My American Heart

things happening

2009-03-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well since I last wrote, I got over my Dengue sickness, switched host families, and skipped a lot of school (with good reason, of course).

to illustrate, because I have no patience to write:

The night before I got sick, my second host family and I went to meet my third family. They were cool. My host mom is really tall, and my 13 year old host brother looks like a 16 year old, so compared to them, I look like I'm 12.

Afterwards we went out to eat.
Sven was there too. No clue why, he just shows up to these things.

The night after that, I think was when I got sick. So they took me to the emergency room, where I had to have a medicine transfusion thing in my hand. What fun!

These days, I've been pretty busy perfecting my quidditch skills. Ella's helping me out.

It's a very tiring sport.

Ella recently had the idea to make the exchange students a little T-shirt, with our picture on it. Kyle didn't want to participate, but me, sven and ella all posed for a picture..

after a lot of screwing around, we decided on this one. :)
I was all dressed up that day because lately I've been skipping school to perform at my church. My church consists of the actual church ministry, plus a music school (where I have a free practice room available whenever I want ahem), and an elementary/middle school. And this week especially, I've been singing for the kids. It's been fun because I'm taking time away from class to do something good for the community! Plus I love doing it.

Aaaand below are some very old photos of Sao Paulo that Tati wanted from me. Sorry it took this long, Tati!

newest article

2009-03-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I know it's been a while. sorry about that. I PROMISE I will get back to updating you! I just saw Madisyn's blog, a girl from Oregon here in Bahia, and it made me quite ashamed of the little blog that I was once proud of. So I promise, it'll get back up there.
I thought I'd start with showing you my latest article for school back home in Indiana. Just sent it in today. Here it is...!

"Remember my last article, in which I warned the John Adams student body about the mosquito disease, Dengue? It's a virus that's been spreading around Brazil, especially Bahia, through the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, recognizable by its black and white stripes. It's already affected 15% of my city this year alone.
That's a basic summary of my last contribution to the paper. You know, warning about ways to prevent being eaten alive by disease ridden insects. I thought I was doing a good deed; doing my part in the fight against Dengue; letting the world know through my Dengue awareness article.
A week later, I got Dengue.
It started out as nausea. I ignored it, as that night I had tried some of my host mother's artificial sweeteners that I had long deemed unfit for human consumption. I assumed that the fake sugars had given me a stomachache, and went to bed.
The next morning, I woke up with a fever, and a sharp pain behind my eyes, a symptom characteristic of Dengue.
That day also happened to be International Women's Day. Men in Brazil show their appreciation by bringing their wives and daughters roses and chocolate. I got a Tylenol. And at this point, the little pill was worth its weight in gold.
Sunday night, my host family dragged me to the hospital kicking and screaming. I say it like that because my host brother literally had to drag me out of the house and into the car- I was still convinced that I had the flu, and if I gave it some time, the wrenching pain would go away on its own. That turned out to be wishful thinking.
Because I'm not a citizen of Brazil, and I don't have the same health insurance as my family, I had to go the public hospital (at this, Brazilians gasp; public?!).
In the waiting room, I watched as two barefoot, shirtless motorcyclists came in with wounds that could have been shark bites. They sat on a bench and bled on the dirty tile floor while waiting for their names to be called.
A middle-aged woman with a teenage girl in her arms ran in, screaming for help. The girl was unconscious, but the woman screamed about hemorrhaging, another characteristic of Dengue. Once someone vomits blood, it's a sign that the virus has progressed too far in the victim's body. Get in line, lady.
Around me sat men, women, and children, all with their heads against the wall, clutching their stomachs and rubbing their eyes. It was a sad scene. One look at all the sick people, vomiting into plastic bins, made me start thinking: maybe I should be wearing a mask...
One by one, people were admitted inside to be treated. Finally, my turn came. As I opened up the door, I was surprised by how crowded it was. Gurneys lined the walls with more patients, from grown men to toddlers, all with the same Dengue symptoms. There didn't seem to be any order in the place- there certainly wasn't enough space. I took one more look around the room. Hm.. no magazines.
I was taken to the special Dengue station. There I received an injection and a blood test. For the next few hours, I sat alongside my Dengue ridden brethren and waited for my fever to break.
The fever disappeared after one night, but the overall feeling of "yuck" stuck around for about a week. The upside was that I missed school. The downside was that I couldn't eat, sleep, keep my eyes open, or leave the house for eight days. By the time I felt better, I had lost a lot of weight.
Along with the virus came flowers, cards, and a myriad of "get well soon" emails from friends here in Brazil. From everyone else, a simple "I told you so. Next time wear repellent." Sufficed!
But to be honest, the latter proved much more efficient. The next time I so much as step outside the house after five o'clock at night, you can be sure that I'll be wearing so much bug spray that I'll have to peel it off by the end of the night."

That is only one thing that happened to me in the past few weeks.
I made the decision to switch families a few weeks ago. I know, I know. They were the perfect host family. But my host sister was just.. well, she was a piece of work. One of her little nicknames is "Psycho". In short, she made my experience with my 2nd host family very trying. She came close to making it really bad for me. But that boost of confidence that comes with being on your own in a foreign country really helped me pull through; I got out of that bad situation and into a third host family.
My new family seems great. Today's Wednesday and I moved here Monday night. And while I miss my 2nd host mom, dad, and brother terribly, I feel like I have a good shot here. We live in an apartment. I have a 12 year old brother and an 18 year sister with whom I share a room. She's really cool, her name's Flora. Both my parents are psychologists.
The great thing is that they don't at all smother me with attention, as too many host families do with a new exchange student. They treat me like a student that's lived here for months already. They don't give me too much attention. And that, I think, is the key to avoiding a jealous host sibling, like I had with "Psycho".
Don't worry, Brazilians don't read this blog.
I have so much more to write, more pictures to post, more stories to tell. But I'm off to meet a friend! I'm going to UESC today, with a friend from my church. UESC is the public university in Ilheus that's freaky hard to get into, and has the only library for.. many a mile.

Zoe

Yuck Yuck Yuck.

2009-02-24T15:04:00.000-08:00

I went to a funeral on Monday. It was held for a little boy, son of one of my host dad's employees. João was four years old, and liked songs about the rain. He died that Monday morning, all because of a tiny mosquito bite.
Dengue fever, the disease that killed the little boy whose funeral I attended, was first coined in 1789 by Philadelphian Benjamin Rush, but it had first been recorded in a Chinese medical encyclopedia from the Chin Dynasty (265- 420 AD). The book referred to it as a "water poison", associated with flying insects.
Dengue, also known as "breakbone fever" for its symptoms of severe joint pain, is found mostly in tropical regions. It is transmitted to humans by the mosquito Aedes Aegypti, easily identifiable by its black and white stripes. A Dengue victim suffers from a high fever, sharp pain behind the eyes, headache, joint pains, weakness, nausea and vomiting, a slowed heart rate, and, if not treated properly, death.
The first epidemics occurred at around the same time in Asia, Africa, and North America in the 1780s. A pandemic started in Southeast Asia in the 1950s, and by 1975, Dengue had become a leading cause of death among children in the area.
In Brazil specifically, Dengue has been the leading news story for weeks. Summer is ending, and Brazil is receiving a lot of rain, so the mosquitos are making themselves at home right here in our houses; on the roofs where we store water, in the gardens, in the puddles on the street.
Itabuna's situation is grave. It ranks as city with the most infected mosquitos in Bahia. This year alone has seen one thousand reported cases. Last Tuesday the 17th, mayor Azevedo declared Itabuna in a state of emergency.
Last Thursday, Azevedo began taking action in the war against Dengue by sending five trucks around the city. The trucks are armed with insecticide designed to kill the Aedes Aegypt in its adult phase.
He asks that residents open their windows and doors as the trucks pass, so as to better circulate the smoke.
The population is also asked to help the situation by keeping their houses and roofs clean, and remove flower pots, trash cans, swimming pools, anything that might prove a hospitable environment for such a deadly little bug.

news

2009-01-30T06:11:00.000-08:00

lots of it
on January 10th, I flew from Ilheus to Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo, where I spent 10 days with Tatiana, a Brazilian girl that spent a year with my family in Colorado for her exchange.
I was thrilled to leave Itabuna and see Tati for the first time in two years- but it also meant saying goodbye to Gean, Marcell, and Song. Song returned to Thailand a few days after I left, Marcell went back to college the day after, and Gean's vacation ended and he went back home to São Paolo.
Luan went with Marcell to take a test for school, and he still hasn't come back yet. So I haven't seen these guys for three weeks..!

Marcell, Gean, me, and Luan on our last day

São Paulo was.. amazing. It was so great to see Tati, and her mom Cintia, and to meet her dog, Sushi. Also her boyfriend Pedro, and her stepfather and stepbrother, her brother and his girlfriend, and her father and stepmother.
And all of her friends, too.
Plus, São Paulo was so huge. It's the capital of the Brazilian state of São Paulo, and the biggest city in South America with a population of 11,105,249.
Tati lived in a part of town called Moema. It was very nice- it looked to me like Washington DC. Very clean, sunny, tall white sky scrapers, lots of restaurants and cafes speckled in between all those apartment buildings.

me on Tati's balcony

The first full day, we went to a giant bookstore- Itabuna doesn't have any bookstores (or even a library), so I was especially excited to see it. They had writers from every country, in every language. Freakin' awesome.

That night we went to the movies to see "Se Eu Fosse Voce 2", the sequel to a Brazilian comedy that Tati brought when she was an exchange student in the USA. It was weird being able to understand it, after needing subtitles when I saw the first one. Awesome, though.

São Paulo movie seats were rainbow colors!!

The next day we saw the giant football (and by that I mean soccer) stadium, where legendary football games have taken place.

Carvalho is a really common name in Brazil

where it all goes down

outside the stadium

We visited Tati's old school (she just graduated, and got accepted into a really good college. Her classes start on Feb. 1). It's a really old traditional Italian school. Apparently it kicks your ass.
The next day I got my hair chopped off (and thank god, it's so hot in Itabuna that it used to stick to my neck like a dead animal). And Tati, Pedro, and I took the subway to Liberdade, a district in São Paulo that is the equivalent of the USA's Japantown.
Liberdade, named because the Japanese immigrated there for freedom from feudal Japan, is home to the largest population of Japanese in the world outside of Japan. It also has a large population of Chinese and Koreans.

the streets of Liberdade are decorated with Japanese red lamps. Liberdade underwent restoration to prepare for a visit from Japanese Prince Naruhito to São Paulo in June 2008.

on the bridge in Liberdade

Rotary influence!

