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 8th 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!
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