Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Kinda Busy... But Not at the Same Time

27 December 2017
17:51 BRT (EST + 3 hours)
Current Temperature: 31 C (87 F)

--Thursday
Thursday was actually quite busy once the afternoon came around. I slept in until about ten o'clock and then at 14:00 (2pm) I walked down to Cipex. After that, Andrea and I went out to the market to get paint, paint tools and tape and anything else we needed! Plus we dropped by the grocery area and I bought some snacks.
Anyways, we got two cans of white paint, and one can of blue paint. Plus some spackle for any holes in the walls left by the crazy students we all know go to Cipex. After that, an hour or two had gone by and Andrea dropped me off at home.

--Friday + Saturday
Nothing much happened on both of these days. However I do believe it was on one of these days that I had the pleasure of seeing another cockroach just relaxing on the wall up by the ceiling. It seems I've gotten used to it, at least partially, because I just calmly said, "Mãe, barata." (Mom, cockroach.) and pointed it out.

--Sunday
Sunday however was partially crazy, as it's Christmas Eve! We left the house a few hours after lunch and headed to Carazinho. We stayed with some family members for an hour or so before going to Cristiano's house for him to get into more formal clothes. While there we were greeted, or at least I was as I was the last one to walk in through the door, to a cockroach scuttling by and crawling under the fridge. He sprayed a bunch of pest spray under and around the fridge but it seemed to not have done anything because later it just crawled out and ran across the floor. Odete just kinda walked over and stomped on it. Normal Brasil in the summer for you.
Anyways, after this, we headed to Cristiano's sister's house where we had dinner! She set up her table very prettily and I ended up having to take a picture.














--Saturday
When I had asked on Sunday if we were doing anything the next day I was only told that there was a chance we were going to Odete's parents house. We didn't however. We just relaxed for the full day at home. Odete got me a present. A towel with my name and flag and inbound year stitched into it!










Also, I got some pictures I had asked for from my family back in the states! I asked for pictures of our Christmas decorations to show my family here.



I finished the night by watching The Santa Clause with a mug of hot chocolate. Before it got dark, and before I had started the movie however I took a cool picture.



--Monday - Wednesday
Nothing much has happened over the past few days except LOTS of rain. Especially today. There was even a mini pool in our backyard because of all the rain!
I may have exaggerated but there was SO much water!

Friday, December 22, 2017

Again?!

22 December 2017
21:48 BRT (EST + 3 hours)
Current Temperature: 24 C (75 F)

SUPER sorry for the delay. I only just realized how I hadn't even started working on the blog and how it was supposed to go up two days ago.

--Thursday - Saturday
Nothing much happened over these days, we had a slow and relaxing week for the most part.

--Sunday
However on Sunday we did do stuff. We went to the host gparent's house! (Which is actually where I am right now while writing this, and at the moment they do not have the wifi turned on and so I cannot actually post this.) Well, we arrived at their house shortly before lunch and had lunch with them. Shortly after the wind, that had already been sorta strong all morning, started to pick up. We had a rainstorm!
At first it was just the super strong wind, but later it did start raining. Also, by super strong wind, I'm not exagerating. It was picking up dust from the dirt road and you could see the wind that way. Just as it started raining, we (Who had been sitting on the porch watching the wind, because the porch was shielded by the house.) noticed that there was a small bird hiding behind the fence out in the wind and rain.
As it turns out, the wind probably knocked the chick out of its nest and now it was stuck in the storm. Happily, Odete's mom went out and grabbed it. We kept it in a drawer in the bathroom until the wind calmed down enough. Then we released it for the parents to watch over.
After the entire storm calmed down, which was an hour or two later, Cristiano, Odete and I headed home for the day.
 


--Monday
Now, Monday, stuff was scheduled. At 10:00 (10am), my counselor, Andrea picked me up and we headed out to go do some Christmas shopping! (Though it was technically just shopping.) I managed to find a new summer dress, as well as two pairs of leggings. After that, we went to Cipex where they were having a sort of celebration for the students who had graduated their class (Sorta, don't know how to explain it.). Though they had cake and such, and I hung out there for a short bit longer and then headed home.




--Tuesday + Wednesday
Not much happened over these two days, Andrea and I were going to go out again on Wednesday but some complications came up so we put a rain check on it. However I did love wearing the new dress, it made not feeling like I was going to melt a LOT easier.


PS Now again, super sorry for how late this is. Time has gotten away from me like crazy it seems. Also, for the people who I have learned get to ready these blogs as a sort of preperation for your own blogs, just remember you don't have to use the same style as everyone else. Find one that works for you. If you compare the first blog I put up to one from a few weeks ago then compare those two to this one, you'll notice I've sort of figured out my own way of organizing these blogs. As for the title, don't think too much about it and just write a silly or serious title for whatever happens during the week.
Good luck on your exchange years everyone!

Thursday, December 14, 2017

I'm not late... you're.... late?

14 December 2017
11:44 BRT (EST + 3 hours)
Current Temperature: 29 C (84 F)

--Thursday
Well I actually got to do something Thursday! I hung out at Cipex for most of the afternoon, and then went home with Camila who had invited me over for dinner! I got to hang out with them until almost midnight, and her son got me to play Freddy Fazbear: Pizzeria Simulator. (Not to be confused as FNAF 6.) I did good, and then he persuaded me to salvage an animatronic... I died many times...
Anyways, it was really nice and I got to meet her daughter as well, and learn the layout of her house. Which is nice because she may be my future host family.

--Friday
Just about nothing happened on Friday. I just relaxed in my puddle of sweat.

