October 10, 2009

It’s been over a month since I wrote my last blog post! I’ve been really busy, but that’s not a very good excuse, so I’ll try to make this a good post and fill you in on everything that happened in the past month!

The first weekend in September I went to a town called São José da Coroa Grande. Say that 5 times fast! São José da Coroa Grande is about a 5 hour drive south and it’s just a few minutes north of Maragogi, where the Rotary conference was. I drove down with my host brother Daniel, his girlfriend, and his dad. We all slept the whole way there because we left at 5 in the morning. Before we left Marisa and I ate breakfast together and I was lucky enough to watch the sunrise here from my apartment balcony! It is said that the sun rises here first out of North America, Central America, and South America because João Pessoa is so far east. It was SO pretty and I’ll put a picture of it on here. The whole weekend we were with my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. My cousin Lara from my class and her best friend Amanda were there too. The weekend was a lot of fun. Lara’s grandparents have a house right across from the beach, so we were in the ocean the whole weekend. One of the days we went out on their speed boat and went to a small island. The water was sooo clear there and beautiful! Independence day was Monday, September 7th. I was expecting a huge party like we have on the 4th of July, since here in Brazil they have parties for everything. But there were no fireworks, parties, or celebrations so we just drove home Monday.

My host mom Marisa just got back from Europe on Sunday. She was there for three weeks so the whole time I was at Adriana and Luana’s house, who I went to Natal with. The night before my mom left for Europe, we all went out to dinner. It was me, Marisa, Daniel, his girlfriend Laura, and Lucas. We went to a pizzeria called Pizza do Paulista, which is the best pizza place here in João Pessoa. The pizza there was AMAZING. Here in Brazil you can get every kind of pizza imaginable. Different kinds of cheeses, every kind of meat, corn, pea, just pizza sauce, egg, cheese and fruit, and my favorites… Chocolate and banana, brigadeiro, and dolce de leite. It was delicious but I’ll talk more about the pizza places in a little bit!

The first weekend I was at Adriana’s house, there was a huge samba show. Here in João Pessoa, there is a beach called Praia de Jacaré (Alligator Beach). Apparently Praia de Jacaré has one of the prettiest sunsets in the world; I still haven’t gone yet :/. Luckily there are no alligators there though but there are shows every weekend with big bands here in Brazil. Some weekends it’s forró, forrock (forró and rock), pop, samba, hip hop… every kind of music. But that weekend it just so happened that there was a samba show, and a famous samba band here in Brazil called Monobloco played there. It was sooo much fun! Nothing like shows in the U.S.! Kelsie (from N.Y.) came over to Adriana’s house earlier that day and we walked over to a hair salon to get our hair and nails done. Here in Brazil those kind of things are super cheap. Five hours later (Brazil time) and only 22 reais ($11.00!) later, our hair was blown straight and our nails were painted!. We got back home at about 7:00 and got dressed for the show when we realized that it didn’t even start until midnight! Kelsie, Luana, and I hung out until it was time for the show. At the show it was Kelsie, Sophie (Germany), Julia (Finland), Rouven (Germany), Luan (Kelsie’s cousin), Rodrigo (Kelsie’s brother), and some past exchange students. We were dancing the whole night and everywhere we went everyone was staring at us because we have light hair and eyes. Pretty sure the word got out that there were foreigners at the show by the end of the night to the 500 people that were there, because everywhere we went, people would try talking to us in English. It was crazy! Kelsie lives right next to Praia de Jacaré so we walked back to her house at about 4:45 and got there just in time to make ourselves açaí with bananas, granola, and honey, then we went up to her deck, put our feet in her pool (black with dirt from the show), and watch the sunrise. Once again, SO pretty! After a while we went down to her room, watched a movie, and slept until about 12.

The following week I had school and a Rotary meeting. At the Rotary meeting I knew I would have to give a speech just about what I have been doing lately, so I had that all prepared in my head what I would say. But then when I got up to speak, the Rotary president asked me to say why Rotary is so important, and why it’s so good to be an exchange student. The speech actually went pretty well, I said a lot in Portuguese, and the Rotarians liked it a lot!

