- timoteo is too small for my taste, but i find the perfect remedy when i get tired of being there is to come to the greatest city in the world, belo horizonte, for some good old fashioned exchange student fun, like i´m doing this weekend.
- pedestrians don´t have right of way in timoteo, or all of brasil for that matter, and this sucks, because it results in getting hit by a car on your bike because some asshole can´t look both ways before he turns, then having to deal with the driver shaming you for not being careful, on top of a broken bike. luckily, i knew enough portuguese to tell the guy that i´m not the one who should be more careful, as i´m not the one in a car that weighs however many kilos, that can kill somebody, and if you can´t look before you turn, perhaps you should go back to driving school.
- i want to be good at capoeira, because it is awesome. in bh, they have capoeira on the streets sometimes, it´s awesome.
- oh my god, the bugs here are far too large, and far too bold, because they have no problem crawling on you.
- portuguese is not that hard, except it stinks having words have gender, because i never remberer to use the correct possive pronoun or article for it.
- i really dislike school here, but at least it´s made me a master of ipod solitare, as that´s all i do for five and a half hours.
- pre-paid phones are the worst. honestly, i could kill whoever came up with the idea, or alternatively, my cell phone provider, TIM. i bought FIFTEEN reais worth of credit yesterday, because even though i just paid my bill last week, and have not used 45 minutes yet, i was out of minutes. i used my phone to call maybe three times, and then i was out of credit again. que isso!
Sunday, September 30, 2007
some thoughts out of context
Monday, September 17, 2007
so, as my darling mother requested, i just posted a bunch of pictures below, which i hope you enjoy. blogger only lets you upload one at a time, so it took forever. i should also say that i put pictures up on facebook.
anyways...
i have now officially fallen in love with brasil. i got back yesterday from a week in belo horizonte (called bay aga in portuguese, which actually just how you would say bh in portuguese) for the first rotary meeting. rotary here is much different from in the u.s., but i don´t care, because i LOVE the other exchange students. my district has about eighteen, but the cool thing about bh is that it has two rotary districts, so i met about thirty exchange students from all over the place. and with other exchange students, all you need is an introduction, and you´re friends. it was such a blast hanging out with them everyday, i miss them all already.
basically, everyday i´d wake up (a perk in brasil is that they don´t use alarm clocks, someone always wakes you up, either your parents or maids, so it´s much calmer) and go to my ridiculously easy portuguese class (i learned nothing i didn´t already know, but i did help people out, so it wasn´t a total waste), then returned home, ate lunch, took a nap, then met exchange students around three or four at savassi, and we´d just hang out, doing different things. tuesday, we went to praça liberdade and to patio savassi, wednesday we went to a bar, thursday we went to a different neighborhood, etc. it was so much fun. i also learned swear words in like...five rather obscure languages: croatian, greendlandic, danish, indonesian, and hungarian
saturday was also especially fun, since it was the last day we could all hang out (a lot of people don´t live in bh, like me). we had this really boring rotary meeting, but after, we had a farrol class, and after that, we had all met around nine (but in brazillian time, that´s ten, because they´re always late) at kayote, which is ¨the exchange bar¨ in savassi, meaning that every year, exchange students end up using koyote as a hang out spot. i had some ¨caprivodca¨which is a brazillian cocktail, and which is also delicious (vodka and lime with lots of ice), and we all were just goofing off for a long time. it was so much fun.
i also did some shopping here, since bh is so much cheaper then timoteo, and i didn´t bring enough shorts and skirts (like..three, and clothes here disappear for a long time when you put them in the laundry), and so now i have that out of the way. the cool thing about the shopping experience is that i went to this really cheap and famous sort of street bazaar called ¨fera hippy¨, which sells homemade crafts and also just a lot of stuff for very cheap. i spent fifty reias, and got a skirt, two pairs of shorts, a dress and some jewelry. plus, it´s just an experience to go, because there´s so many people, and there´s all these smells and street performers and stuff. i even saw those people who paint themselves silver, and pretend to be robot statues, but i forgot to take pictures.
the single greatest thing about bh is that it really has inspired me to push myself even more to make my exchange fantastic. my portuguese also improved a lot over the last week, which is really strange because i rarely spoke portuguese, since all the exchangers speak english. but really, i had such a fun time that i just want to keep that going, and make it even better.
and now that we´re getting into spring here, brasil is turning more into what i thought it would be climate-wise. when i got here, it was basically like may or june in milwaukee, and it was surprisingly cold at nights (i even used a sweater a couple of times!) but now it´s getting warmer in the day, so also still quite warm at night. it makes me so lazy, but i can´t do that, or else i will gain far too much weight! and more and more bugs are showing up, today there was this HUGE spider on the doormat outside, it was like bigger then a quarter, and scared the shit out of me.
anyhow, that´s it for news from brasil for now.
