind of place I was really wanting - everyone talks to me and hangs out w/ me, but I also have my own space when I want it, they seem genuinly interested in me and in making me a part of the family, my host mom is very up-front and conversant about everything, I can still go out and about when I want to, and they are just cool in general. My host parents' names are Valéria and Tarcizo, and I have 3 younger siblings - Pedro Felipe (15), João Gabriel (11), and María Laura (4). The kids have very typical Brazilian, names, by the way, if you were wondering what a typical Brazilian name is like. I like them all, and I can actually talk to them (host siblings are always the worst). María Laura (Mah) is adorable, and she calls me big sister, friend, or Milana; actually, she's staring to get my name down now, but she thinks it's weird, she informed me, haha.

I am really happy to be here. I am supposed to go back to my first house before the end, but I am hoping I don't have to. I have talked to my current parents about it, and they are fine with me starying the whole year, but I am a little nervous about having that conversation with my first host mom. I still have stuff at their house, and have been there a few times since they got back fom vacation and I got back from Carnaval. My fist host mom even threw a little surprise party for me on my b-day, which was sweet. It was just a little thing with all the exchange students and a few girls from school, but it was nice. I had a really good day on my b-day, actually. It was just a nice, chill, friends day. Annia, Tania, and Johanna made me this really awesome picture collage poster of us, which they gave to me at school (good thing or else I may have gotten overly-emotiona~l; for Valentine's Day we watched Love Actually and totally lost it at the end b/c the final scene is in an airport). Lauren came in from her city to hang out, I talked to my mom and Hyland on the phone for wayyyy too long after the party, and I just had a nice day in general. We went out the next day in celebration, as well.

Speaking of this, going home is becoming an increasingly sensitive and commonly talked about subject. A few weeks ago all of us were receiving/deciding our dates to come home, and that put a sudden damper on our moods. I think that I will be happy to go home, but it will be extremely difficult to say goodbye to them. I have made the best friends of my life here, and, eventhough I am sure we will see eachother again as much as we can, I know my life will feel very empty without being able to just call them up every afternoon. Oh geez, see Im emotional right now, even... I am really afraid of going home and feeling terribly lonely. I have a hard time seeing how I will find another group of people that I can connect to so well and just feel at home with. I guess that's why it's so hard - my friends have become my home. Brazil itself really isn't that great to be honest. This has been a great experience, but I don't think that I will ever want to live here.

In fact, this whole thing has, so far, had the opposite effect than I was expecting. Instead of falling in love with somewhere else, I have learned to love where I am from. To all you doubters, I would like you to know that, as far as I can tell, while there are lots of great places in the world to be, the US is definitely high on the list. We literally do have everything you can ask for, give or take a few things - diversity, opportunity, freedom, etc. When I watch the news there are always at least 2 stories about the US, oftentimes more, we talk about the US in history all the time, they watch our TV, they read our literature. I am definitely not into this whole globalization/Americanization thing, and I don't like that our media gives a distorted image, but at the same time the fact that they get that image makes me want to share myself more so that people can have a better understanding and appreciation of why we are the most powerful country in the world and of who we really are.

I have become much more of a patriot, I guess. That has not, though, robbed me in any way of my desire to travel and see more of the world. I just know now that wherever I am I will always carry a bit of home with me - more than I was expecting - even if that home is full of McDonalds and rotten politicians. It's made of a lot more that that.

So that's my 2 cents for the day... I will really try to start writing in this more often.

I will be going with group of 8 exchange students, the guide, and his daughter to Macchu Picchu on March 23rd, and I am SUUUUPER EXCITED about that. My mom and Hyland are trying to get down here for a visit in March too, but I am trying not to get overly-exited abou that until it's for sure.

So, until next time, I hope you all are just swell.

My return date was set at July 1st, but I might make it earlier so that I can go to college orientation, etc. Almost all of my friends will be leaving between June 17th and July 5th, anyway, so I would rather just get it overwith when it comes, I think.

Muito Amor

beijos e abraços pra tudo mundo

Alanna

General Update - Capoiera, School, Gym, Weekends

I worked on this for a few days in a row, so some of the stuff might seem a little out-dated or weird. Sorry about that. Hey, at least I finally got it posted, haha. This pic is from a churrasco with some of the Brazilian ex-exchange students and current exchange students - there were more people there, but I liked this pic.

So the other day I saw a car with plates for Paraguay (which is kinda like how it’s cool to see Alaska plates, except a little cooler, haha), and I thought, ‘how neat – I need to put that in my blog,’ and then I realized that it has been like a month since I have even written in my blog – SORRY GUYS. Thus, you will be getting a less detailed post than usual, which is fine, anyway. We actually don’t have internet at the moment, which is killing me, so I am doing this in good old Word 2003; it’s mad at me, though, because it speaks Portuguese and I am writing in English (obviously). I think I will try to fix that. Ah, much better – far fewer squiggly red lines. It finally started raining for real, which has been just lovely, in my opinion, but the down side is that it somehow knocked the internet out. Hopefully we will get that fixed soon, because I actually have some things to take care of other than chatting (mainly in Portuguese, of course, although my written Port. Is not so great).

There are only a few main things that have really been going on lately, and they are as follows (we’ll do this 10th grade thesis statement style): I started going to the gym and Capoiera regularly; Gerardo moved schools, so I am now alone in my class, and that ended up being way better; good weekends and bad weekends; getting geared up to go on the big trips – SOOOOO EXCIIIIITED.

Capoiera: I feel like I need to explain this a little bit before I get into it. Some of you know what it is, and some of you have no idea, I imagine. Capoiera, in short, is a Brazilian martial art that originated in Africa, and was brought over by the slaves and converted to look more like a dance than a martial art, as they were forbidden by their masters to actually practice martial arts. It looks a bit like break dancing, actually, but we listen to the traditional music in class, which is drumming, singing, and playing this instrument that looks like a bow (bow and arrow kind of bow) and makes a sort of twangy sound. There are tons of Youtube videos, which I think I said in my last post. The movements and stances are very different from Kung Fu, so it has been a little bit hard for me to shake old habits in terms of body placement, etc. In fact, sometime the teacher just yells at me, “AI, Alanna, você está pracicando o Kung Fu - Isso é a Capoiera, não é o Kung Fu!” or something like that (ai alanna, you are doing kung fu – this is capoiera, it’s not kung fu).

The teacher’s name is Delei, he’s 20 or 21, and has been doing Capoiera for 10 years, and he doesn’t speak any English, really, so he makes fun of me for saying ‘ok’ when he’s showing me something (they say ‘ta’ or ‘ta bom’); he isn’t the real teacher, actually. The real one only comes Fridays, I think (that’s the only time I’ve seen him, but I’ve only gone once), which are special because we run class differently, and I have only met him once. He is probably like 30 or so. Everyone there is very like-able, and very good. Almost all the people in my class are right around my age, and have been doing it for multiple years, but they are cool about it. Brazilians are just cool in general, really.

I go to class on Mon, Weds, and Fri. Mondays and Wednesdays are more like training days, where we learn new things and practice them, and Fridays are solely for ‘fighting,’ although a lot of the time we fight for a few minutes at the end of the other classes to. I say fighting, but it’s really not like fighting. They use the verb for ‘play’ when they talk about it, but it’s not really like playing either. It’s like play-fighting. The point is to learn from the other person and practice the movements. It’s like a slower version of the sparring we do in Kung Fu, but it keeps going, and people step in and out about every 30 secs to 1 minute, and pick one of the fighters to challenge. I hate that part because I am shy anyway, and because I don’t know very much, and because when I am actually looking at someone I tend to forget the little that I’ve learned. I will get there eventually, I suppose, but I like the system we have of randomly selecting fighters in Kung Fu because it takes the pressure off me.

