Cool People – Page 2

~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!

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.

UTFPR (College)

Brazil, Cool People, Exchange year, School, Stories, University

This past week my first day of school was on a Wednesday. Back home its a dream come true when the teacher gives us a day off or even a break from homework. But here I can’t stand just sitting there and watching them learn. In fact it gets boring after a while because they don’t expect anything from you. I start to school at 7:30am and I get out around 12pm because a typical college student has to work the other half or the day or spend their time at training. I enjoy the thought of having the rest Main entrance of the day off, but coming back my senior year, the school day is going to seem like an eternity. My school is known for students that are good with technology or want to become a mechanic. My classes are in normal subjects, but the topics taught in the class are gibberish to me because I have not been studying Sociology or Physics. Its hard enough in a new language. I am basically attending a semester at a university for my junior year because here “junior year” they study for “the biggest test of their lives.” For those of you that have never heard of this before its a test about every subject out you learn in school and the more you pass helps them get into college. So as an exchange student only studying here in school for a semester its pointless if I spend it studying for a test I won’t even take. So instead of re-taking my sophomore year, I am enrolled in a level higher (senior year).

The reason I only have a semester of my junior year is because the school year is opposite ours. If you are not aware here in Brasil summer is December, January and February so arriving here in August I missed the whole first semester of school. I know your thinking well how could that possibly work out for me to still have enough credits to graduate in 2018? My resolution is taking 2 online classes throughout this year. Summit High School will recognize the classes I take here as a half a credit for every class I pass. those credits will transfer back to Summit so I will also have a full schedule my senior year instead of off periods.

Here is Curitiba there are 4 universities. The students here typically still live with their parents because they all stay here in their city to finish college as well. On my campus, the classrooms are very plain walls with typical student desks, a chalkboard, and projector. They all look the Room # same. The picture on your right is a picture of the way they number the rooms. I can’t compare that to other universities in Colorado because I haven’t gone to college, yet, but compared to Summit High it’s not normal for me. The classrooms are empty because the teachers move around from building to building just as much as us. Many students do not speak English in my school, at least they are shy to speak up when the teachers introduce me. So for those that try to get to know me, I type their sentence into the translator… but the daily questions I seem to get are “Do you smoke weed in Colorado? Are you voting for Trump or Hillary? Why did you choose Brasil? And How long are you here?” Not very many teachers can speak English either but as I present myself to them they are super welcoming, I can’t say its easy to understand what they say because of my Spanish, but it certainly helps. Each class is with a new set of people so I can’t seem to find one person I have multiple classes with. On the bright side, I will have friends in a bunch of different groups.

District 4730

Brazil, Cool People, Exchange year

Today I met all the other exchange students in my district. A district is the group you will be apart of for your exchange year. There were 53 total students only 4 from US, crazy enough we were all female. I walked into that orientation with lets say 5 pins on my blazer and I walked out of that building with the whole front side covered in pins from all over. I think the coolest thing the rotary program has continued as a tradition is every exchange student is required to purchase a blazer. The blazer is another way you can start a friendship or approach a new friend because you start that conversation off with “lets trade pins!” So already you learn something about that person because those pins describe where they’re from and something they like to do.

Today I connected with girls from 6 different countries Hungry, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Africa, Poland and France. I will be attending school with the girls from Slovakia and Hungry, so I hope I have classes with them this school year. And the girl from Africa has been here since January so she had some stories that were informing and some that were funny. I can’t wait to see what stories and advice I have to share in 6 months. They all know what to say to lighten my day and make me smile so I know learning Portuguese together will be the time of our lives! We have some what in common so hopefully we can make this year the best year of our live TOGETHER!