That weekend on Saturday Rodrigo and Kelsie came over to Luana’s and we watched a movie and then went out for açaí. Maybe I talked about it before, but I’ll explain it again anyways ☺. Here in the Northeast the people eat açaí like we eat Chipotle. Açaí is a berry grown only in the Amazon, but they turn it into a frozen mix, kind of like ice cream. The mix is usually just açaí, guaraná, and banana ground up together and turned into that ice cream. At the restaurants you can order Açaí na Tigela (Açaí in a bowl) and it comes with bananas, granola, crushed peanuts, and honey on top. Meu deus do céu it is the best thing EVER created. The first time I tried it I hated it so much (typical with açaí) but now I’m ADDICTED. I can’t go a week without having it at least 3 times!

One day after school Adriana took me out shopping for clothes. The fashion here in Brazil is really different. I’ve only seen one person here that has worn sweatpants, and that was Luana in her house because she was an exchange student in Michigan last year. Everyone always looks their best, even at the gym when they work out or when they sleep they always wear fancy pajamas. At night when people go out, especially girls, even if it’s just to the mall or to get acai, they always dress up so much. Dresses, jeans and high heels, and these crazy shirts that I still haven’t figured out yet. From the front they look nice, but when the girls turn around, there’s no back! Or else it ties at the top and the bottom is like a cape. That, speedoes, and Brazilian bikinis I still haven’t gotten used to! :P

Last Wednesday it was a guy from my class’ birthday. At night my friends and I went out to another pizzeria with a rodízio (where they bring every kind of pizza around and you can take whatever you want). The pizza was sooooo good just like always, and I ate 10 pieces. Eu vou engordar MUITO aqui (I’m going to get so fat here)! After dinner we all walked across the street to the long sidewalk called Calçadinha. Calçadinha here in João Pessoa is a really long sidewalk that runs along the beach for a few miles. There are restaurants, bars, and shops on it, and it’s where everyone runs to work out or walks during the day and especially at night.

After dinner my friend dropped Kelsie and I off at Luana’s house and we watched t.v. for a little while then drove to the bus stop to get on a bus at 1 in the morning. The bus was full of Luana’s swimming team, and we were headed for a big city called Aracajú about 11 hours south of João Pessoa. Kelsie, Rouven and I were the only exchange students that went, so we hung out the whole time while the other people were swimming. The whole weekend was a lot of fun. I fell in love with the city, but unfortunately we didn’t have much time to see it. Luckily though, someone from the swim team’s parents took Kelsie, Rouven, and I for a drive around the whole city so we could see everything by car, but we didn’t get to walk around it much. Everything was so pretty there, and I hope to go back in November with Kelsie to visit the other exchange students there that we met in Maragogi.

I’m really lucky to be where I am and know the people I do here. Adriana is good friends with all the swimmers, and so she’s taking me with the team when they have other competitions. I’ve already been to Aracajú with them, in December we’re going to Maceió, close to Aracajú, we’re flying to Salvador in April, and flying to Belém in May. We only had the weekend in Aracajú, so that’s why we didn’t get to see the city, but when we go to the other cities, we’ll be spending a lot more time there, so we’ll get to have more fun. I’m also really lucky because the people I’m with here like to travel a lot and take me with. I’ve already been to Natal with Adriana’s family, Maragogi with Rotary, and São José da Coroa Grande, I’m most likely going to Recife for Carnaval (2nd biggest Carnaval in Brazil), and Adriana loves traveling and told me she’s going to take me to a lot more places in the Northeast! There’s a Rotary trip that I was talking about earlier called the Northeast Dream trip that I really wanted to go on, but I’ve already been to and will be going to a lot of the cities it goes to anyways! :)

My Portuguese is improving so much. It’s still not great, but it’s getting there. It’s impossible to learn a language in just 2 months. There are so many words and especially the Portuguese grammar is really difficult to get, but for only being here for 2 months, I’d say I’m learning quite a bit! When the exchange students and I go out and we have to ask someone a question or order, I’m always the one who does, so that’s saying something, right? :) 

Sorry it’s taken me forever to write this post. I’m really not a blogger but I know I should be updating all the time so I can look back at this to remember my year!

Everything here is so amazing, and I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. It’s so crazy that I’ve already been here for almost 2 ½ months.. time has gone by SOOOO fast, and each day I love it here more and more! :)

Once again, if you’re reading this feel free to comment on the blog or email me at raethompson93@live.com. I’d love to hear from everyone back home!

Até logo. Tchau beijão :) 

P.S. Last post I was talking about chicken heart and how everyone here eats it. Well I went to a huge churrasco (Brazilian BBQ) last week and finally tried one! I have to say it was pretty good, but I couldn’t finish it because I knew I was eating a heart! Haha maybe next time I’ll be able to eat a whole one… :P