The next day we went to the Parque do Ibirapuera, a Central Park of sorts right in the heart of São Paulo. It was inaugurated in 1954 for the 400th anniversary of the city, and covers 2 square kilometers.

Tati, me, and Sushi in front of an obelisk symbolizing the constitutionalist revolution of 1932

the awesome theater

Cintia and Sushi resting

Tati and her baby

We spent friday and saturday night hanging with Tati's and Pedro's friends. They're all really great people.

Me, Tati, and Bruna, Tati's best friend

me and tati

I came back to Ilheus on the 19th, but didn't even get to come home to Itabuna- my parents picked me up at the airport packed and ready for yet another road trip- this time to Salvador, a six hour drive! I'll write more when I can. And just you wait, I have a lot more to write.

New Years

2009-01-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

And I thought Christmas was a big deal.
I've never seen people make such a big fuss on New Year's Eve! We took the bus to the beach house on the 31st- Marcel, Luan, Gean (cousin from Sao Paolo), me, and Ella, who was invited along for the weekend.
The first thing we did was hop in the swimming pool. And we stayed there for around five hours, until we ate lunch.
Lunch is the big meal in Brazil, I think I already wrote all about that.

Macell, Ella, me, and Gean (jay-on) by the pool

The rest of the time, we spent on the BEACH!
Have I mentioned how cool it is that my host family has a beach house?

Luan, me, and Ella at the beach

our second band photo

The room where we all stored our stuff had a ton of chalk on the walls.. and thus, we prepared for war..

David (visiting from Illinois) and his Brazilian girlfriend, Andresa

That night, all the women got all dolled up- and all the men put on white t-shirts. All the women put on white dresses, makeup, hair, frilly shoes- and the men put on white t-shirts.
Carol, the blonde cousin from Sao Paolo, did my hair. Ella did my makeup. Fun times.

Gean, Rafael, Carol, Ella, and me on New Year's Eve

Brazilians wear white on New Year's Eve to symbolize peace for the coming year. But some people just have to be different- Carol wore blue for zen, and Sandra wore green for.. luck, was it?
As the night commenced, the girls walked out to the road and found a big truck blasting happy Brazilian music. They taught me and Ella to dance Arrocha, a dance special to Brazil. You shake your butt around in circles. It was hard to start off, but once I got the hang of it, it was really fun!
At midnight, the whole family (I mean to say all 70 of us) took a stroll and joined hundreds of other white clad families on the beach. We stood in a huge circle, and holding hands, sang and chanted in prayer.
Suddenly someone started counting down from ten- dez, nove, oite, sete, seis, cinco, quatro, tres, dois, UM!
The whole family leapt into the air, hugged everybody they saw. The kids started

Rafael, luan, and me on the beach

Ella, Sandra, Paolo, and me

Ella and me, and Rafael snuck in last second

Ella, Luan, me, and Ty- Ty's a little cousin. The day I met him he was sitting in the kitchen munching on something, and I was doing the dishes (Brazilians don't have dishwashers). Luan came in and said something obnoxious, I said something obnoxious right back, and it resulted in a dish soap war. Ty loves bringing this up.
Once the clock struck midnight, he chased me around on the sand, screaming his little Brazilian head off. He's a cute kid.

Ty, me, Gean, and Ella

The family getting ready to celebrate

When we made it back to the beach house, food was late for us. Tasty Brazilian new year's eve food.

Afterwards we had a secret santa kind of thing- white elephant. Everyone in the end received a joke present. But one uncle had a ceramic piggy bank, and with every turn someone took, he would pop twenty more reais into the pig. By the time someone won it, it was stuffed with two thousand, two hundred reais- that's over a thousand dollars!

We drove back home to Itabuna the next day, seven people sitting in the backseat of the truck that was built for three. It was crazy.
But the weekend was so much fun, I really do love it here.

Goings On

2008-12-29T07:27:00.000-08:00

Since I last wrote, Luan finally uploaded all the pictures from his cellphone to the computer. So, here are a few:

once upon a time at an interact meeting
Hellen's front row center, holding the Interact T-shirt
Kyle's and Sven's heads are poking out in the back, behind mine

at Itacare- Hellen, Luan, me, and Kyle
Everyone thinks it looks like a band photo. So we joke that Hellen's on keyboard, Luan is base, I'm vocals and guitar, and Kyle is drummer (damn, I wanted to be drummer!).

Me wearing Sven's ridiculously large rain jacket

Also, I spent Christmas with my host family! Brazilians celebrate on Christmas Eve. So, all dolled up (dress and makeup and such), I went with Sandra, Paolo, Marcell, Luan, and Breno to the grandparents' apartment on the other side of Itabuna- and joined in with 60+ family members from all corners of Brazil.
No joke. The place was crowded. I imagine if you brought together every Thrumston in the history of Thrumstons, there still wouldn't be as many as there were Carvalhos on Christmas Eve 2008.
Brazilians, with their huge Catholic families, don't do gift giving the same way Americans do either. They do a simple secret santa- everyone has an assigned person to buy one present for. In turn, supposedly, they receive one present from their secret friend, or "amigo secreto".
I made Caro, a cousin from Sao Paolo, a scarf, and Sandra threw in some soap perfume lotiony thing from Victoria's Secret.
I received some Christmas bars of soap from Chris, another cousin from Sao Paolo.
I also made Sandra a scarf (she loves it.. ahem), I gave a book to Luan, made a scarf for Hellen, and gave a calendar to Paolo.
I received some more Christmas soap from my host mom. Huzzah for the spirit of giving!

me and a cousin.. whose name is (ready?) Dorris Day.

The Carvalho Brazilian christmas tree

Dorris' mom with baby Anton (not her baby, but the only one in the whole family, so he gets passed around and doted over)

Carol, my "amiga secreta", e Rafael, her fiancee
they're getting married in April. They just had a wedding shower at the beach house yesterday. Lots of food and party games and such. In one of them, Rafael and Carol had to dress up in each other's clothes.. it was some pretty crazy shit.

Tasty Brazilian food

DISCULPA DE NOVO

2008-12-16T05:04:00.000-08:00

Hello, lovely blog.
I just found out that I have a follower! Count 'em! One!
But now I feel guilty that I haven't written for said follower since I moved to my new host family. Well, I've been doing the same things; reading and writing, hanging out with the Brazilians.. ect. ect.
I also got involved in the music program at David and Fatima's church; I have permission to practice piano/voice there whenever I want. I joined the choir there, and this Thursday is a recital- people are also performing solos. I'm going to be singing the Queen of the Night aria from Mozart's the Magic Flute.
Hells yeah. Anyway, a lot of major events have happened since I last wrote. I'll just take you through them:

Major Life Changing Event Number 1:

In November, shortly before the school year finished up, I attended an Anime Convention!!!!!! I'd always wanted to go to one of these events. It takes place every year right here in Itabuna. I met Hellen and Guilherme, another friend from school, and together we plunged into the great abyss of anime geeks and manga addicts.
It was one of those lifelong experiences that you absolutely never forget. There were games, music, food, one of those dance pad things, a 'Mangateca' (manga biblioteca), and KARAOKE. That's right. I didn't join in the fun, but Hellen spent most of her time singing the greatest hits from Naruto and Bleach.
But I must say, the most trippy aspect of this whole day had to have been the costumes. My group wasn't dressed up, but we got to witness a lot of people in the anime crowd who took their business very seriously.

Ruffy, from One Piece (Hellen's favorite Anime. I swear she was frothing at the mouth when she saw how many One Piece fans were here)

Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi, which I never really considered an anime as it aired on Cartoon Network when we were kids..

Rukia, from Bleach, and "Chubby Kid from Naruto (whose name I don't remember)"

Me and Hellen with Ulqiorra, from Bleach!!!!!!!!!
I know you're just jealous.

Me and Guilherme with sweet Bleach masks

Major Life Changing Event Number 2:

School got out for summer vacation in the middle of November. The last two days were spent partying in class. Remember in elementary school, when school got out for winter break, every kid was responsible for bringing something to eat? And then the class would go wild, singing and dancing and chowing down?
That's what Brazilian school is like. An elementary school winter break party. My class spent two days dancing to Brazilian versions of American music (instead of Rihanna's "Umbrella Ella Ella" it's "Amo, amo voce e" which means I love love you oo). We also have a strangely upbeat version of "Big Girls Don't Cry", and some James Blunt song that I would prefer not to remember.

Here's an attractive photo of yours truly on the last day of school (see? my hair's growing!):

Evellyn left yesterday for a mini exchange in Vancouver. She'll be studying the English language there until February, when the new school year starts. I miss her terribly.

Major Life Changing Event Number 3:

In the middle of November, the time came to switch to our second host families. All three exchange students in Itabuna were both excited, morose, anxious, and absolutely terrified. I came to love David and Fatima like my own family, and even though I definitely had my differences with them, we bonded; I really do miss living with them.
This is a picture of the flag that they met me at the airport with. I left it at my old host family's house because there isn't much of a way I can take it home with me.
Bem Vinda means Welcome.

The drive to my new host family (Luan and Hellen, and their parents, Paolo and Sandra Carvalho)'s house was at night. And driving through the center of the town that I had grown so familiar with, it felt like I was arriving in Itabuna for the first time; like I had only landed in Brazil a few hours ago, and my exchange year was just beginning. And that's when I got nausious and nervous and overcome with the familiar dread of "what if they don't like me?"
But we got to their house and I got to my room (I thought I would be sharing a room with Hellen, but this entire time, Luan had been secretly preparing a room on the third story of the house- the roof, so Hellen kept her room and I took Luan's old room while Luan managed to successfully isolate himself from the rest of the family XD), and I saw that they had adorned my room with a welcome sign, flowers (I love flowers), a big American flag, and a huge Brazilian one.

The American flag hangs over the window, and the Brazilian flag takes up the entire wall.

Sorry, I can't figure out how to rotate pictures on the family computer.

Life in the Carvalho house is pretty crazy. There's always something going on. Hellen works in the morning with her dad at his workplace, and Sandra goes to her elementary school in the mornings and the afternoons (she teaches a third grade class).
I'm the fifth exchange student this family has had. They've hosted a Swedish girl named Senna that Hellen absolutely adored (Senna this, Senna that), a Mexican girl that I've heard almost nothing about (apparently she didn't want to learn Portuguese and didn't bond very well with the family), an American kid from Illinois named David that has come back to visit them many times, and of course, Kyle.
Luan and Hellen also have an older brother, Marcel, who goes to university in Sao Paolo. They talk about him all the time.

