So What Else Has Been Happening?

The Ballet

So, yeah. My host mum Carla took Hannah and I to see the ballet, it was nice. Kind of like a girls night. Hannah and I took the Metro and met Carla half way, and then we took some more meto and ended up, I think, in Paulista Avenue. On the way, we stopped at a little street market where I bought a little cheap watch. Pretty good for R$25 (USD$12.50) I reckon. The ballet was nice, it was a production from the Sao Paulo Dance Troupe. There was two acts... the first one was based on the migration of swans and stuff. Whut? And the second act was based on fairytales. Kind of like forest spirits and all that. It was creepily good.

The Roteract Meeting

So, I was meant to go to my first party the other weekend but my plans were thwarted by Jany. She tookme along to a Roteract meeting... which I thought would be only one or two hours. No. It went from 10am to 11:30pm. Like what the hell man! Totally missed my party. Poo. But I met some people there, it was aiight. Brad (other Australian), Liz (Mexican) and Cade (American) were there, so I wasn't complety alone. Thank lordy. Jany made us get up on stage and introduce ourselves in front of like 50 people. In portuguese. Now the Mexican and the American have been here for nearly 8 months now so Brad and I got a tad showed up. Awks.

From front to back: Liz, me, Luiz, Brad and Cade

Brad, setting a good example and paying attention during a talk.

 



Us up on stage being all awkward and stuff. 

 

My amazing drawing of Luiz. B**ch, it's fabulous.

The Easter of a Brazilian Family

So, yeah I know this post is late guys. Don't be hating. I've been busy. GOSH. Also, I'm in my new family!

But, Easter here was really nice. Damnit I need my journal to do this. But no, it's in my room. So I'm going to try do it off memory. Sorry if it sounds weird and all that jazz. Easter was on the 1st of April right? I can't remember. But, I'll start before that at school.

Wednesday 27th March - At school we did an easter egg swap. But, unlike in Australia where everyone gets up all at once and swaps their eggs, we had to get up one by one and describe the person we were gibing our egg to. Bloody hell. They made me say it in Portuguese. Only becasue my afterschool Portuguese tutor was the techer at the time and she thought it would help me. But. I didn't mind I guess, everyone just kind of laughed at my awkwardness and helped me when I was wrong. Gosh. People are so nice here. I got a dark chocolate egg. Om nom nom nom.

That night, I went to the Rotary meeting and there was some Rotex people there and two short term exchange students there. One had just come back from a month in Ecuador and the other was from Ecuador doing a month in Brasil. My Rotary councillor, Gelse, also gave me an easter gift. It was a really damn good chocolate easter egg and some nice smelling soaps. Noice. But I didn't know so I didn't get her anything.... and I had no money.

That weekend, we had a big family easter lunch at our house. So good. You could say i now am a big fan of prawns. WHY DID I NEVER EAT THEM IN AUSTRALIA? Om nom nom. When everyone was over, I whipped out my Allens Snakes from Australia that mum and dad had sent over, and I shared them with everyone. They loved them. It was nice.

The next day, we went to Walmir's sister's house. Or was it his mothers? I don't know. But it was a relative of his. There Hannah, Taryn and I kind of sat awkwardly in a corner for the time we were there. But when the food came out, damn it was good. Potato salad, spaghetti with meaty sauce and spaghetti with normal sauce, pork (not as great as I thought it would be). And the dessert. Oh my god, they made some hommade lime mousse things. FREAKING AMAZING. I need the recipe for that. So bad.

All in all, it was a fabulous easter.

Oh yeah, on Easter day Carla and Walmir even organies a little easter egg hunt for us when we woke up. Cute much.

So I said it once and I'll say it again. Fabulous easter.

My little Easter loot. Om nom nom. 

 

my family being cute and stuff without me. But, I get a hat too!

 

My Brazilian family enjoying their Snakes.

Can't tell if Snake or booger..... Haha

Rotex Countryside Project.

So on the 23rd of March, Rotex (ex-exchange students) had organised for some exchange students to go to the Ibicaba Coffee Farm out near Campinas. It was a nice day and I met some other exchange students.

The day started off at about 5am for Hannah, Taryin (Americans) and I. At that time I was still with the Sardilli family. We were to meet at Rio Branco (The Rotary owned school), where the bus and the Rotex coordinators would be wating, along with the other students going. Unfortunately, we were like the first ones there. And it was cold. Flipping cold. But, we weren't alone for long. Soon after, other exchange students started arriving. There were students from Belgium, Thailand, China, Japan, America, Australia (duh), Canada, Mexico, and some other countries I can't remember. But all the asian students kind of kept to themselves and stayed in a group. There were only about 10 of us from Sao Paulo going, the rest we were to pick up in Campinas on our way through. The bus ride to the farm was about 2 hours. Oh lordy.

Once at the farm, we broke off into to groups and Jany (the district chairman) came in my group so she could translate for me. Good stuff. They took us on a tour of all the historic bits of the farm, including the slave quarters, the main house, coffee production procedure. We even saw a 200 year old tree and 2 150 year old, 40 meter tall palm trees. Like woah dude. They were huge.

After the tour, we stopped for lunch. Nothing fancy, just like rice, spaghetti and some kebabs. Afterwards we had a bit of free time and some people bought out their badges. I bought out my TimTams. They were amazing. Omnomnom. And then after that some people went swimming in the pool. But not me. Stuff that. The pool was freezing. And I was too lazy to get changed.

We ended up leaving the coffee farm at about 5:30pm and I don't remember the drive home because I was asleep for it. So tired. When we arrived back in Sao Paulo, the two American girls and I waited around for Walmir (their host dad) to come and pick us up. During that time I was told that I would be moving families the next day. I was excited. Hannah and I had a week crossover in Walmir's house. Way good.

All up, it was a good day. Glad I went. Here, have some photos....
 

The slave quarters, they said there was about 200 slaves in this room. At one time. Stuff that.

 



 

 Here are two 150 year old Portuguese palm trees. Coming in at about 40 meters tall each. Bloody hell. They said the man who owned the coffee plantation planted five of these palm trees. One for each child. Most of which died from Meningitis or Tuberculosis or something like that. Sad really.

This is the 200 year old tree! Ohmygod, do we even have any trees in Australia this old? I mean white folk wern't even in Australia yet. Intense

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A coffee branch? Isn't it so green and pretty?

 



 

 This is where they used to sort the coffee beans... from the leaves. Oh what a tedious job that would have been.

 

Me and Jany on top of the watch tower. You can see the whole farm from here. They used to post watches here to make sure all the slaves were working. Flip, it was a steep stairway up.

 

This is where they packed and sorted the coffee into grades. The machine still works.