Fridays are cool because the real teacher, Nelson, comes and teaches a Samba class to old people, which is rather entertaining, we play the instruments ourselves (the beat is really simple, so I can play the drums and tambourine, but not the weird bow instrument), and it is nothing but fighting, which is neat to watch. I took some pics last Friday, and posted them on my Flick. I took a lot of Nelson and Delei because they are the best, so they do they do the coolest stuff. Once I get more used to it I will have them take some of me so you guys can see.

I don’t know that I’ll actually test to get belts or anything – probably not. They have some sort of belt system, but I don’t really know how it works. I should ask… haha. Anyway, that’s about it for Capoiera. Any questions?

In addition to Capoiera, I have been going to the gym most days of the week. I do both at an “academia” called Tênis Club, which is like a YMCA. They have a lot of academias here, but I go to Tênis because it is the most popular, and because I was able to get a membership with a family from my Rotary club. I pay about $15 a month to go to the gym, and had to pay an extra $15 for an initial exam. With that, though, you get a personal trainer who assesses you and makes out a personalized schedule, so that when you go in they tell you everything you need to do. There are a few that work there, and they split up the people who are there at the time, so you just ask them what the next thing on your schedule is and they tell you. Not everyone uses them, but I am happy to, because I really would have had no idea where to start. I have a different schedule for Capoiera and non-Capoiera days, which differ in the intensity of the leg workouts, since doing Capoiera is a lot like doing squats for an hour and a half.

They told me after my exam that to be ideal I need to lose 9kilos, which is almost 20lbs. I think that is pretty much BS, but I have lost 2kilos (2.2lbs) so far (the 2 that I had gained from the first month here), and I think like 3 or 4 more would be nice. I think they told me 9 because the girls here tend to be a good bit smaller than I am in build and muscle mass. I have rather big legs and broad shoulders according to their standards, but I am a real, live “loira” (blonde), which is rare, so at least I have that going for me, haha. It’s weird, because I think that their dark color and long black hair is really beautiful, but I am finding out a lot of them tend to like people who are blonde with light eyes – I am exotic for them, I guess, haha. It’s like opposite from home, where everyone thinks exotic, dark women are beautiful. I was talking to Aunt Melissa and the family one day, and I was telling them that was going to get a haircut, and they said not to get some crazy brazilian do, to which I replied, “Well, the brazilian ‘do’ it long, straight, and black, so I don’t think there’s much danger.” I’m not really a blonde, as you know, but here anything that’s not black is blonde, haha.

School is still pretty crappy, but it has improved because Gerardo, who was the Mexican guy in my class, moved houses, and had to move schools. I was scared at first to be on my own, but it ended up being a real blessing. Literally the day after he was gone some of the girls came up to me and asked me to sit with them, and since then we talk everyday at school, and I have gone out with them a few times. There are a lot more girls than guys I my class, but the guys that are there definitely make their presence known. As I said, I am in the slacker class, so most of them are really loud, class-clown, types, and they have started picking on me more, which means they like me, haha. It’s not like we’re good friends, but it’s sort of an acceptance thing. One bad thing that has come from it, though, is that there is this guy in another class who wants to take me out on a date or something, and he comes in like everyday and bugs me about it. I have told him no over and over, but he just keeps re-phrasing the question. It’s really getting on my nerves. Of course that has been a subject of abuse by the guys in my class – they told me I am “conquistando coracãos” (conquering hearts – an expression), and they are like “alanna and eeeeeelvis” (his nickname). Anyway, that’s a thing. If nothing else I am leaving to go on the trips soon, so he won’t be around to annoy me.

Oh, I figured you guys might think this is funny: I was talking to Johanna the other day in English (the other ex. Students and I try to speak Port. with each other as much as we can, but sometimes we cheat), and she was like, “From you I am learning to say this word, ‘like’ all ze time. It is good for me because when I don’t know what to say I can just say ‘like’ like you do.” Haha, I didn’t think my habit was THAT bad, but apparently it is.

I have obviously done a lot of hanging out and going places sine I last wrote. I went to a wedding with my host parents one Saturday, just to see what it was like, and that was pretty exciting. I lied. It wasn’t. It was like going to a catholic wedding that you can’t understand and with really cheesy American love songs in Port., haha. It was just one, though, I’m sure they aren’t all the same. Plus I didn’t know anyone, so I just hung out with my host parents the whole time. It was nice to see, though; the family was all weepy and hugging each other all over the place – the men were crying just as much, if not more, than the women - and the noivos (bride and groom) were young, smiley, and cute together. The really big difference between weddings here and there is the timing. They get married at night, rather than in the daytime. My host mom said it’s because they like to wear things that are sparkly (tiaras, etc.), and that’s not as beautiful during the day, but I suspect it has more to do with the fact that it’s really hot, haha. They also had a live band playing a style of traditional Brazilian music called sertaneja (I think that’s how you spell it), which is like the equivalent of country here. My host mom doesn’t like it, but I do. It really just depends on the person. It’s fun to dance to, even though I have failed at every attempt, haha.

I went to a costume party last weekend. They have Halloween here to a small degree. They are having Trick-or-treat (like no one came – only a few kids and Paula’s - my sister - friends), but it’s not as big of a deal in terms of everyone dressing up and having parties, etc. I think it has been getting more popular in the last few years, but it’s almost 100% generated by American movies and culture. The party I went to was a birthday party, actually, and I didn’t know very many of the people, but it was still fun. I went with some of the other exchange students, and since we didn’t want to rent costumes we just used our own clothes and the stuff my host sister has from ballet. It had to be a costume from a movie, so Tania and I went as Moulin Rouge girls, and Annia went as a Disney fairy. There was a little less dancing going on than we would have liked, but hopefully we will make up for it this weekend.

Oh, speaking of movies, there is this really awesome Brazilian movie that you should try to see if you can. I don’t know that it will come out in the states, but in English it is called Elite Squad, and in Port. it is called Tropa de Elite. It is set in Rio, and is based on true events surrounding the federal police in Brazil and how they deal with the drug trade and favelas (ghettos) in Rio. It is very realistic, and very intense. To me it was sort of like a somewhat more docile mixture of Children of Men and Full Metal Jacket. It was excellent. The version I saw was pirated and had no subtitles, so I only really understood what was generally going on, not the dialogue, but I am going to see it again when it comes out in the theatre, I hope, (yea, they all have it already even though it hasn’t come out yet – people here tend to have more downloaded movies than real movies), so hopefully I will understand it a little better.

I have had mostly good weekends lately. It’s sort of annoying, because they don’t care as much about making plans and schedules and things as we do, and, as last minute and disorganized as I tend to be, it’s a little trying when you are trying to figure out what to do. Like we were invited to do stuff, but then they aren’t sure if they still want to do it, and then they will call you back in an hour and they don’t, so it takes a few hours to even figure out where you are going. It wouldn’t be too bad, except that our parents are more protective than theirs, so they want to know early what we are doing etc, and we are limited on means of transportation.

