Brazil – Page 2

Buggy Rides

Brazil, Cool People, Exchange Students, Exchange year, Sandunes, Tour, Travel

Day 3 of my Northeast trip we went jeeping in the sand dunes. We started our month off at the highest point in Brazil also known as Jericoacoara! I’ve never been jeeping in the sand dunes before and today I experienced it with people from all over the world.

This past month I traveled along the coast with 56 different exchange students from three different districts. The moment we realized we would be traveling together, we started to get to know each other. I remember that first morning at the airport around 6:15 am like it was yesterday. This month I traveled to 8 different cities and probably 14 different beaches. Out of all those places, my top 5 favorites are Jericoacoara, Pipa, Recife, Salvador, and Itacare.

This month I traveled to 8 different cities and probably 14 different beaches. My top 5 favorites, Jericoacoara, Pipa, Recife, Salvador, and Itacare.

Jericoacoara is literally a town built in the sand dunes. We spent 3 days in this up and coming beach community. Many visitors and a lot of new construction. Beautiful modern hotels are being built with views of the beach, forest, and desert all from one location.

The locals were very nice and the food was delicious. A little on the expensive side, but it’s understandable because we were out in the middle of nowhere.

I enjoyed the place we stayed at. It felt like a huge housing complex with a bunch of rooms surrounding by hammocks hung up by a pool and a lounging area for card games or just talking.

We filled one entire side of the hotel so it was like we were the only ones there. There I roomed with 4 other girls, we had the biggest room out of the whole place.

Jeeping was my favorite thing to do in Jericoacoara because it was new and exciting and a fun get away from any service and society.

And so it begins… 2017

Beach, Brazil, Exchange year, Holidays, host families, Rotary, Stories, Travel

A normal New Year’s resolution usually is about traveling to the city of your dreams AND I got to start the New Year in the Country of my dreams. How lucky am I? A year ago I didn’t know this city even existed and now everything in my life happens here.

Today is my 147th day in Brazil! I am told by the people around me that I am growing up to be someone more wise, mature, outgoing and friendlier than the person I was 5 months ago. I think it’s the amazing people that surround me, and the time spent with each and every day with that has had a huge influence on who I have become.

I enjoy meeting new people and building all kinds of different relationships. My connection with all the other inbound students in Brazil started because we are all students exploring a foreign country, learning a new language and culture. The connections I have with friends in SUMMIT is built amongst everyday hobbies, class, sports (etc…) we have in common. The friendships are both important but built on different experiences.

Traveling makes it easy to see different cultures, but to have a relationship with the culture is special. I might post pictures like a total tourist, but I have stories behind them that say otherwise. The touristic side and local sides are very opposite. I think sharing the holidays with my host families makes a huge impact on my experience. In my opinion, the way you spend holidays with your parents would stay the same where ever you might be to spend it. But to celebrate with your host parents you really get the feeling of the another culture and new traditions.

The best news to finishing out 2016 was our host parent’s surprise was to spend New Years at the beach here in Parana. It’s not ideal paradise, but we made the most of it. It recently had a hard rainstorm that wiped out most of the sidewalk along the beach and knocked out the cellphone signal. For the last 4 days of the year, If we weren’t laying out in the sun at the beach in Mathinos, we were playing cards, cooking delicious fish or churrasco and listened to Brazilian music. Each day the beach got more and more crowded with families visiting for the holiday. It was tough taking photos without someone standing in the background!

Here in Brazil, it’s a tradition to wear all white representing peace with colored underwear representing how you are feeling. For example loved = pink, happiness = yellow, lucky = green. Everyone stays up until midnight then heads down to the beach to pop some champagne while you watch the fireworks. After doing so, you think of 7 wishes for the new year and jump 7 waves for good luck.

Fireworks

She was my Mid-night Kiss

3… JUMP

2016 Highlights:

The greatest lesson I learned, your best friends will be the ones that notice when you’re gone and miss you but more importantly can’t wait until I get home!

The most difficult thing of 2016 was letting go of my past so I could stop being defined by past mistakes and start living for the new challenges and strive to be a better me.

Favorite memory would be my school trip to Spain only because that was the first time I flew overseas without my family. That was the first time I lived with a host family. The first time I got super close to new people both from my school and in Spain!

I will never forget meeting all the other exchange students that are living in Curitiba. Our friendships are built off the experiences we face together during these incredible 10 months aboard.