People are always over at our house. Friends of Hellen, friends of Luan, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, Kyle..
Breno, a cousin from Salvador, has been staying with us since only a week after I got here. He's cool. He's been spending his days watching Naruto downstairs on the couch, in front of the enormous big screen TV that I still can't figure out how to turn on.

These are a few kids from our class, along with Song, a Thai exchange student that has befriended Hellen. She spends most of her days here watching anime with Hellen and Breno. I try to take part, but then my brain starts to melt out of my ears a little bit and I have to get up and read a book.

Song has a stuffed elephant.

Wubba makes a friend

I wasn't exagerating though, about how much family this family has. Right now it's 6 people living in this house (Breno is sharing Hellen's room). But Marcel is coming home on Thursday, and David is coming to visit on the 24th, and they say that Senna is coming to visit in January.
Breno's parents, Sandra's sister, is coming for Christmas as well, and Paolo's family is going to be spending their days at our house, too.
Hellen and I counted it up, and I forget the exact number, but by christmas, there will be more than ten people sleeping in this house! And that number doesn't count how many people will be here during the day.
I can't imagine how my host family manages to pull this off every year- 6 people is enough! This is a picture of weekly groceries as it is:

If this is what it takes to feed six people, what will it take to feed 10+?
This is bound to be the most exciting Christmas I've ever had. I'm thrilled to be a part of it, and I can't wait to see Brazilian and Carvalho traditions in action.

Ate Mais,
Zoe

SORRY OK?

2008-11-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

You know, exchange is a busy time. I'm busy. I don't have time to write on my blog every single day, or even every single week! I have a life to live, here! Geez, people. :P

But to feed the dogs: since the Rotary Forum, my days have been kept busy. Obama got elected (thank Krishna); the cause of much celebration in my own classroom. It was 2 in the morning here when I found out, and I didn't get much sleep the rest of the night either. The following day at school was spent hugging, screaming, jumping, and a little crying. :)
I've been going to the beach more than ever before. Kallellan (Kyle, Hellen, Luan) have a beach house in Ilheus. Last weekend they invited me to go with them. It was a great time. I forgot my camera, though, so no pictures!
Ella, my German friend, also has a beach house in Ilheus, and her family invited me to go there about two weeks ago for the day. It was lovely.

Yay for blue eyes :P

Aguaviva- Jellyfish!

um. what is this called..?
"Sand Water Creature"
We named him Ricky.

swing set :3

Bad ass on a swing set :3

The inevitable swimsuit photo XD

This weekend, I've been told that Kallellan are going to the beach house again, but I'm not sure I should go. It's Kyle's last weekend with his host family (we're all switching host families on November 17- I'm going to live with Kyle's family, Kyle is going to live with our counselor, Noquniha, and Svenskie is coming to live with my current family. Good luck to him). And besides, I hear there's an anime convention this Saturday here in Itabuna..! That means Japanese Manga in Portuguese. I'm psyched. :P
I'll try to update soon, I promise! I have a billion things I want to write on here, when I find the time.

Until then,
Zoe

Mathilde's Photos

2008-10-18T06:07:00.000-07:00

yep, I'm still on the Forum weekend. These are some of Mathilde's Photos.

that's sofie, a genuine crazy dane

Let's see, a general update, then? Nothing much has been going on. A few days ago, the three of us were invited to a Language Camp in Ilheus for a weekend. We never really wanted to go, as it was an English Language Camp, but it was in a nice looking hotel on the beach, and we had nothing else to do that weekend, so we signed up. Yesterday, however, we learned that Interact is going to volunteer at a hospital. So we made our way back to the language people and begged for a refund. It worked :)
I've been hanging out with Ella recently, too. She's a german exchange student with YFU. I can't tell you how good it is to hang out with a girl again. I love kyle and luan and (sometimes.. jk) sven like they're my brothers, but they're just that. Guys. And mature as I can get, I still need to hang out with girls, I really do. It's refreshing to be with my own kind again.
This weekend, I am intent on finishing Harry Potter 2 in Portuguese (I've been on it for.. two weeks? It's hard in another language, don't judge!), and I just bought a new journal, so I'll start on that too.
There's the update for ya. I'll write more when I have something to write about.

whoops

2008-10-16T08:54:00.001-07:00

I read on Madisyn's blog that yesterday was Dia dos Professores, Teacher's Day. Happy teacher's day, mom and dad! :3

2 Month Anniversary

2008-10-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

Congrats to me. To celebrate, I went to the pharmacy downtown that has one of those scale things (we don't have one in our house) and weighed myself.
I have gained 5 pounds. Don't worry, I don't care at all. I actually thought I would have gained more, Brazilian food is tasty!
Now, don't be surprised, exchange students always say they gain weight on exchange. We'll just see where the rest of the year takes me, ok? :P

Sandra's Photos

2008-10-15T06:49:00.000-07:00

just some more of the party :)
sandra's an awesome german girl.
Alemanzinha :P

Capri's Photos

2008-10-13T16:38:00.000-07:00

these are some of Capri's photos of this weekend.

This is when they announced that next year's big forum is going to be in Itauna! The crazy one is sven. I think he was frothing at the mouth.

pin exchange

we-are-so-cool. and you know it. :P

head start on photos

2008-10-13T06:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend was great! All the Interact clubs met up in Salvador for a couple days for a forum. This meant that all the exchange students got to see each other again :)
I didn't take a single photo this whole weekend, but everyone else did, so I'm going to post everyone else's photos in increments. Here are some of Ivy (taiwan)'s photos. She got some good ones :)

we spent a lot of time in this room listening to lectures and just hanging out.

someone brought an american flag this time! yes!
I'm the one in the middle with the viking hat.

brazilian candy

the last night was a really-weird-clothing party. It had an actual theme to it, but I was never quite sure what it was. fun times, though.

before the party, I taught the girls some yoga.. they asked for it! I was nervous, I had never taught anyone before. But it was a lot of fun, and they liked it too :)
I had no idea that Ivy was taking photos of this, though, I fell out of my seat when I saw them on her Orkut (brazilian facebook) a few minutes ago!!!

left to right, Marieke (germany), Sherise (miami), Capri (bermuda), and Madisyn (oregon)

rocking out with the danish flag
marieke, mathilde (dane), me, Ivy, Sven, Sofie (dane), madisyn, and Kelsey (iowa)

XD

crazy danes!

By the way all of these photos are out of order. We were there for three days, and these photos are going to be scrambled. for fun. exercise your brains, people. I was doing it all weekend, learning german, refreshing my danish, always working on portuguese, of course, and trying to keep my english intact as well.. it's harder than you think! :P
that's it for Ivy's photos.. when others post their pictures on orkut or facebook, I'll be sure to get them on here in another post :)

Pictures from Itacare

2008-10-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

I know it's about a week and half late, sorry about that!
Here are some really out of ordcr pictures from our trip to Itacare last week.

Carol and her mom had taken in a stray cat and her kitten :3

dead coconut

me and carol

yummm :3

random thought that has nothing to do with my exchange

2008-09-30T08:33:00.000-07:00

someone told me a few days ago that I can't make a difference in the world.
I'd just like to say that I can, and I will.
so there.

In Itacare

2008-09-27T07:44:00.001-07:00

We have been in Itacare for two days, now, and I still cannot figure out how to write apostrophes on Brazilian keyboards.
Itacare is beautiful. I had been here before, for the day with Kyle and his family, but this weekend I can see what living here is like. The streets look old, worn down, and poor, but they have this magical rustic quality that makes them seem rich with character. Houses are so colorful, even the church a few blocks away is bright blue.
But also, when I see people walking down the street, they have this stride that makes them look content. In the US and Europe, when people are barely making it, they look depressed. Probably because they are. They might resent their country, maybe blame it for getting them in their situation to begin with. But Brazilians are so culture proud. Even if they are poor, you see them walking down the street and they look happy! I cannot understand why. Maybe it is because the sun never goes out in Brazil, or that the coconuts and mangos and bananas have magical antideppressant properties. Who knows. It is nice, though, to be in a country where you see happy people wherever you go. Not very common for such a divided country as the USA. I think the rest of the world could learn a lot from the Brazilians.
We have been taken in for 4 days by Carolina, a Brazilian girl who went to Germany last year on exchange. I have been sleeping in her room. Three huge German flags are hung on the wall, German beer bottles are proudly displayed on shelves, a collection of plates from major cities in Europe sit on another shelf, and a big Brazilian flag signed by other exchange students watches over everything.
I am not able to post pictures, since I am using another computer and I do not want to upload my photos to it, but we (unfortunately) return to Itabuna on Sunday (domingo) or Monday (segunda feira), and I will tell you about our weekend in further detail then!

Sorry about this apostrophe thing, I know it is annoying.
Love,
Zoe

Porto Seguro

2008-09-24T05:52:00.000-07:00

Starting a week ago, I contracted the flu and was horribly sick. Friday, I planned to stay
in and get better, but mid afternoon, I got a call from Kyle's family and was invited to Porto Seguro for the weekend.
That's the thing about being on exchange, you can't just plan to do nothing. It doesn't work like that. There's always something going on, whether you like it or not.
The other thing about being on exchange is that you can never say "no". If someone invites you somewhere, you say YES. "Yes, I would love to go to a vacation resort with you for the weekend", or "Yes, I will gladly stand in line at the bank with you". There's no difference. If you say no, you'll never get the chance to say yes again. Take that to heart, future exchange students!
I climbed into the back of the truck, 4 people to three seats, and we drove three hours to Porto Seguro, the oldest city in Brazil.
Porto Seguro is the site where Portuguese Pedro Alvares Cabral "discovered" Latin America while making his way to the East Indies on April 22, 1500. Here they built the first church in Brazil, which still stands open to the public.
The first night, we walked around downtown looking at all the touristy stores. Porto Seguro is a major tourist destination, so there were a lot of foreigners. It's also a great beach town where Southern Brazilians come up to party and such.

The Porto Seguro Library

Brazilian flowers outside of our hotel

Kyle's host parents took us to a lot of really touristy points. The first one we stopped at, I was speechless for a few minutes. Really, I had never seen anything like it. Giant statues of naked Indians opposite giant statues of Portuguese colonists planting a cross. The Indians looked primitive and helpless, while the Portugese looked like you would expect- white colonists coming in and making things their own in the name of God.

