salvador, bahia :D

lifes crazy, sorrry for the delay.
again, going to divide my time in salvador into many parts.
here we go:

Dia 15 de Dezembro:
Awoke early to travel to BH, slept most of the time except when my head would be slammed against the window.
when we arrived, we met up with my sister who would be going to salvador with me, just me and her :D we had lunch and wondered through the huge and riduclously expensive mall. our flight wasnt until 10pm so we chilled in her apartment after my mom left. Amalia went to US this summer for a month just to pass through, staying in Chicago & Michigan. she showed me her beauitful photos, just having some sister bonding time :D
the airport is really annoying for me. i have to travel 3hrs from ipatinga to BH. then you have to take a taxi in the city to the bus station. from the bus station, takes you another 50min to actually get to the airport.
chato. bagunça.
chilled in the airport, had a snack of pao de queijo (classic snack of "cheese bread" of MG) all the flights were delayed cause of the hoildays and cause it poured down rain, so we had to wait and wait and wait.
eventually we did get on our flight and it took another hour and a half to get Salvador, Bahia.
after all this traveling, i realized how much i LOVE to travel. you think i should already know this, ariana you travel all the time when youre in Brasil, you TRAVELED to brasil. but i realized i LOVE it so much.
i love the overpacking cause you dont know what you want to wear each day; i love falling asleeep on the long car rides, listening to my ipod; i love getting a taxi and literally flying around the city, unless we are stuck in traffic; i love going through secruity in the airport, afraid that i accidentally have a pocket knife in my pocket like Dad had when we went in the empire state building, remember?; i love being placed next to some random person on the plane and feeeling as if they became like a father figure to me; i love the fear of losing your luggage but the fear instantly dissapears when you see it turning the corner.
i love traveling.
anyway, we got into Salvador, 12midnight there time but it is an hour different so my body thought it was 1am so alll i wanted was a bed, soon.
we were staying with my mother's brother, his wife and daughter. i feeel completely horrible but cant remember their names cause they are really unusual names,and i just called them, Tio, Tia, Menina (uncle, aunt, girl which is okay here haha)

Dia 16 de Dezembro:
i wake up in the morning, completely lost: where am i, who am i with, what time it is, what am i doing here.
then i remember i am in salvador, bahia.
i'm awake now, no time for sleep.
i roll out of bed and wonder through the house, trying to find my family.
there are around 20workers throughout the house, because my family is redoing their house, making it even more huge.
jim allison can tell you, that after a rough night of sleeep, i am not looking presentable, at all, and there they are, 20men, saying, ooh ola bom dia.
..maybe i should go change and take a shower?
my grandfather comes over and takes my sister, my cousin and i around the city, showing us everything.
little info about Salvador, Bahia:
Bahia is in the north of Brasil, one state above me (MG) Salvador is the captial city of Bahia, on the coast, therefore huge, beauitful and full of history. when portugal settled in brasil, they brought over many slaves from africa therefore more than half of the population is of african descent. you can tell who are the tourist or foreigners cause if you are white, you are not of Bahia.
we are driving through the city and i am just falling in love little by litttle
we stop the car and my grandfather says, okay get out, we are gonna eat some food of Bahia.
just picture the south of US, african americans who love fried food, in brasil cause that excatly what is was. i think it was ground up beans that were fried then they threw some spicy flavor then shrimp. dont know but i liked it.. knda.
ooh and Bahia LOVES spicy foood. they ask you if you want it hot or cold, meaning do you wannt to live afterwards cause of the spicy-ness or would you like to experience the flames of Bahia in your mouth.
we went to this lake people, still today, wash their clothes in the water, old fashion way. and where people swimm in, even though my grandfather said there were SNAKES !
we went to a few musems, some lighthouses, all taking wayy too many pictures, trying to capture the culture of Salvador.
we drive and drive and i fell asleeep a litttle (i realized now that i can fall asleeep WHEREVER)
that night we went out to this hotspot in town having a nice late night dinner (it was 11when we sat down, 12 when we actually ate) i had this delicious shrimp wrap ..seafood :D

