vou colocar algumas fotos daqui um pouco, seja paciente e me espere gente...

I went to Olodum with the kids from the Northeast trip on Tuesday (pretty good until Charlie Brown Jr. took over for an hour...)

two kids going home: Greg (Vancouver, Canada exchange student) is going home and Moni (Melbourne Australia girl) is going home too...

on the 16th I'm going to Lençoís for a five-day hiking trip,

tomorrow I'm going to a capoeira 'roda' (meeting-type thing) at 5H30 followed by a forro (Brazilian dance) event with my host mom and the German girl spending a week at my house

today I went to the beach with the same girl, found a sea urchin, went swimming, used my conga (thin Brazilian towel made to look like the flag...), and then later ate acarajé

Saturday might be headed BACK to Mercado Modelo and Pelourrinho, even after I spent three solid days there basically... on the 14th I have to do my presentation (that was what that last failed post was supposed to be... if anyone wants to see it they can comment asking for me to email them the invite...)

pictures real soon, I got my thumb drive back and will be uploading recent pictures within the next week... sorry to who ever is still reading this :D
-- m

nova familia

So yesterday Paulo tried to keep me with him for as long as possible (he even took me to Vitoria x Palmeiras futebol game until like 6h30 which had me at the house at like 7 and me at my next host family at like 9h30... game was interesting, especially when some guy set of three bombs - apparently 'torcidores do Palmeiras' are the most violent fans of any Brazilian soccer team - they're from São Paulo...)

so now I have a new shirt from the Vitoria game, all my stuff packed in two suitcases and two backpacks (except my blazer and the two paintings I bought). and I'm sitting at the house right now. They have a pool and a really cool neighborhood and a fitness center right nearby! very cool. plus the beach is a short jaunt away apparently, so that's good.

anyway I left my thumb drive uploading photos at the Rochas house (on purpose, don't worry) so when they get that to me I'll be uploading photos quick. watch out for that.

tchau!
-- m

only six more days

I change host families in exactly six days as of today.
Today I believe I am going to a rock concert with Greg and whoever else is with him, and maybe going to the movies and Paulo might remember to take me to prove that his boat actually EXISTS. other than that not much going on, on Friday I had a normal-yet-fulfilling day; I bought chocolate milk and wandered around with Larah, then went to Caffa's house and played some weird version of Brazilian crazy eights with about seven different people, then went to João's birthday party and ate a whole shit ton of sushi of every conceivable kind. And I made a new friend all on my own (which I still get excited about doing, even though I'm doing it a lot recently... her name was Vivian and she was a typical Brazilian beautiful friendly kid... people must think it's appealing to be really white and have an annoying sotaque (accent)

also NaNo update, I finally hit 30K words last night, which means I only need to write like 5K words a day to make it without too much stress... I think I can do it, do you? (I cheated a little, parts of it are in English cause I didn't know the words for some things, like arrow... and couldn't be bothered to check the dictionary).

I will upload some kickass pictures for those of you who don't have facebooks or orkuts when December gets here.
peace out!
-- m

fim da escola

herro everybody!

yea the internet is kaput right now, so the next update might not come until December, sorry about that (but people don't appear to be reading to much so I'm not stressing..)

looks like I'm going skydiving, scuba diving, surfing, probably on Iguaçu Falls trip, birthday party next week, a show of some sort on the 22nd, maybe taking an English test on the 19th to humor my classmates, changing host families on the 29th (on the same day is the District 4550 outbound interviews, so we're supposed to go...)

I can't sleep lately because of NaNoWriMo and BUGS. there are bugs EVERY WHICH WAY, HITHER AND THITHER, BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ. there is this one mosquito that hates me and keeps me up all night, and last night there was this mental bug that kept slamming against walls and the ceiling. couldn't sleep until like 4 in the morning, and by then the moon was all bright and pretty, so I had to go look at it...

speaking of NaNoWriMo, by last count I was 15,026 words in (almost 100% in authentic, I-checked-the-dictionary-and-spell-check-TWICE portuguese. which means today I am about 7000 words behind, AND I have capoeira today.