I went to another concert Thursday night because Friday was a holiday and we didn’t have school. It was not really a big deal holiday – it was like Memorial Day or Dia dos Muertos – a day to honor those who have passed. Dia dos Muertos is a really big deal in Mexico though, so the Mexicans were missing it like I was missing Halloween. Anyway, the concert was a type of music called Pagode, which was bouncy Brazilian music about kissing and love, etc. The guys in the band were all young, and they played a whole slew (am I allowed to use that word?) of instruments – lots of drums, trumpet, trombone, guitar – and bounced around the stage. It’s kinda like a version of Samba, and it’s a lot of fun to dance to. My feet were killing me by the end, which has a lot to do with the fact that they are already all covered in Capoiera blisters and I wore a pair of my friend’s high Brazilian platforms.

Tuesday evening I went with a guy named Tiago that I had met at a party, and who Johanna knows from church (I will talk about this in a minute), to one of the universities here. There are 4, I think, and this is one of the big ones. I don’t know how many students it has – I would guess around 5,000 or something like that. Maybe more. He goes for Educação Física (Physcial Education), which is a common major here, but it’s hard to make much money doing it because the personal trainers make nothing, as well as the teachers. The campus was a lot like an American college campus – lots of big ugly buildings, people hanging out all over the place, and a little area in the middle with places to eat. The classes were more interesting than the ones at my school, and his started at 7. I really want to go to college here, not high school. Lucie, the French girl, goes to college, as well as a few others in other cities, I have heard, and my next host brother is in his last year of high school now, so maybe if he goes to school here next year I can go with him. I am supposed to just go to the 3rd year of high school again next year, but college would be sooo much better. I am going to inquire. We shall see.

About the church group thing – Johanna knows a bunch of people from church because she goes there with her sister every week, which is funny, because she thinks she’s atheist. I went last night because Tiago had invited me, and I thought I’d try it out. On Friday nights they have like a youth mass thing (it’s Catholic, of course), and it was a lot of singing and hopping around to music some of the kids played. Tiago talked the whole time – I don’t know if he always runs it or not – about faith etc, which was rather interesting. He was very good, I think, although I didn’t understand all of it. The fact that he could stand up there and talk for like 40 mins, though, is pretty impressive.

After that they had a party, so I went. They taught Johanna and me to dance Aché, which is very lively and bouncy with some weird specified movements depending on the song. The Babado Novo concert I went to was Aché. It’s about the easiest form o Brazilian dancing there is since all you really need to do is keep bouncing and follow along – they just like to be in constant motion. I am starting to get Samba a little bit too, but it still needs work.

Ok, I think that’s about enough. That’s a lot. I think I covered enough about little pieces of the culture to suffice.

I am leaving for a week in the Amazon on November 8th, and then we will travel North Eastern Brazil, which is mainly beaches. I don’t remember the last time I was this ecstatic. I can’t wait. We had a meeting this week about it, and I couldn’t keep from smiling the whole time. I am soooo ready to leave. The guy we are going with is a Rotary official, and he will be posting his pictures as we go on some website. I will put the link on here if he ever send it to us. He is also supposed to send a list of links to hotels and cities we will be staying in, but he is infamous for his lack of communication, so we’ll see. I will post them on here when/if he does. I, myself, am eager to take a look.

I doubt I will be updating while I’m gone. I might put a few little ditties up when I stop at internet cafés and such, but I have no doubt that there will just be wayyy too much to say.

As of now I know that the Amazon trip will consist of 3 days living on a boat, sleeping in hammocks, showering together in river water, stopping off at a few native villages (with a tour guide), seeing freshwater pink dolphins, and eating grubs out of coconuts. Sounds perfect. The Northeast trip will be traveling around to various cities, mainly touristy, doing fun stuff like parasailing, and going to beaches and lots of famous sites like Christ the Redeemer and Copacabana in Rio.

It should be incredible. I’ll let you know. There are 24 of us going to the Amazon, and 35 going to the Northeast. I will be stopping at internet cafés to check my e-mail and such, and a few of my friends have laptops that should work in most of the hotels, but I still won't be around all that much.

Just for those of you that don't know - my mom's pregnant! I'm excited, so I'm telling everyone. I will have a 3 month old brother/SISTER (I hope) when I get home. That will probably be my biggest motivation for coming back, actually, haha.

I am great. I hope you all are too. I know this was a long one. I know I am bad about updating. At this rate there will only me like 15 posts by the time I go home.

E-mails and comments are always appreciated, even if not responded to :-D :-P.

New pics are up at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alannainbrazil.

Muito Amoooor

Alanna

Starting to Notice a Language Improvement and School

Òla, tudo mundo! (Hello, everyone - literally 'all the world.' I like that phrase.) I hope that everything is well in the Northern Hemishpere. Down here it is still very hot, the toilets are still flushing the normal way, and I am still just lovely...

As always, a lot is going on. It's really weird for me to think that it is almost October already! Time here is sort of strange for me; I tend to feel restless and in a rush if I am not doing something, but at the same time that I really have all the time in the world. I figure one of these days, or one of these months, it's really going to hit me that I don't have all the time in the world - just like it did before I left - and I am going to freak out, but for now it's all good. I am getting concerned, though, because my mom sent my new bank card like 3 weeks ago and I have yet to receive it, and I need my insurance card in my hands by November 9th or I don't go on the trips and we don't get our money back. I am trying to be as on top of those things as I can, but really all I can do it wait. It's sort of frustrating. No, it is frustrating, period.

I have tended to feel a little bit more in limbo these past few weeks than I did before, and I think worrying about that stuff has a lot to do with it. Whereas for the first month I felt pretty much 100% disconnected from my former life, now that I am settled in here, I tend to dwell on it a little more, especially when something here is bothering me. I have some trouble here because I do not like living under such strict rules. I really like my host family, and I am grateful to have gotten them - It's all just luck, and I know some people with pretty bad families - but I do not necessarily like all the rules and the curfews. They try to treat me like a member of the family, which is what I want, but it also means that I don't get to live this year as I would like because I have to conform to their schedule and their concerns. I understand the rules and why they are there, and because I don't want to cause problems with my family I accept them, but I really don't like them. I have said all I can, though, I think, so I just have to live with leaving the parties early. I found out that I have 2 more host families following this one - both in the same neighborhood, so it will be interesting to see the change in family dynamic. I am very fond of my current family, but I think I will like the change, and since it is close I can/will still see them if/when I want.

Hmm, what have I done lately? I have hung out with the usual people, for the most part. The last exchange student finally got here (we have 10 in my city, now, which is all we will have until January when we get an Australian - they run on a different schedule because of their school year). He is from Taiwan, and his name is "Jack," which pretty much doesn't resemble his real name at all (he told it to me, but I forget what it is, exactly), so I am wondering how they came up with it, haha. I don't think I have mentioned that it is common for exchange students to have nicknames because it is hard for the people in the country to remember/pronounce the names. For instance, Johanna's family just calls her Jo ('yo'). We all have relatively simple names, here, though. My name is the same, but they pronounce it differently - it is very nasal. I can't really reproduce it - it's kinda like al-uhna. I actually think it's weird now telling people my name becaue I am not used to hearing it said like I say it, if that makes any sense, haha.

