Todo mundo II...

Hey there again! We have the internet for free on the weekends, so I got to hop on the internet at hope. My host mom and sister are gone, although I'm not sure where they went. The daughter of the lady that comes to work around our house is staying with us this weekend so we could get to know her. So right now I'm hanging out with a 7 year old that only speaks Portuguese. Juliana (Juju) is having a blast playing games on my phone, and answered it when mom called this evening. She's so cute. Her mom works really hard here in our house, and only comes here 3 days a week so she can work in 2 other houses. She has 3 children, and I don't know if any of their dads pay child support. Tomorrow I am going to go back to the office for our program to look at some different classes to take. When we went on our tour of the campuses on Friday, I saw in the library a book about international communication and got really excited. Maybe I will take an international communication here to go towards my com major. I think it would be an interesting perspective to get on international communication, internationally. Everyone in the program is telling us that classes don't really start until after Carnival, but I would like to go and see if the classes are good before I am stuck in them for the semester. Everyone here in Salvador is preparing for Carnival. It is really funny because a lot of tourists are coming here to pass Carnival, and I am getting pissed off at all of the damn tourists! Although I am a foreigner, I am trying hard not to be a stupid tourist. Ok, I guess I'm going to go for now. I will let you know how the class search goes, and the preparing for Carnival. Take care everyone! Beijinhos <3

Finally here in Salvador!!!

Hey there everyone! I hope this finds you well. I arrived in Salvador a week ago tonight, and it has taken me a week to post because I am adjusting to the slower life here. The joys of moving to a new city have been overwhelming me, not knowing how to take the bus if I know the place I'm trying to go, walking for two hours to get to a place that should be less than 1/2 hour away by distance, not knowing what classes you can take... Anyway, things are going better now that I've had a week to shock because I'm bouncing back now. Everyone here is getting ready for Carnaval. It is funny because everyone is working very, very hard to prepare for a week long party. I bought my ticket for a bloco for Carnaval today! (A bloco is a group of people that follow a 'trio-eletrico' a big truck with speakers and a band playing on top. Within the bloco there is supposed to be good security, and there are bathroom and drinks on the truck too.) I am going to join a bunch of other people for 3 days in like a big parade, and then maybe go one day to Pelourinho (which has an old, traditional celebration), and maybe spend the other days at some places that are recommended to me. I think it would be cool to get to experience the different sides. I heard that the business side of the city is pretty much shut down for a week, so I'm not sure how easy it will be to get to a computer. If I can I definately will to update my blog so you can all know about my experiences at Carnaval. As far as classes go, I have to take a Portuguese test at the level I tested into (not sure what yet), then I'm taking Society & Culture, History of Bahia (the state Salvador is in) and a history of popular traditions and customs class. They all sound really interesting, and for the first two weeks you can go to whatever classes you'd like to try them out and see if you like them. So let's see how it goes. I'm going to head because my time is almost up at the internet cafe. Take care, post comments, and I'll update asap! Beijinhos (kisses)!!

Preparing to Leave Sao Paulo

Ok, I figured how to post on my blog, but I can't transfer pictures directly from my camera to the computers at the internet cafe so I guess no pictures for now until I can figure out a way around that. This is my last week in orientation in Sao Paulo, so there is a lot of work to do to get ready to leave. I have to write 3 1-page reflection papers about places we have visited, and a 3-4 page reflection of the Brazilian culture course. I think I am going to write about our visit to the samba school (Camisa Verde e Branco), the Afro-Brazilian museum we are visiting tomorrow, and the art musuem we are going to on Wednesday. If my papers turn out well, I will post them on here so you guys can read about my experiences here (since I couldn't post to my blog earlier in the trip). And don't worry, we can turn them in in English or Portuguese, so mine will be in English. I probably need to practice writing papers in Portuguese, but they need to be written at an academic level which I know I can't achieve yet in Portuguese. For example, it would probably be like "Our visit to the samba school Camisa Verde e Branco was not how I expected. There were a lot of people there. The music was very loud, and everyone was dancing and signing. There were a lot of drums and dancers in the middle." That's not the kind of writing that is expected from a college senior, and I don't have time to have my teacher and friends help me edit it and rewrite it. And don't blame me for procrastinating (this time), we just found out about these papers last week! Another funny thing is that the students who are staying in Sao Paulo have learned about how to register for courses online, the courses that are available to them, and the schedule. But those of us going to Bahia (the state Salvador is in) have not been told a single thing about our classes. My friend Sarah and I are leaving on Thursday night and staying at a hostel before our orientation begins on Friday. We have a 3 day orientation in Salvador before classes begin, which means when do we register for them?! Good question... On Monday February 13 classes begin and we move in with our new host families. Oh well, I know that everyone else is in the same boat ~~ and from what I hear this isn't suprising about Salvador. Everyone there is much more laid back than the people here in Sao Paulo. Tranquile, Becki, Tudo bom! (chill out, everything's fine!) I think I will like life in Bahia as long as it doesn't drive me crazy first. When I get frustrated, I'll just take my homework to the beach to work on it there! Well, I should probably go so I can work on those papers. I will have to e-mail them to my professor before I leave Sao Paulo, so I will definately be back online before I head to Bahia. Take care everyone! Beijinhos xxx

I made it-- and finally posting!!

Hey there everyone! Sorry for the long delay in posting to this, but I have had problems with the blog: 1. My internet access has been very limited - this is the 4th time I have been on the internet since I have been here. 2. Two times ago when I was here I tried to log in and it wouldn't let me, saying that I had an invalid password with a menu all in Portuguese. Today I tried the same user name and password and it worked so who knows... I have been in São Paulo for 3 weeks now and everything is going just fine. We have had intensive language and culture classes almost everyday, and every class that we have is in Portuguese! I can feel my Portuguese coming back slowly, and most importantly my confidence to try to speak it. My host family is really nice, I have a married couple just a little older than my parents with a 24 year old son that lives at home. The parents only speak Portguese, but the son speaks pretty good English. Although he is not home very often during the evening when I am, it is a nice break at the end of the day to be able to speak English to someone when my brain is mush from too much Portuguese. I have met some really cool people here, mainly other American students because we have pretty much been together all of the time for the past 3 weeks. That part is definately a cultural experience as well because we all come from different states with different backgrounds and study very different things. We just got back from a weekend trip to Paraty, a city on the coast that was important for exporting gold that was found in the interior of the country. It was a cool, old city, and we got to spend a day on a boat that stopped for us to swim off of some islands and another day hiking in a state park in the Atlantic Rainforest. It was a nice break from class, but I was ready to come back and get back into Portuguese. I leave in a week from today for Salvador, Bahia, where I will spend 6 months taking classes at Universidade Católica do Salvador (UCSal). I am very excited to live there and experience the laid-back culture that I've heard so much about. My friend Sarah and I are going to get to Salvador around midnight on the 9th and stay at a hostel there in town. Our orientation there is the 10th-13th, which means that we start classes and move in with our new host families on the 13th. Hopefully I will have time to post between now and then, and even more I hope I can figure out how to post some pictures online for everyone to see. Take care, and brightest blessings!! <3 <3