Home sweet home

O dia chegou, meu ultimo dia aqui em Manhuaçu. O que eu vou fazer? É dificil deixando um ano atras, mas nem é um ano, é uma vida que eu fiz aqui. Primeira, obrigada todo mundo e obrigada Brasil por esta oportunidade. Obrigada todo mundo que me ajudou pelo esse ano e todas as pessoas eu conheço. Eu não quero embora mas o tempo passa muito rapido e eu tenho que ir. Eu não quero deixar minhas familias, meus amigos, ou minha vida aqui no Brasil mas eu vou te vejo logo. Com certeza eu vou voltar pra Brasil e pra Manhuaçu. Todos de vocês estão no meu coração sempre. Muito obrigada por tudo! Nunca vou esquece-los e eu nunca vou esquecer este ano. Eu vou ficar com muitas saudades mas só pra um tempo e te vejo logo Brasil!!! "A distância não é ruim, ela apenas nos mostra o quanto é bom estarmos juntos"
Eu amo Brasil!!!! tchau, até mais, beijos ;*

The day has arrived, my last day in Manhuaçu. What will I do? It is difficult leaving one year behind, but it isn't just one year it is a life that I have made here. First, thank you everyone and thank you Brazil for this opportunity. Thank you everyone that helped me throughout this year and all the people I have met. I don't want to have to leave but the time passes fast and my time has come to leave.  I don't want to leave my families, friends, of life here in Brazil but I will see you soon. Certianly I will return to Brazil and to Manhuaçu. Every one of you are in my heart always. Thank you for everything! I will never forget you all and i will never forget this year. I will miss you all a lot but it only for a little time and I will meet you again soon Brazil!!! "Distance is hard, but it shows us how good it is to get together"

I love you Brazil!!!! Goodbye, see you later, kisses ;*

Hannah Montana life

As I wake up every morning and rip off a sticky note on my countdown for my family to arrive, I notice the days are very limited. Also that so many emotions run through my mind all at the same moment. Not sure how to explain what I am feeling right now. 7 days until I am able to see my family. At times I am happy I will see them, then I think that my family arriving is actually a reality of my time running out here, which makes me sad. Then there are times where I am anxious, but turns into nerves because I will be one step closer to see the changes I have made in myself when I get back home. I get teary-eyed when I picture the moment standing in the gate waiting to see them walk through the doors into this other world. I won't know what to do, it is so surreal. Do I cry? But why would I cry? Do I smile? Do I scream? Do I laugh? Not sure of that moment get to give my mom, my dad, and my brothers a big hug or actually being able to give them a kiss on the cheek, and hold them in my arms and not let go or being able to talk with ease and not feel like I am awkwardly a 4th wheel of the family or especially not having the computer screen restraining me to do that. It doesn't seem real. The thing is, I actually forget about a lot of the things I had in my life back at home. I am not sure where to even call home now. I find many questions run through my head about how my family was compared to how they are now. Being able to actually see them rather than just a floating head over skype. When I think to myself there are so many doubt I have. I try to remember how tall my mom was, or if my dads hair was turning white yet, or if cammy had outgrown me, or the faces owen makes. I had many disagreements with my family, but thinking back I could only remember the good times that I had spent with them. I couldn't even picture one fight that I had with a family member. Very strange. My life now here in Brazil is normal. Everything that was out of the ordinary when I first arrived, is now normal. Like seeing someone riding a horse on the street with the cars, or seeing stones on the streets instead of pavement, or seeing a one lane highway that has a hairpin turn every 300m, or seeing so many stray dogs in the streets you can't even count them. I forget a lot of how the USA actually is, or in that case "was". My life now is spilt into two. Every exchange student has the chance to make a "new life" when you go on exchange, going somewhere where no one knows you, and being forced to make a living. My family is the only thing that will see both of my lives I have made. It is kind of like the Disney show Hannah Montana. I have a life that I have made here and a life I had when I was back in the states. Two separate lives and my family will be able to see both side of the story. It is weird to think that they will be the only people who will be linking these lives together. As I look back on the time here, I feel like it hasn't been over 3 months saying my last goodbyes to my family and friends. Giving my mom and dad a last hug before I got on the plane to leave for 10 months seems like it was a short time ago. 10 months is actually no time at all, but these 7 days waiting for my family seem like an eternity. I actually don't even picture my family here in Brazil with me. It actually is unbelievable. Don't get me wrong, I and pumped to show them all that I have accomplished, but there is something that just can't wrap my mind around them ACTUALLY coming. Everyone here is so excited to meet my family, there is almost billboards around the town telling every citizen. I was talking with my first host mom the other day and she was saying that she has so much she wants to say to my mom but she won't be able to say it because of the language barrier. This goes back to my first months here. The people will now get a little taste of the difficulty I had on arriving here. The difficulty of having so much to say and express but not being able to say or express anything. And I will tell you its super difficult, but so worth it!

