AuStIn's BlOg!

I am the Rotary Club of Yellowknife's OUTBOUND Exchange Student – spending 1 year in South America.

There are two major events that happened in december that I partook in. The first was Carnatal. For those of you who have seen pictures of the big Carnaval that happens every year in Brazil in Febuary, it is my cities smaller version of that. For those of you who havnt seen pictures, it might be a good idea to look some up on the internet because words often dont do justice of describing how it is. Basically what happen here is they block of sections of streets to form a trail through an area of the city ( which happened to be right outside my house) with the start and finish being at the soccer staduim.  There are many different bands that play and they are divided into “blocks”. The bands play on top of a modified semi truck while driving along the trail. Following the semi is another but for the V.I.Ps. To get into the blocks you dont by a ticket, you buy a T-shirt, and the shirt acts as you ticket to get into the block. Usally each night ( there are 4 nights) has around 6-8 blocks going along the trail. At the end the blocks pass though what is called the corridor. On each side of the corridor there are private sections for businesses, T.V and raido stations, and places people can rent to watch the bands pass by without the risk of being trampled by people down below. This year had less people because there was a general fear of cathing swine flu form being so close to so many people. I went for the first two nights only because it gets quite tiring and my lack of sleep was catching up fast. The first night I went with another exchange student, from mexico, and a rotarian. We got to got to almost any where we wanted because the rotarian had special acces from his work in Radio and televison. At first we watched in one of the private areas until our block passed by and then we joined in down below. After staying in that block for a while we went to a different block and managed to get on the V.I.P semi. Once on top we stayed right until the end of the trail. The second night I stayed in one of the private sections with a bunch of other exchange students. However it felt like I went the other nights becasue of the noise coming from the street below our apartment. Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep that weekend.

The second event was the Rotay Christmas meeting/party for all the exchange students in the northeast reigon of Brazil. About 45 exchange students arrived on friday night last week for a day full of activities on Saturday. We met on the beach in the morning to pick up garbage and get some surfing lessons. The lessons were giving by kids from a program that works to take kids off the street and teach them to surf. In exchange we brought presents for them. We spent the afternoon driving around through the sand dunes just outside the city in tiny dune buggies. there were 3-4 per buggy plus a driver. In the middle of our drive we stopped at at a lake and did sort of a zip line from the top of a hill into the water. On our way back we stopped for lunch and then continued back to the city, this time along the beach. That night there was a part at the hotel and we “secret friend” gift exchange. Things wrapped up on Sunday with breakfast and everyone taking pictures. It would have been nice if they stayed longer, as it seemed the weekend passed by very quickly.

Now i’m counting down the days until Christmas, and summer holidays, which I believe start a few days after Christmas. Also in 11 days I will be swiching families for the first time. I met my next host mother at a rotary meeting a few weeks ago, but I have yet to meet my entire family.

I think i’m finally starting so look like a friendly Brazillian now, or a slightly whiter blue eyed version of one. I came to that conclusion this week after being stoped on the street almost every day by random strangers asking for directions and countless other things that a local would likely know. I however not being a local, but a gringo (foreigner) had no idea where these places were nor how to direct them to someone more helpful then myself. On one occasion a women walked out of a store right when I happened to be passing by and struck up an overly friendly conversation with me. It was as though she had found someone she hadnt seen in years. She went on talking about her kids and their post secondary education, where I study and what I think of it, also when she used to live in Sao Paulo. Not wanting to be rude I went along with the conversation as best I could, she hadnt clued in that I wasnt a native speaker of portuguese and went rambling on at quite a fast pace for me. After she was done talking she thanked me as though in the middle of telling me her life story I had somehow given her some good adive. Todays encounters were a man asking where some store was, 2 women asking a question about the carnival on the weekend, and a women who couldnt get a door open so she asked me for help.

The school week was rather uneventful except when my host mom went to Sao Paulo for work and forgot to tell me, resulting in me waiting for her for an hour and a half to come pick me up after school not knowing that she wasnt coming. After becoming quite frustrated I called our maid who informed me that she too had forgotten to mention it and that I was to walk home. I had some great plans for the weekend, including 3 bbqs to attend, and hanging out with the other exchange students. Though none of these plans worked out becasue my mom was still traveling and there was no one to bring me to my events. But saturday night I got a call from a rotarian saying he was going so Joao Pessoa ( a city 2 hours south of mine) in an hour and wanted to know if I wanted to go with him and another exchange student. Figuring that going there would be sufficently more exciting than sitting around at home all weekend, I accepted.  Once we got there, we met up with the exchange students of the city and almost went out to do something. But we endend up just staying by the beach most of the night becasue no one could decide what to do.

