December 19, 2009

It’s so much like Christmas here right now… snow on the ground, Christmas music, freezing cold weather.  Hahah that’s a lie!  Not in a million years would there be snow or cold weather here!!  There is no snow, cold weather, hot chocolate, Christmas cookies, real trees, stockings, or Christmas music.  Maybe it’s for the better, because I know if it seemed like Christmas here, I would be morrendo de saudades (missing everything)!!

 

After spending last Christmas in Spain, and now this Christmas in Brazil, I have come to realize that no Christmas is quite like the American Christmas!  I really didn’t realize it until I was away, but Christmas in the U.S. isn’t just a one day holiday.. it lasts for a month, and starts Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.  The end of November and the month of December is filled with Christmas music everywhere you go, Christmas cookies and heavy comfort food, Christmas shopping, decorated houses, holiday lights, and everyone thinking about the end of the month!  Here you can see the occasional holiday lights on apartment balconies, the boxes and boxes of fruitcake being sold at the grocery stores, and the shopping malls and stores are filled with a few more people than normal.  Some families put up Christmas trees and decorate the house, but with other houses, you couldn’t even tell that it is Christmas time!  I think that in southern Brazil though, Christmas is celebrated more because the region is like a second Europe, and full of Germans and Italians.  My first host mom is from the south, and I’ll be spending Christmas and New Years at her house.  She is having close to twenty relatives from the south and outside of the country stay at her house, and she invited me to come back since she’s the closest family here.  The family I’m staying with now doesn’t have any Christmas decorations or tree in their house, and they’re just spending Christmas at church, and New Years Eve as well.  So they thought it would be better for me to spend Christmas with a bunch of people, and we will just celebrate Christmas early.  I think it will be a lot of fun as well :)!

 

Last blog I promised I would talk about my adventures these past couple weeks so here you go!

 

The first weekend in December, I went with Adriana, Cabral, and Luana to Recife because Luana had to take the SAT test there.  It was just a 2 hour drive down there.  Hellcife is what people outside of the city call it, and I can definitely see why now!!  There’s some kind of sewer/river that runs through the whole city that gives it a smell sooo bad that you have to keep the windows up.  But you have to keep the windows up anyways though, because it’s considered one of the most dangerous cities in Brazil next to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and people could come up to your rolled down window with a gun or knife and ask for money or electronics in your car!  It is also a really dirty city, the buildings and apartments look ancient and there is trash everywhere.  And the worst part is that you can’t swim in any of its beaches because there are sharks!!  There are signs everywhere on the beach that warn the people not to enter into the water because of the sharks!  I didn’t take any pictures in the city because it’s too dangerous to walk around with a camera, but don’t worry you’re not missing out by not seeing any pictures of Hellcife!!

 

We spent the day shopping and driving around the city while Luana took the SAT.  When she finished, we drove to one of the three prettiest beaches in the Northeast, Porto de Galinhas just a 45 minute drive from Recife.  So far I’ve been to 2 of the 3 prettiest beaches here, Praia de Pipa by Natal, and now Porto de Galinhas, and by far Porto de Galinhas is my favorite beach!  We arrived there pretty late and spent a few hours driving around looking for a place to stay since it’s packed now that it’s summer!  We finally found one and went to the beach to swim until it got dark.

The next day we woke up early and went to the main part of the beach.  The water was sooooo blue!!  When you stand with the water at your waist, you easily could see your feet.  It was absolutely amazing.  Here are some pictures…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, December 8^th was yet again another holiday here in Brazil.  At least just for my state it was a holiday because it was a past governor’s birthday or anniversary or something like that… no one really knew!  So we all got up early and helped prepare food for a big churrasco my new host family had for a group of pastors and their families that were visiting from Rio de Janeiro.  Kelsie and Kate from Canada came over because Kate’s house.. Kelsie’s old house… is about 10 minutes walking distance on the beach from our beach apartment.  The whole day we spent eating TONSSS of steak and food from the churrasco and swimming at my pool.

 

Wednesday, the group of exchange students from the city Aracajú (about 12 hours by bus south of here) arrived.  My friend Erin from Canada stayed in my house, and the rest stayed in other exchange student’s houses.  Thursday the exchange students from João Pessoa and Aracajú took a bus and toured around the city, and after went to a famous beach in southern João Pessoa, Carapibus.  It was my second time going but it still was incredible.   That night all the exchange students went out to Ferinhas (all the restaurants close to the beach).  It was a bunch of fun seeing all of them again since the last time was at Maragogi in August!

 

We then went to the city called Natal for the Rotary conference.  Sooo much fun.  The highlight was easily the buggy ride we went on Saturday on all the sand dunes in Natal.  It was soo crazy.. almost like 4 wheeling over all the dunes!  Saturday night there was a dance at a big hotel, and then Sunday we all said our goodbyes and went back home.  Some pictures from the weekend:

 

And here we are now, just days away from Christmas!  If I don’t update before Christmas, Feliz Natal e Boas Festas para todo mundo (Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone)!!!

