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