Despedidas, despedidas e mais despedidas

Note: I wrote this entry while I was waiting for my plane in SP, but I didn't get the time to post it back then. But I don't want to delete it and maybe some of you are still intrested in reading it. Some have fun and the next entry will some soon :)
 

Oi gente,

Translated into English the title means “Goodbyes, goodbyes and more goodbyes. And that’s the motto of this entry.

So at the moment I’m sitting at Guarulhos airport and my flight back to Germany is living in about an hour. My last days were full of saying goodbye to people I learned to love in the last ten month. It was so hard for me and I still haven’t realized that I won’t see them again for an unknown time.

I still went to school every day this week and on Tuesday they organized a little surprise party for me and the other Italian exchange student. I didn’t have a clue about it before, because they told me that the money the needed was for a farewell party for a teacher which is going away.

So when I arrived in that prepared room and my friends shouted my name I was so so surprised and happy. But of course it was sad at the same time too, because it was a sign that I would leave soon…

Wednesday in the afternoon I meet with my friends for the last time and Thursday after school I had to say goodbye. It was a horrible and sad moment for me, but I didn’t really cry, because back then I haven’t really realized that it means I won’t see them again soon.

This day at the evening all members of my host family came to our home and we had a little farewell party too. My family gave me a very sweet cuddle toy to me and my mum told that every time I see it I should think of them. And I’m sure I’ll do that.

But even then I didn’t cry.

I only started crying this morning when I had to say goodbye to my host mum, dad and my little sister. It was one of the saddest moments in my life.

But I promised to everyone that I’ll come back and you can be sure, that it is coming to be true sooner than later.

So know waiting for entering the plane I can’t really say who I feel. I’m like a vacuum; I feel nothing at all to be honest. Maybe that’s going to change when my plane takes off and I’m really on the way home. Maybe then I’ll realize that my exchange is over and this time won’t come back…

For the moment that’s all I wanna say. I’m going to write again when I’m back in Germany, but I don’t know when exactly.

Até logo,

Sandra

Minha última semana no Brasil

Oi gente,

So yeah, maybe this will be the last entry from Brasil. If I get the time, I'll write again next week before me flight back to Germany. But don't expect it!

First I wanna tell you about my one-day-trip to Campinas which I've already mentioned in my last post.
We met at the bus station at 3am, but only left it about an hour later (welcome to Brasil :D). On the three-hour drive I almost slept nearly the whole time.
After arriving at the university called "Facamp", we first had breakfast and then went to our respective lectures. I'd chosen International Relations and it was very interesting. After it I was even surer, that it is exactly what I want to do after school.

Later we went to the "Shopping Park Dom Pedro" to have lunch. Because all the tables were occupied my friends and I walked around a little first.
After lunch we visited a place with lots of gambles and a little 4D-cinema too. We decided to try the last one, but it was only fun because my friends who sat in the first row screamed the whole time because of nothing.
After that it was already time to go back to the bus again. The drive back to Varginha was quit until a stop at Pouso Alegre. After that everyone began to sing Brazilian songs, dance and jump in the bus corridor. Even the teachers took part in it. It was so crazy!!! But I loved it :D

My last weekend has very busy. Saturday I went to two birthdays. The first one was a children's birthday party and later it was the birthday of one of my host dad friends. So I didn't go to bed early of course.
Sunday I had to get up early because my host uncle's family took to a small town where my host mum's grandmother lives. It lies outside on the country side with nothing besides fields and animals. It was interesting to visit it and get to know new family members. My Brazilian family is so big, even after 10 month I don't know everyone.

AFS committee Varginha

This Tuesday the AFS farewell-party took part. It was a nice evening and I liked to see everyone from my organization again. They did a lot to help while my exchange, so it was a good moment to thank them for that.

I'm going to miss you all so much!!

One of the best evenings I've ever had was yesterday. Almost all my friends came to together for my farewell celebration with them. It was a great and funny time. And I got really emotional when they gave me a photo album as a present.
I can't thank them enough. And after yesterday I'm even surer that I won't find any better friends someday. If some of you read this: EU AMO VOCÊS!!
As I'm still going to school next week, I'll see them all again, but even so it was the perfect last evening together. Thank you for that! :)

The present - isn't it lovely?

So next week at this time I'm already in Germany again. I haven't realized it yet...
Today there is as big event of school and there're going to be dances, food etc. from the entire participants of the world cup. I will take lots of photos and show you of course :)
Here two more random photos:

Some of my teachers and I

Futsal game in my school

Até logo,

Sandra

Páscoa, Belo Horizonte & meu último mês

Oi gente,

Yesterday is history,

Tomorrow is a mystery,

Today is (a) present!

When I started to write this entry last week, there my last month here hasn't just started. Now it's already only about 3 weeks (where did the time go???). I still haven't realised what it means and I try not to think of it too often. I just wanna enjoy the last time with my host family and my friends before I won't see them again for an unknown time.

Now to a lot more happier thing: Easter or "Páscoa" how they call it here. Like in Germany everyone gets sweets as a present, but instead of Easter bunnies and little eggs of chocolate, big chocolate eggs are more common here. I've already seen them some weeks ago in the supermarket where there usually hanging from on a big bay.

I got one of these Easter eggs from my family too and I really liked it. It's wrapped beautiful and when you open it, you find a big chocolate egg there made of two halves which you can break and then you can find even more sweets inside. I love that idea and I would like to have them in Germany too.


Three weeks ago I stayed in Belo Horizonte for one weekend for the third time. We had our second and last AFS orientation there.
An Italian exchange student from my city and I took the bus at 11am on Friday morning and arrived in BH after only 4 1/2 hours (which is really fast!). At the bus station there we met all the other exchange students from Minas Gerais and it was so nice to see them all again after about six months.

