District 7430 Youth Exchange - Rotex

I am here in France (YEA!!!) My flights were fine, but very long. I'm sorry it has taken so long to get this e-mail on, but I have no access to a telephone or a computer. I had to buy a phone card and walk a long way just to find a pay phone to call my mom and dad. I am trying to learn the language, but I'm still not that great yet so again, it has been difficult to communicate.

I have been very homesick, but I know once I start school, things will get better because I really haven't had a chance to meet anyone my age yet. My host family is very nice and we are always on the go. I have my own room but with 4 younger "brothers and sisters" it never seems like I am alone which is great.

The weather here has been really weird too. I think it has been cold, but I see people still walking around with bathing suits on. I have taken a lot of walks so far and have really enjoyed looking at the scenery. Everything is so old, but very nice.

We are going to be taking a trip to Normandy over the weekend so I am looking forward to that. I've been to my school also, which I can either walk to or take a bus. They say the school is very strict so I'm not sure how to take that. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Other than being homesick, I am so grateful that I am here. Once I see if I have access to a computer either in town or at my school, I'll write more. I hope everyone is doing well and having a good time. I'll write again soon.

Hallo alles,
Wie geht's? Ich habe gerade zurück von Sprachkurs gestern gekommen. Es war viel Spaß and sehr lustig. Ach ja, und hoffentlich kann ich Deutsch einbisschen besser als vorher. The language camp I just got back from took place in the very school I will be attending. They have a slide inside the school that you can use instead of the stairs. Nothing is certain but I'm starting to think this is definitely my kind of school. Oh yeah, they also have about 5 Fußball tables, a giant connect four game, and, of course, ping pong. But it wasn't all fun and games. We had german classes for 6 hours every day. I was put in the advanced class where our teacher spoke English for 20 minutes out of the 6 hours a day, lucky me. Es war sehr schwerig aber ich denke dass ich viel gerlent habe. We did a lot of cool stuff during language camp too. We went to Hallstatt and visited the mines, had international soccer games (since all the players were from different countries), played some austrian beach volleyball teams (and got our asses kicked), put on a talent show in which I danced the thizzle dance (not even going to try and explain that), and went to Lichtefest where they shot off fireworks from the lake and it was amazing. Anyways, if everything works out I should be starting soccer training tomorrow, which I'm very excited about. Today I cooked a little bit for the family, and I made bruschette. So now you can be proud of me mom, and stop worrying about me helping out. I've been on the computer for a while now so I think I'm gonna go now.
Phirt di, wiederhören
Justin

On Wednesday I flew to Washington DC to meet up with the group of students traveling to France with our agency and took the attached photo. Rotarian Sally Fedrizzi from District 7150 was also there (and is in the photo!) and she traveled with the group to Paris to ensure that things went smoothly through Customs & Immigration. We took over an entire empty gate area and the kids were chatting excitedly, swapping business cards and pins, and showing eachother where they were living on a map of France. There were very few delays on the flights coming into DC and the students with lengthy layovers really seemed to enjoy the time together.

Thank you for choosing Bokoff Kaplan as your child's travel agency for their Rotary International Youth Exchange to France. I have enjoyed working with you and your families and I applaud you all for allowing your children this wonderful opportunity. As always, I encourage you to contact me with any questions or concerns that may arise.

All the best,

Sheila K. Lorson
Manager / Youth Exchange Department
Bokoff Kaplan Travel

Hi John

I just thought that Id drop you a quick email about my first day. Sorry for any typos, the keyboard here is different. I got here basically without a hitch except for some unnerving traffic on the way to Philly International. The flight to Paris was so long though! The girl sitting next to me gave me some sleepng pills that did nothing, so I barely slept. The night before I only got 3 hours so I was really exhausted nd basically I just wanted to get to my new house. The first thing I saw out of Baggaige Claim was a man with a sigh avec my name on it. I had a heart attck pretty ,uch. The car ride to Chartres was flipping brutal though. The 3 really nice rotarians that picked me up were awesome, but being really and truly away from my parents hit me so hard that it took all of the strenght in me not to cry. So I get to my house and meet my host dad anf little sister, who are really nice. So then my phone finally gets service? and I called my parents to let them knoa I was safe. Wanna know what I said instead? "Mo(hiccup)mmy? I wanna come hooooooome!" I know, I caved within 2 hours. She and my dad were great though, they knew I hadnt had much sleep or food, and thats how I get. My house hree is open and and a little small so I knew both ,y host dad and sister heard me, which made me cry harder. I felt really disrespectful, so after a 20 minute calm down from my parents, I went and apologized. They were really gracious, so I felt really at home ish. My host dad cooked lunch, and we actually sat down together at the table and ate it! That was differnt for me. I felt sick after so I knew that trying to stay awake all day was a waste. I think I went to bed at 1 or 2 pm. Im still adjusting to a 24 hour clock. But my bed is awesome, Its a top bunk with a computer undernath and chairs and stuff. So I climb up aand again start crying. I texted my dad and again told him blah blah blah I want my mommy and daddy. I woke up at 6 and now I feel much better. I just needed a good solid nap. So we eat dinner soon, Ill updqte later.