We watched a really good movie the other day called "If Only". I forget what the name was in Portuguese. It's funny, we are in Brazil, but the best thing we can come up with to do sometimes is watch a movie. It's really all a matter of transportation, though, and we try to get out and go to the park and stuff as much as we can. It's actually good for us to watch movies, though, because it helps with the language. When we are all together we watch them in English with Port. subtitles so that we can read along. It really should be the other way around, but they have too hard a time reading the English so fast, and I really have no room to talk so I give them a break, haha. When I am alone, though, I watch movies in Port. with Port. subtitles, and I understand them, yay. I have a hard time without the subtitles, but it's getting better. The other day, though, I was watching Mission Impossible 3 without subtitles, and I had like no idea what was going on, haha. I still don't cheat, though, and I think it helps to at least be paying attention.

I have noticed an actual difference in my ability to talk to people, lately, which is encouraging. One afternoon last week the teacher didn't show up for the last class of the day, so we were allowed to leave, so Gerardo and I went to the little place across the street where a guy sells churros he makes at his little stand (they are like fried, hollow, bread with caramel cream - dulce de leite - or chocolate in the middle, covered in connamon sugar, yum). There was another guy there, and he talked to me for like 15 minutes, and I actually pretty much understood all of what he was saying to me, and sort of talked back (he, like most Brazilians, didn't need much encouragement to keep going, haha). I had no answer when he was asking why the women's U.S. soccer team is really good and men's isn't, though, haha, so I told him it was because women are just always better than men :-D. A friend of mine told me that once I can cut out all the Spanish I will be one of the best speakers here, and that made me happy. I have been here for less time than a lot of them, too.

Last Thurday the other ex. students from here (excluding 2), a few rebounds, and I went to an English school to talk to a class about our homes and show them some stuff. I think they only understood about 30% of what we said, but they were really excited anyway (they were like 5-14 yrs old) , and the teacher translated the harder stuff. I took my WV flag, some large versions of coins that I have, and a map of WV, and they all really liked the coins in particular. I had to go around and show them to everyone and explain them. Oh, hahaha, this was so funny, I was showing them on the map that we live close to Washington D.C., and after I showed them the border states one boy asked where Count Dracula's Castle was because he though I said Transylvania, not Pennsylvania. I felt bad for laughing (we were all laughing really hard), but it was seriously one of the funniest things I think I have ever heard. I am laughing now, actually, just thinking about it. Poor guy, he was like 6 and 100% serious, but he took it well. They had all made Brazilian desserts for us, so after we talked for like 2 hours we ate for like an hour. It was a good time. The pic I put up is from the class - I guess I will name the people, just in case you care... ok, left to right on the top row is Jack (Taiwan), Ryan "Shaggy" (like from Scooby Doo, haha, from California), Gabriel (went to Lake Tahoe, CA last year), the teacher, Tania (Mex.), Diego (went to Thailand last year), Gerardo (Mex.); second row is Iván (Mex.), two Brazilian girls whose names I forget (they both went to the US last year), Johanna (Germany), Annia (Mex.), me, Guilherme (went to South Africa last year - Gabriel's twin). The rows kind of merge, but I think you can figure it out...

Last Friday I went to one of the other schools here, it was called Christo Rei (Christ the King), and was, obviously, a Catholic school. It was quite a bit different from my school, and I actually liked it a lot better. My friend Dayna (Canadian) came in Thursday night, and we stayed at a friend of her's house. Dayna stayed with me for the whole weekend, actually, because she lives in a tiny little town with a crappy family, which was cool. Her friend Adrielly, who we stayed with, and her friends are really cool; I liked them a lot. They are a little younger than me, but that doesn't matter so much here. School itself was school, but we got to go meet the principal and take a tour, so they, naturally, wasted as much time as possible. It was a nicer building, and it had a better atmousphere, I though, than my school. When I started school they never bothered to show me around or introduce me to anyone, they just sent me to class with my cousin, which, to me, was very rude. Gerardo didn't care, but I did. Plus, our class doesn't really care about us, and the class at Christ Rei was a lot more friendly (partially because they had a group English test that day, haha, so they kept whispering to us for help).

After school we ate at Adrielly's and then went back and has a little surprise party with her friends for their theatre teacher. It was just nice, clean, fun. There were some nuns there, which was kinda weird, but they were cool. They have a pool there, so her friend went and got us some shorts, and all the girls played water polo in the pool. We were all locked in the pool area and walled off, which made it more fun - very giggly and all that, haha. After that we watched the guys play basketball for awhile, and then went home. Did I mention that Brazilians can't play basketball? They can't, haha, but they kill us in soccer, so it's ok.

Saturday we went to Tania's and swam for the afternoon, and then Gerardo came and made everyone Mexican food. We were planning on having a party, really, but more people kept showing up, so we did. Tania's mom tried to teach her and me to Samba, which was somewhat successful, haha, but it's very difficult. Tania is better than I am, and Annia is better than both of us. She got there later, but picked it up a lot quicker. I am just really stiff, so I need to practice. Hopefully I will get it by Carnaval. Tania's mom is an excellent dancer, so we will have to practice some more. The Mexicans also taught us a dance of theirs, which is kinda like their version of the electric slide, but a lot faster, and you can do it with two people instead of just one. They also taught us how to dance 'banda,' the typical, trumpety Mexican music. We basically had a goofy traditional dance party, and ate food, and hung out. I had to leave earlier than everyone else, of course, but it was really fun. By about 10 it was Tania, Annia, Gerardo, Tania's parents, her sister, Johanna's sister, Julio, his friend Julianna, Dayna, and me, and the next day my feet were sore from dancing, haha. I got a bunch of videos, but my camera doesn't record sound, so it didn't really capture the effect.

I went to the neighborhood churrasco Monday, and I met one of my next host brothers, and he seemed nice. I think we will get along. In my next family I have 2 brothers, who are 17 and 18 (I met the younger one), and in the one after that I have a sister who is 17. I am moving to the next house after Christmas, and I think I will be there for like 3 and a half months. Sorry, I am thinking of random things to write on here - It's hard to keep everything straight.

Friday of this week Gerardo made us Mexican food again at my house (we are trying not to waste the tortillas his mom sent), and Tania, Johanna, Julio, Ryan/Shaggy, and the twins (his host brothers) came over to hang out. We played cards for a fwe hours and then went to their house and hung out for awhile with some more people. Playing cards is funny because we teach eacother games, and we are trying to explain in a mixture of 3 languages, haha. It took me a few hands to finally understand the Brazilian game we played, but I got it eventually.

Julio's birthday was Thursday, and last night he had a party at his friends house. I could only stay until 9, but it was fun nonetheless. He works for his uncle's company as a full time job, but he organizes parties professionally on the side. This wasn't one of his big parties, but he still knows how to do it. His last real one was in August before I got here, and it was almost 900 people at $15 a head. They, of course, had to buy ridiculous amounts of beer, but that's still pretty good. He has friends in London and Madrid who do the same thing, and he is planning to move in with one of them within the next year or two when he can get it together. I'm pushing fo Spain, myself, since I fully intend on sleeping on his couch, haha.

