My first two weeks in Brazil have gone by extremely fast! Yet
it feels like I have lived here forever. This is only making me more aware of
the very limited time I have to live here. Looking at ones full life of
approximately eighty years, eleven months is very little time, especially when
I will gain so much in this period of my life.
I arrived to my new home on August 4, 2013 in a town named
Serra, right next to the capital of my state of Espirito Santo. My new home is very different than what I am
used to in the USA. It is a small
apartment with no sign of the farm life I am used to seeing back in Texas. To be completely honest, this was the very
first apartment I had ever been in. It
takes me about five minutes to walk to the nearest mall. Back in Texas it was
about a 40 minute drive…. Like the AFS says, “It’s not good. It’s not bad. It’s
just different.”
My host family is very nice and my parents are similar to my
biological parents in Texas. I have a mother and father whom I call Mae and
Pai; their names are Elaine and Eduardo.
I have three older sisters now, being the baby of a family with just
daughters is very new for me; thankfully the sisters and I hit it off
immediately. My family is almost like a perfect fit, thank you AFS for the
excellent job you have done on matching this student with her family.
I have been homeschooled my whole life, so it is especially
interesting in my case to go to another country’s school. Public school or a real private school where
you have to actually wake up at 6 A. M. every morning, get dressed in a
uniform(not PJs), and ride a bus is not as amazing as I once expected in my
childhood daydreams. It is basically the same as going to school at home. Nothing
special except the funny nonsense that happens as a result of having many
people in a small area for long periods of time(like the boys trying to through
trash across the room when the teacher’s backs are turned) and friendships that
aren't exactly necessary to receive a good education. Brazilian school systems, seem to be structured different than those in
America, from what I have seen and heard.... But I'll need more time to
learn the subtleties of how the differences apply to the average
student. My biggest surprise is that sometimes we just sit in class and
talk about things completely unrelated to the subject. Being
homeschooled even if I took a phone call or stopped in middle of class
for lunch, the teacher was always waiting when I returned and I had to
finish the entire hour of subject matter.... There are some teachers who are super cool, like my math teacher.
He takes a lot of extra time to make sure that Biran, other exchanger from
Turkey, and I understand what is happening. He also gives us math homework; the
other teachers have not done that. It is
absolutely wonderful that I am still able to understand math in another
country. In all, the classes aren't too difficult, minus the part that I don't
understand most of what they say. So, now I know that my education was not hindered by studying at home.
And my assumption was correct that Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Math are excellent cross-cultural tools. STEM breaks the language
barrier and that's a big step toward better understanding.
It is amazing how few people speak English here... I knew they didn't
speak English, but it was a shock. Some internal wall that I couldn't
cross before I arrived said, "everyone understands my language". Well,
they don't automatically.
My Portuguese is coming along well because only one girl at my school speaks English well enough to converse. Therefore I am forced to learn. (My favorite word is pronounced kah-rah-kah and it is something you would say in the place of "wow") I have one really good friend in school so far, his name is Cristian and he knows no English (hand gestures, drawings, and music bring people together everywhere). He is also pretty new to my school.
My Portuguese is coming along well because only one girl at my school speaks English well enough to converse. Therefore I am forced to learn. (My favorite word is pronounced kah-rah-kah and it is something you would say in the place of "wow") I have one really good friend in school so far, his name is Cristian and he knows no English (hand gestures, drawings, and music bring people together everywhere). He is also pretty new to my school.
Party, party, party.. I had my welcome party on Friday and
then went to my first teen party with no adults around to babysit. I spent the
night at Franzi's(the German girl) and yesterday we took the bus by ourselves
to Villa Velha for another party at the cousin of an AFS friend's sister's
mother's house... Or something like that. These were extremely interesting. I
got to experience a lot of the culture.
Pizza... Brazil, I
think you may be doing it wrong… ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise on a piece of
pizza with no tomato sauce. I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide, come to
Brazil and try it for yourself.
This entry has been rushed, and I do apologize. Time gets
away from me too quickly here. Shout out to Texas! I love ya’ll and miss ya’ll!
Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to my success here, especially
those involved in Girl Scouts, AFS, 4-H and BP! I am forever indebted to you
for what you have done in my life and I look forward to paying you back by
investing again in the upcoming generations as you have done for me.
Bejios(kisses),
Sarah
