I'm realising how lucky I have been with the families I have had and the friends I have! I must admit the start of my year in class was not the easiest! all my the people in my class are super close and it was hard to break into their circle! But i am so glad i stuck it out, because even though the guys are completely and utterly immature a lot of the time, they are still pretty cool people! and the girls are some of my closest friends here in Brasil! I had a new exchange student in my class and she found it too hard, as the people in my class expect the exchange student to talk to them first not the other way round and she decided to switch classes the other day! I remember the first day I spoke to the whole class! They were all a playing the brasilian game, truco, and i mustered up all the courage I had to walk up to them and ask what game it was!
I have now been living with my third family for three weeks now and I am really enjoying it ! My host mum is so lovely! The other day I was saying to her how I wanted to learn to cook some brasilian meals, especially strogonoff, my favourite food here! So today she called me into the kitchen and spent her time teaching me how to do it and explainig why she does each thing! I can now say I have atleast one brasilian dish down pat! I even managed to write down the recipe from what I remembered afterwards in portuguese! In my first week here she also rung to my first and second host families asking which food i liked, and asked me which things i liked! I was so happy to be leaving with some mangos!!! They are so delicious here and will definitely be a food i miss the most! Along with acai and strawberry juice!
The next four months are going to so fun which will mean the time is only going to go faster! This month i have a rotary encounter on the 26, 27th and 29th of September, than October i think there is an optional trip planned for us to Sao Paulo which i definitely entend on taking up, November is my birthday, wohoooooooo, and than December my school graduation (which the kids in my class are currently debating whether i can take part or not) and also the formal! This is a sit down dinner until midnight and then a dance until the morning! The mum of my best friend at school was so lovely and said i can sit at her table and enter for free! When usually it would cost more than $100! My final weeks I'll be spending in Recife which is on the northeast, (15th december until 4th of January) with the family I am living with now! They keep telling me how hot it will be and I think i will probably spend most of my time in any water that I can find!
The new exchange students here are really cool, how it is different because they are all bonding over arriving, missing family etc and for me its so normal that it can get so tiring to listen to! The families are also trying to invite us to barbecues all at the same time and I'm constantly having to choose between things with my school friends and these barbecues! Which is also getting fustrating! The new exchange students are here for a whole year! So much time for all these barbecues hahahah i feel like everybody needs to take a breath!
I am really understanding a lot more at school now and have started enjoy some classes! Surprisingly chemistry is my favourite class! I really did not like it in NZ! Physics and maths are still super exhausting! I don't think i will ever be able to do physics and maths is so different here! As they don't use calculators the formulas are also changed to make equations easier to work out without a calculator and i just can't wrap my head around it!
I think i have finally decided in University! I applied for both Vic and Otago because i wanted to have more than one option incase anything went wrong. but if it all works out I want to study health science at otago! Although i am not aiming to do medicine, i like the sound of biomedical science and health science is a more broad year so i have can find out what i am interested in and choose from there rather than just limiting myself to one degree like i would be at vic.
The other day my host sister woke late for school so my host mum left for school and told her to meet us for lunch. After school when i asked my mum how my sister had arrived at lunch she simply said 'she hitched a ride'. I thought that was a pretty funny joke and laughed along but turns out it was true!!! I live in a neighbourhood out of town and apparently its normal to hitch a ride into the city! Lets just say I have added it on my list of things to do here!
I also have eating a whole chili on my list, i dont know why but i feel like i wont have lived life until i have done so.
I'm pretty sure thats it! tchau!!!
