minhas americanas lindas

i find it quite funnny how i came to brasil expecting to find relationships &frienships from people from all over the world.

i didnt except i would have two bestfriends from the same country.

carly & grace

two american girls that couldnt be any similar than peanut butter &jellly ..but somehow it fits.

these girls have beeen my bestfriends since the beginning ..since our first orientation ..until now, until forever.

carly leaves this weeek and then soon after grace

shortly after, i have to pack my bags tooo

i could always imagine the beginning ..and all the struggles in between ..but never in my life could i imagine the end.

but now its here

it sits before me

and every goodbye i say, all the "tchau , beijos, até mais." seeem a little more hard each time.

sometimes impossible.

carly ..a girl from minnesota ..the grandmother of our group

we posed for "an american photo" on september 11, our first meeting and later ran around BH together. i had my first açai with you &your cousin in the shopping ..and cachaça that night too. you had your 19th birthday with 20 other exchangestudents by your side, something no one, especially fatima, will forget. i came to sete lagoas, met your city, your family, and your way of life. that friday night was full of laughter, luisa, & lucky strike.. its bettter left at that. in tiradentes, we explored the city together and felt at the same time, the perfect moment of the night, of the people surrounding us and of the city that glows inside out. araxá with the wedding & goodbye my loverr. we talked of college, our disappearing friends and our fears of going home. then i came back to the city of 7lakes for that one last time..

youre so american to me. you have confidence and knowledge of our country that i lack. i am positive that in whatever field you study, economics or international relations, you will be "having a meeting one afternoon in New York, and then the next day be off to Japan to meet with their prime minister."

like you said at the busstation, youre like my sister. youre one of my bestfriends that i have ever had. i know ill see you soon, carly. (and being 40minutes away from mall of america just gives me an excuse to do that ;D)

grace! amazing grace; amor da minha vida

i knew that when you told me the story of the alien and then later revealed "the face of grace" those few first days ..you would be my bestfriend. no matter what, fatima will always be our worst nightmare & that yellow rainjacket will always be in fashion with you. numbers dont matter to you in men or should i say boys, and frozen will never agree with me. teddybear& bernardo want you, dont worry. all the rotary conference would be utterly boring without you. your português is perfect because you just dont shout up, i say that with all the love. i laugh until i cry when i am with you.

bring back brasil to american high school. you have no other option but to study on the east coast so that you can be just a little closer to mee. and when the money is good, your house in michagen will be my home too; we'll be exchange students once again for that one weeek.

i'll be seeeing you sooon grace :)

the three american girls from district 4520

i'll miss you

i'll always love you

and God Bless America that we are in the same country

Amazônia

indescribable.

the maddening adjective that simply is used to describe something that one cannot describe.

because no other adjectives are significant

indescribable:10days in the amazon rainforest.

i dont know how to describe it for you ..dont know where to start even.

10days in one of the most indescribable places ..with 87 other people that i could never forget

87 exchange students from 21 different countries.

we literally had the world in one rooom

i learned a whole new meaning of, "it's a small world afterall."

USA. Canda. Mexico. Venezuela. Denmark. Norwary. Sweden. Germany. Austria. Holland. South Africa. Austrailia. New Zealand. India. Russia. Taiwan. Japan. Thailand. Hungary. Poland.

i have too many stories that i wish i could tell you ..too many emotions that i wish i could describe without using the same "amazing" and "wonderful" type adjectives ..too many people that i have learned so much from ..its too much for one single blog.

i wanna wait

i wanna wait until i get home

and i can sit down with you

and show you my photos (all 457 of them)

i promise i wont forget a thing

these places are too incredible for me to forget

these memories are too fond for me to forget

these people too wonderful for me to forget

ooh and i am really lazy at this point and cant be bothered. ( i know the amazon would take up atleast 15posts if i got into detail)

and plus, wouldnt you rather have ME telling you all the stories :)

so yess i will continue bloggging ..just saving the amazon for later.

i know you're horribly annoyed ..but you can wait a month.

yeah a month..

