Curitiba

When I tried to buy a bus ticket for the overnight bus to Curitiba, the man at the counter refused to understand the number 19, no matter how I pronounced it or spelled it out, so I ended up with seat number 9. I knew there had to be a reason, and sure enough, I became good friends with Fernanda, the girl in seat 10. She is a 23-year-old biomedics student who recently moved to Curitiba to do her specialization in heart surgery equipment. I ended up wandering around downtown Curitiba and visiting the fire department with her and her two friends in the afternoon.
In the morning, I left my back pack in a locker at the station and walked from there to the botanical garden. It's a nice little park, with a beautiful glass dome building (notice that I was carrying my winter jacket... it was about 15 degrees all day!). From there I took the bus to the other side of town. The bus system is one of the main reasons I wanted to visit Curitiba. It has it's own set of lanes in the middle of the road and neat boarding tubes that make for efficient payment/ embarkation.
For lunch, I went to my host family's uncle's house. His wife prepared real feijoada (not the ice cream kind, lol) and his daughter and her two daughters joined us. I went from not knowing any one in Curitiba to having 10 friends by the time I left! On the bus to Pomerode that evening, I also met a lady from a nearby town whose 2 daughters live in other towns, so I have more people to visit whenever I come back here!

Leaving Olímpia

Monday was my last full day in Olímpia and it sure was a full one. I rode to the water park to relax in the hot springs and sauna. I ate lunch at the buffet restaurant where I go nearly every day with my host mom. Then I walked in the pouring rain to my hair appointment with Miriam’s sister. Manicures here only cost $6 and hair cuts are about $10!!! In the afternoon, I went to my last Portuguese class and Carmen’s French class. Then I helped with the evening English conversation class.
On Tuesday I finished reading the text for the course that starts next week and packed up all my stuff in time to take the bus to São Jose do Rio Preto. There I hung out with Anieli in between buses. We rode on her motorbike (backpack and all!) to an ice cream shop where I had ice cream feijoada!!! It came complete with chocolate beans, fudge/ nut sausage and even a caipirinha! It was soooo delicious! They also serve ice cream spaghetti, ice cream pizza, ice cream soup, ice cream waffles, etc. That night I caught a 12-hour bus to Curitiba. I will be visiting friends in various cities over the next two weeks, spending a day or two in each place before heading home to Canada. It’s going to go really fast!!

Easter Weekend

This week, I finally went to Capoeira with Gregorio (the Mexican exchange student). Capoeira is a Brazilian martial dance that originated when the slaves from Africa were prohibited from practicing their martial art and therefore disguised it as a dance. It was so cool to practice it again and wasn't so hard to follow along as the Portuguese words for the moves were used when I learned it in Canada.
On Good Friday, other than going to the Grandfather's house to eat cod for lunch, I spent the entire day attacking nearly 100 pages of the 300-page book I must read in a week. I have to read it before starting an online course that is an entry requirement to the program at Royal Roads that I will hopefully be starting in July. It's going to be a challenge studying while still travelling, but the course I was planning to take that started at the end of April got cancelled!
Saturday I did much of the same except I went for a nice long walk in the morning and went out running in the rain in the afternoon. I just couldn't resist going out in the torrential downpour!! It was so much fun!! The whole town might think I'm crazy now, but that's ok, I leave here on Tuesday :) The roads had turned into rivers and as I was just about home, I lost a flip flop and then the other trying to chase the first one down. I ran ahead of them and waited for them to come down the road, but only one came. So I figured I had missed the other and ran a few blocks downhill, barefoot, clutching the one flip flop to see if I could catch up to it, but it seemed a lost case. Not long after, the sun came out, I went back out and there it was, sitting behind a car in the first block where I had lost it! That evening, Miriam invited me to a cousin’s birthday party. I met lots of her family and we went to the bowling alley after with a group of her cousins. It was a long wait to get a lane and since Miriam and I weren't going to play, we went out for a drink at a different restaurant with her niece.
Easter Sunday, we all went to the family farm for lunch. We had another churrasco (BBQ) and in the afternoon, I went for a walk with the cousins, rode a horse and swam in the pool. We also searched for Easter eggs, which are huge hollow chocolate eggs, filled with different kinds of truffles and wrapped in colourful foil! Back at the house, I gave my host family a fondue pot as a thank you gift and used one of my chocolate eggs to make fondue :)