BEIJOS (kisses!)
mary
anyways...
i have now officially fallen in love with brasil. i got back yesterday from a week in belo horizonte (called bay aga in portuguese, which actually just how you would say bh in portuguese) for the first rotary meeting. rotary here is much different from in the u.s., but i don´t care, because i LOVE the other exchange students. my district has about eighteen, but the cool thing about bh is that it has two rotary districts, so i met about thirty exchange students from all over the place. and with other exchange students, all you need is an introduction, and you´re friends. it was such a blast hanging out with them everyday, i miss them all already.
basically, everyday i´d wake up (a perk in brasil is that they don´t use alarm clocks, someone always wakes you up, either your parents or maids, so it´s much calmer) and go to my ridiculously easy portuguese class (i learned nothing i didn´t already know, but i did help people out, so it wasn´t a total waste), then returned home, ate lunch, took a nap, then met exchange students around three or four at savassi, and we´d just hang out, doing different things. tuesday, we went to praça liberdade and to patio savassi, wednesday we went to a bar, thursday we went to a different neighborhood, etc. it was so much fun. i also learned swear words in like...five rather obscure languages: croatian, greendlandic, danish, indonesian, and hungarian
saturday was also especially fun, since it was the last day we could all hang out (a lot of people don´t live in bh, like me). we had this really boring rotary meeting, but after, we had a farrol class, and after that, we had all met around nine (but in brazillian time, that´s ten, because they´re always late) at kayote, which is ¨the exchange bar¨ in savassi, meaning that every year, exchange students end up using koyote as a hang out spot. i had some ¨caprivodca¨which is a brazillian cocktail, and which is also delicious (vodka and lime with lots of ice), and we all were just goofing off for a long time. it was so much fun.
i also did some shopping here, since bh is so much cheaper then timoteo, and i didn´t bring enough shorts and skirts (like..three, and clothes here disappear for a long time when you put them in the laundry), and so now i have that out of the way. the cool thing about the shopping experience is that i went to this really cheap and famous sort of street bazaar called ¨fera hippy¨, which sells homemade crafts and also just a lot of stuff for very cheap. i spent fifty reias, and got a skirt, two pairs of shorts, a dress and some jewelry. plus, it´s just an experience to go, because there´s so many people, and there´s all these smells and street performers and stuff. i even saw those people who paint themselves silver, and pretend to be robot statues, but i forgot to take pictures.
the single greatest thing about bh is that it really has inspired me to push myself even more to make my exchange fantastic. my portuguese also improved a lot over the last week, which is really strange because i rarely spoke portuguese, since all the exchangers speak english. but really, i had such a fun time that i just want to keep that going, and make it even better.
and now that we´re getting into spring here, brasil is turning more into what i thought it would be climate-wise. when i got here, it was basically like may or june in milwaukee, and it was surprisingly cold at nights (i even used a sweater a couple of times!) but now it´s getting warmer in the day, so also still quite warm at night. it makes me so lazy, but i can´t do that, or else i will gain far too much weight! and more and more bugs are showing up, today there was this HUGE spider on the doormat outside, it was like bigger then a quarter, and scared the shit out of me.
anyhow, that´s it for news from brasil for now.
BEIJOS (kisses!)
mary
a bunch of belgians...
THE ASIAN INVASION! me and our far east exchangers, plus eva, who is czech, but looks nothing like she is.
the croat, the german, the frenchie and our other hungarian, all at ¨mackers¨(what australians call it)
everyday, me and a lot of exchange students met at mcdonalds in savassi, and this is me with justine (our other belgian) frederique, ania, and cherry (from taiwan)
my fellow midwesterner, jon, from northfield minnesota!
brenden also plays basketball, so he´s also quite strong. i felt soo tall!
ben, me, rianti and brendon in the front, pin, frederique and ania in the back
brendon is really tall, where rianti is very short. it´s quite funy
eddie´s de novo, this time with ben from croatia as well
myself, brendon (who is a 5´8¨!) and owen...i.e. the north americans.
rianti, pin, ania and i. we´re all looking at different cameras, because with rotary, there is no such thing as just one picture. you take out your camera, and so do eight thousand other people.
a big group of exchangers in eddie´s, which is an american restaurant.
our district of exchange students eighteen in all. i won´t name each person, but there´s five people from the u.s., one from canada, one from greenland, germany, two from belgium, two from hungary, france, poland, indonesia, thailand, taiwan and austrailia
brazillian chairs aren´t too sturdy...bence from hungary was just sitting in portuguese class, and the the legs just collapsed
me and oda (norway)
more exchangers, from left to right: me, ania (from poland), frederique (belgium), rianti (indonesia) and pin (thailand)
me and florian rochet, from the south of france, after our first portuguese class
in praça de liberdade, there´s this fountain that is lined with paths on either side, leading to the gazebo. once again, the picture´s sort of dark...disculpa!
the gazebo in praça de liberdade
this is a corner right by my apartment, it has this really colorful building, and these beautiful whitish flower trees that line the street
another example of the beautiful city! that church is real old, and famous in brazil!
the capital building in bh, which is in front of this beautiful plaza, called the praça de liberdade. it´s slightly dark, sorry!
bh has a lot of cool art on the streets, this was on the side of building
belo horizonte (bh) as seen from the high rise apartment i stayed in. it´s a truly beautiful city.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
a copla pictures
Since afternoons are a bit slow here in timoteo (school ends at 12:30, and most people rest in the afternoon, and go out at night) i thought i´d bring you all a couple of pictures!