--Saturday
Now, this was the time that everything started getting busy. I woke up at  09:00 (9am) to my alarm, and shortly after I was told we were going to the gparent's house again! So I got ready in record time while still managing to have coffee. We drove over, had lunch and I got to meet their new horse! They had a mare now and she was very beautiful. Cristiano rode her around for a bit and then let me ride her. To me it seemed like she had a bit of a lopsided gait when she walked but I got used to it. Later, everyone got to work with a couple of sheep. Though this time they weren't going for the wool... I very happily, kept my distance because I wasn't sure how my stomach would react.
Then later once more, we had dinner and I got to try a ice cream dish that Odete's mom had made. IT WAS DELICIOUS!!! It had BIS chocolate bars and it was just so stinkin' good!

OH I FORGOT TO MENTION!!! While driving to their house we may have seen an ostrich crossing!!!


 





--Sunday
Sunday was just as busy. However this time, I was woken up being told we were going over again. We left a little later in the day however, more towards lunch. We had lunch, relaxed for a little bit and then we went swimming! After we had swum for a while we went to a lake area and hung out along the coast of it, just relaxing and having a few snacks when all of a sudden... THERE WAS A BABY Komodo Dragon!!!


It was kind of scary but REALLY cool!!
After we were done with everything, we drove back to the gparent's house and then drove home for the night.

--Monday-Wednesday
Nothing really has happened to be honest. However I was notified about my Dad getting injured at work because of the ice. He's okay now, just recovering. So, now I think it's time for a picture from home!
It must always be warm in our dryer because if we leave the door open too long then our cat Boomer loves to climb in and lay down!

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

WHY IS IT GETTING HOTTER?!?!?!?!

6 December 2017
15:21 BRT (EST + 3 hours)
Current Temperature: 36 C (96 F)

--Thursday (Written on Friday)
Well, the day went fine through school and for the majority of the night. Most of all the students were at school again and due to the Gremista game the previous night, during our break, all the Gremule fans were all cheering and it was quite entertaining. After school ended, and late at about 22:00 (10pm) I had just finished showering and settled down to watch netflix for an hour before going to sleep.
In one of the inbound student chats we were all talking about random topics and at one point, towards 23:00 (11pm) I had opened Snapchat (Because everyone was talking through both Snapchat and Whatsapp, it was kind of insane.) and my phone froze. It was half way through opening the app and so I tried pushing the home button and sort of reset the process. That didn't work, and so I tried to lock the screen. This worked... Sort of. I had pressed the button a few times when the screen finally turned off. Except after that I couldn't get it to come back on.
After a while of trying to figure out what was wrong with it, meaning hitting buttons, I realized that when I pushed  the power button the screen did come on, but it was still black. The only difference that made me notice was that the screen part turned lighter than the black trim around it. The other thing I realized was that if I tried to use Siri, the screen would flash on for a millisecond and then turn back off.
My phone was still working fine, just the screen mostly had a coating of black on it. I asked on Facebook asking for suggestions but ended up resorting to just letting it run out of battery overnight due to it being 23:00 (11pm) by then.
Now this, is where the true fun begins. My phone had stopped working at say 22:45 (10:45pm), and for a little while before then and afterwards I had kept hearing a sort of skittering sound. I had ignored it until I started getting ready for bed. I then finally noticed out of the corner of my eye, that in the window that is above the head of my bed was a cockroach. A BIG ONE.
I took a video about it as well as just other random stuff on my GoPro and I'll try my best to post it onto here before Wednesday so that I don't have to explain more.
(By the way, when I say it was stuck in the window I mean between them. The windows in my room have a glass layer and a 'shutter' layer. It was stuck between the two.)

--Friday (Written on Friday)
I ended up not going to school today. Communication between people was getting confusing and I thought suddenly not being able to communicate would make things worse. Not much happened today except a lot of confusion for me about this weekend. At first, as I had been told for the previous few days, I believed that I was going to stay home alone for Saturday because Odete had to go to Carazinho and Cristiano's house didn't have room again.
Then suddenly today at 22:00 (10pm) I was told that suddenly I am going with her. Except I'm staying at either Cristiano's sister's house, or his mother's house... You can see where I got confused. So suddenly I had to shower and pack my suit case while still having questions about how long we were staying, when we were leaving and coming back, who was going to take care of Nero and more. The thing was, just after being told we were leaving in the morning, I took my shower. And when I got out I sent a text to Odete asking about Nero. When I got out of the bathroom, I realized that she had gone to sleep while I was showering.
Soooo, I am kind of concerned that stuff isn't going to be organized properly and that I'm going to end up needing something but not having it because I wasn't warned beforehand that I was going to need it and I'm just really hoping that which ever place I end up has WiFI because not being able to communicate with Odete directly is a NIGHTMARE. (It's happened before.)
Wish me luck... Even though by the time this is posted it'll be over. Either way... wish my past self good luck!

--Saturday (Written on Wednesday)
Well, I woke up at 08:00 (8am) to make sure I was ready by 09:00 (9am) when Odete had said she wanted to leave. After being up for about twenty minutes and getting completely ready did I finally find out that she had meant 21:00 (9pm) and not 09:00 (9am). Well, even so, we started off the day and actually did end up heading to Carazinho before 21:00 (9pm). We left not long before lunch and once we arrive, had lunch at a place there, and then went to the rodeo for the rest of the day. It was really cool, because when Cristiano wasn't lassoing (Meaning he wasn't riding his horse.) he let me ride around the area. The one downside to it all, was the heat. Even so, we survived and it was still fun!

