FOOD

A typical lunch in Brazil. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and every Sunday we go to sua casa de minha avo (my grandmother's house). It is not just a stereotype that Brazilians eat only rice and beans: we have it at least once a day! In this picture we have pasta with red sauce (because Grandmother is part Italian), fried potatoes, chicken, pork, mini french fries, rice with olives and eggs and of course beans, plus some bread crumbs AND the wonderful fruit juice of Brazil. All of the fruit is so fresh which means all of the juice is natural and delicious. I am almost never hungry! We have breakfast in the morning, lunch at 12, snack between 3 and 4 (which basically counts as another meal) and dinner as early as 8 and as late as 11, depending on the day and if we go out to the restaurant or not. Tomorrow I am making chocolate chip pancakes for my family so they can get a little taste of America too!

View from the top

I looked out the window of the plane when I saw that we were finally going over Sao Paulo and this is what I saw... I said "Oh my God, Gostavo, what is all of that??" He said, "Oh it's just the farmland. You don't have in America?" JUST FARMLAND??? We have farmland in America for sure, but not farmland that looks as if it could be hung in the contemporary wing of Museum of Fine Arts!

Bem Vinda para Caratinga!

The first week of my adventures is complete!

Complete with delicious food, wonderful sights, beautiful weather, lots of body language to make up for the lack of understanding the same languages and most of all, so many lovely people.

As all of my family knows, it was a roller coaster of emotions trying to say goodbye to everything and everyone, but once I got past security there was no turning back. I took my back pack and rotary blazer, wiped away the tears and excitedly moved on to the next chapter of my life.

My first real encounter with a Brazilian was on the ten hour flight to Sao Paulo; Gustavo, a college student coming back from a vacation in California. We talked practically the entire of the ride, he made a list of all of the food I had to eat and all of the Brazilian bands I had to listen to and I practiced my Portuguese colors. It's only been a week and I have two CDs with over a thousand songs that my fellow students made me and I have crossed off half the list of food! Checked off, rather, seeing as how I will gladly eat all of them again.

We parted in Sao Paulo where Gustavo pointed me in the "right" direction of a small security check (the road less traveled). I showed the security my boarding pass and proceeded to take off my blazer and load my items into the buckets. They all whispered to each other, I think trying to decide which of them could talk to me in English. I just nodded and smiled politely, got my things and was ready to move on. One of the men checking the screen pointed to my blazer, smiling, and took the pin on his jacket off and handed to me. "Ohhh!!!" I then found my little american flag pins and returned the favor. They all cheered and I waved goodbye.

When I got to the screen to check my flight I noticed "Belo Horizonte" was no where in sight... When I went up to the men standing next to the screen they smiled and said this is the international side of the airport. I guess my new friends couldn't find the words to tell me I was in the wrong line! But I got there eventually after meeting a man who told me he had been an exchange student when he was young and that it was a life changing event, one of the best times of his life. It was nice to hear after such a difficult goodbye.

I made it on my flight and met my new family at the gate where they were holding signs and balloons and cheering for me. I felt my face light up with one of the biggest smiles I have ever had as I went over to give everyone a hug. The first thing the noticed, though, was the new pin I had gotten at the security check. Mariana, my exchange sister, asked me harshly, "Where did you get this pin?!" I said oh from the nice people at security... "This is the bad team!" Not only had those new friends of mine led me in the wrong direction they got me in trouble with my new family too! All was resolved when I put my new jersey on, the Cruzeiro soccer team: the good guys, as my nephew would say.

It's only been a week and already I have many new friends, I know what my favorite food is (mandioca frita- a type of sweet potato almost, made like homefries) and I have learned so much Portuguese!

It's good to be here and I hope this means my mom can breathe a sigh of relief!