he is the one who is not me.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
finally, i´ve gotten off my lazy butt, and have put some pictures up for y´all! in order, they are from the district conference at the beginning of may in São Laurenço, from my trip to Diamantina with my host family, and from the exchange weekend in Caraças. (and then the last picture is são laurenço again....)
me and bence (hungary) wrapped in each other´s flags...
so, right before the conference, Jon broke his foot, and so he was in a cast. At the conference, all there really was to do was walk around, swim, and dance, none of which he could do with crutches. So, we rented him a wheelchair, and i wheeled him around for a large portion of the day we had it.
a group of us at the Governor´s Ball at the São Laurenço district conference. Left to right: Rachel (texas), Erin (maryland), Oda (norway), Jon (minnesota), Elena (idaho), Me, Florian (france)
me with the exchangers in "traditional dress), plus mira. from left to right: mira (greenland), cherry (taiwan), elena, rianti (indonesia...her dress is the costume for the dance she did, which is a peacock dance), Pin (thailand) and Oda (norway).
Me and Florian (from France) in our Festa Junina costumes...alas, this dress didn´t fit me, so i went in a different costume, but the girls usually wear dresses like this...festa junina is a party brazilians have every june where they dress up like "caipiras" (brazilian hillbillies) and dance around. It is great fun.
My real festa junina costume...however, as it was ass-ugly, i changed out of it fairly quickly. I still had a LOT of fun though! (kim from Australia is on the left, elena from idaho on the right)
this is: a church in diamantina, where i went many moons ago with my family. Diamantina has many churches, and most of them look like this, with lots of baroque art work on the inside that you can´t take pictures off.
Right outside of Diamantina, there´s this completely beautiful natural reservation, called Biri Biri, where there´s lots of really cool waterfalls, such as this one.
this is the actual "town" of BiriBiri. yes, that is all it is. there´s a really good restaurant there though.
Caraças, where we had an exchange student conference, is really beautiful!
It used to be a Catholic seminary, but years ago, a fire occured there, so now it´s combination seminary and hotel. When we were there, it was all foggy and cool.
from left to right, my bestest friends from my district: mira (greenland), Rianti (indonesia), Darin, Jon, myself, and Elena, (all from the States, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Idaho respectively). This ledge that we´re standing on was quite scary, because the other side was this really steep hill that was more like a cliff.
Me and Brendan, my future husband (if we´re not married by thirty) while we went hiking through the mountains of Caraças. Olha que linda!
A big group of gringos (and some brazilians) who braved the VERY cold waters of this waterfall in caraças, which was LAKE MICHIGAN style cold.
this is half of forespoken waterfall...it had like...six tiers to it, and was huge!
Myself, my host sister Vivienne, and my host mom, Junia, in this house/museum in Diamantina. The house is famous because the owner of the town, back in it´s hay-day, built this humongous house for his mistress, who was a mulata women, and the first person of that race to have anything remotely similar to money. (this was in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century, during slavery).
me and my host family (or at least part, Lucas and Mariana, my other two siblings, are missing) on the cobblestoned streets of Diamantina.
A church in São Laurenço, "a cidade d ´agua" (the city of water...i guess there´s lots of of natural springs there, so a lot of mineral water comes from SL)
me and bence (hungary) wrapped in each other´s flags...
so, right before the conference, Jon broke his foot, and so he was in a cast. At the conference, all there really was to do was walk around, swim, and dance, none of which he could do with crutches. So, we rented him a wheelchair, and i wheeled him around for a large portion of the day we had it.
a group of us at the Governor´s Ball at the São Laurenço district conference. Left to right: Rachel (texas), Erin (maryland), Oda (norway), Jon (minnesota), Elena (idaho), Me, Florian (france)
me with the exchangers in "traditional dress), plus mira. from left to right: mira (greenland), cherry (taiwan), elena, rianti (indonesia...her dress is the costume for the dance she did, which is a peacock dance), Pin (thailand) and Oda (norway).