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.

feliz páscoa!

this past weeek, brasil had another celebrated holiday, páscoa.

easter.

a few weeks before easter sunday, supermarkets and all grocery stores, had hundreds of thousands of "eggs" floating above customer's head. these eggs, of any and every various types of chocolate, 12inches in height, were nothing but a hollow "egg" of chocolate with a little surprise in the middle. the supermarkets were FILLED and i felt like i found the golden ticket and walked into wily wonka's magical land of every child's dream.

when my family went to select our eggs, i looked around for awhile, marveling at all this chocolate in one small area, saw the most beauitful egg, wrapped in gold foil which sprakled under the artifical lighting, it caught my eye. who cares if i didnt like the chocolate..it was beauitful nevertheless. i knew that was my egg. easy as that.

my sister on the otherhand. she wanted them all and she didnt want any. she decided on one and changed her mind later. i think she just enjoyed wandering the store and dreaming of how much chocolate she could store in her belly.

i was thinking of how many belly-aches she would be getting within the next few days.

for the easter holiday, my family would be traveling to my mother's city, Oliveira, Minas Gerais. Just a little over 6 hours of traveling, we managed to pull off the journey in around 9hours, due to crowded roads, getting lost, and highways being down. ohh the joys of traveling in brasil..

we arrived in Oliveira on Thursday afternoon, being introduced to my mother's side of the family ..her mom, my grandma, are the exact same person, smiles, laughter, and pure love, the only difference is that my grandma has a few more years behind her

we got settled in and then ran off to our first activity ..thursday evening mass. although brasil is a catholic country, that night was the first time i ever witnessed a catholic ceremony here. the place was crowded ..seemed like everyone from this small town came to that one church for the dedication of the last supper. we could barely find a place to sit ..we were in the back behind a pillar, i couldnt see anything, but i could feeel it. the service was long ..especially since it was also foreign to me. i'm not catholic and have been to very few services in my life so the sitting, knealing, chatting, is as strange in portuguese as it is in english. but it was a beauitful service and it meant a lot to me; my family isnt religious, they spend their sunday mornings at the country club reading the newspaper in their bikinis, so just that they took me, knowing how important church is to me, meant the world.

friday morning, the light spilling through the curtains at 7am, i woke early and walked with my mom through town. by 11 we were exhausted and dripping with sweat and ready to clean up for lunch. lunch was grilled salmon and shrimp as big as my fist ..my belly was really happy afterwards :)

later we all piled into the car and visited everyone from my mom's childhood. i met so many people, so many names and faces that i cant remember, that after we would meet someone new, ..i would turn to my sister and ask, who was that? she would shake her head, she didnt know either.

my sister's friend also came to Oliveira so we all just hung out ..doing nothing but talking.

i love my sister i really do. ..i remember being so excited to have a sister in this family. my first house, my sister was in germany; my second house, my sister studied in a different city ...so finally, finally.. i had a girl. someone to relate with and to tell secrets and ..a sister! i think i needed a sister more than anything because i miss my real sisters, those two crazy girls back home.

saturday afternooon was lazy in every sense of the word.

that night, there was a huge party in the city which i went with my brother &some of his friends.

i had nothing to wear, literally nothing. wasnt informed of bringing nice clothes. but my sister insisted that i loooked fine. she did my make up for me. she is 15years old and knows more about makeup than i do ..way more. i put a little eye liner on and she said ..let me help you ariana.

after she was done ..i looked like i was going out to spend some time on the road, if you know what i mean. i could only imagine barbara carr's look of disapproval because of all the black smeared under my eyes. she forced me to use lipstick and eyeshadow and blush ..telling me that i was just beauitful!

