July Holidays!

These were my first holidays here in Brasil! And with 6 and a half weeks off I am starting to appreciate the NZ way of school holidays! What turned out to be a nice breath of fresh air has turned into a long road of boring days! with all the other exchange students having left, my siblings gone on an adventure and class mates all travelling! I hate to say it but I am itching to get back into the routine of things and the 5th of August really couldn't come any sooner! Although i can't complain as I traveled a lot in the school term, i feel sorry for all my classmates who have to stick the term out for so long (February until July)! New Zealand definitely has the right idea allowing us to take a break and restart our brain regularly!

So my trip along the coast was absolutely amazing! Our first stop was a little town Ubatuba, and because the city has acquired the name Uba- chuva ( chuba being rain) i definitely didn't have high hopes for this small town! However once we arrived I was taken by surprise. This city took on the 'small cute beach town' kind of look but actually had 365 different beaches! One for everyday of the year, my dream town! Aaand it didn't rain once! Our first two days were in the high 20's and the last day 34 degrees! In the middle of winter I might add.

After this we drove along to RIOOOOOOOO! I have been waiting 6 months for this moment but was disappointed when we got there and had hit the rare bad weather! It was pretty cold (20 degrees which I now feel as cold!) but we still enjoyed a bike ride along Copacabana beach and managed to visit the Christ Redeemer which was absolutely beautiful!

 And our last few days were spent up in the mountains in Petropolis and Teresopolis, it was about 13 degrees and I was wearing nearly all the clothes I had bought! Petropolis which appeared to be a poor city turned to out to hold some great history! We visited a museum which was one of the summer houses of the royals back in the imperial times! All the furniture, artwork, everything was preserved so much we had to wear special shoes and couldn’t take pictures! The museum held an original crown and robe which was absolutely beautiful to look at! The crown had 639 diamonds and 77 pearls! This house is one of my favourite things I have seen in Brasil.

Biking along Copacabana and Ipanema Beaches!

Me and the Turkey Exchange Student

Being an adventurous kiwi at the waterfalls!

Island beach we went to, was a 3 hour boat ride!

The water was so clear! Paradise!!!

Paraty, Original 15th century street, no cars allowed

There is no carpet here in any houses in Brasil, just because its usually not cold enough for it to be needed! But because of this, brazilians wear shoes all the time in the house! When they wake up, the first thing they do is put shoes on, even if they aren't going out! For me this is so strange! Who thinks when they first wake 'oooh shoe time!', instead i'm more like 'oh food time!'  Its been such a hard habit for me to get into and my host parents are having to remind me all the time to put some shoes on! Luckily my lovely mother sent me a pair of slippers to use but I mean everybody knows kiwi's love to walk around in bare feet!

I thought it was about time I showed you my room and family since I will most probably be moving families in a month! I have been so lucky with my room, i have a walk in wardrobe which than continues onto my own bathroom! Most of the rooms here in Brasil have there own bathrooms, it will be strange returning to a communal one in NZ! aaand the thing i find most strange is all doors have locks, suspicious! Just so you know, my family isn't always this funny looking ;) but i love this photo!

I have been busy telling everyone back home that I haven't really had a winter here yet, apart from the beginning of June most days are atleast in the low 20's. However i'm pretty sure I've now screwed that good luck up for me! these past three days have been absolutely freezing! Brazilian homes are made to keep the cool out and heat in, which is absolutely fantastic in the 35 degree summer heat! But when the the 8 degree whether hits, I don't have much love for the brick walls! There are no heating devices and I've resulted in leaving the bathroom door open when I have a shower to help let some sort of heat into my room (i don't think it really works but i'm going to keep on hoping). I'm pretty sure tonight i'm going to be making a homemade hottie to help warm the bed!

There are three new exchange students coming to my city at the beginning of August, one from the states who will be in my club and the other two from Mexican joining one of the other rotary clubs. I have only spoken to one of the girls but she seems lovely! I can't wait to have some new company! However they have some pretty big shoes to fill because my last exchange friends were pretty damn cool! All three of them will be going to my school which will be so strange since it was just me for 6 months! And i am a little nervous because it took so long to make some great school friends I don't want things somehow changing because they are arriving! However I am pretty certain  they are going to be in the year below me and everything will work out! I have definitely learnt along this crazy road 'Everything happens for a reason'.