P.S. Some one send me a shirt that says "I laugh because I have no idea whats going on" Hah, I ve been doing that alot. But for the most part, Im doing great with the language.

It is about two weeks into it and I thought I would send an update because I had a little time on my hands.

I made it through two weeks of school. I dont really understand the teachers but I am doing ok. Math is my real problem. I changed my class once already and the new calss is not doing much better. I just need to think happy thoughts and wait until the period is over. If you are intrested my callses includ: Math (I think it is a form of Analysis), Gym, English Advanced, Pedagogy (A form of psychology), Biology, hisotry, Music, and German. I start school at 745 every morning and I am done at the earlest

1 o´clock. The latest I stay is 330. It is an open campus so I can leave when I have free periods. There are about 20 minute breaks between every 2 peiods.

I have been riding my bike to get around and have been jogging iwth my host sister. I had to buy a sport sneakers for gym class. So I decied I would get the most use out of them my jogging too!

Last weekend I to a carnival called the Cranger Kremis. It attracts mroe people than Oktoberfest! There were so MAny people. You would stand there just trying to walk along for a half an hour and onlly move 20 feet! It was not like this all the time but it happened quite often. I was trying to squeeze by with my host sister and her friend and i could not get through! Some lady started yelling at me in German. My host sister told her I did not speak German...

The rides were crazy. Think of any typical carnival ride in America and then make it bigger and faster! The bummer cars really hit hard. I went on the swing and they went 52 meters in the air... that is really high!

I am getting along with my hos tfamily very well. My host siter who is 18 and I are very similar.

I joined the schol orchestra. The school found for me a French Horn. It is very different than the one I played at UM so either I find another one or I will learn this new horn. I also joined the orchestra and teh choir at the city music school. THe choir is absolutely wonderful! I am very excited to sing with them! My host sister also goes to a Youth group where tehy sing all the camp chirstian songs we sing at home!

I have gone on two trips with my host father and on a Tandem bike (a bicycle built for 2). It is alot of fun. I have seen some of the industrial culture of the area while enjoying the nice weather while on these bike rides.

Well I think that is enough for now. I check my eamil once a day and I love getting emails so please send them!

This week was kinda busy, so I'll give a little update with the highlights.

Monday: I was planning to go to my friend's English school after regular school today. He has it on Monday's and Thursdays. I had planned to go last Monday...but I fell asleep. However, I couldn't do this when I was invited into a group for some kind of acting project for my Portuguese class. This meant I had to go over to one of their houses shortly after lunch and get cracking on this skit.

At around 2 o'clock, two of my groupmates, Pedro and Dada (short for Edwarda) arrived at my house and lead the way back to Pedro's house, were me met the other two group members, Carolina, and Duda (also short for Edwarda.) They more-or-less xplained to me that the scene was a summary of a book called Conte by someone with a name like Montche Assisi.

I was Vilela, the best friend of Pedro's character, and I guess I had a crush on the girl that he was involved with or something, because then I ended up killing them both. Duda was the girl I think I killed (you don't actually see me kill her, but she lies dead in my "house"), Carolina was the narrator, and Dada was some hippie Gypsy fourtune-teller. It was probably some lame story about a love triangle from Portugal in the 1800s. It didn't seem that great.

I had one line, the epic, "Siga-me," which means "follow me." I got to say it when Pedro arrives at my house and I lead him into another room where Duda is laying dead on the floor. Then I shoot Pedro with a toy gun. I made sure to practice my one epic line with the most menacing voice ever.

After "learning" the script, they explained to me that I needed to bring in a suit the next day to perform. I was a little surprised because of the short notice. They asked me soemthing about walking in the city, so I though we were going to walk around Uruguaiana, which I was kinda excited for...but no...they took me home, which is kinda funny in retroflect (is that a word? I don't remember.)

On an unrelated note, the name Vilela was insanely strange to pronounce. Phonetically, it might be spelled Vilwelwa, because Portuguese has strange r/l sounds. More accuratly, to convey my frustration with this name, it might be spelled DEATH. (I bet the sounds a lot funnier in my head than in writing. But it's pretty hysterical in my head, so that might mean its a little funny in writing.)

That night I gathered my suit and folded it as carefully as a could, as I didn't think I'd be able to take in any hangers as there really isn't anything I could think of that it would hang on. I couldn't find my Springfield dufflebag, so I used this more formal type dufflebag that my hosts had.

Tuesday: The morning was a little more hectic than I had expected. Even though Paulo woke me up, I drifted back into sleep, which put me about 5 minutes befind my schedual. I hadn't actually packed my suit yet, so I had to do that, which took time, and I skipped my usual beakfast. I got to school around 7:40, when I'm supposewd to be there around 7:30. The principle/director lady gavee me and other late students a typical, "You're late" type schpeel (that is a word, I just don't know how to spell it.)