the party was banging, absoluety amazing, and lasted until 7:30

i got home, took a shower, changed my clothes, and got into the car to travel back to Ipatinga. i thought that i would definitely pass out in the car ..being that i didnt sleeep the night before. OF COURSE i couldnt fall asleep ..only person that couldnt sleeep. i got so car sick! it was horrible! i think it was because of not sleeeping and everything in my stomach ..but i was wrecked and had to pull over a few times. thankfully the journey didnt last 9hours ..just the "short" 6hours.

so easter came and went without much thought. i missed family

when i was sitting in the backsit, miserable, silent tears came rolling down my cheek without me even noticing at first. holidays away from home are the hardest ..anyone can tell you that. but when you are busy, and moving and meeting new people ..youre fine. but when youre not.

when you start to think of everyone ..of all the things you do each year, the same thing, the exact same thing each year ..that sometimes seem boring and predicable ..it makes tradition. and thats what you miss.

CSFX, sala 330

sometimes i forget that i go to a brasilian public school.

&then something competely out of the ordinary happens.

like how there was a huge grasshopper sitting peacefully on the curtains 2feeet away from me during class ..and eventually landed on a desk.

or when, for a straight week, the boys collected bugs and put them in girls pencil cases just to see them jump out of their desks during classs &interupt the lesson for a good 5minutes.

(i like how both of these examples involve bugs)

these things you wouldnt find in an american public schoool ..and sometimes that slipps my mind.

on the attendace sheet, there is a total of 45 people.

45 brasilians in one classroom with one professor ..actually 46 people becasue theres me :) litttle old american, ariana, who sits in the back corner, last row everyday

i observed the class one day and here was the results:

there were 7 little conversations going on at once, some from acrosss the rooom

there were 4 people sleeeping

there were 2 people drawing litttle creations on their paper

there were atleast 5 people using cell phones in some: charging, texting, calling their momma

there were 8 people daydreaming

and then there were a grand total of 6 people struggling through the lesson

of course this varies from class to class, subject to subject, but overall, this is typical

class starts at 7:15 each morning ..the teacher wonders into the classroom at around 7:20 each day so the lesson usually starts are 7:25 ..usually. people leave the classrooom to go to the bathroom, drink at the foundation, or grab some food down at the "cafeteria" all while the teacher has their lesson.

you look across the room and we are a sea of forest greeen and faded white with our matching uniforms ..but hardly does everyone go according to the rules. like me for example. do i wear tennis shoes like the school states. absolutely not. does anyone say anything besides my peers? absolutely not :)

they take their headphones and wire them under their shirts and turn the music down to a whisper.

there are a total of 4 classrooms of 3rd year ..all with the same amount of kids. mine, sala 330, is almost without a doubt, the worst. weekly, the teachers have to remind us to get more serious for the vestibular (the huge test they have to take to enter college) the students stay silent for the little lecture, pay attention, and then literally 5minutes later, the murmur of voices slowly, gradually, increasingly grows louder until the whole process starts again.

i asked my first question in class last week.

yes it has taken me a whole 7months to bring up the courage to actually say something during the lesson, but it probably will be the last.

it was during geography, a class that i love, and i was hard.core paying attention during the lesson. its hard for me to pay attention when EVERYONE is talking at once, throwing in their opinions & their conversations, but i was focused.

i always sit next to brian, (they call him cow, which is pronouced "cou") the smartest boy in my class that never pays attention and always lets me use his book &explains everything to me :)

the class was doing exercises in the book & i didnt hear the one answer, so i shot my little hand up in the air & asked.

the teacher made everyone be quiet so she could hear my question ..making everyone peep their head over to stare in amazement that i am paying attention, let alone, asking a question.

the class clapped.

i was embarrassed.

sometimes i have the strong desire to throw my whole classroom into an american high school. just take them all and put them in the same room with an american teacher and see the look, the shock, and the amazement of both parties.

yes, i would find that very amusing.

and just for laura:

they have these little cards that they have to swip to enter/exit the school. i dont have one which really upsets me so i have to exit a different dooor. so one day, laura let me use her card and felt SO COOOL !

my usually actitivies during school hours: sleeep. read. converse. pay attention.

de novo

back by popular demand:

thee bikinni wax of all bikinni wax

(this is when all men close the tab)

i've been back to the same place 2other times. the ladies all laughed until they counldnt breathe when they saw me walk into the salon.

