ADIC, Belo Horizonte, Congonhas

Hello! The last week and and half, I was in Belo Horizonte for another Inbound conference. It was really great! The first three days were at a catholic school in BH where the ADIC Interact conference was being held. We all slept together in classrooms, and spent the days together with brazilians. It was really great! Some highlights included painting childerens' drawings in the courtyard, a few great dances, and a paint fight! It would be too long to explain everything that happened, so here are just a few pictures!

The rest of the week, we were in BH just having meetings and what-not. The meetings were a little dull, but I still loved being with all of my exchange student family. Everyone is just so awesome, and everyone gets along. On Thursday, I had the opportunity to go to Congonhas, which is a city about 90 km south of BH. It is home to a really beautiful church and courtyard that was designed by a man who only had one hand! It was beautiful!! 

While I was there, I was interviewed and on TV! It was for some conservation of the art of Minas Gerais thing, and I was really nervous so my Portuguese was really bad. Its only for like 2 seconds at the end of this clip, but it was still fun! http://www.almg.gov.br/acompanhe/tv_assembleia/videos/index.html?idVideo=804234

On Sunday, I got sick. So thats a bummer, but I am getting better and all I have now is an annoying cough! Woohoo! I'll be all better for my trip IN 4 DAYS! I'm soooooooo excited!!!! My next blog post will be about some of my adventures during my trip! :D  

I hope you all have a happy thanksgiving, and that everything is going great in work/school!

Keeping you updated....

Hi everybody! This week was really busy for me! On Wednesday, Marlee's real Australian mom arrived in Brasil, so I have been with her and Marlee showing her around the city, taking her to the good açaí places, etc... When we went to Pico do Amor, I learned that we have little burrowing owls that live up there, and they were so cute!

Also, I bought a really cool Brazilian instrument: the cavaquinho. Its like a ukulele. Kind of. All I know is that both the ukulele and cavaquinho evolved from an instrument from Portugal called the machete. I guess that was like the mother instrument and these are like its kids. Anyway, its really pretty and it sounds amazing. Now I just need to learn how to play it, without help in English. I only have one picture of me with it and it is extremely strange. To be fair to me, my host brother walked in on me taking a selfie with my cavaquinho, so I was startled and I only had one shot. You take what you can get, I guess hahaha.

Also, as an added bonus, I snapped a picture on my way to school today. It was raining all night last night, and all morning, and it just cleared up enough for me to walk to school at 6:30am. Though tired, I was still physically able to enjoy the beauty, and snap a decent shot.

So that was basically my week! Next week, I have school until Thursday, and then it is summer break until February! Its gonna be amazing! I also have an upcoming conference in Belo Horizonte, where I will meet up with all of the exchange students. Anytime all of the exchange students get together, things get crazy fun, and I cant wait. 

Today also marks 3 months since I have arrived in Brasil. I am 1/4 of the way done with my exchange. Time is literally flying by!

I hope everyone is enjoying the chilly weather back in Wisconsin! Here, every day is getting hotter and I am a little afraid I might evaporate. At least my pasty white United State's body is getting tanned/red!

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!!