Trying to Explain Exchange

Written by an exchange student this year. Amazing essay on what this is about.

What is exchange?


Exchange is change. Rapid, brutal, beautiful, hurtful, colourful, amazing, unexpected, overwhelming and most of all constant change. Change in lifestyle, country, language, friends, parents, houses, school, simply everything.


Exchange is realizing that everything they told you beforehand is wrong, but also right in a way.


Exchange is going from thinking you know who you are, to having no idea who you are anymore to being someone new. But not entirely new. You are still the person you were before but you jumped into that ice cold lake. You know how it feels like to be on your own. Away from home, with no one you really know. And you find out that you can actually do it.

Exchange is learning to trust. Trust people, who, at first, are only names on a piece of paper, trust that they want the best for you, that they care. Trust, that you have the strength to endure a year on your own, endure a year of being apart from everything that mattered to you before. Trust that you will have friends. Trust that everything’s going to be alright. And it is seeing this trust being justified.


Exchange is thinking. All the time. About everything. Thinking about those strange costumes, the strange food, the strange language. About why you’re here and not back home. About how it’s going to be like once you come back home. How that girl is going to react when you see her again. About who’s hanging out where this weekend. At first who’s inviting you at all. And in the end where you’re supposed to go, when you’re invited to ten different things. About how everybody at home is doing. About how stupid this whole time-zone thing is. Not only because of home, but also because the tv ads for shows keep confusing you.
Thinking about what’s right and what’s wrong. About how stupid or rude you just were to someone without meaning to be. About the point of all this. About the sense of life. About who you want to be, what you want to do. And about when that English essay is due, even though you’re marks don’t count. About whether you should go home after school, or hang out at someone’s place until midnight. Someone you didn’t even know a few months ago. And about what the hell that guy just said.

Exchange is people. Those incredibly strange people, who look at you like you’re an alien. Those people who are too afraid to talk to you. And those people who actually talk to you. Those people who know your name, even though you have never met them. Those people, who tell you who to stay away from. Those people who talk about you behind your back, those people who make fun of your country. All those people, who aren’t worth your giving a damn. Those people you ignore.
And those people who invite you to their homes. Who keep you sane. Who become your friends.


Exchange is music. New music, weird music, cool music, music you will remember all your life as the soundtrack of your exchange. Music that will make you cry because all those lyrics express exactly how you feel, so far away. Music that will make you feel like you could take on the whole world. And it is music you make. With the most amazing musicians you’ve ever met. And it is site reading a thousand pages just to be part of the school band.


Exchange is uncomfortable. It’s feeling out of place, like a fifth wheel. It’s talking to people you don’t like. It’s trying to be nice all the time. It’s bugs.. and bears. It’s cold, freezing cold. It’s homesickness, it’s awkward silence and its feeling guilty because you didn’t talk to someone at home. Or feeling guilty because you missed something because you were talking on Skype.

Exchange is great. It’s feeling the connection between you and your host parents grow. It’s hearing your little host brother asking where his big brother is. It’s knowing in which cupboard the peanut butter is. It’s meeting people from all over the world. It’s having a place to stay in almost every country of the world. It’s getting 5 new families. One of them being a huge group of the most awesome teenagers in the world.
It’s cooking food from your home country and not messing up. It’s seeing beautiful landscapes that you never knew existed.

Exchange is exchange students. The most amazing people in the whole wide world. Those people from everywhere who know exactly how you feel and those people who become your absolute best friends even though you only see most of them 3 or 4 times during your year. The people, who take almost an hour to say their final goodbyes to each other. Those people with the jackets full of pins. All over the world.

