I think I'm turning into a carnivore...

September 24

My first solo expedition in town was quite exciting, although many people wouldn’t find 20 minutes wandering around a grocery store fun, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the strange things, and trying to decipher what things are. Lots of things are cheaper, but for things like nivea body lotion, it’s more expensive because it’s an American brand. I came up with a plan to make ginger cookies when I got home, so after searching the whole store, I found some ginger bought it mutely, after seriously confusing myself trying to understand the cashier, and pranced home, enjoying the weather. It was the first day since I got here that hasn’t been hot, and I actually put on two shirts so that I wasn’t cold. I have to say I will really appreciate winter when I get home, I don’t know if I’m made for constant heat.

Anyways, I got home, got out my recipe, and brought my ginger into the kitchen, and looked through the cupboards to see if we had what else I needed. When I actually read the recipe, I realized that I didn’t have any molasses, or corn syrup, or baking soda, or cloves. So my cookie dreams were destroyed.

Once I realized I couldn’t bake anything, I resolved to waiting around for Renata to get home. She was very excited that I wanted to make cookies, and so we made plans to get some ingredients next time we go to the city.

Then, I called Gabriela, and we went to Yan’s place for a churrasco. The guys cooked the meat, and we had bread with some sort of garlic sauce on it as well. Bread is really cheap here, and you buy it by the kilogram. Most of it is French bread kind of rolls.

After we ate, we played Clue, which was good because I had to speak in Portuguese with them, and because I won all 3 times, which proves that I can understand what people are saying (sometimes at least). We also played a card game, in which the loser was supposed to drink a jug of water, but I lost, and they didn’t make me drink all the water, which I was happy about. I got home about one thirty I think, and went to bed.

When I woke up, I think that Renata and Vinicius had gone to get Bia, but I don’t really know. Either way, the phone rang like 6 times, and I didn’t know if I should answer it or not, so I answered it once, and it was Barbara, a friend, telling me that she’d be here in 5 minutes to pick me up for the churasco (barbeque) that we were going to. So I threw some acceptable clothes on, and went there.

There was sooooooooooooo much food there, it was Barbara’s friend’s birthday, and her dad was constantly bringing food to us, skewered cheese balls barbequed, unidentified meat on a stick, barbequed salty beef, super buttery garlic bread, sausage, and bread with creamy tomato sauce. The food was awesome, but I was super tired from last night, and I got a ride home kind of early.

I slept for a while and watched some tv in the afternoon, then got ready to go for dinner with Bia de Lucca, a friend who will be in my class at school. She invited me to go with her and her mom to her mom’s friends place for dinner. We had Arabian food, which was really good, and cabbage rolls. I really enjoyed it, and it was fun to spend a night out with people and have no one that speaks English there. That way I learn a lot more, and don’t always just fall back on using English.

After dinner we played pick-up sticks for a while, and then had dessert, which was a cream flavoured jelly thing, with caramel sauce on top, it was super yummy. At 11, Bia host sister picked us up, and we went to the downtown area, and sat in the park for a while and then went to the club.

We had to wait in line for more than an hour to get into the club. I don’t know how it happens here, but I think there’s an invisible sun that comes out at night and makes it get hot around 12:00 because I swear it gets cooler in the evenings, then hotter at night. Anyways, when we finally got in, there was a rock band there, and we listened to it and people kind of danced, but not like in Canada. When people in Brazil say rock, as in the type of music, it sounds like hockee, because they say Rs like H’s, and then put ee on the end of everything. So, for a while I couldn’t understand why the music was called hockey, but finally I figured it out.

In Brazil, you don’t pay for things in restaurants or bars when you buy them; you just pay when you leave. So everyone at the club gets a piece of paper when you walk in, and you have to keep it all night, even if you don’t buy anything. If you buy something, it gets written on your card, and you pay on the way out. I guess this makes sense for the bar to make more money, but they charge like 100 reals if you lose the paper, and that would really suck. Also, it makes you have to be in a line to get out of the club too, because you can’t leave without your paper.