Luckily, Portuguese isn't the first class on Tuesdays, so I was only a little late to math. The Portuguese teacher must have given my second period teacher a heads up about the performances, so before the end of the second period, I made my way to the bathroom to change. Just my luck, I finished changing just at the class change, meaning I got walk all the way down the hallway in a suit in front of all the other students as they took a break outside their classrooms. I made the best of it.

Just to clarify, all the students had performances to do, so I wasn't the only one wearing a suit/costume that day or aynthing.

Portuguese started and we made our way to the auditiorium to use the stage. I hadn't expected it to be that formal. The first group performed, and their skit was weird. I couldn't understand the narration of course, but it was like students in a classroom and then the teacher took a belt and punished a few, and...yeah, that was more or less it. The second group was doing the same book as us, which I hadn't been expecting. I figured every group had read a different book, but half had seemed to have read Conte as well. Their skit was really good, even though it was an all girl group. I basically laughed through most of it because two of girls diligently dressed in suits and wigs to play the male parts...which was hilarious. The wigs kinda distorted teir heads because they had to fit so much hair under them, and one of the girls kinda looked like she had a mullet, plus they were performing male lines in high voices.

Then it was our turn. The others set up, told me to stand in one place, and when to come out and yeah. I had my signature line, "Siga-me" and proceeded to try and kill Pedro...the toy gun didn't make its usual *bang* but Pedro fell anyways. I guess it went well. I was a little confused when a photographer came in and made me take a pictures in character. So, somewhere there is a picture of me, standing over a "dead" body, while pointing a toy gun at another person, and another picture with me standing over two dead bodies. I couldn't help but laugh in the last picture, so I might also be laughing or look like I'm crying in the second one.

I wish I took my camera. Its would have been great to get shots of those girls dressed as guys. I just never think to take my camera to school.

In the afternoon, Marli took my to her school to give a presentation about myself. I took my Philly book and photo album and we made out way to the school,m where I was to present infront of kids that I would guess were 7 or 8. So, I met some other teachers, gave my presentation, and figured that was all. No. I was wrong. Then I was expected to basically teach these children English, which was a not fun experience. First, every kid was told to bring up an item that they wanted to know the name of in English. These kids must not have been listening well because I got about 3 trucks and 4 erasers. Then I had to translate the names these pictures they had all over the board, and trying to get them to pronounce them correctly.

Me: In English, tomate (toe-MAH-che) is tomato (toe-MAY-toe)
Class: toe-MAH-che
Me: toe-MAY-toe
Class: toe -MAH-che
Me:...close enough...

Haha. I just wans't interested in these little kids. I don't even really like little kids. It was another encounter with the cultural event of not telling the whole story. Yes, Marli tols me I was presenting, but not that I was expected to teach. A few weeks ago is was "Yes, we went to pick up school supplies, but you didn't tell me you wanted to take a 1 and 1/2 hour detour to the jewelry store." One of the teachers took a bunch of pictures that I know have and will post later, as I'm not really "home" this weekend, as I'll explain later.

After presenting/teaching, we went to get my Residential I.D., as the documents I needed for it had finally arrived...So now I have my reseidential I.D...

Wednesday: In Portuguese class, we watched more presentations. These ones promted me to again wish that I had brought my camera. One was about some conductor/composer and his musical writer's block and them success in rpducing a fine piece of music. I another hilarious skit followed. Only two kids were in this one, Gabriel and Henrique. I had not idea what was going on what-so-ever.

Henrique: *knocks on door* Is Senhor here?
Gabriel: (behind a curtain, with a girl's voice) This house is only for girls.
Henrique: NOOOOOOOOOO!

The last "scene" was Henrique just sitting on a couch, but made funnier by the fact that he had tried to "age" himself by dusting his hair with baby powder durring the scene change. He was successful in geting half his hair and this shoulders. I had to stiffle laughter so much during their performance that the Portuguese teacher was prompted to ask, "Are you ok?"

There was one more skit that was even more strange. It opened on these two guys covered in blankets and talking to each other. Then other guy walked in wearing a dress...and that was basically it. I can't really explain it, it was a Kodak moment I wasn't able to capture.

That night for dinner I had that dreaded pea/egg/bacon hamburger.

Because not much happened today, here is a good time to say that this week was full of testing. On monday and wednesday I had math tests, tuesday was a physics test, and thrudays was a Portuguese test, but I didn't have to take that one because it was a hardcore composition/writing test. It seems that Portuguese tests are more like American quizzes. They only have like 10 to 15 questions. A history test I saw was all multiple choice, whereas in the states it's more likely to be a mixture with short answer/essay questions. They also grade on a smaller scale, opting to use decimal for grades, like using a 2.4 out of 3.0 isntead of 24 out of 30, which I find interesting.

Thursday: Thurday came and went. Again I wish I had had my camera because the Bio teacher drew a great fish diagram that kept me amused while I didn't understand anyhting about her lectures on fishes and amphibians.

