Stuff and Nonsense.....

Everytime I walk to the post office I see this, and everytime I am tempted to purchase one. Why do I get this feeling that I'm going to end up carrying one stuffed into my backpack onto the airplane when I go home ^^?

Well, I didn't update yesterday as I had a birthday party to go to that a friend of Alyssa was having and I was unexpectedly invited to.It was actually quite fun and really sweet of Fernando to invite us as the only other people there were her cousins,brother and his wife.So it was actually a very fun little party, and not the loud, huge affair I had been expecting.It was held at the Italian restaurant in Lins, fortunately I actually live within seven to ten minutes walk from the two major restaurants in town, which makes it extremely easy to meet people as I don't actually have to wait around or rely on my host family to take me etc...Despite my careful planning to arrive twenty minutes late, I was still one of the first to get there.This was actually good though as it gave me a chance to talk quite a bit in portuguese with people I'd never met before,I tend to get terribly shy talking portuguese around Alyssa as she is so much better at it than I am.However when I'm on my own I usually hold up really well and it was great just to be able to talk to some people as I have the whole week off of school so I've been quite isolated these paast few days and haven't really spoken much at all T_T.It was also nice and encouraging to meet people who didn't expect me to speak perfect portuguese after two months here, as most people around Lins expect me to be on the same level as Alyssa and either ignore me or make rude comments when they find out I'm not, so to actually be able to talk with people who are not put off by my attempts at conversation and seem geuinely interested and impressed is encouraging beyond description ^^. Eventually Alyssa showed up as well and I indulged in teasing her most of the night as evidently this was all you can eat pizza night, which she loved and to my amazement devoured ten pieces of pizza and a slice of cake 0_0...all the while trying to explain to me that they weren't actually all that large anyway ( imao they most definitely were :p).I suppose she had the right strategy as they certainly didn't make any money off of her whereas I could only manage two pieces.She tried to tell me that it was her glutinous American side that was to blame for the pizza consumption and I retorted that if it was the American side why wasn't I displaying any symptons ?Therefor it must be blamed on her French half.. we actually argued about it most of the evening :p.. and I finally informed her that she was simply disgracing both countries in such wanton acts of indulgence :p.

Alyssa, caught in the act of gluttony :p
Fernando trying to outdo Alyssa and failing
Fernando's extremely nice cousin looking very evil and sneaky for some inexplicable reason ^^
They even had brigadeiro pizza, oh the look on Alyssa's face when she saw it, she was one happy girl :p.


Anyway I was actually intending to blog about Sao Paulo but I'm simply not in the mood for it especially considering how long it will take to upload all of my pictures, so I will get to posting that later, probably tomorrow or this weekend sometime.So today I will actually stray from my desperate attempts to just recount what I've done so far in an attempt to not let this get too much out of date and instead just write about random things that occur to me and that do not neccsarily make any sense together ^_^.

My neighbors are the loudest, oddest people I have ever had the misfortune to live near, they are even worse than the people that live across from me back in Ohio.Houses here have little to no sound insulation evidently, I rather suspect that they simply aren't well insulated because of the weather here but I have yet to confirm this.Whatever the cause when I am in my room I can hear EVERY SINGLE THING that goes on next door as we are only seperated by about ten feet and a low wall.At midnight I will hear roosters and chickens crowing and squawking amoung raucous laughter and squeals, at three in the morning there is singing and yelling about things that don't make a bit of sense, at dawn there are the early morning arguments over breakfast,during lunch I have to listen to their tedious conversation while answering my mail, conversation which I unfortunately can now understand most of, which makes it even worse.Currently they are clanging dishes and sweeping the floor in an exceptionally noisy fashion with a traditional broom and at any hour whatsoever I can usually hear dogs barking and what sounds like enthusiastic participation in an orgy .Needless to say it keeps life interesting and if you ever call me and wonder why it sounds as if a full battle is ensuing, do not be the least bit concerned, after all it's just my dear neighbors :p.