Life in the Countryside

This week I helped out with more classes at ACG, hung out at the water park with Miriam and went to an all-you-can-eat pizza dinner with the coordinator of the language school and some of her students. My goodness, there are so many delicious types of pizza here… including sweet pizza! My favourite was white chocolate and peach :) I definitely over-ate… again… and it only cost $8.00! Well, I’m cultivating my curves Brazilian style, heh heh. On Thursday I also visited the fire department. I found it very well equipped and the fire fighters seemed knowledgeable and passionate.
Friday I took the bus to São Jose do Rio Preto to visit Anieli and her family. At church in the evening I learned that they cover all the statues and images with purple and pink drapes during Easter to hide the images of Christ suffering. Later we went to an old theatre to watch Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Even though it was in Portuguese, I understood nearly everything! I’ve really been noticing this week how much my Portuguese has improved in just one month.
Saturday I took the bus back to Olimpia where I got a ride from Weberson, one of the English teachers, to the nearby town of Severinha to help out with some classes there. It was interesting to talk to him about the difficulties of living abroad since he has lived in the United States. In the evening, I went with Carmen and her husband to their farm near Severinha. It is simply picturesque, like a Swiss chalet with a view over Tuscany! Carmen and I went horse riding as the sun set over the sugar cane fields and rolling hills. I will never forget as it got dark we climbed the hill towards the chalet, with fireflies dancing around us and lighting flashing in the distance. Antonio Carlos and his wife joined us for a glass of wine by the pond, under the stormy sky and nearly full moon – simply poetic!
Today (Sunday) I went with Antonio and his wife to a Rotary benefit lunch in Barretos. It took place at the rodeo grounds where there is one of the world’s biggest rodeo parties in August. The picture is of me with a 27-metre-high cowboy!! Tonight, I made pancakes for my host family to continue my family tradition of waffle Sunday. I also feel like I traveled home today as I was able to participate in a ceremony with my family through Skype. We are all sending our love and positive thoughts to my best friend, Lisa and the 4 other crew members of the yacht that is missing off the coast of Chile.

São Paulo - Round 2

In a random turn of events, I ended back in São Paulo for the weekend! I caught a ride on Thursday with a lady I tutor and her family. She is a lawyer here in town, as are her husband and 30-year-old daughter. Their son is also a lawyer and lives in São Paulo.
The Rahmilevitz family welcomed me into their home again and on Friday, I visited the bilingual school they own. It has classes for kids ages 2-15. The half the classes are in English and half in Portuguese. The school is very beautiful with lots of green space, playgrounds and even a pool! I also visited two outreach schools that they support through a foundation they’ve created. Between the two schools, there are 165 kids ages 1-6 who are taken care of and schooled during the day so that their mother’s can get jobs to support their families. They also fund a centre for the women of the area, providing training and job support. Later that day, I met up with Carol, a past student there whom I met 9 years ago in Nelson when she was on an exchange. It was awesome to see her after so much time! We had a lot to catch up on! In the evening, Larissa and I went to her friend’s birthday party.
On Saturday, Larissa and I went with her parents and grandma to the beach! I took off my watch and relaxed the whole day long with no idea what time it was! The beach was beautiful, the sun warm, water refreshing and the company lovely! Larissa’s boyfriend and his friend joined us for a while and we played a type of beach tennis. For dinner, we went to a very nice restaurant and had delicious muscles and white fish with a rich butter and caper sauce, accompanied with Brazilian white wine. Later that evening, Larissa and I prepared banana splits for everyone and we all watched a movie.
On Sunday, we enjoyed the beach some more, before driving back to São Paulo. I met briefly with Ilan, a friend of the family who also lived in Nelson 5 years ago, while we were both in grade 12. Again, we had lots to catch up on! After another 6-hour drive, I arrived back in Olimpia Sunday night, well-tanned and pleasantly tired :)

Um fim de semana mas tranquilo

Saturday I went with a group of Rotarians to the cancer hospital in the neighbouring town. It is the best hospital for cancer treatment in the country. There we all dressed up as clowns and visited the children in their rooms and sang with them.
On Sunday, Miriam and I spent the morning relaxing in one of the pools at the waterpark until the sun got too intense. We had lunch at her house with the whole family and in the evening I made pancakes for everyone – almost like Sunday waffles back home!
A random piece of information, lime juice stains skin! Last week when we were at the farm, I squeezed a lime and some of the juice stayed on my hand then I spent some time in the sun and now I have a red spot by my thumb that apparently will last for quite a while. Ah well, it’s a good souvenir :)

Getting Busy

Ok, I admit it, I like to have a schedule and be busy. This week I started helping out with more classes, sometimes accompanying the teacher in the basic classes, getting the students to ask me questions in English, or teaching a conversation class for a group of advanced students or for individual students. In one class, for 5-7 year olds, the teacher would often say comic little sentences like “Qual é o < name > de sua < mother >?” with a strong Brazilian accent on the English words.
On Wednesday, I helped with an English class, attended Portuguese class, went for ice cream with the teacher after and got talking in French because she’s also the French teacher and later met the Spanish teacher and went to a Japanese restaurant with the exchange students, including Gregorio from Mexico and the French and Spanish teachers showed up there after their classes as well!! I was thoroughly tongue twisted by the end of the day :)
Antonio and his wife both work and their maid is sick so there’s no one in their house during the day so I am still living with the same host family. I’m really comfortable here. Yesterday morning, I went with Cristina (my host mom) to Las Thermas (the water park club) to lay in the lawn chairs and swim some laps. Last night we went out to the best restaurant in town – an Arabic buffet, to celebrate my sister’s birthday :)