Exchange is falling in love. With this amazing, wild, beautiful country. And with your home country.


Exchange is frustrating. Things you can’t do, things you don’t understand. Things you say, that mean the exact opposite of what you meant to say. Or even worse…

Exchange is understanding.


Exchange is unbelievable.


Exchange is not a year in your life. It’s a life in one year.

Exchange is nothing like you expected it to be, and everything you wanted it to be.


Exchange is the best year of your life so far. Without a doubt. And it’s also the worst. Without a doubt.


Exchange is something you will never forget, something that will always be a part of you. It is something no one back at home will ever truly understand.

Exchange is growing up, realizing that everybody is the same, no matter where they’re from. That there is great people and douche bags everywhere. And that it only depends on you how good or bad your day is going to be. Or the whole year.
And it is realizing that you can be on your own, that you are an independent person. Finally. And it’s trying to explain that to your parents.

Exchange is dancing in the rain for no reason, crying without a reason, laughing at the same time. It’s a turmoil of every emotion possible.

Exchange is everything. And exchange is something you can’t understand unless you’ve been through it.

Mãe

Dear mom,
  Thank you for everything you have done for me! I honestly don't know how to express my feelings for you, they are greater than words. Mom, you have always been there for me. Whether it was being by my side and ready to give me a hug when I was sad, or you always able to talk or explain something when I was confused, or there to show me whats right from whats wrong. The unconditional love and care you have for me and my brothers is incredible and I thank you for that. I have never met someone like you mom, someone who is as strongly opinionated but yet so humble with her thoughts, like you are. It amazes me how content you live your life and don't stress over much. I strive to be like you, mom; I try my best to live like my role model, you. You are so special! Yesterday I went to a church and the "mother" of the church was talking about motherly love. She was saying that there is no other love that equals a love of a mother. Yes, you can love your husband/wife. Yes, you can love your brothers/sisters. But the love from your mother is eternal. Your mothers love is the strongest and longest love that you know of. I got the chills when she was speaking, because it brought to my attention the strength of a mother's love to her children. I know I have been far away this year but the love never stops growing, as a matter of fact, I think it is even stronger. I know I am growing up, but know that I will always be there by your side, and that I will never change from the little stubborn little girl I used to be.
"Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and blows up the bonfire."
Francois de la Rouchefoucauld

"A part of you has grown in me.
And so you see, it's you and me
Together forever and never apart,

Maybe in distance, but never in heart."

Anonymous

Mom, you have raised me to be the person I am today. You showed me how to be fearless and to just go, just go with my life and not worry. I think it is so special the way you handle things. You rarely scold when I make a mistake, but the trust you have for me, makes me not want to do wrong. You are honestly the most beautiful person I know, mom! I wish you could understand the love I have for you. I will see you soon, Happy mothers day, mom!

My beautiful mom

Pinky promises

Exchange

If you would like a little insight on what I am feeling these last few weeks... fyi, I didn't write this but it's spot on!


