Its Been A While!

Hi everyone! It has been a while since I have written! A LOT has happened, and I honestly can't write about everything! Last week, I went to the first Inbound conference in Belo Horizonte. It was amazing! All the exchange students were absolutely wonderful. The only thing that kinda was bad was our 30 hours of Portuguese training...... all of which I learned in the first week of my exchange. Regardless, I had a blast. Also, I got the chance to go to Ouro Preto again with another exchange student, and actually see the cathedrals. They are absolutely stunning!!

This blog post is going to be a lot of pictures, because explaining everything would be really long, and difficult for me. English is becoming really hard, and I am getting really bad at it. Well, I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Rani in Praça de Liberdade

First day of the conference!

Giving a speech in Portuguese

Futebol game!

Another beautiful cathedral in Ouro Preto

Amazing cathedral in Ouro Preto

Beautiful view in Ouro Preto

Random hippy that gave us free rings!

Night hanging out with my Exchange Friends!

Igreja de São Francisco de Assis in Belo Horizonte

Praça de Liberdade

Praça do Papa

McDonalds menu!!! Its SO expensive!

Everything is amazing here, and its almost been 2 months here! Time is flying by so fast!! Today, I will go and get Açaí and go to a movie, and Sunday I will go to a churrasco with my friends! I hope everything is going just as great for you guys as it is for me! 

Tchau!!

Um Mês

One month. Um mês. It has gone way too fast. I am 1/12th of the way done with my year in Brasil.

I remember when I first found out about a Rotary meeting regarding becoming a year long exchange student, I wanted to go so bad. Traveling is my dream. Unfortunately, I had a volleyball game. Luckily, I have an AMAZING mother that went in my place, took notes, and set up an interview for me! A few days after the interview, I found out the the Appleton Downtown Rotary club chose me to be their 2013-2014 Rotary Youth Exchange student, and I was ecstatic. Soon after came the October conference, the intense application and the book reports. Then, in January, I was told I would be going to Brasil. After that point, each day was longer and longer and it felt like I would never go. Now that I am here, I want time to STOP GOING SO FAST. Each day feels like a minute. It feels like I got here only days ago. Wow.

Every day here is a blessing. Brasil is amazing. Portuguese is so beautiful, and I am learning new words and phrases every day.

In this month, I have grown more as a person than I have in the past few years. I know that I have gained self-confidence, self-respect and a lot of independence. I have also gained what a lot of people lack, and that is cultural awareness and respect, which I think that is the most important thing to have in your life. It is so amazing to be able to spend a year in a completely different country and culture than your own.

Thank you to everybody who made this possible. It is the best thing that I have ever done in my life, and it has already changed my life. I can't wait to see what the next 11 months have in store for me!!

Bananas and Capoeira

This last week has been very busy! It started out pretty crappy.... I was sick with some sort of a cold. Even so, I managed to go to school all week and keep a smile on my face. Just as I was getting over it, the weather decided to rain for the first time since I have been here when I had to walk home from school. To be honest, it wasn't even a hard rain, but apparently any rain is a big deal here because when I got home my host family was like, "YOU WALKED?!?" They insisted in hanging up my barely damp jacket in this special drying hanger thing and they got some Brazilian pizza (which is always a plus here). Brazilian pizza can make anybody feel better. 

Thursday night, I went to Ana Luiza (my host aunt) and Marlee's (Exchange student from Australia) house to make some banana recipes from their banana trees. I took some pictures, and Marlee cut one of the massive bushels of bananas off of the tree and set them out so we could cook with them. It is so cool that someone has banana trees in their backyard! We cut the bananas up and made Banana Frita and Bolo de Banana. They were amazing! The bananas here have so much more flavor! 

Friday, I was very surprised when the test I thought we were going to have during the day was later in the afternoon and I that had to come back to take it! What a delightful surprise! I was even more surprised to learn once I got there that I didn't even have to take it (because I am an exchange student) and that I am the first exchange student to take an exam! It actually went fairly well because it was in Math, so I can't complain. 

Friday night, was probably one of the most exciting and memorable nights I have had here. It started out with getting some of my favorite food here in Brasil: Açaí. It is so amazing words cannot describe. I went with the other exchange students Marlee (Australia), Juan Pablo (Mexico), Petra (Slovakia), Kari (Norway) and Isadora (was an exchange student in New Hampshire last year). 

 After açaí, I did one of my favorite things I have done so far: Capoeira. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures, because I was actually doing stuff, but it was amazing! Capoeira is a Brazilian martial arts that includes music, dance and acrobatics. For the first hour, we practiced some basic moves and then we got to see how it all worked! We all stood in a circle and either played an instrument or clapped a beat. Then, people went in the middle and "played" capoeira, which was the most amazing thing ever! I highly suggest you look up a video of Capoeira on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H0D8VaIli0), because I cant even describe how amazing it was. These little kids were doing flips, and everyone was so incredibly strong and talented! I am definitely going back to capoeira more often! Plus, its free, which is always good for exchange students.

After capoeira, we went to centro, where I met some more really cool people. An honest description of what centro is is that it is a place in town where teens go ever Friday and Saturday to drink and meet people. It is amazing. No one gets extremely crazy dangerous drunk.... everyone is just happy and it is so fun. That's what I love about Brasil. Everyone is just happy and cheerful all of the time. Tomorrow is my one month anniversary in Brasil, and you can expect a post! I hope Wisconsin is good, and school has been going great for everybody!