Today, I was picked up by Rinata, who I will be staying with untill Monday along with her husband, Sergio, and their dog, Arobous. Sergio also has a nickname, Katanga...but I won't be using this because I think it is utterly ridiculous. I'm staying with them because my current host family is traveling to São Paulo to visit my host sister, Bruna, and I can't come because there are still other documents I need to do that.

Anyways, I kinda just hung out until 4:00, when Rinata asked if I wanted to go down to Quaraí and Uruguay with Sergio. She said that after I came back we'd go back to my real house to get some stuff for my stay. I obliged, picked up my documents that I might need to get into Uruguay, and we were on out way. Unfortunantly, Quaraí and Uruguay were a lot farther away than I though. I figured maybe 30 minutes each way, but it was more like and hour. And there was no radio in the car, as you buy them seperatly here. Instead, I just soaked up the beautiful scenery, as it was toal country from Uruguaiana to Quaraí. The clouds were ominous and really low, as if someone had made a footprint in the sky. It's weird to see the trees here, because there more than you would expect, but it looks like they huddle together in groups far a way from each other, kina like cliques in a lunch room. Its also surprising when you're driving through the falt countryside and realize there is a huge mountain comming up. Where are these random mountains coming from?

We got to Quaraí eventually, stopped and met some people, and then made our way to Uruguay. I ended up not needing any documents and we just got waved though. For some reason, I had this idea that Uruguay was drastically different fromk Brazil...but duh, it isn't other than the fact that they speak Spanish. We went to some store called Neutral, when Sergio picked up a radio for the car, some wine, and a suitcase. We then went to a supermarket where we bough some bread...not very exciting for a trip to Uruguay. I forgot my camera again...I really need to be more diligent about that...

We went back to Quaraí for a moment and themn made our way back to Uruguaiana. We got back srounf 8:00 I think.

Sometime between the time we got back and 10:00, was petting their dog Arobous and he bit me! I think I touched his leg or soemthing and he just clamped on my arm! And he's a pretty strong dog. He's a sleek racing-type dog, kinda like a greyhound but smaller...and not grey. I let out a lound "Owww" and he released my arm. Any pain disapated quickly, and I pulled up my sleeve to see if he had left a mark. There were two "battle wounds" as I think I'll call them. on the top and bottom of my forearm. They weren't bleeding, but they are indented. I cleaned by battle wounds and hung out. Sometiem before this I must have returned to get my clothes and otehr things for the weekend here, but I don't remember the sequence of events. For some reason, however, right after I was bitten, I had a really strong pang of homesickness...but it went away after a few minutes.

Even later that night my new host parents sorta insisted I call my parents. I told them it was expensive, because my phone cards haven't been working right, but they said Rotary would take care of it. So I called and it was nice. It was my first really conversation with them since I left. I had called before, but the line always got disconected early on in the conversation.

Friday: Hmm, today started with double Geography. I had to borrow a book to do some busy work where I basically had to copy important info about tectonic plates and other things like montains and plaines. However, halfway through we stopped and went to "Mini-Church" in the school gym. It was confusing. The walls were set up with booths about churchs in Uruguaiana and there was a big circle of people in the middle. Eventually they started to pray and then sing in what was some weird mix of Portuguese and German, because I kept hearing Auf Weitersein. After that it got more strange as they started playing club music.

Me: Umm, this is kind of strange. We're hear for churchs, but club music is playing.
Ana: (jokingly) What are you talking aobut? This is church music!

Bio was a snoozefest. In physics I recieve my test that I had taken on Tuesday. I'm not sure how the point system works here, but in America, it would have been a 5/12. It was a 12 questions test. I only answered 6 questions becasue I only understood those six and only got one of them wrong. However, somehow that relates to a score of 1.0 here. That actually isn't so bad here. After we recieved out tests we went down to the tech lab to use computers for more physics work. I kinda just wroked with the people next to me. The questions weren't too bad, its jsut that I don't know how to write the answers in this strange new language!

And that's basically all for my week. I'm not really doing anyhting tonight because its more complicated since I'm with a different family this weekend, but tomorrow and the next day I'll be going to two farewell parties for exchange students down here. One is for Ricardo, the boy going to Quebec who I have met. The other is a student of Rinata, who works as a private French tutor. As such, this girl is going to France.

Boa noite!

I could've sworn I sent you an email within the first couple days of arrving in Austria. Anyway, I've been in language camp for the past couple of days and getting to the internet is a little hard given that there are fifty of us and 2 computers, not to mention the 6 hours a day of advanced class german where my teacher speaks german the entire time. The town I live in is pretty cool. I might get to play for Neukirchen soccer against other towns. the lake is sweet too.

There is volleyball like 24\7 (I wanted to use the other slash direction there but apparenlty this keyboard doesn't have it.). Gmünden and Altmünster are both really close drives from where I live and easy walks from the language camp. I being forced to go to

Hallo alles!