We got home around 4:30, and the rooster, which I found out is just a few houses over from my building, was already crowing. I slept until 12:30, and then got up and had a mango.

At the club with future classmates and host sister Bia

Club as well Bia de Lucca and her friends

Club as well with funny drunk guy

After Dinner with Bia and friends

Carol, Me and Bia de Lucca- I feel kind of tall in this picture

Cars driving by honking and playing loud political propaganda songs to wake me up on a Saturday morning

My Building

Big old Church in My Town

Beef Stroganoff that Irani and I made on Friday

and it was served with fried potato things, like hickory sticks without the flavour, and rice

1 week down,

Since I last wrote, I’ve been learning Brazilian cooking each day. Irani, the maid, is teaching me. She also speaks no English, but we get by with the words I know, and lots of charades and sign language. Monday, I learned how to make a chicken torte, with beans and rice of course, and a cooked veggie salad. Tuesday, I learned how to make a beef roll thing with ham and cheese inside, with beans and rice again, and a salad. Today we made a fishy and vegetable layered kind of casserole thing, ­­­­­­­­­­it was really good, a nice change from beef and pork too. Monday, other than making lunch was uneventful. Yesterday, after making lunch, I went with Renata to pick up my cards for the clubs so that I can go there now when I want. Then we went to Renata’s parents place, and I stayed there all afternoon. I showed her parents and her sister photos from Canada. They were all very amazed how beautiful my area is. After that I made a quiche with Renata’s sister, and I learned that I am not great at making pastry unfortunately. But it would have helped if we had had a scale to measure things instead of just guessing.

After that, we went for a walk with Renata’s sister and her husband and her mother. Then, we hurried home to get ready for the Rotary meeting. When we got to the meeting, I was introduced to some people, and then the meeting started. The first thing I had to do was present the banner from my host club to their club, and it was somewhat awkward, because the club president didn’t say anything, he just shook my hand. After that, the youth exchange person introduced me some, and about 50 men were looking at me curiously. Then they proceeded to talk about traffic problems in Brazil (I think anyways), I could only understand bits and pieces of it, and then a couple other people talked, and I could understand nothing. When the meeting was finally over, we went and had dinner. There was rice (no surprise), salad, lamb, and a whole stuffed roast pig, tail, ears and nose still intact. The roast pig wasn’t great, but the salad was good. The meeting was pretty boring, but I think that if I could have understood more that it might have been interesting

Today after the yummy fish casserole lunch, Yan called, and we went to have acai. It’s like a smoothie of acai fruit, with granola nuts and milk powder on top. Its super good, I could eat it every day. Then we walked around the city and for the first time I didn’t feel lost when we were walking, maybe one day I will know my way around. As we were eating acai, a parade thing of cars with speakers on them playing political advertising songs and covered in flags and other election things drove by. There were like 30 cars at least driving with huge flags, and 3 or 4 with speakers. There is going to be an election at the beginning of October, and there has been a lot of talk, and I realized that all the cars I’ve heard playing music everywhere are playing songs about the president they want elected. There are also signs on buildings everywhere and billboards about the election. I tried to ask what the government is structured like here, but I didn’t understand the answer, so maybe I will Google it. Yan also taught me ‘fusca azul’ which is the equivalent of punch buggy. It has to be blue, because there are so many VW beetles here. The old ones are really cheap, and I wish that I could buy one and bring it back with me.

When I got back from that, I went to a meeting with Casali, the rotary person for youth exchange, and the outbound students from here. I found out that Lisa, the girl here from Germany is leaving tomorrow, because she misses her family too much I think. Casali told the outbounds to take me for ice cream and get to know me, so that I’m not lonely, a nice gesture, but it won’t help me not gain weight.

Renata and I went for a walk after that, I finally figured out what the numbers written on the sidewalk where we walk mean, and I figured out that one lap is 1.2 km, and we walk 4 or more each night. After that, we went for dinner, and had like shepherd’s pie thing, except with lots of cheese, and shredded steak instead of ground beef.

