TWO WEEKS

    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. 

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.

Some major negatives that have been hard to accept graciously in Brazil are phone companies and pizza. Phone companies here are cheaper than in the states, but impossible to deal with. As of right now, I don't understand how to get my phone to work and to stay working. I usually just go without.

 

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