 

I’ll hopefully get to skype with a lot of you on Christmas Eve at the Thompson party and Christmas with the Hansens!  So if anyone could bring a laptop with a camera, I would LOVE talking to you all and being part of the party!

 

Beijão from Brasil! 

December 1, 2009

I cannot believe that it’s already December!  Time has gone by too fast here.  Since the last blog I wrote, I visited yet again another beach here in the Northeast called Barra do Cunhaú for the weekend with Adriana, Cabral, Luana, Kelsie, and my host aunt and uncle Brivaldo and Ana.  Brivaldo’s mom has a huge house there where we stayed, and here is a view from the deck...

 

 

One of the days out of that weekend we traveled 15 minutes North to a famous beach here in Northeast Brazil called Praia de Pipa.  There Kelsie, Luana, and I went on a speed boat ride to a beach close by where there are tons of dolphins.  The dolphins would jump out of the water Just 10 feet from the boat.  We all jumped in the water and swam for a while before going back.  The ride back was one of the scariest boat rides I’ve ever been on.  We would go over rows and rows of 5 foot waves, and you had to hold on tight to the boat so you wouldn’t fly out!  This day was definitely something I’ll always remember!

At the beginning of November, I caught some crazy sickness.  I was in bed for one week, and I could hardly get up and eat anything.  Everyone here thought I had a mild case of dengue fever.  I had to go to the doctor twice and do a blood test, but now I’m all better :). 

 

After I recovered, my host mom, Kelsie, and I went to something João Pessoa is really famous for… the sunset.  I might have already said something about Jacaré, but it’s a place where there are lots of shows, and the famous sunset.  I’ve heard people say that it’s the prettiest sunset in the world, but that could be just people here being proud of their city.   But I definitely thought it lived up to its nickname!  Here are some pictures…

 

 

 

November 18^th was my last day of high school.  I’m now on summer break until February or March :).  Everyone brought their cameras, but it wasn’t like the last day in the U.S.  In the United States, the last day there really aren’t any classes, but here the students still have to study because last week and this week there are tests called the Vestibular, similar to the ACT or SAT, but here they take 3 to 6 vestibulars that last 5 hours each.  So the last day was good just for me really, because my friends only would have the tests after!

 

For Thanksgiving Kelsie and I decided that we would make a Thanksgiving dinner for her family and mine… at 10:00 the night before.  So the next morning we went to the grocery store and bought everything that we would need.  When we arrived home, we realized that the turkey was frozen, so we decided to make Peru do sol (Turkey of the sun).  A famous meat here in Brazil is called Carne do sol (Meat of the sun), and they make it by putting raw meat out in the sun to dry up and then they grill it.  So Kelsie and I went up to her deck and put the turkey out in the sun for a few hours haha.  We spent the whole day in the kitchen cooking.  We made turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, salads, apple crisp, and pumpkin pie.  It took us only about 7 hours to do everything.  Before eating, we explained the story of Thanksgiving to our families.  Everyone loved the food and they keep asking us to make the turkey and gravy again!  So our peru do sol turned out alright and no one got sick :).

 

 

 

 

 

Right now I’m in my second host family’s house.  I’m living with the mom and dad, and their son who is 16.  They have a daughter who is 18 years old that’s in Canada on exchange right now, but she’s coming back early in January because she’s not having a good exchange year.  The family is really nice and the apartment is amazing.  I’m on the 13^th floor, same as my other house, so the view of the ocean is incredible.  There’s a huge gym and pool on the main floor, and today I went and worked out for the first time in 4 months.  It felt sooo good to finally exercise!  The family has another apartment right on the beach that’s only a 15 minute drive from here.  The beach is called Ponto de Campina, and everyone in João Pessoa has summer houses there or goes there every day in the summer.  I already miss my first family a lot though, and I skyped with Marisa and Lucas earlier today!

 

The day of the switch, Marisa took me out for a going away lunch.  We went to Jacaré where there are a lot of restaurants with Marisa, Lucas, Daniel, his girlfriend Laura, and Lucas & Daniel’s dad.  It was a lot of fun and after eating we waited for the sunset.

 

This weekend I’m going to the biggest city in Northeastern Brazil called Recife with Adriana, Cabral, Luana, and Marisa to go shopping and see the city and the weekend after that I’m going to Natal (the same city I went my first weekend here in Brazil) with Rotary for what they call Natal em Natal.  Natal in Portuguese means Christmas!  So I’ll try to update it after I get back from Natal because I’m sure there’ll be a lot to write about!

 

Até Mais! Tchau Beijão