Oitava Mes

Eight Months
Yesterday Li taught me how to knit. Ha. I sat in the living room with her, sitting to her right side watching and listening to her with as much focus as I could. Eventually she handed me the knitting needles. She placed the soft white yarn strategically around my neck and secured the end of the yarn in my right hand to create the needed tension, just as she had been doing. Eventually I got the hang of it and was able to create about four prefect inches of what will one day soon be a scarf. This is something I have wanted to learn to do for at least three years and yesterday I learned how. As we sat together knitting I smiled and broke out into random bits of laughter. “You completed one of my dreams” I told her and then I had to stop myself from thinking about how much I am going to miss her.
Sorocaba

I went to another city with my friends Andrea and Dominika to celebrate the birthday of their acquaintance (another exchange student). We traveled by onibus to Sorocaba, a large city of eight-hundred thousand located an hour and a half from Piracicaba. This trip was my first of this kind, being that it was with out supervision and it was semi far away. The experience of taking the bus in itself was a cool. In Sorocaba I spent the weekend meeting other exchange students, unfortunately speaking English. We took taxis, went to churrascos, got to know a little of Sorocaba and all the in between. In the end I met some interesting people who, with out knowing, gave me a new perspective on my exchange. Andrea and I stayed longer than originally planned in Sorocaba, but eventually our stay had to end and on Monday afternoon we took a bus back to Piracicaba.


Dust in the Wind

Tuesday I got a text message from my friend Jose Carlos, the man with the band. He invited me to Estação Tupi, a small, out-door bar located in a town just outside of Piracicaba. So, after my English classes, Sergio, Li, Juliana (Sergio’s daughter) and myself went there. Juliana’s boyfriend Ricardo also met us there. Not too long after our arrival my friend Carlos invited me to microphone. I accepted and sang four or five songs to the small crowd of people. One lady, situated in the closest occupied table sang almost the entirety of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” from her seat. The most song I sang with the most success was “Dust in the Wind”, a song I learned only here in Brazil. Towards the second half of the night some friends of Ricardo’s made a surprise appearance at the bar. As the night went on we talked more and more with this group of people. After my second appearance at the microphone, “Serginho” or “Little Sergio”, Ricardo’s friend, invited me to Santa Barbara, his home town. He told me that there, live many Americans and exists a cemetery of Americans and that when I come he is going to introduce me to these Americans and give me a tour of the cemetery
Brazil 101
-Brazil was discovered 21 of April 1700 by Pedro Álvares Cabral
-The seat number on your bus ticket has nothing to do with the seat in which you will sit
-Brazil has had three capitals. The first Salvador, which is the longest standing capital with 214 yeas, The second was Rio de Janeiro which stood for 193 years , and the current Brasilia which has been the capital since 1960.
-As is in the states when you lose an eyelash it is common to make a wish with it.  How they do it here is the person who loses the eyelash puts it on the tip of his finger and challenges a friend.  The friend puts his finger on top of the others finger, covering the eyelash.  Then they both prepare wishes and then separte their fingers.  The one who has the eyelash in the end wins their wish....but only after throwing the eyelash down the front of their shirt.