Começa do ano letivo & data do retorno pra Alemanha

Oi gente,

So yesterday after over two month my school started again. It was horrible waking up at 6am again, but I looked really forward to go to school again.
This was until I saw my timetable... I've school until seven o'clock in the evening every Monday. 12 hours!!! That's just too much!
(I will never ever say something against school until 5pm in Germany again!)

My time table - not nice!

But it was really nice to see my friends again and some moved to my class now and that's just great. I can't believe I just got 4 month left... They will pass so fast and then I have to leave this all behind. I don't wanna think about this!

My books and my Portuguese periodic table

That's because I got my date for my return to Germany today for sure. It's the 6th of June, one week before the world cup... So I will have to watch it in Germany, not like I expected in the host country :(
I tried to stay longer, but AFS doesn't allow it this year. That's sad, but I can't change it.
But of course I'm also looking forward to see my German family at 7th of June at the airport of Frankfurt.

Two days I ago I completed the half year in Brazil and that's unbelievable! Where did the last six month go?
Time's passing so fast....

I don't have much other news and I don't think it will change soon, because I have my Brazilian everyday life back.

But I'm looking forward to my only Brazilian birthday at the last day of this month :)

Até logo,

Sandra

Momentos especiais

Oi gente,

Hopefully you all had a good start into 2014.
In this post I'm going to tell you about four special events that happened in the last time:

• The graduation of my oldest host sister
• Christmas
• New Year's Eve
• The first birthday of youngest host sister

I'm going to start with the graduations which happened the week after my trip to Foz do Igaçu.
It began with a church service on Tuesday where all the graduates and their families took part.
Going to church here in Brazil is a lot like in Germany, even I just went to catholic churches here and I'm Protestant.

On Friday there was the surrender of the certifications which happened to be a lot like the one in American High School movies.
They also wear these clothes like in the movies and throw the hats into the air at the end of the ceremony.
I loved that because it's a lot more interesting than in Germany. I'm sad I'll never have a graduation like that...

The highlight of all the graduation celebrations this week was the dance on Saturday night. Everybody wore elegant dresses or suits.
The graduates danced waltz with their mums/dads and after that the party started.
Nearly all the people danced and had fun.
It was a great night and I'm really thankful for the opportunity to take part in an event like that.

The week after this it was Christmas.
On the 24th of December we went to one of my host aunts' and spent the evening with all the family there. Of course there was delicious food! :D
Christmas in Brazil begins not until midnight and there's only on public holiday, the 25th of December.
I think Christmas here isn't that important like in other countries in Europe or the United States. A reason for that it's in summer here, I think. But it's a day to spend with the family here too and that's really nice.

Nossa árvore do Natal

New Year's Eve we spend "na Roça" where we had a little party with the whole family and some friends.
There was a big fruit buffet which I really loved! Fruits here are so good, especially the ones like mango or pineapple.
At midnight we had a little firework, but because we were outside the city, it wasn't that big.
All in all it was a calm night, which ended at 1am for me because I had bellyache.

Frutas *-*

My youngest host sister became one year old at the 3th of January and because it was the fourth birthday of one of my host cousins too, there was a big party on the next day.
Children's birthdays are really important here in Brazil.
The party decoration was amazing with lots of balloons, princess dolls, two cakes and lots of other sweets.
The two birthday girls had "Tinker Bell" costumes and looked really sweet.
It was a great evening and I love that I got the possibility to take part, because I already saw photos of parties like that.

So I've still holidays and enjoying the time when i didn't have to get up early because it will start again too soon. But I'm also looking forward to February and the start of the new school year, because then I can see my friends every day again.


One thing that happened one week ago: HALFTIME!!!
I can't believe half of my time here is already over. The time I've been here feels like some weeks, not like 5 MONTH!
In 146 days I'm already going back to Germany... Of course I'm looking forward to see my family and friends again, but I love my life here and it feels so normal to be here, like it has been like that all my life.
But everybody say the second half is the better one, so I'll enjoy the last month here as good as I can.