This week has been kind of weird because my host dad and most of my host mom's family have been in São Paulo for a big music festival thing. It's a musical instrument festival, really, and their business is selling musical instruments, so they all went to try and do that. My host mom said that my host dad was very pleased with the amount of sales, but that it's a very long weekend. The festival itself lasts for 4 days, I think, the first two are just for shop owners, and the last two are for the public - those are the bad days. My host cousin, Gustavo (Gu), who is 6, has been staying at our house some days, and at my host mom's parents with her mom the other days. He is fun, I like him a lot, but he is a little tiring, haha. We went to the mall the other day, and he told me like 5 ghost stories - it was really adorable, but I only understood about half of it, and by the end I was really tired, haha. Kids are so hard to understand, it's crazy. He's very patient with me, though, and if nothing else he's usually happy with a smile and a "nossa!" ("wow" - noh-sah). It's fun to have him around, though, I like him a lot.

Okay, I think I have hit all the high spots, haha, now I am going to explain the school system in more detail, which is very, very different.

School is only compulsary until, I think, the age of 14, and after that they can quite if they have to or want to. The publis schools are not very good at all, so most families try to send their kids to private schools. The one I go to is part of a system that is rather widespread, I think, it is called Anglo, and it is like $150 a month, I think, although for me it is free. My host mom said that they have a very good secondary school system, but it is not so good for the younger kids because they just started a year or two ago, so Gu goes to a different school. They don't have separate elementary, middle, and high schools here, all ages go to the same school, although I think a lot of the time the schedules are slightly different. The private schools are independently run, and, as far as I can tell, don't really work with one another in terms of scheduling and whatnot. They are similar, though.

My school starts at 7:20, and ends at 12:20. We have 6 classes, with 5 minute breaks between them, except for the long break in the middle, which is about 15 minutes. They do not have any options when it comes to classes - they all take the same things with the same teachers. Instead of changing classes we all stay in one room, and the teachers change at breaks. I honestly can't even tell how many subjects we have because the schedule is somewhat erratic. We have each subject 2x/week, so, lets see, if I have 3o classes then I have 15 subjects, right? It might not be. I'm really bad at math, haha. Speaking of math, I would say that math and science are about 75% of the curriculum, and history, geography, economics, literature, and Porttuguese share the rest. Monday is my favorite because it is almost all fine arts.

They don't have textbooks here, they have workbooks that are distributed and bought at various times during the year; I think we are on the 7th one right now. They have all the subjects in them, and the lessons are layed out for each day, including the homework and examples. The teachers do not spend more than two classes on one subject before they are moving on, which means that school here is harder. They have to cover all the material at the pace of the entire system, rather than their own class, so they can't afford to waste time. The students are largely responsible for making sure they inderstand what they are being taught, so they usually study for at least 3 hours after school if they are in their final year of school, because looming at the end is the dreaded Vestibular...

The Vestibular is the test every Brazilian has to take to get into college, and it is, from what I have heard, very very hard. The Vestibular determines whether you get into a public universtiy, which is what you want, because they are not only better, but they are free. The private schools here run at about $2,000/month, and they are not all that great, but anyone can go. The public schools are very competitive. I think only like 24 people from Anglo get to go, and there are proabably about 100 who will graduate. It's even harder if you have been an exchange student because you leave halfway through your second to last year and return in the middle of the next year, so you miss a year's worth of material. I don't think I would want to do that - not with so much at stake. If you don't pass a particular subject, though, you can re-take it the next year, so sometimes we have people i random classes because they have to test again on the subject. When you do get accepted to a public school there is a big party, and if you are a guy your friends shave your head for you. My cousin Pedru, for example, has his head shaved because he took the test early and passed.

My school is relatively large compared to a lot of them, and my grade is divided into 4 classes, which are A,B,C, and D. I am in the D class, which is the class of people who have the lowest grades. I don't like my class particularly well. There are some cool people in it, of course, but for the most part people sleep and don't bother to talk to me. I guess it's my job to talk to them first , but it would be nice if I were in a class like Tania, Annia, and Johanna, where everyone wants to know them. Oh well, I have made other friends, and I will be gone for a month anyway. When I get back this school year will be almost over, and we will have vacation then a new class, so I am looking forward to that.

They have some sports after school, I think, but school spirit really isn't a big deal, and the building is very austere. They have a sheet that everyone signs during the first and second classes to do attendance, and a hall monitor who is always there to keep track of people. She's mean, haha. They call the teachers by their first names, and they dress in nice looking jeans and a blouse or t-shirt and cuss in class (depending on the teacher). Needless to say, it is less formal. Whether a class is boring or not still depends on the teacher, but almost all of them just ignore people who sleep through the class. There is one guy, though, who just screams randomly throughout the class; like he'll be teaching and yell a word really loud to wake people up then laugh and keep going. Oh, and there is this other teacher, named Ademir, who says, "bom dia" like 10 times at the beginning of class (good morning), and he kisses girls on the hand or the head (namely ex. student girls, as the others and I have figured out), and he is always using people's arms or heads or whatever to talk about geography. He carries around this metal stick that he uses as a pointer or to whack desks with when he makes a point, and he is always punching the board while he talks. He is really weird, but I like him. He is like 5'3" and has a very impressive mustache. They even have a group on Orkut, which is the Brazilian and Asian/Middle Eastern version of Myspace and Facebook, for people who "love Ademir's bom dia." I'm in it, haha.

We don't have to do anything in school, and it's unsufferably boring. Gerardo has the newest workbook, and I asked him to give it to me so that I can have something to do other than pass notes/stupid drawings with him, read, write letters, and sleep. It took me awhile to get used to sleeping in school since I have probably only slept in school like 5 times in my life (all of which during Latin, haha, oh, no, I remember falling asleep in science in 10th grade once too), but all the people in my class sleep too, so oh well. I don't blame them, either, because all it is is lecute and note-taking. There is no class involvement and almost no interaction unless it's one of the cool teachers who teaches half the time and just hangs out with the guys half the time. I always pay attention in the calsses like geopraphy and history because I can understand them almost all of the time (they write the notes on the board while they lecture, which helps), but the physics and chemisty looses me, haha.

I think that's about it. Oh, quick funny story:

Today I went to the bakery with my host mom, and when we got back she got out first and yelled to me not to get out of the car. I was like all worried because I didn't know why, and she told me there was something there that I didn't understand (I didn't know the word), so I was all nervous. I looked and didn't see anything, so I asked her what it was and she said a little animal (uma animalzinha, haha), so I got out slowly, and there was this tiny little frog stuck on the wall by the door. I thought maybe it was poisonous because she told me to come to the other side of the car with her quickly, so I asked if it was dangerous, and she said no, it would (some word I didn't get), and then started making hopping motions with her hand, and I figured out that she was just really scared of frogs, haha. Then she threw rocks at it, but it didn't move, so we had to spray it with the hose out of the garage so we could go inside. It was really funny, I thought, but she was feraked out, haha.

Oh, and another thing. Rain - or a severe lack thereof. It has finally rained a little, but only a little. It hadn't rained for almost 3 months, and in a week or two they were going to start rationing water. It is so dry, and sometimes I wake up with a soar throat because the air is so dry. We need a really big storm, so hopefully we will get it; as of now it's just been a few drizzles. It has been cooler this week too, which is nice. They keep telling me to wait until summer when I complain about the heat, but I don't even want to think about summer. I am sad that I will come home to more heat next year, haha - I want some snow!

As always, I hope you are well. I have to go because I have school tomorrow. Blahhhhh. Being here makes me feel bad for people who always hated school. I have hated it for a month and a half and it's very tiresome to wake up and go do something you hate... It makes me want to write research papers.... Well, kinda. I write my fill on here, haha.

Muito Amoooooor!

