Arrival & Acclamation

July 31st:

Ever since I started on my journey to Brazil on July 31st at 4:30 a.m., life here has been like being on a giant roller coaster. Not just with my emotions but with my daily life as well.

Waking up at 4:30 to travel all day is certinaly not ideal, but I was still excited for Brazil, yet saddened to leave behind the only place and people I have ever known and loved. Saying goodbye to everyone, even my dear cat, took a lot of courage and it tore me up inside. I felt terribly guilty for making everyone I love suffer in pain by my absence for the next year. My dad said it was the hardest thing he has ever done to say goodbye to me. I must say it was the hardest thing I have ever done as well. I have wanted to be an exchange student ever since I was a little girl. I never realized how big of a toll it would play on my emotions and the emotions of people around me. I am saying this because it was hard for me to let go at 4:30 in the morning on July 31st and I have been dreaming of this for several years now! I did not know if I was ready at 4:30 in the morning on July 31st because goodbye seemed impossible to even utter. You have no idea how much I wanted to turn around and stay with them when I was leaving. But now that I am in Brazil, I am positive that I was ready and that I can do this. This IS what I have been dreaming of ever since I was a little girl. It is tough, extremely hard. Do not kid yourself. I am sure I made the right choice now, but you really have to be prepared for everything.

I said goodbye to Anna, Mike, Lola, Teddy and Mr. Kitty on Thursday because Tyler, my mom, dad and I drove to Jacksonville that night because I left so early in the morning. Friday morning, my mom, Tyler and I check in. We had trouble checking in though... It kept saying that there was no travel itenerary for me. So we get help and the ticket lady couldn´t find it either. She starts whispering to another helper and I listen in. They talked about how the plane had maintenance issues and then I couldn´t hear but something about changing flights. The girl told her to go ahead and print me a boarding pass anyway. I wish she hadn´t because it would have saved me a lot of trouble.... But the story goes on before we get to that: I said goodbye to my mom and dad. My dad hugged me, and I felt my chest start hurting because I was so sad. I said goodbye to my mom, but she wouldn´t hug me again, and I could see she was starting to cry. She said I love you and thats when I started crying and that is when it hit me that I wouldn´t see her or my dad for a year. Then it really got bad when I went inside to say goodbye to Tyler. He gave me a card to read on the flight. I remember standing there looking at him, thinking about how I wouldn´t see any of these familiar faces in a year. I remember the pain and the tears so very well. It became excruciating when I turned to see Tyler cry. I had never seen him cry before and it just looked so painful. I turned to walk away and stopped to look back many times. That was the hardest thing to do. To walk away from my mom, my dad and Tyler. I really wanted to turn around and run back into their arms... but I didn´t... I somehow trudged on....So, then I go through security with Ryan, and we wait at the gate for our flight. Soon after, Jesse and Jennifer arrive, who are other exchange students also going to Brazil. We wait for our flight... 6:00 a.m. rolls around and we are supposed to be boarding the plane... no announcement.... 6:20 a.m... still no word... finally at 6:30, when our plane was supposed to be taking off, they announce that our flight never even left where it was coming from because of maintenance issues. They tell us to report back to the ticket counter, where they will try to help everyone. So all four of us sprint to the ticket counter. However, many others sprinted. We slowly made our way up the line. When we are second in line, they announce that we have to go get our checked bags and leave the line! We had been waiting for almost an hour! All four of us agreed and decided to break one of our travel agents rule: do not leave your stuff in someone elses care. We knew it might end up bad, but we had to because we didn´t want to be left in Jacksonville with no flight. Jennifer and I watched the carry-ons along with the passports, tickets, etc. Jesse and Ryan went to get our checked bags, and it ended up being a very good thing for all of us that we did this. We made it to the ticket counter finally, and we were supposed to arrive in Miami for our next flight at 8:30 with a 4 hour layover because our flight to Sao Paulo didn´t leave until 12:30. All of us were thankful at this point for the layover, which was funny to us because we were crabbing about it while waiting for the flight. So, what happened was that American Airlines (who we were supposed to fly with) got us a flight with Southwest Airlines to Fort Lauderdale. They then gave us a travel voucher to get to Miami by bus for free. Let me just say, checking bags 3 times in one day really isn´t fun! But, we got to Miami and just in time! There was a long line there to check bags. We finally get to the front and this dumb ticket counter lady told us we had 10 minutes to get on the flight and on top of that, she starts chatting it up with us! We are like come on lady we want to make our flight!!! We literally throw our bags in this room where they put the checked bags away and run to securty. Security then tells us we can calm down because they start boarding in 10 minutes but we still have an hour for the flight to leave. So we calm down and slow down. We get to the gate and they haven´t even started loading yet! You can imagine how mad we were at the dumb ticket counter lady... So we load.... And another problem comes along for me and Jesse to deal with... People were assigned the same seat as us!! On top of that, for some reason Brazil didn´t have my visa registered or something so I had to do that quickly. I don´t think any of you can imagine how tired, annoyed and stressed I was at this point. Luckily, the flight calmed me down though. Each chair had their own t.v. with a little remote. haha. On the t.v. were games, movies, t.v. shows, etc. I had fun on that flight and that is probably the only flight I will ever have fun on!