Looking ahead to 2017:

Right now, I am looking forward to my Northeast trip that will start at the top of Brazil and continue down the coast to Rio in a bus with all the exchange students from my district.

I want to learn how to Zumba dance and cook my favorite Brazilian meal before I leave.

For school, I want to get these online classes out of the way so I can enjoy my exchange!

On a personal level, I want to be spiritually grounded.

My motto to be a good person, but don’t waste time proving it!

Hot vs White Christmas Day!

Brazil, Cool People, Exchange year, Holidays, host families, Places, Stories

Feliz Natal…Merry Christmas

Christmas is finally come to end! As my weekend was full of visiting all my host families places or checking up with my family that’s finally all back together in the US over facetime. As a result, this was my first Christmas without snow. In fact, I got to wear a summer dress and flip flops to all the Christmas gatherings.

It started out with going to see the famous orphanage choir sing to Brazilian Christmas songs in the center of Curitiba. It is a 45-minute show the audience stood outside and the orphans sang out windows of a bank that was decorated everything from lights to a stage and projections on the sides to follow the theme of each song. And ended the night with opening presents. I am so grateful for my 2nd host family, I was not expecting to get any gifts but they surprised me with new sandals, jewelry, beach towel, a tank top and makeup!

It was new to me to learn all the different ways people celebrate Christmas around the world. At first, I thought it was strange when my Hungarian sister and I fought about which day was ACTUALLY Christmas. But in reality it makes sense in Slovakia, Holland, Denmark, and Hungary Christmas is on the December 24th otherwise Santa Claus wouldn’t be able to visit every house in one night! Fun fact I learned this weekend was Santa Claus was actually created in Finland and wore all green originally. But the Coca-Cola company invested in paying for extra advertising so that Santa wore red instead.

The clique saying going around this weekend was in America the kids are only a morning people on December 25th because its only a tradition in the US to open presents in the morning. I noticed Brazilians like to decorate for Christmas as far out as the middle of November. It was new and different for me because its normal for me to at least wait until after Thanksgiving but they don’t have such thing here. Here in Brazil normally they open presents at 10 pm on the 24th. Some Catholic traditions are taken seriously others are not even touched depending on the family. As far as my first host family everyone lives close to each other, but on the December 24th, they spend it on their dad’s side and 25th with their mom’s. As far as the family I live with now my host mom’s family came to us for the holidays but every other year they try and get away to spend at least one of the holidays at the beach.

Not only did I get to experience Xmas in Brazil this year but also Hungary. Zsofi (my sister) explained to me that her Christmas is actually spent on both December 6th and December 24th. On December 6th Saint Nicolas comes and puts chocolate in your shoes after they simply clean them. But on December 24th little Jesus comes to town to drop off their presents under the Christmas tree. They also decorate the tree on the 24th, walk around their tree caroling and light sparklers. Specifically, her family always buys a new board game to play with after all the gifts have been opened. Then December 25th is simply just spent relaxing, visiting other friends and family and having a feast.

Here in Brazil, it is the start of summer so everyone’s goal is to have a nice body to look good in a bikini but officially starting the break off with holidays full of huge feasts its hard to keep working on that nice summer body. I guess that’s the only nice thing I miss about having Christmas and New Years in the winter. Because you don’t have to worry so much about how you eat but more about how to stay warm and still look stylish!

Natal dos Crianças

Brazil, Clubs, Cool People, Exchange year, Rotary

Today, my rotary club brought Christmas to the less fortunate. It kills me to even imagine the lives of all these children. In their eyes, poverty and drugs are their idea of normal. We spent the day making food like fruit salad for a snack and hot dog sandwiches for lunch followed by experimenting with cotton candy for a little sweet treat while they played at the playground in the mean time.

These kids come from a little village called Colombo Parana and their school brought them here today for a little Natal (Christmas) surprise. At the end of the day, Papa Noel (Santa Claus) came to visit and deliver some gifts. The boys received a World Cup soccer ball and the girls, little purses with different Disney characters on it to carry their school supplies or their makeup every other day! It was warming to see their reaction to Santa Claus when he showed up with bags full of wrapped gifts. We got the impression that they don’t normally receive gifts in their everyday lives. As the kids lined up to visit with Santa Claus, one by one the Rotarians explained that their parents usually just spend their money on drugs or food, but very rarely do the kids receive gifts. It touched me to see some kids weren’t very excited about the gifts. But as I put myself in their shoes they just weren’t sure how to react because they have never gotten a surprise before.