On Sunday we went to the science museaum and to a few malls. I got to do something there that I never thought I would do in Brazil, and no it wasnt a brazillian wax…..  it was ice skating. Whats even more strange is that it was an outdoor rink aswell. But you really have to lower your standers on what you consider ice, and skating for that matter. The rink was made of a type of synthetic plastic material, which really had no similiarities ice except the white color and the feeling of pain you get when you fall down on it. They used real ice skates, however dull, so that it was almost impossible to turn or stop. The prefered method of stoping by Brazillians seemed to be falling.  But if you forget your inability to stop, turn, and generally perform the leg movements of skating itself, it was overall a good attempt at a skating rink and the people there seemed to be having a good time. The one thing that made it not so fun for me was the fact that it was 30 degrees. I was so wet after half an hour of skating that I could have provided all the water nessicary to flood the rink.

Later in the evening we went to watch the sunset and then came back to Natal. Yesterday some of my friends that I made on the Pantanal trip called me and said that they were doing another trip and would be coming to Natal for a few days as part of the tour. We met at the mall last night and arriving there I imagined I would just see and talk to the ones I knew. But I underestimated the outgoingness of exchange students and ended up meeting every one ( there were around 40 including a few from canada) and making some good friends who hopefully I will see when I go to the amazon.

This week was a bit different than usual because it was my first in Brasil without a maid. We were without her because very recently there was a death in her family so she returned home for the week. This particularly sad event gave me an opportunity to see if I could still survive on my own. The week progressed as normal, but then somthing I hadnt anticipated happened. My suppuly of clean cloths was almost compleatly gone by the middle of the week. Not becasue I like to wear four outfits a day, but because I already had a sufficent amount of dirtly clothes. To make things even more interesting most of my clothes had been sent out to the laundry mat, and when this happend its usually a good five or six days before I see them again. By thursday I don’t think my over usage of deoderent was fooling anyone anymore. So that afternoon I went out and bought some new cloths, which I think and needed to do anyways. I could have tried my luck with the washing machine but it seemed a little to risky for my liking.

Other than that the school week went as normal. Our new school uniforms arrived finally, they are so much nicer than what we had before.  Before we were using a white, sort of glossy t-shirt decorated with the number 100, to mark the 100th aniversary of the school. Now we have a white polo with a lime green collar and the school logo on the side.

I gave my third presentation on Canada this week, this time in english. I have no idea whether the students loved it or hated it, or even understood it! Throughout the whole presentation all  I recieved was a room full of blank stares. Actually I believe a few people blinked when I showed pictures of the northern lights. Whenever I asked if they were understanding they all said yes, but who really knows. My history teacher, following suit with most of my other teachers, assigned me yet another presentation on Canada for one of her classes in the afternoon.

On the weekend I went with the other exchange students to help rotary with a blood donation event. We didnt do to much there, it seemed that we were only brought there to be shown off, and to help set everything up. Despite the lack of excitement there it was one of the highlights of my weekend. That and watching my younger host sisters dance   recital sunday night. Lots of little kids standing clueless on stage while they should have been doing their rountine, but it was entertaining to watch anyways.  This is one of my last few weeks of not to much going on, becasue, come december all the festivals and events start for christmas!

Tomorrow I will have spent 3 months in Brazil! It feels like each month goes by faster and faster now. My first month seemed to last forever and now it seems like last week that I was marking down 2 months here. Over all things are amazing here.  The only problem is that all the scales in Brasil are broken….. they always show 2 or 3 kgs more than they should.

Last week I saw something I had never seen before, a parade of gays. one night last week heard a bunch of noise on the street just outside and when I looked I saw a huge parade making its way past the apartment. At first I thought it was just a regular parade until my host mother informed me what was going on.

School was school this week, nothing out of the ordinary, sometimes I find it hard to keep occupied in class. But my school is the envy of all the other exchange students here in Natal becasue it is a public school. Everyone else goes to private schools and they find the kids there to be quite stuck up and unfriendly. Being a public school the students are more down to earth and much more friendly. This has made it much easier to make friends. Also my school always has something interisting going on. somtimes its big sports competitions, other times its a week of no school and just events at night. Or sometimes there are huge displayes and presentations. Even the circus came to my school one time this year. Last friday the event happened to be a fashion show. Some kids in the school started a small clothing company and the school is helping to support them. It was well done and the cloths wernt half bad either. The models were students who were asked to model for the company.