FUN. STUFF.

I'm writing postcards right now to be sent in a big bundle home and then scattered to the winds. If you want one, you should scurry like bunnies and give me your address so's I can send ya one.

school is pretty much out for me because no one expects me to take tests (though I DID pass the Literature test oddly enough...can't say the same for the Portuguese chemistry test...)

so...this year has been on and off, but all together it has been "all that and a bag of chips" (I've been itching to use that expression for a while, so there you go). end of school means no more drawing commissions which distract me from class (which is sad, I'm getting pretty good at them...)

my next host family apparently has a 14 and a 10 year old and a dog and live close to the beach. looks like a good summer coming up, hmm?

Christmas approaches...we'll see how that goes!

Skype might be out of the question Sky and Dad, but feel free to try calling me to see if the web is back up. probably won't be because brazilians are notoriously undermotivated to get stuff done, but you never know.

peace!
--- m
(also this might be obvious, but no pictures for a while either...sorry!)

pantanal/bonito: the condensed version

things I did:

waterfall/water-war rafting
zip lines into the river
swimming in six or seven waterfalls (lost count)
safari in the Pantanal wilderness
ate alligator meat
horseback racing
clear-water snorkeling
quasi-spelunking (not really I just love that word)
tree climbing
so much hammocking
bird spotting
night-time capybara/alligator adventure
wilderness walking
piranha fishing

and that's just what I can remember
my brain is slightly addled from all that dicking around we did in Belo Horizonte waiting for our plane.

also:
I was published! check it out! http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2008/10/23/coverstory3.html (guess I was wrong Ian; Eugene is small enough to care about one exchange student...though Bandon takes the proverbial cake still...)

I have a stupid tanktop sunburn

I got bit by a mysterious black bug which hurt like the dickens and my leg swelled up

I have cuts all over my legs from tree climbing and horseback riding

I caught nine piranhas while fishing

I danced YMCA, Eye of the Tiger, and Best Days of My Life with a bunch of exchange students (along with Créu and Piriguete but that's obvious)

held an alligator's tail

I found out cigarettes are apparently not counted as drugs amongst Terra Brasil folk, I guess cause Europeans love their smokes

I watched five movies on the bus ride to Belo (1408, the Illusionist, Love and Other Disasters, Shrek the Third and Blood Diamond... all pretty crappy movies but who cares?) also watched Crash, School of Rock and American Pie: Beta Version

learned a few words: 'mit sahne' in German, 'hygge' in Danish, 'ti wu don don' in Taiwanese, 'du er fiks' in Danish ('with cream', 'comfy/familiar', 'suck my balls' and 'you are cute')

I sang parts of 'Colors of the Wind' from Pocahontas in English and Spanish (with Becca and Andrea, the American and Mexican girls)

Tried roasted açaí ice cream

bought gifts for people

got insesently teased about being American (by two Canadians no less)

we had kids from Germany (seven), Denmark (eight), Canada (five), the States (four), Taiwan (two), Thailand (one), Finland (one), France (four), Mexico (one), Australia (two), Belgium (one), Hungary (two), making 38 in total.

held a tarantula and 'sapão' (big frog)

I have so many pictures it's ridiculous

hoje

I have too much I can do. Today I don't have school, but I could go to Rotary, capoeira, bible study with Marcus, and a show tonight with Larah. I can only do one... the show or the others. I also need to go to a bank. Friday I have pretty much free, but Saturday I have to be at the airport by 3 at the latest, then by 11 I'll be in Belo (after a stop over in Rio).

