Nordeste

    I am going to put this blog in bullet points because it was a long trip.

• Belo Horizonte
• Everybody arrived here to meet and go through the orientation meeting.
• Lençóis
• When we arrived here, after a bus ride that was about 15 hours long, we took a bit of a hike through some bush, and then went for swim.
• We went to a place with snorkeling and a zipline. It was nice, but I wish there was bigger fish.
• Another day we climbed a big hill and took pictures at the top which I posted on Facebook.
• We toured some caves that had some cool stuff in them and I  also posted some photos from that on Facebook.
• One night there was a great capoeira presentation by Groupo Esquiva.
• Many of the people in are group went in the circle and did some capoeira.
• The hotel also had some great food and I was able to make a poutine from the food they had.
• Maceió
• We went to a beach with lots of shop, so I think Grannie Annie would like it there.
• First we went touring around the shops and other stuff nearby. I bought a SPFC hat and a towel.
• We then went swimming.
• We went on a dune ride at another beach here too.
• Salvador
• When we arrived at Salvador we went to a  restaurant and at pizza.
• The next day we went to Pria do Forte and looked at turtles and other animals which I have photos of on Facebook.
• This place also had a great shoping area and a subway.
• The next day we took the city tour.
• We went to several churches and walked around the city.
• We went to a show of dances of Brazil one of which was capoeira.
• Porto Seguro
• At Porto Seguro we went to another beech
• The beach we went to had a super both which is a both that has everthing and a concert stage.
• The next day we went on the city tour.
• I went and looked at a beach that had a elevated rock platform so I walked out to the middle and took some photos that are on Facebook. Most of the group didn't go here.
• Rio de Janeiro
• The first day in Rio we just walked around.
• The second day we went to Pão de Azucar and corcovado
• We weren't able to see much at corcovado because it was very cloudy, but it was still nice.
• At Pao de Azucar there was better veiws and a lot of little paths with more places to take pictures.
• By the way the coffee at these places is very expensive.
• The third day we went to Cococapbana beach and the Flavelas.
• The beach was nice but the water had plastic in it which I found a bit odd, but they had some nice big waves.
• The Flavela was interesting.
• We saw a cop carrying a assualt rifle.
• They also have free internet there and I got a free coffee because the guy said it wasn't fresh
• I know if the coffee was old at Pao de Azucar I'd still have to pay for it.
• Angra dos Reis
• On the way to this hotel we stopped at a bunch of islands/beaches to go swimming.
• Some of us went walking around on these islands.
• I ended up cutting my feet alot, but I did see a wild turtle which was cool.
• At the hotel we had a party and exchanged pins.
• There was nobody else at the hotel so we didn't disturb people for once.
• I got about an hour of sleep at this place.
• São Paulo
• 5 of us spent 5 hours at Barra Funda which is the bus station
• There was a Milkshake shop so that made it better

I may have missed something or put something in the wrong place, but I think this is about right.

I also want to reccommend some movies from Brazil

Only the Strong(english)

Troupo de Elite(portugese)

Besouro(portugese)

These movies are all on youtube if you want to watch them.

Birthday, and Capoeira Event

     Last Thursday I went to Giovanna's 15th birthday party. The 15th birthday is about equal to our sweet 16, but they have bigger parties here. There was free drinks and candy at the table. Later there was rice, beans, and meat for supper. Later in the party there was lots of dancing and loud music. It was a great party, and I am thankful I got a invitation.
    The next day I invited some people to the pool at my current house. Raquel, Bruna and Ellen came first and stole my phone to take pictures. Patrick came later too. It was a good day even though I have posted double the amount of photos I oringinally had on Facebook.
   Interact came to swim one day too. It rained that day, so it wasn't that good for swimming.
   Last Saturday was the Capoeira event were I got my first cord. I got the second cord which is green and white. I said a few words about how I like  Capoeira, and the people at Capoeira, and I thanked Mestre Cyclone for giving me the chance to learn Capoeira. I also met Mestre Aranha who is the president of Groupo Memoria, and a great guy. It was a great event and there was lots of people for many cities. Later we had supper at a school, and talked with other people. I thought the event was great and hope to go to many others.
   I see it is -26 in Melfort, and just want to know it is a cold day here too at +23.

