Exchange year – Page 2

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!

~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.

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:)