Alanna

My First Concert Here and A New View of 9/11

Wow, I need to update more... Oh, and on a personal note: Mom, can you start printing these out so that I can have them when I get back, please?

Hello, all. I hope things in the states are well. I haven't read or watched the news once since I arrived, so the White House could have burned down, and I probably wouldn't know about it. I will be very poorly informed when I arrive in time for voting season; although since none of them tell the truth, I don't know how much it matters anyway, haha...

Things here continue to go well, although I am starting to enter the phase of homesickness/cultureshock where everything stops being so exciting and I get irritable. This, of course, is just by the books, but I have been a little bit more on edge lately than I was before. I feel restless when I am not doing something, and while I feel badly about wanting to be out all the time instead of at home, there is pretty much nothing for me to do here except watch TV, read, and be on the internet, which gets old. Plus, I am trying to cut back on my internet time, and the temptation gets too strong when I sit around for too long.

I'm still happy, though, no worries. That is really all I have to complain about. My grandparents were living in the house last week, which wasn't too bad, but I was very happy to see my parents again Sunday morning (as was my host sister, but she was rather more vociferous about it, haha). My grandparents are very kind people, but I prefer the normal life, for sure. However, I had to wait another week to go to the Tennis Club to sign up, and that was a little bit frustrating. We went today, though, to get a list of classes, times and prices, so tomorrow or Thursday I think I will be going in to get a small exam (weight, height, bodyfat %, etc) in order to start going to the gym in the afternoons when my host sister goes to English or ballet. The gym is $35 reals ($17.50) for the first month and $R30 for the following months, so I think that's pretty good. I have to pay another $30 for the initial start, but I have barely spent any money in anticipation of these costs, so it will be fine. They have a long list of classes, but I still want to do Capaoiera. They have an all women's class twice a week, so I hope I can do that starting here pretty soon.

Last week I went out and about every afternoon/evening (I have to be home by 10:30, which is a little bit annoying b/c it's earlier than pretty much everyone else - we don't have to do anything in school, anyway), which included a little pool party at my Mexican friend, Annia's house (the pic is of, clockwsie from front, Caio - Brazil, Gerardo - Mex., me, Tania - Mex., and Annia - Mex. after swimming), a birthday party/watch soccer party for Iván a Mexican guy (Brazil beat Mexico despite the 4 Mex. exchangers' yelling and waving flags around, though, haha), watching Little Miss Sunshine (my new favorite movie - it's so awesome), and general hanging out mostly with other ex. students, but with some Brazilians as well. Haha, our parents go crazy because the girls that I hang out with most regularly and I go as follows: Anna, Tania, Johanna, and Alanna, so when we talk on the phone no one can tell whose name we are trying to say. Friday was Presidente Prudente's 90th birthday, so I had no school, and Thursday night was the Babado Novo concert.

It was awesome!!!

I went with two Brazilian girls who are in my class and who both studied in the US last year with Rotary, Natalia and Marina, and we hung out with a bunch of other girls that they know and I recognized, mostly from school. It was an all girls sort of night, which was cool. They took very good care of me - making sure I didn't get lost, that I knew how to dance, that I was included, that I was happy, etc. I was actually a little bit irritated earlier that night because they went to Tennis Club to hang out before and I couldn't go, so I had to wait until after 11 for them to even pick me up, but in the end I was really glad I did. They definitely showed me a good time. We also ran into a few o my ex. student friends, including a girl from Cali. that I really like, and who I have been wanting to see ever since the initial conference. I think she is going to come in for a friend of mine's party here in a few weeks.

The concert itself had a different vibe from any that I've been to in the US. There were two areas, VIP and regular. I was VIP, which meant that I was allowed to go down onto the ground instead of having to stay in the stands - it didn't get anymore VIP than that. As I have learned about Brazil, schedules and organization are generally of very little importance, haha. The concert ticket said that it started at 9, but we got there at about 11:30PM, and the "show" didn't start until 1:15AM, haha. Up until that point they played dance music, sold drinks, and tried to shove everyone into the gate; it was, essentially, like a big outdoor dance party with 11,00 people. Actually getting in was a slightly different story. Back to the point about organization, this was how it was set up: There were two open doors with guys at each taking your ticket and giving you a wristband and a bandana, which denoted you VIP or regular. In front or those two doors was a giant mass of people shoving their way in. That was pretty much it. So, for about 15minutes, the girls and I all locked arms and slowly shoved our way toward the front, totally smashed into one another and the random people around us. It would have been rather uncomfortable had we not been laughing the whole time about how ridiculous it was, haha.

After we got in we ran into 50 people we had to stop and say 'oi' to (saying hi to people gets tiresome here because you have to keep your face tilted at this weird angle to give and receive cheek kisses, haha), and then we went down to the field (which was really the blacktop area) to hang out and dance. Oh, I think I forgot to mention that it was at the soccer stadium outside of town, and that 11,000 people filled about 1/4 of it, maybe. The dance music here, might I add, is far superior to American club music/radio crap (unless they play American club music, which they do about 1/2 the time). They have this genre called funk, which is like hip hop except way better, haha. I will see if I can put a playlist on here so you can hear some of it, although, I warn you, you probably don't want to translate most of it, haha. I have very serious trouble dancing to it correctly, but I will learn eventually. I think you have to be somewhat intoxicated to really get it, anyway.

Once the actual band came out nothing really changed. Brazilians are very social, and they tend to like to pay more attention to the people around them than anything else, it seems like. We only watched it about half the time. The whole thing had more of a festival feel than a concert feel, and although there were a lot of people there, it wasn't packed, which was nice. The band was very good, though, upbeat and fun, and they put on a good show. There was one dance where everyone held hands and ran really fast from side to side, and that was a little crazy, haha; I basically just held on and let them drag me. Actually a good bit of the music here has a specific dance you do with it that they tell you in the song, but, as I can't undersatand what they're saying and can't dance anyway, it doesn't do me much good, haha.

Hmm, I feel like there is more I could say, but I will stop there, I'm sure you can't get as excited about it as I can, haha.

The music ended at about 3:35, and one of the girls' dad took us al home. I got in bed at 4:20, and didn't wake up until 1:00 the next day, haha. I was sooo tired. I have been just a little bit sick anyway with a headcold, which makes me tired, so after we went and ate lunch I came home and went back to bed from 3-5, haha.

Saturday I went to a girl named Gabi's house; she goes to my school and lives in my neighborhood. Actually - I have to tell you about this real quick - I had gone to her house for lunch Tues. afternoon, and after that I went to the supermarket with her family, and it was the craziest trip to the supermarket ever, haha. There were four of us, and we each got a cart, and we each filled the cart completely, and basically ran through the store grabbing things we needed and looking at various lists and yelling to eachother in Portuguese. In the end we had 4 totally full carts and almost $R950 worth of stuff. It took us like 20 minutes to check out, haha, and the girl was about my age, so we carried on a borken sort of conversation. It was seriously insane.

Anyway, we had a little churrasco Saturday (again, Brazilian BBQ, but you better get used to the word because I go to them like 3x a week, haha) with her girlfriends and Tania, and that night Tania and a few other friends came to my house and we walked around the lake by my house and watched a movie...