Acai with Yan

Fish Casserole thing

Fish Casserole thing

Fish for in the casserole, dont know what it is really

Pretty Flowers

Renata's Dad's Back Yard

Renata's Dad's harvesting/pruning equipment for his backyard

BANANAS!

speedy lizard, hard to get a picture of him

Yummy melon, I dont know what it is though, and some pineapple

Vinicius, Renata and Irani ready for lunch

Beef, Ham and Cheese Roll thing

Maracuja Juice that I made

Monday's Lunch

Maracuja for making juice

Chicken Torte after its cooked, I dont know why but the picture won't rotate

Beans of course

Cooked Vegetable Salad

Chicken Torte from Monday before being cooked

S

Days 3, 4, and 5

Yesterday, I saw a garbage horse. When I say garbage horse, I mean that it was pulling the garbage trailer, together being the equivalent of a garbage truck. It’s interesting how well the horse must be trained for such a job, because if I were a garbage horse, I would just run away whenever the garbage man was putting garbage in my trailer. Fortunately, the garbage horses are not like me.

On Friday, I slept in again, and after breakfast, wrote a lot of verbs in past, present and future to study. I understand more and more each day, but I still can’t talk much. When Renata came home for lunch, Irina had prepared it for us, and we ate beans, rice and chicken with vegetables, and tomatoes. It was very good, but quite salty too. I think that most of the food here is salty.

After lunch, Renata and I went to pick up the photographs from the day before (they turned out alright actually) and then we went to the clubs and registered me under their card, so that I will be able to go to both clubs when I want to. There are swimming pools, tennis courts, bocce areas, soccer fields, gyms, and artificial lakes. They also have pools just designated for playing volleyball. From what I have seen and heard so far, no girls play team sports, something that I miss about Canada already. But at least my host mother likes to walk, so I am getting some exercise each day.

Renata went back to work for a bit, and I chilled at the apartment, and then I went to the ’Cachacaria’ with Igor and some of his friends. It was interesting to meet some new people and to go out at night. I also met a girl who will be in my class at school. She invited me to many things that I don’t know if I will go to, but I think that it kind of goes to show how welcoming the Brazilian people are.

Igor’s friends thought that my name was funny, because how the Brazilians say it is Kahreeeeeen, and it sounds a lot like ‘carie’ which is cavity. So they were saying that they have a Kareeeeeeen in their tooth, and just met a cavity.

The next day, Renata, Igor, Lisa and I went to another town about an hour away from here. It is much bigger; I think it has about 500,000 people. We first picked up Beatriz, my host sister from her apartment there, and then we went to a store where Beatriz wanted to buy some shirts. I looked around there a bit, but the cheapest little tank top was 100 reals, which is about 60 dollars. I’ve noticed that many things are very expensive here, that are not expensive at home.

Driving to Rio Preto

After there, we went to the mall, where we had lunch. Everyone was very excited to eat at Burger King, or Macdonalds. I went to Subway, and got what I thought I knew from Canada, a Pizza Sub. It was kind of the same, but they had different meat, and the mustard was no good, the pickles tasted fishy and they only put 3 cucumber slices on it, and a few bits of lettuce. It was very different actually form what Canada normally has, and I guess I might have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t had high expectations that it would be the same as what I’m used to. Here they have two sizes, like in Canada, but they are 15cm and 30cm. For some reason I think that a foot long sounds a lot cooler than a 30 cm.

Lisa (from Germany) Bia (host sister) Me, and Igor (friend)

Renata bought me a phone after that, she said that she wanted to be able to find me when I go out. I offered to pay, but she didn’t let me, and I won’t really complain. It’s the cheapest that they had, but I’m happy to have a phone now so that I can text friends here when I want to. I think I pay about 30 cents a text though.

