Parabéns Giovana e Rafael!

On November 27, 2010, my host-cousin Rafael and his beautiful wife Giovana were married.

I have been to a wedding before (which admittedly I can hardly remember) and have heard many stories about how beautiful and timeless they are. Those re-tellings however, pale in comparison to this absolutely incredible event.

The ceremony itself was hosted in a church of German origins, where some of my host family's members now rest. Excited family members filed into the candlelit church just as the last traces of daylight fizzled out. The ceremony itself was filled with tears of joy, music and the unmistakable presence of unconditional, unwavering love. It was truly beautiful.

I did not cry, I swear.

Moving on, the ceremony's awesomeness was only matched by the reception. Though the ceremony had around 100 people, the reception itself held around 500 people. Too accommodate all of these people and their desire to eat delicious things, a massive table near the entrance to the reception was complete with over 20,000 candies. I died of happy.

After shamelessly gorging myself on chocolate, I noticed that the buffet table, there was steaming, succulent Brazilian lobster. So many tasty things, so little time. I think I ate my weight in food that night.

I can't even begin to do the rest of the wedding justice. The only way to truly appreciate it, is to see it for yourself. So, I found the website to the Wedding Photographer's blog, which you can find at the bottom of this post. I encourage you to check it out and be jealous of the awesome delicious things as well as the brilliant atmosphere.

Anyway, congratulations to Rafael and Giovana! Years of happiness to you both, both in and out of this lifetime.

http://www.mmarinho.com/blog/default.aspx?id=174

Thanksgiving in California, in Brasil.

As any American would know, today is Thanksgiving...or yesterday I suppose (1:09 AM here in Brasil). It's a day to remember and be grateful for those things people sometimes take for granted.

Since I've been born, my memories of this day are filled with the familiar sight of golden turkey and the sweet aroma of freshly baked pie. Though today was the day of feasting, today was also the day to toast; to pay tribute to those integral, yet often overshadowed elements of life. Friends, family and time together.

For Brazilians however, today is just another day.

I woke up today assuming that I would not see the familiar golden breast of a turkey, nor would I see the freshly baked pies. I've thought about today, so that when I actually realized that what I'd been accustomed to for 18 years was about to change, it wouldn't come as such a shock. However, it was still peculiar. I sat down at my dinner table with my two brothers, hungrily devouring my pão de queijo, while my host mother went to pick up my host father from the airport.

After dinner, I logged onto Skype. I spoke with my family, who then went off to have their Thanksgiving dinner. Just after I had accepted not doing Thanksgiving, something changed everything.

Lily Watson, one of my friends living in California, was about to have her Thanksgiving dinner with her family. Knowing that Brazilians don't celebrate Thanksgiving, we (with parental permission of course), arranged for a virtual Thanksgiving via Skype. Now this I didn't expect waking up.

So there I sat at midnight in my bathroom, watching the flickering of soft candlelight at Watson Manor. Despite being a continent and 1000 miles away, we could still laugh and make jokes at the Thanksgiving dinner table. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about elephant ear sandwiches, vibrating mattresses among other things.

Today, the thousands of miles separating me from American culture were rendered to the thickness of my laptop screen. You never really are alone after all, are you?

Happy Thanksgiving readers.

2.2C: The End of a Dynasty.

Friday was my last day of school at Colegio Marista in Londrina, Brasil.

I started there only a couple days after I arrived, when I spoke virtually nothing outside of "Oi" and "Tudo bem". My memories of my first day are clear: I was ushered into class by the Principal of the school, in the middle of class. I stood in front of over thirty kids silently and awkwardly while she made a brief speech, telling all the kids not to embarrass the school or Brazil. As they laughed, I sat down in front of Fernanda Torres, one of the few students in the class who speaks English well.