Dia 17 de Dezembro:
after lunch, we headed out to this market where they sell classic things from bahia, where i bought everyone presents :D
we then went to the "upper half of brasil" where it's all the history. we had to take this elevador up to the top and i thought of when we went to Pittsburg this summer and went up the incline, one of the hottest day of the year in PA (that was NOTHNG compared to brasil, nothing) and everyone was struggling to breathe.
the elevador took us up and we walked out into this courtyard with historical homes and buildings. it looked like i walked into europe. we walked through narrow streets of stone, betweeen shops, between churches. it was so beauitful !
we wondered into this church and somehow got a grand tour of it alll. it had a courtyaard that had beauitful blue handpainted artwork of stories of the bible on the walls. then we went inside.
my mouth is still open in amazement.
i have NEVER seen something so beauitful, more beauitful than Leo Dicaprio.
every.single.inch of the church was in gold. everywhere you loooked, it had gold. i feeel like i neeed to find other words than beauitful but seriously, it was BEAUITFUL.
it almost had TOO much gold, like they went OVERBOARD. but you cant really go overboard when you are creating God's House.
I've decided that i am gettting married in this church. I dont care what my husband says or that it was a catholic church and i am not catholic, when i saw that church, i knew, i KNEW that i would have my wedding ceremony there :D

to be continueddd..

activities*

while everyone else fills their afternoons studying for tests, preparing for the Vestibular, I have other activities that i do to fill my time.

Tennis:
as you all know, my first family was really into sports so they gave me the opportunity to take tennis lessons. ive always had this secret desire to learn tennis so i was reallly excited.
i have lessons once or twice a wk and i always look forward to them (which isnt ususally something common for me in the sports department, ive always dreaded going to practice and sweating) I have my own litttle cute skirt and racket which i find adorable.
my professor is the nicest man. he is really curious about me, constantly asking me questions about the US, a land he has never seen, only on TV. his questions always leave me baffled, "whats the biggest difference that you first noticed in brasil?" "do you think that teenagers are different in the US?" and he is reallly amazed at how cold it gets in PA, coming from someone who has never seen snow in his life before except (again) on TV
tennis is something that i want to keep with and maybe challenge haley deli when i get back ;D

Dance:
in my current family, my mom takes dance lessons and also gave me the opportunity to take sumba and forró classes. ive always had this secret desire to be a prima balleria in preschool but obviously that never happened so i was thrilled when i had my first lesson. i take sumba and forró lessons.
sumba is all about your hips and fast feet work
forró ( a dance from the north of brasil that means a dance "for all") is more about your relaxed shoulders and lots of twirling. i like forró most :D
my professor is ver patient with me and my two left feeet but i love it so much. it makes me feeel so brasileria, beauitful and sexy and confident.
hopefully i learn enough to be able to teach everyone back home how to dança

Swimming:
i am really fortunate in this family that i have a pool to visit on a daily bases because, yess i do go to the pool everyday. it is so hottt here that if i didnt have a pool i would probably dig myself my own pool and just sit, trying to escape the heat.
my grandma, who lives just up the road, has a pool. so everyday after lunch, i call her and ask the question, "posso nadar hoje, avó?"
everyone thinks that i am crazy cause i swimm so much. i am growing fins and becoming a mermaid. its okay, i love it.
i swimm, i read, i listen to my music, i just relax and take in the delicious strong sun of brasil.

this post has kinda been boring, sorry but dont worry,
i am leaving wednesday for the beach, Salandor, Bahia, so after 21st of December be ready for lots of more interesting postsss.
p.s i have sweat on my upper lip
everyone back home has turltenecks &longuderwear on
haah

ônibus

because i can't drive here (a tragedy that i miss terribly) i have to rely more on the busing system here. which as you are about to find out, is an adventure in itself.