Oh man, and on Sunday I blew up the glass cover on the stove! It was aweful! I didn't really think about lifting it up because I am used to glass-covered elexctric stoves, but this was most definitely a conventional stove, and you most definitely are supposed to move the glass thing, and, as a result of my stupidity, it most definitely exploded all over the kitchen. They didn't yell at me or anything, but I don't think my host dad was too happy. He spent like 1/2 hour cleaning it up. The kitchen was seriously covered in glass. It was really scary. It made this loud bang and glass pieces flew all at me. Luckily no one got hurt, though. I was the only one in the kitchen, and when my host sister came in because I screamed, we just looked at eachother with our mouths hanging open and started to laugh. I was like, "Eu não sei que falar!" which means, "I don't know what to say", so we just left and got our parents, haha.

Ok, I think I'm getting too in depth here, I know you guys just want basics and culture and stuff...

I saw my friend Dayna, who is Canadian, at the show, and she was staying in Prudente for the weekend (she lives about 1hr away), so we hung out a little bit. She introduced me to a munch of her friends, who all attend a different school, and one girl invited us to come stay at her house Thursday night and go to school with her Friday. I am looking forward to doing that - it will be cool to see what another school is like. Then Dayna is going to stay at my house for the weekend because her town is tiny and boring, haha, so hopefully we an find something to do. A lot of my friends went to a town called Londrina last weekend for a giant costume party (25,ooo people) called Metamorphosis, so there wasn't as much to do as usual. I wish I could have gone, but it was way too expensive, and we have strict travelling rules anyway.

Another quick funny story: today a few people came over and we ate a little Mexican food (the Mexicans and I all miss it soooo much, and Johanna - German -has never really eaten it), and when my friend Gerardo's aunt was dropping him off she locked the keys in the car wile it was running with a dog inside. It was really funny. We waited for like 20 minutes outside trying to get the dog to unlock the doors while her sister came with an extra key. She is Japanese, so we also got a little language lesson, haha.

Ok, now on to culture. I hadn't really thought about doing 9/11 on here, but then it came and I realized it would be sort of a neat idea.

As I said, I have not been paying any attention at all to what is going on at home, and that includes not paying any attention to the fact that it was 9/11. I never really need to know the date, so I didn't even realize it was until that evening at Iván's party. I said that it was weird for me to have gone all day and not heard a thing about it, and that it was actually kind of nice. I didn't realize how insensitive of a statement that was until the people I was talking to looked at me like I was crazy.

All the others remembered exactly where they were when 9/11 happened, and Johanna said that she cried when she saw the videos. Most of them had been let out of school, and had spent the evening at home with their parents glued to the TV. They remember it every bit as clearly as I do, and it affected them just as mush as it did me, I believe. I was the only one, however, whose principal had decided to make the whole school turn off their TVs and pretend like nothing had happened. I don't remember even seeing a video of it until a few days after it happened, and I didn't understand what it means until a few years after it happened.

We all did agree that we were too young to be overly-concerned, but the fact that they took it every bit as seriously as we do erally struck me for some reason. I knew that the world was watching in the aftermath of the attack, but I didn't realize how much it really did care - I didn't think about a bunch of 11 and 12yr olds in Germany, Mexico, and Brazil huddled around the TV with their families. They all had their moments of silence in school and their prayers in church, and they all understand what it meant just as much as I do. In fact, two of them had rather direct connections with people who worked in the World Trade Center (one is American, though, he lives in Calfi., the other was Johanna), although neither of them were killed.

Just to tell you, I know you already know this, and so did I, but just to reinforce it - the world really hates Bush. They don't blame it on me or anything, but they tell me, flat out, we all hate your government, and we all hate the war. I just tell them that I don't like it either, and that hopefully the new election will bring about some good changes. Although, just as a note, the Brazilians I have talked to here don't like their president, Lula, either - they don't like that he uses their tax money to give to poor people (sound familiar?), so he was elected becuase the poor people love him. Being American in a different country is interesting. It's like I don't feel as foreign as everyone else because everyone already knows about our problems. They've been to NYC, they follow our elections, and they love our movie stars. Sometimes I find the anonymity of being Hungarian or Swedish to be much more alluring than having to carry around the associations that come with being an American.

It's not that they don't like me, or don't like us, or don't like our country, it's just that I almost feel like our privacy is being invaded, or, rather we are constantly invading theirs. I am really not into this whole Americanization thing. I really don't miss Wal-Mart (we have none) or SUVs (I have probably seen under 150 since I've been here, and that includes São Paulo). I do appreciate our way of life, and that part of the reason we are so omnipotent is because we do a lot to help others, and that my ability to even be here is supported by the fact that everyone in the world drinks Coke, but having to watch MTV everyday in a country that has so much more to offer gets to me sometimes.

I know that I am not the first person to gripe about this. Not in the least. But now that I am here to see it I am startint to fully appreciate it, I think. Well no, not fully, but I am starting to. I think I will have to join the Peace Corps before I can make any serious statements.

Hmm, sorry about that, I didn't mean to go on so much, but it's on my mind. I appreciate every one of you, even if you are ignorant Americans :-P... JUST KIDDING. Sometimes I get myself into trouble with the sarcasm here, so I just thought I'd make it clear that I don't really think you are ignorant.

Thanks for reading, as always, and dealing with my verboseness. I hope you enjoyed. I will have more pics up on Flickr soon. I am in a little bit of trouble for going out too much, so I will have all afternoon/evening/night tomorrow to do it.

Beijos! (kisses)
<3 Alanna a Americana

Finally Staring to get into Life Here and Having a Maid

Alright, it's been awhile, but I'm finally starting to be kinda busy, yay! Let's see, the last time I wrote was Aug 30, a Friday.... Wow, a lot has happened since then.

School has been the same - rather boring, but it helps me with my listening. There's another exchange student in my class who's from Mexico, but he speaks very good English because he lives on the border and has gone to school in the US since he was a little kid, so I talk to him most of the time. A few of the girls in my class also talk to me on a regular basis; however, most of them talk to me in English, so I haven't been practicing my Portuguese as much as I should. We are going on a school trip to a big amusement/rollercoaster park later this month, and that should be a lot of fun. I'm excited about it. School is somewhat more informal than it is at home (teachers are called by their first names, and the class is pretty relaxed), but the students are expected to take a very active role in their own education, I think. At the end of the year the oldest students take a big test called the Vestibular, and they have to get a certain score in order to get into college. The state schools here are better than private schools, but they are very competitive, so you have to work hard to get in. I will cover the school system more thouroughly later.

Since my last post I have finally gotten a bit of a social life, and my first party was the Saturday night following my last post. It was, for better or worse, essentially the same as a party I would have gone to at WVU, I think. The drinking age here is 18, so it's pretty much a mix of high school and college aged people. Some people drink, some people don't - you just have to hang out with the right people, and you'll be fine. I hang out with other exchange students and some of their friends, so everyone is very cool, and no one cares whether you want to drink or not. Don't worry everyone!!! I'm just as safe here as I would have been in college - actually, since my parents are pretty protective, it may be even better. The people here just want to dane, talk, and have a good time, so it's nice. There's really no pressure.

That Sunday I went out to the family farm for a traditional BBQ (the pic of me on this post is at the Currasco - meat fresh out of the grill), which is called a Churrasco (chu-hass-ko), and learned why people like to eat meat. As some of you know and some of you don't, I really am not a big meat-eater; I will pretty much always choose fish or chicken, and I have never ordered a steak. In fact, usually when I have to watch people eat steak it grosses me out. However, they have this meat here called picaña, and it is delicious. I don't know if it's the way they prepare it or what, but I ate it until I was stuffed, haha. The farm itself was very beautiful; I took a lot of pictures, which I have to post on my Flickr at some point. It wasn't that big, but it was very cozy and well-kept. They had a lovely garden, lots of fruit trees and flowers growing all over the place, and a nice view of the countryside. My mãe (mom) and her sister and 2 brothers grew up there.