Pica Pau (Woody the Woodpecker), Tom and Jerry in Portuguese, the debates in Portuguese and Brazilian soaps (which seem to just be makeout sessions on beaches and couches for the most part). I also watched Ocean's Eleven (Onze Homems e Um segredo - 11 men and a secret, translated...why it couldn't just be 'o onze do Ocean' is beyond me), Johnny e June, and the Pursuit of Happyness are the only movies I've watched so far. So there's the media update.

Rotary update: Last weekend was the Rotary club Interact Forum meeting, which started out pretty tedious (sitting around sweaty in plastic chairs wondering what the hell was going on) but then we had the festa brega, it's a party (obviously), and 'brega' is a brazilian word for things that are not often used, kind of retro, except not cool... kind of an obnoxious dress party. I know, but it was cooler than it sounds. it was pretty sweet (pics soon... it should be noted that Brazilians love to gather for giant group pictures so there's tons of those now). they are all on orkut though (orkut is basically a Brazilian facebook), so I'll see about getting 'em up here. We have two boys from Canadá (Macall and Greg), several Americans (Zoe, Sherise, Kelsey, me, Cambria, Kyle, Alexember), lots of Germans (Sandra, Kevin, Sven, Michael, Leonie, Anna, Marieke), some danes (Sofi and Mathilde), one Taiwanese girl (Ivy) and one Bermudan (Capri).
we had another American, but she got sent home.

Also I'm changing host families on the 29th (Sandra will be moving to the Rochas). As such, soon my address will be invalid.. I'm sure Paulo will forward mail to my next family though, so no worries.

Happy birthday again Sky!

I will put more pictures up when I get back on the other computer.

Clacilda Souza Moura Andrade - Praia da Armação 40 QA10 - Res. 3379-7805 / 3379-0824 Tel. Com.3249-9284 / 3249-3507
that's my new host family
:)

oh and dad if you read this, yesterday was "Dia dos Professores" (Teacher's Day).. tô com saudades de você, pai...

escutei na música se chama 'pai e filha' de novo (Father and Daughter, from Wild Thornberrys). it made me want to cry. :( miss you (you too mom and evan and jade)

and I just figured out where Marcelo put all the music he gave me. about 500 songs, all of them in Portuguese. gonna have fun going through that lot...

"tchau, I have to go now" (those are the lyrics of a song here, and for some people their english is limited to that and 'the book is on the table' <-- hahahaha)

-- m

eu fiz...coisas

piercing the old rabbit ears (old picture)
pedro and me at Itacimirim

In the next few weeks: I am going to an Interact forum from the 10th to the 12th, then on the 15th I am taking a PSAT test at "Escola PanAmericana". The 18th is the beginning of the Pantanal/Bonito trip, which goes until the 27th... then on the 1st of November I am going to a big concert just outside of Salvador.

Portuguese update: I still have no Portuguese class but no one seems to care... I am functionally able to communicate difficult concepts to my host parents (peanut butter was a bit of a challenge without an example), and I can carry on conversations in Portuguese (mostly by the good grace of those who have to put up with me).

I am watching TV in Portuguese, and trying to keep up with the USA elections. I hope things are going great, you guys better elect Obama or I'm going to have a tough last half-year here...

you know what's really good? coconut popsicles. they are always out of 'amendoim' (peanut) but I will try it! castanho is good too. I have a long list of things I love here, too many for right now... later.

Que saudades Lara!! Tô c/ muito tristeza sem você...cê precisa visitar aos Estados Unidos...especificamente ao Oregon!!! o próximo ano, certo? Tá bom??

--tchau galera

-- m

ps. mom and dad, you should visit when you're allowed to. I want you guys to meet Pedro, Paulo and Rosa. :)

more pictures

check out my awesome complete Itacimirim beach panorama. sweeeet.

palavras inglesas

hey gang
so I need some contributions today... my english teacher here requested I write up a list of English slang words for the class (complete with definitions and possibly examples). I'm trying to avoid ones that if said unwittingly by a Brazilian in the US would get him/her in trouble, but anything else is fair game.

got any ideas?

eu vou

I went to the circus... a birthday party, and I've been hanging out with the other exchange students. So far one has been sent home, and we gained Capri from Bermuda (hahaha fun times). I have still been tired a lot, I think it's the heat and the capoeira. I've been feeling sick too, probably the heat again... and Paulo told me spring started yesterday! Summer is going to kill me.