On Saturday My host brother turned 18, however he slept the whole day and because of this we missed going to an event of his. 18 is not a huge birthday as it in Canada, 15 is the huge party, or at least for the girls. So instead I went out with some friends and at night one of the exchange students had a bbq for all the inbounds in the city. It was lots of fun. Sunday normally is when I spend the most time with my host family. Every sunday I try not to plan anything becasue we go out for a huge lunch and then usually do something after. yesterday we went to the beach and watched an air show. The planes were very good, they made a heart with their jet stream and spelled out “boa tarde Natal” (good afternoon Natal).

This week was not as exciting compared to last week. It mostly involved me getting back into a daily routine again with school and sports. In the begining of the week I was missing everyone from the trip a lot but it got better fast as soon as I talked with my friends here and went out with them.  Lucky for me it turns out the week I was gone was test week for my class. Even though my school here doesnt require exchange students to do tests its still a nice thought. My teachers assigned some presentations on Canada for me to do, i’m sure to make up for the tests….

I also started back training track and field this week. I hadnt realized how out of shape I had become  until Friday, the last practise of the week, where after I had trouble walking home I was in so much pain! However its great and i’m sure the pain wont be as bad as I get in better shape again.

Friday night I went to a birthday party with a friend, and worked on my newly assigned presentations saturday morning. At night I went to watch a soccer game with some friends from my team. There are two professional teams in Natal, America and ABC. I support America because my host family also supports them and becasue clearly they are the better team. At the games I get to see what real soccer fans are like.  Every time the ref makes a call against our team everyone is on their feet screaming and cursing! And when they score a goal the stadium literally shakes! When the 2 teams of Natal play eachother it can be dangerous to wear the wrong color to the game. My friends showed me how to make the sign of America with my hands and we took a group picture of everyone doing it. Then today at school a friend of mine who suports ABC said he and his friends saw the picture of  me making this sort “gang” sign and that if his friends see me in the streets there will be trouble….. He also said that a few years ago a German exchange student took a similar picture, and had his arms cut off. I was gettting quite scared at this point, as you can imagine. Later, to my relief, they told me it was all a joke. I guess they decided to play mess with the forginer.

On Sunday I went to the beach in the morning and had a soccer game in the afternoon.

I have been having trouble uploading pictures on to the blog, I will keep trying though.

I just got home 2 days ago from Pantanal. The Trip was amazing!!! one of the best I have ever been on.  I arrived in Sao Paulo on thursday and spent the night at a hotel where I met all the other exchange sudents going on the trip.  The next morning we left quite early for our 2 day bus ride into Pantanal. We traveled in style, with a bus company called A.S.S Tourism……. though despite the name it was a 4 star bus with 2 stories and very comfy seats.  Later we switched buses to one which smelled of  vomit, we suspected it could have been part of a different fleet of A.S.S buses….. 

We arrived at a farm/lodge that seemed literally in the middle of nowhere. though even in its rugged location, the rooms and facilities were fantastic. The one thing that took some getting used to was the bugs, everywhere!! including the rooms and bathrooms. They all different shapes and sizes yet equally anoying. After going swimming in the pool there I was pulling off countless tiny black bugs from my body.  Literally every where you looked you could spot some sort of insect.  On our first full day in Pantanal we divided into 4 groups and went off to do activities within those groups.  We went horse back riding and on a Safari/ piranna fishing. Piranna fishing was quite fun, but only one person caught one and it was just a baby. The whole time we were being stalked by aligators who would swim up to the boat and try and take our bait. When we came to shalow point on the river where the boat couldnt pass though they told us to get out and walk. I was quite suprised by this and thankfully i didnt get bitten by a piranna, or an aligator. That night we went camping some where in the forest. However when we got there the tents were already set up and the fire was going so there wasnt much left to do but have a dance party. which is indeed what we did. The next morning we woke up way to early for having gone to bed so late but we got to see an amazing sunrise and with it many animals that are only seen that early in the morning. Our last activity was a walk through the forest where only mosquitos were seen becasue the group was a big noisy. In the afternoon we packed our stuff and played with the aligators and water pigs until we left on the bus again, this time heading to Bonito.

