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!