Just a Bunch of Exciting Things

There are so many things to tell in the blog post so brace yourselves.

I will start with a few weeks ago it was exciting that I finally got invited to do something with my Rotary club. They invited me to a German themed party at this really fancy place. The food was so good and the music was great. There weren't any other exchange students but it was cool because I got to get to know more about some of the Rotarians. We danced, talked, and ate a lot. (There was even apple pie!!!!!)
The next day (Saturday), I went to another city outside of Belo Horizonte to where all the outbounds were having their orientation. Me and 3 other exchange students went there to talk about our countries and our experiences abroad. I even met a guy who will be doing exchange in my district in Canada next year.
It was really weird being there because it feels like just yesterday that I was the outbound at my orientation in Canada...
Time really flies.
That night I went out to that night club called Swingers for my friend's birthday party. I went there with the new Argentinian exchange student and the rebound Mariana. We dressed up in costumes and danced on top of the bar; it was excellent.

On the Sunday I just chilled at Mariana's house for the whole day and watched Cruzeiro (my soccer team) win the big game against Galo (the other team of this state). It was a big deal because Cruzeiro will move on and Galo won't.... HAHA!
That night I got a phone call from my club president saying that I will be switching families on the upcoming Tuesday... 2 DAYS!? First of all... I didn't really know I was going to have a 3rd family and so it was a surprise... and I had one day to pack up everything. It was a really rushed goodbye to Sofi's family but I know I will still be seeing them so it's okay.

I moved into my 3rd and last family on that Tuesday night with 6 bags. They all laughed at me because I had 2 huge suitcases and an extra 4 other bags of random crap. (I really don't have a clue what I will do when I go home)
The reason they wanted to me to move so soon was because my new family wanted to take me to Rio!!! So on that Thursday I went to Rio for the 3rd time. It was amazing. We spent all day on the beach and then I went out with my host siblings every single night with their friends as well.
Oh yea, I have two host siblings living with me: a sister, Barbara, 19, and a brother Lucas, 23.
My other brother is 27 and doesn't live at home.
My host parents are really nice as well! My host dad is from my Rotary club so I already met the two of them beforehand.
I have my own room here with a TV and a computer. They have already hosted exchange students and Barbara has already done exchange in Belgium. She just got back last June so it's nice to have someone who understands me. They all speak English and they all love traveling, it's perfect.

After we got back from Rio I had two days of relaxing before I went to my big year-end Rotary Conference in Caldas Novas (12 hours from BH).
I took a bus with 30 other exchange students from around BH on Wednesday night. As always, the bus had blaring music and all of us dancing and goofing around. I barely slept at all.. and it was an overnight ride.

It was so awesome when we got there because all the other exchange students started arriving as well so it was a huge reunion. There were some exchange students that I haven't seen since the first orientation in September so it was really cool to reconnect with them. That day we had a test on Brazil... everyone failed pretty much hahaha it was on the history and geography of Brazil. I did pretty bad I think. The person who did the best got a medal. That person was not me.

The thing I loved about this weekend was that we had so much free time to spend with each other. Did I mention that the place we stayed at had like 8 hot pools? Yea, Caldas Novas is famous for their hot natural pools. On the Friday morning, we had our conference so we all had to dress nicely with our blazers and flags. A few people from my Rotary club went and cheered as I walked down the isle. They even chanted my name and I felt pretty special.
We walked in with the song 'Waving Flags' then on the stage all of the exchange students had to sing a song called 'Tempo Perdido' which means 'Time lost'.
Then a kind of unexpected thing happened...
One of the Rotarians called me aside with 5 other exchange students. We were called to the front of the stage to receive medals for being 'destaque' which literally translates to 'spotlight' so essentially the exchangers that stood out for them this year. When the chairman put my medal on me, my club all stood up and started chanting my name again. I had the biggest smile on my face, I can't even explain.
It was a really special moment.
After that, we got some more free time at the hotel then all 54 of us went out for acai. Imagine over 50 foreign people walked down the street at once then standing in line at a little acai shop. The workers kind of freaked out a bit but they handled themselves well.. haha

That night we went to a Rotary party but only stayed for like an hour and a half because everything was super expensive and it was all Rotarians.... hahaha no offense! No one (except me) wanted to dance in front of them.
So instead, we went back to the hotel and had our own party with music and danced outside.

The next day (Saturday) we went out to the huge waterpark with all the slides and hot pools, cold pools, wave pools, indoor and outdoor pools. It was sooo huge! We spent the entire day there. It was hilarious because even though it was super full of people, it was always easy to spot the exchangers. Just a bunch of super white kids.

After the waterpark, we went back to the hotel to get ready for our ball. Everyone was all dressed up so beautifully. We had the ball with all of the Rotarians and the families in a big hall. There was a huge stage and a really good band that played almost every genre of music from classic rock to samba to funk!
I danced so much with the exchange students and the Rotarians! It was nice to see everyone getting out there and dancing together.
When they played the song 'Lepo Lepo' (a super famous song right now in Brazil), me and my friend from Finland, Anni, went and danced on the stage with the singer. Now.. this already sounds quite funny but what makes it funnier is that that song is actually super inappropriate and has really inappropriate dance moves... but did we dance inappropriately on the stage at a rotary function anyways? Of course we did! Everyone was laughing so hard at us and even some of the Rotarians were getting into it. The older Rotarians were giving us that 'I'm watching you' look but overall we were a hit.

You would think that the party would have ended once we got back to the hotel at 2am.... but nooooo! We had another outside party that lasted literally all night. We had the Brazilian music going and everyone was dancing all night. Some people started going to sleep but others stayed up and danced, and others (cough *germans*) went swimming.
I didn't sleep that whole night. At around 6:30 me and Stian (my best friend from Norway) went looking for breakfast... I was so tired that I was started to speak in a slow and slurred 'portingles' that not even I understood.

After breakfast it was time to say goodbye and get on the bus... except this time we had to actually say goodbye goodbye to some of them... I cried and cried because I really have no idea when or if I will see them again. It was really sad but I guess I at least still have a couple more months with the ones I got especially close to.

To be completely honest, I don't know what I am going to do when I say bye to the ones that I call my best friends... There are a couple of them here that I can honestly call my bestest best friends and I hate the thought of leaving them...

Então eu vou aproveitar estes últimos meses aqui no Brasil e tentar não pensar em despidos ainda. Eu ainda tenho mais 3 meses cheio de coisas novas e boas experiências. Eu já sei que eu vou sentir muitas saudades do meu intercambio e todas as pessoas que fizeram uma parte dele. Eu sou muito grata pela essa experiência e essa vida bonita. Espero que esses últimos momentos sejam muito felizes e memoráveis. Eu ainda não estou pronta pra voltar mais quando chegar a hora, vou ficar destruída.