Recently hit the two week mark and I have got to say things are going great! To any future exchange students, what your expectations are, is far from what the reality is. It is in no way what I expected; not better or worse, just different. Here is a little about my family, school and city.
Family:
My host family is fantastic and could not be a more perfect fit. This is my first of the three host families I will be having (most Rotary exchange students have three families.) The mother and father, Denize and Marcio, (52 and 50) spend the majority of the day running the market (on street level) while I am at school (from 7:45-12:00) and when I get home; I help them in the market, which is really helping the Portuguese (coming along great by the way.) Above the market on the second floor is the house and on the third floor are the hotel rooms. Next door there's also the family insurance business. Because we own the hotel, every morning Mai or Pai makes breakfast for the entire hotel; so as I eat breakfast in the morning, I eat with everyone in the hotel (kind of like a continental breakfast) which is super cool to meet everyone either passing through town from all over Brazil or some of the construction workers who are here for the seasonal work. Almost everyday we go out to lunch when I am done with school (most people go out for lunch, and not eat at home.) In the afternoon I work in the market, edit pictures (I take a lot) or explore the city. Every night is a weekend, it doesn't need to be a Friday or Saturday night to go out with friends or to a party. So just about every day I go out with friends after dinner (which is normally around 8 or 9 o'clock.)
My brother Maciel (16) is preparing to leave to go on exchange in Canada, he leaves in about a week. My sister Gabriela (19) who goes to culinary school in Florianopolis ( a city about 3 hours away, with about 500,000 people) I will go stay with her during carnival and Oktoberfest; the city is on an island on the coast, we visited there last weekend. I move to my next host family in the beginning of December.
School:
The teachers move classes, not the students; so you stay with the same people throughout the day. Which is nice for me to get to know people really well. The school is is very small, it's set up just like schools in the south of the United States where it's an open outdoor campus with different buildings all with different class rooms. Inside the rooms are simple with just desks and a chalkboard with a desk for the teacher. Every Tuesday morning right before class the whole school gathers in the gymnasium (or equivalent of) to sing the Brazilian national anthem. Which takes nearly ten minutes to sing; and all students must stand in lines by class. Before the first class starts in the morning; in every classroom is a small wooden chest about the size of a loaf of bread in which students lock up their cell phones and the chests are stored in the directors office until the end of the day. Class is from 7:45-12:00 and breakfast is at 9:00. There are two different times for school, mine which is the morning class and then another group of students has class from 1:00-5:15. I really like have school in the morning because then I have the rest of the day to do whatever I want. All three of my families live very close to the school so I walk every morning, it only takes about 10 minutes to get there.
Pien:
My city is a suburb of the big city Curitiba (about 2 million.) Pien has a little over 15,000 people, it’s in the mountains, and I live downtown by all of the shops and cafes. Its an absolutely beautiful city and its really nice because its so close to the coast and to numerous big cities. The local Rotary club has been very kind and welcoming, the president of the local club works at the radio station for the state, tomorrow I get to go to the radio station and play a playlist I made. The Rotary club meets every Thursday night at the local pizzeria (if you have never had Brazilian pizza, you need to (it's a big reason why I go to the meetings.)) Every friday night the Interact club meets (Interact is Rotary for youth.) We do different fundraisers and charity events, next weekend we are having big soup dinner for the homeless in Curitiba. (I was asked to make a soup from my family and of course I'm making my Dads potato and leek soup.) The interact club goes out to pizza afterwards too. SCORE!
Another blog soon,
Tchau,
Noah
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