Dos Campos e Sao Paulo

     At the start of November I went on a trip to Sao Paulo and the smaller city Sao Jose Dos Campos. My host mom and I stayed at my host sister's house in Dos Campos while my host father went to Sao Paulo. While at Dos Campos we went to a gigantic book fair which had all the volumes of Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks. The book fair was at a big park with a pond in the middle. I  walked around a bit of the park with my host mom, but I don't think I even saw half of it. The was a shopping center I went to were I met a guy who has a friend that lived in Canada for a bit. I also watched a movie at the  movie theatre that was surprisingly in english, but there was subtitles in portugese.  I also met Adriano Silva who was a exchange student in my Uncle Orville's city. Adriano invited me to super with some of his friends from university, and he made good food. I liked Dos Campos, but I still prefer smaller cities like Melfort and Guaraçai.
    After Dos Campos I went to Sao Paulo with my host mom, and on the first day the traffic was horrific. When we got there we went to the university to look at some snakes. They had small anacondas, rattlers, and some others too. I think the only one not venomus was the anaconda. I also saw the SPFC stadium which was nice. The next day we went to the down town part of Sao Paulo and I saw some of the old buildings and the biggest Church. That day we had coffee at probably the biggest book store I have ever seen. It had books about all different subjects and in english too, but I bought candied popcorn instead. Sao Paulo was nice too, but the traffic was horrible.

For those of you with -20 weather I just want you to know that it is almost always above 30 degrees here.

BBQ

    On my last post I forgot to mention a birthday party I went too. It was for the choral teacher and my host mom is in the choral. It was a bbq and I ate a lot of meat, and talked to a lot of people. My friend sang a song in english for the choral teacher, and there was a nice powerpoint too. It was a good night.
    I went to a bbq on a farm about a week ago, and there was lots of things there. Before the bbq a bunch of people road horses around tow, and then made there way too the bbq. Luiz drove me to the farm, and when we got there we went to a museum. The museum had a lot of cool stuff in it like sculptures, saws, photos, and lots of other things. It was a good day, and the meat was awesome.

Festa de Abacaxi

     Sorry for taking so long to post I actually forgot about this till yesterday. The title is Party of the Pineapple in english.
     Before the party my host family and I took a trip to Aracatuba for a day. I bought new headphones and São Paulo jersey. The jersey is now my second favorite piece of clothing after my Canadiens jersey.  After we ate dinner ate a Japanese food place and went home.
    The party was on Friday, Saturday,  and Sunday nights. I went all three nights, and Saturday was definitely the best. Friday I ate a potato filled with sauce and a whole bunch of other great stuff. There was also a strawberries covered in chocolate on a stick, and I ate 10 of those in the three days. Rotact was selling mini-pizzas which tasted great. The pineapple juice was free, and since I actually like pineapple now that was great.
   Saturday I went with my host mom to help Rotary get more potatoes and sauce ready for the night. That night there was more people and better music, so I found it a lot better. I also wore my Sao Paulo jersey which is good for starting conversation in Brazil. I also went on the ride they had at the front which was fun. Saturday was the best day of the weekend.
   At the party they also had tractors at the front. There was Massey Ferguson, John Deere, New Holland, and Valtra. I don't think Valtra is very popular in Canada, but it is in Brazil. That weekend is tied with the Interact event, because this event had better food.
    This last weekend was the city's birthday so there was a big parade. I was on the Interact float holding a banner. It was 34 degrees out so I felt like I was boiling the entire time. At the end of the parade my capoeira teacher gave me a capoeira shirt.
    After the parade my host family took me to lunch at a family member's house. There was only one other Sao Paulo fan there, but it was fun.
    I think I'm forgetting something, and if I am I'll put it in the next post.

Interact event

    This weekend I went on a trip with Interact to Mirandopolis. There was lots of dancing, food, and people. It went for 3 days, and I found them all great.
   The bus ride to Mirandopolis was pretty awesome. There wasn't enough room for everyone to sit, so stood playing drums and a horn. When we got there we walked around the place promoting Guaraçai by playing drums, dancing,  and a little bit of singing. That night there was a dance party till about 4 a.m. I danced quite a bit and the next day my muscles were actually sore.
  The next day we woke up at 6 a.m and ate breakfast, and then started the day. During the day there was soccer, and other sports which I watched. Then that night they painted all the freshmans and since I am a freshman I got painted. It was fun, but the pineapple my friend painted on my shirt washed off and that made me sad. That night there was another party that also went to about 4 a.m. There wasn't as many people there as the night before, but there was still lots of people.
   On the last day we woke up at 8 a.m. and ate breakfast. Everybody said goodbye and packed there stuff. I got to play the drums this day to so it was a pretty good day.
   Another thing I should mention is the spontaneous dancing that happened a lot. In our hallway there was a gigantic speaker and when it started to play music everybody ran out and started to do a dance. The dances seemed to always be different, and I don't think I did any of the moves right. The dancing here is something I've never seen in Canada and I highly doubt I will ever see it in Canada.