I've been making friends outside of school, which is good. I went to what was called a "bible study" but it was really just two Brazilian guys meeting at an American guys house to talk about life and stuff, it was fun but I got in a little trouble because there was a mix up about where I was so Paulo got really worried...it got worked out though!

Talked to Lara in Alemanha, I'm already having a hard time remembering the english names for the days of the week (like the fact that I have capoeira on terça and quinta...it takes me a few minutes to remember that that means Tuesday and Thursday...)

capoeira is going well, but last class I started to sweat something crazy and I couldn't see (my vision got all staticky) and I had to sit down for a while. I think I've been sick recently.

looks like I'm going on the Pantanal Bonito trip in October, with Capri, Macall, Sofie and possibly Greg (Bermuda, Canada, Denmark and Canada). hopefully that'll work out!

saturday looks like I'm headed to a music show with some girls from school, and sunday I'm either going to chill with Moni's family or the other exchange students, hopefully my host family remembers to wake me up in time to try church out. Looks like it could be fun!

I'm not at home right now, this is supposed to be geografia class but the teacher didn't come to school...so tchau!
-- m

tô perdido. sempre perdido.

painstaking and thus terrible half-panorama from the top floor of my house
bandeira (flag) de Salvador, Brazil e Bahia (in order left to right)

the furthest left is probably the hotel flag walkways. they are all over. very useful for crossings busy high ways.
the coast!!
the city at sundown

view from projection room at Vieira
pretty dynamic shot...just fun fact, in Salvador, ALL OF THE SIDEWALKS ARE THESE CRAZY INTRICATE MOSAICS. that squid thing? that's a mosaic. made out of piece of stone about egg sized. this is the WHOLE CITY. it's crazy cool.
whoo Obama
next to Farol da Barra

near the beach in Salvador
view from top floor
fusca!
these things are everywhere, some are shaped like berimbau or coconuts. it's crazy.

there you go, city-view-seekers
that's what I got so that's actually good
-- m

fotos

no worries I have read your comments, but this is going to be a foto post.

Lara and Caffa
swimmers

oddly interesting sun
Lara and Zen
impersonating theatrical zombies
I wanted to go exploring, but my friends think I will get myself killed.
sweet shot of Lara

Pedrinho! wearing a Eugene tie-dye shirt no less
walking to MAM (Museu do Arte Moderno)
fun times at the theater (I know I look really pissed in this picture, but those were some of the funniest moments of the trip so far)
beach at MAM

that's not all but I am tired of falling asleep first period every day. night!

one fell swoop

I am going to reply to comments all in one blog entry, 'cause I have time to kill right now. I am waiting at school for the afternoon class to get here.

to Rob and Sara: 'capoeira' is a Brazilian dance/martial art/game thing. it looks and is really cool. as for the language deal, I am beginning to agree. I tried to write a 'redaçao' today (a paper in Portuguese about the nature of science)...tough beans. as for interact, it's kind of cool getting to see the other intercambistas, but other than that it's just confusing... Sara you are very funny haha. as for the climbing deal, I'm still climbing, just secretly, 'cause for some reason it freaks Brazilians out. haha Ian is having a quite different exchange than I am.

Suzi: yea this year is going fast already. I feel like I sort of missed out on the culture shock deal..brazil is very familiar and doesn't strike me as hugely different. people are people, whether they scream in class or not. Interact is a Rotary organization (Rotary is the program I was sent to Brazil through). I am ALWAYS tired. I still learn things and laugh and act goofy, but I keep yawning. people think I'm weird cause of it.

