The First Few Weeks...

I LOVE BRAZIL! The people are the friendliest in the world, the food is the best I've ever had, and the language is really stinkin' awesome! My host family is increadibly welcoming and accomadating! Life in Brazil is absolutely wonderful.

I just cannot stop raving about the food. Here in Brazil, I eat about five times a day. Breakfast, a sandwhich between breakfast and lunch, lunch, dinner, and again before I go to bed. Lunch is the biggest meal. It's ready when I get home from school, around noon. Everyday, without fail, we have rice and beans (arroz e feijao), salad, some sort of meat, fruit, and usually some sort of potato or some other side. Everything is so yummy! And almost everyday my host parents ask me if I would like some dessert, which I just can't say no too. On my first day in Brazil, I ate chicken heart (a coracao do frango). And it was surprisingly delicious. Here in Brazil, when you eat something you like, you say "Mmmmm. Que sabor!" Without a doubt, my favorite food here is ''pastel de chocolate''. Its like a huge, thin pasta-pocket and you can put whatever you want in it, and then it is fried! So, ''pastel de chocolate'' is essentially fried chocolate! It is heavenly! Here in my city, Sao Gotardo, there is no McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell; nothing like that. And I love it! It's very hard to get away from the American culture sometimes. And all the resteraunts are sort of buffet style. You get a plate, and serve yourself whatever you like, and then you take it to the cash register, where you pay according to the weight of the food you got. And no where has soda fountains where you get free refills, you either buy a can, a bottle, or a liter. And usually, the liters are reusable and made of glass! Que legal! And when I was eating my favorite food, ''pastel de chocolate'' the other day, a friend bought the glass bottle for me because I thought it was so cool!

The people here are the nicest in the world! And when people find out I'm American, it is like I'm a celebrity! People want to shake my hand and talk to me! Surprisingly often I'm the first American people have met. Everyone at school is very nice and lots of fun! And since everyone is Sao Gotardo is ''mineira'', someone from the state "Minas Gerais", they see with their hands. The culture is very close and touchy. When you say hello and goodbye, you hug and kiss on the cheek. And when people talk to you they are usally touching you. It's very different from American culture in that way. Some days I don't like it all that much, but most days it just makes me feel extra loved!

Ahhhh, Portuguese. I would like to say I've completely mastered it and never struggle with it at all. But thats sadly, incredibly far from the truth. When I got on the flight to Brazil in Miami, I was already sitting and there were three adults talking in another language, I didn't know what it was but I assumed it was French. I didn't know for sure, but from the looks of it, it seemed as though they were having trouble locating their seats. Finally, a lady sat next to me and she said something in this language I didn't understand. And I just looked at her, didn't say anything. And so she said something else. And I just kept looking, not saying anything. And after about thirty seconds, I just said, "I don't know"'. And then the women just started cracking up! And when she could finally talk, she said, still sort of laughing, ''Sorry, I thought you were brasileira!" And thats when I thought, ''What the heck am I doing here! I can't even tell when someone is speaking my future language!'' AND THEN, when I got of the plane in Belo Horzonte, I saw my host family and I said "Hi!'' And I thought again, "What the heck have I got myself into?!'' And for about the first two or three days I just walked around with a big, stupid grin on my face and smiled and nodded, and occassionally laughed when someone would say something to me. And I practically understood nothing anyone said to me, even when they spoke uncomforatably slowly. But, I can say, that in only three weeks, my Portuguese has come very far. Everything my tutor taught me is coming back and I'm actually forming full sentecnes! Sometimes I even muster up the courage to tell a story! I watch a lot of novelas, Brazilian soap operas, here. They are very good and they help me learn new phrases. Its strange, though, to watch tv for an hour and only understand about twenty sentences. I can't understand anything the teachers say in school. Unless they through out some random English word, usually when I'm zoning out, and then I look up like, "What just happened?'' Every Thursday I have to take ''as provas'', quizes, and I only answer about three questions. Excpet in the English section, I fill out the entire thing. Correctly. At times it's difficult and normally it's mentally exhausting but I love it sooooooooo much!

That's all for my first post! Please ask lots of questions! I really love to talk about Brazil and how I'm doing here!