Next we went to Renner, a sort of department store. I tried on a few things that didn’t look good at all, and were pretty expensive too. As we were walking through the mall, I saw prices for Nike or Asics that were 550 reals! That’s 331 dollars… my shoes, which are almost identical to those I paid 105 dollars for. It’s really crazy how expensive American brands are here. Igor told me that I could probably sell my billabong purse for at least 120 reals, which would make me quite a profit. On our way back from there, we stopped at a touristy place to take some pictures and look in the stores. It was really pretty; they had fountains and ponds, and tourist/ antique stores, as well as a candy store where Renata bought some candy for us to try. In one of the ponds there was a fish that was at least 2 feet long, like a giant goldfish. Apparently you can eat them and they taste very good. One of the types of candy that Renata bought tasted kind of like eating a gelatinous kind of sweet sponge, and the other was kind of like fudge, but more crumbly, I don’t know what flavour it was.

Renata and I

Me and a Bird, I don`t remember what it`s called though

At the tourist place still

Some nice flowers there

When we came home, we had leftovers for dinner, and then Renata and I watched a movie (an English movie with Portuguese subtitles).

Yesterday morning, Renata, Bia (Beatriz) and I went for a walk around the artificial lake at the club (after applying copious amounts of sunblock). We saw wild pig poo, little birds called ‘Quero quero’s which means ‘want want’. Apparently if you get too close to a quero quero and their young, they will attack you. I think I will stay away from them. We also tried to feed the fish some bread, but they were not hungry. I forgot my camera on the walk, and was very mad, because I want some pictures of the lake. After walking, we went to visit Renata’s parents and sister again. Renata’s dad is a Portuguese teacher, and he teaches me words for things. Renata showed me their backyard, which has mango trees, Caju trees, avocado trees and banana trees. Then we tried some sort of bean fruit thing, I don’t remember what it’s called, but it was really sour and I didn’t like it.

After that, we went to lunch with Vinicius’ parents at a big public lunch place. It was buffet style too, and was typical beans rice, meat etc. of a Brazilian meal. I tried manioc, I don’t really know what it is, but it wasn’t bad. When we were there, a man from the newspaper took a picture of my family; apparently it will be in the newspaper as well.

When we got back from lunch, Renata and I started to watch the Bounty Hunter, but the Gabriela came over and invited me to Yan’s house to watch the Sao Paulo vs. Palmeiras soccer game. When we got there, we made Brigadeiro, a chocolate thing made with sweetened condensed milk, butter and chocolate powder. It was very good, but super sweet and horribly unhealthy. Yan gave me a Sao Paulo team jersey! It was exciting to watch the game, but also to make more friends. I had to leave before the game was over, but it was 2 to 0 for Sao Paulo when I left, so we were happy. When I got home, I showed the jersey to Renata, and she said that they cheer for Palmeiras, and jokingly, that I could not cheer for Sao Paulo. She says that Victor (my host brother that is on exchange in Australia) would be very unhappy if he saw it.

Brigadeiro

Watching the game

Bia, Isabella, Me, Yan, Pomela? and Gabriela

After getting home from that, Igor called, and he, Lisa and I went for a run/walk to the club and back. It was great to get some real exercise. When we got back, Renata ordered pizza, and her and I looked at pictures and talked for a while. I finally am able to make sentences and tell someone what I want to say (sometimes). It is a lot easier when I have a picture in front of me to help me explain. When the pizza came, we ate it together, and I told her how I like to cook. She said that Irani would love to teach me how to cook Brazilian food, and I will start to learn today. After dinner, we watched She’s out of my League and then went to bed.

September 16th- Day 2

Wow, do Brazilians ever like Macdonalds… Everyone here is mad because the town has only 90,000 people, and apparently, you need 100,000 people in order to get a Macdonalds. So they are waiting until the city grows enough. I told them that I don’t like Macdonalds, and that my town of 10,000 people has one. They think that I`m crazy, and they are very jealous. I realize it might be a generalization to say everyone wants Macdonalds, but I think that it`s almost accurate.

This morning I woke up late again, and ventured into the kitchen for breakfast. Irina brought me the breakfast food (it’s really weird to not make my own breakfast in the mornings…) but I guess I can get used to having a maid. I had the same breakfast as yesterday, but this time was offered cold milk for my cereal, I appreciated that. Irina taught me the words for the food that I ate, and I was able to say `prato` to say that I wanted a plate. I now know that in learning a language, things come pretty slowly, so I celebrate the small things.