Jonah: whoa you comment a LOT. I will try to be brief. That's cool about Ichi, she is yet another person I often wish I had gotten to know better. I would like to look at that sketchpad when I get back actually... I didn't spend a lot of time around EPL before I left so no, but feel free. also that CapoEira shirt is cool, I just can't wear it that often without feeling really dumb. also yea Salvador is like 3 million people, it's pretty big and very crowded. the favelas (slums) are literally houses stacked on top of each other,. it'd very different. I am not going to go back to being vegetarian until I get home. I have heard very little about Christian (my counterpart?) except that he is quiet, cute and likes soccer (that last one is very typical of South Americans, as you probably know).


Rad: school starts at 7, but my host dad wakes me up at 5 so I have the opportunity to take a shower and brush my teeth and whatever, then it's a 45 minute drive to school through crazy Brazilian traffic. no I'm in the city of Salvador, in Brazil obviously. :)

Lara: huhsushsuah eu te amo, lara. espero que alemanha é muito divertido... mas diferente que brasil, né? todo mundo são com saudades... <3 love!!! você é muito chata e doido também.....mas legal!!

Liz: I'm glad you're reading it! I hope Tom, Micha, Sarah and Christopher are doing splendidly. Jonah too but he's commenting up a storm so I suppose he's fine.

Ian: I have already responded to your comments.... but I was going to tell you that I haven't asked my host dad yet about summer travels...have you gotta an okay on it for sure?

Nybelle: hi! yea people keep making fun of me cause I have more than the normal amount of guyfriends I guess. I surely will not forget about you guys. it has already been a month, I'll be home before I know it....crazy.

also Sky hasn't commented, but hopefully she is reading it. so Sky, I MISS YOU. don't have any mental breakdowns while I'm not there to be cranky with you. :) <3 I also miss Margie and Roxanne and Mike....I love your family. MISS YOUUUU

I also miss Jade and Dad a lot...you too Mom and Evan. tchau!
-- m

quase um mês!!

in 5 days I will have been here for four weeks.

I have a capoeira class today in the afternoon, yesterday I attempted to play vôlei (volleyball) but I am predictably and embarrassingly ungifted at it. I tried though, got some exercise. I went to Interact too, but I was completely dead (given that I wake up at 5 every morning) so Macall probably thought I was high or something.

looks like I will going to Interact as often as possible (on Mondays nights from 8-9), volleyball or futsal beforehand, probably a laboratory of some kind for chemistry (though I have yet to get any details whatsoever about this). tuesdays and thursdays are capoeira, and it seems I will be getting a Portuguese class after all, which crushes my ego a little cause I thought I was learning plenty fast... oh well

I will possibly be going to a movie and then a party on Saturday with Moni (Australian girl at my school who has become my comrade in pursuit of our little English sanctuary. where we talk about turtles)

so this will probably be a good week.
talk to you all later
if you read this, you have no excuse for not commenting. don't be a lurker, it's creepy.


also: two of my three 'bonfim fita' wishes have come true. the last one's tough though... might not happen until I go to Minas this summer

intercambio....de novo

NOTICE: to anyone who has tried to post on the blog and has not been able to, I have enabled non-user commenting, as per Jonah's request, sorry about that. I want to hear from all of you! DO IT. me in the 'gimnasio' climbing around
Lara thought this was just crazy, though it was pretty damn tame...(note the super awesome, not-touristy-in-any-way Capoeira Coca-Cola style shirt)
and my hands got pretty dirty

Lara left today, everyone was crying and it was sad, but I have a hard time crying around people so everyone thinks I'm insensitive and heartless.

Also funny story, yesterday I got busted for climbing around Vieira (I was climbing the structures around the staircases in the gymnasium and the fence near the futebol quadras and Biggu told me he would send me home if I did it again. it sucks because about ten minutes after he told me that I found a really cool route across the roofs of the buildings and that would have been really badass but I wasted my one warning on a really weak climb......oh well, thems the breaks). pics above

more pics soon as soon as I wipe my camera

--- m

entiende? sim?

