
I've been pretty much chugging along as normal. I think my Portuguese reading, writing, and understanding verbally have improved a lot (but do notice that I didn't mention speaking), which is really good. I can understand almost everything people say to me and movies and stuff... which makes Brazil a lot more fun. I've been making better friends and enjoying life here, etc etc etc... Ooh, and I took a picture with "famous" singers :


A Normal Day for Me:
6:00- Waken up by host parents for school. get dressed, eat breakfast (normally bread with cheese or honey and tea), and go to school with mom and brother. '
7:00-12:00- School- everything you could imagine and more! wW've reached the stage in the year where nobody tries anymore (because of the brazilian school system, you can pass a class before the end of the year and then you dont have to really try) so there's still a lot of talking. But my class has moved upstairs to the room with air conditioning, so that's pretty exciting. ;D But no, schools not so bad. :]
12:30- Eat lunch with the whole family. Normally we have salad, beans, rice, potatoes, and some sort of beef. And there's almost always cake in the house! :O
12:30-4:30- The house is pretty quiet at this time of day, so this is watch TV/ computer/ homework time, normally.
5:00-5:45 Jump! (Jump is excercise on trampolines, and it's pretty fun!)

5:45- 11:00- Go drink tereré, use the computer, hang out with my sister, eat dinner, watch movies, etc!

Lately, the interesting things that I've done were to go to Dourados (another, bigger, city about 4 hours-by bus- from here), celebrate my father's birthday, have a week off of school, and have 5 days of parties in a row (it was a cow based festival thing with shows every night)! :)
So, Dourados is a larger city about 4 hours by bus from where I live. I went for the AFS Regional Orientation of Mato Grosso do Sul. The other exchanger in my city and I rode alone on the bus, which was pretty cool because we got to see a lot of other cities on the way! We arrived at night, and went to our host-host family's house to relax and watch movies. The next day all of the exchangers went to a mini-farm/ retreat center for "orientating." Then, at night, all of the exchangers went to a party that was happening that night! I liked this party, because i was really different than the type of party they have in my city (we normally have sertanja- Brazilian country music- at ours, and this one was electronica, funk, reggaeton, etc)! Then, on Sunday, a few of us went to the mall (my city doesn't have one!) but most of the stores were closed. So we went to an outlet store and bought things we missed like Twix and Nutella. Then, later we returned to the mall to eat hambugers (I've missed those!). Finally, we took the bus back! A very fun weekened- and great to make new exchange friends!


To celebrate my host dad's birthday, we had a small party at our house with lots of his friends, torta, and cake! It was really delicious!

During my week off of school, I slept a lot, hung out with people, and looked forward to summer vacation! (One more month!) And I even took a trip to the town museum! :)

The 5 days of parties was a festival like thing called "Exponan" that happens every year in my city. Some people said it wasn't very good this year, but I had fun still! The festival had cow auctions, food, a mini amusment park thing, rodeos, a dance, and shows every night! We took lots of photos, danced, hung out, and had lots of fun, etc etc....


So yes, this is life in Brazil! It's exciting sometimes, but really it's becoming normal life! :)

Until Next Time,
Ale