Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Last few weeks

  I have been pretty busy these last few weeks with rotary and other things. The switch of positions in rotary last week, and I did my presentation about Canada there. I also went Jales with my host family. Last Friday my host brother invited a bunch of people to a bbq as my going away party. I have also been to lots of bbqs for the games of Brazil. So it has been pretty busy.
   At the switch of the rotary president there was about 160 peopl, so it was a pretty good turnout. I did my prensentation about Canada and after I gave my flag of Canada as a present to my rotary club. My host dad read a letter from my mom. In the letter my mom thanked my host parents and the comunity of Guaraçai for the great year I have spent in Brazil. Later there was supper and desert, so it was a pretty good party.
  Last Friday my host brother invited his friends over and I invited some of my friends too, and we had a going away party for me. I helped cooking the meat, so when I get back to Canada I can cook a great BBQ. Yesterday I went to the fish and chip place with the same group of people. Two of my friends (Vitor and Filipe) there said that they'll send me coffee through the mail if I send them stuff from Canada.
  Whenever Brazil plays soccer there is a BBQ. When we had there BBQ at my house I learned how to cook BBQ. My teacher was Adriano and he is a great teacher of the BBQ. The last game was at his house, but I didn't help because I went to a interact meeting. We watched two games in the house of Guto,, and that is great because he cheers for Sao Paulo. Today there is going to be another game, but I don't know where I am going to watch it.
  So that is what I've been doing lately.
  Also he is a list of brazilian bands.
        Charlie Brown Jr.
        Raimundas
        Jota Quest
        Capital Inicial
        CPM 22
        Cazuza

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Acodic

  Acodic was supposed to start at 9am, but people started ariving at 7am so the people from my interact had to get up earlier. Later on that first day we had the official opening. At the official opening the official turnover of the main positions of Interact happened. The was also a couple of speeches. After this we ate at about 9 or 10pm so I was very hungry. After supper the was a party, but it ended early because everybody was tired.
   Saturday there was alot of speeches and classes for the new interact presidents. I didn't participate in any of the classes. After all the classes there was some free time were everybody talked about things. At night the was a costume party and I went as a smurf. The was a lot of super heroes, some gangsters, and many other great creative costumes. It was a great party with many different creatures. The next day I won the best costume award.
  The last day didn't have much more events. They did a little goodbye for the exchange students at the event, because we are all leaving soon. The was a girl from Twain, Polland, and another from Holland. The girls all cried when they said goodbye, because it is sad as all of us are leaving our friends and we don't know if we'll be back. I danced lepo lepo again, and if you don't know that dance there is a video of me dancing on Facebook.
   When everybody left we went to work cleaning the school. The worst part of the entire school was the boy's bathroom, because it had 4 backed up toilets. After
cleaning up that crap everything else went much easier. I got to eat around 9pm, so I was pretty happy.
  All in all it was a pretty good event. I do hope to be able to go to another Interact or Rotaract event in district 4470 later, but this is my last one for awhile anyways.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Trip to Sorocaba and São Pedro

  Last week I went on a trip to Sorocaba and São Pedro to visit my friend and my cousin. Adriano (a rotarian) and his brother gave me a ride to Sorocaba on there way to São Paulo. We went through lots of cities, and it lasted 12 hours. It was a good trip even though it was long and the truck was  a bit cramped. When we got there my friend (Gio) walked to pick me up even though he thought it was cold (15 degrees).
  The next morning we went to the mall to drink some coffee, and later went to a bigger mall. At the bigger mall Gio and my twainese friend went into a clothes shop and Gio bought a $35 bottle of cologne. I was in the book store and I bought a book in portuguese, because I'm still not that good at written portuguese. I also bought the jersey for the Brazilian world cup team. Later that night Gio and  I watched X-Men and then we went to bed.
   The next day Gio and I got a hold of Gene and Tianna. Gio and I ended up watching another movie while the girls watched a different one. Gene Tianna and I were wearing t-shirts and shorts, and everyone else had jackets and jeans. Later that day Gio and I met with our twainese friend and ate super at subway. The next day I went São Pedro.
  I took a bus to São Paulo first and I had to switch bus stations so I took the subway. It was the first time I took the subway so that was somewhat cool. I arrived in São Pedro at about 9 or 9:30 in the morning.
  There was no school this day so I spent most of the day with my cousin and his kids. We watched Brazil win the first game of the world cup in São Pedro town square. It was great to see Brazil win, but I am going to be even happier when they win the championship. After the game we ate ice cream and then went home.
   The next day we went to the sports club, and did some sports. After that the kids had to go to school, so I left the house to go for a walk. I ended up watching the mexicans win. When they won I got up and said 'Viver Mexico' . For supper we went out for pizza which was great, because pizza has all the 4 food groups you know.
   I was going to go home that night but all the buses for my region of the world were full, so I ended up leaving the next day. I left 8:15 the next morning and that is most likely the final trip of my exchange.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Before Trip to Sorocaba

