Putting my Life Together

So after a long, glorious holiday I came back to Rio Preto confused, lost and bored. My friends were still here but the excitement of seeing something new seemed to fade and I was beginning to lose interest. My host family is seperated and that struck me strange. I change houses every other wednesday, at first I felt like my parents had `host custody`over me, as if someone traded a couch to have the exchange student on Tuesday but as time has passed I´ve grown to love my family more than anything here in Brasil. My dad is hilarious, very spontatneous and a little disorganized. My mom is very understanding, funny, and charasmatic. I have two younger brothers. One 14 and one 11. The 11 year old is a bundle of energy and the 14 year old is so much fun. He plays in a band with all people about 18 to 20 years old so hes very mature for his age and we talk and laugh all the time. I decided it was time for a little productivity in my life so I am now studying architecture at a university here in the city. It´s a little tough sometimes, but the atmosphere is wonderful and I made friends quickly. I am starting Judo classes, have a trainer at the gym and am trying to get involved with capoheira. Carnival passed a little while ago, a lot of fun, lots of churrascos, crazy outfits, dancing in the streets until 8 in the morning. It was quite a sight. I have become kind of the organizer for the exchange students because I live in the center of the city. They call me and we make up a meeting point and do various activities. Tomorrow we are going to go have a picnic in the zoo, It´s so hot here all the time we like to find places with the most shade. The zoo has giant trees the shade the pathways as you walk. Last night we went and watched slumdog millionaire which was the most fantastic movie I´ve ever seen! Before I go out at night though, I arrive at my house around 12 from school, help my mom cook and talk about my day. After she heads to work, and I head to the gym. My friend just got me involved teaching some english classes, so that´s really great too. The heat is the only downer at the moment, and the fact I cant upload photos because they dont have wireless. I have also found that my mother and I now share the same weakness for icecream. I eat it almost everyday. Also, I am now a true brasilian. I take 4 showers a day! CRAZY...

The Northeast

I have been gone a while now traveling all over Brasil having the time of my life! I went rafting, snorkeling, took dune buggies over sandunes. Road horses faster than I have ever ridden, and it was on the beach. I made friends that quickly became my family all over the world and am now content that if i was stranded in any part of scandanavia I have a home. After getting so close to these people, we hiked, ate, slept, and discovered new parts of the world together. Vil du ha et epla-Do you want an apple in Norwegian. : ) We went to over 20 different beautiful cities, with different history and different beauty. We went on these three hour hikes where we would discover these private glorious almost untouched beaches. I almost died a few times, I got caught in a riptide which was crazy but was thankful saved by a surfer, then another day I was at a resteraunt where a guy threw his cigarette on a thatched roof and lit it on fire and me and three girls were in the bathroom, but we were okay, I grabbed them and ran out the door. Speaking of weird events, Ive had a couple episodes involving monkeys as well. I was hungry in the northeast and realized I wanted cheap food when I came across a little joint that had live monkeys hanging out, so i sat down and played with them for a while, it was neat. And a little unsanitary haha. Another time i was in a car and i had cookies and my host dad was like o look at all the monkies you should go give one a cookie. So i jumped out of the car and was trying to open the cookies when the monkey jumped out of nowhere on top of me and tried to break open the package and then we were playing tug o war until i threw him off and he went flying, after that i just gave out his little monkey friends cookies.. Back to the northeast. We went to this place where it had giant falls but the rock formations were at a perfect slant so it become a slide. Wed hike up it and then slide down, it was so awsome. One place had all these multicolor rocks with beautiful minerals. If you touched the minerals to the water it became like paint which we proceeded to put all over our bodies and take ridiculous pictures. Another day we went through these huge caves in lencois, it was incredible the structure of them. Also we headed to Brasilia where there are more beautiful art then anywhere else, but thats where all brasils money goes so there is a price to pay for beauty. Rio de JAnerio wasnt my favorite place, way to touristy but has an amazing place called pao de sucar which is honestly breath taking. And at night all you see is the city lights, the ocean, and beautiful green mountains. Like i said breathtaking. I have so many photos but they will come later as it is really hard to put photos on my host families computer. So Salvador was an interesting city as well, has a lot of culture, the dancing in Salvador is like any other, We went to a show and people danced with fire and coals on their heads and in their mouth, and did capoheira. We also had capoheira lessons, unimaginable, they could have a tall man of 6ft 3 standing and some guy would back flip over them. I have to go, Im so sorry this is so short, I just dont have much time on my host families computer.

I think he looks like Obama!

My Summer Break Christmas Vacation To THe Beach

December 20th and I am switching on the airconditioner dieing of heat. I roll out of bed careful not to wake up my wonderful roomates, Johanna (Reno) and Chelsey (Canada). I walk out onto my balcony where my nostrils are filled with the smell of the salty sea. Chelsey and Johanna wake up and we head to breakfast. After eating we walk along the beach as our skin begins to turn the color of mocha from the scorching sun. To our left there are beautiful mountains, covered in green trees, and jungly creatures. As we continue our walk giant sand dunes appear out of nowhere. We buy some sand boards and hit the hills. After we decide to keep walking through this swamp land. Almost every kind of environment seemed to appear around us. After walking for about a half hour a new beach opened up. It was a professional surf beach! We sat and watched them for a while and then headed back to the hotel. The city of Florinapolis is glorious as well. There is always something to see and do. Every street has a bar, a place to eat and live music. Artsy people have stands set up trying to get you to buy their crafts.

CHRISTMAS EVE.

