No more new posts

Now that I'm back I feel that the blog isn't necessary anymore so I'm not going to be posting anything new. I will still leave it up but there wont be any new posts from now on. Thanks everyone for reading and keeping up on what was going on in Brazil, it was amazing and I'll never forget it.

I'm Back

I finally got back yesterday at around 10:30am. On sunday we went back to the airport with the same paper the police originally said was outdated, was actually not outdated at all. It was the policeman that talked to us that looked at the wrong date and earned us a $200 dollar fine for nothing. So I managed to get on the plane and finally I'm back in Olympia.

Brazilian Law Troubles

Right now im still in Sao Paulo on our friend Marcelo's computer at his house. We couldn't leave last night because I didn't have adequate authorization for me to travel internationally since I'm still a minor. This is extremely frustruating and absurd but for now I'm stuck in Brazil until I can get the authorization. The problem is that the international travel laws changed a few months ago so my authorization to travel from CIEE is no longer valid and now to travel internationally I need authorization papers from both my mother father. Since my dad isn't here he needs to fax us the papers and then me and my mom need to go to a judge to accept the papers and then finally we should be able to leave. Even if I go on the same flight as my mom we still need the papers. Yesterday we were denied access to the check-in and were sent to the Police inside the airport to see if we could get authorization. The police denied us and sent us to a judge today. We got to the court at 8:40am today and got in line with a bunch of other families in the same situation. Unfortunately the court where they sent us was only for minors with both parents present and for juvenile criminals. It was a complete dead end. The judge didn't even talk to us at first, after a half hour of us waiting outside in the cold she sent a random woman out saying that we wouldn't be able to get authorization because our paper was in english and we needed papers from my father. We managed to barge into the judges room and talked to her but she was extremely stubborn and wouldn't help us. She kept saying that we didn't have the correct papers and that we were at the wrong place. She sent us to another location that we need to go to tomorrow at 1pm to try and get authorization there. In the meantime my dad will try to send a fax authorizing me. Then before 5pm today we need to go to the airport to change both my flight, which I already changed and payed $200 dollars in fines, and my mom's flight to a later date hoping we get the authorization from the other judge. We just finished searching all over the neighborhood for a fax, we found one but who knows if it will work, or if tomorrow the judge will give us authorization, plus we are looking at around $500 dollars or more in fines from changing flights and who knows when we will finally get back to the US. If EVERYTHING goes perfectly we will get on the plane tomorrow night. But that's only if everything goes right. Let's pray it does.

Birthday!

Today I had a WONDERFUL birthday! Unfortunately I have too many photos to post here but we took a small tour of the city, and had a great family dinner with some friends as well and I said many sad goodbyes. It was still a very happy occasion though. I can't write very much right now though because it's very late and I need to go to bed so I can pack tomorrow. I've been up for hours uploading photos to my computer, music from Bernardo, and responding to birthday messages from friends on orkut. I'm especially going to miss my family here Ivania, Paulo, Bernardo, and Laís. They were so wonderful to take me in and they will always be in my heart as my parents, brother, and sister. I love them very very much. Tomorrow, me and my mom will be interviewed on the radio at 8:30am, we will say our last goodbyes, and we leave for Porto Alegre a little before noon tomorrow. I received many wonderful gifts including books, clothing, and photo albums with tons of notes written from family members, friends, and students from around the city. The people of Veranópolis couldn't have been more hospitable and I will always remember them. I love so many people here and they will remain in my heart forever.

Piano Performance

I just got back from performing piano at the "Casa da Cultura" or (house of culture) with my classmates Taís and Greg. I played the beginning of Rhapsody in Blue, Prelude III by Gershwin, the Mozart Concerto in C Major, Waltz in C# minor by Chopin, Prelude in B flat minor by Chopin, a classic Brazilian piece "Tico Tico no Fuba", and the official Grêmio Football Porto - Alegrense Anthem. There were about 50 people there including family, Nana's students, my classmates, and friends. It was a really great way to say goodbye to a lot of them. Then afterwards my class had a goodbye dinner at a restaurant called "Rab's". We took a lot of photos and said some tough goodbyes. We had a really good time though, like we always do. They even gave me a really great package with a book that Nana and Paulo say is really good, a bowl of candy, and a really sweet card from the whole class. Tomorrow me and my mom will be interviewed by the local radio station, and we will have a special dinner at "Rigo's" with many other people who want to say goodbye. I'm definitely gonna miss Veranópolis very very much.

From Left to Right: Greg, Taís, Marcela (Greg's sister who sang along with him), me, and Regina, my teacher.

My teacher Regina

My Mommy Is Here

What else can I say? My mommy is here with me and we're leaving to explore the Amazon on the 24th. For now we're gonna stay here and see the city.

School Is Over

I just got out of CETEC for the last time. I said sort of preliminary good-bye's to my teachers and classmates. I'm still gonna come back and say good bye on Monday but I wont be able to see some of my teachers again. Now I have 2 and a half months of break ahead of me, my mom is coming on Sunday, and we will both go see her side of the family in Amazonas on Wednesday! I'm very excited, but it's incredible to think that I will soon be thousands of miles away from all the people I got to know, hung out with, joked with, played soccer with, learned with, and got so close to for almost 11 months. Today someone told me that I don't even seem like an American anymore, we've all gotten that close. My class was so great. I'll never forget them.