Lara and João

near the lighthouse (farol)

Barbosa and Tonhô

waiting for the bus

(Lari, João, yours truly, Lara, Zen and Caffa)

the ocean at Salvador

Lara and Pedrinho (Pedro) my host siblings

happy brazilians and a confused american

aaaand I can't play guitar

Lara tearing it up

our classes Seven Deadly Sins musical interval

the whole gang minus Caffa and a couple others at Lara's goodbye party

'caracol' : snails!!! I got João to do it with me

yup I am reaaaaallly white

left to right, Milena, if you can't guess who the next one is you shouldn't be reading this blog, Larah, Pé, and Lari

Larah

Also I pierced my ears today and it didn't hurt or anything but Lara was freaking out and taking deep breaths and stuff. I am really tired right now after Praia do Forte, but I should be able to catch up on sleep a little tonight, considering we are skipping our first couple classes so Lara can pack.

boa noite, y'all

- m

engracados hushshsaushsa

my family went completely berserk when I told them I was vegetarian. they thought they had deeply offended me or something, and continue to ask me what my favorite food is so they can make it every day to make up for it.... they could not wrap their minds around the idea that I do not have a favorite food...

today I had água de coco (the inner liquid of a coconut, natural so it was drunk directly out of said coconut) and then the guy cut it open with this two foot long machete so I could eat the weird albino meat. very good actually.

I will edit this post later with more, but Lara wants me to help with her photo album. tchau!

EDIT:

we have been 'procurando para uma aula de capoeira' for a while now. (looking for a capoeira class), but hopefully we will find one. Lara tied this ribbon around my wrist and told me to make a wish for every knot she tied. superstitious, and everyone has one.

I am now well into my second week of school (though I cannot remember if it is tercera or cuarta - wednesday or thursday). I have been having a lot of crystallizing moments to say it poetically, mostly because I keep falling asleep in class and then waking up with a jolt thinking 'where AM I?'

I am still not completely accustomed to the schedule here. I often want to stay up late but if I stay up later than 10 I will be completely out during school. We have to wake up at 5:30 in order to get to school on time. Also it should be noted that I would not be surprised if I was killed by a crazy Brazilian driver. On the first day of driving Paulo (my host father) completely ignored that a bus' turn signal indicated that it was going to turn RIGHT INTO US if he didn't slow down. We ended up coming to a screeching halt and exchanging angry horn blares. craaazy.

brazilian drivers definitely do go faster around curves if they can. they just don't care.

Lara is really sad right now about leaving, and everyone keeps teasing me because I told them I only cried when I said goodbye to Jade. they also think I am some sort of weird alien because they are always cold and I never feel it.

right now I am in the biblioteca (library) while the rest of my class takes a física (physics) test, and apparently I am exempt from all forms of school-related responsibility as of yet. we have been watching a movie in english in my geografia class, called the Corporation. good movie actually.

also they had a map of the USA with all the states different colors for their political standings, Obama or McCain or undecided, and I counted the delegates up and Obama has 251, McCain has 151 and undecided in about 100. scaaaary. also my history teacher is apparently a communist and hates everyone (according to my classmates)

anyway if you are there and you read this you should comment so I know who I am writing this too.
- até logo
-----m

rápida

quick post:


I am drinking 'maracuja' juice right now...intersante.

here are a few pictures of my host sister and my class. I didn't take these, they are from Lara's avô's (grandmother's) computer.
Lara Santos Rocha, my host sister!
Lara with her dog, Medo (very small but energetic, he loves me because I pet him a lot)
my class, mostly, except from last year. Lara is in the front. the front row is Zen on the far left, a girl I do not know, then Lara, then Lara's friend Larah. the large girl on the far right is Naara and the whiter girl next to her is Lari! there are more..but there are many so I won't name them all unless someone asks.

tchau!!