Guten tag. This is my first day here in Austria and I'm extremely tired from trying to speak and understand the language all day, not to mention the 2 hours of sleep I've gotten in the past 2 full days. Plus this keyboard is really weird...the z and y are switched, and its got all these weird sub function buttons all over the letter keys. My trip was pretty flawless though. Met the rotary group after arriving in Amsterdam (which was the biggest aiport I think I've ever been to in my life) because we were all separated on the flight from Detroit and we all boarded at different times, but were all pretty good friends now. Got picked up a the airport in Vienna after only waiting about 5 minutes which was really awesome after a whole day of hurry up and wait. Then I spent the whole car ride attempting to speak in german. Which was actually very entertaining because we laughed everytime I had to use germanglish. When we got home they showed me mein Zimmer (room), and then we went swimming on the Traunsee, of which I've included some pictures. This place is gorgeous, but I'm tired. Guten nacht

Justin

I have arrived safely to Germany! both of my flights arrived early. My host sister called me two days ago. She was vacationing in Canada (with her host parents from an exchange she amde two years ago).

She was susposed to come home on Monday but had some complications. The next flight she booked (by chance) was my same flight to Detroit to Dusseldorf! We met in Detroit airport. We asked the attendant at the counter if our seats were next to each other and he said yes!!!!! So my 17 year old host sister flew to Germany right beside me!!!!!

P.S. We have set up my phonme with international calling and texting to let you know°

P.P.S for right now please forward this email to other people who may want it... the keyboard is different and right now i can't find the ''at'' symbol... so these are the people in my address book!

July 30, 2007 21:54
Listening: Nothing much
Feeling: Pissed! I was typing this post and the computer shut down and I lost everything I wrote! I'll retype what I was writing later, but I just start with what I was about to type. It about my FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

Ok,so I wake up, and get ready, eat a small breakfast and I'm off to Colégio Sant'Ana (Saint Ann's High School.) We get in the car and start driving and pass another school, where kids are buzzing outside. Marli points out that it's my cousin Merielle's school. We kept driving and I could see my school in the distance, but no kids. "Oh crap," I thought, "we're late, aren't we?" And lo and behold it's 7:56 and school starts at 7:30! "Marli," I asked, "why are we late?" She replied, "I thought you would like more sleep."

"This is a great way to start my first day," I thought. Well, it's the thought that counts, right?

So we went inside and met up with some of the adminastration and they brought in a student how spoke good English so he could tell me what was going down. I learned that there were 2 classes in the grade and each wanted me in their classes, so I would spend the rest of this year in one be palced in the next one after summer vacation. In order to choose, I had to pick a piece of paper out of a hat. There were to and each had a different room number, one for each class.

I made my way to the class I had chosen. They introduced me and that was that, I took a seat and got aquainted. We started math class, but no one really cared, and I focused mroe on answered the questions that people were asking. Where are you from? Do you speak Portuguese? Which do you support, Inter, or Grêmio? (They're rival soccer teams.) A lot of them spoke more or less good English and I was speaking English with them.

Well, I did catch most of the math class too. We're learning something about factorials or something. Whatever formula we were using looks like this: A°n, except pretend the ° is a p and the n is directly under it without a fraction bar. Anyways, it has something do do with factorials (ex 4!, 7!) and it's easier than it looks. That was the extent of my classwork that day.

Oh, I need to make a correction. I told a lot of people before I left that my school schedual was as follows: School: 7:30-11:30, break from 11:30 to 1:30, more school from 1:30 to 5:00. This is actually only on Wednesdays, so on Monday, Tuesday, Thursdays, and Fridays, I only go from 7:30 to 11:30. I don't know how to explain the schedual, but once I know what mine is, I'll post it so you can see that I dont have 20 minute classes and such.

After math, we were supposed to have English class, but the teacher wanted to learn about me and so did the some of the other students, so it was really me, surrounded by the half the girls of the class and they were asking me questions. Its nice to be the center of attention, but it's been getting old. They are only so many time you can be asked if you suppot Inter or Grêmio and not go insane.

In other news, there is a boy in my class that sorta looks like a mix between Jon Shapiro and Ryan Galdo, but more so like Jon, and other boy loosk like that actor whow as in Jeepers Creepers, Die Hard 4, and Dodgeball.

After English "class," we had a 20 mintue break. During this time I made a point to escape from the gaggel of giggling girls and meet some of my other classmates. Everyone was pretty interested about me, like what music I like, what sports, how is the US diferent and such. I was able to practice my Portuguese and they could practice their English. Of course, a few people are set on teaching you the curse words.

Boy: In Portuguese, "heart" is fogo.
Me: uhhh...sorry, I know what fogo means.

FYI, fogo means f*ck.

After break, unlike normal days, we had an assembly about the Pan-American Games. (1st Place, the US, 2nd, Cuba, 3rd, Brazil.) The kids I were sitting with we quick to tell me it was a waste of time, and I must say that I had I had to stifle laughter while they sang Brazil's national anthem. It's quite funny to hear. Classic braroque-esqe music and the sounds of Portuguese just don't mix.