Fernanda (Fer) helped me with a lot, though she may not have known it. Though many people were interested in me at first because I was new, she was one of my few real friends at Marista. Though I had a basic idea of what their school was like, there were a lot of things things that I never would have known about had it not been for Fer. Whenever I needed help or guidance with something we were doing in or outside of class, she was always happy to explain. When I didn't know anyone in the class, she was always happy to introduce me to her friends. Had it not been for her, I'd always mix up the words Saudades and Saude and say negrão instead of Nagao.

Marista holds a lot of memories, both hilarious and embarrassing. There though, my language skills really skyrocketed. I started from basically nothing; I had had difficulties with everything from asking to borrow a pen, to trying to buy a can of mango juice. By the time I left, I was able to talk to almost everyone and understand about 50-60% of what everyone was saying. Considering that, I'm really proud but most of all, I'm grateful.

My experience at Colegio Marista is one that I'll never forget and carry with me for the rest of my life.

Obrigado Fer, e obrigado 2.2C. Vocês me deram um lembrança que vou levar com mim sempre.

Other photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050558&id=1088161372&l=5dd44a546d

Elizabeth VII Video Awards: The Event of the Century

There was quite the spectacle at the Rolândia country club tonight.

The hard-working students of Colegio Bom Jesus, a local high school, submitted music videos into an epic clash of artistic wits: The Elizabeth VII Video Awards. My english teacher, Marluce, invited me to be a judge in the contest.

To be completely honest, at first I didn't expect much. After all, at Staples High School (outside of Westport Youth Film Festival - or WYFF - to my knowledge), people never took these school videos that seriously. When I imagined the scene at first, I thought of when I made a class video for my AP Environmental class. Most of the composition consisted of joking and last minute scrambling. The final product was alright, but I tend to use that term loosely.

I couldn't have been more wrong in this case.

I go to the country club often to play tennis, and often walk by this common room. When I played tennis yesterday, the room was completely empty while the walls were painted with an exquisitely dull decaying beige. Tonight however, it had undergone a complete transformation.

The scene mirrored that of an !E channel movie premier. The spectacle had filmed interviews with the actors/actresses and visitors, a red carpet, a judges panel, a live DJ among countless other accessories. The atmosphere was utterly electric; nothing like I've ever seen.

When the show was getting underway, the other judges and I moseyed our way upstairs to the judges table. As I sat down and organized my ballots, I was served a bottle of water and a box of peach juice. Bottled water and ballpoint pen in tow, I felt ridiculously important. André of course, sat with me in the Judge's section.

Not only was the scene itself brilliant, but every one of the films were spectacular. The video editing and special effects were incredible and in my opinion, they rivaled the original music videos in quality. I was completely blown away.

The applause waning and the votes cast, my deed was done. I left the event feeling completely full. Every aspect of the event was magical.

Too bad I forgot my camera :(

I'm going to start to bring it with me everywhere. I'm determined to get blogworthy photos in the future for you guys.

Então, é tarde aqui, e estou com sono. Vou escrever mais amanhã ou mais tarde.

Tchau gente!

Why everyone should love Paraguay.

As some of you readers may remember, buying foreign product in Brasil is costly. Depending on what you buy, you can face enormous taxes forcing you to pay 150% more than you would be paying elsewhere. Books, are a perfect example of this. For more details, see the previous post.

Before I learned how to shop in Brasil, I paid almost US$50 for two $15 books. After however, I bought three $15 books for R$19. That's about US$15.

How is this possible, you may be asking?

The answer, is Paraguay.

For those who are unfamiliar with South American geography, Brasil is enormous. It literally dominates the continent of South America in size with a whopping 8,514,877 square kilometers, landing itself as the 5th largest country on the planet. Because of its enormous presence in South America it makes sense that it would have many neighbors, one of which is Paraguay.

Paraguay is appealing to many Brazilians for holidays and vacations for many reasons. However of all the people I've asked, the biggest reason by far is this:

No tax!

That's right. Paraguay can buy things from the United States for muuuuccchhh less money than Brasil because of a much lower importation tax. So some ingenius people buy these desirable products and simply cross the Brazilian border. Same product, much less money.