--m

Os Brasiliers LOUCOS

oi todos!

my second day of school was confusing, again. I still do not understand the teachers when they talk, except for a short period today when the teacher was talking about social darwinism (´darwinismo social´...really? so easy) and albinoism (´albinoismo´).

Lara is amazing, she is so funny and helpful. We went walking by ´a praia´ (the beach) and went to the Salvador lighthouse. there was a museum and it was very interesting, I learned a lot of words and pronounciations (which sounds boring but is so useful...)

Today I was drawing in my sketchpad and basically zoning out (an expression I tried to explain to Lara, and succeeded!) and first one of my classmates, then almost my entire class of 38 students were all crowded around trying to tell me that I´m ´talented´, and one of them (Barbosa, he is VERY skinny and very weird, but funny, he likes to ruffle my hair when he sees me) was doing this hand motion that apparently means ´AY MEU DEUS ESSE E LEGAL!!´ (Oh my god this is cool!!). He had me teach him curse words, he wants to know all of them.

I´m eating meat again...it´s a little disconcerting. I go to put meat in my mouth and my head starts screaming ´NO WRONG BAD´...I trained myself well I guess!

They looked at my pictures of my friends and one girl (Lari) saw Ethan´s picture (not the stupid face one, a different one) and says ´OH! Ethan is...good-looking?´ and now every time she sees my photo album she finds his picture and goes ´good-looking?´. She also said that Ben has ´beautiful eye hair´. Jana said of Ben ´que linda!´ (I think she thought he was a girl...:P)

Lara says she is impressed by how fast I am learning Portuguese...I am trying to learn as fast as I can because she leaves in two weeks for Germany!

I have been so tired because I haven´t gotten sufficient sleep since surviving the jetlag from the flights...rawr

anyway...long blog post, I´m just really excited about this year!!! I´m not sure what I´ll do without Lara though...

beijos--M

ps. I saw Portuguese Calvin and Hobbes (Calvin e Haroldo?? haha riiiight) and Portuguese Woody the Woodpecker today (hahahaha!) also this guy on the radio said ´New Hampshire´ in the funniest way possible, he really enunicated the ´i´ like he was hiccuping or whistling or something. it was hilarious!! I laughed so much I think Paulo (my host father) thinks I´m crazy, but he was laughing too.

also I have had guaraná, cajé, pastel de ziri (crab cake), açai, piña, etc. Brazilian food e muito bem.

minha primeira dia de escola!

my first day of school went something like this:

I woke up at 5:30 in order to leave by 6:20. I got to school and everyone is all ´AN AMERICAN GIRL?? WHOA!!´

first class was English, which was confusingly short. it just sort of petered out and then we had like two hours of free time because the teacher had a ´circugia´ (surgery). Then the literature teacher came but didn´t teach, they practiced their play instead. Then we had a science class, all about sustainability, and then they all randomly burst out in song with drums and guitars and stuff. crazy Brazilians!

Then I was told that I was going to ´participate in theater´. I ended up having to say the line ´muito obrigada seu Paulo Roberto, muito obrigada Dona Joanna´...strange. I also had to read a paragraph in Portuguese but then I read a whole page in English and everyone was all confused.

I had a crab cake thing today, guarana, piña (a creamy weird fruit) and right now I´m eating corn and ´apina´ (a Brazilian potato thing).

there is more but I´m very tired. I also went to a rotary interact meeting, but I didn´t understand ANYTHING.

I´m trying! and Lara (my host sister) says I´m learning ´very quickly´ so that´s good!

pictures soon!

Salvador

oi todos!
I made it, obviously. Everyone~s telling me to speak Portuguese but I can~t yet..haha
I~m typing this with my host sister Lara and her friend Lara. Dad called yesterday to make sure I got in, and evidently I did.

