Second Host Family

I started school again and also switched host families. It was harder than I thought it would be. And I cried. Even though it is kinda funny because the houses are really near each other. It is just difficult because now I miss my old family here and everyone back in Canada. I'm trying not to think of how hard it will be when it is time for me to go. Now I know why exchange students have to go through the whole re-entry program and everything. It's okay though, I really like my new family and will eventually adapt. It's all part of the experience.
School is good. Obviously I understand more now which is really good. After school today I went with André (son of Helena's friend) to an English class. It was cool because when I arrived they were reading about igloos and the Inuit in Canada. I asked them to guess where I was from and they guessed Canada! That was, I think the only time anyone has actually thought I was from there right off the bat. Except afterwards the girl said somebody had told her I was, so it doesn't really count. Also the fact that she looked more Canadian than me, later having everyone point it out. Still, it was cool.
People were awe-stricken when I told them I had met people who live in Nunavut. I told them how they thought it was really hot in Ontario and showed them where Ontario was on the map. We then talked about how if they went to the North Pole they would probably die of cold and if the people I met came here to Paracatu they would definately sweat to death. You know because that is really not morbid at all.
Speaking of morbid, Sunday, the day before my last day with my first host family, we went to their friend´s farm. The morbid thing is that I was sitting down in another room looking into the kitchen, the front door was open and there was a reflection of a chicken walking around outside reflected in the oven door. I just thought that was really, really, ironic. Like that his fate was reflecting him in the face. It was like it was just waiting there for him. Anyway, that is my disturbing observation for the day. How did you like it? Lol.
Later on there were frogs outside and I went to go look at them...until everyone told me not too get too close because they shoot acid from their backs when frightened. Lovely. The frogs I used to play with in Canada didn't have this super-frog ability. Of course they don't have to fight off the kind of predators that live in Brazil (example, poisonous caterpillars) hahah just kidding (but not really because there are poisonous caterpillars).
Anyway, I will stop talking about poison shooting frogs and ill-fated chickens. Because maybe the chickens will end up adapting like the frogs and wearing mirrors on their faces to reflect their fate. HAhahaha. Life is about adaptation. Exchange students have to adapt alot.
So I am going to start dancing ballet and jazz, I am pretty excited about that. I haven't danced in a year so we will see how that goes. Hopefully I will be able to bounce back. Hopefully I haven't lost everything.
I taught Matteus and Filipe how to make pancakes. After they learned they started inventing new kinds. Matteus made pancakes with chocolate and bananas and then poured condensed milk on the top. Now everybody is pancake crazy and they are coming over Friday to have a pancake party. Not only that but they plan on inventing more ways to eat them, I heard something about using this certain kind of Brazilian vegetable so I am just gonna have to wait and see how that turns out. It could be good, you don't know. :). That would be funny if like one hundred years in the future part of Brazil's history is, "There is no certainty as to when Canadian pancakes were first introduced into the country but the benefits would be everlasting..." HAhahaha. You never know, it could happen.
The day before I left my first family a man training to be an engineer came to stay in the house for one month, he is the son of Pai's friend and lives in a city called "Ouro Preta" (Black Gold). His name is Gustavo and he is really nice. I hope he has a nice stay.
I just came back from Gabriel's fourth birthday party. It was really fun. He laughs alot when I make my dolphin noises or monkey face. Afterwards he danced to music, it was really cute. Helena brought a cake for him. It had spiderman on it. I had to eat it really slow because I was really full from eating so much. You know that feeling where your stomache is stretched to the limit but you need to eat to make people happy? Yes, it makes people happy to see me eat and like their food. No joke. I don't just eat for my own means of survival, I eat to spread the love. And love always needs to be spread. Even if it means eating one more slice of bread. Hehehehe sorry for rhyming there, I sound pretty eccentric in this blog entry lol. It's kinda all over the place. From moving houses, to making pancakes with vegetables, to crazy frogs, and chickens with mirrors on their heads. It's just my stream of consciousness thinking out loud that I do. If you can follow it, great. If not, you shouldn't feel too bad, it's kind of confusing.
I should mention that I was writing in my diary the other day (yes I keep a diary too, if you think this is interesting, you should read that) and I thought I was writing in English. After a few sentences I stopped and read it over, only to realize it was in Portuguese! That means I was thinking in Portuguese! But not only thinking it, thinking it as easily as I would think in English! It's just so interesting how the brain learns. I guess I've been watching "Grey's Anatomy" too much, which is also probably why I think I have a tumour beside my nose. No, seriously, there's a bump (and I know what you are thinking, "Emily, are you sure the lump isn't just your nose itself?") I may be a hypochondriac but not THAT bad of one. If it gets any weirder I will have it checked out.
Well, I am really hot and sweaty and tired. I have to get up at 6:00am tomorrow to go to school by 7:00am. I am going to go have a shower now. Although I am somewhat afraid to. I would tell you why but...what the heck, I will tell you. I am convinced that when I try to turn the shower off, I get an electrical shock. Seriously, I don't think I am imagining it, there is like a wire connected to the shower head, and I am pretty sure I know what it feels like to be electricuted. I guess it is the same thing as the tumour, I will see if it shocks me again (to be sure I am not losing it) and then tell my host parents. Okay, cross your fingers for me.