Me and Florian (from France) in our Festa Junina costumes...alas, this dress didn´t fit me, so i went in a different costume, but the girls usually wear dresses like this...festa junina is a party brazilians have every june where they dress up like "caipiras" (brazilian hillbillies) and dance around. It is great fun.
My real festa junina costume...however, as it was ass-ugly, i changed out of it fairly quickly. I still had a LOT of fun though! (kim from Australia is on the left, elena from idaho on the right)
this is: a church in diamantina, where i went many moons ago with my family. Diamantina has many churches, and most of them look like this, with lots of baroque art work on the inside that you can´t take pictures off.
Right outside of Diamantina, there´s this completely beautiful natural reservation, called Biri Biri, where there´s lots of really cool waterfalls, such as this one.
this is the actual "town" of BiriBiri. yes, that is all it is. there´s a really good restaurant there though.
Caraças, where we had an exchange student conference, is really beautiful!
It used to be a Catholic seminary, but years ago, a fire occured there, so now it´s combination seminary and hotel. When we were there, it was all foggy and cool.
from left to right, my bestest friends from my district: mira (greenland), Rianti (indonesia), Darin, Jon, myself, and Elena, (all from the States, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Idaho respectively). This ledge that we´re standing on was quite scary, because the other side was this really steep hill that was more like a cliff.
Me and Brendan, my future husband (if we´re not married by thirty) while we went hiking through the mountains of Caraças. Olha que linda!
A big group of gringos (and some brazilians) who braved the VERY cold waters of this waterfall in caraças, which was LAKE MICHIGAN style cold.
this is half of forespoken waterfall...it had like...six tiers to it, and was huge!
Myself, my host sister Vivienne, and my host mom, Junia, in this house/museum in Diamantina. The house is famous because the owner of the town, back in it´s hay-day, built this humongous house for his mistress, who was a mulata women, and the first person of that race to have anything remotely similar to money. (this was in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century, during slavery).
me and my host family (or at least part, Lucas and Mariana, my other two siblings, are missing) on the cobblestoned streets of Diamantina.
A church in São Laurenço, "a cidade d ´agua" (the city of water...i guess there´s lots of of natural springs there, so a lot of mineral water comes from SL)
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
so, this monday is a national holiday here in brazil, Tiradentes. Brazil has a LOT of holidays, many of which seem sort of pointless, and that most people don´t know the actual purpose behind. Tiradentes is one of these holidays. SO, in an interest of learning more about Brazil, i wikipedia´d Tiradentes. The article had this picture in it:
This painting is probably the most violent thing I´ve ever seen in art. In case you didn´t notice, Tiradentes has his legs and head separated from his torso. Gllllll.
So, anyway, it turns out Tiradentes is this martyr in Brazil. He´s from Minas Gerais, where I live, and he had all these great plans for Rio and stuff that never got approved, and he owened mines. In the 1780´s, the mining business suffered because it became less common, and the government imposed taxes and stuff, which upset the already suffering miners, so Tiradente´s stood up to the portuguese, and was killed. Hopefully not as gruesomely as the picture above showed.
I should also point out that reading this article made about half the streets I know in BH make sense. And i learned more brazilian history in this article than i have the whole year, because for some reason, history classes never seem to study brazilian history. Duuumb.
So, i hope you enjoyed a brazillian history lesson!
This painting is probably the most violent thing I´ve ever seen in art. In case you didn´t notice, Tiradentes has his legs and head separated from his torso. Gllllll.
So, anyway, it turns out Tiradentes is this martyr in Brazil. He´s from Minas Gerais, where I live, and he had all these great plans for Rio and stuff that never got approved, and he owened mines. In the 1780´s, the mining business suffered because it became less common, and the government imposed taxes and stuff, which upset the already suffering miners, so Tiradente´s stood up to the portuguese, and was killed. Hopefully not as gruesomely as the picture above showed.
