Life [ex]changes: 9 Peas in a Pod

The other weekend I had orientation. Orientation was just with my district, distrito 4580. It was a weekend for the people in my district to meet one another and to go over the trips we are able to go on throughout the year. The meeting was in Juiz de Fora, such a beautiful city. Juiz de fora is about 500,000 people, such a change from little Norwell, but the people who live there still think it's not a BIG city. I took a taxi there, 4+ hours in a taxi all alone, lead to a lot of sleep and one very awkward car ride. Well I showed up to the house, and was greeted at the door by Eduardo Medeiros, my chairman. He said "Hello, how are you?" I replied "I am fine thank you, and you?" and I walked inside carrying a pillow, a small rolling suitcase, a little bag, and my camera. It looked as if i was going away for two weeks but it was only a weekend. Not to mention wearing my Rotary Blazer, which weighs about a pound because of all the pins on it. As I walked inside, I saw two girls and a boy sitting around a table talking. I put my suitcase down and said hello to them. The two girls seemed like they had already been friends and none of them were wearing a blazer. They all seeming a lot older, I was confused. I though to myself, "Where are all the kids?" but I sat down and they asked me where I was from. Then they introduced themselves and we all started talking, talking...sort of. It was very awkward that we were all sitting around and not saying much to one another. Also not knowing what language to speak in. They were all from Mexico, so they were speaking Spanish to one another. I studied Spanish for 4 years at NHS and I thought I could converse a little with them. That was not the case, they spoke too fast and I would just get confused and not know what was going on. Then more people showed up. Three more from Mexico...more spanish, a girl from the Philippines, and a boy from Belgium. No one had been here for more than 2 months, so no one knew how to converse well in Portuguese. The majority of the lectures were in English, but all of the kid to kid talk was in Spanish. I felt so ignorant being the only one who knew one language besides learning Portuguese. For some students learning Portuguese was their 3rd or 4th language. As the night went on, no one really knew what to expect because no one knew how to ask what was next. We ended up sleeping in the "farm house" of Eduardo Medeiros. When we first arrived it was a very old, some-what creepy house that looked as if it had not had people living there for quite some time. It reminded me of the house out of the Addam Family. As we checked out the rooms, Natalia and I decided to room together. We picked the room with one big bed because Natalia forgot her roupas de cama. I put my suitcase down on the bed and I heard a huge "clunk!". Natalia and I looked at each other and sat on the bed. It was as if we sat on a rock, so hard. Great! this is going to be a great night. After we all settled we went outside and talked for a while. We took pictures and it was really fun. We all bonded so much. The next day I didn't want to leave them, and now I am counting down the days to see everyone again! 9 kids, 9 different lives, all going through the same big experience.