I went to the Rotary meeting for my host Rotary club, which was less than exciting, but it wasn't too bad. There are a few clubs in my city, and mine hosts me, a Mexican girl named Tania, a German girl named Johanna, a German guy named Tobias (Tobi), who was only short term and left Friday, and a French girl named Lucie. The Brazilian students who went on exchange last year were also there, and we all sat together and talked, it was nice to meet everyone again. I met some of them at the big Rotary conference, but there were so many people it was hard to really get to know anyone.

One of the Brazilian guy's dad got me a membership at an acadamia (a YMCA type-thing) called Tennis Club, where they have a lot of classes and stuff, so I will hopefully start going there this week to work out and maybe sign up for Capaoiera, which is a Brazilian martial art that I would like to get into. It is half dance, half martial arts; it was created by the slaves here because they weren't allowed to practice their old martial arts for fear of revolt, so they made it look like it was just dance. You can find lots of videos of it at Youtube.com - just search for capaoiera. I'm looking forward to that, although I might have to do something else because the class is from 6-7, and my sister's classes all end at 6, so my mom doesn't want to have to wait around for an hour after my sister is done. They might have a Samba class or something that ends at 6, and that would be cool too. I'll go check it out.

The only problem is the money. I only get $50, or 100 reais ($R) a month, and to go to the gym and take a class is $30/month, which is a really good rate, but when you have to live on $50 it's a bit much. I also really want to take Portuguese classes, but that will be almost $30 as well, so I'm not sure what I should do. I'm sure it'll get worked out, but it's a little bit frustrating. Actually, I am planning to ask my pai if he can look into the Rotary clubs paying for us to take Port. classes, becuase there are about 7 of us interested in taking a class together from the same teacher, and he will charge $R385/month (about $190) that we can all slpit between us. So, if the clubs are willing they could just aplit it between them, and I don't think that's too unreasonable. I hope they would be willing to do that.

I made chocolate chip cookies last week with a few of my friends, and then I learned to play a Mexican card game that is a lot of fun. My host family loved the cookies I brought with me, but the brown sugar here is a little bit different so these didn't turn out as well. They are still good though, and I think I will make some more today to sell at the neighborhood BBQ tomorrow. They have a churrasco every other Monday night for the neighborhood, and my mãe suggested that I do that to make some extra money.

I went to a few other parties last week - a going away party for the German guy, Tobi, a churrasco that was only for ex. students, and another churrasco at a Brazilian friend of mine's house and then stayed with Annia and Tania at Annia's house (two Mexican girls), so I have been keeping busy. Last night there was a mini-music festival here that I really wanted to go to, but it was $R30, so I decided to use the money for going to the gym or Capaoiera instead, and went to Tania's house to watch a movie. She lives in my neighborhood, about a five minute walk from my house, so that's convenient.

This week my host parents are out of town for my pai's (dad's) work, so his parents are staying here with Paula and me. He travels around, and my mãe usually stays here, but I think he is just very tired and lonely. I think he hasn't been able to take very many breaks lately, so he wanted some company. Both of my parents work for their fathers' companies. My avo (grandfather) on my pai's side owns a music store, so my pai travels selling their equipment and going to fairs, etc. I haven't been inside the store itself yet, but we've driven by a few times, and it looks very nice. My avo on my mãe's side owns several factories, but I can't remember what they produce. I think it's something rather industrial - rubber, or something like that. She is an accountant there, and she said it's very boring. Her brothers and sister also work at the factories. Everyone on both sides of the family is well-off because they are successful entrepeneurs, and I think they have worked hard to become so.

Hmm, I think that's pretty much what has been going on. This Friday there is no school because it is the city's birthday (there was no school last Friday either in celebration of indepencdence day, which isn't really celebrated here at all, except that there's no school or work - I think maybe they did fireworks in São Paulo, but that's it, haha), and I am going to a concert with a few girls from my class and a few ex. students. My host parents were kind enough to get me the ticket, and I'm really excited to go. It's a band called Babado Nova, and it's traditional Brazilian dance music. They told me it's pretty much country, but it's a lot of fun to go dance. I don't know how to dance, but hopefully I will learn. They keep trying to teach me at parties, but it's sort of hard. They say here that Americans have no rhythm (which, compared to Latinos, most of them don't), but that I will learn eventually, haha.

Actually, being labeled an American is one of the strangest things about being here. I'm definitely not accustomed to being a minority, and, eventhough it's not a big deal to them, it's a strange feeling. The weirdest thing is being called gringa, which can be offensive, but when I get called that they are just kidding. Mostly I get called that in school - they also call Mexicans that, so they say 'oi gringos' (oi is hey or hi) or 'tchao gringos' (bye) or whatever. I'm not offended by it. It's just weird.

Okay, here's my bit of culture for this post: having a maid.

Having a maid is one of the biggest cultural differences I have to face, which is mainly, I think, because a lot of the differences are subtle, and don't come into your room to put your clothes away for you and make the bed. In the morning, when we're leaving for school, you can see all the maids walking to our subdivision to go to work, and they have a special "service" entrance where they check in. I guess they are basically considered 2nd class citizens, but they told us before we came to think of is as their opportunity to support themselves and their families, and that most of the appreciate that. I'm not sure how easy is it to move up in social class here, but my suspicion is that their kids usually end up doing similar work as well. I don't know, but from what I've seen that seems most likely.

Our maid's name is Beth (bech). She's probably in her late 20s, is married, and is very nice; I like her a lot as a person, but she has messed up a few of my clothes in the wash, which is a little bit irritating. Actually, sometimes when I get bored I wish I had to do laundry just for something to do - I have pretty much no responsibilities here, and I get antsy because of it. When I try to help, though, she tells me not to - I think she just prefers that I let her do her job, though, so I stay out of it. It's still weird for me, though, to be sitting there reading or watching TV while she cleans my bathroom, and I am not totally comfortable with it. As I told my dad, though, if the worst thing I have to deal with is akward convenience I guess I don't have too much to compain about, haha.

She likes company, though, and whenever I'm around she talks to me. It's funny, because it takes us like twice as long to have a conversation as it would normally, and it's a lot of my smiling apologetically, leaning in closer, and asking her to repeat everything she says. We're getting there, though, and I appreciate it, really, because she's one of the very few people who speaks to me solely in Portuguese. She told me that she always wanted to learn English, but was never able to. I think that learning English is really a big key to success here, and I find that almost everyone my age can speak it well enough to carry on a conversation with me. This isn't always the case with older people, but they can all say hello. I love talking to my Brazilian friends on the computer, because it's always a funny mixture of my bad Port. and their bad English. Haha, my favorite thing is that instead of saying 'haha', they say 'uhauhauha' (that was directly copied from a conversation I'm having at the moment!), which to me really doesn't resemble laughter all that well. I just sort of imagine this weird sound, haha.

Well, I have to get to bed. As always, thanks for listening, and I will write sometime in the next week or so - I have to tell you about the concert!

tchao and beijos! (bye and kisses)

<3 Alanna