Paraguay is a great shopping destination and this exchange student's favorite loophole because things are cheap! Paraguay is Brasil's one stop shopping point for all things American. In the South at least. Clusters of these small marketplaces intertwine to make one colossal network of shops. In cities like Londrina, there are sectors of the city completely dominated by this Paraguayan market.

Rivaling New York's Chinatown (in my opinion), anything from electronic equipment to tennis balls can be found at a heavily discounted price! After playing with tennis balls that are as pressurized as Jack Johnson, finding new balls was a breath of fresh air. You have no idea how relieved I was to find this place.

In summary, I love Paraguay. If any of you folks ever go to southern Brasil, be sure to keep Paraguay in the back of your mind if you need anything.

Isso é tudo! Tá mais!

Dilma is the New President of Brasil.

The presidential elections were today. The two main competitors were José Serra e Dilma Rousseff (Chuck's mother). The Southern Region of Brazil was in favor of Serra, while the northeast was unanimously in favor of Dilma.

Dilma has won. Dilma Rousseff is the President of Brazil.

According to my host Dad, Dilma was involved in the kidnapping of an American ambassador. Seriously. That's one of the many things to add to her colorful track record.

I'm kind of scared.

Last night though, I ate the most delicious hamburger of my life. Besides "Manga", the name of deliciousness is X-Tudo (Sh-ee-ss Two-dough). It was a double decker burger complete with eggs, ham, bacon, calabresa, linguiça, cheese, lettuce and tomato. That, and it's size is only beaten by Alex Nitkin's monumental Sombrero Burger. I ate it in five minutes.

Anyway, I'm going to hide in my bomb shelter. Até logo!

Bike trip!

Well, that was the plan, but there's been some random, spotted torrential rainfall today/last night.

So that idea literally was left out to dry, then got irreparably soaked.

Yesterday though I had the day off of school, which is glorious because it extended what was a 4-day weekend into a 5-day one. :)

On November 2nd is a holiday called All Souls Day (Dia de Finados). For some reason, they're giving us the holiday off as well as the day after. I'm thinking if some people have to travel to visit their departed, they have the extra day to get back home. The basic principle is similar to Latin America's Day of the Dead and China's Qingming Festival, but they all have their subtle differences, of course.

Our family is going to go to the local graveyard where my host Father's Father is buried to pay our respects.

Anyway, yesterday was also fantastic because after playing tennis at the Rolândia country club, I enrolled in an exercise class called "Jump". In Jump, there are four vital components:

1. The Trampoline: You stand on this and jump according to the Instructor's actions.
2. The Instructor: Mimic her actions on the trampoline/follow her orders.
3. The Music: Prepare yourself emotionally depending on the speed of the music; high speed is hellish, while slow/medium speed is bearable
4. The Water Cooler: Self explanatory. It's really Really REALLY hard.

The exercise only lasts 45 minutes, but it feels a lot longer when you're there. It was an incredible workout though. I am definitely going back!

It'll be interesting to see if I pursue something like this in the States when I get back...only time will tell I guess.

I'm off to spend time with the host folks now. Hope it's the weather's nice wherever you're reading!

Random Drug Seminars...?

Today in school, after the first three set of classes, we had a presentation in the auditorium. I had no idea what it was about and on the stairs up - by overhearing bits and pieces of hallway banter - I deduced that no one else really knew as well. We all filed into the auditorium and to my pleasure, I found out we were having a Drugs, Sex and Alcohol seminar.

To those who have never been exposed to these in High School, these are hilarious. Almost every time I've listened in on these, they consist of videos and/or Powerpoint presentations from the 1980s. If you've ever seen The Breakfast Club, imagine those folks.

Though I only understood half of what the presenter was saying, it was plenty ridiculous and lasted two times as long as it was supposed to. Life was good.