Love
Emily

P.S - I have my own personal box full of different types of chocolate in my room, complete with a small garbage for the wrappers. I didn't even ask for it. Can you believe that? How lucky am I? And I haven't eaten any yet, but still! :)

Birthday Blog!

I am 17 today! Woo hoo! I will go to a restaurant with some of my friends (hahah and Matteus' friends that I made friends with lol) and my family.
Yesterday I watched Grey's Anatomy alot and then went out to eat with my family and their friends. This one boy named Paulo asked me a question in Portuguese, "What is the day called when your boss pays you" and I said, "Pay day." well in Portuguese the word for "releasing gas" is pronounced exactly the same as "pay day". At first I didn't understand why they were all laughing but then I caught on. Good thing I have a good sense of humour. lol.
Two nights ago I went to Sara's birthday party/Leticia's going away party. It was really fun. I danced alot. I also chugged alot of Coca Cola, so much so that now I have sworn to only drink Gaurana for the rest of my time in Brasil lol.
For the past few days I had been going to Fefê and Lele's house because they moved to Belo Horizonte now. We made some youtube videos. I will give you the links, we were just having fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUb5GkyGM50&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScUEYMiTLto&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nzPyz3oHLM&feature=channel

Hahah they speak English because they lived in the States for nine months.
Here are some pictures too. And just so you don't worry, I do speak portuguese alot and can communicate fully with people. Just so you don't think I am speaking English all the time. I actually prefer speaking Portuguese and learning more.


Fefê, Me (lol), and Leticia. We didn't know this pic was gonna get taken so that is why Lele and I have strange expressions. Fefê just looks normal though lol.

Lele and I (trying to look like Katy Perry)

Going Away Party

I went to my Family's friends' going away party because they are moving to Belo Horizonte. There was a DJ and everything, here are some pics:

With Arthur, Sarah, and Leticia

Me with Ana and Paula

Fefê and I (Fefê, Ana, and Leticia are the ones moving)

I danced alot and also fell because it was raining and the some parts of the floor were slippery where it wasn't covered. Also I am not going to wear that dress again, for obviuos reasons lol. You can see why in the second picture. It was okay though because it was really dark there, I think the flash of the camera just brought it out. HAHAHA well, what are ya gonna do. Lol. :)