i remember the very first time i took the bus with the brother (it was my third day in Brasil) and i literally thought i was going to throw up everywhere. from the typical driving style of brasilerios and from the constant stopping and going, i had to switch seats with him so that i could put my head out the window, just in case..

after some time in Brasil, I wanted to learn how to take the bus, alone. I have friends in the other cities, Timoteo & Coronel Fabriciano, so i wanted to take the bus whenever i wanted to so i could visit. my wonderful mother Flavia helped me, looking on the internet for the timing schedule and waiting with me at the stop. she would write down what i should say to the man who collects the money so that he would help me get off at the right stop. I was suppose to say this to the man, read it maybe, but instead, being shy at my new-found love of português, i would just hand the man the paper, with a sheepish look on my face and say, sorry but i dont really speak português.

after getting used to the system, i started taking the bus more and more.
once, when i was going to Timoteo, i was sitting at the busstop, waiting and waiting (i forgot to tell you but brasilerios are ALWAYS late, everyone is always late) i had been sitting there for atleast 15min. i turned my head for literally 2seconds and i see a bus flash by, on the front reading, "Ipatinga - Timoteo" Thats my bus! I start running, flagging my arms up and down, looking like a moron, thinking, "please please please stop for me because the next one doesnt come for the next 2hours." ofcourse it stops for me and i stumble onto the bus, out of breathe, and just say over and over, "obrigada, obrigada!" (thankyou thankyou.)

another time, i was in Fabriciano late at night and realized i should probably start going home. i needed to take two buses, one from clare's house to the Center then from the Center to Ipatinga. I was fine when i was on the bus but i didnt exactly know where i was suppose to get off at so i was slightly nervous. i saw this one girl get off, so guess what, i got off too hah. not knowing where the next bus stop is, i start panicking. i am sweating and have no idea where to go. i call clare, she isnt answering. i try my brother but he is in class. its dark out, late at night, and i am not in a good part of town. i'm slightly scared (i guess this isnt something you should be telling your mom, huh?)
i need to ask someone for help. if i ask a man ..well that just isnt a good idea. i see this women walking, obviously working out. i say in my best português possible, "can you please help me, im lost." she ofcourse helps me and leds me to the busstop, talking and congraduating me on my fine português. i wanted to ask her for a picture and maybe her address because i know grandma judy and aunt lou would like to see this women and maybe send her a thankyou card for helping out their favorite granddaughter.

i know that taking the bus is part of this crazy experience and i just roll along with it and always laugh at what always happenes to me..

one of the boys.

in the past month, i have beeen doing some activities that made me think, "man, i'm a dude!"

my current family loves to go jeeeeping. jeeeping is basicallly taking a jeeep on "paths" (no, they are not paths, you make your own) and explore places that you cannt normallly seee with a car. we climbed the mountains in coronel fabriciano, me being thrown around in the backseat, seeeing alll of Vale de Aço and eventuallly stopping to hike through nature (yes, i did think about getting attack by anacondas again. its always on my mind here) we went to a waterfalll, hiddden by the treees and would have gone unnoticed if it wasnt for the crashing water. when we got close, i looked to my dad and said with a huge grin on my face, "can i go under the fallls?"
"oooh ofcourse!"
i threw offf my shoes and ran under the falllls, running and dancing around, soaking up the energy that radiated from the waterfalll.
afterwards, i was dripping wet, dirt everywhere, smellling of lake water, leaves interlocked in my hair, and a huge SMILE acrosss my face. :D just being one of the boyss..

my next family is reallly into shoting guns so they invited me to this special clube here where you practice shoting at targets. i've never shot a gun before in my life so i was prettty excited to shot at litttle targets, and so was my father and brother. they had 3 or 4 diffferent types of guns and they kept kinda throwing them at me, "here, try this one. ooh here's another one, try it. youre doing great, ariana, again!" and i was doing prettty goood (according to myself) for someone who has never touched a gun before. i hit probably a goood 10 targets !
*sidenote: people dont hunt animals here. because of their love for animals and the Amazon, it just doesnt happen (which i find funnny cause where i'm from, EVERYONE hunts.) theres a joke here that if you shot a person, youll go to trail for it and such. but if you shot an animal, youre going to jail.
just being one of the boyss..