By the end of this year I will have connections all over the world:)

Botanic Gardens

Brazil, City, Cool People, Garden, Tour

Today was my first time visiting a touristic attraction in Curitiba. When you look Curitiba up on the internet this garden is the first image that pops up… This garden is also basically like a public park. A lot of people were there today for all sorts of different reasons, some working out, others spending time with their families, walking their dogs, playing Pokemon Go (the new game app), and couples on a date. What a great spot for someone like me to just stand back and people watch. My host sister let me embrace my inner tourist side and took those cheesy photos infant of the greenhouse and skyline. They call me “a small town girl living in a big city.”

My sister brought cookies, cereal bars and water so we sat in the middle of everything to have a little picnic and people watch. Today was the first day the sun was out and it was sort of warm so we took the advantage to tour the city. This cities population is close to 2 million people so taking the public transportation is way different. You have to pay to get on, the bus stops are like see through tubes and their busses have three different connected together. These busses get their own street in the middle so they don’t crowd the main streets and the flow of traffic between all the other cars. The sidewalks are uneven so it’s painful to walk everywhere and only some people are brave enough to ride their bikes. The City is a great place to people watch and observe through a tourist and local!

Day 1…. Curitiba Parana Brazil

Brazil, Cool People, host families, Stories

Saying goodbye for 311 days seems like a lot but at this age I’m ready for a change. Thinking about it during my travels to the opposite hemisphere made me realize….this world is huge and where I come from is like a snow globe. Walking into Brasilia earlier today was the beginning of a new life. Of course that snow globe will always be my HOME but here I can start all over with first impressions and appearances because no one knows me yet. Brazil has always been another dream place to visit and now that I’m here, I’m ready for the adventures to show me a new direction. Traveling is in my blood now that I have traveled to 8 different countries so far.

I currently am hanging out in my new apartment… its in the heart of downtown Curitiba. My view is of tall and colorful buildings everywhere around me. Brazil is better then I expected because I love the food, super friendly people, warm weather and another culture. For lunch today it was like a all you can eat buffet but you pay by how much your plate of food weighs. I ordered lemonade to drink and it looked all cloudy with bubbly foam at the top and it was delicious. My families were there at the airport to greet me with banners, balloons, pins to cover my blazer and big hugs! The adults can barely speak English so we made a deal when I teach them English, they will teach me Portuguese. I already feel close to all my host SISTERS! Comparing Summit County to Curitiba there is a lot of differences so they have so much to show me around here. And hopefully I get the chance to show them around Colorado someday. “But there’s no rush because I HAVE A YEAR,” before I have to show my own family around.

School Spain Trip

beach soccer, Cool People, Family, Host family, Places, Spain, Stories, Travel

This year’s winter break was one to remember. All those years being apart in the dual language program since kindergarten finally paid off. On February 19th, in 2016 I arrived in Valencia to meet my host family at the train station.

My first full day in Valencia we went to the beach with a huge group of friends. It was crazy to be walking around on the beach absolutely fully clothed because it was 50-60 degrees out. Thats warm for the Summit kids but for our host siblings it was still cold so it was unusual to be at the beach in February. They were all bundled up in puffy jackets and scarfs still shivering while some of us dipped our toes in the ocean and collected seashells. As the day went on we rented a soccer ball so we could play soccer in the sand. Splitting up into teams (Valencia vs Summit), we battled to see which team would be the first to score 5 goals. We were expecting to get destroyed right way since fútbol is their main sport. But surprisingly, Summit was the first to score! Valencia unfortunately scored shortly after and continued to score 3 consist goals. We only scored once that match so we decided to have a little tournament (best out of 3). The Spaniards won the first and last match and we only won the second match. So we took the winners out for a treat, some ice cream at Burger King.

Another special day was a school trip to another town called Sagunto, Spain. My teacher that hooked us up with all these cool connections actually grew up there. If you were to have looked Sagunto up its a town famous for the castle built on the hillside. We did not have enough time to walk up to the castle but we did get to visit a theater that was built around the same time as the castle, where they still hold performances to this day. On the bus ride back to school “American Football” was mentioned because they have never officially played before. So they challenged us in a football match in the sand again. So in return we agreed after the football match we all go swimming in the ocean. so this time everyone brought their bathing suits, luckily that day was way hotter then the first time so swimming wasn’t so bad. The water was still super cold but now we can say we’ve swam in Mediterranean Sea with our Spaniards (brothers and sisters) .

