Wednesday 18 December 2013

"Time is precious, waste it wisely"


I sit here writing this in the airport on my way to a three week holiday in the north of Brazil. I know I’ve been rather slack on the writing front the last couple of months but I can’t even begin to describe the wirl  wind of a ride I’ve had and just really couldn’t bring myself to write anything due to the fact I know I have to face that this year is coming to an end!

Going all the way back to my birthday, it was a pretty interesting day! The fact that my birthday wishes started a day early since time is a little behind was the first strange thing!! I couldn’t figure which day my birthday was – my brain really was confused.

Then the 18th came about in Brazil and nobody said anything, literally. I had been sending messages to the exchange students over the days before hand asking if we could organize something to do, and no one had been responding, to the point where I sent them a message asking if they were angry at me!!! Their simple reply was ‘no’. 
So the non-existent happy birthdays were really upsetting. I was close to tears in class, and sent a message to mum in NZ saying, ‘ This is probably the worst birthday I have ever had in my life, no one has said anything  to me, I’m probably not going out tonight because no one is replying, we’re just going to have to celebrate in NZ’.
the worst part followed shortly after, my mum here sends me a message and says, “I’m having some problems at work and I won’t be able to pick you up at school, your brother and sister will have lunch with their father and Romiltom (her boyfriend) will pick you up”. I’m pretty certain I cried a little. With a few sniffles on the way to lunch we arrived after Romiltom did a few errands and to my complete surprise, my host mum had organized a small surprise party!! All the exchange students and my family were there with presents, a birthday cake and my favourite food!! I had gone through all that suffering because of this, and the day turned out to be one of the best days of my life! I went out to a restaurant that night with all my school friends and the exchange students!!! Literally I could not have asked for a better day!! 

Exchange Students




Sursprise party!!

Best birthday cake I have ever tasted



I had my school graduation and dance on the 6th and 7th of December! It was so completely new which meant I was utterly nervous about every tiny detail! Especially because we had to try and look presentable not just for one day but for two! Its moments like these when I really wish that I was a guy! The Friday was the actual graduation ceremony where everybody received their diplomas! It was a little bit more important for the others considering they had managed to make it through 12 very difficult years of school, however i was still pretty chuffed that I managed to complete 13 yrs of school too! 

Receiving the diploma

The Saturday night was a dinner until midnight generally with the familly of whose graduating, and then a dance until 4am. Bruna, one of my really good friends at school invited me to sit with her family for the dinner! I was super glad I wasn't going to be orphaned for the night! However when it came to the time for the graduates to dance with one of their parents, i was overcome by probably the most homesick I have felt in a while, just to see everyone celebrating with their parents, so I spent a lot of the night with the guys from my class who were all sitting at a table together rather than with their families. Kindly too, a guy in my class asked me to dance the waltz so i didn't have to feel too disheartened i didn't have my family there!  

School Friends! 


The last pretty big moment I have had was a week or so ago! My mum here in Brazil rung and said Andre, the district youth officer of rotary wanted to have a word with me! Obviously I was freaking out a little, you know how it is, even if you know you haven't done any thing wrong. Eight comes around and i all ready to leave, we drop my brother and sister off at a friends house, go to look at some lights, waited for a while for them not to turn on, all the while my hearts freaking out more and more. Finally we arrive and he goes 'you can sit here, so do you know why your here', and of course i really had no idea so kind of just squeaked ou 'lets see'. At that moment everyone from rotary jumped out and yelled SURPRISE! turns out, it was my early leaving party! we ate pizza, i got a couple presents and some people said a few things! it was really lovely but one thing i have learned this year is 1. I am really way too gullable and 2. trust too much of what people tell me.

This passed weekend I spent the whole time crying! I swear that after this year it really can not be possible to have anymore tears left in my system!! Friday was my goodbye party with most of my school friends but then Saturday goodbye to a couple of others! They are the most amazing bunch of people I have ever met! It was difficult to be welcomed into the group in the beginning, but the really are the most carefree, do whatever, have fun bunch of people ever! Its been so hard to leave, especially since half of them are begging me to stay! But I know they’ll be here forever which just means I’m going to have to return super soon! Because I don't know if I really can say goodbye to these amazing people! <3

I know that this will not be my last post yet! I still have three weeks to get crazy in Brazilllll! So expect to here from me again! 

P.s I will return to NZ with huge welts all over, my body really does not like mosquito bites -_-  and they love me. 

300 days!

I wrote this post at 300 days and never posted it so here goes!
This is a post i wrote a month ago and never ended up posting!

To think that I have now been living this crazy life is a little mind boggling! I have managed to learn another language,, find another family on the otherside of the world, and find the best of friends in a corner of the world i didn't know anything about 1 year ago!

I am going through a strange stage at the moment and i can't quite figure out why! I think its the fact that I am completely a different person and terrified to go home!  I now can't say I am as close to my NZ fam as I once was, I'm going to be a big old adult in a couple of days and I don't like that so much! the year of being 17 has been pretty darn fantastic and I'd be quite happy to be 17 forever! and I have made a new life with new friends and family! For once in my life I can't change something that i really want to, going home. I'm pretty use to being able to work hard and achieve something I want or beg and grovel until I get it, however this time there is literally nothing I can do.

School is nearly over! two weeks to go! and very few people have been going to school each day! except for me! I have been making the most of my last days there!!!

I've been thinking about a couple of things that I once thought were strange but never wrote on here! One thing especially is cleaning!

Cleaning the dishes is a strange task! Rather than filling the sink with water and adding dishwashing liquid, they add a little dishwashing liquid to the yellow sponge thing  and scrub each dish individually with this. They then leave the dish aside aside with the foam still on it whilst cleaning all the other dishes, and at the end rinse each dish leaving it to dry! Most people here also don't have a dishwasher, they wash everything by hand!
Then it comes to washing the floor! Th first time i saw this it was absolutely hilarious! As they don't have carpet all the floors are brick, or tile, so completely waterproof!
Th first thing they do is chuck a little bit of antibacterial solution on the ground, and then scrub it with some scrubbing thing to make it foam up ( i can't think of the name of it right at the moment)
They literally than chuck jugs of water on the ground causing a little flood which is followed by a thing to wipe the water into a drain (like the thing they use at the car wash to wipe clean the windows) and then they wrap a cloth over the wipey thing and dry it. However if they are feeling lazy they let it dry. Just the fact they have no problem chucking buckets and buckets of water onto the ground is rather funny.

I arrived in the hotel and there was carpet! I took of my shoes and couldn't figure out why my feet felt so strange! and then I realised that I hadn't felt carpet under my feel for 10 months!