I'm planning on writing some post about themes like food, the school/university system etc. in the next week. If anyone of you has an idea for it, just write me and I'll look if I can write something about that :)

Até logo, Sandra

Foz do Igaçu

Oi gente,

Here I'm again since a lot of time. But the last there wasn't anything special to talk about.
Now I want to tell you about my trip to the Iguassu Falls with Belo Brasil two weeks ago.

Tuesday (Day 1):
I started my journey on December 10th at the airport of Varginha. From there I went one hour to Campinas in the state of São Paulo.
There I met the first other exchange student who went to Foz too when I was waiting at the Gate for my second flight.
The two went very fast and on the way to Foz I had a TV in plane, so it was interesting.
I arrived in Foz do Igaçu at 3pm in the afternoon and went together with some other exchange students to our hotel.
The hotel was beautiful and had a big pool (which I've entered :( ).

The pool (it was raining bc of that it was empty

I shared a room with a girl from the Unit... Texas and another girl from Japan. I really enjoyed the time I had with them and we had so much fun!

Room girls <3 comment-3--="" i="" miss="" you="">

The first evening we had dinner at the hotel (the buffet there was amazing!) and then a little meeting about the rules and the program.
I've met some German exchange students I've already knew from my preparation weekend in Bad Hersfeld and some other AFSer from my first orientation here in Belo Horizonte.
Of course I got to know some other exchange students too and that was one of the greatest things of this trip.

Wednesday (Day 2):
After a very delicious breakfast we went to a bird park first. It was cool to see all this birds like parrots, toucans and all the other ones from just a very short distance. We could touch some too. It was an experience I'll never have again, I think.

I was a bit afraid of this bird, it was pushy ;)

After that we went to the waterfalls of Igaçu and it was just amazing. The waterfalls are so big and it's so unbelievabal to see them for real. I enjoyed the time there so much, for most getting wet, because this made this experience real for me.

After lunch at one of the park's restaurant I went on an optional Safari and boat tour. We had a short Safari trough the wood, a short walk and then a drive under one of the Iguassu falls. We got so wet there, but honestly I expected a bit more.
But hey, how many people can say that they had a shower below one of the waterfalls of Igaçu?

In the evening we stayed at the pool again until 11 o'clock and just talked to each other. And even I didn't sleep much because of this, I really enjoyed it. It was special this atmosphere there again which forms every time exchange students meet.

Thursday (Day 3):
This morning after breakfast we went to Paraguay by bus to go shopping. Ciudade del Este is really close to Brazil and it's duty free.
First we just stayed at two shopping centres, but then one of our stuff went to a shop of "Victoria Secret" with us.
I bought a little bag with some perfume, body lotion and shampoo there and later in another mal two more perfumes.

We had lunch in a shopping center in Foz do Igaçu back in Brazil where we had lots of restaurants to choose from. Shizuka (the Japanese girl I shared a room with) decided to eat some Sushi and I really liked it, even I can't eat with chopsticks :D
We had some time in the mall so I bought some little things.

Later this afternoon we went to "Itaipu Binacional", a hydroelectric dam (Info here). I was just tired and not that interested in that, but it was ok.

In the evening we went to a dance show which lots of dances from all over South America. It was great and the food we got was so delicious again (especially the dessert).
There were dances from Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, Mexico... and of course Brazil. I really like the Samba performance.
After the show they made a cake for Shizuka and Nick (German exchange student), because their birthdays were that day (Shizuka) and the day before (Nick).

Friday (Day 4):
This day we had to get up even earlier because we went to Argentina and they needed a lot of time at the frontier.
I slept when we waited for our stuff in the bus because I was really, really tired this morning.

After entering the new country we went to Iguassu National Park on the Argentinian side.
There we stood nearly over some of the waterfalls and it was really awesome. I couldn't believe that the things I saw are real.
We ate at a park restaurant where we had some problems with the currency first and thought everything was sooo expensive, even for real it wasn't.