I should also point out that reading this article made about half the streets I know in BH make sense. And i learned more brazilian history in this article than i have the whole year, because for some reason, history classes never seem to study brazilian history. Duuumb.
So, i hope you enjoyed a brazillian history lesson!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
hello all!
i´m sorry it´s been so long since i´ve updated, and actually i have no excuse except laziness and forgetfullness. BUT rest assured that i´ve been super good here in Caetanópolis. Things have sort of settled down, which is to say that when i got here, i had heaps of friends through my host brother and stuff, and now, they have literally all gone to different places for college, minus my friend lidianni. and besides that, school has started (glllllllll) which is simply crap. school is first of all, very early in the morning (it STARTS at seven) and also VERY boring, i.e five and half hours of pure lecture, every single day. also, while some people in my class are nice, a lot more of them are annoying and immature, and to top it off, my family makes me go EVERY DAY, which sucks. but, i suppose things could be much worse, so whatever.
anyhow, since i last wrote, that´s happened, and also, there was carnaval, which i can´t say was bad, but was slightly dissappointing. due to my extreme lack of funds, i spent carnaval in caetanópolis with the "trash" crew, which was fine. i had several drinks called Osama Bin Ladens, which were simultaneously hilarious and delicious (dry ice, chocolate, vodka, rum and probably other alcohol as well), and also "ficared" with this guy i really liked, named Túlio, so i guess it was successful. and besides school, my weekends have been aces. the first weekend after carnaval, i went to ranch with some friends and interact, which was cool. the weekend after that, i went to BH and as i hadn´t been in quite some time, it was really good. i saw Sweeney Todd and Juno, both of which i liked, and saw my long lost friends in BH, and had açai, so huzzah. and then the weekend after that, i went camping in this national park in minas gerais, called Serra do Sipó, as part of my friend Chicó´s going away party (last tuesday, he left for a six month stint in paris) which was really fun. Serra do Sipó is really beautiful, and it has lots of waterfalls, which were really nice to swim in. the only downside was food really sucked, because no one really knew how to go about making food whilst camping, so we bought all these ramen noodles and cookies and beer, and the only thing we could actually eat was the cookies. bad. but otherwise, it was really fun. i´d put up pictures, but i cannot find them on this computer. when i do, i shall show them all to you.
the icing on the cake, though, was last weekend, when i went with my friend lidianni and my fabulous host parents to see my host sister at school, in Diamantina, which is a really beautiful and cool historical town in Minas Gerais. It´s about 300-400 years old, it dates back to slavery, when the town was built to house all the slaves who worked in the diamond/other minerals mines. all the streets are paved in stone, and all the houses are old, with peaked roofs and stuff, and there are A LOT of old and beautful churches. it´s also in a really pretty part of minas gerais, all these rocky mountains and hills and stuff, with a pretty nature reserve with lots of waterfalls called Biribiri. once again, i will put up pictures when i upload them from my camera. but the weekend was fun, saturday we walked around, and lidianni and i went out with some of vivienne´s (my sister´s) friends, then we went to an excellent restaurant with my family. and sunday, we went to some of the museums in diamantina, and to biribiri, where lidianni, vivienne and i went skinny dipping in a really excellant waterfall, which was great, and then we returned to caetanópolis.
so yep, thats pretty much been my life of late. the only things i have on the horizon is a rotary weekend the weekend after this one, in a place called caraças (which i´ve been told is pretty cool) and starting some stuff in the afternoons here in caetanópolis. it turns out caetanópolis has this place called the casa de cultura that offers all these free lessons in lots of different things, like capoeira, dance, drawing, all that stuff. so i´ll probably do some of that. and friday, i´m giving my first english conversation class. so it´s all good.
well, that´s about it for now, i promise i´ll put pictures up next time i update. lots of love to you all!
