A Little of Everything

Okay, so this blogging thing is going to be a little harder than I thought it would be. When I'm not at school, eating delicious meat, or being shuttled all across town meeting this person and another, I am sleeping. It's an exhausting culture, but I love it. I am typically the first person to bed at night (some time between 10 and 11pm), which I feel a little bad about since my six-year-old sister can manage to stay up later then me! I don't know where to begin in describing what has happened, so I think I will just let this flow randomly--which I apologize for, seeing as my thoughts tend to not come out very orderly.

You know what, I am going to make a list. I love lists.

• Ana Clara, my six-year-old sister, is adorable. She is hopelessly in love with Justin Bieber and continues to bring me pictures of him she has printed off the internet. Love it.
• "Exposete", the festival, finished on Sunday with a group called Exaltasamba performing. As their name indicates, they are a Samba group--a traditional dance of Brazil that I am horrible at! I am determined to learn, however.
• School continues and I have been getting to know my class much better. Communication is still hard (obviously), but they are all incredibly patient with me. We take turns grabbing the Portuguese-English dictionary to translate various words. It's been very helpful.
• There are so many American television shows here! The popular one is iCarly. Here, when I am introduced, instead of people saying "Carly Davidson, like Harley Davidson?" it's "Carly, like iCarly!" I think I prefer the latter.
• The main bonding point between my classmates and I is over music. They love music here and always ask me what kinds of music I like listening to, and we have a lot in common. "Funk", pronounced "Foonkee" (kind of..) is very popular dance music. I LOVE IT. I went to my first dance at my school last night and as soon as that kind of music came on we rushed to the dance floor and the girls proceeded to teach me how to dance to it.
• The weather is pretty chilly here right now, to be honest. During the day it is nice, but as soon as the sun goes down (which is at around 6pm) the temperature drops to the low 50's. I need to by another sweater!
• Everyone has really good nails here. All the girls have then manicured and painted and I am very envious. I have awful nails. However, this morning I went for my first manicure! I think the woman was horrified at the state of my nails...but, now they are all nice and pretty! Maybe Brazil will cure me of my nail-biting....
• I am completely in love with Churrascos. Last weekend I went to one on Saturday with Luisa and her family, and on Sunday with my host family. They are five-hour affairs in which all you do is sit around, drink beer (the adults, of course), talk (a LOT of talking...in very fast Portuguese) and eat a continuous flow of meat cooked to perfection. It's amazing, to say the least.

I hope everyone is doing well, and best wishes to all of the Outbounds who have just left and those who are following shortly! It truly is one of the craziest, most bizarre experiences, but so incredibly worth it. Brazil is a very different culture, and I am enjoying learning more about it each day. It's exciting and terrifying at the same time. Right now my real issue is the language. As soon as I can master having a conversation in Portuguese, everything will fall into place ( I hope).

I miss you all, and please stay in touch!

Tchau e beijos.

Sete Lagoas :)

Churrasco!

My one true love.

The crazy "vacas", or cows that they have here. This was at Exposete.

The rodeo at Exposete. The winner won a trip to compete in Las Vegas. They're serious about their rodeos here!

At my grandparents' house celebrating Father's day last Sunday.

Learning how to make this delicious chicken stuffed with cheese and sun-dried tomatoes with my uncle!

T-minus One Month

"Time is making fools of us again."

-Albus Dumbledore

It is hard to believe that five weeks from today I will be arriving in Sete Lagoas, Brazil, my new home for the next year of my life. It is another example of how quickly time seems to pass these days. I graduated from high school a month ago--a milestone I have yet to fully appreciate--and a month from now I will be preparing for an even greater, life-altering experience. If graduation had seemed years away whilst sitting in my second-hour calculus class, my departure to Brazil certainly seemed a lifetime. I am now faced with the strange reality of having to meet the latter in a relatively short amount of time, and by relatively I mean a very, very short amount of time.

I still haven't completely grasped the concept of leaving for a year. I signed into the Rotary Youth Exchange program quickly and completely eight months ago, without so much as a second thought. I was doing Rotary. That was that. My mind had been made up the previous year, and I wasn't going to change it after that. While I have certainly thought about how great it would have been to go to college with my friends, I have not truly doubted my decision to postpone college in exchange for a year abroad. However, that is not to say that I haven't been anxiously anticipating my departure to Brazil, or believe it will be an easy transition to make. To be perfectly honest, I am terrified--but, where would be the fun if I wasn't a little scared? It would be far worse if I wasn't a little freaked out, instead thinking it would be a consistently happy and easy year. Once again I reiterate, where would be the fun in that? It's the challenge of overcoming my fear that will make this journey all the more exciting...I think.

It's hard to contemplate everything right now, and it's difficult to find a way to put all of these contemplations into coherent sentences. Not to mention I am trying to make this blog interesting for you, my dear reader. So, with that, I will wrap up this first entry. Thank you for reading, and I hope to keep you updated on my adventures every (other) step of the way.

Tchau e beijos.