This is Matheus, who lives in my neighborhood. obviously, i´m in the picture too.
In timoteo, it´s really common for people to have ranches on the outskirts of the town, since it´s somewhat rural here. This is the view from one of the ranches i´ve visisted (a rotarian´s). absolutely beautiful!
A couple of weeks ago, my friend ana flavia´s little sister, lais, had her tenth birthday, and i went, and they had a trampoline, which i went on three times. most fun ever!
last sunday, me and some friends went to a bar over by our school. from left to right: me, fred (who i adore!) diago, his girlfriend gabriela, bruno, lele (in the yellow chair) and roz (short for rodolfo)
This is Matheus, who lives in my neighborhood. obviously, i´m in the picture too.
In timoteo, it´s really common for people to have ranches on the outskirts of the town, since it´s somewhat rural here. This is the view from one of the ranches i´ve visisted (a rotarian´s). absolutely beautiful!
A couple of weeks ago, my friend ana flavia´s little sister, lais, had her tenth birthday, and i went, and they had a trampoline, which i went on three times. most fun ever!
last sunday, me and some friends went to a bar over by our school. from left to right: me, fred (who i adore!) diago, his girlfriend gabriela, bruno, lele (in the yellow chair) and roz (short for rodolfo)
Saturday, September 1, 2007
i have now been in timoteo for three weeks, and i must say, i do like it quite a lot, overall, although at times it´s difficult. that´s to be expected though, so it´s all good.
since i´ve last posted, i´ve really just been doing the brazillian thing.
i started school, at a local university, unileste, but after a week, i thought maybe it´d be better to go to batista, which is a high school here, because the other two exchange students, lukas and rianti go there, and the people aren´t so far from my age (most of the people at the university were in the upper twenties). so, last week, i switched to batista, and now i´m there, and it´s great.
high school here is very different from milwaukee, first and foremost because it starts at seven o clock in the morning (eeeeek!), and ends at twelve thirty. we also don´t move classes, the teachers do, and the school is a baptist school, so we have religion class. but, the people are really neat, and i like the teachers, so it´s all good.
my portuguese is also already improving a lot, although it´s still a pain to use the phone, because i can´t see the person, therefore can´t see their hand movements or expressions, so i end up being like ¨what? okay...sure?¨. a perfect example is today, i called valeria, who is luciana´s grooming person. (that´s another difference, for things like manicures, waxing, etc, the people come to your house, you don´t go to them) to schedule a wax for my legs (aaaah!!! waxing!!!!), and as far as i know, she´s coming here at four today, but maybe she´s coming wednesday at noon...i never really know. (things like this are always confusing, because time and the days of the week are both numbers, i.e. quarta is four, and also wednesday) but really, my portuguese is improving every day, and so that´s really good.
i´ve also made some pretty dece friends in my neighborhood, Recanto. Recanto is different from the rest of timoteo, because it´s somewhat inclosed on three sides my big hills, so it´s like a teeny tiny town within a small one. This results in everyone knowing everyone (once people move to recanto, they stay for a looooong time), so everyone knows that i´m the american girl living with max and luciana. there are also several people from my class that live here, and a couple of other people who i met before i started school who are my age, namely my friends Matheus and Ere (a nickname for Igor). Ere went back to schoool in Viçosa last week (he´s two years older then me, so he´s already in school) but Matheus is here all the time, so we hang out a lot. I always really like doing this, because Matheus is really neat, but theres also the added bonus of Matheus knows NO english, so i have to speak portuguese.
Brasil has continued to surprise me in how fun it is. Every weekend, i do different fun things. Two weeks ago, I went to my first Brazillian party, which was at a hotel and was called Stand-by. It was ridiculously fun, they had good drinks and great music, and basically every young person in Timoteo was there.
Brazillian parties are also well known for this thing called ficar. Ficar is a verb that can be used instead of ser, or estar (Which both mean ¨to be¨) when you´re unsure of which to use. It also means ¨to stay¨, and it also, in the context of a party, means that if you see an attractive girl, you go and kiss her (with consent, obviously). It adds a sort of....element of surprise to parties, to say the least.