I arrived to Sao Paulo at 9:45 p.m. on July 31st. Customs was a breeze here! I was so surprised! Dagma, a rotarian picked me up from the airport. I stayed overnight in her loving care. She was so nice and welcoming to Brazil. She told me about the drivers in Brazil, though she did not have to! Once we got on the road, I was scared for my life!!! The drivers in Brazil are much more aggressive than in the U.S. I NEVER want to drive in Brazil! Cars drive in two lanes when they want. Some times, there are no dividing lanes. They just disappear or the paint faded... or something happened! The cars here are very tiny, and the lanes are also very small. However, sometimes the lanes are too small! That is normally when people drive in 2 lanes! Also, motorcycles weave in and out between cars. Most of the time, they are actually driving between two cars! Oh, I do not know how they do it! I would be so scared to drive. I am even scared to be sitting in the car. I cannot tell you how many times we almost hit something or someone! Definately different from the U.S. in that aspect. Mom and Anna, I think you both would have heart attacks if you just simply rode in the car with a brazilian here. The following day, Dagma took me to the airport to fly to Belo Horizonte. I gave her a postcard inscribed with a personal note of thanks and a bag of Reeses. She was so excited and thankful! They do not have Reeses here in Brazil. I said goodbye to her and then went through security. Security is also a breeze here! I found my gate and sat down. This is where I encountered ANOTHER problem. UGH. After about 10 minutes of relaxing and being happy because I found my gate and got through security successfully in a foreign airport, they make an announcement and of course it was in Portuguese. All I understood was ¨Belo Horizonte flight¨ which was the flight I had to take. All of a sudden, everyone got up and walked away! You can only imagine the look of utter and complete terror on my face. So many thoughts ran through my mind: was my flight canceled? was it moved? oh ill never find it! no one hear speaks english! where am i going to go if my flight is canceled? etc..... Luckily, after searching, I found someone who spoke little english and heard the announcement. I pointed to my ticket and said Belo Horizonte. They told me that it was changed to gate 1c which was downstairs. Then I was worried I couldn´t find my new gate. Luckily, I did. Then, I waited at my gate. They called my flight and I went up to give them my boarding pass. I walked through the doors to find a bus that everyone was loading... I grew worried again... I got on the bus hoping I was in the right area... no one spoke English... and I didn´t know what to really ask... They bus takes us out to an airplane. I came to find out later that most Brazilian airports are like this. We sit on the bus and wait to be let out. A man comes on the bus and makes an announcement (in Portuguese) and now I am concerned again that my flight is canceled... 5 minutes later.. We got on the plane. I was so thankful.

