Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Busy Week Part 2

30 August 2017
22:46 BRT (EST + 1 hour)

On Sunday, when we arrived in Tres De Maio, the rotarians that brought me introduced me to the other exchange students. I was expecting to not know any of the other students, but to my surprise, one of the students from Canada I met at the Central States conference was in my district! All the inbound students were introduced to the rotarians there and then we were taken to a different room to go over different rules and regulations.
It felt like FOREVER until it was finished, but once it was, I figured out who my first "host family" would be. The family who will be taking me for the week I am in Tres De Maio. They had me try a type of hamburger, it has eggs, and many other things that aren't normally in a hamburger. It was very confusing and sadly, my appetite was still small. Also, I got a good nights sleep! I woke up the next day and my host mom, Aline, took me to the school where the conference had been.

I had looked at the schedule our Inbound Coordinator gave us and thought that there would be another day of inbound instructions and introductions (I'm not trying to do the alliteration.), but it was actually the first day of our language course! Once thing I definitely wasn't expecting for that was that, besides there being multiple different teachers throughout the day (One in morning and one in the afternoon.), was that most of the teachers didn't know English. Almost all the other students had been there for at least a week and so had at least a basic understanding of Portuguese. It was only my second day, not including Saturday as there wasn't much Portuguese being used as well as I was traveling for most of it.

Yesterday, the 29th, we were asked to wear athletic cloths to class, and in the afternoon we did gym class with the students at the school. As well as we hung out with a few music classes.
(Also every day, at around 10:00 (10am) we have a snack, then at 12:00 (12pm) we have lunch and finally at 15:00 (3pm) we have another snack. Our classes lasts until 18:00 (5pm).)
At the end of class yesterday, our inbound coordinator asked us what we think the teachers could improve upon to help us learn Portuguese. Some students said "more activities," or "more reading." I just wanted to be able to understand what the teacher was saying. They only spoke Portuguese and I never knew what I was suppose to do until another student told me.

And so, today, they said that they had taken into account what we had said. Following that, they said that they would be speaking Portuguese the whole day, no English and no phones to use Google translate. You might be able to tell how I am having trouble learning Portuguese. However, I am learning, even if it is a word at a time.
Before writing this, I got to go to a CTG. Which is an event where there is traditional dancing. We also showed them some of our songs, as well as got to participate in some simple, follow the person you're holding hands with, kind of dances. It was really fun.
I took a few videos that I want to share, but due to it being now 23:37 (11:37pm) at night, I think I'm just going to go to sleep and add them in the morning... Boa noite!!

Busy Week Part 1

30 August 2017
18:54 BRT (EST + 1 hour)

I spent almost all of Saturday with a friend of Angela's. (Angela is my counselor.) Her friend's name is Monica. She treated me to my first Brazilian fruit, called açaí (a-sai-e). You only eat the jelly-sort of stuff that inside of it. I didn't hear Monica say that until I had already bitten into it and so I had to spit out the skin, plus there are seeds inside of it. She also bought me lunch, but at the time I wasn't very hungry. We went back to her school and my counselor and I, through text, tried to figure out how to get my bus ticket to Panambi, a city near Tres De Maio where the conference is. After we figured out the bus ticket situation, I managed to get two hours of rest before we had dinner, which I managed to eat a good amount of. It was pasta with cheese sauce, which was really good.
After that, I took an Uber to pick up Andrea, and then the same Uber to the bus station. Andrea helped me print the ticket, find the right bus and introduced me to some people who know of Rotary and where going to Panambi. They made sure I got off at the correct time, as well as one of them knew some English and so explained some things to me. The bus ride was 6 hours long, and left at almost 22:00 (10pm)! When we finally arrived in Panambi it was 4am!!
Sadly, I only managed to get another 2 hours of sleep on the bus. Once I got off the bus, a rotarian and her daughter, who was also a rotarian, picked me up and took me to their house. This was the previous District President and Inbound Coordinator, respectively, some of the people who signed off on me coming as an exchange student. I was able to get a shower and eat a bit of breakfast once we got to their house. Then we left at 06:00 (6am). I'm not sure where the two hours went, because I'm sure I didn't take a long shower, but I know that I didn't have time to lay down at all.
It then took 3 hours to drive to Tres De Maio, which I managed to get 2 hours of sleep. Once I woke up, we were about 20 minutes away!

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Plane... Another Plane.... ANOTHER PLANE...