Right before they headed back to their school, we held a raffle for a backpack full of school supplies and a bike. The kids were previously numbered on the attendance list and all the numbers were put into a bag. My soon-to-be exchange sister from Hungary and I helped pull out the numbers from the bag. First, we raffled off the backpack. A little boy in spouted out of his seat with excitement when his name was called. Shortly after, we raffled off the bike and the shyest little girl in the crowd won. She seemed so confused. I felt bad jumping in her face and taking photos, but seconds later her brother came and protected her. I can’t imagine living in a small village and the families surprise when this small girl comes home with a new bike! I don’t think she even knows how to ride a bike, but I hope someday she will learn and enjoy it for the rest of her life!

Road Trip!

Brazil, Cool People, host families

I just got home from a 5-day road trip with my 2nd host parents and their poodle. Spending 5 hours in a car with my host parents (or anyone for that matter) can really bring you together. Of course, most of the conversations consist of them pointed at signs, trucks, animals and products growing in the fields and I would translate it into English. They would attempt at repeating it and we would laugh and laugh. My relationship with my 2nd host parents is a lot stronger than what I had with my last host parents. I think it is because I am an only child now and my last family I had two older sisters. I miss my first Brazilian family because I was just getting comfortable and close to my sisters. Now, I feel like I’m really getting a Brazilian experience. My new host parents don’t know any English. I can feel my Portuguese increasing every second. The two family experiences are very different so I’m glad I get to experience both of them.

On our road trip, we traveled to Fransisco Beltrao to meet all the relatives and extended family. Every day, I met at least 4 new family members. I now have 7 new cousins, 5 new aunts and uncles and 6 new grandparents. My immediate family in the US is very small, so it’s crazy to think my Brazilian family is twice as big. This past vacation I connected with people in a way that I would never have imagined. Whether it was comparing English words to Portuguese or sharing pictures of my town, family, friends, housing, foods… I think the most mind blowing thing about my culture was I come from somewhere that is majority cold, snowy and mountains taller than their tallest building. I think the hardest question to answer is “Do you miss United States food?” I don’t typically eat “American food” because my mom is Pescatarian, Vegan, and Gluten free so I don’t normally have hamburgers, chicken wings, or any red meat on a daily basis. Don’t get me wrong, I got opportunities to eat meat back in the US. Mostly at special occasions, eating out or when staying at a friend’s house. But here in Brazil, I eat meat at least once a day, every day I can’t remember the last time I had fish.

Saturday was probably the busiest craziest day of the road trip. My dad’s sister, his nephew, and his other niece all have the same birthday, so all day Saturday we went to birthday parties. It was his nephew’s 1-year-old birthday and his sister was turning 35. After his nephews birthday party, my cousins took me driving around the city so I got to see more about it. Fransisco Beltrao was where my host dad is from. Fransisco Beltrao is a city famous for rotary clubs and they have a copy of Christ the Redeemer in Rio Janiero. My cousins and I got to know each other through the music we shared in common. Their favorite thing to do with their friends is finding a spot at a park and spend time playing cards and drinking traditional ice tea in the shade. Fransisco also continues to stay super hot throughout the year so many of the houses normally have pools. If they aren’t at the park they enjoy pool parties. Later, we showed up at his aunt’s house to hang out with the adults and eat more food. We didn’t get much time to spend at his aunt’s house because seconds later we were driving my host dad’s mother to the emergency room. We were all enjoying the food and having conversations out on the patio when all of a sudden their grandma walked right into the glass sliding door. She hit the glass door so hard her glasses cracked the glass and cut her eyebrow. As she was losing balance my cousin and I raced over to catch her, while we slowly walked her to the car I thought to myself. This day was so ironic, I met them this morning and here I am almost midnight and on my way to the emergency room. When my cousin and his grandma gave me the option to come with them to the emergency room I was shocked and honored. Out of all the other family members, she’s clearly known longer? It made me feel accepted and a part of the family.

It’s crazy to think I only spent 36 hours this family but when I had to say goodbye I started to miss all one of them. They opened this door into their world and welcomed me in with open arms. I really connected with them in such a short period of time. Meeting new people will always have an effect on you, but realizing that I may never get to see them again was kind of depressing. Of course, people say as long as you stay in touch, your feelings for those people will stay the same… until we meet again. Luckily they want to come visit U.S. I would be more than happy to welcome them into my little house in Colorado in the future, but as I walked away from that visit I really reflected on how much I hate saying goodbyes…

~Halloween~

Brazil, Cool People, Exchange Students, Exchange year, Holidays, Rotary, Travel

Halloween will never be the same as it was while I was growing up, but will always be my favorite holiday! Halloween is actually only a big deal in America. It usually revolves around a lot of candy and costumes, but this year I spent Halloween with people that have never set foot in a costume store. Really? I thought to myself, where do they get their Halloween costumes?