After breakfast, I sat in my room, and wrote a list of the words that I knew, and looked up some that I thought I needed to know. The list turned out disappointingly short, but I`ll keep adding to it each day. Then I settled into reading my verb book, a slightly boring enormous book full of 501 Portuguese verbs conjugated in all the tenses, most of which I have no idea when to use. Nevertheless, I might have retained one or two verbs in the present tense. I fell asleep while I was reading the verb book (no big surprise really) and then read my novel for a while to give my brain a rest.

I`m not sure if this impression is really true, but after 2 days in my city I have not seen one insect or bug of any sort, and all the windows and doors to the balconies are open all day with no screen. When I came here, for some reason I expected to be swarmed with bugs, and have cockroaches everywhere, but thankfully, my expectations were wrong. I guess there are screens on the balconies, but its big mesh, I`m assuming it’s to keep birds out. I have seen quite a few birds, and I can hear one chirping as I`m writing this, I think that they are building a nest in the air conditioning vent outside my window. Come to think of it, I guess it’s coming into spring here, so it’s time that birds are building nests probably.

When Renata came home from work for lunch, her and I went for lunch at the same restaurant as yesterday, and I had a few different things, I still don’t know what some things are, but there was definitely rice and beans and churrasco (barbequed meat). At the restaurants, everyone ask Renata about me, and where I`m from, if I speak any Portuguese etc. and they all want to hear me speak.

After lunch, we went to the photocopying and printing place to get documents done for my Federal Police identification card (I think that’s what it’s called anyways) . Getting all the things in order for that was quite an ordeal, but finally we finished there, and then we went to Renata`s dental office. She had to work, so I waited for a while, and then her secretary took me to get my photocopies notarized, and get a picture taken for the ID card as well. It was pretty awkward getting the photo taken, but I just hope that I didn’t look too uncomfortable in the picture. After that Renata brought me home and I relaxed in my room for a while.

Somehow people know that I’m here, and they came to meet me, and visit. Gabrielle and Yan/Yen came and introduced themselves, and they speak English, so it was nice to have some connection with a language that I can express myself in. While they were here, the newspaper called Vinicius, and they wanted to write that I had come here, where I came from, and how long I will be here. After translating through Gabrielle, I think they got the point across.

After that, we headed out and they showed me the city, and took me to what they thought is the best ice cream in town. With the boys yesterday they also told me that the other place was the best ice cream in town, but I didn’t really notice a difference. We walked around `downtown` and there was a market in the square that we perused. They told me, as the boys had yesterday also, that there is nothing ever to do in the town, because it is too small. I would like to show them where I’m from, and then they would say that here has more to do.

After that, I came back here and waited until Renata came home from work. Just after it got dark, the power went out in the city, and I was in my room with no other light than my laptop. However, I was very glad that my laptop was on, so that I could at least see something. The power was only off for 5 minutes or so, but it was really surprising how quiet it got, aside from the traffic which continued, the car’s lights the only ones in the city.

When Renata came home, she showed me one of the city’s newspapers, which had a small article about my parents receiving a new daughter. I haven’t translated it fully yet, but I probably will soon, so that I know what everyone else knows about me. No big surprise though, they didn’t spell my name right. For a city larger than my hometown, I’m surprised how much more closely knit it is. As you walk down the street, people greet each other a lot, and everyone is so friendly.

The article in the Newspaper

As happens every evening (I think) Renata and her friend go for a walk at the club. I went with them, and we spent the entire time learning language. They would point to something, and then say it in Portuguese for me to repeat. After I had mastered the word, I would teach it to them in English. It’s quite amusing to hear them speaking English; however, it must be the same for them to hear me speak with such an English accent in Portuguese. I also was able to make a few sentences about what I saw, and some differences between here and Canada.

After the walk, Renata and I came back here and showered before dinner. Then, we went to a restaurant and since I couldn’t understand anything on the menu, just told her to order 2 of what she was getting, and I’d eat the same. Luckily, it turned out to be pizza kind of thing with liquid cheese and a huge pile of salami and onions. I ate only about half of the meat, but otherwise, it was quite good.