i´m sorry it´s been so long since i´ve updated, and actually i have no excuse except laziness and forgetfullness. BUT rest assured that i´ve been super good here in Caetanópolis. Things have sort of settled down, which is to say that when i got here, i had heaps of friends through my host brother and stuff, and now, they have literally all gone to different places for college, minus my friend lidianni. and besides that, school has started (glllllllll) which is simply crap. school is first of all, very early in the morning (it STARTS at seven) and also VERY boring, i.e five and half hours of pure lecture, every single day. also, while some people in my class are nice, a lot more of them are annoying and immature, and to top it off, my family makes me go EVERY DAY, which sucks. but, i suppose things could be much worse, so whatever.
anyhow, since i last wrote, that´s happened, and also, there was carnaval, which i can´t say was bad, but was slightly dissappointing. due to my extreme lack of funds, i spent carnaval in caetanópolis with the "trash" crew, which was fine. i had several drinks called Osama Bin Ladens, which were simultaneously hilarious and delicious (dry ice, chocolate, vodka, rum and probably other alcohol as well), and also "ficared" with this guy i really liked, named Túlio, so i guess it was successful. and besides school, my weekends have been aces. the first weekend after carnaval, i went to ranch with some friends and interact, which was cool. the weekend after that, i went to BH and as i hadn´t been in quite some time, it was really good. i saw Sweeney Todd and Juno, both of which i liked, and saw my long lost friends in BH, and had açai, so huzzah. and then the weekend after that, i went camping in this national park in minas gerais, called Serra do Sipó, as part of my friend Chicó´s going away party (last tuesday, he left for a six month stint in paris) which was really fun. Serra do Sipó is really beautiful, and it has lots of waterfalls, which were really nice to swim in. the only downside was food really sucked, because no one really knew how to go about making food whilst camping, so we bought all these ramen noodles and cookies and beer, and the only thing we could actually eat was the cookies. bad. but otherwise, it was really fun. i´d put up pictures, but i cannot find them on this computer. when i do, i shall show them all to you.
the icing on the cake, though, was last weekend, when i went with my friend lidianni and my fabulous host parents to see my host sister at school, in Diamantina, which is a really beautiful and cool historical town in Minas Gerais. It´s about 300-400 years old, it dates back to slavery, when the town was built to house all the slaves who worked in the diamond/other minerals mines. all the streets are paved in stone, and all the houses are old, with peaked roofs and stuff, and there are A LOT of old and beautful churches. it´s also in a really pretty part of minas gerais, all these rocky mountains and hills and stuff, with a pretty nature reserve with lots of waterfalls called Biribiri. once again, i will put up pictures when i upload them from my camera. but the weekend was fun, saturday we walked around, and lidianni and i went out with some of vivienne´s (my sister´s) friends, then we went to an excellent restaurant with my family. and sunday, we went to some of the museums in diamantina, and to biribiri, where lidianni, vivienne and i went skinny dipping in a really excellant waterfall, which was great, and then we returned to caetanópolis.
so yep, thats pretty much been my life of late. the only things i have on the horizon is a rotary weekend the weekend after this one, in a place called caraças (which i´ve been told is pretty cool) and starting some stuff in the afternoons here in caetanópolis. it turns out caetanópolis has this place called the casa de cultura that offers all these free lessons in lots of different things, like capoeira, dance, drawing, all that stuff. so i´ll probably do some of that. and friday, i´m giving my first english conversation class. so it´s all good.
well, that´s about it for now, i promise i´ll put pictures up next time i update. lots of love to you all!