--Sunday
The next day was about the same. The nice thing was that we didn't have to get up at 05:00 (5am) this time. I might've forgotten to mention that the rodeo grounds we went to this time was a different place from the last. It was only about a fifteen minute drive away instead of an hour. Continuing! We went to the rodeo at about 09:00 (9am) and stayed for the entire day until about 22:00 (10pm). During the time I got myself a new hat, a gaucho hat! I also got to ride around more and at one point I got some ice cream. It was probably around 14:00 (2pm) but it felt like we were on the sun! It was hot enough that while I was eating my ice cream I could see it melting if I watched it for only a few seconds. After the day was done, we went back home and relaxed for the rest of the night. (I again forgot to mention that I was able to stay at Cristiano's house after all.) Odete planned to stay another night and to just relax for most of Monday before heading home in the afternoon.
OH! I almost forgot! When we got home from the rodeo for some reason Odete's car battery had stopped working! We managed to get a hold of some jumper cables and got the car restarted! (I managed to help because of having my driver's permit, aka I knew how to start a car.)

--Monday
It was nice being able to sleep in after a while of not doing so. I may have sleep until about noon...
Anyways, during the afternoon, Odete and I went to a car dealership! (She was already planning on going because she wants to get a new car it seems.) Sadly after being there for probably about an hour in the blazing heat (Even though we were inside in front of a fan.) we didn't find the car she would like. And so, later, we headed home to Santa Barbara!
I should also mention that I'm getting back into drawing a bit. One certain thing I finished drawing while in Carazinho. I would show it, but it's a secret!

--Tuesday
I didn't go to school yesterday, knowing that I wanted to get some stuff done that I couldn't do in Carazinho. As well as at about 14:00 (2pm) I went to Cipex with nice clothes and my blazer. The reason? Our (Our as in Andrea and I) club president was coming to pick up the donations of bottle caps and can tabs that we had collected. THERE WERE SO MANY!!! All of the containers of caps and tabs didn't even fit in the car they brought! Anyways, after they picked up the donations and we took a few pictures, I hung out at Cipex for another few hours before heading home for the night.

--Wednesday
Well today has been quite relaxing. Though not so much at the same time. I made sure that I got up at a reasonable time because I do have stuff to do today. My first course of action once I got up was to take a shower, already done. After we had lunch, I ended up deciding to draw some more and somehow ended up finishing it in about two and a half hours... I'm happy with the result... just really confused on how I managed to do it so quickly...
Anyways, my goal right now of course is to make sure that this blog is ready even though the day isn't quite done. Not much is going to happen the rest of the day that I don't really know about so I'ma just talk about what I'm planning. Later, if available, I'm going to be doing a FB call with Amanda and the kids. We were going to do one on Saturday however then I was actually going to Carazinho and stuff got confusing really fast.
Now one thing I haven't addressed. Why didn't I go to school again today. Yesterday while I was at Cipex with Andrea she told me that she was going to be talking with the principle of the school to figure out something I could write or create over their summer vacation because going to school wasn't doing much. Especially these last two weeks of school were just about everything is done and I'd just be sitting there all day. So, I didn't go.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

The Chillest of all Weeks

29 November 2017
22:06 BRT (EST + 3 hours)
Today's Average Temperature: 35 C (95 F)

--Thursday (Written on Thursday)

Not much happened at the beginning, however my class did get out about 15 minutes early at the end of the school day!After I got home, I relaxed for just under five hours and packed a couple bags. One had a change of clothes and a few other things. The other just had my phone, sunglasses, headphones and my water bottle.At about 16:30 (4:30pm) I headed to Cipex. Since it was Thanksgiving, Andrea was doing a sort of celebration for it. (They don't celebrate it here, which makes sense.) I dropped off the bigger bag, and headed to the gym with the smaller one.My plan was to drop off a change of clothes and stuff so that when I go back to Cipex after going to the gym, I could change out of my sweaty clothes and into clean ones.I did this, and hung out for the last few hours with everyone who came.Now to just plan out paint ideas.....

--Friday through Tuesday (Written on Wednesday)
Really, nothing happened. I would have gone to the gym again on Tuesday however it was 32 C and I thought it might not be a good idea to exercise it that much heat. However it seems the week ahead is only going to get hotter so I might just have to suck it up and go.

--Wednesday
Well, tonight (Right as I'm writing this) there is a Gremista game going on. A few students at school this morning were wearing their team wear due to it. Also, it seems that the school year is ending here. Apparently (I didn't know until after the school day.), all the tests everyone had been taking yesterday and the day before that were the end of year tests. So the system here is, if you have good passing grades you don't have to go to school for the rest of the school year. However if they aren't good, you stay and try to improve them until the school year is finished. Either way, I still have to go to school.
Anyways, after the school day Odete and I went to the market to have lunch. (They have a buffet style lunch area.) Immediately afterwards, we were headed off to her different clients houses for her work. They lived in more rural areas I guess I could say. We did this while on our way to her mom's house. When we arrived, I got to pick a bunch of oranges to make juice out of while she and the person watching over the animals (Her parents are out of town atm.) made cheese! I got to see how she and her family makes it, it's really interesting.
Next, when we had everything we needed we headed back home. However, another exchange student was in town today. Mariana from Russia! She had been hanging out at Cipex and Andrea really wanted me to come by as well, so on our way home, Odete dropped me off at Cipex and I spent the rest of the evening there.


Random Note:
It actually is forecast to get hotter as the week goes on. By next Wednesday it's suppose to be around 37 C (Almost 100 F). So wish me luck!

