Chuva: noun. rain.       Chover: verb. to rain.

It has been raining for more than a week in Piracicaba according to my host father. The day I arrived the central area of San Paulo, the state, was spared from the generally constant downpour, but ever since chuva chuva and more chuva.  When the northern hemisphere is in its summer (Ohio), the southern hemisphere (San Paulo) is in winter and vice versa, so right now I am in the mist of a much less thought of wintry Brazil.  The weather is a chilly 18 Celsius or 64 degrees and the sun rarely finds its way out from behind the clouds. Just know that it happens.

I neglected in my first return blog post to credit the reason I have returned to Brasil. I applied through the Center of Latin American Studies at the Ohio State University for a Summer FLAS scholarship.  I was awarded the scholarship and decided to use said award for a six week program in Florianópolis, Santa Caterina, Brazil.  I arrived two weeks early in Brazil to visit my friends and host families from my 2009-2010 Rotary exchange, and will leave Piracicaba for Florianópolis on the 30th (in 8 days).

In the past week I have attended two Rotary events.  I have another scheduled for today and another for Monday. The past two Rotary events have taken place in the Casa de Amizade in Piracicaba, where the roof leaks and the floors are a naked cement, but the rotarians dress in suits and jewels.  Rotarians arrive and park in a parking lot that is closed-in with fence, gates and 12 foot walls. While this type of architecture in common in the city, but it is also scattered with modern architecture, often times neighboring the old.

Brazil 101
-Parking meters arrived about a year ago in Piracicaba.