April fools!

March is over and sometimes I have to give myself a little pinch to realise that I'm actually in South America! In Brazil! :D

I am trying to speak Portuguese at every moment possible, but that also means there are many more opportunities for a few mistakes to occur here and there! numerous words in Brazil are so similar its easy to mix them up, which can result in some rather hilarious sentences!
Freshly squeezed juice is more common than water here and my family found it very strange I always chose to drink water instead! When I tried to reply 'I like water better' my reply became 'Eu gosto água mulher'. Which translates to I like water woman! My family thought i had randomly changed the topic and started talking about mermaids! The actual word for better is, Melhor.
Another example is the word bread which translates to pão. The word for penis is pao. The ã sound is very nasally and besides the fact its very hard to make also sounds like a rather awkward moan. On the few occasions I would attention this word I would without a doubt say instead, 'Eu quero (I want) pao by mistake. Now I just never ask for bread.

A couple weekends ago I went on my first district orientation here in Sao Carlos! another district joined us which meant there was a mass of crazy cool, exchange students hanging out for three days! Nothing beats a like minded exchange student! The first night we stayed in a hostel close to the university usually intended for male soccor players which therefore wasn't the cleanest of accommodation. Needless to say it was an experience!

We were lucky enough to visit a coffee factory and Tam museum - one of the best museums in Brasil. But my favourite day was the last! In the morning we mere given the opportunity to milk a cow which I obviously took up! It was surprisingly fun, and I did the good old exchange student thing and tried the milk after! I can't say it was amazing, but if in need its definitely drinkable!

After this we went to a natural lake where the sand was a metal which meant the water bubbled underneath it! When you put your free on the ground it wasn't solid, instead you sunk through and it felt like air! When I tried to pull my feet it felt like they were being pulled on!

Lastly that day we walked to a waterfall and got to dive in! I was really nervous at the start, the water wasn't deep at all so you had to skim on top rather than diving deep! But after a couple tries I think I had it mastered!

Its always so sad saying goodbye to the exchange student, you never know who you will see and won't see again! But luckily we have another encounter in May before all the oldies leave! :D

My host sister on the left and I! 

I am moving families today! I am excited but so nervous! It was nice to have settled into another family and know how everything worked and what not! But I'm sure now that I can speak a little Portuguese I will become familiar with everything a lot faster. I will be living in a different condomino (this is like a residential area with security gates and guards). I will have a 19 yr old sister who went on exchange to Germany, and two brothers aged 17 and 12. I'm sure moving families will make time fly by even more so I am trying to live everyday here to the max! I have looked into taking some extra activities outside of school and think I am going to take water aerobics, tap class, various rhythm class which teaches the samba, salsa, tango etc and I am trying to find a Portuguese class! This will surely keep me busy and hopefully surround me with some cool locals ;)

It was Easter this weekend and I must say so different to NZ I felt a little homesick! Here Easter is really only aimed for the little children, whereas in NZ its the day where I can become a child! We went to Porto Ferreira again and I'm sure half the town turned up at the house! It was nice to just chill, relax by the pool and meet new people but by the second night I was absolutely exhausted from all the translating and I went to bed at 9 and didn't wake up until 9.30. Somehow as an exchange student your always tired, no matter how much sleep you get!

I have my school trip coming up in ten days, the amazon trip in a months, and another encounter three days after so the next two months are going to be filled with fun and I will surely have a lot to update you all with!

But Tchau for now! :)