Monday, February 11, 2008
hello all!
i´m sorry it´s been so long since i´ve updated, and actually i have no excuse except laziness and forgetfullness. BUT rest assured that i´ve been super good here in Caetanópolis. Things have sort of settled down, which is to say that when i got here, i had heaps of friends through my host brother and stuff, and now, they have literally all gone to different places for college, minus my friend lidianni. and besides that, school has started (glllllllll) which is simply crap. school is first of all, very early in the morning (it STARTS at seven) and also VERY boring, i.e five and half hours of pure lecture, every single day. also, while some people in my class are nice, a lot more of them are annoying and immature, and to top it off, my family makes me go EVERY DAY, which sucks. but, i suppose things could be much worse, so whatever.
anyhow, since i last wrote, that´s happened, and also, there was carnaval, which i can´t say was bad, but was slightly dissappointing. due to my extreme lack of funds, i spent carnaval in caetanópolis with the "trash" crew, which was fine. i had several drinks called Osama Bin Ladens, which were simultaneously hilarious and delicious (dry ice, chocolate, vodka, rum and probably other alcohol as well), and also "ficared" with this guy i really liked, named Túlio, so i guess it was successful. and besides school, my weekends have been aces. the first weekend after carnaval, i went to ranch with some friends and interact, which was cool. the weekend after that, i went to BH and as i hadn´t been in quite some time, it was really good. i saw Sweeney Todd and Juno, both of which i liked, and saw my long lost friends in BH, and had açai, so huzzah. and then the weekend after that, i went camping in this national park in minas gerais, called Serra do Sipó, as part of my friend Chicó´s going away party (last tuesday, he left for a six month stint in paris) which was really fun. Serra do Sipó is really beautiful, and it has lots of waterfalls, which were really nice to swim in. the only downside was food really sucked, because no one really knew how to go about making food whilst camping, so we bought all these ramen noodles and cookies and beer, and the only thing we could actually eat was the cookies. bad. but otherwise, it was really fun. i´d put up pictures, but i cannot find them on this computer. when i do, i shall show them all to you.
the icing on the cake, though, was last weekend, when i went with my friend lidianni and my fabulous host parents to see my host sister at school, in Diamantina, which is a really beautiful and cool historical town in Minas Gerais. It´s about 300-400 years old, it dates back to slavery, when the town was built to house all the slaves who worked in the diamond/other minerals mines. all the streets are paved in stone, and all the houses are old, with peaked roofs and stuff, and there are A LOT of old and beautful churches. it´s also in a really pretty part of minas gerais, all these rocky mountains and hills and stuff, with a pretty nature reserve with lots of waterfalls called Biribiri. once again, i will put up pictures when i upload them from my camera. but the weekend was fun, saturday we walked around, and lidianni and i went out with some of vivienne´s (my sister´s) friends, then we went to an excellent restaurant with my family. and sunday, we went to some of the museums in diamantina, and to biribiri, where lidianni, vivienne and i went skinny dipping in a really excellant waterfall, which was great, and then we returned to caetanópolis.
so yep, thats pretty much been my life of late. the only things i have on the horizon is a rotary weekend the weekend after this one, in a place called caraças (which i´ve been told is pretty cool) and starting some stuff in the afternoons here in caetanópolis. it turns out caetanópolis has this place called the casa de cultura that offers all these free lessons in lots of different things, like capoeira, dance, drawing, all that stuff. so i´ll probably do some of that. and friday, i´m giving my first english conversation class. so it´s all good.
well, that´s about it for now, i promise i´ll put pictures up next time i update. lots of love to you all!
i´m sorry it´s been so long since i´ve updated, and actually i have no excuse except laziness and forgetfullness. BUT rest assured that i´ve been super good here in Caetanópolis. Things have sort of settled down, which is to say that when i got here, i had heaps of friends through my host brother and stuff, and now, they have literally all gone to different places for college, minus my friend lidianni. and besides that, school has started (glllllllll) which is simply crap. school is first of all, very early in the morning (it STARTS at seven) and also VERY boring, i.e five and half hours of pure lecture, every single day. also, while some people in my class are nice, a lot more of them are annoying and immature, and to top it off, my family makes me go EVERY DAY, which sucks. but, i suppose things could be much worse, so whatever.