Hope everyone~s doing great, I~m fantastic right now. More updates later (it~s 10 o~clock here!!)

Ç is on this keyboard, it~s disorienting! I can~t type quotes. :)
talk to you all later, and I hope Ian reads this and made it to his host family mostly in one piece (minus one tan fedora...sorry I didn~t find it!) also I hope Ally, Jasmine and Zoe all found their families.

tchau--
Madisyn

ps. it~s now 1 o~clock here and I~m going to bed. boa noite todos!
also if sky reads this, on the drive from the airport to the house the song Under the Bridge by the Chili Peppers came on! whoa!

tchau para segunda tempo

Apresentação!

My name is Madisyn Schultz. I live in Eugene in the state of Oregon on the west coast of the United States of America. Oregon is the state just to the north of California.
As of August 16th, 2008, I will be living in Salvador, a city of 2.8 million people in the state of Bahia, Brazil (Rotary International District 4550).
This will be my junior year of high school spent abroad and I'll be returning to the States for my senior year.
I will have three host families, and my first one will be the Rochas, who live in upper middle class Salvador. Their address is:

Rua João da Silva Campos 611
Salvador, BA 41.815-200

I will have a 15 year old host sister named Lara and a 1 year old brother named Pedro. My host father is named Paulo, he is 44 years old and a dentist.
My host mother is Lara's stepmother, her name is Rosa and she is 33 years old, also a dentist. She also teaches at the university. She is a Spaniard and thus speaks Spanish (which will be useful for me given the several years I took of Spanish in school). They have three dogs (Lila, Pitty and Mero) and some weekends they go to their house on the beach. My house is about 20 minutes from my school (Colégio de Antônio Vieira) which is a private school in Salvador.
Lara will be leaving in September for Germany through Rotary, and I'll be moving to my next host family a few months after I get there.

The Rochas (left to right: Lara, Paulo, Rosa and Pedro)

Here is my journey.
Bahia/Salvador Info:
"Salvador" is short for the city's full name: "São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos" which translates to "Holy Savior of All Saints' Bay". "Salvador", therefore, means "Savior".

The state of Bahia, which encompasses Salvador, has the longest coastline in Brazil. It's name means "Bay", which speaks of the All Saints' Bay, because of its enormity.

The population of Bahia is 13,950,146 as of 2006, making it the fourth most populous Brazilian state out of 26. Salvador de Bahia, the city I will be living in for the next year, is often called "Brazil's capital of happiness". It's population is 2,892,625 as of 2007, making it 19 TIMES bigger than Eugene, OR, where I've lived my entire life. (pop. 153,690 as of 2007)

Pictures from Brazil

http://picasaweb.google.com/maxxgnar/SalvadorBrazil200809RotaryYouthExchangeParteUM

Go to this website occasionally. I'm going to be uploading pictures of my exchange here. (WARNING: I'm going to dump ALL pictures onto Picasa; I will post my favorite select photos on this blog so I don't overload your servers)

UPDATE:
My official itinerary is as follows:

AUG 15, Friday: Leave on flight 1538 from Portland, OR (PDX) at 11:25AM
Arrive in Atlanta, GA at 7:13 PM
Take flight 105 from Atlanta, GA at 8:20PM
Arrive in São Paulo, Brazil at 6:55AM

AUG 16, Saturday: Leave on flight 3174 from São Paulo at 10:35AM
Arrive in Salvador, BA at 12:50 PM

At this point I will have been in transit for more than 24 hours.
But it has been confirmed that I'm spending the first two flights (Portland --> Atlanta, Atlanta --> São Paulo) with my good friend Ian Frank from Bandon who also happens to be going to Brazil (though he is headed to Abaeté, in Minas Gerais, which I have marked on the map - it's the red dot next to the flight path of my final flight to Salvador). His blog is: http://iansadventuresinbrazil.blogspot.com
Check it out.
Adeus!