‎"A year has past and now we stand on the brink, of returning to a world where we are surrounded by the paradox of everything and yet nothing being the same.
In a couple of weeks we will reluctantly give our hugs and, fighting the tears,we will say goodbye to people who were once just names on a sheet of paper to return to people that we hugged and fought tears to say goodbye to before we ever left.
We will leave our best friends to return to our best friends.
We will go back to the places we came from, and go back to the same things we did last summer and every summer before.
We will come into town on that same familiar road, and even though it has been months, it will seem like only yesterday.
As you walk into your old bedroom, every emotion will pass through you as you reflect on the way your life has changed and the person you have become.
You suddenly realize that the things that were most important to you a year ago don't seem to matter so much anymore, and the things you hold highest now, no one at home will completely understand.
Who will you call first?
What will you do your first weekend home with your friends?
Where are you going to work?
Who will be at the party Saturday night?
What has everyone been up to in the past few months?
Who from school will you keep in touch with?
How long before you actually start missing people barging in without calling or knocking? '
Then you start to realize how much things have changed, and you realize the hardest part of being an exchange student is balancing the two completely different worlds you now live in, trying desperately to hold on to everything all the while trying to figure out what you have to leave behind.
We now know the meaning of true friendship.
We know who we have kept in touch with over the past year and who we hold dearest to our hearts.
We've left our worlds to deal with the real world.
We've had our hearts broken, we've fell in love, we've helped our best friends overcome eating disorders, depression, stress, and death. We've lit candles at the grotto and we've stayed up all night on the phone just to talk to a friend in need.
There have been times when we've felt so helpless being hours away from home when we know our families or friends needed us the most, and there are times when we know we have made a difference.
Just weeks from now we will leave.
Just weeks from now we take down our pictures, and pack up our clothes.
No more going next door to do nothing for hours on end. We will leave our friends whose random e-mails and phone calls will bring us to laughter and tears this summer, and hopefully years to come.
We will take our memories and dreams and put them away for now, saving them for our return to this world.
Just weeks from now we will arrive.
Just weeks from now we will unpack our bags and have dinner with our families. We will drive over to our best friend's house and do nothing for hours on end.
We will return to the same friends whose random emails and phone calls have brought us to laughter and tears over the year.
We will unpack old dreams and memories that have been put away for the past year.
In just weeks we will dig deep inside to find thestrength and conviction to adjust to change and still keep each other close.
And somehow, in some way, we will find our place between these two worlds.
In just weeks."

Feliz Pascoa

Easter, well we got out of school on the Wednesday before Easter Sunday. On Thursday, I went to my friends house for Easter vacation. It is only 4 days but I went for about a week. She is a Mexican in my district that lives in a town nearby. Another girl from Mexico that I had met before also went. Well, the tradition here is to buy chocolate Easter eggs for people. There are different sizes and all types of fillings. Here in my house we decided to make the eggs this year. So, there is a mold of half an egg, we poured the melted chocolate into the mold and then put it in the freezer to let it harden. You have to be very careful with this whole process because if it cracks, you have to start all over again. You first make the two sides, the chocolate at this point is very thin so you might have to repeat this and make another layer. After you made the two sides you have to choose what you want the filling to be. I wanted to fill mine with Palha Italiana (a type of fudge with cookies in it) So while my egg shells were in the freezer I made the filling. When the filling was done and cooled you fill the two halfs and put another layer of chocolate on top. Again, put it in the freezer. when it is hardened, you put the two halfs together to form the full egg. You then need to put it back in the freezer and after some time let it sit out and "sweat". When all is ready you put it in a pretty wrapping and it's ready to give to someone or wait until Easter to eat! My sisters and I made around 25 eggs, for family members, friends, and co-workers. All of them had different fillings. There were some with Doce de Leite, peanuts, Brigadeiro, solid chocolate, white chocolate, white Brigadeiro, Palha Italiana, and all sorts of mixtures. I made one for myself and one for each of my friends. I am pretty sure my egg weighed around 1 kg of pure chocolate plus the filling. On the day of Easter we ate the eggs, obviously I could not finish the whole thing in one day. It took around 5 days to finish it, with the help of my friends. Some people get 2 or 3 eggs, imagine that! Natalia's dad also gave us each a bar of chocolate. So much chocolate to eat, but so delicious! Although I did miss the peeps and chocolate bunnies from Easter in the USA, i will definitely be sharing this tradition in the years that come. At night Naime, Natalia, and I went to a church service. They are both catholic and already planned on going to church, I decided to go with them and see what it was like. The service was at 8pm. It was a little play of the story of Easter and it was actually very cool!

Melting the Chocolate

The first layer

One side done! (took a break to go out on friday night ;P )

Taking it out of the freezer one last time

DONE!

so proud

Wrapping it

Packaging it

and decorating it

My egg done and ready to go!

The eggs I gave to my friends!