"thought you had enough fun the last time, ariana?"

"thought you said you were never coming back, ariana?"

"you wanna do this again, even though last time you cried & promised that i would never lay my hands on you again, ariana?"

yeah well.. you do what you gotta do in hopes of becoming brasilian.

i went a good 3months without a wax and when i told my new mom, she insisted that they next time my little sister went to wax her legs, i was going too. "this lady works magic!" she exclaimed to me.

we went last saturday afternoon, just me and my sister, and i am full on panicking. Glancing around at the door, peeping in on other clients, watching the clock tick away the seconds until it was mine turn.

i confess to my sister that i am ridiculously nervous, palm sweating, nail biting, foot tapping, nervous. she doesnt understand why, she does this all time and it obviously doesnt hurt THAT much if i am willingly coming back.

the women calls her name and she happily goes into the room. the women, with the name tag of Adriana, doesnt even shut the door! she doesnt even introduce herself, she just starts waxing away!

this does NOT look very promising.

my sister comes out a few minutes later and leads me in. I give her a half smile and walk in, like i am on trail for murder.

i walk in, drop my pants and just start laughing. can this situation be away weirder?

i start to get onto the "doctor's table" and she looks at me strangely. "aren't you going to taking off your underpants, too?"

this is when i have to draw the line and say, listen lady. we americans arent like this. as much as i would love to claim to be brasilian, i will always have a part of conservative american blood in me.

i lay down on the table and she hikes up my underpants. i cannot stop my uncontrolable gigggles. she tries to tell me that this is totally okay. she has down this for years and i shouldnt be embarrassed.

yeah well i havent been doing this for years. i am this stupid foregin girl that just likes the results and would like this to be over as quickly as possible.

i suggest that we have a good ol' conversation to take my mind off the pain. she layers on the first wax and i ask her what is her name, although i already know the answer.

i cant hear the answer through my screams. yes it is that painfull.

now she is the one laughing at me. the people in the waiting room are probably thinking someone is having a root canal by the way i am yelping. i was waiting for her to peek her head through the door and ask someone for backup.

i ask if she has away kids. she does, a boy my age that would just love me. ..this is not the time or place when you set your son up on a blind date. she tells me that i have the cutest little accent, obviously foreign, but nevertheless, adorable.

she continues to wax and the tears continue to roll down my cheeks. after each wax, i would hold my breathe, holding back my screams, and she would come up to my face and say, "doí, né?" ..hurts, doesnt it? no, i am secretly a comedian that is just wanting to get a good laugh for you.

after all the waxing is complete, she comes back with my enemy: tweezers. i refuse her, i would prefer the wax, god forbid.

she then instructs me to flip over and now its time for my buttt.

excuse me, i think i misunderstood you. did you just say my butt?

yeah yeah, please flip overr.

lady, Adriana, MEU BEM, you are not, will not, can not, do that.

of course i can and i will now lets go.

she literally pushes me on my side and waxxes away.

i will not discuss this part.

she tells me that its over, i can put my pants on. FINALMENTE! it literally took 20 mintues of struggle and sweat. i jump off the table, which the paper sticking to my butt, buckets of water were escaping my pores, better than screams right?

i wanted to hug Adriana, i wanted to invite her over for dinnner, heck i wanted to bring her home with me to The States and meet my whole family cause she did THE BEST JOB POSSIBLE!

i walk over to meet my sister. she is laughing, who wouldnt be. she just heard the whole thing.

"did it hurt?"

ooh, minha irmã, you have no idea.

bikinni waxes, what an odd relationship i have with you..