anyhow, since i last wrote, that´s happened, and also, there was carnaval, which i can´t say was bad, but was slightly dissappointing. due to my extreme lack of funds, i spent carnaval in caetanópolis with the "trash" crew, which was fine. i had several drinks called Osama Bin Ladens, which were simultaneously hilarious and delicious (dry ice, chocolate, vodka, rum and probably other alcohol as well), and also "ficared" with this guy i really liked, named Túlio, so i guess it was successful. and besides school, my weekends have been aces. the first weekend after carnaval, i went to ranch with some friends and interact, which was cool. the weekend after that, i went to BH and as i hadn´t been in quite some time, it was really good. i saw Sweeney Todd and Juno, both of which i liked, and saw my long lost friends in BH, and had açai, so huzzah. and then the weekend after that, i went camping in this national park in minas gerais, called Serra do Sipó, as part of my friend Chicó´s going away party (last tuesday, he left for a six month stint in paris) which was really fun. Serra do Sipó is really beautiful, and it has lots of waterfalls, which were really nice to swim in. the only downside was food really sucked, because no one really knew how to go about making food whilst camping, so we bought all these ramen noodles and cookies and beer, and the only thing we could actually eat was the cookies. bad. but otherwise, it was really fun. i´d put up pictures, but i cannot find them on this computer. when i do, i shall show them all to you.
the icing on the cake, though, was last weekend, when i went with my friend lidianni and my fabulous host parents to see my host sister at school, in Diamantina, which is a really beautiful and cool historical town in Minas Gerais. It´s about 300-400 years old, it dates back to slavery, when the town was built to house all the slaves who worked in the diamond/other minerals mines. all the streets are paved in stone, and all the houses are old, with peaked roofs and stuff, and there are A LOT of old and beautful churches. it´s also in a really pretty part of minas gerais, all these rocky mountains and hills and stuff, with a pretty nature reserve with lots of waterfalls called Biribiri. once again, i will put up pictures when i upload them from my camera. but the weekend was fun, saturday we walked around, and lidianni and i went out with some of vivienne´s (my sister´s) friends, then we went to an excellent restaurant with my family. and sunday, we went to some of the museums in diamantina, and to biribiri, where lidianni, vivienne and i went skinny dipping in a really excellant waterfall, which was great, and then we returned to caetanópolis.
so yep, thats pretty much been my life of late. the only things i have on the horizon is a rotary weekend the weekend after this one, in a place called caraças (which i´ve been told is pretty cool) and starting some stuff in the afternoons here in caetanópolis. it turns out caetanópolis has this place called the casa de cultura that offers all these free lessons in lots of different things, like capoeira, dance, drawing, all that stuff. so i´ll probably do some of that. and friday, i´m giving my first english conversation class. so it´s all good.
well, that´s about it for now, i promise i´ll put pictures up next time i update. lots of love to you all!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Hello All!
So, since i last wrote...last weekish i think? my life has been goooood. I´m now all settled in with my new family in my new town, Caetanópolis. The town itself is really really REALLY small, only 40000 people, which in brazil is teeny, but the advantage of this is that everyone wants to meet me and knows who i am, so i´ve already made friends fairly easily. Another advantage to Caetanópolis is that my host family is really great. As opposed to most peoples host families, who are forced to host exchange students because they have a child studying abroad, my host family just wanted to have an exchange student, so they are really excited about me living here, which in turn makes me want to get along with them and try harder and all that jazz.
PLUS my famiy has children that actually live at home, a son Lucas who´s twenty-three, and two daughters, Viviene who´s my age and Mariana, who´s thirteen. That´s nice for two reasons: i already have friends that live in my house, and i can just attach myself to their friends. My brother has this group of friends, who call themselves Trash (which is pretty dumb) but they´re a nice group of people, or at least i enjoy their company, so it doesn´t matter. And, i´m pretty sure they´re the only group of hipsters in the entire country of brazil, which is really nice, because overall, brazilians sort of come up short with music and movies, but they don´t. It´s pretty sweet.