Bonito is a small tourist town with many things to do and see just outside it.  Every night we went to bed late and every morning got up early. The first day there we went exploring in a massive cave that had the bluest water I had ever seen at the botttom. In the afternoon we went walking around the city to see what was there. The next day we went on a hike and swimming in some waterfalls, just small ones though. The afternoons were spent talking and getting to know eachother and swimming in the hotel pool. Over the next few days we went rafting, snokling, and went zip lining/hiking on the tree tops.  We celebrated Halloween by having a costume party in the city. It was very funny to see how each country dances. I didnt bring a costume so I sort of threw one together. I was a danish boy along side the actal danish boys, they taught me how to dance like them and I was good to go.

Our last 2 days were spent on the bus back to Sao Paulo. It was terribly sad to say goodbye to everyone and im still missing them a lot. I think the worst part is knowing that theres a lot of  people who I had become really close with and will likely never see again.  But there are still things like facebook which make it easier to keep in contact.

Now i’m just getting back into regular routine which isnt so easy after going on such an amazing trip.

Tomorrow is my first trip with Rotary!  Myself and exchange students from all over Brazil are going to Pantanal, a region located in the midwest of the country. It is a 10 day trip and we will get to do things like waterfall swimming, piranna fishing, horse back riding in through the back lands. Mostly a Trip focused on Nature.  I also get to see if my malaria pills will give me some crazy dreams….. 

I think this trip would be best described with pictures so I will try to upload some once I come back

Last Saturday marked roughly 2 months in Brasil for me and since this is my first post, I will do my best to sum up my time here so far. The flights here were quite tedious, however I met some interesting people on my way here who helped pass the time. I was basically lost from the moment I landed in Sao Paulo, as people ceased to speak english anymore and portuguese was not yet familiar to me. I couldnt even call canada to anyone I arrived because I didnt know where or how to buy a calling card. After wandering around for a while I met a women from Canada living in Brazil. She was a huge help to me!  We had lunch and she showed me where to go for my flights.

 I arrived in Natal at around nine at night but by then the days had already started blending together from traveling so I was fairly zombie like and smelled terrible…. surely a great first impression for my host family. My host siblings are the only ones who speak english. I have a 18 year old brother, 16 year old sister, and a 6 year old sister. The first week I mostly spoke with my host sister becaue she speaks the best in the family, and she was about to leave for france on her exchange and was excited to talk with someone doing the same thing.  She showed me my new school and introduced me to my new friends. The  next week she left and I was without a translator…. I also started school that week, and stares I get from people still havn’t stoped.

My school is a highschool/college and has about 7000 kids. It has a walled in campus which is huge and has every possible facility almost. Not the newest facility, the school just turned 100 years old last month. there is security at the enterance, though they dont have guns. I study only in the morning from 7 until 11 or 12 depending on the day. We have to wear a uniform of the school shirt with jeans and runners. The shirt is pretty ugly but I after I saw what some kids at other schools had to wear, I stoped complaining. I dont really understand that much yet in my classes yet but its getting better. The problem is they speak very fast and I havn’t seen most of the material in canada so translating doesnt do much good when theres no one to explain it. I am taking every subject, physics, bio, chem, math, history, geography, biology, theatre, portuguese, french,  spanish and english ( where I basically teach rather than learn). Every one was very excited to meet me, and though my novelty has somewhat worn off, I still have lots of friends.

I quickly became frustrated with not being able to communicate with anyone so I began devoting my afternoons and evenings to studying portuguese. It was a good way to pass the time as I couldnt find much else to do in the first weeks besides sleep or watch T.V.  I learned the basics very quickly and this allowed me to also learn through dialouge, which is mostly how I learn now. In school I write down words that I dont know but I think could be useful and translate them.  It seems every time I think im getting the hang of the language, I learn some new rule or exception that throws me off.  To learn a new language you really have to be willing to risk making a fool of yourself… I can think of a few times where people laughed at me for saying something I didnt mean to at all.

So far the hardest things have been adjusting to the heat (30s every day). The food, which is extreamly good and there is such a wide variaty of fruits here. Not so many vegetables. The language, but its getting better all the time. The last major thing would be all the physical contact. Everyone is always hugging and kissing eachother, which I was really not used to.

I have to end here for now,  I am going to my little sisters birthday party! she is turning 6 this week.