After this assembly we went back outside and were split into groups for some activities...which meant everyone just stood around becasue no one wanted to do anyhting. I meet mroe people. The kids here aren't that much different. Kids here aren't mroe immature, there are just a greater ratio of immature kids. However, it's cool, I like immaturity...the jokes are funnier and the kids are usually more open. The same could be said about how pretty the girls are here. They aren't prettier, well, they are (sorry chicas americanas), but there are just a greater ratio of pretty girls here too. (No complaints.)

Then the day ended around 11:30 and evryone left. It was a nice day. I meet a lot of new people and people already want to hand out to party and to teach me how Brazilians do things and I couldn't be more excited! This one girl told me that Brazilians are more sponteaneous...which I totally agree with and I'm just psyked to meet and know these kids.

July 25, 2007 15:56
Listening: The maids cleaning something (every has maids here, it isn’t a big seal or anything)
Feeling: Content

Wow, my 4^th day in Brazil. I’ll go through the past days, but I’ll keep it to the highlights so this post isn’t as long. If you missed the post about my epic Odyssey or Uruguaiana, be sure to check my Journal Archives page and read it.

Ok, so Monday: I had jsut gotten off the bus at 7:00, met my host parents and drove to the house. It was still dark out. Remember, it is winter here. I go in the house, asked them what there names were and we sat down for a small breakfast. They woke up my younger host sister, Paula, to eat with us. Breakfast here consisted of salami/cheese/ham on rolls with coffee or juice. I’ve taken up drinking coffee becuase they don’t really drink much water and they don’t have my usual staple, ice tea. Anyways, I was surprised to see a container of caramel on the table and tryed to explain that it isn’t a breakfast food in the US. How much they understood...I don’t know. Caramel on bread, by the way, tastes good. An hour or 2 after breakfast I called my parents for the first time since my arrival to tell them about my trip.

Later, My host mom, Marli, took me and Paula around town. I distinctly remember that she said that we were going to the supermarket, but our first destination was POLE, where my host dad, Paulo, works. I think he owns the buisness, which handles imports and exports I think. Apparently, a lot of family worked there, so I met them all. Two aunts, Preta and Sandra were really interested in speaking English, but they had a really hard time pronouncing words. They trieds to ask me what I can cook, but it cam out as “Whaht yuu chu clockay?” Needless to say I spent most of my time there laughing as I tried to help them.

After that Marli, Paula, and I drove over to Marli’s mothers house. I meet her and ran into others from POLE who had left before Marli, Paula and I did. We were only there for a little before we walked across the street to a churrascuria, which is a special restruaunt for BBQ. I meet even mor people here and such. Luckly there was a boy my age who spoke some English so he helped me to communicate.

We went back home after lunch and I slept until 6:00. When I woke up and we had what I though was dinner. I was surprised becuase it was teh same as breakfast and it was only Marli and me. We watched some television and a telenovela called 7 Fishes. You know, the typical hilarious Latino drama. They sounds effects for hilaaaaarious. Seriously, I could have recorded the whole soundtrack on the dinky Casio synthesizer I have at home.

Around 10, I was surprised when Marli said we were going to church. I was thinking “Church? Now? My parents are usually asleep by 10 and we’re going to church?” Anyways, it turned out it wasn’t a service, but some sort of social event. After what seemed like hours of others standing up and talking (which meant me trying to understand and then eventually spacing out) some guys brought out an accordia and a guitar and began to sing. Then outhers motioned that we were having dinner. Yeah, they eat dinner here around 10 or later. I met, yet again, many more people who I tried desperatly to communicate with but had to settle mostly on “Não entendo,” (I don’t understand.) We got home around midnight, and went into my room and started reading Harry Potter. I was already aroung 3 hundred pages in and I read way more than I should have so late at night...but it was just too good to put down!

Tuesday: Oh Oh Oh! I forgot to mention that my family has Super Nintendo....but it doesn’t look like they use it so much. I may have to change that... So on Tuesday, I woke up around 10 or eleven, and had lunch. At 2, this girl Mariana came over. Marli had called her and asked her to help us becasue she’s basically fluent in English is going to be an exchange student in Michagan starting in August. We went around town, like to POLE again adn then to the police station, becuase I need to register there or face deportation and other fines. I couldn’t finish because I needed to have a photo for my ID, which I didn’t hae. Luckily they give you a month to complete registration. So instead, we went to the photo place (where more family works) and got a photo. I got in an encounter with a lady who wanted to know my views on Bush, and luckily Mariana could translate for me. I won’t go into that, but she turnedout to be of Arab descent and “wants Bush’s head” sak Mariana told me.

After that we went to Argentina! It’s right across the Uruguay River, which Uruguaiana lies on. Everything is suppsoed to be cheaper there, but the Argentinians resent us (the Brazilians, yes, I am now Brazilian) because we won’t learn Spanish...and because we are so much better than them in soccer and basically every other sport : ).