In Brasil, you never see kids trick or treating or houses decorated with orange lights, pumpkins, and scary stuff from the outside. As Halloween approached, I found myself getting a little homesick for friends and traditions, but as it turns out it was a great time here!

The Rotex actually organized a costume party for us and surprised us with a costume contest. Unfortunately, my costume didn’t win but my friends and I had a blast getting ready! For those of you who don’t recognize our costumes, we dressed up as Aliens. No one really knows what real aliens look like so there was no wrong way to LOOK. The party was awesome with plenty of dancing and meeting new people. There were students there that will be leaving Brasil on an exchange next year, rebounder, Rotarians and the INBOUNDS! Getting to share my favorite holiday with most of my newest and closest friends was a dream come true. I know now that Halloween is not worldwide, but I hope they enjoyed celebrating it as much as I did.

Oktoberfest!

Bands, Brazil, Cool People, Exchange Students, Exchange year, Host family, Oktoberfest

This past weekend Daniela an exchange student from Slovakia and her host family invited me to road trip with them to Blumenau, Santa Catalina. It was a 3 and half hour drive from Curitiba, Parana. I have never been to Santa Catalina before, my impression was they had nicer beaches than in Parana and the weather is a lot hotter. If you are not familiar with Brazil’s states, Parana and Santa Catalina are two different states.

Oktoberfest back in Summit isn’t nearly as big as it is in Blumenau. In fact, the festival in Blumenau stands 2nd behind Germany for the biggest Oktoberfest. Everyone owns the typical German costumes and the band played German music in Portuguese all night. The night started out with a parade full of many different floats.

Oktoberfest is a huge local beer fest. But it is also all age festival… Beer is not the only way you can enjoy your time with friends and family. My favorite part of this weekend was getting to experience German culture in Brazil. The music got old pretty fast but learning how to dance was a blast. I know I probably looked stupid but I will never see any of the haters ever again. I know Oktoberfest is a typical thing for locals so the feeling that Germany is a part of this town is so cool. You could tell there were some houses and buildings built to look exactly like the ones in Germany. My friend Daniela and I got the feeling we visited Germany through a Brazilians perspective and now we want to experience Oktoberfest in real Germany.

IMMERSION weekend

Brazil, Cool People, Exchange year, Rotary, Travel

This past weekend I spent all day Saturday and Sunday with our rebound/exbound (Rotex) counselors and the inbounders apart of 4730. The weekend was full of team building activities and all kinds of competitions. We traveled to Colombo, Parana and stayed in a house full of dorm rooms, an inside and outside pool, living room and dining room and a basement with pool tables to play cards. The first activity we participated in was a relay race…. first step you had to spin 10 times then try and run in a straight line, second step you had to answer questions the Rotex asked you, the third step was bobbing for an apple, fourth step was finding a wood pick in a plate full of baking flour with your mouth, fifth step was carrying an egg on a spoon with your mouth and final step was to crawl under a ladder in mud.

Mud Fights!

The mud was the highlight of my weekend because we weren’t supposed to get totally covered in mud but that escalated real quickly after the competition. The inbound exchange students started the mud fight with the Rotex counselours. The mud stuck to you like marshmallows in your hair, stunk like animal food and hurt when it hit you because it was so heavy packed in balls. Most of the exchange student including me avoided getting in our mouths or eyes so we could still take photos all dirty. You could tell some kids didn’t mind getting it everywhere on their bodies because they rolled around in it and jumped in the pile of mud. This activity was dirty but fun because every man was for them self so you interacted with more and more kids with the same idea.

Too hot to handle

Later that night we separated in little groups by nationality to talk 1 on 1 with a counselor about how our year was going so far. Some thoughts were sad but others were fun to laugh about. This is when I really connected with a new group of girls because we gave each other useful advice to help one another. Those girls and I never saw each other outside of Portuguese classes until this weekend, rooming together and spending every waking moment together for two days brought this relationship to a whole other level. After the heart to heart stories, we had a pool party in the dark, unfortunately, after you jumped into the pool it was surprisingly freezing because it was supposed to be a heated pool. With the lights off we hooked up a playlist with songs in every language and blasted it on a speaker. My roommate and I didn’t last very long in the freezing cold water so warmed up under the hot water in our shower and finished the night out playing cards in our pj’s until it was bedtime.