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Note Thy Text Sarcasm!!!

22 November 2017
19:26 BRT (EST + 3 hours)

--Thursday + Friday
Nothing much happened both Thursday and Friday. Had school then relaxed for the rest of the day. The only thing that would stand out is that on Friday I went to the gym, sort of. One of the Rotarians from my district, as a gift, is paying for a years worth of gym membership for me. So, Friday I went, introduced myself (With Andrea's help.) and got to know any rules I'd need to know, their hours and so on. From now on, I hope to go every Tuesday and Thursday at 18:00 (5pm).

--Saturday + Sunday
Saturday and Sunday both, I ended up not doing anything. It was nice, just relaxed again.

--Monday
Monday, I may have woken up to my alarm, turned it off, and fallen back asleep for two hours. I ended up just not going to school that day. Seeing as I had already missed half of it. Thus, Monday became another relaxing day like Saturday and Sun.

--Tuesday
Tuesday...
Was soooooo...
Fun. (Note text sarcasm)
I woke up, just a few minutes before my alarm was suppose to go off to a buzzing noise. It sounded like a beetle flying against the wall so I just ignored it and continuing trying to sleep the last few minutes. Except the buzzing continued, a bunch. It was weird. My alarm turned off and I looked towards where the sound had been coming from, and was continuing to come from.
Then I saw it, it looked like a giant beetle. It was crawling around on the closet compartment that is in my room.
(Here's a picture of the closet from where I was sitting on my bed. It was crawling around the top area, it's dark in the picture.)
I, of course, partially started freaking out. I grabbed my phone, and while continuing to stare at it as it crawled around, managed to grab my glasses and bolt out of the room. I was debating whether I should wake Odete or not, and ended waking her up. (The other option was text Andrea and tell her I couldn't go to school because there was a beetle thing in my room and I couldn't get to my school stuff with it there.)
When she went into my room, the bug had spontaniously disappeared. I then super nervously went about grabbing everything for school really fast and exited the room.
When I got home, I learned that Odete had found it and killed it, and so she told me that it wasn't a beetle at all. But a cockroach! Seeing as how I know it couldn't have gotten into my room throughout the night due to my window being closed and the crack under the door being too small, it had to have been in my room throughout the WHOLE NIGHT. WHILE I WAS SLEEPING!!!! So that was suuuuuuper fun. (Note text sarcasm.)
ALSO! This one is actually good. I went to the gym the first time since arriving! There is one guy at the gym who speaks a little English and is helping me figure out a sort of work out plan. He led me through different machines and different exercises, seeing what I needed to work on and everything else! By the time I left the gym an hour later, I felt like my limbs were a bit of jelly.

--Wednesday
Finally, today. Well it started out good and continued to be good. Since I went to the gym yesterday, I'm super sore and kind of stiff, around my shoulders particularly. School went by mostly normally and I went to Cipex for a few hours. Tomorrow, after school and the gym once more, I'll be going and hanging out at Cipex again because they are having a Thanksgiving sort of dinner. Due to it being an American tradition, I get to talk about the culture around it and what we normally do on this holiday!

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Wait... it's already Wednesday again?

15 November 2017
21:24 BRT (EST + 3 hours)

--Thursday
Well... "Aerith" had "her" first day of running around the house. I closed off all the other rooms and let "her" run around for a while. However then I realized something that a "her" wouldn't have...
So yeah... The cat is a he... The awkwardness was funny when I had to explain to everyone at Cipex.
Later that same day, I was talking with my sister and she figured out a new name! (Sorry, didn't hold a vote this time.) The kitten's name is now Nero! (Near-o)

--Friday
Friday was just as relaxing. Once school was over, I ended up relaxing on the couch for a while, just watching videos on my phone with a sweatshirt swaddled kitten napping with me.

--Saturday
Saturday, was when stuff actually happened! Odete was going out of town for the weekend, and due to sleeping arrangements, I couldn't go with her. And so I ended up staying with a friend of Odete's for the weekend. I packed up a bag, along with a kitten, and at 14:00, got taken to the other house. However, once I was there, it went back to the normal nothingness. The nice thing was, shortly before then I finally decided to read the Divergent series. I've had all three books for probably over a year and haven't read them. So while I was there I read a bunch.

--Sunday
Also, on Sunday, I went out and hung out with Paulo for a short while. Other than the random thing, it was a pretty normal weekend. Just relaxing.

--Tuesday
So, Tuesday night. There was a football game going on. (I'm talking about international football, not American. I'm trying to get used to saying football.) Andrea, my counselor, invited me to go with her to a sort of restaurant/bar place to watch it with her and a bunch of others. However, she did say that if she felt it was unsafe or anything at all (Because there was alcohol.) that she would take me home.
Once we had arrived, a quick glance didn't show any other girls there. Andrea asked one of the guys she knew and he confirmed that no other girls were there. (It was just Andrea, a friend of hers, and me.) Due to this, Andrea didn't feel it would be safe and so we called it off.

--Wednesday
Nothing much happened today. It was Republic day and so we didn't have school. Cristiano came home and so the cat never came inside. The only mildly interesting thing that happened today was that I took all the clean laundry and hung it out to dry. I think I did it pretty quickly by how surprised Odete was when I said I was already done! (I also got to have chocolate because Odete got some!)

Other than all that, it was a pretty uneventful week, though it went by REALLY fast.

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Throne..... Ooooooooh.... Thorn!

