November

I've been in Rio for a little over 3 months, and it is starting to heat up here! Summer break is right around the corner, and I am going to go traveling to the Northeast part of Brazil in about 2 weeks. Thanksgiving is this week, and I'm going to be cooking the meal for my host family here, which is a little daunting, but not something I can't handle.

Random thoughts that I wanted to get out of my system!!

Random thoughts that I wanted to get out of my system!! 

When I got to Rio, they were doing elections for the local government, so there were constantly people out campaigning and stuff. Now that that is over... the city seems deserted! You don't get bothered by 100 people a day handing out little pieces of paper or the campaign songs blasted from cars... It is a very different atmosphere.

In New Mexico, you can save a LOT of money by ordering water at a restaurant. This is not the case in Rio. Water costs just as much as sodas and other things... you can't find free water anywhere. Another thing: people rarely (if ever) drink straight from the bottle or straight from the can. They either have a straw or pour the beverage into a cup; they consider it dirty to drink straight from the container.

Some little things!

First off... many, many, MANY of the teenage boys and young men have their left ear pierced... just the left ear.
They will also gauge this ear, but just this ear. Many girls also just gauge one ear...
When girls do not have a hair-tie, they just knot their hair. And it stays. Mine, however....does not. SADNESS. :(

Petropolis

Over the weekend, I went to Petropolis, a town about an hour (by bus) from Rio de Janeiro. I went with two other exchange students. We arrived in the evening on Friday, and from the rodoviaria (bus station) went to pick up Matilde (Danish), and then went to the Leandra's (Swiss) apartment. A little while later, Mathilde (Belgian) showed up, and everyone was there. We went shopping on "Avenida," a main street with many shops and people, for strawberries and pretzels, and when we arrived back at Leandra's house, we made chocolate dipped strawberries, and frosting with pretzels. (I know it sounds weird... but it is good!) After this we watched Mama Mia, and then went to bed. On Saturday, we woke up around 11, but by the time everyone had eaten breakfast and gotten showered, it was around 1 or 2. From Leandra's house we went to Museu Imperial, which is a museum in the house of Pedro II, an immigrant from Portugal, and who the city is named after. (Teresopolis, a nearby city, was named after his wife, Teresa.) That was pretty cool, but no pictures allowed! We had to put on slipper things over our shoes, to not damage the flooring, and if you had a large bag, you couldn't bring it. After this we went back to Leandra's house, and had Swiss style fondue! We later went to Matilde's house, had dinner, and went to Itipava, a small town not really in but not really outside of Petropolis. We got home at 3:30 in the morning, and then we woke up around 12 or so I believe, ate breakfast, went to the Crystal Palace, came back to eat lunch, and then went home! Fun weekend :)

Pao de Acucar!

Over the weekend, the other exchange students and I went to Pao de Acucar with Rotary! It was a HUGE group thing, and it was a lot of fun! We planted trees to help preserve the flora and fauna of Brazil, and we watched a Rotary presentation, in which Matilde, the girl from Denmark, played her flute. :) Pao de Acucar, of the Sugar Loaf, in English, had an amazing view of all of Rio de Janeiro, and of Niteroi as well. It was very cool and worthwhile, though I enjoyed Cristo Redentor more. 

Just catching up...

Today I woke up an hour before I was supposed to, because I forgot I am allowed to sleep in on Fridays. Awesome... So now I'm wasting time before going to school.

The language is getting easier and easier, and I'm learning more and more. I try to talk to people on Facebook in Portuguese a lot, to practice my conversational Portuguese, and I almost never need the translator for that. A lot of times, the hard part is getting the structure of the sentences right. Sometimes when you're just tired and don't want to be speaking Portuguese anymore, you just throw all of your words in a sentence, and hope the people can understand what you're trying to say, because you just don't want to have to think anymore.

The people in school are finally starting to speak to me in Portuguese... sometimes... However, in my volleyball class, people say even the simplest words to me in English. Things such as "go!" and "hello" and "I'm sorry." I know they probably just want to be able to practice their English with me, but I really wish they wouldn't, so I could learn Portuguese!

Tomorrow, all of the inbound exchange students are meeting to hike Urca and go to see Pão de Açúcar as a Rotary trip. I'm really excited to spend a day with the other exchange students, and to see such a famous landmark of Rio.

In school, it is the second semester, and after just coming back from winter break, no one was very focused or ready to do work. Now, however, things have calmed down a bit, and people are started to refocus on schoolwork and grades.

It is starting to get hotter in Brazil, as winter comes to an end. Two days ago, we had record breaking temperatures for the year in Rio, 44 degrees Celsius. (111.2 Fahrenheit) (I didn't even know it was that hot until I converted it just now... WOW!)

5 weeks and 6 days in Brazil today!

Celia :D

Just some quirks... Quirks. That's a good word.

When you are in traffic, people walk through the cars trying to sell things to you. They sell anything from candles to cold drinks.

There is an abundance of "suco" here. Suco is juice, and everyone is crazy about it. There are hundreds of juice shops (essentially) all over my neighborhood alone, and they make pretty much any fruit into a juice.

On the beaches, you can get "agua de coco": take a coconut, cut a hole in it, stick a straw in it, drink. I'm not a fan, but most people are.

Food! I have yet to have a lunch where I didn't have rice. I have had maybe 3 without beans, but rice is definitely a constant! The food here is sooo amazing, and I haven't tried much I haven't liked, save the Globo Biscoitos. Eu não gosto deles.

Cariocas, or those born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, have a different dialect of Portuguese than the rest of Brazil. It is hard to explain in words, but for example: Portuguese in Portuguese is Portugues. (Say that 3 times fast.) The Cariocas say it "Porh too gaysh" whereas people from Sao Paulo say "por too ges". Two is dois. Carioca: "doish" Sao Paulo: "dois". And so on.

That's all for now!

:D