I was shocked. I always knew that in the US, at least, people had thought this way about Native Americans for as long as America has been around. And these statues, although I doubt they were there for this purpose, looked to me as if they were mocking the Indian people of Brazil. But the Indians that we saw (Porto Seguro is where most of the Bahia Indians live) were participating in this industry as much as the other Brazilians were. Kids were walking around in traditional costume selling jewelery, women were standing in booths ready to pose for pictures.
The US has treated its Native Americans no better. But they've always kind of dealt with it in the shadows, denying what they really did. While our textbooks sort of explain what happened to the Indians that met Columbus and his men, they stop there. There isn't a huge tourist industry revolving around the few Indians left. And in Brazil (I have no idea how Brazilian textbooks explain the colonization of Latin America by the Portuguese), it felt to me like they were exploiting Indian culture.
I'm not judging Brazil, everyone knows that I have great respect for this country. But visiting these tourist traps, I felt guilty. I've always felt guilty about the US' Native American history, but this pretty much summed it up for me. If the Portuguese hadn't colonized the way they did, there might still be 4 million Indians left in Brazil, instead of just 300,000.
Every story I hear or read comes from a non-Indian Brazilian (biased or not), which makes me wonder what the Brazilian Indians have to say about it, are they at all resentful towards Brazil, as many Native Americans are towards the USA.
But I think there's a point where you just have to recognize that Colonization was (is) a horrible thing, and that in this case, all you should really do is be sensitive about it and prevent it from happening again.

me and a real Indian!

Later we went to the beach and saw the point where the Portuguese landed, marked by a big cross.
We have some great photos of this memorial, but they're all on Kyle's camera.. I'll get them for you later, don't worry.

Big Brazilian Cross

Then we went to the oldest church in Brazil. Catholic.
Like the English colonists of North America, the Portuguese converted many Brazilian Indians to Catholicism, and here were more Indians selling things, posing for pictures, ect.

pretty brazilian coast!!

a dream catcher

Brazilian Indians
The taller little girl was looking at my hair, I think. I smiled at her and she grinned and didn't stop smiling until we left. cute.

And the entire weekend, I was in awe of this family's generosity! I'm not even their exchange student yet, and they've taken me with them on two trips already. They're so nice and friendly, it's beyond me how one family can be so generous. :)
So if you're reading this, OBRIGADA!!

.. and yes, I do have photos of me in Indian wear, but no, they are not going on the internet.
.. ever.

awesome awesome news

2008-09-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

ok first, today is Nicole's (american nicole) birthday! hurrah!
and second, we got a new portuguese teacher! I liked our old one, too, but I wasn't learning much :/ and the new teacher seems like he might.. teach. go figure.

Well, I'll start on Tuesday, because nothing happened on Monday.
After I wrote the last entry, I met Sven at the Centro Cultural and there we waited for Kyle and Nokinha.
We sat in on a Judo Jitsu Samurai kinda thing (Sven takes Judo in germany- if he finds out I didn't remember the name of this class we saw, he'd be pissed). It was interesting, but I definitely don't want to do it. It's not even Brazilian... so I'm not going.. ever again..

It was actually pretty fun to watch. The teacher (or, sifu??) taught the students a new technique, and spent the rest of the class using it against them.
After watching one guy getting paid to beat up a bunch of kids, we went to Nokinha's apartment. Kyle's going to live there, so he was happy to see it. He lives on a really high floor of the building.

a really awesome moon that night

page separator page separator page separator page separator :3

Wednesday I walked to Kyle's house and hung out there, we wanted to watch Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon (it's on the list, people, check it out), but we ended up watching The Kingdom with Jennifer Garner. It was alright. Not good enough for the list.

OK, ok, I thought this was cute- luan and sven are wearing the white socks cause they're the athletic ones, and I'm not wearing anything cause I'm the hippie one (I'm not but this label has followed me to Brazil. I know, I know), and Kyle's wearing black socks because he's the emo one...? He would kill me if he saw this.

That night when Hellen's mom came home, I approached her and gave her the mini speech that I had been practicing for a solid five minutes in my head on the way there. I had been daydreaming about living with this family ever since I saw how freakin awesome they are, and I got the courage to ask Nokinha about it on Tuesday. And to my surprise, he said it was no problem with him! All I had to do was convince the family.. I was so nervous to ask them, but they said that fine, they'll put up with me for a few months.
I'm so happy, my best friends are going to be my siblings :)

And today.. nothing's happening either. I'm having the worst cramps, so I think I'll stay in and watch CNN...? maybe?
aww don't judge. What are you doing today? huh? studying? working? Yeah, I know you are. in your face.

just kidding, I love you all! :)
By the way, feel free to write any comments or questions you have below, and one of these days I'll get around to answering them!

One Month

2008-09-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

Today is my one month anniversary! I've been eating strange food and stuttering a different language since August 16. And today, September 16, I celebrate!

Alright, that's a lie. I didn't celebrate. Today was just as normal as every other day. It isn't bad, I'm actually enjoying these normal days. I'm learning a lot of portuguese :)
The only interesting thing that has happened lately is on saturday night I fell asleep on Hellen and Luans' couch and woke up with like, 15 mosquito bites on my right foot.
No other part of my body was bitten though, tricky bastards.

Today I'm going over to the Centro Cultural (sort of like the YMCA) to sign up for a capoeira class with sven and kyle, and tomorrow we finally start portuguese class again with our new teacher. Friday I think we're all going to Itacare again, and all next week my class has vacation again.
I'm so sorry this is so boring for you to read, I really am!

Really though, writing in english just feels strange to me. Words aren't coming as easily to me anymore, and I end up forming sentences wrong all the time. It's pretty funny.
I'm definitely going to fail senior english! :P

2nd Week of September

2008-09-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

This week started off okay. Every friday we have these interact meetings, with all the rotary people I know, and last friday we went to Ilheus to the yacht club. They pronounce it yachee clubee. pretty funny :P

waaater

the yachee clubee

That friday, I went with Hellen and Kyle and Luan's family to Itacare, a beach a few hours away. It was the most beautiful beach I've ever seen in my life, the water was perfectly clear, and the sand was so white and clean that it made little squeaky sounds when you walked on it the right way. Apparently Bahia has the beaches in the whole country. oh yeah, I scored.

Hellen with a coconut

When you're finished drinking out of it, they come and cut it in half, and you scoop out the coconut meat inside. It was weird.. I didn't much care for it.

So that was saturday.. or no, it was sunday. Yep definitely sunday, because my family was at church all day, and Sven had to go that night and I felt bad that I couldn't be there to keep him company. well I mean as bad as I could feel, we're talking church here.
But that monday, when I went to portuguese class, Nokinha (our counselor) was there, and told us some bad news, that our portuguese teacher (forget his name, he's a university student) had to quit because teaching us portuguese was too much stress on his soul.
he said he needed to study more. right. :P
So that night instead of having class, we went to get Acai, which is this berry smoothie energy thing that's delicious but also turns your lips blue.
it's not embarrassing or anything.

it comes with granola and banana stuff

Acai Point
The point at which to buy Acai

And the week went downhill from the berry energy smoothie things. The whole week the FEZs didn't have class (if people don't get that reference I'll be heartbroken) because our school had exams. It resulted in me being bored and homesick all week. On the bright side, though, I knitted two scarves in four days. It's a record.
But wait, there's more! Wednesday, Nokinha informed us that Jasmine was being sent home!! Which really really really sucks. Before, it was two girls and two guys, the perfect combination of exchange student POWER. But now I'm the only girl in Rotary, a primarily male organization. I mean a few nights ago we all went to a Rotary meeting, and I looked around, and there was one woman other than me in the room. Out of maybe 40 men, one woman. Don't get me wrong, I love Rotary with all my heart and appreciate what they've given me, but I do feel awkward around so many men without any women there. So it feels really weird without Jasmine there with me.
Anyway, a bunch of us gathered at her house that night to say goodbye. Jasmine was booked on a flight the very next day out of Ilheus.

Jasmine's dad has some crazy artwork in their house

I love this picture :P

All of us with Chadalla, Jasmine's sister's yappy little dog.

All 4 of us together for the last time :(

Thursday, Fatima (host mom) and I drove to the city where my Dad has been for the past month to see his project.
My host dad, David, is a physical therapist/candidate for mayor. He's building a new physical therapy center in a town about 45 minutes from Itabuna.

the not finished physical therapy place
fatima is standing there watching the constructionizers

constructionizin'

And now, for some random moments of excitement during my week:

there was a lizard climbing around on the wall of my house the other day.
I named it Iggy before my mom shooed it out of the door with a broomstick.

someone just left this cart hanging around the supermarket..

Disclaimer: we did not drink any of it!

sven with a parrot

I don't know what's going to happen next week. School finally starts again on Monday, that'll be a relief. Tuesday will be my one month anniversary.. it would've been Jasmine's too. :(
Nokinha was talking about going to Itacare again next weekend, too. Nothing's for certain, but that would be cool.
I don't know.
Life is starting to get boring again. It's kind of a relief, but at the same time I have this anxious feeling all the time, like I'm waiting for something and it's late. I'm starting to get impatient with my Portuguese, too, it's not perfect and I want it to be.
But that can't be the only reason that I'm so worried. I've never been perfect at Portuguese, so it's not like I'm missing something.
It's as if I should be stressed about something, but I'm not, so I'm stressed about not being stressed.
....?
oh whatever, I'll get over it soon enough. I need to practice piano.

The week in photos

2008-09-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

These photos are from Sunday, August 31 to today, Friday Septemer 5.

Hellen has been spending the last week watching the US open. She won't even blink.
She stayed in this exact position for like, two and a half hours on tuesday. I love that girl :P

luan's doing the same thing
just not as much as hellen.
he stops to eat once in a while.

minha aulaaaa

Rafaela

Incense that I got on the street for like, a dollar. Buddha of Luck. :)

suerte= sorte

me and gustavo.. I don't have the patience to rotate the picture :)

This is one of the horses that carry stuff around town . It was 'parked' when I almost walked into it the other day..

There's this cat that hangs around our apartment, waiting for us to give her food. She's so sweet, and she's clean, so I usually say hello to her before going to school. Here she's eating some cake that my mom gave to her this morning :)
That's a neighbor in the picture, though, it's not my mom.

Indiana Motors.. a car dealership downtown!

good times :)

Last night, Svenski and I went to a rotary meeting. It was a formal one, a dinner with a bunch of rotarians :) One thing I love about hanging out with Sven is that we speak portuguese, even though he knows english.