We got back home aorung 5, Mariana went home, Marli, Paula and I had a snack and aorung 7:30 minha prima (cousin) came over with some or her amigas. They all really wanted ot meet me, and later, two more amigas joined us. I got to explain Halloween, things about how Americans drink and how Americans drive (of course we don’t do both at once!), about New York and Disney. (My host sister, as it turns out, confused Philadelphia with Pennslyvania, so she though I lived in Oreland, Philadelphia, which sounds jsut like Orlando, Florida...where Disney World is. So she thoguht I lived right next to Disney World basically.)

The girls left at 10 and minha família and I had dinner.

Wednesday (Brazilians CANNOT pronouce this!): I woke up around 11 and went to lunch at a casa de minha avó (my grandmother’s house) with more famile, like my aunts. There is also this man that everyone says is my sogro...which means father-in-law. I have no idea what this means. Everyone is really nice here and I can feel my Portuguese improving. Becuase no one in my family speaks English, it is comming pretty naturally and I’m already forgeting the English counterparts for the most common words I use, especially the word where. After lunch Marli and I went to the supermarket and now I’m just chilling at home.

In other news, prouncing Ray is hard in Portugues,e so here I go by Hi, which is how they pronouce Ray. I’m not feeling homesick at all, but I still want you guys to contact me!

July 23, 2007 23:56
Listening: Artificial Sweetener by No Doubt
Feeling: My stomach feels like liek it does when I’m nervous, but I’m not. My feet are cold.

This is a monster post, but I think you’ll like it.

Woahhhhhhh! I’m in Brazil!!! Oh Em Gee. Haha. I guess I’ll start from the begining. The keyboard is a bit different from those nos Estados Unidos, so mind my mistakes.

Saturday: Woke up around 9 or 10 and got ready quickly. Too quickly. I wasn’t leaving until 1 pm, but I was so ready. I ate a small breakfast, finished some menial packing and my mom, dad, and I were on our way. We got to the airport at 2, checked my bags and made out way to security. My parents stayed with me until we reached the x-ray area. We said out last goodbyes and I joined the queue.

After passing through security, I hade a while to go before boarding, so I sat down in my gate and whipped out Harry Potter. After eadying for a while I got a bit to eat at Burger King. I didn’t see any kids with Rotary Blazers on, so I assumed that there were no other exchange students on my flight. I boarded and was seated in a windo seat and another seat seperated me from an elderly lady. She was asleep for most of the ride, so I read and listened to music on the plane.

I landed in Chicago O’Hare sometime later. I thought a man would meet me at my gate upon arrival, but I didn’t see any Rotarians. After a few minutes I just took out his buisness card and called his cell phone. He told me where he was and I made my way to my next gate. As I reached the gate, I oculd tell that a large amount of other exchangers were there already. I singed in with the man and I began getting to know everyone. They were pretty diverse. There were girls from California, a slight hick from South Caroline, and a total scene girl from New York who was wearing gold boots. There were probably something like 35 of us in totaly. I met a girl I knew from the Cultures Shocked forum for exchange students adn recognized another girl from Facebook, but she was very stoic and unaprochable. We boarded out flight to São Paulo at around 10. I was seated with another exchnge student from southern New Jersey. We talked a bit, but he fell asleep pretty quickly while I was keep awake by the sole reason that I find it extremely dificult to sleep on planes. We a delicious but small dinner on the plane. I really like airplane food.

Sunday: So I’m still on teh plane at this point. The ride was very uneventful, so I’ll use this space to describe some better things about the flight:

1) Twin Stewards. They were probably the most obnoxious people EVER. Neither spoke Portuguese, and when they passed out papers that needed to fill in for customs they were horrible. Here’s the deal, there are different slips for Brazilian citizens and non-citizens. When a person clearly spoke Portugese and didn’t understand, they were just repeat themselves, like “Are you a citizen or non-citizen? Citizen? Are you a citizen of Brazil? Do you live in Brazil? Non-citizen? Citizeon of Brazil?” ect. I noticed that as one served an girl in front me he tried to make a joke, which she didn’t get. He was obviously offended and was like “*gasp* Were you even listening? gasp/sigh” In the morning, when they served breakfast, I was filling out my non-residential customs slip and was one fo them bent down to put something away his face ran into my pencil. Seriously! And then he thought I did it on purpose. I apologized, but the exchange student next to me and the one in front of me needed to stifle laughter.

So then we landed at around 10am (which is like 8am Eastern time) went through customs and baggage claim. When everyone regrouped, we had to seperate. Most of the kids needed to be shuttled over to another airport (the one were the explosion happened last week!:0) I however, and others were staying at the airport we landed at. A former exchange student to Florida helped us as were checked in, but then we were left to ourselves. I was the first of the 4 to depart, so I found my gate, although with a little dificulty. Luckily, I learned that a man near me spoke English when I asked about the gate.

This is when it got bad.

So I was supposed to board at 2:05 for the 2:45 flight. I looked at the clock and it said 2:15. I asked the man what was up and he said that it as delayed, which wasn’t so bad, but there was no info about how long it would b e before it was here! The minutes passed quickly, and with no info, I was really getting worried. The man told me periodically that no change had happened and that we had the same situation with his flight, delayed and no information. However, eventually he had to leave because his flight arrived.

