A Horrible Disease

Home·sick

 [hohm-sik]

adjective

sad or depressed from a longing for home or family while away from them for a long time.

The worst feeling in the whole world, I would say is homesickness. As Thanksgiving is tomorrow and Christmas is right around the bend, I have been feeling very low. As families get ready for this wonderful holiday season; members of each family reuniting, I feel more and more alone. Thanksgiving is a holiday where I would always spend it with my family. Every year I would pick out a cute little outfit and go to my cousins house for a big Thanksgiving meal. All of my family was there, together as one. This is the first year that I have been away from home for the holidays. Today here in Brasil, it is very rainy and cold, this makes everything so much worse. Every thought that goes through my head is about family or friends back at home. As I am 5,000 miles away, and all I want is to be home with my family. The feeling of homesickness is the worst emotions I have ever felt. Yes, I went to summer camp for about 2 weeks when I was younger and I would get a little homesick there, but nothing compared to the feeling I have right now. The worst part of being homesick, is that it is always there. Somedays it is less, and somedays it is a lot stronger, but it never goes away. I watch as all of my friends are arriving home for the holidays to be with their families and I feel like there is a wall preventing me to do that. I know this whole experience is going to be well worth it in the end, it is just the single most hardest thing I have ever done. I know there are so many people supporting me back in the USA but here, I feel so alone. I have not been myself lately, so sick and so down, always sleepy, and I never have enough energy to ever do anything. I feel like this is the ultimate test, and i hope it gets better. For all of you in the USA have a Happy Thanksgiving and happy holidays! Make the most of them because they're truly missed over here.

Interact

 One of the best experience so far happened this weekend. EMIC it was called and it was for all the Interact and Rotaract's in Minas Gerais (my state). Rewind to about 2 weeks before the trip. On Facebook, my district has a group and thats how we all communicate. One boy brought up something about EMIC in Viçosa. I had no idea what it was, well neither did any of them. I tried to look into it and still didn't have a clue. I really wanted to go though, any chance I have to spend it with my Exchange Student friends I will gladly take it in a heartbeat. I wasn't really informed on any of the details about the trip, and if you know me, you know I wait to do things until the very last minute! (sorry mom ya things haven't changed) But anyways, saturday was the trip, and friday night before the trip I got in touch with my Exchange Student friend in a town close to me. I asked her if I could get a ride to Viçosa. It was hard to get in touch with the lady she was going with. She didn't answer her phone and it was getting down to the wire. I was getting nervous I wasn't going to be about to go. That friday night was tough. I went online right before I was going to bed, and saw my friend sent me a message on Facebook. She sent me a PDF of the invitation and what you needed to bring. It was about 11:00 pm and I brought it downstairs to show my mom. I needed a cushion to sleep on, an authorization from my club, and clothes for the parties each night. I still had no idea what it was, I thought it was just my district and it was something we had to go to, but I was totally wrong. So I packed my stuff, well some of the stuff I needed, the night before. My mom and dad were leaving the night before to go to the beach and if I didn't pull my act together in time I had to go with them. Not saying that the beach is a bad choice, I just really wanted to see my Exchange friends. I went to bed and the next morning my parents just decided to get me a taxi to go there. 3 hours in a taxi, and I arrived in Viçosa. The problem was; where to go. The person who I was supposed to call did not have any service, called him about 45 times and he didn't answer. Me and the taxi driver man, just sitting in Viçosa. Neither one of us knowing what to do, and not really speaking, because of the language barrier. Can you say AWKWARD. I then had an idea, I would call Juan, my district counselor and ask if he knew where to go. Thank God for Rotary business cards! I talked to him and finally found out where to go. I arrived at the place. It was a big warehouse looking building in the middle of nowhere on top of a hill. I thought to myself "I guess this is it huh?". I took my things out of the trunk and the taxi man left. Many kids walking by and some just hanging around. I was alone, awkwardly standing there. My blazer on (not to mention, the only one), my bags in my hand, and one very confused look on my face. The girl asked my what district I was from. I thought it was all my district but no, it was all the districts in my state. Interact is like a Rotary for teens, they put on 3 events a year, and this was one of them. The event my district organized. So I was standing there, alone. There was a group of kid at the "sign-in table" and thats where I was standing near. One boys finally started to talk to me. He spoke English. He asked where I was from and some basic questions. He asked if I came alone and I said yes. They were all very surprised, not sure why. They said I was brave...again, not sure what thats supposed to mean. So the conversation died down and I was still standing there. I get a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and it was Rogelio, a boy from Mexico, who is in my district. I whipped around and gave him a huge hug! I was so happy to find somebody I knew. We were talking and then more people started showing up. We both had no clue what to expect with this event. Vans would arrive and dish out a bunch of kids, and more would come right after, until the whole room was filled with kids. Some vans yelling chants about Interact and so much energy. Once my whole district showed up, it was so fun. We had so much free time, so we just talked a lot. I really liked it, just chilling out. Later that night we found more and more exchange students. Three more from Mexico, one boy from India, and a girl from France. All one big family. For those 4 days we were always together. Ana Flavia (Brazil), Natalia (Mexcio), Naime (Mexico), Rogelio (Mexico), Julio (Mexico),  Diego (Mexico), Ina (Philippines), Daniel (Mexico). You guys are my family. Before I left for the trip I was having a really hard time with homesickness, and I was not myself. But once I got home after this weekend with the other Exchange Students, I now am missing them, and feeling homesick from not being with them in Viçosa. Weird huh!
 Well I'll wrap this up by saying everyone there got very minimal sleep, at 6:30 the Veterans would run around the place going from room to room, banging on drums waking us up for food. The thing is, most of us just went to sleep at 5:00 AM so it was very rough. Our room was packed with people air mattresses and cushions, you could barely see the floor. It reminded me of camp, but it was so much fun!