And, yet one more advantage about Caetanópolis is that i get to work here! As i am very very poor, that is very very nice, and extremely helpful. I´m going to be teaching some English classes here, and i´m both excited and slightly nervous for it.
The other simultaneously exciting and nerve-wracking thing that´s happening soon here is carnaval, which starts friday. I´ll be doing it here in Caetanopolis, which i was sort of dissappointed about before i actually got here, but now i figure i might as well make the best i posibly can from it. Ít promises to be interesting at least. Although drunken brazilian men are the bane of my existence here, and there are going to heaps of them there, so glllll. (potentially) We´ll see.
Anyhow, just so you guys know, i´m happy and jazzed and doing really well. And i hope the same for all of you!
lots of beijãos e abraçãos tambem
mary
So, since i last wrote...last weekish i think? my life has been goooood. I´m now all settled in with my new family in my new town, Caetanópolis. The town itself is really really REALLY small, only 40000 people, which in brazil is teeny, but the advantage of this is that everyone wants to meet me and knows who i am, so i´ve already made friends fairly easily. Another advantage to Caetanópolis is that my host family is really great. As opposed to most peoples host families, who are forced to host exchange students because they have a child studying abroad, my host family just wanted to have an exchange student, so they are really excited about me living here, which in turn makes me want to get along with them and try harder and all that jazz.
PLUS my famiy has children that actually live at home, a son Lucas who´s twenty-three, and two daughters, Viviene who´s my age and Mariana, who´s thirteen. That´s nice for two reasons: i already have friends that live in my house, and i can just attach myself to their friends. My brother has this group of friends, who call themselves Trash (which is pretty dumb) but they´re a nice group of people, or at least i enjoy their company, so it doesn´t matter. And, i´m pretty sure they´re the only group of hipsters in the entire country of brazil, which is really nice, because overall, brazilians sort of come up short with music and movies, but they don´t. It´s pretty sweet.
And, yet one more advantage about Caetanópolis is that i get to work here! As i am very very poor, that is very very nice, and extremely helpful. I´m going to be teaching some English classes here, and i´m both excited and slightly nervous for it.
The other simultaneously exciting and nerve-wracking thing that´s happening soon here is carnaval, which starts friday. I´ll be doing it here in Caetanopolis, which i was sort of dissappointed about before i actually got here, but now i figure i might as well make the best i posibly can from it. Ít promises to be interesting at least. Although drunken brazilian men are the bane of my existence here, and there are going to heaps of them there, so glllll. (potentially) We´ll see.
Anyhow, just so you guys know, i´m happy and jazzed and doing really well. And i hope the same for all of you!
lots of beijãos e abraçãos tambem
mary
Thursday, January 17, 2008
so, after a bit of a break, i´m back to tell you all of my life in brazil!!
right now is a really chill time in brazil, because it´s january summer holiday. school is out, and a LOT of people are traveling to the coast to go to the beach. UNFORTUNATELY i am not one of them, but it´s all good. i´ve been spending my holiday n Belo Horizonte, with a bunch of different people, just going out at night, going to birthday parties, going away parties for the aussie exchange students, and stuff like that. it´s been pretty nice.
also, because of a series of events caused mostly by me, i´ll be moving out of timoteo. i guess i really already have, because i haven´t been in timoteo since right after christmas, and i won´t be going back before i move to my new city, Paraopeba, an hour outside of BH. I´m very excited to go there, Marco Aurelio, my counselor guy for the district, tells me that the family is excited to recieve me, and they have a twenty year old daughter who went on exchange to denmark a few years ago. I´m REALLY excited to meet her, because i´ll be working with her at the english school she works at, so hopefully we´ll be good friends. I´m not entirely certain when i´ll leave bh for paraopeba, but it´ll be soon, i think.