I also progressed in Kite Runner, which is still awesome. If you didn't read my last post, just know that you should definitely read it. But DON'T watch the trailer for the movie unless you've read past the Chapter 13/14 area. It has a big, Big, BIG spoiler. I found out the hard way last night :(

It's also my Grandmother's 91st birthday tonight! I'm going to try to Skype her later this evening.

Stay tuned for tomorrow!

Kite Runner + Tasty Honey = :)

After school today, I started reading Kite Runner.

I'll admit felt pretty out of the loop about reading this book now. I remember how in my Junior year of High School, literally everyone was buried nose-deep in this book. I didn't realize until why until today.

I can't even begin to describe how awesome this book is. During times of trouble, crossroads where one has to make decisions...big decisions seem to be common. These times when one has to choose between what is right and what is easy can easily transform someone for the rest of their life. Kite Runner masterfully conveys how important it is to stand up for something/someone you love, by showing what happens when you can't. This is one of the many things I've learned from the work.

In short, good read. Pick it up if you haven't already.

Interesting tidbit today:

For the past several afternoons, a swarm of bees had been lurking outside my window. Despite numerous spent cans of weaker repellents, they still protected their nest.

Today though, we busted out the big guns: EXTRA STRENGTH RAID, BABY! HELL YEAHH!

Anyway, to celebrate our victory, we took the nest as a trophy and allowed the honey to drain out into a bowl. That honey, we all spread on the evening's Pão de Queijo.

Victory never tasted so sweet; foi bastante deliçioso.

Updates on the Oxford Trial.

Hello followers, friends, and whoever else might be reading this.

To those who have been following the Oxford trial details, you'll notice that for the couple of days, nothing has been posted. For the sake curiosity, here are some statistics thus far:

As of today, I have: written/read:

• Written 1600 words/phrases in my notebook (give/take)
• Read 101 pages (out of 241).

That's about 50 pages of vocab in a college-ruled notebook. In 7 days! Woo!

Now I just have to learn them all...

Droga.

Though this has been an immense help, now I'm starting to burn out. I never was much of a crammer and I'll be the first to admit that I don't have a photographic memory. Plus, if it were this easy to learn a language, I feel like everyone would have done it already.

So in conclusion, when learning Portuguese (or any other language, probably), I should take each step slowly. People say Portuguese is one of the hardest languages to learn, and I'm not going to take that lightly.

I am beyond excited about learning more and want to learn to speak ASAP. However, I see no point in going through all the work with zero return; if I do this, I want to be sure I do it right.

When I come up with the next attack plan, I'll be sure to let you guys know.

On a different note, I finished "The Shack". Truly awesome read. I recommend it to anyone who has any interest in God/the afterlife and especially to those who don't. I hope that - for those that do read it - a sense of clarity descends on you as it did with me.

Tonight, I'll start Kite Runner.

Done for now. Tomorrow awaits.

Oxford Trial Day 5 (sort of, but not really).

Well, today I was going to keep going with the Oxford trial, but decided to take a break. So today I didn't do any vocab words out of the book. Double vocab tomorrow I guess :(

Today was pretty sweet. In the afternoon, I went to Renan's house again, which is quite cool actually. The house is two floors, one where mostly everything is (kitchen, bedrooms, etc), but after ascending a spiral staircase upwards, you'll reach a truly unique place.

Upstairs there isn't really anything besides this one large room connected to a balcony, overlooking the neighborhood. What populates this room is two sofas, a pool table, and a large, wooden table. Most of the time this table is empty, however when friends are over, that table can occupy (in this case): an Ethernet expander/wireless router, up to five desktops, an Xbox 360 + monitor, and high-definition speakers. As an eighteen year old male, I was more happy to spend my time up there for the afternoon.

While I was there, I tried to Skype my parents. So I learned that when five people are all feeding on limited bandwidth, things get sticky.

After spending a couple of hours there (and getting my ass handed to me in "Snooker" [Brazilian Pool]), I went home and read 'The Shack". I'm almost done with it now and I still have no idea how it will end. I love those kinds of books.