A regular afternoon

Left to right: Daniel (Mexico), Rogelio (Mexico), Me (USA), Diego (Mexico)

All left to right: Diego (Mexico), Ina (Philippines), Me, Naime (Mexico), Rogelio (Mexico),  Miehra (France), Luis (Mexico), Natalia (Mexico), Amy (Mexico), Bharat (India), Julio (Mexico), Daniel (Mexico)

UniViçosa

Cheers

Meeting

Everyone!

The Warehouse. (AKA our home for 4 days)

One of the girls rooms (Where I stayed)

All the Exchange students again! + Juan and his daughter who went to Germany on Exchange

Just like home

 The other week I received a package. I looked and it was from home! I was so excited, I opened it right up, well took some time to saviour the moment. But I opened it. It was a box of brownie mix. I was so happy, I've been meaning to cook some American food, but I didn't know what to make. It was perfect. So the box had been sitting in the kitchen for a little while and my family kept asking "When are you going to make them?" I know I was holding it off, but they started to think I didn't know how to bake, which I mean I don't really but anyways. So one day when my sister was home I decided to make them. I thought it would be fun, and fun it was! Sayuri (my sister), Pare (my house keeper), and I started making them. I soon realized that they didn't have the right measurements as I needed, major problem. I got by with converting cups to mL on my computer. So the next step was to put it in the pan and bake it. They didn't have a regular square pan so I made them in what they had, which was an O type pan (you'll see what I mean when you scroll down to the pictures) After they were done, we obviously ate them. The first time they have eaten brownies and they loved them! I even brought a slice to all of my friends and they were in love. Everyone wants to know the recipe. The thing is, I made it out of a pre-made mix. oops. I found a recipe online that I will try to make again and teach them though.
 This past weekend I decided to man up and bake a little more. I made panquecas (pancakes). I had only made them once before and I didn't want to get my family sick, so I was a little nervous. My sister and I started out, reading the card my mom wrote for me with the recipe on it, that I translated to Portuguese so  she could understand. I had found a measuring cup in the kitchen that were 'cups'. Pare told me that they were bought in the USA, that sure helped out a lot. But as for teaspoons and tablespoons, I just had to eyeball it on an actual tea and table spoon. As we were making them I remember how my mom taught me, the batter had to be thick but not too thick, and thin but not too thin. It was tough. A lot of trial and error! I finally got it...or I thought. I put the first spoonful on the stove. Tsssz it burnt and I knew something went wrong. The batter spread to a thin layer on the entire pan, I knew it was wrong. I added more flour and tried again. My sister had doubted me, she thought I had no idea what I was doing, I kind of didn't, but I made it work! After the first couple burnt, we started getting the hang of it. I even made a few mickey mouse ones. While making them I had a flashback to back at home. I was picturing myself, a crisp fall day in the Berkshires. Everything full of colorful, fall leaves, and plaid clothing. I pictured myself sitting on Manny's (my grandmother) couch facing that big open window in front of me, waiting to see who would be the next to pass by. Obviously it was Gabey (my little cousin) as usual he was so excited to see us "the cousins!" and to show us all of his new toys. Along followed Pam, Tom, Harry, and Jax. Aroura and Henry were in the basement and ran up when everyone final arrived. I was not sure where we were going but we all geared up. Put out cute little fall mittens, hats, and coats on, and left. Beepa was last to leave, made sure all the lights were off, except for one above the table, and that the doors were locked. Another flashback to every morning while at Manny's house you wake up to freshly cooked pancakes and warm maple syrup. Walking down the stairs and seeing it already there for you, Thank you Manny, I love you. AH I miss home a lot and for all of you who can picture the exact picture I was thinking of, you would miss it too! But just like Manny I made the pancakes as she would. I had her in mind the whole time. I was so proud when setting the table, and most of all I was so proud to be sharing my traditions with my new family. They were so excited to eat pancakes, they have also never eaten before. I set the table with the little bottle of Maple Syrup and put the plate of pancakes in the middle of the table. They were unsure of how to begin eating such a foreign food so they watched as I placed a pancake on my plate, cut it up, and drenched it in delicious maple syrup! They all did the same and the first bite they took, they loved it! I can't tell you how proud I was that I made them right and that they all liked them! It was such a little deed but meant so much to me, it was the closest thing to home I had.

Brownies

The pan

Pronto

Pancakes

My sister making pancakes

Mickey mouse!

Thanks mom

More pancakes

Tables set.