Later we went to a view point from where we could see to Paraguay and Brazil while standing in Argentina.
After that we went to another duty free shop between the borders of Argentina and Brazil where I bought some new sneaker.

This night we stayed awake very long to enjoy the last time we had together. It just have been 3 days but I made some really good new friends and spent time with people I've already knew and liked. The Thais took plenty of photos as remembrances and other people had books and t-shirts to collect signatures and little texts.

Some of the exchange student had to go to the airport at 4am inclusive Shizuka. After about 3 hours of sleeping I woke up to say goodbye to here, even this scene feels like a dream when I try to remember it now.
She wrote me a really, really sweet letter and now I miss here so much. She's one of the nicest people I've ever met in life and I can't wait to see her again someday.

♥

I got up at about 9am the next morning and because of the raining I couldn't go swimming like I'd imagined the day before.
I spent some time with Sarah (the Texan girl from my room) and some other exchange student before we got to the airport.
There I had to say goodbye a lot too soon and it was really sad.
This days in Foz have been one of the best I had here in Brazil and I enjoyed every single moment of this trip.

Todo mundo :)

After my flight to Campinas I had some time with my monitor there so went to a mall there where I had lunch at McDonald's and my best Brazilian ice cream. I also bought a present for my brother back in Germany and got some really cool sweets.

I arrived in Pouso Alegre at about 9pm where some family friends picked me up and got me back to Varginha.
The first night after the trip I spent "na Roça" with my family.

So this was a big post about one of my greatest memories here in Brazil.
Soon I'm going to tell you about the last week and the graduation of my older host sister and of course Christmas time here in Brazil.

Frohe Weihnachten, Feliz Natal & Merry Christmas,

Sandra

3 meses, 100 dias & uma mudança na minha vida

Oi gente,

Yeah, I’m still alive. I haven’t posted anything for a long time, but it has a serious reason:

I changed my host family.

To the majority it will be a little shock, because I’ve never told that I wanted to this. I don’t wanna talk about the reasons, just: sometimes it just not should be.

And for me it was the right decision.

I’m still living in Varginha, just in another part of the city now.

With my new host family I’m getting along really well and I enjoyed the first weeks here so much.

I have 3 host sisters now: one is older than me and she’s finishing school at the moment, a nearly 14-years old one and a little one with just 10 month.

My host parents have a car repair shop next to our house and I know a lot of the employers who’re working there too.

All my host uncles, aunts and their kids are living close to our house too, so I can see them often.

In my first week I made a spontaneous trip to São Paulo with my uncle, one of my host sisters (the 13 year old one) and my cousin to pick up his dad. He was in Ceará (state in the north of Brazil) for 3 weeks to visit his family there.

We went there in the evening and arrived at midnight. Before meeting my host uncle we had a midnight snack at Mc Donald’s. It was a cool trip and when we arrived in Varginha again in the morning I didn’t have to go to school :D

One of my first weekends here I spent “na Roça” because my family has a house there. With 3 floores it’s really big, but at the moment we can just use the first one.

We went their Friday evening after I came back from my tests and stayed there until Sunday evening.

The house is near a river and we made a little boat trip one it on Sunday.  I took some photos because the nature is really great. The exchange student from Thailand, my new family hosted last year, said it looks like Pantanal.

I enjoyed the time with my family there because every day some family members and friends arrived and stayed for some time.

And of course: the food was too good – like always *-*

School is getting more and more boring. I like some subjects like math, physics, English for example, but some other are really boring. I try to understand them but it’s so boring so I do other things in school. At the moment I mostly reading stories or writing some by myself.

Since my last entry the 3 month mark are already over. And another really important mark:

100 Dias!!! 100 DAYS!!! 100 TAGE!!!

I can’t believe it yet, but the time is really flying. There are “only” 200 days left and at the moment I can’t imagine going home so soon. But of course I’m missing my German family and friends too and I can’t wait to see them again in some month.

The last five day I stayed in Cabo Frio with my two host sisters and my uncle’s family. I’m going to write something about this holidays soon – I promise it ;)

Beijos do Brasil pra vcs,

Sandra