Thursday, January 11, 2018

Pintura, Pintura, Pintura

11 January 2018
11:54 BRT (EST + 3 hours)
Current Temperature: 29 C (84 F)

--Friday
I managed to finish taping up the hexagons on Friday. However, planning to only be at Cipex long enough to put up the tape, I didn't bring my phone charger and came with only half battery on my phone. Taping everything took a bit longer than I thought it would and so my phone ended up dying before I left. No music for me on the walk home. Also my luck with cockroaches once more. Cipex doesn't usually get cockroaches because it's not lived in like a house. However my luck said that there would be one sitting outside the front door to greet me... No pictures, but at the end of the day I did get to hang out with my kitty!


--Saturday + Sunday
I decided to take this weekend off, though I don't have a proper job to actually take time off of. I don't have any pictures from Saturday but I did managed to take progressive pictures of Nero's laying position on the couch with me. At one point he even fell asleep with his tongue sticking out, most adorable thing ever!
 

 

Sorry for the quality of this last one, I had taken a video and just screenshot one frame from it.
Also, yes, in the second to last picture he managed to steal my hand as I was trying to pick him up.


--Monday
Monday I started and finished painting in the hexagons! I took off the tape from around it and started repainting bits that needed to be white. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures yet.

--Tuesday
However on Tuesday, I finished painting over the little bits of misplaced blue as well as I started sketching out where the 'bricks' are going to go on another wall. I do have a picture of the hexagons, however the sketching was too light, as sketches are suppose to be, to be caught on camera.

I should also mention, that before going to Cipex, I went to the store on my own and bought myself stuff. Unsurprisingly, it was terrifying, however I managed.
If you are wondering why it is terrifying for me it's because I don't like going into big crowds of people I don't know on my own.









--Wednesday
Yesterday, I didn't really do anything. I actually had plenty of time to write out the blog and upload it but managed to completely forget. Soooo, yeah. Sorry about that. Now I'm scheduled a pretty busy day ahead of me so wish me luck!

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Painting!!!!.... And Torrada!

January 4 2018
10:40 BRT (EST + 3 hours)
Current Temperature: 22 C (71 F) Forecast of lots of rain.


--Thursday
Well, not much happened on Thursday, however the highlight of the day was..... drum roll in mind.... I got my hair cut!! Woohoo!
 

--Friday
The next day I began the long project of repainting one of the rooms at Cipex. The room in particular being Andrea's "classroom!" Students are allowed to draw on certain parts of the walls, however it was time for a change, and so I started out by simply painting over the drawings with white. I spent about three hours at Cipex on Friday doing this.

--Saturday
On Saturday, I got into contact with some Brazilian friends and tried to set up a time when I would be painting at Cipex and we could all hang out. Sadly in the end, everyone had been busy, but I still got quite a bit of painting done! I was at Cipex for... six hours!

--Sunday
Sunday, I had a busy night ahead of me. My host mom left at about 21:30 (9:30pm) to go to church to celebrate the New Year. I stayed home and hung out with my kitten who was being surprisingly cuddly.
 

At about fifteen minutes until midnight, I started making myself some macaroni and cheese while doing a short FaceBook call with my friend and her mom. Shortly after the Brazilian New Year, we ended the call and I sent messages out to all my friends here in Brasil.
I then proceeded to have a plate of the macaroni and stayed up another three hours. Why? You may ask. Well, Brasil is three hours ahead of Indiana. Meaning in order for me to celebrate with my US friends and family, I will stay up until 03:00 (3am). This I did, I stayed up, and at 02:00 (2am) started another FaceBook call with the same friend along with a few others who had joined her for New Years. We played a very silly game of Apples to Apples and once 03:00 (3am) or 00:00 (12am) came around, I sent out messages to my US friends as well as my family.
After that I was quite tired. Oh, and did I forget to mention I had to get up at 08:00 (8am) the next morning?

--Monday
Well, even though I had set an alarm to wake me up, I must've turned it off in my sleepy state because at 08:30 (8:30am), the time we were going to leave, my host mom came in and woke me up.
I might want to mention what we were doing, we were going to a family member's house to celebrate New Years Day. The car ride was two hours long, and it was a packed car. (Odete's parent's picked us up and they had another person with them.)
It was actually quite nice, we hung out there for the majority of the day and had lunch. Around 18:00 (6pm) or so, we headed home!
Annnnnnd, here's a silly out of context picture from the day...














--Tuesday
On Tuesday, it was another relaxed day. I spent part of it hanging out with the wild Nero kitten when he came inside, and at one point made myself a torrada I am quite proud of.
If you don't know what I mean by torrada it is this... A torrada is a sandwich you can put anything in, and then you grill it. Imagine a grilled cheese, but you can put anything in it and it's MUCH less greasy. Torradas... are... amazing.
This particular one I made with some chicken and cheese.














--Wednesday
Wednesday started off slow. However once about 16:00 (4pm) rolled around it was time to go. At this time, I went to Cipex and began painting once more. With all the work I'd done before, I only had to do a few more layers over certain parts of the walls to finish with the drawings.
Once it was about 17:00-17:30 (5-5:30pm) Paulo as well as Ana came around. Paulo was doing a quick review lesson with her before she left for Canada in the next few weeks. (I will mention, there were suppose to be two other boys with her, however they went to another city for the day.) Ps. These boys kept teasing me with pictures of Subway.
We all hung out and by the time I left at 19:00 (7pm), I had finished painting over the drawings, had created paper cut-out frames for the diamond and hexagon designs and had started taping out the hexagons!
Wish me luck!

Ps... Sorry for the delay... only realized I had forgotten about the blog when I had curled up in bed...

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!