// Two Months and Counting//

I am back after many months of absence and I apologize greatly! I have been keeping up with my life here and just in the everyday rythmn that is Brasil. 

In March I applied to attend a university in Belo Horizonte, called Potentia Universidade Catolica de Minas Gerais, or PUC, instead of attending high school. I was accepted and I am now studying International Relations. I am taking three classes during the week. Anthropology, Introduction to International Relations, and Asian-Western Relations.   

I am enjoying university much more than high school because the students are obviously much more mature and I am interested in the subjects I am studying.I am do not have to take tests and I dont have grades so I am only assisting the classes but I am still getting a lot out the material.

By taking these classes I am seeing if I would like to study this course in the US which is very convenient because I don’t have to pay for the course and I didn’t have to take the test to get into the university. How lucky am I?!

I am still living with my second family and will be until I return to the US. I have stayed with them for over 7 months now and I am so greatful they still want me in the house! I am now truly like a daughter. 

My brother Markinho, 17, is going on exchange to a small town in the outskirts of Houston, Texas. He will be leaving in August right about when my actual brother, Chase, is leaving for Cucuta, Colombia. I am so excited for both of them! 

Markinho needs to get his student visa done in Sao Paulo so I think the entire family is using it as an excuse to go on a vacation. I have never been there so this is a great last little vacation to see the other enormous city of Brasil. Sao Paulo is supposedly much much much different from Rio and the rest of Brasil so I have been craving a visit. We will hopefully be going in a couple of weekends so I will get it in right before I come home. 

My return date is July 16th and it is coming fast! I started counting down the days until I leave but it is just making me extremely anxious. I have to only think about my life here and focus on the people and experiences surrounding me. 

This is an odd example but yesterday I walked into the small kitchen that I have inhabited for over 7 months and was grabbing juice out of the fridge when I realized how comfortable and at home I am here. My life has been here for so long that imagining myself going back to my “normal” life in Northfield just julted me for a few seconds. It also made me very happy about how I have adapted to my family and the culture. When I go back I will be bringing a little of my new life back. 

// The Northeast//

After much delay, I am once again back in BH after 5 weeks of traveling along the Northeast coast with my family and on a Rotary trip.

My family vacation was a week long trip to Porto Seguro/ Arraial d’ajuda. two days after New Year’s my dad, brother, sister and I drove from BH to Porto Seguro which took about 12 hours! There ended up being many more trucks and traffic than we expected. My mom ended up flying there and arrived in the tiny one terminal airport just as we drove into the outskirts.

We stayed in a hotel filled with basically only people from Minas Gerais or mineiros and a few Argentinians. Porto Seguro is a town where almost the entirity of BH and Minas vacations during the months of January, Feburary, and where all upperclassmen in high school go during school holidays. The hotel was right across the street from the beach where all the little restaurants, called barracas, are situated with their designated tables. The beaches in Brasil are all open to everyone except you have to pay to sit at the tables or eat or drink something from their menus.

Everyday we made little day trips to beaches around Porto Seguro. My absolute favorite beach of my enitre life and absolutely the most stunning was the beach called Caraiva. We drove about 2 hours on terrible back roads and through a native reserve, where i held a sloth and a little parrot, to get to the dock where the wooden boats take you to the town on a peninsula. We parked our car and then proceeded to wait for a boat to come from the other side of the mangrove river to pick us up. The boats were so picturesque and were all painted bright blues and oranges. The town has  no cars and only sand paths where you can walk bare foot if the sand isnt burning hot from the Brasilian sun.

One side of the town is located on the mangrove river and the other side is on the beach. The beach is half on the river with fresh water and then leads to the ocean where the water mixes together and is absolutely clear as glass.

When i saw the beach i just stopped and starred in awe at the entire beach. I then said to my brother that i didnt think i had ever been to a more beautiful place in my entire life and his response was… you need to get out more Hattie! I didnt even react to his comment though and just kind of laughed at how beautiful and picturesque it was.

After lounging in the shade made by cloth tied to four sticks with wooden chairs and straw mats we ate at one of the only restaurants in the tiny town where everything is brought over the river by small wooden boats.

When we were leaving i seriously thought i was leaving a slice of heaven.

// Feliz Natal//

Christmas or Natal in Brazil is not as filled with as many traditions and well… snow as it is in Minnesota and the United States. It was extremely bizarre to not have a Christmas filled with snow, stockings and warm winter jackets yet it was an experience that made me appreciate the winter wonderland of Minnesota.

On Christmas Eve my family and I drove early in the morning to Santo Antonio do Amparo, my country house and sitio (farm), where my mom’s parents live. That night my aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins came over to our house and we opened presents at midnight and then ate a late dinner of turkey, ham, rice and beans. The desserts here are always my favorite part because Brazilians always use condensed milk in everything and I absolutely adore condensed milk! My mom made a dessert with doce de leite (from Argentina), whipped cream and then cookie bits within it. My grandma also made a pudding but pudding here is more like a cake mold with a type of flan thing made of condensed milk, of course!

The next morning we all woke up early and drove to Sao Joao del Rei a town about 45 minutes away from Santo Antonio to go to my dad’s parents house. Sao Joao is a university town and much bigger, filled with beautifully, slave built bridges and a delicious popsicle shop that makes the most fresh popsicles i have ever tasted. My dad’s family is much bigger but the funny thing is that some of my mom and my dad’s sisters and brothers married each other so there was some overlapping. We all ate the usual rice and beans plus chicken and turkey and my grandma’s famous pudding. After about 3 hours of just lazing around and waiting for the whole family to arrive we played a type of white elephant game where everyone is assigned a person who they must buy a gift for but when giving it to them they have to say clues about the person until everyone guesses. The clues that we gave about each other were all funny clues like,”this person will definately go bald eventually.” By the end of the game my jaw hurt from laughing so hard and smiling continuously.

My family was so gracious and bought me sandals, shorts and a tank top. I was so surprised they had bought me so many gifts but it felt good to get something just like at home.

Every year on Christmas Eve my family hands out barbies and little toy trucks to the extremely poor people who live in Santo Antonio. It was such an exprience to see all these little children being given these simple toys and seeing their little faces light up with smiles. I have seen poverty in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica but i have never been in such procsimity to these people. It felt so good to give a present to a person who appreciated it so much. the over all experience made me appreciate how wonderful my life is with my family here and how priveledged I am to be here in Brazil.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

// Corinthians//

I went to my first Corinthians soccer game tonight with my dad and sister who are extreme fans. Corinthians is a team from Sao Paulo so there are not that many fans here in BH but surprisingly there were tons of people to cheer the team on. Corinthians hooligans and fans came from Sao Paulo to come to the game and they were absolutely crazy! I cant imagine how a game would be in Sao Paulo with tens of thousands of fans.

We were standing next to the Camisa 12 hooligans group and they were all screaming for the entire game, which Corinthians ended up winning 3-0 against Galo, which is very embarassing for them because Corinthians is placed 10th in the Brazilian league and Galo is around 7th.

It was definately the best game I have been to here and Corinthians fans are much more exciting than Cruzeiro, a team from BH.