Today, Fatima (my mom) drove me, Jasmine, and Kyle to Ilheus, a coastal city about an hour away, to Ilheus, a coastal city about an hour away, and spent the entire freaking day trying to get temporary ID cards for the city. We got them, but it took like four and half hours of sitting, waiting, walking across the street to two different federal buildings, and getting fingerprinted.
And tonight, we're all going to an evaluation thing. I guess they're just checking to make sure our family situations are ok. And mine is great, so no problems with me!

oh yeah, one more from last week that wilson wanted me to put up...

And I forgot to mention that 'McNellie's name was actually Macall. Like the bird. sorry about that!

Clumsy Week

2008-09-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had the hiccups all day? Or a bad hair day or something? Then maybe you know what I'm talking about when I say that I've had a clumsy week.
I fell down Kyle's marble staircase twice, I tripped on his table and fell flat on my face, I mistook Luan for Sven and jumped three feet off the piano bench when I saw him, I stumbled on potholes, cracks in the sidewalk, fences, slipped on the street, I almost walked into a lamp post. And that was all in two days.
Today I stumbled over desks, slipped on some more sidewalks, mistook Luan for Kyle and jumped three feet off the piano bench when I saw him, and almost walked into a horse. Yeah that's right. A horse. And as I was explaining all this to Kyle today on our way to a portuguese class, I was almost run over by a bicycle.
What am I going to do? I'm losing my natural poise!

Praia De Forte

2008-09-03T09:03:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the Rotary Orientation in Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia.
Friday night, Jasmine and I met Kyle, and our counselor, Noquina, at the Itabuna train station. Noquino gave us our tickets, but Sven (accompanied by another fez from Germany, hosted in another city) didn't show up until about five minutes later, so we missed our bus. I wasn't happy. It was 11 at night, and I knew that it was a 6 hour drive to Salvador, so I wanted to get going.
We were all just standing around waiting for something to happen when Willy, a brazilian kid, came rushing down the stairs and told us to hurry up- we rushed outside and saw Noquina in a panicked state. He grabbed our bags and threw them in the car, and pushed us in the back.
Brazilians drive crazy, I always knew that. But this was like nothing I had ever experienced, especially since I didn't even have my own seat at the time (jasmine's butt).. it was scary shit.
We sped down the street, dodging cars and pedestrians, and in a few minutes we passed a bus. Noquina took a sharp turn and parked in front of it, and the bus parked behind us, and the very annoyed bus driver opened up the doors for us.
Laughing, and so humiliated (sven especially, poor kid), we climbed on.
Basically the whole 6 hours was spent arguing with Kyle or sleeping on his shoulder.
I really hate it when people put down their seats to a maximum. It's like 'that's my lap that your giant chair is resting on, jackass'
*really boring, sorry! I'm getting somewhere with this, I promise!*
We arrived in Salvador the next morning, and met Kelsey, a girl from Iowa. Kelsey and I are the only Americans from the midwest.
And then we met some more Germans, some Danes (crazy danes!), a girl from Taiwan, some Canadians (they were hilarious), and a bunch more Americans.
The first day was basically hours and hours of orientation lecture that I fought very hard to stay awake through.

group photo of the exchange students and directors

Every couple hours, the main speaker would say 'ok... time for a fifteen minute break..' and we would all be too exhausted to get up immediately- so we would slink out of her seats and slowly make our way to the kitchen where there were cookies. But about 8 minutes later we would hear the same monotone voice, 'ok... time to come back..'
He was a good guy, though. I was just annoyed because only an hour ago had I gotten off a 7 hour bus trip in which I had barely slept.

Sven, me, and Canadian (?)
he's actually a really cool kid but I forget his name.. it was something weird, like McCaine or McNellie or something.
I don't know, it'll come to me at like four in the morning.

That night, we drove another hour on a bus to a hostel in Praia De Forte, a little town on the coast that was really really pretty :)

me and Mathilde (dane) rocking out in the hammock outside of our room

There, we went down to the beach. It wasn't cold, but it was really dark, so we didn't go in the water, but it was really fun. Lots of picture taking, crazy exchange students :P

that's all of us, Germany, the USA, canada, Denmark, and Taiwan.
Global friendship! :3

The next morning, we got up and went to the beach again, not to swim, but to a turtle conservation thing. preservation.. reservation.. I don't know. My english is getting so bad, it's not even funny. Tonight I couldn't remember the word 'compromise'. So if I come back to the US and end up playing a lot of charades just to get my point across, I'm really sorry guys.
Anyway I saw kittens. and turtles. Tropical baby turtles.

stray kitten!

sitting on a real plastic turtle

danes :)
they're my people

tortugas

baby turtles!
Duuuuude!

Later that day we went to the beach

sand
this was exciting for me, don't judge.

a coconut stand
For only a couple reias (very cheap), you can get a whole coconut with a straw coming out of it. The drink is just like sweetened water with a small coconut taste. It's kind of syrupy, but not in an unnatural way.

tasty leite de coco
I actually got mine in a plastic cup because it was cheaper and lighter, but Kelsey (Iowa) got hers from a coconut, and I thought you guys would appreciate this picture more.
See, I really do care.

*palm* tree hugger

We made our way to the shore, where we boarded a little boat and sped away to go whale watching! It was so much fun at first. It was the exchange students, a class of 10 year old Brazilian kids, and this one spanish couple on vacation.

Sven, Sofie (dane), and me at the front of the boat

the lovely girls that I hung out with on this trip...

and the plastic bags that I got seasick in.
it was good times.

But it wasn't so bad, I got to leave the boat first, with all the other sick people. It was basically me and a bunch of sick ten year olds.
And yes, we saw whales!! I didn't take any pictures, but if anyone else uploads them, I'll be sure to borrow *steal* them and show them to you, dear readers.

It was a really great weekend.
crazy patriotic germans and their flag. :P

That night, we all went our separate ways. Jasmine, Sven, Kyle, Leonie (I love that name, girl from Germany), Cami (Idaho), and Marieke (Germany) all boarded the same bus and spent the next 7 hours talking about music and eating cookies and watching V for Vendetta. The sound was in portuguese and I was too impatient to listen to it, so Sven was explaining the entire movie to us. I fell asleep though. I need to have him tell me the ending..

DISCULPA

2008-08-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

Disculpa means sorry. I say it a lot.
I haven't updated my blog in a long time! And I'm sorry! I've been busy! But here is the week in photos for you.

This is Wilson, and *another girl*, from school
He loves my camera

seriously, all day today he was using it.

All morning, I kept looking up, thinking I heard a bird call, coming from the air conditioner. I kept asking people if they heard it too, but they dismissed it for a bird sitting on the window.
But I knew.
So they finally did figure out that there was a tiny helpless brazilian bird caught inside the air conditioner, and rescued it. It was epic.

Also, today we had PE- which was a girl's arm wrestling competition in the classroom. I ended up competing for the championship of the classroom, but my opponent got really angry and scary, and I kept bending my wrist, so after two retries, I gave up and let her win.
Well, I shouldn't say that, I probably would have lost anyway. But at least I kept my honor. Anyway as soon as she put my arm down on the table, the whole class erupted in 'Brasil! Brasil!'. Kyle, behind me, said 'you failed your country.'

me and my scary opponent
she's actually a really nice girl, but I swear I saw fire in her eyes when arm wrestling.

I'm so glad I found someone with a piano- not only can I hang out with Kyle and Hellen and Luan, but I can practice as well :)
I finally found my way to their house the other day. I was walking downtown when I decided I wanted to hang out with them, so I called, and was basically told to find my own way. crazy deserters (is that even a word? my english is getting so bad..!).
I made it most of the way, and then got too lost. So I called again, and they said they would come out to meet me. As soon as I hung up with Sven (he was there too), there was something up with my cellphone. And, trying to figure out what was wrong with it, I suddenly felt someone come up and grab me from behind. I screamed (like I always do, but this time I really was terrified- my family keeps telling me about how there are dangerous men on the street that would like nothing more than to rape and murder me- this was it. This was my time. American exchange student found dead in Brazil. Rotary Youth Exchange students sent home. Brazil and the USA wage war. Devastation on both sides. Nuclear holocaust. Rotary International closed down. Aliens see turmoil on Earth and take advantage- Earth no more.)- turns out it was just Sven, Kyle, and Luan scaring the shit out of me.
I tripped on like, 9 potholes on the way back to their house, which, it turns out, was only like a hundred feet away from where I gave up.
Anyway Hellen was there, and later Jasmine showed up, we watched some brazilian soap opera about mutants (it was AWESOME), and I figured out how to play the soundtrack to Blood Diamond.

me and hellen

Luan and the piano that I've been working on (it reminds me WAY too much of my first piano.. sad memories)

Tonight, in about 20 minutes, me and my host mom are going to pick up Jasmine, and then we're meeting Sven, Kyle, and Noquina, our counselor, to take a 6 hour bus trip ride thing to Salvador, the capital of Bahia. There we'll have a weekend orientation. I'm excited to finally meet all the other exchange students that I've been talking with online for months!
I'll post everything when I get back, sunday night.

guys guys guys

2008-08-23T04:19:00.000-07:00

you know how I freak out if I don't practice piano for a long time? In Brazil, pianos are fucking hard to find. At least in my city. There's no piano in my school, none in the church that my family goes to, the only one I could find was in the Music School downtown, where I would have to pay 70 reias, about 50 dollars, to practice 3 times a week for an hour. Totally lame.
Well last night, I went to an Interact meeting. This takes place once a week, where all the inbounds, outbounds, and any other kids involved in exchange meet and hang out. There was official business for like five minutes, and then the president, a guy from my school, rang this little bell thing, and we all got up and talked, I met a few people, it was cool.
We all went to the mall (that's where everyone hangs out and eats outrageously expensive mcdonalds, ha) and hung out there, and I found that the older brother of my best friend from school (hellen), was an exchange student to Sweden a couple years ago!
Most everyone was speaking portuguese, Kyle and Jasmine were speaking english, Sven and a girl who was an exchange student to Germany were speaking German, so me and Hellen's brother were speaking swedish/danish.
Let me just say, I had no idea how much I had forgotten. It wasn't even complete Danish, it was like a mix of Danish and Portuguese and English. I would be like..
"Eu tagede toget til Sweden uma vez."
which means, in portuguese, danish, and english,

I took the train to Sweden one time.

That's messed up, I gotta say. But I've always had this problem..
Turns out he's in a band, and he plays the piano :3
Sven plays too, but he's not desperate to practice like I am. Anyway I said sometime I could play for him, hinting at the fact that I have no idea where I can practice. So I'm going running with Hellen sometime today, and I'm going to find out if I can come over and play for them. He said I can play there whenever I want!
Heh. :)
sorry, no pictures this time. I forgot my camera last night.

