hello everyone!

so i´ve been in brasil for about two days now, and so far it is SO amazing, i can tell that i will totally love it here.
my family is totally wonderful. my sister, laura, is already in thailand, but i met my brother, leo. he is fluent in english, because he lived in parsons, kansas for a year, so it´s really helpful. however, he lives in belo, about three hours away (normally), so he´s only home for the weekend, he actually just left. i really like my mom a lot. first off, she´s very, very beautiful, like a lot of brazillian women, and she´s also very nice. she helps me out as much as she can, and is really anxious to show me timoteo. my dad is also very wonderful. a bit more soft spoken, but still really nice and really helpful. i also met my next two families, last night, at a birthday party, and they´re also very nice.
the houses are really really neat. they´re made more of brick and adobe and concrete, and they have many more windows, so they feel very open. the floors are also always tile, not wood or carpet, and all the houses are very clean. mom and dad, i wish you could see them, i think you´d really like them.
i should also say that brazillian food is very, very good. brazillian barbecue, or ¨churrasco¨(sure-has-coo) is exactly like sabor is. i´ve, so far, had it every single day. i´ve also tried several other foods, and several different juices and drinks, and i have yet to not like any of it.
and now, to summarize what i´ve done so far.
friday, when i got to rio, i spent a lot of time in the airport, exploring, etc. i was with one other girl, a girl from oregon, who was to live in belo horizonte, so we waited together. it was alright, although slightly boring. after i got to belo, i got my luggage, and right away, i found my family. we then drove back to timoteo. two things about our trip stuck out as very different: brazillian drivers are HORRIBLE, and much more reckless then americans, and also, there aren´t really sidewalks. unfortunately, the only part of belo i really saw were the favelas, which are much worse then the ghettos of the states, but i also stopped with the demazio´s at baby beef, a churrasco restaurant. after that, we started our drive back. initially, i thought it would take two and half, maybe three hours. well, we left the restaurant at four, and we didn´t get back to timoteo until ten. this is because there were TWO accidents on the road that completely stopped traffic. apparently, this is not common. but, once i got to my house, i showered, was shown my room and the house, and talked with leo and my mom a bit before going to sleep.
the next morning, i woke up at ten thirty, then had a bit of breakfast (bread, fruit, juice and coffee...all very fresh and tasty) then leo, max and i went to work on a project that interact (community service orginazation for aspiring rotarians) was doing at the police station. there, they were painting a minature road course that the police use to teach people how to ride their bikes safely. i met a lot of people; my next host family, my next host sister, her friends, rotarians, another exchange student (lukas, from germany, living right now with my next family) and so on. after that, we went back to the house, and i unpacked, then luciana, leo and i went to ipatinga, to a mall, in order to eat lunch. i had chinese food. we also bought a diary (10 reais) and ice cream. when we got back, i finished unpacking, and got ready to go to my next host family´s house for their son, guillerme´s surprise birthday party. before we went, the electricity went out for about an hour, but after it came back, we left. *the party started at seven. we left around eight. this is very natural.*
the party was very fun. once again, we had churrasco (big surprise!), and i met a LOT of people, including my host family after the soares. i was also invited to a party (i think...) next weekend by my new friend, ana flavia (like the ecco romani books nathan!). i also met a friend of the cousin of the family, mulina, who i smoked and drank beer with, she was very very nice. she said if i was ever in belo, i could stay with her, which i might do.
then, this morning, after breakfast, we all went to luciana´s family´s house. today is father´s day for brasil, so we went and met her whole family. they were all very nice, and i´ve also learned that my previous generation has very big families. luciana has eight brothers and sisters, max has i think ten, and they all have children and are married. everyone is so far very impressed with my portuguese, and i´m ver glad i studied before hand, because while i don´t understand everything, and i can´t always reply easily, i can get the jists of things, and everyone is really impressed i already know so much.
overall, brazil has been very good for me. tomorrow is my first day of school, and i´ve found out unileste is a university, not a high school, so that´s really nice. it means maybe this year can count for something, so that´s really cool (muito leal!)
i love you all, and miss you as well! and now i´ll go play with luma and latoya, luciana´s dogs!