I have recently been having some problems with my jaw here and it has probably been one of the hardest things to go through without family! Just being able to explain everything in English and therefore have people to understand exactly rather than 'kinda'! But long story short, I have a displaced disk on both sides of my jaw, however the right is more severe and most of time held in a locked position, so will require surgery when i get back to NZ. At the moment I will be fitted with a plate to help alleviate some of the pressure on my jaw, and  which also means I can go back to enjoying the last half of my exchange! Still feels so strange to say that!

I gave my first public presentation to an English school here which I really enjoyed! I was so nervous at the beginning as I was then told i had to talk for 30 minutes but i had shortened my presentation to only 15 minutes! It turned out well though because everyone asked questions for the next 45 minutes! It just showed me how little people know about our good old country! Most of the people didn't even know NZ was made of two main islands! It was really cool to see how interested people were in NZ ranging from where I live, to how the government works to the relationship between pakeha and maori people.

I think that is all for now! and update soon! 

Saying Goodbye

This was a draft i did a while ago but never posted so here it is anyway!

This past week has been one of the saddest weeks here as I said goodbye to my two best friends on Tuesday and Wednesday! Although I only new them for 5 months of my life, they probably know and understand more about me than those friends I have back home who I have known for most of my life. I found this amazing quote on an exchange student group on facebook and couldn't help but share it with you all!

"I am an exchange student. How do you know what is a dream if you never accomplished one? How do you know what is an adventure if you never took part in one? How do you know what is anguish if you never said goodbye to your family and friends with your eyes full of tears? How do you know what is being desperate, if you never arrived in a place alone and could not understand a word of what everyon......e else was saying? How do you know what is diversity if you never lived under the same roof with people from all over the world? How do you know what is tolerance, if you never had to get used to something different even if you didn’t like it. How do you know what is autonomy, if you never had the chance to decide something by yourself? How do you know what it means to grow up, if you never stopped being a child to start a new course? How do you know what is to be helpless, if you never wanted to hug someone and had a computer screen to prevent you from doing it? How do you know what is distance, if you never, looking at a map, said “I am so far away”? How do you know what is a language, if you never had to learn one to make friends? How do you know what is patriotism, if you never shouted “ I love my country” holding a flag in your hands? How do you know what is an opportunity, if you never caught one? How do you know what is pride, if you never experienced it for yourself at realizing how much you have accomplished? How do you know what is a friend, if the circumstances never showed you the true ones. How do you know what is a family, if you never had one that supported you unconditionally? How do you know what are borders, if you never crossed yours, to see what there was on the other side? How do you know what is imagination, if you never thought about the moment when you would go back home? How do you know the world, if you have never been an exchange student?

I am now on 5 weeks holiday, woohoo, first holidays of the year, and guess what!!!! I'm off to Rio babyyyyy! My old host mum a short term exchange student from Turkey who she taking to travel up the coast of Brasil and she asked me to go with her! Ten days of travel, four of those which will be in Rio! I am so excited, and can't wait for the 5th of July.

I had my first cultural disagreement with my family the other day! Here in Brasil it is normal for students to stay living with their parent for a very long time. My family said it would even be considered normal for kids to stay until they are 40 if they haven't married yet! I felt like I had walked into a country set in the mid 1900's. It was so strange for me to think children here rely on their parents for so long, they don't learnt to live off their own money, make their own decisions, and be able to rely on only themselves until such a late age. Unlike NZ where a lot of us move out of home for university, here it is more usual for children to stay in the same city for university. This is partly to do with cost, but even those working full time will not find their own place to live and are not required to help out in anyway at home. One thing my host parents said to me is 'but we like our children, they will always be our babies and we want them living at home'. It was as if they thought that when we move out of home at 18 it wasn't to learnt to live on our own two feet but instead  its because 'our parents don't love us'. I had to stop myself telling them everyone needs to let go of their children and let them live life independently. However I knew they weren't going to understand or agree with this and in the end is just showed my how diverse cultures are over the world!