August 1st:
Then, on August 1st at 1:40 p.m. (not your time), I arrive in Belo Horizonte!!! I get off and follow everyone to baggage claim. I get my stuff and then realize that I have no clue where I am going to meet my family. I walk over to the service desk and ask and luckily, someone spoke English! They pointed to the door and I walked out and my host family was there holding a banner and flowers for me. With my host family was the president of rotary youth exchange for my club. His name is Felipe, and he is only 2 years older than I. Talk about a young rotary club! My club back in Gainesville is full of old people!
with famwith felipe at the churrasco
My family takes my luggage to the car, and Felipe talks to me about rules and other Rotary stuff. He invites me to a party that is being thrown by Rotex (students who have gone on their exchanges already and returned), and my sister, Lorena was also going. Rotary told me to jump at every invitation so I obliged, despite how tired and stressed I was. I was glad that I did! I met the Rotex, current inbounds like me, and outbounds about to leave! Everyone was so nice (well except for Marina from Canada)! Marina wouldn´t shut up about how horrible Americans were, and she said the most hypocritical thing! She said that Americans are too patriotic and it is a bad thing and a Brazilian agreed with here! A Brazilian of all people! They are known to be some of the most loyal people to their country! But it was hypocritical because she kept uplifting her country and bashing mine. I asked her what was wrong with being patriotic and said to her that she was being patriotic by uplifting her country and that she was probably patriotic in other ways as well. She responded by saying ¨it is different..¨ and then she started back tracking and bashing the US in other ways! She said the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard to: ¨Did you know that the US has been in war with someone every year in its existence?¨ I said that wasn´t true and she said no, you can look it up! And I said, I am sorry, but dont you think I know about my own country? She ignored it and said to look it up again... It just angered me because the entire time she was trying to start something and it was like why are you here? We are on exchange to learn about other countries and make peace and here she was trying to bash my country. And I didn´t have too much of a problem with people saying their beliefs about the US as long as they were open to discussion and to hear our side, especially since unlike all of them I have first hand experience here! Oh, and she said that everyone in the US is ignorant. I said wow, I don´t think you know everyone in the US to make that statement valid. She said she could make it because she has been on vacation there and it is just like living there... yeah.. I don´t even have to say more about how dumb that statement is. This girl should have been blonde. I had to finally get up a leave. Everyone asked me why I was leaving and I replied, I am sorry, but I am not going to just sit here and let you bash me and my country and you not even let me say anything. We aren´t here to bash everyone´s country. Later on, I found out she bashed Brazil too. She said she didn´t like the country and didn´t even want to be there but she wanted to learn the language. She said some other rude things about Brazil but I won´t go into detail... You already get how rude she was. Anyway, the barbq or should I say churrasco was delicious! It was here that I found my love for Guarana! It is soooooooooooooooooo good! It is a drink only sold here in Brazil. It is like ginger ale but has a flavor to it. The flavor comes from a fruit found in the Amazon. I have had it ever since I got here! hahaha. Their coke here tastes different and not in a good way.... I miss the refreshing coke back home. After the churrasco, I went home and my dad picked up pizza. I will say that this gave me a good preview of Brazilian meats. I had a Brazilian version of pepperoni pizza. That is the strongest pepperoni I have ever tasted! Talk about hurting your stomach. The pizza was good, but because the meat was so strong, you could only have so much.