That's basically my day. Sorry I'm not so interesting today. More later hopefully.

The Oxford Trial Day 4 + Reflections of Rolândia

Today was pretty awesome actually.

The words were pretty easy to get through today because a lot of them were about food! Because I eat all the time, I knew a good chunk of these words already. Today's categories included (but are not limited to):

• Fruits/vegetables
• The Grocery store
• A deli
• Measurements/units

The interesting word of the day is:

Mango.

No Português, é significa: Manga.

At this point you're probably wondering: "Uhhh why is this kid talking about Mangoes and why do I care?" Well meninos e meninas, the significance is twofold:

One, Mangoes are delicious. Purely and utterly delicious. Here in Brazil, the abundance of Mangoes is only exceeded by their infinite deliciousness. Rapture, thy name is manga.

The second reason is that Manga, like many Portuguese words has several applications. While Manga can literally mean Mango, it can also translate to shirt sleeve. For example:

• Eu amo as mangas, porque são deliciosas (I love Mangoes, because they are delicious).

OR

• Minha manga da camisa foi rasgado, então troquei-a. (My shirt sleeve was ripped, so I switched it).

I thought that was cool. Be mindful of the power of Manga!

Anyway, funny thing I figured out today:

Today, André (one of my two host brothers), Renan (neighbor) were planning to go out to dinner. Though, all I knew was that we were going to eat; I had no idea what kind of food, where it was going to be, what kind of attire was called for, etc. So I wasn't really sure what I should do. When I asked Renan what the plans were, he looked confused. After a second of so, he laughed and smiled. "Relaxa mano", he said as he left the room. Confused, I got ready to shower.

After walking in town for about ten minutes and feeling a bit frustrated, I finally asked Renan where I was going. He looked at me and shook his head. He put his hand on my shoulder and said "Relaxa. Deveria confiar nos" (Relax. You should trust us).

A lot of the time I spend here, I end up headfirst into something I didn't know I was getting into. I think I'm doing one thing, and I end up doing something completely different. One thing remains constant though:

No matter what I'm plunged into here, it's fun.

Until today, I didn't really understand what he was saying.

Rolândians are circular beings. The principles of unity, equality and unconditional trust seem to be written in their genetic code. Despite backgrounds and actions, Rolândians are always very quick to help one another. Whether it be helping with groceries, or helping to move heavy boxes, they are always available. I envy how easy it is for Brazilians.

This concept seems unimportant to most Westporters my age, I feel. Being raised in Westport affected my understanding of this concept. Learning about life in Staples High School, a highly competitive dimension, has caused me to have a different view on trust. What I was taught in Staples primarily was in the end, the only person you can truly trust is yourself. I don't really believe that anymore though.

For Rolândians, everything is circular. To be a Rolândian is to trust the men and women of your community unconditionally. What Renan was asking me to trust him, he wasn't saying "just shut up and walk": he was inviting me to be a part of his circle, Rolândia's circle.

This is one of the bigger reasons why I love being here so much. The way people treat each other here is so much purer than the "more-developed" world. People help each other here because they want to, not because they have to. It's a beautiful thing.

Anyway, that's my rant of the day. Not sure if it made any sense, but I hope you guys can make sense of it.

That's it for now. More tomorrow for sure.

The Oxford Trial: Day 3

Today's categories were:

• Different Environments to Live in
• The house/yard
• The kitchen
• The Dining Room
• The Living room
• The bathroom
• A Bedroom
• A kid's bedroom
• Housework
• Cleaning Supplies
• Household Problems/Repairs

Today's vocab was really hard to get through. All in all I wrote down about 250 definitions.

The amusing word of the day is:

Hutch (noun): A cupboard usually surmounted by open shelves.

No Português, é significa: o guarda-louça. This literally translates to the protector or guardian of the dishes. When I first read this, I imagined a stoic, armor-clad warrior with biceps the size of my dog standing in front of some china. I'm going crazy, aren't I?

