Five Down, Five More to Go.

Back to School

I returned to Liceu, my high school, on Monday. The Christmas break here is the equivilent of the US summer break. So, before December I was in 2nd grade and now I am in the 3rd, the graduating year. (Brazilian high school is divided into three years) I was happier than I had expected to be, when I saw the faces of my classmates. They all looked the same, except that everyone was a bit more bronze, and for the most part, they even sat in the same desk order that they had the previous year. On the first day, I sat in the very middle of the classroom. Behind me, the new kids, six of them. Last year it was I, who sat in the very back of the classroom and I could not help but smile to myself, feeling that I had moved up in the food chain, no longer the novist.

For now, it is good to be back. Its good to have a focal point and a (sort of) realm of orginization.

The Other School

Last weekend I was in the town of Aguas de Sao Pedros. There my host parents and I spent the weekend celebrating the birthday of Heini, my hosts dad's long-time friend. There, I met a lady named Erly, who spent a year of High School in North Canton, Ohio. Erly, who now owns a Language School in Piracicaba invited me to teach English class at her school. On Monday, I visited her school and she gave me a short briefing on how she wanted me to teach the class and provided me with some text books. My first class was the next day. Now, mondays through Thursdays I teach a one hour class per day.

"When the Moon Hits Your Eye"

For the most part, last Friday night until Sunday afternoon was a blur of endless meat, sleep and for those who drink it, beer. However, for a couple hours on Saturday night, we took a break from churrasco. Ever since my family found out that I was a "Pizzaiola", they wanted to test my skills. Saturday night I cooked for a dozen people. I prepared the dough two days before hand and constructed six pizzas that night infront of everyone. It was a lot of fun to impress the brazilians with my dough tossing skills and was really cool to cook in a stone oven for the first time. The pizzas, except for the first one (was not used to the stone oven) turned out wonderful.

Half Way

Glass half empty? Glass half full? I cannot decide. I am five months in now and I have reached the half way point. The glass is definatly still full. I have plans for furture travel inorder to see more of Brazil, I have the furture holidays, my Portuguese has further need for improvement. Five months is a good amount of time, but then again...where have the previous five gone? I cannot help but feel the beginning of the end. I am not sad because I already have plans for when I come home, but I am aware that their will be sadness in future and it's a bit haunting.

Brazil 101

-Don't judge a store by it's cover. (It's a fact that decent clothing is much more expensive here than in the states. However, it is possible, at times, to find clothing at a decent price. Here, some stores appear expensive from the window...but are in actualluality decently priced. So, it's best to check it out...)

-Eating is sacred. I found the perfect example of this on a Brazilian Sopapra. On the show, there was this little girl fighting with her mother. Her mother remained calm through out the name calling and bad behavior, but when her mother asked her if she was going to eat supper and the little girl said no, her mother threw her hands up in the air and stomped out of the room.

-Brazilian government has OBVIOUS corruption.