amor

you need to find the little joys in life.

i've come to learn this

whether it's a delicious meal shared with your mom, a seven minute nap before you catch the "van" for school in the morning, or deciding to buy that popiscle because you deserve it.

simple as that. it's what keeeps me going with a smile on my face.

the little joys in my life here in brasil:

i love catching the city bus ..taking me wherever.

i love wacthing american tv ..but not really watching it, more reading the portuguese subtitles on the screeen.

i love that i love rice and beans.

i love that instead of shaking hands, you give hugs and kisses when greeting perfect strangers.

i love how my "exchange student belly" (as i like to call my 5kilos that i have gained) shows off when i wear my school uniform.

i love the music here ..even if its probably 6months behind "popular" US music

i love my brasilerian friends that have stuck around since the beginning and bared my portuguese from the start ..and still stick around just to laugh at the american.

i love sundays at my country clube.

i love being able to know a team scores a goal during a futebol game: fireworks and shouts all over the neighborhood

i love playing tennis on monday afternoons

i love every single exchange student in my district ..every single one of them.

i love how out-of-control my school is.

i love that sometimes, people don't know i'm foreign from my portuguese accent ..they just believe i'm from a different state. best compliment in the world

i love when my parents introduce me to their friends or family as their daughter.

i love that brasilians wait/need/count down for their long weekends/vacations.

i love skyping my family each week; i look forward to that day each weeek.

i love that winter in brasil is high 80's.

i love when i feel like my português is out of this world ..that its amazing ..although i know i'm using the wrong tense of the verb and i dont know a noun of something..but i'm speaking it.

i love my dance class of forro and sumba.

i love how as time goes on, i forget things back home.

i love that it is perfectly okay to say youre sleepy during the day ..everyday. because really, everyone here gets a little sleepy from the heat.

i love that somehow, everyone in my city knows who i am ..and have met me even if i dont remember.

i love that between the two futebol teams in my state ..there is a passionate hatred that divides friends and families on sunday afternoon during the game.

i love being able to tell my other exchange student all the crazy secrets &stories and to find their reaction as laughter and agreement.

i love reading my history book ..i find that i am eating history as to learning it

i love how there is always something to do here, party, show, bar, resturant, always.

i love that somedays ..my heart just bursts with my love for this place and i try to think of leaving it behind, going back ..and i cant.

i cant leave this place, not now

and definatly not in 2months..

distrito 4520

Dia 28 de Abril até dia 1 de Maio = one of the most memorible times here in brasil.

we had the rotary district conference

meaning a fulllll weeekend in a 5star hotel in a gorgeous city with 40 other kids, all of my bestfriends in one place.

i left wednesday night and arrived the next morning pretty early. i went with my rotary and another club ..while the other 40kids went on their own bus. the other kids would arrive later that afternoon so i had the morning with mike, a boy from taiwan. i've never had the chance to talk with him, his english &portuguese has never been the best, but his language has definitely improved. you have to take your hat for mike because he is hundreds of thousands of kilometers from home, literally on the otherside of the world, a completely different place, with different customs and cultures and languages, were the differences outnumber the similarities..and the kid never stops smiling. he is so polite, so friendly and so funny, once you get through the language barrier. his english reminds me of my portuguese ..absolutley adorable.

anyway, me and mike explored this HUGE hotel. actually, it's not a hotel. a more accurate word would be creeepy castle. i dont know how many times we all compared the place to the movie, "The Shining." If it was in the mountains with a maze and Jack Nicholson sitting at the typewriter ..it would have beeen it. so when it was just me and mike, walking up and down hallways, peeking into rooms and hidden doors, we got creeped out.

everyone arrived later that day and we all knocked eachother over with our hugs and kisses. it's funny when we all get together. it seems like no time has passed between us. everyone is the same, the same obnoxious, out-of-control crazy exchange students, just with bettter português and more stories to tell. we become closer, revealing secrets that we might or might not would have wanted to know. we get in trouble all the time for talking too much and laughing endlessly but you have to realize ..we only have so much time together. it's funny to think that some of these people i have only met a handfull of times.. some this was the second time i have seen them, but that doesnt change the bond we have. being an exchange student automactially makes you best friends.

the purpose of the meeting was the presentation of our countries to prepare in front of hundreds of rotarians..we all entered the stage with our flags ..then did a typica dance of our country. (US did a little sports dance with High School Musicals "Getcha Head in the Game;" Taiwan had the best dance ..TYPICAL asian stereotype, at its greatest. trying to find the song on Itunes to download.so cute!) Afterwards we did typical brasilian dance, breaking it down and embarrassing ourselves in front of hundreds. then we all sang "We are the Children" bringing tears to the audiences eyes. really powerful song to end a perfect performance

the rest of the weekend, we attended dinner parties where we all had to answer the same question, country, name, etc (a few people said that i didnt look american which made me so.happy!) we usually just clustered together, refusing to leave each other's side. we laughed too much and stayed up way too late ..sleeeping til lunch and laying by the pool in the afternoon. we tell stories that only other exchnage students can handle, because they experience the same thing, daily. we hear brasilians speak english together and americans speak portuguese together, getting confused with all the languages.

we had a total of 10 language possiblities that could be spoken at once: english (american or australian whichever accent you prefer) spanish, portuguese, danish, polish, french, hungarian, norwegian, chinese and german)

now that is a beauitful thing.

that's exchange!

on the last night, we had a "baile," a huge dance. everyone put on their best clothes and rocked their body. we took hundreds of photos to try and capture the moment and danced to all the lame songs the band played.

me and mike had to leave after the dance, earlier than everyone else. so sebastian, being the crazy amazing danish he is, called everyone outside, grabbed his ihome and played every sad song he had.

this was the moment we had to say goodbye

this was the moment that i thought and hoped would never come

i blame it all on bien, my beauitful german. she came up to me and said, "ariana, it was so nice to meet you."

that was all she needed to say and i started crying.

"why are you saying goodbye?! this isnt goodbye, is it? not forever, atleast. how can we say goodbye when we just met. i dont believe this!"

and the tears didnt stop until i hugged and squeezed and promised to see them again ..each and every single one of them.

and then i saw all the brasilians crying ..and i just said: faz. faz tudo. e faz de novo

do it. do it all. and do it again.

i wanted to tell them all of my advice, all my dreams for them, all my hopes and worries and say that it's not going to be easy, everyday is a struggle, a challenge but IT IS SO WORTH IT. that it will be the best and worst thing you can do. that you will meet the best people in your life during this next year. dont be scared, dont be nervous, get excited! use everyday! dont waste a minute. i wanted to tell them this.

but there wasnt enough time

these people, these 40people that i have known for the past year, have scribbled their name onto my heart and left a lasting impression on me.

i left, with my heart full of love and happiness.