Also, today's vocabulary was difficult because I was to deeply involved with "The Shack"(A Cavana, no Portguês). The book started off with a rather depressing aura, orbiting around Mack, a father whose daughter was murdered. In the years following, he is haunted by a great fog of guilt (referred to as the Great Sadness).

Mack was never religious, but after the murder, he began to question if God was really out there. Almost on cue, Mack receives a note in the mail from "Papa" (god), inviting him back to the shack where his daughter was murdered. Even though he's going there expecting the unexpected, nothing can prepare him for what he sees and learns there.

In short, this book confronts a big question: "Where is God in a world filled with such unspeakable pain?" It's filled with a lot of incredible ideas and I'm enjoying every second of it. Read it if you can; it's incredible.

That's it for now. Kind of a boring day I guess.

Oxford Trial Day 2 + Counselor Meeting!

Today was important for two reasons (hence the title):

Oxford trial day two!

It went well. Today covered:

• Daily routines (brushing teeth, going to school, etc)
• Life events + documents
• Feelings
• Things in the home/apartment
• Buying an apartment/house

From now on, I'm going to post one word that was my favorite of the list. That way, I'll learn one word a day for sure, and you guys get to learn something new. Everybody wins! Yay!

The word of the day today is...

Utilities (noun): a facility composed of one or more pieces of equipment connected to or part of a structure and designed to provide a service such as heat or electricity or water or sewage disposal.

No Português, esta palavra traduzido é: (this is the funny part): os serviços de utilidade pública.

When you're in the habit of writing one or two word definitions for these things, something like that comes as a sucker punch.

I'm not really sure why, but the thought of busting out "os serviços de utilidade pública" in everyday speech made me feel a little ridculous.

...I don't know if that's actually funny or not, but it was at the time.

Anyway, I met with my rotary counselor for the first time today! Her name is Silvia and I met with her for lunch afterschool today and went to an English class with her to meet her professor. He's an American that's married and been living in Londrina for 10 years, so it was interesting to see an American fully integrated into the culture.

After the lesson, we drank caldo de cana. This is literally sugar cane juice. It's served on the street similarly to the "Nuts 4 Nuts" carts in New York City.

The place has 3 key components: the grinder, the sugar canes/flavoring and the hippy van. Almost every time I've seen this served, It's been literally made and served out of a Volkswagen Type II (a hippy van). For me at least, this was a key component to the awesomeness of my first taste. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vw_bus_t1_v_sst.jpg

Anyhoo, The man shoves the sugar cane into this grinding device, which presses the sugar cane to a fine pulp. The juice is collected in a cup below the machine as the cane goes through it. The server then adds slight flavoring (usually limão or coco), and we drink! It's insanely delicious. If you ever go to Brazil this is a must.

My host mom also left for São Paolo today for business. She'll come back in a couple days, but it'll be interesting to see what the house is like without her around for a little bit. Whenever my host father is gone the kids act more or less the same, because my host mom is the one that imposes true order. Now that she's gone though, will the floodgates of anarchy break free? Just in case, I'm hiding my wallet from Christian and changing my computer password.

That's it for now blog buddies. Até logo.

The Oxford Trial: Day 1

So today I read 16 pages out of the dictionary. Todays categories covered:

• Calendar events
• Sweaters (to learn the colors)
• Shopping/money
• Family gatherings
• Going to get a haircut
• Describing someone
• Childcare and Parenting (my personal favorite)

If not after school, I'll add these words during school between class periods. Between Physics and Chemistry, I was working on the parented section. This happens to outline - in illustrated detail - dressing, diaper changing, baby food, etc etc. Some of my Brazilian schoolmates saw me writing all these words down hastily, some questions and perplexed looks arose. They laughed after I explained and they realized I was not a teenage parent.

Anyway, after today's session, I added 7 pages to my vocabulary list.

Oh! News regarding tomorrow!

Before arriving, each student is assigned a rotary counselor. This counselor is someone you can email for questions about the school, paperwork or just about anything else.