Random Tidbit of Culture, and an Insight into my Feelings

2008-08-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

I'm going all sufjan stevens on you with the long titles there.
Well I just finished my School Life post, and I walked out on the veranda for a bit of wind, and as the breeze swept over me, I looked down the five stories to the sidewalk, and saw two men in flip flops and cheap looking clothes walking down the street, both with big empty burlap sacks over their shoulders.
They walked to the front of my building and bent down in front- I leaned over the side of the balcony to see what they were up to. One of them bent down over some trashbags waiting for pick up, and ripped them open. He picked out the few recyclables (we don't have a recycling system here), put them into his sack, and followed his buddy down the street to the next house, and did the same thing.

my street

On the one hand, it's good that these men are picking out recyclables- I assume they're taking them to a recycle center to get money for cans and what not.
But on the other hand, I doubt they were doing it for the environment. They obviously didn't have much money, and they need to eat, so this is probably part of how they survive. Unfortunately, Brazil is one of those countries with a huge divide between the wealthy and the poor, and the poor have a really hard time getting by here.
Plus, he made a huge mess on the sidewalk all down the street. I mean, he basically tore apart our garbage, spilled it out onto the sidewalk, and walked away from it. It's not exactly polite. But when you're that desperate, I suppose, you're not thinking about being polite.

= = = = = = = = =

I get the feeling that my family thinks I have an eating disorder or something. Lately, I haven't had an appetite. When I'm upset, I lose my appetite. It's not my fault..! And for the past 4 days or so, I have been ishly rather greatly upset. So I haven't eaten, other than lunch. and like, water. But last night, I had a long talk with my mom and dad about what I am able to do, what I'm not able to do; we came to a compromise basically. And even though I still feel very much suffocated by my mother's efforts to stop me from having a social life here, I feel better than I did before.
And just now, I ate like four cookies.

School Life

2008-08-20T18:05:00.001-07:00

Monday was my first day at school. It's not very big, compared to my school in Indiana, but there are a ton of people I don't know.

We wear uniforms, but they're not at all bad. Just a t-shirt that they give us, and we wear jeans. We also have to wear tennis shoes or converse or whatever, no flip flops (they call them Havaiianas here).

Jasmine and Sven- elegant uniforms
(sven's fucking tall by the way, so in all of his photos he's leaning over)

School starts at seven in the morning, and since I live only about five minutes from the school, I've been trying to walk. But my host mom has been crazy smothering me, and it's hard (very very hard) to go anywhere on my own.
Anyway my class is Segunda C (2C), and we stay in the same class all day, with the same people. Everyone's so nice, though, they all want to get to know me. The teachers go to the front of the room to lecture, where they stand on a raised platform stage thing, and write on a curved whiteboard. I don't understand anything the teachers say, so I've been studying portuguese during class.

me and my buddy evellyn

But it's fun, and it's so great to get out of my house (did I mention that I'm not allowed out of my house?), that I would gladly come to school any day. Jasmine, Sven, and Kyle are all great friends.

me and sven (ok this is sad- I'm on my tiptoes, and he's bending over.)

It's awesome, me and sven and this one other brazilian kid are the only blondes in the whole school. we unite.

Today, we all went down to the audio/visual room to watch a movie. And as it came on, I saw that it was a sesame street-puppets kind of kids show. But the main puppet, who was singing, was a piece of shit.
no really, I was being literal.
Then the title came on - A Historia do Coco. That's right, The Story of Poo.
The shitlet started moving around and dancing in place, and then he started singing in a really deep, husky voice:
"Let me tell you my story.
It's a sad, sad story.
A story of Coco."
At this, three puppet birds (big bird kind of things), and a big puppet horse popped out of the bushes behind the shitlet and started singing background.
"Coco.. coco.. coco... coco..."
The camera panned out, and the entire class screamed when we saw a puppet boy laying on the grass, with his elbows propped up and his chin resting in his hands, nodding his head to the music, WATCHING and ENJOYING the shitlet's music.
It was the weirdest, most digusting, and oddly the most entertaining thing I've seen in a very long time.

The 3rd blonde in the school, Christian. He's brazilian, but his parents are from Germany. He's pretty cool. :)

At around 10:00, we have a lunch break. By the way, people eat a lot here. I don't know how they stay so skinny. I can't eat this much.
Anyway everyone buys a soda and a little sandwich, and they go to the auditorium and hang out with friends. Music comes on, people shout at each other over the noise of other people shouting at each other, it's good times.
Yesterday, school ended here so we could watch a soccer game. I KNOW. It's awesome.
School ends at 12:20, and everyone goes home to eat lunch, which is the family meal of the day.
Anyway today, school ended early again (I don't know why this time), and instead of going home, my class played a game of capture-the-fanta-can in the auditorium. At one time, I was running to tag someone on the opposite team, and when I missed him by only a few inches, I slipped and fell flat on my ass..
My friend Evellyn took these amazing videos... I'll upload on of them:

So that's me reenacting my epic fall, and that's Kyle, an exchange student from new york, running in the very beginning. He's the guy in blue.

= = = = = = = = = = = =

Thursday, August 21, 2008

my class
tomorrow, that girl the brownish hoodie wants to teach me a traditional brazilian dance, in front of the class. I'm embarassed.. haha. The class is excited for it though.

I saved this as a draft yesterday, I have more to write :)
Today, school was sad. I've been having huge problems with my family, and school has been my refuge, but Jasmine and Kyle are both getting homesick. I'm not, and I don't think Sven is, but I feel for them. Seeing my friends cry makes me cry :(
But tonight we're going to a Rotary meeting, so I'll see them. At least, I'll see kyle, I don't know about sven and jasmine.
Today was 'mini election day', they had a mock election in my class. There were 5 candidates, and they all got up on the stage and gave speeches, and passed around flyers and flags. One kid offered to buy me a coke if I voted for him.. I'm voting for my friend, Hellen, instead :) She's Kyle's host sister, I don't know if I mentioned her in a previous entry..?

Kyle with a "vote for hellen" flag

All day, the school was buzzing with excitement about the football (that's soccer in the rest of the world, you foolish americans, you) game that was taking place; Brazil vs the USA. Everyone was asking me who I wanted to win; I told them I couldn't choose :) I'm such a diplomat.
Walking out of school, I saw a few dozen people across the street, gathered around this tiny TV on a stand. They were all shouting and shaking their fists at the TV.
So I went over, and they were watching the game! I hung around for a few minutes and saw that the US was ahead, 1-0.

The girls watching the game. See how they're biting their nails? Soccer is a big deal here. :)

enthralling!

In Brazil. Day One and a Half.

2008-08-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

Ok first off, I'd like to address one of my old friends, Jamie, who asked me months ago to find out if the toilets flow differently here in the southern hemisphere.
They don't.
totally lame. :P
So I left out of South Bend, got pissed at Sam for not coming with, said a tearful goodbye, and boarded my mini plane to Atlanta.
I know that I cry at everything, if that's what you're thinking, but as soon as the plane departed for Atlanta, and I recovered from my crying episode, I noticed the man sitting next to me was reading the Complete Idiot's Guide to God. I thought it was funny.
He turned out to be really cool, he's a preacher from Atlanta.
So I got to Atlanta and met up with Madisyn, from Oregon, and we made our way to Sao Paolo. There, I met Jasmine, from Oklahoma, and we waited for our plane to Salvador.
This is all really boring, but as soon as we made it to the Salvador airport, everything was great. We said goodbye to Madisyn, and left on our mini flight to Ilheus, the city next to Itabuna.

an upside down picture of me, jasmine, and madisyn in the sao paolo airport.

from the plane

The first view of Salvador

We made it to Ilheus yesterday afternoon, and as we walked into the Ilheus airport, we saw dozens of people waiting for us, holding huge banners with our names on them.

Isn't that awesome? There was a banner! With my name on it!

We went to a restaurant on the coast, and met the other exchange students, Sven, from germany, and Kyle, from new york. Everyone's nice :) Jasmine and Sven I are sharing host families, so right now, Jasmine is with my second host family, and I'm with her second, and.. hm. I don't know who Sven is with. He's not with my second.. maybe we're only sharing two families. I don't know.
So now, I'm in my host family's house. I have an older sister, Bruna, 19, and a mom, and a dad that I haven't met yet. He's in Sao Paolo, taking my other host sister to the airport. She's going to Vermont for her exchange year. Anyway, they're both really nice! This morning my mom went to church. Tonight she's going again and Bruna and I are going with.
I'm also having really strange food experiences. Just this morning, for example, I was eating some fruit, and Bruna came and asked me if I wanted -insert uninterpretable portuguese here- on it. So I smiled and nodded, and she dropped a spoonful of what looked like dried milk on top. It was kind of weird.. really sweet and thick.
So, my house! We live in an apartment building about five minutes from my school (I haven't been there yet, my first day is tomorrow), and we're on the third floor. It's a big apartment! I'll post pictures later!

shit shit shit shit shit

2008-08-14T19:21:00.000-07:00

Not appropriate.. sorry..
Anyway I made this video para mis amigos and I'm posting it!

One thing I've been wanting to say is that my friends have been AMAZINGLY supportive about my exchange year.
In seventh grade, when I told my friends that I was going away for a year, most of them were supportive about it. But there was one kid, who at the time was one of my best friends, who wasn't. He begged me to stay behind. Every day for most of seventh grade, he reminded me of the great times we had, the jokes we shared, the wonderful friendship I could never replace. But by telling me these things, he implied that by leaving, I was giving it all up. It was actually much more complicated than that, and it's a lot of explanation, but don't worry about it kids, ok? :P (we'll see if anyone gets that.*)
Anyway, I didn't have a choice but to leave. And when I left for Denmark, I tried my best to keep in touch with my friends back home. But every time something went wrong, or something was less than perfect, that nagging voice of my best friend at home came back, reminding me that I had given up everything I had with him, for this, something less than perfect.
And because of that constant nagging in my head, I became so depressed that I lost almost all of the friends I had.
And it was all because my supposed best friend begged me to stay behind. I don't blame everything on my friend, but I believe that if he had been more supportive, I would have been stronger. But my friends now remind me every day that while they'll miss me, they can't wait to hear about my exchange, my family, my school, and my new friends. And instead of reminiscing on the good times we had, they daydream about the things we'll do when I return. They're so supportive, and I'm really thankful for it :)

*references that no one understands, NICOLE!