my last family invited me to go repealing down a waterfalll with them for my brothers birthday.
ofcourse i said yes. who can say that they have ever repealed down a waterfalll before?
we traveled outside of the city, through more dirt roads that eventually just lead to dirt where we had to walk another km to our waterfalll. the view was absolutley out of this world! i wanted to camp there and just spend hours and hours just loooking at the surrounding mountains and valleys and other waterfallls and greeeen forests. so beauitful!
while the repeal team set up the equitment me and the boys explored the area, climbing down to the base of the waterfalll. everyone is fallling on their buttts cause of the wet rocks. it was one after the other after the other after the other, just EVERYONE is falling on their butts and we are laughing like its the funniest thing in the world. then its my turn and im thinking, "i'm not gonna falll." i hit the ground so hard,
so we are splashing at the base of the falll, its deeep enough to swim so we are just swimming around in our clothes. we got out to have a litttle snack and we were dry within 20min because the sun is THAT powerful here. we had lunch at the top of the waterfalll. who can say that they had a picnic on a waterfalll? it was so peacefull and relaxing.
we watched one group of 3 repeal down the falll and i'm thinking, "man this loooks awesome! and easy"
it was one of the most challenging, grueling, difficult things i have ever down in my entire life. and i am dead serious.
the waterfalll was set up kinda in 3steps, one was not in the water, the second just your feeet would be gettting wet and the third step youre whole body would be submerged in the gushing water.
my arm is aching, my leg is cramping up, my glove is fallling offf, my back is hurting, i'm getting commands yellled at in português that i can barely hear, i'm slipping everywhere on the rocks, my leg is bleeeding blood cause i wacked it offf the rock, we are screaming out our energy, im yellling out my pain. now the water is gushing over my face and i can barely seeee and breathe. i can hear everyone below yellling encouragements to keeep on going.
IT WAS AMAZING !
afterwards, we are dirty: theres mud on everyones clothes; people neeed bandaids on every part of their body; we smelll of sweat; everyone is sunburn to the max; people have bloood on their clothing, blood of someone else; we have bruises and cuts on our legs and arms.
the day was perfect, just being one of the boyss..

i think we can alll say that ariana is kinda like a dude now.

Dia de Ação de Graças

Thanksgiving Day
While you all were snuggled up near the televisions watching footballl and eating as much foood that was humanly possible, i was laying by the pooool, reading a good book, preparing for my own Thanksgiving Feast, here in Brasil.

my family was reallllllllly excited for the dinner that i had planned for them. Since the day I moved in, they already were anticapating, a month beforeheand, the meal that is All-American, something they only seee on movies. Because i have made this day out to be one of the best days of the year on the American calandor, they were expecting ALOT. please remember that i'm just a girl with eightteen years who has never cooked a meal for 14 people.

my feast consisted of:
Turkey (peru)
Sweet Potatoes (batata duce)
Stuffing (doesnt exist in português)
Apple Pie (torta de maçã)
Pumpkin Pie (torta de abóbora)
what a challenge it was to find all these ingredients

I made the pies the night before and i have to admitt, for someone who has never made a pie before, they turned out prettty dang good. it was nothing in comparison of Grandmas or the pies we buy from the church, but hey.. Brasilerios have never tasted the sweeetnesss of Grandmas pies so i was in luck ;D
the only problem was with the pumpkin pie. they dont have a can of pumkin like we have at home where you can just buy at Wal*Mart. therefore my momma and i made a replacement: a real pumkpin. we bought a pumkin from the supermarket (pumkpin is commonly eatten here) boiled it down and got alll the gooodness out of it. Let me telll you, it was wayyy better than the can; i will never use a can of pumkin again.