Friday we ate Pizza at the same restaurant as the last time and later went to a little bar just to talk a little more.
Saturday we had some activities to reflex our exchange in the morning and then we had lunch at a kilo restaurant which was very delicious. In the afternoon we had some more activities about our return to our country of origin and then some free time.
Later we all cooked food from our home countries for dinner. The Italians cooked Pasta with tomato sauce for us (of course :D), one girl from Thailand mad hot chicken and the other Germans and I tried to make "Kaiserschmarrn" (something familiar like pancake) which ended up to be better than we all expected.
So we had a very international dinner this evening.

Our last evening together we spend talking and later I and some of the other exchange students ended up sitting on the couch wrapped in warm blankets (it was soooo cold!!) and watching the third part of Harry Potter. So I didn't get much hours of sleep that night again.

Sunday morning we had two last exercises to do and then we've already had to leave to go to the bus station again. We had lunch there at a kilo restaurant again, but soon we had to say goodbye to the first ones. Of course I'll see (nearly) all the Germans in a little more than 30 days again (way to soon!) when we fly back to our home country, but I don't know if or rather when I'll met for example the Thai girl or the boy from Texas again. This thought made me feel really sad and I nearly started crying when I was on the way back to Varginha (alone this time). The whole journey I couldn't stop thinking about this, the farewells that will come too soon and other thought about my exchange.

Alemanha, EUA & Itália ♥ (copyright by Laura Tiesler)

When I arrived in Varginha in the evening I had to wait for about 45 minutes at the bus station and I really hated it. I think that's one of the few places I don't feel save, especially at night, in my city.
I was happy to be home again and went to bed fast, because I had 12 lessons of school on Monday.


That's all I have to tell you this time. This weekend I'm going to visit a university in Campinas and later we will go to the biggest shopping center of Latin America. I'm already looking forward to it and so I think the next post will be about this (besides something special happens before).

"The greatest happiness on earth is sitting in the saddle of a horse"

 As I started with a quote, I'm ending with one. This one is from Sarah (one of the exchange students here in Minas), she told it at our AFS weekend and I really liked it, because it's so true:

I've learned to love Brasil and appreciate Germany.

Até logo,

Sandra

P.S: Before I arrived here in Brasil, I thought it was a warm country. I changed my mind: Brasil is soooo cold!!! I'm freezing the whole time at the moment.

50 dias até Alemanha

Oi gente,

So exactly 50 days ago I posted here for the last time and I'm really sorry for that. I don't have any excuse for that, time is just passing so fast and I couldn't tell anyone where the last few weeks have gone.

So here's a little resume of what happened in the last few weeks:

*My birthday hadn't been exactly the best day of the year because I've been homesick all day. I don't why it was that worse this day, but nothing could make it really better: not having lunch in the city with my friends and not the little party with my family at night.

This was on my birthday :)

*Over Carnival we were at our "Roça" and just relaxed there.

*My host family and I have visited my older host sister two times in Itajubá where she's going university. The city is really calm and beautiful, I liked it a lot. Just the traffic there is more than bad.

*My host uncles bought two horses and I love horses! One of them is really wild and fast, so no one except my host uncle himself can ride it. The other one belongs to my host cousin and is a lot more
calmer, so I got the chance to ride it too.

*I got my Brazilian ID Card and I'm so proud of it :D

Sou brasileira agora :D

*One of the English schools in my city had a little party at St. Patrick's Day and I've been invited to do some propaganda for my organisation AFS because they need new host families. It was a pretty cool evening and the kids have been really nice and interested.

 

A little bit luck is good for everyone

*We had a math project/competition at school. My group had the exercise to play (math) games with 6th year (Ensino Fundamental) and it really went well. We won our part, but all in all the 3rd year (Ensino Médio) won.

Amo vocês!

Amigos ♥

*On the Saturday which was planned to be the day of the math project we got the news that one boy from the 3rd year who had cancer died this day. I haven't known him, but I started crying too because all my friends had been so sad. There have been three days of mourning after that.

*Last week I came down with a really bad cold. I felt really bad, so had to go to the doctor. Thursday afternoon Friday I slept nearly the whole time, but Saturday I've already felt better again. To get a cold here is very easy because of the weather. It's autumn now and so the mornings/nights are really cold, but during the day it's still getting hot. So you never know what clothes to use.
This week it started to rain a lot and it was cold the whole day. Anyway it's really strange, because the chill here is worse for me than the chill in Germany (and it's getting a lot colder there).

Chuva, chuva, chuva

*My first "Bimstre" (part of the school year) 2014 and third overall ended this week. I'm proud because I passed in nearly every subject without getting the "exchange student bonus". Just in História, Filosofia and Literatura I got some points more than I reaches myself.

*Tuesday my last and not even complete "Bimestre" is starting and it's making me really sad. Now that I understand almost everything at school and I really like the most subjects. Just math, physics and chemistry are making me crazy, because we're not allowed to use calculator here, but I'm used to it.

Another exchange student here in Brasil posted this picture on Facebook some days ago. It really made me think about it and for me I'm sure the second one is a lot harder than the first one. I built up a life here in 10 month and soon I'm going to leave it (forever?). And even if I come back some day, I won't be same again. At the moment I'm part of my host family, my circle of friends and my class at school. When I'm coming back I'll just be a visitor.
And that's why I'm getting scared and sad of my return to Germany...
When you decide to go on exchange, you really can't imagine how hard it will be to leave at end (anyway for me).


So I think that's all I have to tell you at the moment. Next weekend we have our (last) AFS weekend in Belo Horizonte. I'm looking forward to it, even it will be the last time I see some of my AFS friends.

Happy Easter, Feliz Páscoa & Frohe Ostern!

Sandra