Our last night together we had a dinner party then walked to a park to take pictures and enjoy the city lights and stars. We talked about possibly planning a trip for them to come out and visit us next year but its going to be difficult if they come as a school trip because some of the host siblings are older then the others and they move on to anther school next year. We were willing to start funding to help pay for them to come but we still aren’t sure if it could work. That night was not the end of our friendship or even the last time ill get to see them but I am still going to miss them!

When I have the money to afford a trip back to Spain I will make it happen. You would think spending 6 days with random locals wouldn’t be enough time to get attached. Well your wrong, 6 days is not enough days to enjoy your time with new friends in a new place. The morning we all had to get on that train back to Madrid had us all balling our eyes out. You don’t have to be related to be family or have a hard time saying goodbye. Spain has always been a dream of mine to visit and obviously Valencia is not the only city. So I clearly am going to return but that was a well spent FIRST time to Spain. Meeting all those amazing people got me hooked on the idea of finishing school (college) out in Spain. Ive heard the universities here have programs where you attend their school for 2 years then you transfer to one out in Europe. If I am forced to go to college that is something I defiently will be looking into. At this point I want to become a photographer or masseuse for a living so finding a school in Spain wouldn’t be so bad. Valencia will always be in my heart as close as a second family so I know we will reunite again some time soon!

Beach Soccer Railay Beach, Thailand

Beach, beach soccer, Cool People, Places, railay, Stories, Thai People, Thailand

After a long day hanging out at one of the three beaches. Heading back towards our bungalows to shower, we noticed there was a lovely sunset. Enjoying the moment, out of the corner of my eye I saw older men playing soccer. The field was dependent on the low tide, everyday was different so some nights they played at 5 other nights at 5:30. The goals were about 5ft tall and wide made of little wooden branches and netting.

After watching them for a while we noticed our resort manager named Ann was out there. It was very educational for me to watch them play. The field was not long but it was wide so it didn’t have as many players running down the field dribbling, but give and goes towards the goal. Lots of the men had good foot work and could do all the different moves to get around you. The men would just randomly come from areas when ever and join the game. They would come as soon as work was over and just jumped right in. In fact, not only can you show up when ever but you can take a break or leave at anytime all so.

We left right before dark to get to the other side of the island while we could see. Walking back to the bungalows the manager passed us and I asked him if I could play with them tomorrow. He asked me if I played soccer. I said yes, thats my favorite sport. He replied, show up tomorrow around 5 with tennis shoes and sport clothes and we will figure out team. How do you guys assign teams questioned Jeff my moms boyfriend. One team is shirts one team is skins.

following afternoon…………

I showed up all ready having butterflies in my stomach thinking how am i suppose to comunicate with my teammates if i dont even know thai. as well as noticing ann wasnt there yet. turning around seeing ann running towards me grabbing my hand and dragging me out there. pausing the game telling the guys i was going to play with them and deciding which team i should be on to even it out. the first impression i had with them was they wanted my to take off my shirt and play on the skins team. as i was slowly taking it off they all were laughing because it was a joke. they ended up apologizing and having a guy from the shirts team change to skins so i was on shirt. i was not used to there game so it took me awhile to get used to it. the final score was 4-9, sadly I was on the team that did not win. but winning wasnt what it was all about. it was the fact that i could communicate with thai men that didnt speak english by knowing the basics of soccer and how they played. as well as being the only white american 13 year old girl to have the guts to get out there. Towards the middle of the game some other americans came but I got the feeling they only came because I was out there first. I am glad i did nit miss the chance and chicken out to do it. it was an amazing experience and i would recommend attempting to do a hobby of yours in a different country if you get the chance. Even if you look weird or crazy maybe stupid just remember you will probably never see these people again.

(see photos on “How i see it” page).