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!!!