My family is so wonderful and large here in Brasil. They invited all of us to play secret santa with the family. We each pulled a family members name we were to shop for. We arrived in a private room with all of my family members and a gift. In all I would say there was almost 40 people. It was so beautiful to see my grandparents and realize all these people wouldn't exist without them. They were holding hands and were looking so proud of what they had brought into the world. Everyone walked into the circle and said beautiful and funny things about their secret AMIGO and everyone would guess who the gift belonged to. This room was filled with so much love it brought Johanna, Chelsey and I all into tears. After the touching festivities all we could think about was how wonderful it would be to be able to do the same as my grandparents had. They never leave their door locked, always are welcoming people into the family, and gave so much love that everyone that was given a piece of it, cherished it, and passed it on by adding onto the family. It made me realize what I really wanted out of life. I wanted to be successful, but not just for me, but for the other people in my life, the people I could help with it. The last night we were in Florinapolis I woke the girls up at 2 in the morning and asked them to go on a walk with me on the beach. We walked to the sand dunes where there was no light and laid on our backs and looked at the stars. We were seeing a new part of the world we had never seen before, It was beautiful. We created constellations together, talked about the future, laughed about the past, and enjoyed how beautiful our life was now. I am now back home to my city in Rio Preto. Johanna and Chelsey are still living with me and they have become family to me. We are getting ready to go out and spend our first new years in a new country. Happy New Years, Happy Hannukah, and Merry Christmas!!! I love you all so much and miss you too!. I know I have changed a lot from being here, but something I have learned is the beauty of family is that they will always be there for you, always accept you and always love you for who you are.

Danielle

Barbecue

People have barbecues here I think everyday. At least someone that we know will be having one and it is because they are blissful. They consist of live music played by a friend, a chorus (sung by everyone attending the barbecue) Various brasilian drinks, and a lot of meat. They are wonderful. I went to a barbecue this weekend, that I think was the best one so far. Two of my friends played the guitar and sang, the food was delicious, we played cards, danced, told jokes, traded stories, took a million pictures. I now have invited my entire school to come live with me in the states for week. I think Reno, NV is going to be home to many Brasiliaras in due time. I love all my friends here. EU ESTOU MUITO FELIZ. I keep getting sick because it gets so hot that everyone gets the flu here. This I thought was such an interesting fact because back home, everyone gets sick when it´s cold, but here totally the opposite. It is truly an interesting world and a small one at that. I talked to Trish back home and she told me her neighbor in Arizona grew up in the same city that I am living in right now! Also, I saw my foreign exchange student friend that went to the same high school as me in Reno, on the street. It is a small world.
BEIJOOSSSS

The Beach

Everyone at Oktuberfest(left)
The Boys (below)

We got to go on a boat trip and this is what we saw

The Christo Luz

The Beach

(This is overlooking the city at Christo Luz)

After lots of confusion, many phone calls, an annoying transaction from the bank and one visit to the travel agency, I was off on a week long grad trip with my friends from school. It all began with an 11 hour bus ride to Camburio. A beautiful beach, warm water, millions of surfers, delicious food, and home to Oktuberfest. We arrived to a beautiful sunny day and all headed to the beach where we enjoyed buying interesting hand made jewelry for 2reais and watched local hena tattoo artists create masterpieces on each people backs. About five hours later it began to rain. It wasn´t a problem though, we all enjoyed the beach during the rain. After we headed back to the hotel where we all got together while are friends played guitar and everyone sang. Later our guide took us for a tour of the city. We went to a concert on the otherside of the city and I learned how to dance the FoHawk. The next day we we sandboarding in Florianopolis. A beautiful island just outside of Santa Catarina. After spending the afternoon cruising mountains, it began to rain again and we all head indoors for the most delicious meal in the most fantastic restaurant on the beach of Florianopolis. The next day we all headed out to Okutberfest, which is located in a mini German city in Brasil. It is similiar to Japan town in San Francisco, but for Germany. All the people there wore laderhoisens but all the songs were in English, so we danced and sang happily in my mother tongue. The following night, we ventured to the Christo Luz which is a giant spiritual jesus, similiar to the one in Rio de Janeiro. It over looks the city and is truly beautiful. After my entire adventure ended I was able to speak Portugese pretty well. I can understand people, and they can understand me. Everyday nonstop Portugese really helped, when I got back to school, and a few kids hadn´t gone on the trip, they were shocked they could communicate with me. A truly wonderful trip. Here are some pictures for you to understand.

My Journey!

I woke up Saturday morning after saying goodbye to all my rotary friends that had visited Rio Preto for the week. I was sad but we exchanged numbers and hopefully they will visit in the future. I began to pack and grabbed a seven hour bus ride to São Paulo. I met a boy about my age and he sat next to me. I was able to have a conversation with a stranger. It was such an amazing feeling. He quickly realized I was American with my terrible accent but we were able to understand each other. I arrived in São Paulo and my host brother picked me up. I went out with a bunch of his friends and toured a little of São Paulo and had Mexican Food. (I missed it so bad, we don´t have this delicacy in Rio Preto. The next morning we went to the coolest concert. It began with some really good Brazilian man and after a Brazilian woman. Then Ben Harper and Dave Matthews, there were so many people. One song is done half in portugese with the Brazilian women and the other in English with Ben Harper. It was amazing, all the Brazilians sang the portugese, and I sang the English, we were all complimenting each other. I am now back home in Rio Preto ready to see what next week is in store for.
Beijo**