8 November 2017
--:--BRT (EST + 3 hours)

--Thursday
I woke up at 07:00 (7am), got ready for school, and headed out the door at 07:30 (7:30am). The walk to school takes about 15 minutes, and while walking I noticed that the intermediate-level school was closed. Though it had been closed on days the high-school had class so I didn't think much about it. However as I continued walking I noticed that there wasn't even one other person walking, and I only saw maybe five cars drive down the road.
I guessed that we didn't have school that day, but I wasn't sure. So I made a plan, if school was closed, I would start walking back home through the longer route, and see if Amazóna do Pão was open. Sadly, every shop I passed, including Amazóna do Pão (I think that's the name, I could be wrong.) was closed. So I walked back home. Later, I learned from Paulo that we didn't have school, Thursday or Friday due to a holiday. (No one told me so I had no idea.)
Later, Paulo and I got to go out and have shakes! YEAH, shakes!

--Saturday
Saturday morning, we were suppose to go over to Odete's parent's house. I'm not sure what changed because Odete told me we weren't going anymore, but I can guess. During the night, it was storming a bunch (It actually knocked our power out for a short while again.) and I woke up to it around 04:00 (4am) I believe (At the same time, Odete told me we weren't going anymore). I'm guessing that because of the storm the roads would be too muddy to drive down to get to their house. (They live in the country side, so the roads are just dirt.)
So, instead, to my surprise, the gparents came here instead. We had lunch and then they hung out for a while longer.

--Sunday
On Sunday, the same happened. The gparents came here and we had a bigger lunch. (Sundays are sort of dedicated to being with your family, thus the bigger lunch.) For the rest of the day however, we just relaxed again.

--Monday
Monday, got up and started getting ready for school. However I felt a little sick. Not nauseous, but just my body felt tired and I was a little lightheaded and dizzy when I stood. I ended up not going to school due to this. I fell back asleep and woke up a little bit before noon, feeling a LOT better. (I probably slept between eleven to twelve hours total.) Later, I went and hung out at Cipex!

--Tuesday
CAT!!!!!
School was normal. However, later... I was hanging out a Cipex for a little bit, and then Andrea took me to her house so that I could take one of the kittens!! After that, we just hung out at Cipex until about 20:00 (8pm) than I brought the kitten home. (Also, she is only about a month and a week old!)

--Wednesday
So last night, I had kept the cat in my room, due to it storming outside (We couldn't move everything to her spot outside.). Due to this, she kept meowing and waking me up throughout the night. I was pretty tired but once I came home from school and tried to sleep a little, then showered and then I brought the cat to Cipex with me for a few hours again! By this time we (I put out a sort of vote for a bunch of people.) had figured out a name.... Aerith!!
So, Aerith and I just hung out at Cipex for about 5 hours. I figured out while we were there that she really likes being completely covered by whatever she's sleeping in. I had laid her in my sweatshirt and she burrowed her way through the folds so she was WITHIN the sweatshirt. It's actually really cute.

(Title is inside joke... sorta.)

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Camping with Exchange

1 November 2017
21:45 BRT (EST + 2 hours)

~~Thursday
Thursday started out like normal. I went to school and such. Then once I got home, I relaxed for a short while, and went to hang out at Cipex for a few hours. Then, around 18:00 (6pm) I went home, finished packing my bags and relaxed a little more. Then at 20:00 (8pm) we had dinner and time went by quickly after that. Soon it was 20:15 (8:15pm) and I was rushing to put my bags into the car so that Odete could drive me to the bus station so I could buy my bus ticket for 20:30 (8:30pm) and get there on time. I did and Paulo met me at the bus station. We got on the bus and started our 2 and a half hour drive to Santo Angelo. That night, since the camping hadn't started yet, I slept at the house of a Rotarian. They had a small dog named Luna, and she was very cute. The couple whose house I stayed at were really nice. They also had neighbors that they introduced me to, they were also very nice. (They all lived in the same apartment/condo building but on different floors.)

~~Friday
WARNING: This is about to get really confusing. Throughout the weekend there were three different Paulo's. To try and keep this as not confusing as possible they will be "Mini Paulo" for the rebound from Santa Barbara, "Coordinator Paulo" or just "Paulo" for the one who is the Inbound Coordinator and "Host Paulo" for the one who's land we stayed on while camping.

The next day, around 10:00 (10am), the Rotarian I stayed with drove me to Paulo's house where some of the other exchange students were already waiting. Once everyone arrived, we went to have a lunch along with ice cream afterwards. After that, it was about 14:00 (2pm) and we all packed our bags into a trailer and piled onto a bus that took us to where we were camping. Once there, we were all introduced to Host Paulo and his wife and were told the random rules a such we had to go by since we were camping on their land. Then we set up all our tents, had dinner, hung out listening and dancing to music and then had a fire and went to bed.
(Happily, one of the other exchange students had a two person tent and I was able to camp with them, as well as another student had an extra sleeping bag!)
P.S. ALSO, we went on a trek through the woods while it was pitch black. It was really cool!! Though a bunch of the other exchange students kept getting spooked pretty easily.