Anyways, tomorrow I'm going to meet with my rotary counselor for the first time in 10 weeks (exactly 10 weeks from today). I'm really excited about it. Hopefully I can get my spending money now :)

That's it for now. More trial results later.

The Oxford Picture Dictionary: The 14 Day Trial

Before I came to Brasil, I mentioned that I took some lessons. Knowing that I'd do most of my learning in Brazil, my teacher prepared me for various situations the best she could and supplied various books. One of which I now refer to as the "ultimate tome of usefulness": The Oxford Picture Dictionary (English <--> Brazilian Portuguese). That was one of the things I was sure to have when I left and I assumed I'd be using it all the time. Well, today is the third time I've used it in almost 10 weeks here.

This is kind of disturbing. Right now, the only thing limiting my speaking ability (outside of my apparently outrageous accent), is my vocabulary. I have a good sense of "detail work" of Portuguese by watching other people and watching T.V, now all I need is the infrastructure; vocab.

So my first thought was, I have a large book of Portuguese words, a notebook and a desire to learn. So why not just do it?

Why?

Because for me (and I'd wager most other kids my age), sitting in front of a textbook when it's warm outside is...boring. So here's what I've schemed:

I'm going to make this process into a game. In my dictionary there are exactly 240 pages with over 150 separate categories. From basic colors to benthic marine biology, this book has every category you can imagine. Today I did 21 pages (about 10.5 notebook pages), which was rather exhausting. However that would mean - assuming I kept that pace - that in about 11 days, I'd have recorded and - hopefully - learned words for over 150 situations. But that's not very realistic, is it?

Now that I've read 21 pages, that leaves 219 pages to read, record and learn.

If I lowered my pace to, say, 16 pages per day (with 219 pages left), I'd maintain sanity whilst finishing in a celeritous 14 days.

So it begins! Starting tomorrow, my 14 day trial of wits commences. Will I be able to do it? Or will I crack under the crushing boredom? Time will only tell.

I'll post daily progress as we move forward.

Rain, ping pong battles and cookies.

At the beginning of this week, I decided I was going to make cookies for my host family here. They've been an ideal family to live with and I want to try to show them how much I appreciate them in as many ways as possible. Little did I know how large that task was going to be.

Always before cooking, I try to take inventory. Nothing is worse than summoning the effort to start cooking and having to stop because you lack one, integral ingredient. I know because it's happened to me before. A lot.

Anyway, while searching the house for cooking paraphernalia, I noticed that they had almost everything except baking powder and corn syrup. My gut reaction, being an American, was that corn syrup is readily available and I should have no problem finding it at the local supermarket. I was so wrong.

I biked to the market (very short trip; about two minutes), and went over to the cashier. Immediately in my head, I thought of what I was going to ask. I approached him and asked where the corn syrup was, but only got a bewildered stare in return. I realized just seconds later that I accidentally spoke in English. With a "não foi importânte", I started my search.

I found the baking power pretty easily, but the corn syrup was impossible. After a good fifteen minutes panning the aisles, I saw that there were at least ten different types of oils, but no corn syrup. I sighed in defeat, returning home without that one vital ingredient.

As I opened the gate home, I remembered something Chef Grace taught me in Culinary I: some of the greatest things you'll ever make are made by diverging from the recipe. That in mind, I looked again through my ingredients for a good, yet interesting corn syrup substitute. In a matter of minutes, I found a large tub of fresh honey. About the same thickness, slightly sweeter, but because honey is so fresh in Brasil, I felt confident about using it.

Just as I was about to start, I noticed that three extremely important things were missing: one, there were NO measuring cups/spoons in the house. None. Two, the oven had no place to put the temperature. The settings were low, medium and high. And three, there were no cookie sheets. After my breakthrough with the honey though and the arduous voyage to the grocery store, I was not about to give up easily.

Something I admire about Brasilians is their ability to adapt in new situations. So today I tried to cook the Brasilian way. I watched every second as my cookies rose on low heat, on a freshly washed pizza pan.