the other exciting thing on the horizon is carnaval, after which i have a feeling brazilian life will return to how it was before i left for the northeast, i.e. school and all that stuff. i have SEVERAL different things i could do for carnaval, i´ve been invited to go to salvador with joal, claire´s older brother, who gets here in a little more than a week, and also to go with my current host sister, natalia, to diamantina, in minas gerias, or i might go with rotex to guarapiri, on the beach in espirito santo, OR i might go with my friend mira and her host brother some where else in minas, i really don´t know, but i´m excited for three days of craziness! all of brazil is excited about it, whenever i meet brazilians, they ask me where i´m going for carnaval, and if i´m excited, so i hope it´s good. It´s from febuary fifth to the eighth or ninth, so it´s soon!
i should also probably say about my holidays. Christmas itself was actually really just sad and depressing. Brazilians just do something totally different, my family didn´t do any sort of gift exchange or anything, and so overall, it was just a sad day. i tried to make the best of it though, and hang out with my family. New Years Eve was FAR superior. By that time, i was back in belo horizonte, staying at my friend brendan´s house with my two other friend´s lexi and mira and the four of us went to his host parent´s party, which was this huge affair, two thousand people, lots of champagne and an open bar with food and all that, and everyone was all very chic and mira lexi and i spent hours getting ready, and we went and had a good time. It was the first time i´d been to a party like that new years, it was very fun, although we had to leave earlier than usual, around four, because Brendan was a bit too drunk to handle the party anymore. His family got home around nine. It was great.
So, that´s it for now. Lots of love to you all, and beijos until next time!
mary
right now is a really chill time in brazil, because it´s january summer holiday. school is out, and a LOT of people are traveling to the coast to go to the beach. UNFORTUNATELY i am not one of them, but it´s all good. i´ve been spending my holiday n Belo Horizonte, with a bunch of different people, just going out at night, going to birthday parties, going away parties for the aussie exchange students, and stuff like that. it´s been pretty nice.
also, because of a series of events caused mostly by me, i´ll be moving out of timoteo. i guess i really already have, because i haven´t been in timoteo since right after christmas, and i won´t be going back before i move to my new city, Paraopeba, an hour outside of BH. I´m very excited to go there, Marco Aurelio, my counselor guy for the district, tells me that the family is excited to recieve me, and they have a twenty year old daughter who went on exchange to denmark a few years ago. I´m REALLY excited to meet her, because i´ll be working with her at the english school she works at, so hopefully we´ll be good friends. I´m not entirely certain when i´ll leave bh for paraopeba, but it´ll be soon, i think.
the other exciting thing on the horizon is carnaval, after which i have a feeling brazilian life will return to how it was before i left for the northeast, i.e. school and all that stuff. i have SEVERAL different things i could do for carnaval, i´ve been invited to go to salvador with joal, claire´s older brother, who gets here in a little more than a week, and also to go with my current host sister, natalia, to diamantina, in minas gerias, or i might go with rotex to guarapiri, on the beach in espirito santo, OR i might go with my friend mira and her host brother some where else in minas, i really don´t know, but i´m excited for three days of craziness! all of brazil is excited about it, whenever i meet brazilians, they ask me where i´m going for carnaval, and if i´m excited, so i hope it´s good. It´s from febuary fifth to the eighth or ninth, so it´s soon!
i should also probably say about my holidays. Christmas itself was actually really just sad and depressing. Brazilians just do something totally different, my family didn´t do any sort of gift exchange or anything, and so overall, it was just a sad day. i tried to make the best of it though, and hang out with my family. New Years Eve was FAR superior. By that time, i was back in belo horizonte, staying at my friend brendan´s house with my two other friend´s lexi and mira and the four of us went to his host parent´s party, which was this huge affair, two thousand people, lots of champagne and an open bar with food and all that, and everyone was all very chic and mira lexi and i spent hours getting ready, and we went and had a good time. It was the first time i´d been to a party like that new years, it was very fun, although we had to leave earlier than usual, around four, because Brendan was a bit too drunk to handle the party anymore. His family got home around nine. It was great.
So, that´s it for now. Lots of love to you all, and beijos until next time!
mary
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