RYLA

   One day last week the president of our rotary club took me to his chair and table factory. He brings wood already cut into large pieces and then makes various tables and chairs. They day I was there they were unloading a truckload of wood and our president said that they'd be there for awhile.
   The next day my friend Patrick took me to a capoeira class. Capoeira is a type of martial arts in Brazil. At the end we joined in the circle were everyone takes turns going in the middle to do capoeira. I liked it so I'm going to take the class.
   During the weekend I went to RYLA, which had a lot of speeches. We also had some competitions in which Yellow came in third. I met the other 32 exchange students but I was the only Canadian. The was only one other person who knew what a perogie is. I also learned there is a lot of Correntes fans, and they are opposed to my team Sao Paulo.
    This week there has been no school except for Wednesday,  but that wasn't really school. Wednesday was a show kind of like the big Hollywood things for the stars. There was a dance with 4 different countries represented and at the end of the dance the American threw water in the face of one of the others.
    Last night I went to my first capoeira class which was tiring but fun, and today I'm leaving for the weekend to some Interact thing.

Capoeira

Science Farm Trees

   The day after my last blog post the school went to a science fair at a university. There were some neat tricks with mirrors and magnets, but I think the best was the Tesla coil. After the science fair we went to the mall to eat. I ate a potato covered with a meat and mushroom sauce and fries. I also bought a Sao Paulo Football Club cup which my friend Patrick didn't like because he hates that team.
    Later that week I went my friend Wellington's farm. I had a nap in a tree, but it wasn't very restful because the tree wasn't very comfortable. We also went swimming, road bikes and road horses.
    Yesterday Interact and Rotary planted trees for tree day. Two were planted at the Rotary building, and the rest were planted in a grass yard in the middle of the city. The ones that weren't planted we gave away at the supermarket.
    After a Interact meeting a bunch of us practised a dance for talent show. I think it is a dance from the gangman style guy but a different song.
   There are these two crazy girls Rachael and Bruna who want me to mention them so now I did

the cow

update

    Last week my school took a trip to a city called Aracatuba. We toured a TV network and saw a woman give some kind of newscast. Then we went to the shopping mall were we ate and watched a movie. The movie was in Portuguese so I didn't understand all of it but I had a big popcorn so it was fun. We played games at the arcade until it was time to leave.
   That Friday there was a dancing event at the school.  I got to dance at the front which was fun.
    This weekend Iteract had a booth at this marketplace thing that I helped with. We sold drinks like Guarana and coke, and we also sold food. The was a lot of different booths and but all I bought was coffee. My friend said she saw a bearded lady, but I didn't see her.
   There was a few more BBQs and I saw an entire cow roasting over a fire, but these are the main things I did.
   One thing I find different is that they don't drink much coffee even though they have the best coffee I have ever tasted.
   Tomorrow there is a school trip to a science fair so that should be fun.

Second Post

    During the second week our District Governor came, and rotary went on a tour of Guaraçai. We toured the hospital, and people from rotary kept saying I should get a shot. At city hall we ate cheese from the local cheese factory which was good. Then we went for lunch and ate rice, beans and meat. What I think was the best was going to the orange farm. At the orange farm they had a system of belts to clean and load the oranges. At the loading station we all got fresh oranges, and they were good. They also had latex trees and we got to see a demonstration on how to harvest latex. When the tour was we got ready for a long super for Guaraçai's rotary club's 20th anniversary.
   Thursday there was no school classes, because instead the whole school played soccer. My class did pretty good, and it was because of the talent of our players. I was on the sidelines with the rest of the class cheering. There was also a little volleyball and a lot of dancing.
    One day my friend Flavio took me and Gabriel to a military graduation. Flavio's cousin had just graduated. There were lots of people there and Gabriel and I wore our rotary jacket. After we went to the Tres Lagoas' cookie factory and bought cookies which so far have tasted good. Back at Guaraçai we went to a BBQ which as always was good.
   Well I think that is it and I'm sorry rotary Melfort for not writing this before Tuesday.

first week

    When I first arrived we had to drive about 3 hours to get to Guaraçai. When we got to the town my host family took me to a town party that my host brother called The Bazzar. At the party was all of rotary and many other people to. The next day my host family took me to a BBQ and the meat was great. I also played some soccer that day and choose São Paulo as my favorite team.
   The next day I went to school. A lot of the students speak good english and all of them are nice. I went to introduce myself to all the classes that day too, and when I got back to my host family's home I had many friend requests.
    Wednesday evening we went to the rotary meeting. I introduced myself there too, and then ate some good food.
    One night during the week I tagged along with one of my host brothers from another host family to some sort of marshall arts class. I didn't participate but from what I could see they were working very hard and if I did participate I'd probably die. After the class was done my host brother bought me and my current host brother milk shakes.
    I forget what day but one afternoon we went to my host uncle's farm. I saw sugar cane, pigs, and cows. There was also a lot of different fruit including coconut. I drank the water from a coconut and it was pretty good. I also had the white lining of the coconut but didn't find it as good.
      On Saturday night I went to my second BBQ and it was just as good as the first. The family who had the BBQ gave my dad a funny beer bottle opener, and I gave them a Roughrider one the next  day. There was also pepsi there and that makes everything better.
    I think that is the main points, but I also have to say that the coffee is great here.