~~Saturday
On Saturday, we all woke up about an hour before we had to. (I'm not sure how because I don't think anyone had an alarm set.) We then went about preparing for the day. The whole weekend was scheduled and so we knew that on this particular day we were going to a park. This particular park had rock climbing, as well as tree paths and zip lining. As well as lots, and lots of evil caterpillars. The first thing we did once we arrived was that we went on a sort of scavenger hunt. We had a map with locations of different posts around the park and with the use of a compass, we and our partner had to go to each one and stamp a paper with the stamp from each one. During this hunt, we had to cross a small creek/river. I might have taken a slight dip with one of my feet and got my shoe soaked through.
Next, everyone tried rock climbing for a while, and after that, everyone got harnessed up to go on the tree paths. While waiting for the chance to go up, one of the evil caterpillars got onto my back, right behind my arm. Once I accidentally moved it with my arm, I finally realized it was there because it started hurting me. (This is why they are evil.) I had also been stung by one the previous day, but it wasn't as bad because we were at the camp site. (Some info I learned last night about these evil creatures. They are perfectly calm until disturbed, aka when you touch or try to move them, when this happens they inject you with a small amount of poison which is why it hurts. This poison is deadly, but happily, only in large doses.) These things hurt, it feels like constant pinching all in one small area where the caterpillar is and was for a short while after it happens.
Now, when I finally got to go on the tree paths it was really cool. Terrifying because we were like 20-30 feet in the air, but cool. There were different parts of the path that were easier or harder to get through. The first was just a regular path but the beams were farther than a regular bridge. Then the next was the same but the beams were only like an inch and a half thick. The third part, was a single wire. On the previous two we had ropes to either side to help steady ourselves. On this part, there was only one rope on one side, then we had to balance and cross a smaller gap to the next part. The final part was the same as the previous, except it was longer and had rope on both sides. Once more, terrifying but really fun. Finally, the way to get off the tree paths was a zip-line. Not much to say about that, it was really fast.
After that, we went back to camp. We had some dinner, and a few of us jumped into the pool that was there! IT WAS FREEZING, but we didn't care. (Not actually freezing but it felt like it.) After that, a ton of us all had to wait on the single bathroom so that we could shower.

~~Sunday
Sunday, we all got up at about 07:00 (7am) and started getting ready for the day. We were going to a water part for the first three quarters of the day and then an archaeological site during the last part. While at the water park, we hung out, took TONS of video on both my, and Jan's GoPro memory cards (Jan is one of the two from Germany.), and I ended up trying a zip-line they had going from one side of the pool to the other.
The entire way was safe, it was over water and at the end they had stuff wrapped around the wire to prevent people from getting hurt. However they made sure it was safe for the majority of people, the ones that made it at least halfway down the zip-line. For some reason though, they had the water part set up so that the beginning half of the pool was only about 3-4 feet deep and the last half was deeper. Don't ask me why, I have no idea.
Well, the reason for me somehow trying this zip-line is that Mini Paulo went up the tower at the beginning and started not wanting to do it anymore. So I told him that if he did it, I would try it too. He did it, and so I had to uphold my part. Now, this zip-line is not the same kind we had gone on the previous day. It was just the kind you hold onto with your hands, and so.... After finally pushing off the beginning platform, I went down about five feet from the start and my grip slipped. I fell into the shallow half of the pool. I had managed to kind of roll back so that instead of my legs going in first, it was my back that hit the water first. After that my arm was the only thing to hit the floor below that. When I got back above the water I realized what all the books I've read meant by the air being forced out of you. I started sucking in air as fast as possible and moved towards the edge of the pool. It was not a fun day.
After that, I ended up getting out of my swimsuit and into dry cloths, though it hurt quite a lot for anything to touch my back, even if it was just clothing. Then Coordinator Paulo took me to the city and to a hospital to make sure that nothing was injured internally. After the doctor confirmed that nothing was wrong internally he prescribed me some pain medicine and we headed back to the water park. Having taken the pain medicine, I felt a lot better than I had before.
Afterwards, we headed to the archaeological site. It was an AMAZING site. It was an old castle-like building that we were able to walk through and take pictures of. After being there for a short while, going to dinner nearby, we came back after dark. They had a light show going on at the castle/building. I'm not sure exactly what it was about (There was talking to go along with the lights.) but I would guess it was about the history of the building. However, half way through the show I started tuning out, the pain medicine had started wearing off and it was REALLY cold outside, like constant shivers-down-your-spine cold. Which when you have a messed up back that keeps shivering, it's not fun. Once the show was over, we headed back to camp, to get some well needed sleep.



 

  
These two happened as we were walking back to the bus to gather for dinner.
 


~~Monday
Monday wasn't very eventful. Once everyone woke up at 07:00 (7am) we started packing everything up. Suitcases, tents and all. We had breakfast and Coordinator Paulo took me and a few others to the Police station in Santo Angelo to get our Brazillian IDs! FINALLY!!! After that, we all hung out at his house for a short while before we had to go on our bus home. Mini Paulo and I's bus was at 10:00 (10am) and it ended up being the same bus that two of the other exchange students had to ride!
After we finally got home, I unpacked my suit case and ended up sleeping for nearly three hours. Which, upon waking, I went and hung out at Cipex for two hours.

~~Tuesday
HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday wasn't very special at first, school ya-da ya-da. But afterwards, I got to go to Panambi with a bunch of the students from Santa Barbara-Cipex as well as Camila and Andrea for a Halloween party. (There is also a Cipex in Panambi, which is where the party was, thus the specification.) The party went by pretty fast, and shortly after 19:00 (7pm) I was home.

~~Wednesday
There isn't really anything special to today. However, we did end up having a free class instead of Math. I went outside and ended up playing basketball for a short while before getting too hot. Then after school, nothing happened. Just been sitting around relaxing my back. (We were suppose to have a party for one of the students at Cipex but it has been postponed.)

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Soon... There Will Be More Chaos....