Nails, clothes, the whole shabang

Here in Brasil, the people are a lot more put together than in the States. Nails, clothes, jewelry, and shoes all matching...all the time. To the supermarket people wear heels, to the gym people wear makeup and jewelry, and when going shopping people are all made up. It is tough for me to get used to this, my prefered clothing is sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I am lazy and just throw anything on, but here that is not acceptable. The gym, you arrive and the ladies are dressed with matching spandex and matching tanktops, with all make up and jewelry on. To the supermarket the women wear high heels and you will never see someone out and about with casual clothes on. Everything has to match and be pretty. It is typical go to the salon about once a week. You are supposed to get your nails painted every week, your toes painted every 15 days, your hair trimmed or colored every 3 months, and waxed every 15 days as well. When I arrived here my nails were terrible. I bit them, and bit the skin around them when I got anxious so they were all scabs or dried blood around them. I wish i took a picture of them, because now they are all pretty and done up every week. If I forget to call the salon my host mom would call for me and mark a time during the week for me to go. Here in Brasil, the salons are very cheap, but amazingly good. To get your nails done is R$13 which is like US$8. Imagine getting your nails done in the US for 8 dollars, I don't think that this exists. If I want to go out on a friday night or something and I forgot to get my nails done at the salon my mom wouldn't let me go without having her do them for me. The conversation goes like this "hey mom can I go out tonight" -me "not with your nails like that..."-my mom hahah, this would never happen in my house in the USA. I think when I was in the states i got my nails done maybe once a year, but here, one of my favorite places to go is the salon. This salon is not what most of you are picturing though. It is in the basement of a womans house. Her and her oldest daughter own and run the salon. There are two rooms, one for getting your hair colored or getting waxed, and the other for your nails and getting your hair cut. The first picture I had was like "this is a good salon...let alone this is a salon?" If you picture a sign that says, for example "Theresa's salon" on the street, you see it everyday but you never ever would imagine going into it. This seemed like one of those places. Once I went for a few weeks I got used to it and now I sometimes go to talk to them. There are so many colors to chose from, even until now a majority of the weeks I chose red. Every week she has new colors that she bought and she always liked to try new techniques on my nails. After watching her every week do my nails, I decided to buy all of the supplies I needed for doing them on my own. Online everyone posts pictures of the new technique they did to their nails and its amazing how so many people pay so much attention to such a small thing, such as nails. I always want to practice and when I get home, I will be happy to paint your nails!

the nails I did!

These below are from blogs that are updated each day with fashion and type things.

Comida

 So this post is a shoutout from the request by my aunt Jenny. A while back she sent me a package in the mail. I opened it up and there were huge zip-lock bags of ingredients and a recipe for chocolate chip cookies! This was the best. All of the dry ingredients were mixed and all I needed to do was add the vanilla and eggs. So one day I was feeling a little homesick and I needed to make plans so I didn't just sit at home. I called up my friend and I went to her house to make the cookies. It was the easiest thing, adding the mixtures to a bowl and adding the vanilla and eggs and then put them in the oven. Obviously eating more of the dough raw then the actually cookies but that's a given. So, we did as instructed and put them into the oven. Waited a little and right when I smelt that unforgettable aroma of warm, sweet chocolate chip cookies just ready to come out of the oven, it brought back so many memories. They came out just like they were made at home. Thank you so much Jenny!
 My weekly routine is that every Friday all of my friends get together and make some sort of recipe together. Here in Brasil, a lot of the cooking is different from the states. Here they cook desserts with more wet ingredients. For example, they don't have cookies and cake like I am familiar with, they have pudding and more desserts you would keep in the refrigerator if this makes sense. Anyways, I made a list the other day of things that I want to learn how to make. I will definetly be sharing those with everyone once I get home. Yesterday I made Brigadeiro all by myself. This is like a chocolate-y fudge and it is so good!!! I was so proud of myself, then at lunch my mom here asked if i wanted to take a cooking class. Tomorrow I will be going to my first cooking class and I am super excited! I will be sure to keep you all posted.

perfect!

ahh cookies

brigadeiro

done!

shrimp at the beach house

my family

my host mom cooking the shrimp

me cooking the shrimp

more fish for lunch

my friends on our weekly friday recipe day

6 mêses Já

This is the report I sent to my Rotary back at home, a very short version of basically all that I have done.