25 August 2017
18:56 EST

Well, I have now landed in Atlanta, Georgia. My flight left South Bend at 16:45 (4:45pm) and landed a half hour early in Atlanta. However, it took that half hour to pull up to the gate and for me to get to my next gate. Now, I have three hours before my next flight leaves at 21:49 (9:49pm). Right now the gate I'm at is actually a flight to Manchester. While riding the airport train to my gate, I actually met a lady who is going home to Manchester.
When my parents, my friend and I got to the airport in South Bend, we got to the security point and asked if they could come through with me, sadly they couldn't. However, the clerk working there at the time let us stand to the side and say our goodbyes. I went through security and was pulled aside because my carry-on had a "liquids" (It was lotion and toothpaste.) that were in too large a quantity. Due to this, I had to go back out and have the clerks that took my checked bags put the bag of stuff into one of those bags. After that I just went back through security, got to my gate, had a sandwich and got on my flight!

26 August 2017
17:31 BRT (EST + 1 hour)

My flight from Georgia went fine. However, I didn't get much sleep during the night. I got maybe two hours, seperatly. After getting off the flight in Georgia, I started having a headache, but after the first hour of sleep it went away.
Once landed in Sao Paulo, the captain of the plane told everyone on the plane that even if we had a connecting flight, we would have to collect our checked bags to go through customs. While collecting my bags, I had one already and was waiting for the other, an employee came over to me and asked if I was going on a flight to Porto Alegre. I told her that yes, I was and she told me that my gate was closing in about 40 minutes! She contacted the other employees and they all helped me fast track through customs and to my gate. As well as a Rotarian met me at the airport and helped me find my way. Thank you VERY much, Lilian!
I managed to make my flight and landed in Porto Alegre SUPER early. All the while, I didn't have service and barely had WiFi. I managed to contact my counselor and tell her the situation, but lost connection before I got her response and so started searching the airport for a phone I could use. Due to this, the person she sent to pick me up couldn't find me. However, we managed to figure out the situation and I got to my home for the evening!
Tonight I will be taking a bus to Tres De Maio for a Rotary conference. Hopefully I'll get some sleep before then.

Thursday, August 24, 2017

The Day hath Come

24 August 2017
17:04 EST

Well the last few days were quite nice. Monday night my niece and nephews stayed the night here. Tuesday I got to sit around for a short while. On Wednesday, I partially cleaned my room, my mom and I went out to Taco Bell for lunch and we got me a new pair of wire headphones.
Oh, something I forgot to mention that happened on Tuesday...
I GOT MY VISA!!!!
And with my visa my flight itinerary with departure dates, arrival dates and everything in between! I will be leaving tomorrow, Friday the 25th of August, at 16:45 EST (4:45pm)!
With this news, I got back to working on my room today. I have cleared out most drawers of all things that have drawers in my room. I pulled out everything that ended up under my bed, and cleared out a good portion of my closet in case it might need to be used. I dusted and swept and removed a few things off my walls as well as rearranged a thing or two. It's kind of strange looking at my room now, a lot of things are missing, but it's clean. Now, my mission for the rest of the day is to find where my outlet converters got packed and pack a few things I forgot about or couldn't pack until now.
My parents have been treating me to out-to-eat food since I'm leaving. Yesterday, though it was mostly because neither of us wanted to make anything, my mom and I had Taco Bell. Today for lunch, my dad and I had Wendy's, also mostly because we didn't want to make anything, though my dad had Great Wall. And for dinner today, since it will be my last dinner with family - I was about to say in the US but I have a connecting flight in the US - we are having Texas Roadhouse.
Happily my friend Carissa will be joining us, for dinner and for the trip to the airport tomorrow. We, mainly she, had a few troubles figuring out what to do, but we managed. Together we figure out two option for what she could do for tomorrow, or tonight, both of which we ran by her mom to make sure it was okay. Option number one was that she stay the night tonight and not go to school tomorrow. (Also not go to work, but she already figured out that she was just going to call off.) Option number two was that she just leave during fifth hour and come with us to the airport.
(Some context as to school schedules and that stuff. Our school day doesn't get out until 14:50 (2:50pm), to get to the airport at the time we wanted we would have to leave at 14:15 (2:15pm).)
After having run by her mom, she is staying the night, and so she is coming to have dinner with us.

Thank you, to everyone. I don't think I can say that enough.

