First week in Brazil

The Journey:

At 4am on the 22nd of January I woke up to the start of the biggest journey of my life so far. I checked my bags, packed up my computer and sat in the kitchen watching everyone eat because I wasn’t hungry. 5am came and we got in the car for the drive to Sydney Airport. The night before I had to say goodbye to Jack because there wasn’t enough seats for him to come, we sat in my room together and I cried and cried for so long hugging him. When we got to the airport I got changed into my rotary uniform and mum and I went to the money exchange and bought New Zealand, U.S and Brazilian currency. I then checked in by myself while mum and my family waited for me. Geoff my Rotary Youth Exchange Chairman also came to make sure everything was going fine for everyone and that everyone showed up. I also found one of my friends who was going to America on exchange and he was just about to fly out as well. He said goodbye to his family and I said goodbye to mine. When I hugged Jason I started crying again which wasn’t a surprise at all. Going through the gates and watching my family slowly drift away really made this journey seem real. On our first flight to New Zealand we had 27 Exchange Students from Australia all on the same flight and all sitting together. I sat next to a girl called Nyree and 2 others called Abby and Jess, they were all really nice and funny (I think our row was the loudest on the plane because we were laughing at each other a lot.) In New Zealand one I became good friends with a girl called Gabi and we went to the Red Rooster there and spent our New Zealand money. Our Next flight was to Buenos Aires (Argentina) and it took 12 hours to get there. No one could really sleep on the plane because of the excitement and nerves and we had all already been awake and on the go for over 24 hours. When it was time to get off the plane I tried to put my shoes back on and my knees and feet were so swollen from not walking for 12 hours that my feet literally didn’t fit into my shoes anymore. 6 hours later we were in Sao Paulo Airport. We split up into groups of what airport we were going to the next day and in my group there were 6 people. We stayed at Rotarians houses for the night, when we arrived at 1am they had Brazilian pizza and Amazonian Guarana soft drink for us which was really nice. 3 of us then had another flight to meet our host families and at 5pm we were there. On the drive to my house is was really different and unusual because we were driving on the wrong side of the road, the driver was on opposite side and I was so tired and wanted to go to sleep straight away. There are also a lot of ‘houses’ (poles and tarps for the walls) for the homeless people and a lot of people sleeping in gutters and things.

In Brazil:

On the second day of being here my family took me to one of the malls in my city to meet Guilherme (The exchange student living with my family in Australia.) He gave me a bracelet for a present which was really nice and has a Brazilian flag on it. The weather here is so hot and I have been under my air conditioner all the time. The next day was my first day of school and Lais (host mum) and Marcos (host brother) took me to school to sign in. I go to a reallood private school called Uni Toledo. Marcos stayed with me for the day because we all just stayed in a hall listening to lectures and he explained what they were saying. It is really good that he is helping me so much and he is really nice. School starts at 7am and finishes at 12pm, we are allowed to wear shorts and thongs to school which is really good, we just have to wear the school t-shirt. I really like my school because everyone is so nice and tries to talk to me and I have a lot of great friends already. At home we have a maid who cooks the best food in the world. I love Brazilian food SOOOO much. The pizza is extremely good and they have the best toppings although there are some weird toppings. They also like to pour olive oil all over the top of the pizza. On Thursday morning at 7am I went to my host clubs rotary meeting and had to introduce myself in Portuguese which was kind of interesting, I think they understood me, unless they were being nice and just agreeing and clapping. The cousins also came for a visit and Flavia my new 10 year old cousin was teaching me Portuguese and she is really cute. Since I have been here I have been swimming in our pool everyday because it is so hot and already I have started to get a tan which is really good, even thought i think its mostly my sunburn. I am not home sick yet and I love Brazil so much it is really fun and I love my time over here. Everyone is so nice and you get kissed on the cheek by everyone, I guess it is rude to not kiss someone when you are saying hello, unlike in Australia you would just say hey or shake their hand. So at school you get a lot of kisses in the morning.

Here are some differences I have learnt between Australia and Brazil:

· Homeless shacks along the road.

· Even if you have sun block on and are sitting in the shade in Brazil you get sunburnt.

· Amazing singing churches
· Really cute boys =] 4 D’s

· Early school hours and great uniform rules

· Having rice and beans literally every day for 'tradition'

· I cream cones filled with chocolate

· Corn flavoured ice cream

· Not being a loud to put toilet paper in the toilet

· ‘Shade burn’

... and a lot more. This is basically what I have been doing for my first week in Brazil so I have been very busy but I love it. I hope to hear from everyone soon and see what you think of my time here. =]