Inglês é Difícil !

I feel like I say this every time I write a post but man it's been a while!

So now I am going to take it way back and talk about Carnaval. For Carnaval I ended up going to a city called Bom Despacho with my host parents because that is where they are from. A very large part of both sides of the family live there so I got to meet some new people again. We stayed in a very nice house on a farm. It has a pool, hammocks, BBQ area, etc. We left Saturday morning of Carnaval and returned on the Tuesday. Since it's a small town, it doesn't have a huuge Carnaval but it was bigger than I thought it would be. Jane (my host mom) and I walked around the town so I could see a little bit of what Carnaval was like. There was a band in the park and everyone was there dancing, singing, and drinking with really funky costumes. We participated in the parade around the city which was super upbeat and fun. The rest of the weekend was mostly just relaxing at the farm.

The following weekend there was a party with a bunch of the exchange students which is always fun. We hang out a lot but every time we get together, it's as though we haven't seen each other in ages!

On the Saturday, I went to the wedding of Sofi's cousin, Gabi. To be honest, we just went to the party but that counts right? It was a really nice party with really awesome food. I was amazed, once again, at how big my host family is. I met about 30 more of Sofi's relatives and they kept telling me that that wasn't even everyone! The funny thing about meeting new people is the shock when they figure out that I speak Portuguese. They always start out asking a bunch of questions about me to my family because they don't realize I understand everything they say. It is really quite entertaining.
So like every wedding party, we danced and ate a lot. It was really great.


The last couple weekends have been pretty chill, I've gone out to a couple different places around the city with some friends. It's been really cool. I went to this one club called 'Mercado das Borboletas'. It's called 'Mercado' because it is literally located on the top floor of the supermarket. It is huge! It has a couple different bars, a huuuge dance floor, stage, restaurant, lounge area, etc. It's really ghetto looking but it hosts some really awesome parties.

Oh I forgot! Some time in the last two weeks I went with my first host family to my 'uncle's house for his birthday. He lives about an hour outside of BH in the middle of a forest. It is one of the coolest houses I have ever seen in my life! If you have ever seen the movie Twilight, the house was kind of like the Cullen's house in the woods how it was literally in the middle of trees. It was so neat! There were so many windows, it was so open. They said normally they have monkeys around the house but of course, there weren't any when I went.

So, that brings us to last week. I have been very busy in the past week. Last Wednesday I went out with some friends to a rock bar where they had a live band playing covers by tons of awesome bands (The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, ZZ Top, ACDC, Boston, etc). It was SO GOOD! This band was honestly amazing. The voices were perfect! Even when they played ACDC songs, the guys voice was identical! I haven't listened to that kind of music in a really long time so it was so awesome to be there. I kept thinking the whole time how much my parents and sisters by in Canada would LOVE it.

Thursday, I spend the whole day with the Inbound Coordinator of our district (Ivone). We went to her house, had lunch, and then went to this public school that I will be teaching at. Earlier on in the month she asked if anyone was interested in teaching English to public school kids and I said yess!!
So now I am all signed up to teach between the ages of 11-15. I am teaching alongside Ivone's son, Matheus, who also did Rotary exchange and has experience teaching English. It will only be two times a week for 2 months but I think it will be a very cool experience for me.

Friday! Ohhhh Friday. After school, I went to one of my friends house's to bake cookies with a group of my friends. None of them have ever baked cookies or even eaten homemade cookies. We make chocolate chip/M&M. It was so cute how amazed everyone was at how easy and fast it is. They were also really amazed at how good the dough was. At first they thought eating the dough was a weird concept but I convinced them that it is the best part!
That night I went to a concert with my friend, Luisa, from my class. The show was a cover of the Beatles and by that I mean IT WAS IDENTICAL! I am not lying! The clothes, the hair, the faces, the voices, the intruments, even the way they played the instruments! Everything about this band was identical to a show of the Beatles. I couldn't believe it. If I didn't already know that many of the Beatles have passed, I would have believed I was at their concert. It was the coolest show I have ever been to in my life. I wish I could watch it over and over again. They even spoke English during the concert instead of Portuguese.
It was incredible. My words don't do it justice.

Anywho, Saturday I went to a party for one of the exchange students who left today :( Tchau Mateusz, I will miss ya bud!

Sunday I went to my first Cruzeiro game!! Finally I got to go to Mineirão (the huge stadium in BH). For those who don't know, there are two teams in my state: Cruzeiro and Galo. My team is Cruzeiro and we won on Sunday! I went with one of friends, Victor. I loved it so much; Mineirão is amazing. It's rounded so you are able to see the whole stadium from anywhere you sit.

Yesterday (Monday), I went to the school my host mom teaches at to talk to some kids about Canada and about rotary exchange. I honestly felt like a celebrity... Everyone just starred as I walked down the hall and into the classrooms. A few girls widened their eyes and waved excitedly when they saw me. It was really funny actually. It was a really neat experience hearing what other kids had to say about Canada and abut Brazil. Everyone was so anxious to hear what I had to say. I have already talked at 2 other schools about Canada and my experiences. I really love talking to kids about it because they are always so curious and always ask super hilarious questions.
It was super funny whenever the classes would ask me to speak in English for them because I actually had a really hard time! I tried to speak slow and with simple phrases but I kept saying phrases wrong. It was honestly way easier for my brain just to speak to them in Portuguese. My English is getting really bad. I am constantly second guessing myself or spelling things wrong. Sometimes I will say a phrase in English that is the exact translation from Portuguese but in English it doesn't make sense. To be honest, I had a little trouble writing some things in this blog post... yiishh!

Today I had my first day of teaching English. My first class is only about 11 people so it's really nice and small. Everyone there is really into learning so it makes it easier. We started off today just with simple introduction phrases and little games. I had a lot of fun and I can already tell that I am really going to enjoy it. I have been waiting to do some volunteer work here so I am happy to finally be doing something!

So that was a quick and very brief explanation of the last month. Obviously I am forgetting a ton of things but that is what happens when you are busy!

P.S Today is exactly 200 days in Brazil! :) :) :) Loving it!