August 2nd:
I woke up and went to have breakfast.... Before I get to that, I am going to describe to you Brazilian houses because they are different from ours. Every house has this weird gate because crime is really bad in Brazil. There are two different entrances to the gate. One is for people who are walking in and one for driving. You have to have this button thing (like our garage door opener) or push it from the inside or have a key. Then, there is a door that you go through and through that door you can either go straight back through an outdoor hallway to the kitchen or you can turn right and go through the front door of the house. An easy way to describe is that there is an outhouse(the kitchen) and an inhouse (the living area and rooms). So every morning, I go outside to the outhouse to get breakfast. I always have coffee, like in the US, but the coffee here is so much better!!! The coffee is sweetened already when it is brewed AND to make it even better, it is sweetened so much that I don´t have to add any sugar!!!! hahaha. We also have bread with breakfast. I seriously don´t know how many breads I have tried since I have been here! But it has been quite a few! My favorite so far is sugar bread (hahaha of course). Translator = suca pao. Every morning after breakfast, I have to make my bed and tidy my room if messy (normally it isn´t). Ever since I have been here, I have had ¨feijoada¨ for almost every meal! I used to love it, but now that I have it ALLLLLL the time, I´m not as big of a fan. It is pretty much just beans, rice and some sort of meat (usually chicken). We have it back in the U.S., but it is a national dish here, so they add other spices and things that make it different. I have tried their ice cream here too, which is called sorvete (pronounced soar-ve [as in vet]-chee). I personally prefer American ice cream, and you are going to laugh at why. American ice cream is much sweeter! I believe this is because they add more milk to their ice cream here... so as you would figure, it is very creamy tasting. Oh, I know I said that here people don´t flush the toilet paper because their septic tanks can´t take it.... well... that isn´t all toilets and my host family´s toilet does take toilet paper and I am glad that it does!! I went to their super market (called super mercado), which is much different from ours. Along with different products, there are more products and a much larger meat area. Oh, and I found out at the super market that Brazilian guys loveeeee American girls. I think its like the US guys when they hear its a foreign girl sorta thing... I went to church this night (because it was Sunday) and they sang all the songs that we listened to at church in the US- just translated to Portuguese. And that got me thinking.... it must have really sucked to translate the Bible! Imagine how long that would take! If I had to translate the English Bible to Portuguese... that would definately take years off my life!! I also realized that church can be more boring that when I was a little kid... imagine sitting in church and not knowing what the heck is going on the entire time. That was me. People would stand up, say amen, you name it and I´d alwayssssss be the last one. It was like monkey see, monkey do.

I don´t want to cause anyone pain at home, but I just want to show you what its like. I have always lived in Gainesville, always walked the same streets, known the same faces, spoken the same language... so all of this change is extremely hard for me. I can not tell you how many times I have wanted to lash out because no one understands what I am saying and I don´t know what on earth they are saying. I have wanted to just cry all the time, to yell, to scream, to do something to get these feelings out, but I can´t. If I did, people would think less of Americans, or I would just worry my host family even more (I don´t know which is worse) for they worry too much about me. I love Brazil. It is a wonderful adventure, but it is such a long climb to reap the rewards. I am honestly trying so hard to fit in and to speak the language, but I can´t. People on the streets can still somehow tell I am American and I still only know basic words and phrases. I can not describe to you the pain of not knowing anything because you don´t understand anything or the pain of having absolutely no one to talk to about all of this because no one can communicate with you. It is so frustrating. And, I keep getting sick because I am not used to the food, which is frustrating in itself, but to make it worse, my host family doesn´t understand why I can´t eat and they keep forcing me to eat and worry about me. And to top it all off, I miss each and everyone one of you terribly. I miss the streets of my once home. I miss my cat that used to keep me company when no one else could or would. I´m telling you this so you can understand what I am going through and also, mom and dad: so you will know what Vinny is about to go through. I´m also telling you this in case I have a short temper with you because I am so very stressed every day by trying to understand and failing. And I know that you guys worry about me and don´t want me to make mistakes (I know this because of your emails and texts telling me to watch myself here and there), but you need to let me make those mistakes because with or without your advice, I am going to make mistakes. I am in a country that I don´t understand. There are plenty of mistakes that will be made. Don´t get me wrong, I love hearing your advice, but don´t keep telling me to not make mistakes because it just makes me feel all the more worse when I do make one. And trust me, I have already made some, but you will hear about that in future journals. For this one is much too long, and I have been on the computer typing this for quite some time.

So stay tuned!

And remember:
¨Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it.¨

Love and kisses (Beijos!)
-Hollie Gabrielle