Also, READ THIS, GUYS:
I dropped my cell phone in a swimming pool, if you want to call it that, and all my contacts were erased! My number is still the same, so please text me and say who you are, and I can add you again!
seriously, do it.

One Day Left

2008-08-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

I've recently decided that I'm not going to worry anymore, about things that I can't control. So I'm not terribly nervous about planes arriving on time, weather, ect.
But I still can't help but think about things. It was two years ago that I first started thinking about going on exchange. Since then my ideal country changed from Brazil to Colombia to Japan to Argentina, to Iceland, to Denmark, to South Africa, and back to Brazil.
I just can't believe how much has happened since then. I made amazing friends, I left said amazing friends, I made amazing new friends, and now I'm leaving them too. But this time I'm coming back, for the first time in.. a very long time.
Every time I've moved, people have told me how much they'll miss me, that sort of thing. But I never really understood it until somebody actually left me. When Tati left, I felt so ripped apart, and now I finally understand what people mean when they tell me these things. But it still doesn't change my feelings about anything. I'm going away for a year and that's that.
It's just hard to put it all together- I've been waiting for this for two years, and now finally I'm boarding the plane tomorrow.

School started a few days ago. And since my school for some reason enrolled me in classes, I went with Nicole to the first day. Everyone I saw was confused, it was pretty funny. But I was so sad, leaving at the end of the day. It's a pretty awful school, most of its teachers are awful, but I still felt horrible leaving everyone behind. Even more so, I still feel really weird that I'm coming back. It's always been the opposite.

I don't know. It's not something that I can properly document, I guess.

6 Days Left

2008-08-09T17:50:00.000-07:00

And I'm talking with my buddy Frances from Colorado. She just found out she has a mild form of synesthesia, in which she designates a color for every number.

0 is white,
1 is black,
2 is green,
3 is sunny yellow,
4 is blue,
5 is red,
6 is bright happy orange,
7 is purple,
8 is yucky yellow,
9 is burnt rusty orange,
10 is black and white! Cause they work together!

Isn't that interesting?????

7 Days

2008-08-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

.. until I leave. I'm almost scared to turn on the TV right now, afraid that the girl from the Ring will pop out and eat my face. Don't judge.

Some friends that are in my district in Brazil are leaving today. I'm really excited for them, and also jealous that they're already on their way to Brazil, and I still have 7 days to go. They've just started the best year of their lives! Today, they're taking the first step on a huge adventure that they'll remember forever! I can't wait to join them. Of course, they are missing the opening night of the Olympics.

I'm watching the Parade of Nations right now. President Bush is sitting in the crowd with his wife. It's not that his image or his self disturbs me, but as an extremely political kid, and a very passionate liberal person, it pisses me off how he presents himself.
He sat down in his seat and put on a surly expression. He was extremely rude. He slouched lower in his seat and checked his watch, and when Iraq passed in the parade, he had this horribly smug look on his face.
He makes it really difficult to represent my country in a good light. With every rude move he makes in everyday situations, he supports the American stereotype of stupid, obnoxious, and rude fat white people, and let me assure you, I'm not like that at all. And none of my American friends are like that either. But our president? I know that Bush isn't stupid, despite his reputation. I mean, morally I'd say he's on the lower scale of intelligence, but he's not a stupid guy. He knows exactly what he's doing as president. So he can stop this show of acting ignorant and obnoxious.
So shape up, President Bush! Courtesy! Civility! Respect!

Yeah, yeah, I know. Not going to happen.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

2008-08-02T13:38:00.001-07:00

I got my visa today!!!
I haven't received it in the mail yet, so I technically don't have it, but my travel agent emailed me today saying that she received it from the Brazilian consulate in Washington, and that she's going to book me a flight, and mail everything to me in one big delightful package.

Also, I updated my movie list :)

In Boston

2008-07-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

My parents and I have been driving since Wednesday morning, and now we're staying in Boston for the weekend with some family friends.
Driving through this city, all I can think of is Hollywood. The Boondock Saints, the Departed.. I can't really think of another movie that was filmed here, but I assure you, it was filmed here.
My sister is also in town, doing a music camp thing. She's participating in a music group with 5 other Americans, and 20 other people from around the world (She told me she has made friends from Mali, South Africa, and Brazil!) Tomorrow we're going to Salem (my choice).
It's great to see my sister again, since I haven't seen her since May, but she's overwhelmingly condescending at times. I love her, but she really knows how to make me feel bad, even if she doesn't know she's doing it. Just a few days ago, she mentioned how I used to be a musician. That upset me a wee tiny bit, seeing as I play the piano. She explained herself by saying that I don't take music as seriously as I used to. Which I suppose is true, but that doesn't mean that I can't still love it! But I dropped the subject. Music especially is one of those things that you can't fight with her about. She's a professional cellist, after all.
I guess I'm just worried that we'll get in a horrible fight that will result in me feeling crappy about myself (and my lack of musicianship) right before I leave for Brazil.
But this is the last time I'll see my sister for an entire year, and I'm going to make the most of it, regardless of how high my self esteem is!

-----

by the way, I've been taking lots of pictures. I'll post them all when I get to a place where I can hook up my own computer to the internet.

About my new blog name

2008-07-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

This year I was very conflicted about how I was going to represent my country abroad. As an exchange student, I will not only be representing myself, but I will be representing American youth, and my country as a whole.
But this year, I felt kind of oppressed by the USA. I had a lot of teachers and friends who were deeply religious, and religious to the extent that they looked down on me for not agreeing with them.
Also, I'm a pretty political kid, and I'm pretty liberal. And when I moved here, I was kind of shocked by how a lot of people chose to argue about principles that, for me, were kind of no brainers (evolution, freedom of religion). It was kind of a strain on my soul, seeing all this heartlessness among youth in America.
Homophobia was a big one. I have never witnessed such a large amount of prejudice among American kids against the gay community as I have here in Indiana. Same goes for women's rights, and Latin American racism.
Often, boys would gather around a table during lunch hour and talk with army soldiers about life in the military, and why they should give up high school or college to join the army. It broke my heart every time I saw it, and I couldn't eat, let alone focus on anything else for the rest of the day.
The straw on the camel's back came during fourth quarter, when a girl (name not included) who had befriended me in January took me to church, and afterwards told her parents and her siblings how she thought I was 'sick' and 'lost' and I needed help, all because I didn't see the same Jesus as she did. Her mother wore a frown whenever she saw me, her sister avoided eye contact with me in the hallway, and her father even sent me a 3 minute youtube video to try and convert me to Christianity, as if he knew all about my opinions on religion. As if I would tell him! Still I didn't want to break it off with my friend. I thought that maybe she didn't share her family's thoughts about me. But only two weeks till the end of the school year, my friend shared with me that her older sister had told her (confusing, I know) that she had overheard Nicole, my best friend since before I had even met this girl, saying some shitty things about me in an art class.
I didn't really believe her. She offered me a hug, as if I was to sob into her shoulder, but instead I went to talk to Nicole about it (insanity!). Nicole was pissed, apparently I hadn't even come up in their conversation for weeks.
Turns out, my friend's older sister, a senior in our high school, had started this rumor all because she thought I was gay, and that Nicole was my secret lesbian lover.
Where she got this idea, I have no idea. My liberal thinking, Nicole's short hair, the whole family's thinking that anything different is a threat..? Who knows. But as soon as I truly realized that this all wasn't one big coincidence, I felt hurt and betrayed, not by my friend, not by South Bend, Indiana, but by my country in general. And I thought, if I can't feel safe and comfortable in my own home, how am I supposed to represent it abroad?
I finally stopped associating myself with my friend. Problem was, I was so hurt by the whole experience, that I was downright afraid to associate anyone in the church! It was stupid, I know, but I came to recognize the sign of Jesus Christ as a symbol of Republican Americans who would like nothing more than to throw me into Guantanamo Bay. It was only a month or two of thinking like this, like I was a bunny that scurried down a hole, and is only now peeking its head out.
A few weeks ago, I was going through a library book, and a sticker fell out onto the floor. It was in the shape of a circle, with abstract orange and yellow and blue lines going through it, and at the top it says 'my american heart'. Turns out it's a band name. They're ok, nothing special.
But I was thinking, if I see America as my own country, then it can be anything I want it to be. I'm not saying I'm going to warp it into Imagination Nation, but I'm not going to see what much of the world sees when they think of the US (church, fried chicken, and fucking fat white women). Instead, I can look to the beautiful rolling hills of Mohawk country, the dirty stinking hippies that I happen to represent, the Chicano culture of the American West, and the historical city of Washington DC.
And besides, the world (especially America) changes! Even though my 'ethnic costume' (see previous posts) is one of the 1860s-70s, my country has changed greatly since then. And hopefully, with the upcoming election, it will change even more. And with every change my country makes for the better, I have less reason to be resentful, and even afraid of the USA, and more reason to be proud.
All I can hope to do during my exchange year, and the rest of my life, is to follow my American heart to do what I feel is right for my country, my friends, my family, and myself.

Tuesday

2008-07-22T13:31:00.001-07:00

The awesomest of all days. Tomorrow Claudia returns home to Spain (after two sidetrips to Chicago and New York), and my family drives to Maine, where we'll spend a week on an island with my godparents, Gene and Evelyn.
We're supposed to hit the road immediately after Claudia leaves, and we'll only return to South Bend around August 6.
And I'm not sure if I'll have time to update my dear little blog until then, so *maybe* and *again* farewell!
Here's a picture of a bunny to keep you company while I'm gone.

The big question

2008-07-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

How do you make an ethnic costume for the US? I'd been thinking about it for a while, when I was flipping channels a few weeks ago and happened across that old show, The Monkeys.
No way in hell am I dressing up like a monkey. But I remembered that that same channel shows the Little House on the Prairie.
So I decided to make a prairie dress thing, since I'm from the west anyway! So I went to salvation army and spent like four dollars or something and ordered a prairie bonnet online, and now I'm fit to be a permanent cast member on the show! I'm thinking I could be Laura's sarcastic cousin from the east coast. eh? eh?
I don't know if anyone else took this ethnic costume thing as seriously as I did, but even if I'm too embarrassed to wear this when everyone else is in normal clothes, it was fun to put together :)

EDIT: the bonnet is too big. Apparently, I have a head the size of a jelly bean. So I sent it back and ordered a kid's size..

Packing

2008-07-15T11:58:00.001-07:00

How do I pack a whole year's worth of my stuff into one suitcase????????????????????

yo nicole

2008-07-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

i'm writing to you via blog. i'm going away to a rotary conference in michigan for the weekend.
huzzah.

