Gym/School Schedule

I'm going to a gym now. It's a tiny little gym with about 13 different machines and two bathrooms but I like it. There's not much else to say. Things are going pretty smoothly and normally. I'm learning a lot of interesting things about the differences between the USA and Brazil. Here no one knows about tabasco, ranch dressing, or jalapeño chips. Also everyone is curious to know why I came to Veranópolis of all places it's funny. I'm not sick anymore and hopefully I wont be for a while. The weather here is about 65 and sunny every day. School is going good. I'm starting to understand physics and math but everything else is still really hard. It's so incredibly hard to learn an abstract concept in another language. The principle told me that I will only have 1 grade at the end of the year rather than grades for each of my classes so that will help me to not fail. My schedule looks like this:

Monday: Physics-Art-Dance [Lunch] Chemistry-Music

Tuesday: Biology (two hours)-Writing-Math-Chemistry [Lunch]

Wednesday: Biology-Math (two hours)-Physical Education (which is pretty much just Futebol) [Lunch]

Thursday: Philosophy-Portuguese (two hours)-History (two hours) [Lunch] Computer Information-Math (two hours)-Futebol

Friday: English (two hours)-Physics-Literature (two hours) [Lunch]

It's pretty complicated but on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday we only have half a day so it's really nice to relax or to catch up on late work. 

Field Trip

Today was a cool day. We went on a field trip to a windmill power plant and a marine biology center. It was me and 9 other kids from my class, and people from the third year classes at CETEC.

The bus left at 6am from school. It wasn't a "school bus" like the black and yellow kind, it was like a Greyhound bus with a bathroom and everything. The power plant was called "Ventos do Sul" (Winds of the South). It took 4 hours to drive there but I slept most of the way. There are some nice pictures of me sleeping that I will try to post on the blog. It was cloudy and kind of cold but there was wind so the windmills were doing their jobs. They guy said they were 100 meters high which is like 328 feet so it was pretty impressive. There were tons of windmills, so many I couldn't count. They were built in a flat, wet, swampy grassland area and there were cows everywhere. While the guy was talking a cow walked up to all of us and started mooing. We had to wear hard hats for some reason so that was pretty stylish. Then we went to a building there to see a movie about windmills. It was about 2 minutes long and was really bad. They guy talking to us was really boring and I couldn't understand anything he said but it was still cool. The guys all around me couldn't stop laughing at the guy for the whole time and they eventually had to leave the room. It was hilarious.

We went to lunch in a random small town that was very wet. We ate at a buffet that had really old Fejoada and other brazilian foods. There was a McDonalds but I had already paid for food at the buffet so I couldn't eat anything big, I still went over and got a milkshake and it was amazing. I really want to have a hamburger sometime but the nearest McDonalds is in Caxias do Sul.

Then we got on the bus again and left for the marine biology thing. That took about an hour. We got there and it was raining a little bit but it wasn't that bad. It's a place for wild marine animals that they find stranded or in need of help and they take them in and help them until they can release them back into the wild. They had lots of birds that I've never seen before, a monkey on an island (I don't know how that is a marine animal), penguins, a Lobo Marinho or "marine wolf" kind of like a small seal, and a gigantic Sea Lion called Gordo. We got to take pictures and stuff and they got Gordo to come up close to us and eat some fish. He was huge. They said that once he wanted fish and he attacked a woman who works there. But he is a nice sea lion, and he only has a small pool and a little area to stay in so I felt a little bad for him. After that we went inside the center to look at whale bones and fish. Then we had a wonderful 4 hour bus ride home and arrived around 8:30pm. We are home now watching a Grêmio game. Both the windmills and the marine center were on the beach. That's why we had to drive so long. I didn't exactly get to walk on the beach but I was near it, and I saw it from a distance. The weather was bad and the day wasn't about the beach anyway so I'll have my Brazilian beach day later.

No Grêmio Game/Olympics/Dating

We weren't able to get tickets in time for the Grêmio vs. São Paulo game. It was completely sold out. We still watched the game on tv though. Grêmio won 1-0. It was really rainy today and I have a sore throat that Bernardo gave me so if we had gone to the game it wouldn't have been too fun. The rain here is crazy, it's not like the rain in Olympia. Olympia rain is small and whimpy and constant, but Brazilian rain is sudden and furious. The drops are like a gallon each it's crazy. And then all of a sudden it stops.