So here I am, basically alone in an airport in Brazil and not many peole were speaking English. I wandered out of teh gate to see if I could find information on my flight, but it really wasn’t working. People kept directing me to the baggage claim, think I had arrived from Porto Alegre, and not understanding that I needed to go there. My Portuguese was pretty clear, at least I thought. Nesecito información sobre um vôo a Porto Alegre. É atresada. Vôo 3445. (I need information about a flight to Porto Alegre. It is delayed. Its flight number is 3445.) Anyways, Ifinally found someone who understood and lead me back to the gate I had been at previously. This time there was a man at the service desk. He didn’t understand English, but it wrote the new flifh time, 5:20 on my boarding pass. I was worried now because my host family though I was arriving at 5:15, and now I wasn’t leaving until after that! I mustered up some more courage and asked another many and his wife/girlfriend in Portuguese for help. This man too knew Portuguese, so I could talk in English. I told him that I need a phone to call my host family to tell them about my flight delay. First of, my cell phone doesn’t work now becuase I’m in Brazil, and the pay phones were really weird. Eventaully they helped me use the phone, and when I couldn’t communicate effectively with my host mother over the phone, he took over and everything was fine.

Then my flight was delayed more! Ah! But because I exagerated the time it would take to get to Porto Alegre with my host mother, it would still be fine. By this time, I really needed to go to the bathroom, but didn’t want to go because I did’nt want to miss any annoucements about my flight. Although in Portuguese, I could understand enough to pick out my flight number, time, and gate. But I couldn’t hold it any longer, and lo and behold! at I go I can here a announcement and “...vôo 3445...” Irony at its finest, no?

I finished up as quickl as possible, and asked the man who spoke English what the announcement said. He said it was going to depart at 6:20. He didn’t know the gate, so I ventured to anothe gate where I had heard there was an English speaking employee to ask which gate I woiuld depart from. He told me to wait because an announcement would come on soon. I tehn found out my gate and made my way back to my original gate.

It seems silly now because it all worked out, but I was really afraid that I might have to find a hotel to spend the night or sleep in the airport or miss my flight. This was amplified by the fact that I don’t speak Portuguese. However, it was a learning experience because it has showed me that you don’t need to be afraid to ask for help and yadda yadda yadda. Cliché, no?

Ok, skip to 6:20, I boarded the flight, whichw as going to make a stop at another airport before it reached Porto Alegre. Here’s how tired I was, since I didn’t want to fall asleep in São Paulo in fear of missing flight info or robbed, even after a night without much sleep. Ok, so when I boarded the plane to Porto Alegre, I could see out the window that these two steuwardesses were struggling with carrying luggage, and because I had been reading Deatly Hallows all I was thinking “Why don’t they just take out their wands and levitate it or somehting!?!” Then I realized how dumb I was...and I pretty much just passed out during take off and work up at we touched down. I asked “Estamos em Porto Alegre?” and a man replied, “Não, em Campinas chuckles”. What ever, I wasn’t phased, I didn’t havfe to move or anything. I took off again, but this time with a lot more passengers that filtered on when we stopped. My blazer had fallen to the ground, as an flight attendent pointed out, but I didn’t understand and with a “Não falo Português,” she understood. And then I learned that yet another man near me spoke English! He talked to me for a little about what I was doing in Brazil and such.

We touched down around 10. I forgot to mention that I got to actually climb stairs from teh ground onto the plane, like presidents and celebrities do from their private jets. I had never done it before, so it was muito legal (very cool.)

I found me luggage and made me way towards the exit, not recognizing the family I though was picking me up. Slightly frustrated, I was found soon by the real people who were picking me up. There was a guy, maybe 20. I think his name was Burt, his sister (whose name was really weird, something like Grêmio oe Christêmio or soemthing liek that...but unpronouncable,) and their father. They told me that to get to Uruguaiana, I needed to take an 8 hour bus ride. We drove to the station and I tried to ask if they were coming with me. The girl said I was going alone! Ahh. I was like “Tennessee trip all over again!” The girl baught me my first meal in Brazil, Coco-Cola and a sandwhich. For some reason, the family though the idea of a Coke and a sandwich was hilarious!

Monday:

Anyways, so around 11 or 12 (hence Monday) we got to the bus and I was pleasently surprised. Actually my first impressions was Harry Potter NIGHT BUS! It was seriously like that. There were big blue plush seats that reclined totally horizontal and things that came out of the seat in front of you for your feet. I no longer dreaded the 8 hours adn sleeped for a good 5 or 6 hours. We finally arrived in Uruguaiana. I took a while for me to collevt my stuff, so I was the last one off. As I walked off the bus I was immediatly in a big hug with my host parents! Haha. We collected my luggage and made out way to the house. It was now 7am.

This post is way to long, so I’ll stop here and add mroe later. I’m doing great by the way!