Cachoeira (Part 2)

...... and I will continue! After swimming in the refreshingly cold water/ tanning our pasty foreign bodies for a few hours, we decided to go back on the dirt road to another location on top of a mountain! We drove up to a mountain, and had to walk the last part of it to get to the top, where we found a gorgeous church and breathtaking views!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   And that completes my amazing day!

Cachoeira

Hello! Yesterday, I had the amazing opportunity to go to a couple cachoeiras (waterfalls) with my 3rd host family! Right now, they are hosting a good exchange friend of mine, and they invited me and Marlee to travel with them to Ipoema to visit a few STUNNING waterfalls! One of the best parts was that it was through an incredibly mountainous area that had very few people, so it was even more beautiful! The road there was an adventure, though. It was all dirt, with steep cliffs and no guard rails. That's Brasil for you!

The first cachoeira we went to was called "Cachoeira Alto" which literally means Tall Waterfall. It was incredibly beautiful! There were even some brave people that repelled down the side of the waterfall, and they even went upside down at one point! Craaaaaazy, but I want to try!

The next cachoeira we went to was equally as beautiful, but wasn't very tall. We could, however, swim in this one! We were so excited, because it was around 90 degrees and the sun was strong! To think that its not even summer yet......

....... For some reason, the pictures from my NEXT adventure refuse to load, so I will continue in another blog post!!

Still Very "Rappy" to be Here in Brasil!

Hi everyone! This last week has been pretty normal. Every day rained really hard in the morning, and in the afternoon it is bright, sunny, and extremely hot! Today, for example, was about 80 degrees! Meu Deus! If mid-spring is this hot, I cant wait to find out how hot summer will be!

Yesterday, I went to the cinema with some friends for the first time since coming to Brazil. It was pretty similar to the cinemas in the United States. The only differences were that the actual movie room was a lot smaller, it is appropriate to text and talk during the movies, and the movies are dubbed in Portuguese. We really wanted to see Ivocação do Mal (Insidious 2), but they didn't have it available that night so we saw Elysium instead. It was really good, and I understood everything! I am really feeling comfortable with Portuguese, and I can keep conversations going without even thinking translating things to English anymore! Its amazing. 

Tonight, my friend and I went to centro looking to meet some new people, but no one was there! Instead, we walked down to this praça in my city that had a Rap show going on, and it was really fun! Everyone either sat or stood in this small outdoor amphitheater thing and danced. Fun fact: "Rap" in Portuguese is "Rappy" and my region in Brazil pronounces R's as H's, so its like saying happy. 

In addition, 12 days ago officially marked 2 months in Brazil. The time is going by waaaaay too fast! It makes me sad just to think about how I am already more than 1/6th of the way through my exchange. Today is also the day of the October conference for district 6220, AND I got an email saying I needed to choose my departure date (they are asking early because of how quickly the flights are filling up for the World Cup)!! Everything goes so quickly!

I am getting really excited for my first Rotary trip that I will be going on! I leave November 30th for the Northeast Trip, and I get back December 20th. I will go to: Vitória da Conquista, Lençóis (Chapada Diamantina), Maceió, Salvador, Porto Seguro, Guaraparí, Rio de Janeiro, and Angra dos Reis! Every place looks SO beautiful and interesting, but I am really excited to go to Salvador and Rio de Janeiro! The are two cities that I definitely wanted to visit before I return to the United States!

I hope everything is going well for everyone :) Um grande abraço do Brasil!

Weekend in Diamantina...

Hi guys! This past weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to go to Diamantina with my Rotary Club to tour the city. It was amazing!! Diamantina is a very historical city, that includes a rich history of slaves and slave trading. It also is the ending city on the Estrada Real, which is the road that was used to transport goods such as gold and other natural minerals that Minas Gerais (my state) is known for.

Estrada Real

To get there, we took a shuttle-bus kind of thing. The ride there was an adventure in itself! The roads are so bumpy here in Brasil that I constantly bumped my head on the ceiling, and it was 7 hours long! On the plus side, we went through a lot of pretty cities, and I got to see more of the most beautiful scenery available on Earth. When we finally arrived, I found out that I would have my own room in our little hotel-house thing we were staying in! I guess that is one of the perks of being the only guy on the trip. My room had a queen size bed, too, so that was pretty great. Around 7:30 that Friday night, we went out to the streets to find something to eat, and ended up at a really great pizza place right by a beautiful cathedral. Brazilian pizza is amazing. Its loaded with different vegetables, fruits and it is probably the best pizza ever.

After pizza, we went to this market place where a band was playing and everybody danced!

The next day, we went back to that market place, because there was a type of festival going on. I bought some souvenirs, and a lot of jewelry for people back home because in Minas Gerais the stones are real and super cheap! At lunch, we got serenaded while we ate at a typical Brazilian restaurant. When you go out for lunch, its a self service place where you have to weigh what you took that the end. There is ALWAYS rice and beans, a lot of meat (sometimes churrasco), and different types of salads, fruits and vegetables. 

Saturday night, we went to the Vesperata, which is this really cool thing they have in Diamantina! You sit in a street surrounded by beautiful Portuguese-style buildings, and people play music out of the windows of those buildings! Its really fun, and everyone just enjoys each other's company and has a blast! I posted a video on facebook of everybody dancing to one of the Portuguese songs they played, and I wanted to upload one of them playing The Final Countdown, but it froze my computer and it took forever. Check out the video on my facebook! They also played Somewhere Beyond the Sea, and a bunch of songs from Grease. It was so cool!

Sunday, we visited a museum and had to go home :( Another 7 hours on the bus..... Ohh well. It was worth it. When we got home, I saw the cutest tree frog and excitedly showed my host mom. She (unexpectedly) proceeded to kill it and it was so sad :(  

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!