I don't want everyone to think that I'm one of those people who puts random shit on their blog, but...

2008-07-07T21:01:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist.

I just saw a blog someone made with a bunch of pictures of their son eating corn on the cob and getting filthy. It opened my eyes. I hereby promise to never again post things on my blog that are stupid and irrelevant.
right after this get fuzzy comic.

more visa troubles

2008-07-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

aggravating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hello dear readers

2008-06-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

both of you! ;)

I thought I'd let you know that I'm going out of town for a few days, and won't be able to write.
Where is Zoe going this time, you ask? Is it rome, or paris? Copehagen? Maybe she's starting a new Asian thing and going to Hong Kong?
well my friends, I'm going to Wisconsin!!!!
I know you're all excited for me.
Farwell, I'll miss you!

ZOE

My stuff came! :D

2008-06-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

I've finally got some merchandise to my name! I have my blazer, my business cards, and my pins all ready to go.

My blazer...

... my pins...

... and my business cards :)

So that's one less thing for me to worry about!

Also, a few days ago my friend Nicole and her little sister Molly and I took her puppy, Lola, to the river that runs through South Bend. Well actually at bends here. south.
Anyway we found this leaf branch brush thing on the ground, and the dog went ballistic over it. It was adorable! :)

So those pink flip flops are mine, the amazing camera skills are Molly's, and the dorky laugh is Nicole's :P

I signed my family up to host a spanish exchange student for the month of july. And since I'm so adored, I got to pick the student we'd take. So I picked the one who was closest to my age, and who's english needed the most help. This way I can get better in Spanish too. :) Her name's Claudia, she's from Madrid. I'm so excited to meet her! She'll be here in like.. two weeks! I must clean.

Hellooooooo my dears!

2008-06-18T17:51:00.001-07:00

I got this question from someone on my last post. I think he came to me from youtube, but I can't be certain!

"I also have to admit that I didn't even know what Rotary was before I read your blog (yeah I live in a cave called South of France). Anyway, I read some informations about it and I'd like to know how you see Rotary. I mean, it's an association, at least it's classified as one. But it seems to me that it represents more a certain way of thinking or seeing the world, not like a political party, but it's quite similar."
Well, Rotary International is a service organization that's been around since 1905. It was the world's first service club, actually, founded in Chicago.

Today, Rotary has made it its top priority to eradicate polio around the world. The youth exchange is just a part of it (although a big part)!
Rotary is also a way for people (especially students) to learn about culture around the world. Being sponsored by Rotary is a great way to learn about another culture and society, so you can take your life lessons home with you and make a difference in your own community.

Almost exciting!

2008-06-17T13:27:00.001-07:00

I ordered my business cards! And they're almost here! They were shipped today!

for anyone who doesn't know (I gave this link to some youtube people who liked my now deceased channel.. so they wouldn't know).. Rotary makes business cards for its exchange students, so they can pass them out and pretend to be real live grown ups! We also get these sweet blazers, and some awesome pins to put on said blazers.
My rotary was kind of lame.. they didn't supply us with the extra fun stuff (I love them though). So I bought my blazer for 2.50 at a salvation army, I made my pins out of these little wooden poker chips from hobby lobby, and I designed and ordered my business cards from vistaprint.com. If you have to make business cards, go there. Kinkos will rip you off. Freakin bastards.

I'll post pictures everything when my cards get here! :)

Visa Problems

2008-06-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd update to let you know about my latest dilemma: my visa. Without my visa, I can't get my ticket. And without my ticket I can't board a flight to Brazil, can I?
For the past few months, I've been expecting a package in the mail, a phone call, even a friendly 'hello' in my inbox, from the travel agency that I've been assigned to. But in the last week, I noticed that most of my rotary buddies were well on their way to getting their visas, while I hadn't started the process yet. So I called up the travel agency to make my case known, and it turns out that they mailed me the forms three weeks ago, and were lost in the mail!
Frustrated, I requested they send it again. And they were very nice about it, it's certainly not their fault.. just karma, I guess.. bad postal service karma.
Anyway I got my forms in the mail yesterday, and I'm rushing to send them in by tomorrow, since I'm already three weeks behind where I could be.
I've been talking with the other exchange-students-to-be on facebook, and they've all been really nice and supportive in my most recent crisis (not that much of a crisis really, but that's what I'm sticking with). We're spread out all over the country, plus one kid from germany and one from denmark (crazy danes!). It's a pretty crazy chat room we've got going.
In other news, I think my cat got attacked by a vengeful chipmunk! Perhaps related to the one that he slaughtered last week..? I'm scared for his safety.

Adventures of my cat, Satchel

2008-05-26T08:45:00.001-07:00

OK remember I wrote about my cat? I entered him in a cutest pet contest?
Well I'm sitting by the front window of my house right now, watching him toss around a dead chipmunk that he caught himself. It's kind of gross.

Great News!!

2008-05-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

California, the nation's biggest state, has officially released the ban on same sex marriages! This is really crucial, and a big win for the gay rights movement! I'll be in a great mood tomorrow. And I'll be wearing a rainbow colored ribbon in my hair!

Rotary Conference

2008-05-13T18:17:00.001-07:00

About two weeks ago, I met up with Ashley, another exchange student with me from Rotary, who's going to Denmark next year. It's really exciting talking to Ashley, since I used to live in Denmark. She's going to a city way up north, and I was living in a town pretty far south (Southern Denmark: oxymoron of the year), but it's all the same Denmark. She's so cute: "it can't be that cold there, right?"
She drove the 30 minutes from Elkhart to South Bend and parked her truck in my driveway, and we set off to a resort in Plymouth, Indiana for a weekend conference of the Rotary club of northern Indiana. Arrival time was between 1o and Noon, and by arriving at 11, Ashley and I thought we would be the first ones there. But, in fact, we were the last. The youth exchange director was mad..
Basically the whole weekend consisted of putting on our stylish blazers (mine, plus the matching pants, was 2 dollars at a local thrift store), donning our name tags, and heading down to the main hall. We ate breakfast lunch and dinner there, and to get us out and involved in the community, only two students were allowed at a table. So the first meal, Ashley and I were joined at the table by two old men who kept trying to get us to eat pie. That was weird.
But in the second meal, I was joined by the nicest couple, who had recently been to Copenhagen! I love it when people have been where I've been :) They even invited me back to their district to talk about youth exchange when I'm back from my exchange year.
I know that was all very boring, but the entire weekend, in between meals, the exchange students and me and Ashley spent time watching movies and taking TONS of pictures. These exchange students love their cameras.
These photos are from what I could get from facebook alone:

Me, Juan, Emeline, and Stephen in the cabin

Ana, Kathi, Norka, Emeline, Ashley, Me, Stephen, and Juan at lunch. For our last supper, they let us stay together. :)

Me beating Stephen in tennis!

All of us with Angie (I don't know why she wasn't in the lunch picture) and MISS INDIANA!
She sang a pop song in Spanish, but she was totally lip syncing. We could tell.

Global Friendship!

My jaws are tired after so much smiling.
Ashley brags about how strong her jaws are.

Don't you hate it when you're in the front row, so when everyone decides to do something crazy, you're never in on it? But you're short, so you have to be in the front row, so this way you look like a 'normal' person who doesn't know how to be crazy in a photo.
If only they'd give me a chance..

I'm the one with my eyes open.
I didn't really get that part either.

Here I am, unaware of the photo being taken right in front of me, and looking up, stoned, at the TV.
GYARG
this here is proof that I'm not the type of person who only puts photos on the net because I'm vain, right?

In this scene, Zoe notices the camera that has been present for so many minutes, and to make up for her mistake, buries Stephen in a blanket.
Stephen, feeling threatened, remains hidden.

AFS?
Aspect?
YFU?
Fool, no one poses like this for them.

yay!

Cutest Pet Contest

2008-05-12T17:37:00.001-07:00

I entered my dog and cat in a pet contest online. I have been told that I'm going to grow up to be a 'cat lady' and wear wool all the time and have a plaid couch and spend my time picking cat hair out of my sleepy time tea, but the people who say that are unaware of just how adorable my animals are. I give you proof:

This is the picture I entered of my dog, Deleuze. Vote for him here:
http://www.sugarloot.com/entry/586595293?browse_order=default

And this is the picture I entered of my kitty, Satchel! You can vote for him here:
http://www.sugarloot.com/entry/586660829?browse_order=default&prevID=586595293&prevVote=10

It looks like you can rate each picture more than once, so go crazy if you have the time!
And if you think your pets are cuter than mine (I know of a few.. Millie and Lola to start) sign up at Sugarloot.com and enter your pictures of your pets :)

Introduction

2008-05-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
I thought I'd write my first entry, just to test this blog thing out.
My name is Zoe, I'm a sophomore in high school in South Bend, Indiana. I like to play piano, speak spanish, watch movies, hang out with my friends.. and oh yeah, I'm going to Brazil in august, to be an exchange student for a year! Big news, I know.
The process for becoming an exchange student was long and grueling. I applied in October for a Rotary scholarship. After a series of interviews, weeks of completing long applications, and months of anxious waiting by the phone, I got the call that Rotary had accepted me in December. After that, more applications and more meetings, and I finally got word in March that I'll be spending my exchange year in Brazil.
A few weeks ago, I found out that I'll be living in a city called Itabuna, in the state of Bahia.
From wikipedia..

"As the chief locus of the early Brazilian slave trade, Bahia is considered to possess the greatest and most
distinctive African imprint, in terms of culture and customs, in Brazil. These include the Yoruba-derived religious system of Candomblé, the martial art of capoeira (especially the style of capoeira de Angola), African-derived music such as samba (especially samba's Bahian precursor samba-de-roda), afoxé, and axé, and a cuisine with strong links to western Africa."

The city of Salvador has a lot of colonial architecture.

Bahia is on the coast, so it is famous for its beaches.
Oh yeah, I scored.

If you know me, you know that I'm big on nature and the outdoors. However, this does not mean that I'm a hippie. Very distinct difference. All the same,
BEAUTIFUL!

I can't wait to explore a different culture, learn a new language, and discover something new about a country different than my own. I already have a mental list of things I want to do there.

1). Learn Portuguese
2). Wax my legs (apparently brazilians do it)
3). Get way too attached to a brazilian soap opera
4). Play soccer
5). Get over my fear of monkeys
6). Learn capoeira
7). Drink out of a coconut
8). Buy a bikini
9). Nearly die of a tropical disease
10). MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE.............