Things are getting a lot easier to understand, and I feel myself changing already. At home, I usually am obsessed with knowing exactly what the plans are, and what is going on. Here though, I have completely let go of this, and I am totally fine not having any clue what’s going on, and where I will go next. Its kind of relaxing not having any obligations, or stressing about something that’s going to happen, because I almost never know what will happen until it happens.

After skpying my parents for a while, I crawled into bed, thinking of how much I’ve already learned in the last 2 days. It’s crazy how quickly you can adapt when you have no other choice. When I came here, I thought that it would be really tempting to be on the computer all day talking to people at home. But here, there is almost always something that is more useful or more fun than sitting here thinking about home, so I don’t spend much time on the computer at all.

September 15- My first day

I slept until 10:30 this morning, and woke up to the sound of a car with a huge speaker strapped to the top of it, playing music as it drove by. This happens quite often, and I enjoy the short bursts of music that come into my room. Wandering out of my room, I met the maid, Irina. Renata showed me the breakfast food, and I had cereal with strawberries, and warm milk? I guess that’s how they have it, as well as bread with jam. I also had a glass of unidentified juice, which they showed me the fruit it came from, and I still don’t know what it is. It was good though.

After that, thanks to Google translate, Renata told me that she was going to work for a while, and I unpacked my things. It was so hot that wearing a t shirt and shorts was sweltering, and as I unpacked, I cursed the fact that I brought so many warm clothes. I don’t think that I will ever wear them. If this is their winter, I hope that I will survive summer.

When Renata came home at lunchtime, we went out for lunch because there is a broken pipe in the kitchen, and everything is out of the cupboards and strewn around the room. We went to a restaurant where you fill your plate, and then pay a certain amount per pound, which I think is quite a good idea. We met another family there whose daughter spoke English and she helped to translate what Renata wanted to say. The Brazilian people are very welcoming, and everyone tells me that I will make lots of friends very quickly. I don’t know exactly what I ate really, but I think there were some beans and pork involved, as well as chicken. I could recognize salad, and took a generous helping of that.

After lunch, Renata and I went to visit her mother, who lives in a nice house not far from my apartment. Her father speaks French, so taking back what I said earlier about French not helping me, it allowed me to communicate with him, as well as who I understand to be his daughter and husband, who both speak good English and French. They explained to me that Votuporanga is very dry right now, and this isn’t normal. I think that I’m glad about that, but humidity could make it feel hotter, so I’m not sure.

I haven’t taken many pictures yet, I was too tired last night to even think of taking a picture of me and my host parents, I will try to do that soon though.

The View from my Balcony

My Room

When we got home, Renata went back to work. One of my host brother’s (who is in Australia on exchange) friends, Igor, came over and he speaks very good English. Then another 2 of his friends came, and we went for sorvete (ice cream). We talked (mostly in English, but some Portuguese) about differences between here and Canada, and they taught me some words for things that we could see around us. After that, they went home, and Igor and I came back to my apartment.

We sat and visited with Renata for a while, and Igor translated what Renata wanted to say to me, as we have troubles communicating without Google translate. Then, we went to one of the clubs in town, and went for a walk around the artificial lake. Igor and I walked together, and he taught me a lot of things about Brazil, and a lot of Portuguese as well. It was very good to have someone explain everything that I asked him to.

The people here are so friendly, it seems like everyone knows each other, and wants to meet new people all the time. The energy makes me feel very welcome, and never out of place.

Even the frogs speak a different language here; it sounds more like a woodpecker than a frog really…

After about an hour’s walking, we came back to the apartment, showered and got ready to go for dinner. We met Igor again at the bar, and sat down for dinner.
At the bar, I met the other exchange student that is in Votuporanga. Lisa is a 15 year old girl from Germany, and she’s already been here for 6 weeks. Her Portuguese is very good already; I hope that I can also learn that fast.

We got back from dinner around 11:00, and by that time I was really tired, so I went to bed soon thereafter.