Hello Tri-Town Rotary,

Greetings from Manhuaçu, MG, Brasil,

    I just wanted to check in back at home and tell you some of the adventure I have had in Brasil, so far. On March 1^st it will be my six month mark in Brasil. I have accomplished so much since I have been living here. I recently went on a trip to the beaches of the North East part of Brasil. The most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, exactly like a postcard. I went with an organization called Terra Brasil. There were 89 other exchange students from 21 different countries that went as well. Travelling in two Coach Busses up and down the NE coast of Brasil for 26 days we all became a family. I made some unbelievable relationships that I will have forever.  School is going well, the beginning was tough because I did not understand anything the teachers or students were saying, but it all came together with time. I now understand everything. I really like biology and geography, we learn about the United States a lot, and it is amazing how much people here admire the USA. At times people make me feel as a celebrity just because I am an American. I will admit there were some people who put a stereotype on me before I came, just because I am from the USA, but I learned to stick up for my country through everything, at times get very defensive, but I am proud to be an American.

    The holiday season came along and it was very difficult.  I was very homesick during Christmas time and all I wanted was to be celebrating it with my family. The traditions are very different but similar at the same time, hard to understand. In Brasil the tradition is that on Christmas Eve the families open presents. I am used to waking up to my dad filming the family going downstairs to open and to exchange gifts. Here we had a party with my whole extended Host family and we ate, played games, and exchanged gifts. It was difficult for me because I am used to having the same routine on Christmas ever year. Whenever I was not occupied I was thinking about my family back at home. The worst thing about it was I could picture exactly what they were doing, and they were still doing it, without me. It is a hard concept to grasp not being at home with your family but knowing that they are still moving along without you. My host family here is amazing, and they helped me out a lot through these emotions. New Year was also so different. Since the seasons are opposite here in the southern hemisphere, everything was out of the ordinary. Even though everything is different and everything can be a bit uncomfortable at times, it is all a learning experience, and every new experience is making me a stronger person. Right now, I can’t truthfully say that I see the major changes from being on exchange, but I can see myself as a more mature person and I can see little changes along the way. I will say that those major changes are going to appear with time and I know I probably won’t realize it until I returned home. I see some of my friends that have already returned home after being on exchange for a year, and it makes it seem just like a dream; a dream accomplished, a dream never forgotten, and a dream that flew by. I am already on my down climb of my Rotary Youth Exchange Year. As sad as it is, I have been here for 6 months and I only have another 4 I am so proud of what I am doing and I thank you all again for giving me this opportunity. I can tell you one thing; the time sure does fly by. At the start of my exchange so many exchange students had told me to take every single moment in and don’t take time for granted because it fly’s by. In the moment, I did not believe them and I could not believe them, but the thing is; in the moment you don’t actually see the pace of time flying by but you do however, see it when you look back on an experience. I see all the people behind me supporting me and I am so glad of this decision on becoming a Rotary Exchange Student!

    I come home on July 2^nd, and I can no wait to share my experiences I had, with all of you. I also have banners from my Host club and the Clubs I visited. These are for our Rotary, as a gift or as they say in Brasil, lembrança.

Tchau,

Averie Louise Cox (Brasil 2011-2012)

New Years

I am sorry this is super late, I am really focusing on my Portuguese and I have a hard time speaking English now.

So, New Years in Brasil was amazing. I went to the beach with my third host family, which is also the family of one of my friends. We got there a few days before New Years so we just chilled out on the beach. Then New Years Eve came along. The tradition here is to wear white, people told me in advance so I packed a white dress. I thought it was going to be like a few people wear white and some people wear whatever color, but no. It was the exact opposite. I got dressed and went out to the balcony. I looked out over the water to see the whole street and sidewalk filled with people. People who were all dressed in white. It was basically a big white blanket covering the coast, for as far as I could see, it was just a white blanket. There were even people in the water. Here in Brasil it is also a tradition, at midnight, to jump over seven waves for good luck. I didn't go down to the water but people were definitely taking every opportunity for that bit of luck! There was a stage kind of like a little mini show on the beach close to the apartment. The time flew by and the next thing I know is the guy on the stage is counting down the seconds for 00:00 midnight. There were fireworks, and everyone was throwing confetti and yelling, so many hugs, and so much happiness! After the celebration Mateus and Douglass made a dessert called Banananutella, it was delicious. A banana grilled covered in nutella, along side a big glob of vanilla ice cream all topped with cinnamon. yumm. It was amazing to be a part of the New Years celebration here in Brasil, and it was something to always remember.

The Sidewalk

ME!

My friends

00:00 Happy New Year

Fireworks

The craziness

Giulia (my next host sister)

Banananutella