25 October 2017
20:06 BRT (EST + 1 hour)

~~Thursday
Well, I got up at 07:00 (7am) for school, having gotten a good amount of sleep. Yet I still felt like I hadn't even slept. I texted my counselor, Andrea and told her how tired I was. One thing, Andrea is amazing and so she said she would tell the principle of my school here that I wasn't going to be there today, and after that I managed to sleep another two hours. For the rest of the day, I simply relaxed around the house, enjoying the fact that I wasn't surrounded by hundreds of people.

~~Friday
On Friday, I did go to school. Which afterwards (After going home for a short while.), I went and hung out at Cipex until just before dark. Not much else happened.

~~Sunday
Well, I got my first sun burn! It wasn't that bad, because it never really hurt and is already mostly healed now (On Wednesday.). There was a march for cancer awareness that I went on with Odete. I didn't know what exactly we were doing and so didn't put on sunscreen. I didn't realize that we were going to be standing in direct sunlight for over half an hour, and so I had a perfect burn line of my tank top strap as well as the necklace I had been wearing!

~~Monday
Due to Mondays being the days we have school in the afternoon, as well as the day we have gym class, I brought a card game called Skipbo to class to try and learn how to play. (During gym, it isn't entirely required and so everyone mostly just does whatever they want to do.) Once I figured out how the game worked I taught it to my friend Kemillin and we played a game of it before class ended.
After school, I went to Cipex and hung out there for a while before heading home.

~~Tuesday
Tuesday was actually kind of confusing. While trying to figure out what was happening during the weekend, I also had school, a Rotary meeting, and a Rotary dinner. During the meeting, Paulo and I ended up going around to different locations (Hospital, school, even Cipex.) and some of the "higher up" Rotarians even got to talk on a radio station that is popular here. Also, I will point out that when I had been told of this meeting, the way it was explained sounded like it was just something short and then we would all go our different ways... It ended up being three and a half hours long. However, the last place we went to was Cipex and so I got to drop the proper exchange student mentality and just roll around on a desk chair while talking to some of the students. (Dinner wasn't really anything different from a regular dinner, except there were more people.)

~~Wednesday
Today was.... chaos.
It had been storming all last night and didn't stop until mid-morning while I was at school. How I got to school you might ask, I walked. Due to the umbrella I had been using breaking the last time it rained, I now have a plastic rain coat. So I walked to school wearing it. However, due to the insane amount of wind I still ended up with the front of my legs soaked, the bottoms of my soaks wet, and the ends of my sweatshirt sleeves and parts of my hood soaked through. By the time I got to school I was very cold. Happily though the rain stopped by the time I left to go back home and my leggings I had worn had completely dried out.
After arriving home, I went about gathering everything I needed to pack. Oh, I should probably mention what is happening this weekend. (I didn't even know this until a few days ago. Even some exchange students have trouble informing everyone.) So this weekend, we are going camping. This trip was going to be later in the year but due to a few exchange students who are scheduled to go home before then, the other students persuaded the coordinators to have it earlier so they could go too. (No, these students didn't do anything bad. They're exchange years are just set in a different time span than ours.) I didn't know about this until less than a week ago and so I am now scrambling to figure out everything. Since we are camping, I have to find a tent and sleeping bag to bring. Odete doesn't own either, neither does Andrea and so far no one I have asked has one. I leave late tomorrow. Hopefully someone has one I could use.
After packing, I felt really tired and managed to take a short nap before heading to Cipex around 15:30 (3:30pm). I was there for a short while and then the class that was there (Comprised of some more friends, Pedro, Guto and Ana.) plus Andrea and Camila's class all went to .....(can't remember the name.)..... Well we went there and had food and drinks. Also, I taught all three of my friends how to play Skipbo. It was REALLY fun!
Now I'm home again. Ready to wind down for the night before having a bit more chaos tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Thunderstorms! But wait, there's more!

18  October 2017
22:02 BRT (EST + 1 hour)

So Thursday and Friday I didn't have school. Not sure why, but I didn't ask. Our weather forecast on this extended weekend was Thursday: Thunderstorms, Friday: Light Rain, Saturday: Thunderstorms, and Sunday: Sunny.
I will tell you right now, the thunderstorm was nice at first, I like looking at and hearing rain. That is until it knocks your power out. At about 21:30 (9:30pm) our power shut off, not sure what happened. I ended up going to bed not long after that, and thankfully I had kept my power bank charged and so was able to charge my phone overnight.

The next morning, at around 08:00 (8am), I woke up and the power was back on. I was able to go through any messages I had gotten when we didn't have power and just went about normally. then about 30 minutes later, our power went out again. This time, I didn't go to bed since I had just woken up. We didn't have power for nearly 6 hours, and after that for about 3 hours it would randomly turn off for a few minutes. Sometimes it was just the WiFi, others just the outlet I was using to charge my laptop.

For the rest of the weekend, I just relaxed (Due to the constant rain, I couldn't really walk anywhere.) and did various things on my laptop.

On Monday, I went to school, came home for lunch, went back, land then came home early because our Geography teacher wasn't there. (Not sure if they are sick or what.) Also, Geography is our last class, thus we can leave early. My plan had been to stop by Cipex after school, except Andrea wasn't going to be there until after 17:00 (5pm). So I walked home, and Odete drove me to Cipex because she had to go do some things at the same time. The reasoning for going to Cipex was that I needed to pay for the sweatshirt that my district of exchange students desgined. (We all pay for our own.) After that, I hung out a bit longer at Cipex and then headed home.

