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.