Early Sunday morning we woke up for some breakfast and split back up into our teams for more competitions. The first game was trivia about Brazil and once you knew the answer you ran down to the other end of the room to grab a water bottle in the middle of a table. If you were the one to grab the water bottle you had to share your answer to the counselors. The second game we lined up in our teams outside the house and they would pick an object you had to find in the house but they would only say it in Portuguese. The third game was a tournament of tug a war and last but not least some exchange students climbed up in a tree house to tipline into the outside pool.

My team won the relay races and the retrieving the objects inside the house. The prizes were discounts off the next Rotex weekend!

Beach Life

Beach, Brazil, Exchange year, Host family, Travel

On September 7th it was Brazil’s Independence Day so everyone got a long weekend break. My family took me to the beach for four days. I had the time of my life, the weather was beautiful, the food was delicious and can never get sick of sun tanning on the sand! It’s just starting to feel like spring here so I couldn’t get enough of wearing shorts and tank tops at least majority of the week. When I come home I am going to be so TAN!

We scored a nice place to stay in Matinhos all week. My dad works for the Caixa Bank and his work hooked us up with a place to stay where there was a pool, a buffet of food served all day long and a patio with ping pong tables and Foosball. This place was not anything fancy but only 3 blocks from the beach satisfied me!

On the second to last day we took a little road trip to another beach town. This town was called Guaratuba and there are two ways you can get there. The shorter way is to take a ferry boat that ports cars and big trucks across as well. Guaratuba is not an island but coming from Matinhos the ferry is the smarter way to go because there’s no time wasted. That day was my favorite out of the whole vacation because we walked up to a famous statue up on the hill that looks over the whole beach town. The view was gorgeous and a perfect place to take photos.

After getting some lunch we went to the beach and laid in the sun, listened to music and had a photo shoot to update our profile pictures:) There’s no better way I would have ended my first vacation away from the city!

FOFO… meaning “Cute” in Portuguese

Brazil, City, Cool People, Exchange year, Family, Rotary

This morning I went and interacted with children that came to the eye doctors on a school field trip. As a part of this Rotary club, it was our project to volunteer to show these kids where to go for an eye test and entertain them while waiting for the rest to finish up. As teenagers, some of the adults just left that part up to us because the little kids were so drawn to our attention. All the kids that showed up today live in a poor area of Curitiba and most families can’t afford to visit the eye doctor for an exam to determine whether their child needed glasses or not. So we took care of 107 different children all different ages Rotary sign , from 2 different schools and it turns out 60% needed glasses. The barrier of the language was not a problem. We helped them pick out glasses, paint their faces and took a couple pictures. The picture on the left is Zsofi (Hungarian inbound) and I next to our Rotarian banner. The picture on the right is a young girl wearing her school uniform choosing what color glasses she wants. They had all kinds of styles in every color for these kids to choose from. This was the end of the boring/most important things that had to be done.

After about half the kids got through the eye exams we brought out the face paint and they all lined up boys in one line and girls in another. All the girls asked for was a butterfly, a heart, a mermaid or a flower and all the boys just wanted a skull. I think the little girl’s masks are “masterpieces” because they drew them themselves so I simply just copied their ideas!

Only spending a couple of hours with these kids went by fast. It also wasn’t enough because they influenced my life and at the same time I inspired them. Today got me thinking about everything I have and got me second guessing everything I want. Today I got to connect with little kids that have never imagined doing what I am here for this year. Because for them, a well spent typical day is playing with their friends around their villages inventing games and what they want to be in when they grow up. I inspired them today because they helped me with a little Portuguese while I taught them English. And now they want to travel the world because we showed them where we are from.

Zsofi and I are two of many in bounders apart of this exact Rotary district. Here in Curitiba, there are at least 30 different Rotary clubs. For those of you, that are not familiar with Rotary clubs… It’s basically the group you connect with and they do all kinds of life changing projects. These projects keep you involved with the community or culture. The members of the club can also be your mentors while you are here. You don’t have to see them all the time but they meet once a week to plan more projects or reflect about previous ones. They are always there for you to reach if you need anything so it’s comforting to keep in touch with what they are doing so you get to know them too. My first Host dad is the president of this club so that’s how I get to be a part of these activities. You do not have to be apart of the club to attend these activities its just how I am offered to be apart as well.