Last weekend, i went to another party, and i the next night, i went to Timoteo´s annual Cachasca festival. Cachasca is sort of like tequila, but stronger, and brazillians totally love it. The festival had all these different flavors (banana, mango, regular, etc) and i have to say, i tried several kinds, and i don´t really like it that much. The festival itself was pretty fun, i went with Rianti, and we saw lots of people from school,but towards the end, rianti and i both started feeling rather homesick, and rianti started crying, so we went back to my house and i made her tea (and reminded her that things aren´t always going to be horrible, and to be gentle with hersef, and all the stuff that you guys tell me to do in tough situations, mom and dad).
And earlier today, i participated in a fashion show! This girl from school, Samile, her mom owns a clothing store downtown called Roh, and she wanted to have a summer fashion show, so a bunch of people from school walked in it. Me and Lukas both did it, and i think that since we´re both foreign, that´s why they made us model swimsuits. (yes, brazillian bikinis are as skimpy as people say). But it was so much fun, and everyone was laughing and joking, it was really cool.
Well, i´ve got to get ready to go out, so i love you all! laters!!!
since i´ve last posted, i´ve really just been doing the brazillian thing.
i started school, at a local university, unileste, but after a week, i thought maybe it´d be better to go to batista, which is a high school here, because the other two exchange students, lukas and rianti go there, and the people aren´t so far from my age (most of the people at the university were in the upper twenties). so, last week, i switched to batista, and now i´m there, and it´s great.
high school here is very different from milwaukee, first and foremost because it starts at seven o clock in the morning (eeeeek!), and ends at twelve thirty. we also don´t move classes, the teachers do, and the school is a baptist school, so we have religion class. but, the people are really neat, and i like the teachers, so it´s all good.
my portuguese is also already improving a lot, although it´s still a pain to use the phone, because i can´t see the person, therefore can´t see their hand movements or expressions, so i end up being like ¨what? okay...sure?¨. a perfect example is today, i called valeria, who is luciana´s grooming person. (that´s another difference, for things like manicures, waxing, etc, the people come to your house, you don´t go to them) to schedule a wax for my legs (aaaah!!! waxing!!!!), and as far as i know, she´s coming here at four today, but maybe she´s coming wednesday at noon...i never really know. (things like this are always confusing, because time and the days of the week are both numbers, i.e. quarta is four, and also wednesday) but really, my portuguese is improving every day, and so that´s really good.
i´ve also made some pretty dece friends in my neighborhood, Recanto. Recanto is different from the rest of timoteo, because it´s somewhat inclosed on three sides my big hills, so it´s like a teeny tiny town within a small one. This results in everyone knowing everyone (once people move to recanto, they stay for a looooong time), so everyone knows that i´m the american girl living with max and luciana. there are also several people from my class that live here, and a couple of other people who i met before i started school who are my age, namely my friends Matheus and Ere (a nickname for Igor). Ere went back to schoool in Viçosa last week (he´s two years older then me, so he´s already in school) but Matheus is here all the time, so we hang out a lot. I always really like doing this, because Matheus is really neat, but theres also the added bonus of Matheus knows NO english, so i have to speak portuguese.
Brasil has continued to surprise me in how fun it is. Every weekend, i do different fun things. Two weeks ago, I went to my first Brazillian party, which was at a hotel and was called Stand-by. It was ridiculously fun, they had good drinks and great music, and basically every young person in Timoteo was there.
Brazillian parties are also well known for this thing called ficar. Ficar is a verb that can be used instead of ser, or estar (Which both mean ¨to be¨) when you´re unsure of which to use. It also means ¨to stay¨, and it also, in the context of a party, means that if you see an attractive girl, you go and kiss her (with consent, obviously). It adds a sort of....element of surprise to parties, to say the least.
Last weekend, i went to another party, and i the next night, i went to Timoteo´s annual Cachasca festival. Cachasca is sort of like tequila, but stronger, and brazillians totally love it. The festival had all these different flavors (banana, mango, regular, etc) and i have to say, i tried several kinds, and i don´t really like it that much. The festival itself was pretty fun, i went with Rianti, and we saw lots of people from school,but towards the end, rianti and i both started feeling rather homesick, and rianti started crying, so we went back to my house and i made her tea (and reminded her that things aren´t always going to be horrible, and to be gentle with hersef, and all the stuff that you guys tell me to do in tough situations, mom and dad).
And earlier today, i participated in a fashion show! This girl from school, Samile, her mom owns a clothing store downtown called Roh, and she wanted to have a summer fashion show, so a bunch of people from school walked in it. Me and Lukas both did it, and i think that since we´re both foreign, that´s why they made us model swimsuits. (yes, brazillian bikinis are as skimpy as people say). But it was so much fun, and everyone was laughing and joking, it was really cool.
Well, i´ve got to get ready to go out, so i love you all! laters!!!
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