In the Olympics Brazil isn't doing so good. They have 4 bronze medals and 1 gold but the 1 gold is a really big deal here. It was won by a swimmer named Cesar Cielo Filho. Every single day there are more and more highlight videos of him winning and receiving his medal and crying, everyone is so proud of him. (as I am writing this there was just another crazy burst of rain out of nowhere). The Brazilian futebol team is doing great though. Both men and women are undefeated. I learned that Ronaldinho is a Gaúcho which means he is from the same region of Brazil that I'm in right now. 

I also learned a lot about Brazilian dating. The average relationship in the USA lasts about 3 months give or take, but the average Brazilian relationship lasts about a year! One of the english teachers at New Age, who is 24, has been going out with her boyfriend for 8 years and she doesn't plan on getting married. Marriage is more of a religious thing here where as in the USA almost everyone gets married and it's not as sacred.

Guto said that he will try to get us tickets to another Grêmio game, most likely a GRE-NAL game which would be unbelievable. We'll see how that turns out.

Radio Interview

Today I got interviewed by the local radio station. The guy from the station said he would email me the recording and then I will try to post it.

GRE-NAL Results

So last night when the game finally ended at midnight it was tied 1-1. Internacional scored first off of a penalty kick from a ridiculous foul called in the box. But Grêmio came back with an amazing header goal. Grêmio was using their reserve team in order to rest their starters for other games.

Also tomorrow morning I'm gonna be interviewed for the local radio. If you want to hear it it will be aired at a later date. I'm not exactly sure when but I will get all the information so you guys can hear it over the internet.

Futsal Tournament

Today instead of going to school everyone went to the Futsal court to have a tournament between all the schools of Veranópolis. Futsal is indoor soccer but with boundaries so you can't make wall passes. I didn't know this was happening until we pulled up to the Futsal court instead of school. All the players were so amazing it blew me away. I didn't play, because I would've been completely destroyed, and consequently our school did well! Both boys and girls got second place out of about 5 schools. Both lost to a school called São Luis but it's not really fair because São Luis has about 1,600 kids and CETEC only has 90. It ended about noon and I'm free for the rest of the day. It's really nice. 

At 9 there's the infamous GRE-NAL. It's the game between Gremio and Internacional who are huge rivals since they are both from Rio Grande do Sul. We are going to watch it at Guto's house and I'll be sure to say who wins. AND on sunday we are actually going to a Gremio game! They will play São Paulo at Gremio's home stadium in Porto Alegre. I'm unbelievably excited for this. My first legitimate Brazilian futebol game. It's gonna be crazy.

Saturday Party & Talking To Classes

Sorry for the gap in posts. I've been busy playing soccer, talking to english classes and partying. The party on Saturday was freaking amazing. It was more of a concert/night club. There were SOOOO many people there. I've never experienced anything like that before. There was a band playing called Cidadão Quem which apparently is very famous. They were very good and everyone loved them. The night started at 11:30 when I went to Foche's house with Bernardo to meet up with the other 9 guys. Then we all went to Gabi's birthday party at her house. That was really fun, we stayed there until about 12:30am and then we all left for the main party. It was at this huge building with a bar and a dance floor and a stage and everything. There were even security guards in suits stationed around the entrances and walking around. The band played for a really long time but they left around 3am. When they finished, the lead singer threw his guitar pick into the crowd and I caught it. It was really funny because I wasn't really paying attention and I saw this white thing falling and I thought it was a bottle cap. I was curious so I just stuck out my hand and I caught it. Then I realized that all the people around me were freaking out looking for something on the ground and then I saw the pick in my hand and realized what was going on. It was pretty cool. I still have it and I'm keeping it as a souvenir to remember the good times I had at the party. After the band stopped playing they started to bump this weird techno music. They were all American songs like "My Humps" and "Low" but with ridiculous techno beats, it was pretty funny. Me and Bernardo finally left at 4:30am but the party still wasn't over. All in all I had a great time and I cannot wait until next week for the next party.

There's a guy that goes to special events in Veranópolis and takes pictures to put on a website so I added some of those pictures.

So today after lunch I went to Lais' school to talk with her class about America and stuff like that. But what happened was the class next to hers also wanted to come out in the hall where we were and listen and ask questions. It was crazy because every one of the 50 kids had like 5 questions and they all screamed them at me at the same time. Then some of the teachers that heard the craziness coming from the hall walked by and told me that they wanted me to talk to their class too. So for 4 hours I went from class to class telling everyone my story and answering the same kinds of questions like "what is your school like?" and "do you have any siblings?" and "what is your city like?" and "what is your favorite color?" and many many more. It was so tiring and when I was done I came home and to relax I got to talk to Nana's class at her English school. It was really cool though because everywhere I went people were shouting my name and saying things like "Hello" and "How are you today?" to show off their English. It was funny.