Trip to Rio

So Rio de Janeiro was pretty awesome. It really is a beautiful city, I feel so lucky I got to go there.
When I woke up in the morning I went to the farmers market with Matteus and "Neyumi" (hahha I have no idea how to spell it)all I know is she made really good food. She made shrimp with this yummy sauce that had coconut milk in it. The market is a Portuguese tradition. That is what my host aunt told me. All the food is fresh. There was a lot of fish. Obviously because Rio is surrounded by ocean. This was such a delight for Matteus, considering seafood is not his personal favourite.
Mamãe pointed out some "lula" (squid), which is funny because the President of Brazil is "President Lula". So his name is kinda like, "President Squid". I think he is a pretty cool guy though, I just think it is an interesting coincidence.
I let them try a cherry because Brazil doesn't really have fresh cherries!! That is the second thing I found out that Brazil has to import (or doesn't have much of). The first being blueberries. I had to describe them and there really isn't any other way than, "hmmmm....berries that are...blue" lol.
We went to buy some chicken and I learned the lovely fact that one of the dishes of Rio is "chicken feet". I thought about this as I carefully watched the man chopping off the toenails of each foot...thankful that we were buying chicken breast.
My host Aunt drove us around showing us the different parts of the city, and the different beaches. Unfortunately we had dragged the rain with us from Paracatu so we didn't actually go to any of the beaches. Looking at them was enough though. They are so beautiful. And at night the sound of the waves hitting the shore is just like music. And you know how I love music.
We went to eat some "keebee" at night. We walked from the car to the restaurant. My aunt told me that in a city like Rio, you just have to walk with a purpose, and then you will be fine. Because it can be pretty dangerous, being a tourist city and all. I had to get special permission just to go there. But of course all went well and I was safe.
I went to the top of "Sugarloaf Mountain" that is what most of the pictures are of. It is the perfect spot to see the whole city, and I could see the statue of Jesus very well as well. And of course the beach "Copacabana". So I kept singing that song, "her name was Lola, with yellow flowers in her hair and a dress cut down to there." The beach was really famous in like the sixties. I thought it was cool because when we went to watch a Brazilian movie at the theatre "Se Eu Fosse Você 2" because it was filmed in Rio. It was about a married couple who traded bodies and had to find out how to change back. It was really funny.
I went to this beach called "Leblon" which is where most of the famous soap stars live in Brazil. So that was pretty cool as well, especially since I was following one soap opera called "Afavorita". I also watched "Maysa" which was a show about a Brazilian singer/songwriter who lived in the sixties (I think). She reminded me of a mix between Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland. It was also filmed in Rio.
One day we went with my host cousin to my other host cousin's apartment. She is pregnant with a baby girl she will name "Camilla". I played some music for them with Matteus on the guitar. Their apartment was really pretty and it backs onto the beach. You can hear the waves crashing from inside!
Carol and Matteus wanted to go to this human body exhibit that has (obviously) human bodies. They are preserved and show different systems like the nervous system etc. They probably wanted to see it because they both want to be doctors. I remember when this exhibit came to Calgary and my brother wanted to go but we never did, and then when I went to Germany the exhibit happened to come there at the same time and my sister and brother wanted to go then too. We never did. Then in Rio de Janeiro I managed to escape going to it for a third time lol. I'm sorry but I can't help but be a little hesitant in going to see real corpses on display. Lol. But whatever floats your boat. Instead of going to the exhibit we went to "Sugar Loaf Mountain" which was named because Brazil used to be like the largest export of sugar and back then they exported it dark (brown sugar) without being refined yet. So the mountain resembles a big lump of sugar.
I also learned that Rio de Janeiro (River of January)was discovered in January and they first thought it was a river.
Anyway, it was really nice to have gone there. There were all these huge trees with vines and flowers along the streets and the sound of tropical birds singing. There were also lots of orchids growing off of the trees. At night people walked around the streets just like it was the daytime. I also went to a large shopping mall. The inside looks alot like a mall in Canada would.The only thing was the escalator only started once you stood in front of it. HAhah it was cool. We were also going to go see a show but the tickets were sold out or something. We never went to the top of the cliff to see the statue of Jesus because it was raining but I managed to zoom in and film him pretty close up so that is good.

Rio de Janeiro in January!