Monday, August 21, 2017

A Week of Waiting

21 August 2017
10:45 EST

Well, Thursday was fun. I got to help my sister move into her apartment. Amanda had come over Wednesday night and stayed the night and then we all left at 07:00 (7am), the next morning. "We all" being, my parents, sister, half-sister, and her fiance, as well and myself. We drove just about four hours down to Bloomington, had lunch and then set about moving everything from two cars into Vanessa's apartment, and then into her room. Her apartment just happened to be on the third floor, and it was off and on raining.Well we were there setting everything up for about 5-6 hours and left just after 18:00 (6pm). We got home, this time "we" is just my parents, my half-sister and I, just before 23:00 (11pm), after dropping Amanda off at where she was staying.
Next, on Saturday I got to go to my niece's 7th birthday party. One bad thing though, it was outside at a pavilion, right next to a river, and I didn't bring bug-spray. After being there for about 10 minutes, and playing with all my nieces and nephews that were there, I was just about covered in bites. Oh, I should say that my friend Carissa stayed over at my house Friday night in case she wasn't able to come to the airport with me when I left. And so, Carissa came to the party with me and we both got bitten up.
Now, the really only interesting thing we did on Sunday was we were able to go see Wonder Woman in theaters. It was really good in my opinion. However, for the remaining part of that day, I had been going through and watching all the Marvel films that we owned in order. So once we got home from Wonder Woman, my dad asked if I was going back to watching Marvel and I said, "There was just an intermission of DC, now we're back to Marvel."

~~~INFO~~~
Well, the whole plans for me have failed. The visa was overnighted Wednesday, which you would expect it to then arrive Thursday. However, apparently if whatever is being overnighted is coming from another country then it is promised to be out of the country by the next day, not to the destination by the next day. This means that we have been waiting for my visa to arrive for four days now. It's become very frustrating but we're dealing with it. The nice part, I guess, is that I have more time to sit with my parents before I leave, as well as friends.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Activities!

15 August 2017
18:28 EST

For the first time in what felt like FOREVER I got to eat food on Saturday! I tried out a slice of toast just before lunch and felt like I could eat it well, and so as my dad had promised... We got to go to Olive Garden! It's an Italian-style restaurant that in my opinion is AMAZING. I got to have a few bread sticks with Alfredo sauce as well as some fettuccine Alfredo and some soup. It was very good compared to what I had been eating. After that, we went and picked up my sister and her fiance as they had just returned home from Virginia, along with my half-sister and her family had arrived.
As a precursor to talking about my half-sister's family, I'm going to name all of them to remove confusion. First, my half-sister is Amanda, then her husband AJ. Then we have their kids, Auron who is their oldest. Zane, their youngest, and Elika who is their middle child.
(Named in order from left to right.)
Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling
All Sunday we were able to hang out with them. We had BBQ beef sandwiches for lunch, and then everyone else had hot dogs, hamburgers and brats (bratwurst) for dinner. I still had some leftovers from Olive Garden and so I finished that off, I didn't think my mouth was up to eating burgers yet. It was really fun being able to hang out with them, especially since I could've ended up leaving before they got here. They will be here for about two weeks and so I'm looking forward to hanging out with them a little longer.

~~~INFO~~~
We did find out today that I will be getting my visa soon as well as we kind of cleared up the confusion on my insurance situation. While talking to the company handling our travel plans, Tzell, they told us that most likely I will be leaving this Friday, the 18th. The time is not set in stone as we don't have my visa yet, but I will most likely be leaving Friday and arriving the following day. I'm not sure how that will end up but that was what I was told. Thank you to everyone for your help and cooperation!

Saturday, August 12, 2017

Layin' Around Like A Puffer Fish

12 August 2017
10:53 EST

Well, I did have "proper food" on Friday. I ate part of a grilled cheese. Success!
On Thursday, it wasn't much different from the previous few days. It was just lots of laying around and healing. The swelling had gone down some and my mom actually spotted a bruise that's on the underside of my jaw. I didn't feel the need to take any of my prescribed pain meds, but my mom suggested that I take a few Ibuprofen, and so I did. The day was really nice besides the downside of for some reason not being able to fall asleep that night until after 02:00 (2am).
Due to not having good sleep the previous night, it made me very tired on Friday. I tried to nap but couldn't fall asleep. I had made a plan that morning to take one of my prescribed meds to help my mouth stop feeling sore and to try and get me to fall asleep, and then before I went to bed I took another to keep myself from staying awake due to pain or anything else. It worked, somehow.
I should be up and about as usual in the next day or two. I haven't heard anything different along the lines of my departure or anything else, however my mom and I have started planning what all I'm going to be packing.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Fun Dentist

