28
Dec
These are some pictures of my Christmas in Santo Antonio do Amparo, where my mom’s family lives, and in Sao Joao del Rei, where my dad’s family lives.
The Warmest Culture in the World
My Brazilian exchange student life commenced exactly 2 months and one day ago when I arrived with my fellow exchange friend from Minnesota, Cristian Perez, in the airport on Belo Horizonte, after roughly a day of traveling, waiting and learning all the way to Brasil. This ambitious adventure started the moment I hugged my host dad and my three brothers and walked to the car in the parking lot while conversing sporadically in half English and Portguese.
Since my first day I have adapted to a completely different city life filled with buses, traffic, hobos, skyscrapers, and lots and lots of adventure.
My school is called Sebrae and it is a technical and business high school in BH. It has about 500 students from ages 15-18. I am in the second level, equivilant to junior year, because then next year I will move with my class to the third year, or senior year. Here I stay with the same class all day which is a great change from the continuous changing back home. I like it much more though because I have been able to get to know my class mates much better and make friends easier because I am with them all day.
Alphaville is quite far from the city yet I attend school in the city so i take two buses to and from school every morning unless my dad drives me in the morning.
Because Sebrae is a technical school I have to take normal classes along with business and technical classes, such as marketing, logistics, and business simulation.
In all my travels around the globe, I have never encountered such a welcoming and open culture in my life. The moment I set foot in Sebrae there were flocks of people attempting to talk to me in English and asking me questions about my family back home. I immediately made friends and I always have at least 4 invitiations to go out on the weekend. ´
Another wonderful thing about Brazilian youth is that in school there are groups but everyone talks to each other. No one judges each other so my school is an extremely open and loving environment that I have thrived in.
The relations with the teachers and students is so loving I was shocked. Students love to hug and kiss the teachers and tell them about their weekends. I too have started to greet my favorite teachers with a great big hug and a kiss on the cheek, followed by their interested questions of how I am adapting to school and the courses.
Buses were another huge adaptation that i cant even image my life with out now. Depending on the hour of the day the buses are crowded yet i love riding them because they show me the city and all the people living within. Buses here cost R$2.30 each time you get on so a good deal of my allowance is spent on the bus fare.
Fine Folk
