School Life

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.

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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!