On Tuesday, not much happened, except I did try to figure out how far I had walked in total the previous day. The distance from my house to the school is 1.4 km, aka just under a mile. I walked that, four times: 5.6 km, aka nearly 3.5 miles. Add, walking home from Cipex and some other random walking from the bank and back, I walked almost 4 miles. While my legs were slightly sore on Tuesday, I was very happy I made the choice to take a hot shower (While I was going to shower, I wasn't going to take one as hot as I did.).

Now for today. Wednesday.
Today was fun.
I went to bed just before midnight last night.
And was planning on getting up at 07:00 (7am).
I woke up at 05:00 (5am).
Today, I was going with a group from my school and multiple other schools to be introduced to a college near here. One of those, "Hey, come here for college!" things. I had thought that I would go to school at the normal time and leave shortly after. I was wrong. I woke up at 05:00 (5am) because I had to leave in less than an hour. (Thank you Mãe for waking me!) The bus ride was an hour long and when we finally got there, I realized there were a whole lot more people than I thought. (I didn't know other schools were going as well at the time.) Everyone got separated into four different color groups, and then those were separated into different letter groups. Happily, a friend from school, Kemillin was there and she was my guide through it all. (Thank you!)
I don't want to go into detail about the whole day. It was long. Mostly, we were taken through the different courses the college offers and were shown parts of the campus. It was actually really cool. Except I didn't really appreciate how they told each group where to go and when to go there. Almost all the students were under a giant tent that had a stage at the front. Imagine outdoor concert. That was this, and it also included overly loud speakers and music too. At one point through the day, I decided that I had had enough of being stuck in a crowd and found a place to sit nearby. It was about 40 feet away from the nearest speaker but I could hear everything perfectly.
From this spot, I could also, see where groups were going when they were leaving and so when I saw my group leave (All the group leaders wore the group color and had a sign with the color and letter on it.) I just stood up and joined them. It made my life a whole lot easier for the rest of the day.
Now that I'm finally home, have showered to get the nasty sweat off me, and just about finished this, I'm ready to sleep. (By the way, I got home at like 20:45 (8:45pm). Having been surrounded by people all day has put this introvert in the hidey-hole for a while to recuperate.

Tchau!

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Cats-Cats-Cats-Cats

11 October 2017
19:00 BRT (EST + 1 hour)

On Thursday, I actually had a surprisingly busy day. After school was over, I was able to go home, have lunch and relax for the normal amount we have on Mondays. After that, I had to go back to help with a class that two of the teachers were wanting to start. These two teachers are trying really hard to learn English and so they want to help teach some students the same. I don't know how they pick what students to participate or if they just come if they want. I don't know. Throughout this, about an hour long, class, we went through an American movie, then an American show, (We just went through a scene of the movie.) and if there were lines that they didn't entirely understand due to English slang or anything like that, I would explain.
Due to my role, I had to explain to my completely unknowing teachers and four students that ended up coming, what "getting laid" meant. *facepalm* That was not a fun moment.
Anyways! After that was over, I went to Cipex and got to go to a place called Casa do Pao, which means Bread House. It's a bakery and it has REALLY good food. On this particular day, they had free samples of different cakes they have for people to try. Andrea took me, and the class she had at the time, to Casa do Pao, and instead of just letting us try the free samples. She bought us the actual small cakes, and we all tried and ate them. They ended up having their class there and I headed home.
Next! I simply hung out at home again, showered and packed a bag of random stuff. I had been invited over to one of my classmates house to have pizza and watch a movie. I went over, and we did exactly that. She had about 5 other girls over and two boys and we had tons of pizza and then watched a movie called Nerve. It was SO good and I'm surprised I have never heard of it before!

On Friday... the only exciting thing was that we got a cat... though she kind of ran back to the house she had been living in before I think... We got her, and she was very affectionate, she would start meowing at me if she couldn't see me. Oh, and I should mention that she had to be an outdoor cat, due to allergies. And so, about ten minutes after we got her, of which I had been walking around outside with her just running around my legs, (SO CUTE) I went back inside. Then went into my room, opened my window and was half way out of it in order to pet her.
She is seriously cute. She is completely black with green eyes, and didn't have a name. I asked Odete if she wanted to name her and she said I could. Soooo, I named her Olive!
However, it was short lived because all of Saturday, Sunday, Monday, etc we haven't seen her. Another however! Andrea has a cat that recently gave birth and we should be able to get a cat from her in about a month and a half!









Saturday and Sunday, Odete and I were just potatoes, aka we just sat around and relaxed most of the time, which was nice.

Then on Monday, Andrea, Camila, Paulo and I all went to Santo Angelo for a few things. First, Camila and Andrea had to pick up their new passports I believe. As well as I needed to see if my Brazilian ID was finished... it was not. Then before coming back, we stopped by another Casa do Pao. Nom nom nom. After that, I just relaxed for the rest of the day.

Not much happened on Tuesday, it just rained a lot. Happily though, it didn't start until after I got home from school!

Now, today! It rained TONS last night and this morning. Now here was my problem with this. The last time it rained, it was so windy that the umbrella Odete was letting me use, broke! So it's pouring down rain, I walk to school and have no umbrella. Happily, the rain stopped about 5 minutes before I was going to head to school and stayed stopped for about half an hour! At school, we didn't entirely have class. There was a presentation during the later part of the class day and after that we all went home. Then I went to Cipex and hung out there for about 3 hours. Pretty calm day besides all the rain.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

PHOTOS

---
---

Here are all the pictures I took while on the trip! The majority are in order, but there are a few out of place to make it a bit more organized by size. (Sorry to any with OCD, it's not very good.)