I cooked the stufffing the morning of and it definatly didnt have any "curb appeal" it did not look prettty at alll but it was good! i got the recipe offline and i was proud, and surprised, of myself once again.

The whole family gathered that night to give thanks to our God for alll our blesssings and to taste Ariana's creations. I said a prayer before, in English, and then said, "Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Now let's eat!"
It was a beauitful evening full of laughter and wine and friendship and way to much fooood, ofcourse. I looked around at everything and just had to smile: I'm having Thanksgiving, an American holiday, with Brasilerios.

They HAD to include rice on the meal of fooood. I was a litttle bit appauled with that fact; never have i heard of people eating rice on Thanksgiving. But when i looked at everyones plate, EVERYONE had a cupfull of rice. And when i said this to my brother, he was like, "Its Brasil Baby." só no Brasil..

I skyped with my family the day of Thanksgiving and afterward I got a litttle sad, thinking, "man, i wish i was there eating Grandma's cranberry sauce or seeing Mick and Chris from London, or gettting attacked by Aunt Monica's dog."
But i wasnt there. I was here, in Brasil. Excatly where I am suppose to be..

differences

i have been pondering this post for quite some time now, i wanted to think of all the differences that stand out. the funny thing is that since i have been here for 3months (três meses!) the differences arent quite so loud, so bold; i have grown accussed to them, they are just part of my daily life

*ofcourse, the major difference at first was the language, português. but now, its the exact opposite. when i hear inglês from someone that usually doesnt speak inglês, i think, "wait that isnt right. i didnt have to translate that. ..ohmygosh thats my native language, inglês!! woahh"

*the climate. hottt. ofcourse, everyone is envious when i telll them i spent the day by the pool, gettting sun burn and i have another summer vacation coming soon. but the truth is, its gettting so hottt that its not even funn. this wkend, i wanted to cut my hair offf cause it was making me sweat somuch. everyone says that you dont know what hottt is until you are in Vale do Aço, Brasil in Januray. should be fun !

*like most south american countries, Brasil's biggest meal is lunch. i didnt think i woud love having my biggest meal in the middle of the day, but man, i love it somuch. i look forward to it during school, hoping that we have a big delicous fresh salad, thinking of the savory beans and rice.. ahh i am coming home to US expecting a fullcourse meal in front of me at 12:30

*having a maid, in one word, is amazing. i know that i am slowly becoming spoiled. my maid was gone for 3days, i am not exergatering when i tell you that i was struggling: my bed wasnt made, my bathroom was a mess, my laudry was overpiling. i neeeeeded some help !

*clothing here, esp womens, are ofcouse diffferent. diffferent land, diffferent styles. i told you all about the bikinnis, you can only imagine what they wear during the day. its not modest and i always feeel like the conserative american cause i like layers and turtle-necks and cardigns.

*everyones nails here are always neatly manicured and colored. my nailbeds are always a mess therefore i look slopppy.

*speaking of fashion and how fabuous brasilerias are, everyone wears highheeels. go to the mall on thursday afternoon, lets put my heeels on. going to a random dirty bar, put my heeels are. so OFCOURSE i had to get a pair :D

*this is one of my favorite differences and its probably the stupidest one there is: girls know how to put their hair up without having a hairtie. they can liek twist and knot it in a way that it will stay up ! its the cooolest thing ever and i try with my own hair, but its tooo curly (bushy)

* public transporation, buses, train, bikes, are very commonly used. i have learned how to take the bus, meu deus, that is a hilarious post

*have i already told you enough times that brasilerios drivers, make me car sick? well just to get the point acrosss, it makes me sick, all the time

*every neighborhood (ipatinga has over 30 and the neighborhood is kinda like the size of "downtown" new wilmington) has a fresh bakery which people visit on a daily bases

*almost everyone goes to the country clube, for both social purposes and to practice sports. i like it :)

*justin beiber is a controvsial isssue here: you either love him or hate his guts haha

*common professions that teenagers desire: medicine or enigeer (when i say that i want to be a professora, maybe, they look at me funny cause that career path isnt with high respect)

*teenagers, i think, are more stressed about their classes and future than US teeens. they have to take a test, similar to the SATs, but when Universities look at the students, they only look at the test, Vestibular, not their previous grades, activites, recommandtions etc. just the test which causes alotalot stressss.