Despite the difficulty, or maybe because of it, the cookies tasted awesome. Though I don't think I'm going to make them again for a while.

Bowling > Afternoon Classes

Do you remember those field trips schools have that are "educational", but really just an excuse to do something awesome? Well, instead of afternoon classes today, I had one of those.

I left for Catuaí (the shopping mall in Londrina) around 3:00 to go bowling. And just in case anyone's asking, yes it was physics related....sort of. We had a worksheet, so it was official.

Anyway, no one on my team really bowled that much, but knew they'd be okay because they had an American on their team...right? Wrong.

Fernanda, one of my friends from school told me she wasn't too excited about going bowling today because she didn't play that well. She scored over 50. I scored 32.

Whatever bowling prowess I collected field trips and birthday parties past is foreign to me. As of now, I am terrible at bowling. I found that out today.

Despite that though, I had an awesome time.

After the game, and while I waited for my ride home, I went into a bookstore called Livraria Curitiba. Yes Mom and Dad, you read correctly.

Anyway, I went through their "No Ingles" (Ironically translates to "In English"), and picked up two books I've always wanted to read: Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini and The Shack, by William Paul Young. They price on the back of each book was $15, or about R$25, so I figured to paperback books for R$50 wasn't a bad deal. That was, until I found out about tax.

In Brasil a hefty tax surrounds most imported products, especially from the United States. Everything from clothes to cars is very heavily taxed (Cars are taxed 140%). I ended up paying R$105 for the two books; about $63. From now on, I read ebooks and pdfs.

Embarrassment aside, good day overall.

Photos can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049637&id=1088161372&l=62dbae0e22

The Beginning of an Adventure: Life as an American exchange student

Before I came here, I was terrified.

Whenever I told my friends I was going to Brasil, I got a vast array of different reactions and questions. Those who asked, you know who you are. My personal favorites:

"How are you going to survive without running water for a whole year?"

"Do they even have cars yet?"

"Just don't get kidnapped, okay? I don't want to have to bail you out of a Favela"

I think you get the idea.

Ridiculousness aside, I had a lot on my mind before I left, as I was leaving and even now that I'm here. What would the people be like there? Would it be difficult to fit in? What will my host family be like? But most importantly - before any of that - how the hell am I going to learn Portuguese?

The summer months leading up to the plane, I tried to build up a wall of confidence. I had taken several Portuguese language courses, went onto the internet to learn about some basic aspects of Brasil, and said goodbye to my closest friends and family. At least once I got there, I could hit the ground running and pick the rest up as I went along.

As I went through security clearance at JFK, waving goodbye to my parents, I felt ready to take on the world.

Well, that lasted for a whole ten minutes.

As I sat on the plane next to a snoring Willams College Professor, the swarm of questions started to dismantle my psychological "fortress". As each brick fell, more fear flooded into my head. I didn't sleep a minute.

By the time I got off the plane, had my flight switched and my departure gate changed about 15 times in São Paulo, I almost cracked. As I sat down at my fifteenth gate, I thought to myself: "What am I doing here? I could be going to college right now". The woman next to me prodded me, looked at the gate and said something completely unintelligible in Portuguese. What the hell was "deixando" anyway? I thanked her anyway, saw the people boarding and filed into the cue, apprehensively.

Before I came here, I was terrified.

It's amazing how much can happen in only two months.

Dave Wolfe always told me that this year would be the best of my life. It wasn't until several weeks ago that I realized how true he was.

I am Chris Sledge, a rotary exchange student from Connecticut, and I am living in Brasil. I am doing things I never would have dreamed of doing, eating things I never would have imagined, and seeing the world from a completely different vantage point.

Despite my host brother laughing whenever I try to speak, I feel like I'm starting to come into my own with Portuguese. I'm going to keep giving this everything I've got and seize every opportunity I can seize.

Feel free to watch what happens along the way.