  My school put on a party that we were preparing for the entire last week of school. In my classroom there was only about 5 kids in class at any given time, and most didn't come to school, but they did get some well deserved sleep. On Friday I went to the school to help set up for the party later that night, but I didn't actually go to the party.
  On that Friday I went to a japanese party called a Bon Odori with my exchange official (he is in the band). This party/dance thing was created in Japan and later started in Brazil by the brazilian japanese. The band plays at the top and all the lyrics are in japanes, and then anybody who wants to dance dances in a circle at bottom (I will post a video on Facebook). I also learned how to use chopsticks, but I still don't use them well. I will also post a picture on Facebook later of some friends I met there.
  On Wednesday I went to Mirandopolis, because my glasses were broken. I had lunch with the two exchange students there, and later played pool. I still haven't picked up my glasses.
  On Saturday there was Festa de Quentão. Quentão is a hot brazilian drink, and later I'll post the recipe. The exchange students from Mirandopolis were there and they brought to other exchange students as well. The was alot of people from interact, rotaract, and capoiera and it was a great to talk to all of them.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Birthday and District conference

   Two weekends ago there was a party to celebrate the birthdays of my host brother and his daughter. Their birthdays are on the same day so there was a party for both of them. It was a BBQ like most birthday parties in Brazil. It was a great party with lots of friends and family.
  The day before was the birthday of Mestre Cyclone. Mestre Cyclone is the capoeira master in my city, and capoeira is the martial arts I have been training. He is a great master and I have learned lots from him.
  Also on this day there was a party at the Guaracai club. Two of the mexican exchange students were there along with a lot of my friends from school and interact. It was a great party, but at the end it was raining and I had to walk home.
   Last weekend was the  district conference. There was people from all over the district, and from all the different clubs  (interact, rotaract, casa de amizade, and rotarty). Saturday night the exchange students did a presentation, the french girls did pop dancing, the mexicans sang songs from mexico, the taiwanese sang too, and everybody else did cha cha slide, lepo lepo, and the harlam shake. I was the only one who danced lepo lepo on stage, and I was wearing a black wig and funky glasses. It was a good time if you exclude some the speeches I listened to.
I will post a video of the lepo lepo dance, because nobody in Canada will know it.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Amazon 2014

    When we arrived in Manous we had to wait for about five hours for all the others. I passed the time by throwing a bouncy ball at the wall. When everybody arrived we went to Presidente Figueiredo.
   At that first city we visited something called cachoeira which is like a natural pool. There was one with a diving dock which everyone doing flips off it. There is a video of me trying to do a flip but failing. There was another which was pretty fast moving so we were able to slide for about 10 - 20 meters. The other one was kind of deep into the forest so we had to hike there, and we also passed through a cave made of sand. The cave had some big ass spiders and bats to. At the pool there was a waterfall were you could shower but it was falling very heavly. The hotel had a pool table just like all hotels, but it was missing a ball and you had to pay 50 cents to play.
  After Presidente Figueiredo we went to Manaus. In Manaus  we stayed in a 5 star hotel,  but it didn't have all the formal people there because it is the Amazon. This hotel had pool tables that were about $5000 each and it was free to play. In Manaus we went to a couple zoos and saw a jaguar. We saw a show about the mythical story of the bull, and there was some very pretty dancers there. The zoos had a lot of animals we didn't see in the forest because there were people screaming everytime they saw a spider. Our hotel also had a zoo and a nice pool.
   We then spent 4 nights on a boat, and it was the best part of the trip. We slept in hammocks which was awesome because I sleep better in a hammock than in a bed. On the first day we walked on a bridge thing and saw a couple monkeys and birds. Underneith the bridge the water was pretty deep but in dry season our guides said that is just  dirt there. We visited a indian village and participated in a ritual with them. We did a hike in the forest one day which was fun. There was two guys had stayed 3 days in the forest and they said they were going to stay another 3 days. On this hike we walked with water up to our chest and and some sort of insect. The insect was delicious. We also tried to climb a tree, but everybody in our group failed. The guys who staying in the forest did it easily. We also swam with wild dolphins which was awesome. We went fishing for piranha, but my boat only  cought 4. Later that night we went looking for  gators and found two little guys to take pictures with. We visited two other communities and played soccer with one of them. On the last night we had a party/bbq (the two are about the same thing), and then went home.
  I would like to say thank you to all of our guides and Terra Brasil.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Last Two Weeks

   I went to a wedding, and it was the first time I wore a dress shirt here. There was a cerimony just like in Canada. After the cerimony the was a party and super. I walked around talking to all the people I knew and then I had some super. After eating my host brother and I went to the birthday party of our friend Ana. It was a good party and the was lots of people. I left somewhat early because I was almost collapsed with exhaustion.
   The next day we returned to the same place as the wedding party for lunch. There was a lot of people there too. After lunch everybody came to watch the big championship game between Ituano and Santos. Most of the people there cheered for Ituano just to make the Santos fans mad (Ituano has very few fans here).
   During the Easter holidays we spent most of the time at the cabin of our friend Adriano. We watched São Paulo win 3-0 with Boto Fogo. On Sunday the pub had a great show of rock which I went to. It was nice to find out more about brazilian rock. My cellphone now has a lot of brazilian music.
  On Saturday we had a capoeira practice with people from other cities, because a lot of people came to Guaracai to visit family during the holidays. It was nice to see all the people there, and the capoeira with all the different people was high  quality.