*every school has a uniform. atfirst, i hated this idea cause usually i look nice for school. here is the complete opposite: i roll outta bed at the ungody hour of 6am, take a shower, and leave. no makeup, dont do my hair, dont put anything cute on. i am a sloppppy messs. but thats how everyone looks (sorrry if that upsets anyone, but lets be honest, we are sloppy at school)

*McDonalds &Burger King. thats alll. no one knows of Wendies, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, White Castle, A&W etc. just this. McDonalds is considered expensive which i find kinda funnny. a meal is around R$14 which could get you better quality, healthier meal

*Brasil = affectionate.

então, this is way i wanted Brasil. this is their culture. and this is what i have grown to get used to, these are the reasons why whenever people mention Brasil, my heart just throbs with allll the love i have for this place. BRA > EUA

segunda familia

a litttttle description of my second family for everyone:

Pires Familia:

meu pai, William:
he is a professor at the local university teaching other students on engineering because he was once an engineer as well. he is older, around 50 i think, but that doesnt mean he isnt full of energy. he is like a hurricane of energy, running from here to there in a split second. he is constantly saying, come here ariana, let me show you this, lets go here for you to seee that. just one ball of energy. he is crazyyy about nature. he has a little garden in the backyard in which he shows me his prized watermelon weekly (its progress is actually coming along very fast) on my first day here, he basically climbed their cocount treee just to get one, crack it open and have me taste (afterward he was sweeating) he has a jeeep in which he loves to ride, preferiably in with mud and rain. we went on a littttle adventure to seee beauitful waterfallss and hiddden places that wouldnt be known unlesss you had jeeep and a crazy dad to take you there. he is just a reallly sweet, kind man.

minha mãe, Gladia:
she is a business women that owns many eyeglass stores &film in the 3cities (Vale de Aço) which causes her some stress but that doesnt mean she isnt constantly with a smie on her face. she is an intelligent women, speaking português, inglês, and french all fluntly and very quickly. its funny because she speaks inglês to my brother and português to me. hah she always looks fabulous with a cool flowing dress and cute shoes. she bought me my first pair of brasileria highheels, in which you can ask Barbara Carr about them ;D she takes dance lessons, and i watched one week and it was so beauitful. the way her body moved with ease throughout the flooor, how sensual and seductive it looked, it was as if i shoudnt be watching, like it should be kept as a hidden secret between her and her professor.

meu irmão, Alessandro:
ooh Alessandro. he has 16years, being in the same year as me in school but different classrooms (he is in the smart classroom hah) he is my brother, if i ever had one in a previous life. we are constantly teasing eachother, picking on eachother, my português and his inglês, talking about pretty girls and cute boys in our classs. he is not shy towards me at all and i am not either, therefore he knows pretty much my life story. we're close. unfortunalty (or fortunatly) he is one of the most studious people i have ever met in my life. he has class in the morning. he comes home to have lunch and immediatly starts to study, then at 6 he returns to school to STUDY more. next year, he isnt returning to the same school as me, instead he has been accepted in the best school in minas gerias in BH. so i will be missing my brother when he leaves me in Feb..

minha irmã, Amalia:
I have yet to meet her, she studies in BH and hasnt had the time to come home. She comes home in the middle of Dec in which we, just me and Amalia :D will travel to Balia together. i know that she is beauitful and intelligent and will be my sisterrr :)

so thats my family :D they live in the same neighborhood as the Santos, Horto, so i can visit whenever my litttle heart desiress.
before i moved, i didnt really want to because, as you allll know, I love the Santos family. But as Rotary insists, its a good way to see a different culture and lifestyle. they are different and yet the same as the Santos, both loving and warm Brasilerios and both my family :D