10 August 2017
11:22 EST

Monday was a pretty plain day. Everyone went off to work, however my sister is now in Virginia with my half sister and her family. She is going to be there this whole week. I was left alone until around 17:00 (5pm), and then had dinner and hung out with my parents until it was time to go to bed. This is when the dentist comes in. Tuesday, at 11:00 (11am), I had an appointment to  have my wisdom teeth removed. The dentist gave me pills I had to take at scheduled times before the appointment. I had to take one sedation pill the night before, then two sedation pills and a nausea pill an hour before the appointment.
On Tuesday, I got up at 8:30, took my pills at 10:00 (10am), and  then went to the dentist's office at 10:30. I remember bits and pieces of the procedure but it's become more foggy since a couple of days have passed. After that, I went home and just laid on the couch for the rest of the day, all swollen like a puffer fish. The dentist office also gave me pain medication which was very nice on Tuesday due to my whole face feeling only pain. However, it's been a day or so and already the swelling has gone down and I don't feel like I need pain meds every few hours.
Wednesday was just about the same as the later part of Tuesday, lots of laying around, and a lot of napping. The one thing I really don't like about having your wisdom teeth out, is that you can't eat proper food for a couple of days. My diet has mostly consisted of pudding, and on Wednesday I managed to have mac n' cheese for lunch. I keep seeing all these food commercials on TV and it makes me really want proper food. My parents told me that after another day I should be able to eat food, however I'd need to be careful.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Weekend!

8 August 2017
10:14 EST

On Saturday, my nieces and nephew hung out until around noon, at which time their mom came and took them school shopping. A few hours passed and my mom convinced me to go cloths shopping as well. While looking through the different clothing areas, we bumped into the kids again. It was an interesting coincidence. My mom then treated me to some food for "doing good" while we were shopping. (She knows that me and cloths shopping don't mix very well, but I'm doing better!)
Then Sunday came around, my parents had to go to first service again and so I went with them. We got home and got some Rotary papers I would like to keep with me while in Brazil. As well and miscellaneous other things. Went to church that night and learned that there was some sort of gather that had happened Saturday night and there were hot dogs and hamburgers left over so we got to snack on those. It was nice because our high school group was really small and so almost everyone could've gotten seconds if they wanted.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Interesting Ending to a Week

4 August 2017
21:13 EST

The ending to this week was actually quite fun. On Thursday, I woke up and ended up cleaning the entire house in about an hour and a half. Though I will say I didn't "clean," I more tidied up the house. Just before noon my friend Carissa came over and hung out, then about a half hour later my friend Gavin came over and we hung out playing games and stuff for about 5 hours. Then that night Gavin came over and hung out with Vanessa for a short bit while they were trying to collect everything they needed to go camping this weekend, and so I made Kool-Aid.
OH! I should clarify, I know a Gavin and then there is my sister's fiance Gavin. The first one I was talking about is my friend, then later Vanessa's Gavin came over. He really likes strawberry Kool-Aid so I made him some.
Then today, Friday, I got to start the day off calm, then just after lunch I cleaned up a bit so that the house wouldn't be a mess. The main reason I cleaned was because my nieces and nephew are going to spend the night. They're actually here right now, we're watching AFV, aka America's Funniest Videos. The oldest is Aubrey, then Shaun, and finally Rebecca. (From left to right as well.)

My dad made his "famous" chocolate chip cookies. They are well known throughout our family as well as friend's families. Since he did, we got to have some nice fresh ones. They were very delicious!

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Random Start

3 August 2017
18:17 EST

Sadly didn't do much these past few days. On Monday, everyone went to work and so I was left home alone. I really just ended up lazzying around the house, not really knowing what to do. It's strange coming from a vacation, having plans to do stuff and then getting home and thinking, "What now?" Also, that night once my mom got home we started to work on gathering some of the documents we have to be sent to one of the Rotarians in my hosting district.
Rotarians, for those who don't know, are the people who work in the organization who is sponsoring me. They will be the people who work with me throughout my trip, as well as right now before it begins. Also, my hosting district is the district that I will be living in, and my sponsoring district is the district I'm coming from. Right now, I am in District 6540, which takes up the upper third of Indiana. District 4660, which is my hosting district, I believe it actually comprises of most of the Brazillian state of Rio Grade Do Sul.
On Tuesday night, my sister's friend came over and spent the night here. My mom also took me to Taco Bell, the place I used to work at, to pick up my check as well as order some food. Just before I left I found out we were going to be getting a new limited time burrito and so I wanted to try it. I won't lie, it was pretty good. Also, I starting playing a new game that my sister's fiance bought and is keeping at our house that night. It's very fun!
Lastly on Wednesday, I continued to play this game for most of the day I will admit, and that night I went to our church youth group and got to have pizza there!

-----Some things I forgot to mention about my families Florida trip.
While there we got to go to Sea World! (Yes, I did mention this but not this detail.) If I remember right it was the first time since I was maybe 5 years old that I have been to Sea World.

P.S. I meant to upload this yesterday... got distracted... However I remembered!
P.S.S. If I succeed at when I would like to upload this blogs, and by if I mean "When," they will be uploaded on Monday, cataloging what happened during the weekend. One on Wednesday, cataloging Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. And finally one later on Friday cataloging Thursday and that Friday!