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 25, 2017
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!
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.
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.)
---
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.)
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
NATURE
4 October 2017
22:36 BRT (EST + 1 hour)
Well, school has been the same as it has been. On Saturday, Cristiano got back from Carazinho and we went over to Odete's parent's shortly after lunch. I cut up some cuca, a type of cake bread thing that is delicious, and then got to watch them shear sheep. Them being, Odete, Cristiano and Eliane (Odete's sister) and their mom. It was really interesting and kind of funny to watch at times.
Nothing much happened Sunday, and then on Monday, I got to try a type of Popsicle thing there. They are only given out during the afternoons at school, and since Monday is the only day we have school in the afternoon, it was the day I got to finally try it. I can't remember what its called, I'm pretty sure it starts with an "l" but I'm not sure. It's sort of like the Popsicles I used to have as a kid, but slightly slushier.
Finally today, I was invited to go on a "museum" type trip with some younger students, about intermediate age, and went. We got to go around to different, what I assumed were, historical or really just beautiful areas around Santa Barbara. We went to multiple different parts of a river, all of which were beautiful and road on a little cart on one of the train tracks. (Some students took turns pushing it. Also, so far I have yet to see a train here.) I also got PLENTY of pictures... Tada...
(I guess I will be adding them later because right now I'm having a bunch of trouble trying to transfer them to my computer.)
22:36 BRT (EST + 1 hour)
Well, school has been the same as it has been. On Saturday, Cristiano got back from Carazinho and we went over to Odete's parent's shortly after lunch. I cut up some cuca, a type of cake bread thing that is delicious, and then got to watch them shear sheep. Them being, Odete, Cristiano and Eliane (Odete's sister) and their mom. It was really interesting and kind of funny to watch at times.
Nothing much happened Sunday, and then on Monday, I got to try a type of Popsicle thing there. They are only given out during the afternoons at school, and since Monday is the only day we have school in the afternoon, it was the day I got to finally try it. I can't remember what its called, I'm pretty sure it starts with an "l" but I'm not sure. It's sort of like the Popsicles I used to have as a kid, but slightly slushier.
Finally today, I was invited to go on a "museum" type trip with some younger students, about intermediate age, and went. We got to go around to different, what I assumed were, historical or really just beautiful areas around Santa Barbara. We went to multiple different parts of a river, all of which were beautiful and road on a little cart on one of the train tracks. (Some students took turns pushing it. Also, so far I have yet to see a train here.) I also got PLENTY of pictures... Tada...
(I guess I will be adding them later because right now I'm having a bunch of trouble trying to transfer them to my computer.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)