My first actual real conversation with a Brasilian in Brasil left me with a very bad first impression actually.My host mother was extremely frustrated at my inability to understand everything she said to me on my first morning here in the airport while we were waiting for my host brother Iuri to arrive.So she decided to get a man sitting next to us who spoke comprhensible english to translate for us.Well it rather turned into an interrogation of me and ended up with the man translating trying to talk more to me rather than translate.In fact though he spent most of his time insulting the USA, going on about how perfect Brasil was and how awful my own country was, informing me , an American, that all Americans are rude,cold, unkind, arrogant curs,that the USA has no beauty at all, and implying that I would be arrogant enough to force everyone around me to learn english so I would not of course have to trouble myself with such trifling matters as learning the language of Brasil, because I was not fluent upon arrival, nevermind that one of the reasons I came here was to learn portuguese..ugh...Anyway it was probably a good thing that I was so dazed and tired at that moment as even then I had quite the time holding my tongue and temper at his implications,stereotyping,and narrowminded rudeness, if I had been in my usual cynical,biting caustic wit I probably would have said some extremely uncharitable things on the subject of the oh so wonderful and openminded Brasilians like him .Fortunately this has been pretty much my only encounter like this that I can recall and almost all the other Brasilians I've met have been extremely nice and open, a pity I met him on my first day though as it certainly did not help to endear this country to me.

If you have green or blue eyes and come to Brasil, do not be at all surprised if random people or anyone you are introduced to grabs you by the face and exclaims " QUE LINDOOOO!!!!!! ", this is perfectly normal, even though many people here seem to have eye colors other than brown.Colorful eyes still seem to be a valued atribute and you will be told by almost everyone that they " want to steal your eyes".

If you ask Brasilians what country they want to visit most the answer is usually the USA.However if you ask them why they want to go they can almost never give a good reason.Instead they usually mutter something about Disney and speaking english, but most of the time cannot name any of the famous cities nor do they usually know anything at all about the lovely geographical features etc.... there are a few exceptions of course, but it is still most amusing that so many of them want to go somewhere they know virtually nothing about except that it has Disney, New York City, and Linkin Park was from there :p.

I find it highly ironic that I live in a region of Brasil that produces massice amounts of coffee, however I almost never get the oppurtunity to drink any.Almost no one I've met here consumes coffee at all and if they do it is invariably unbearably oversweetened, most people here think it extremely odd that I crave it and am delighted when I get the chance to quaff scorching cups of lovely unsweetened black coffee ^^.I by no means thought I drank much coffee at all in the USA, usually only a cup a day, occasionally I would have an extra one in the evening, but here I have only had five cups in two months T_T.

Wearing extreme amounts of perfume is very common, especially amoung the youth.Which is a bit odd considering that Brasilians shower very often unlike some other countries and really have no need of perfume.I have always personally found excessive perfume to be a turn off, but now I am obliged to run up and kiss everyone who is plastered in the stuff :p.

The fruit I have not actually found to be especially better here, although admittedly that might be because I find a great deal of tropical fruits to be far to sweet for my taste.The fruit juice however is amazing and almost everywhere you go it is possible to find a shop that will sell you a glass of freshly made juice in almost any combination you could wish for ^^.

Vegetables are given the lowest possible status and people will invariably grimace at the slightest mention of consuming them. Something I take great delight in ^_-.

Brasilians have an odd complex where they seem to be under the impression that the rest of the world knows absolutely nothing about them and believes they all live in mud huts.So I have to continually fend off questions about whether I was shocked by Brasil when I arrived.In truth Brasil was almost exactly how I imagined it except I actually rather expected it to be slightly more modern ^^.I do loke Brasil, but I rather wanted a country that was drastically different as opposed to being only slightly different, as that tends to be more what interests me and enthralls me ^_^

As many of you know I studied Asia extensively as it was really where I wanted to go more than anything.As an unexpected result of this I spent my first two weeks bowing instinctively to everyone I met and to thank people etc.. this seemed to both highly amuse people and disconcert them.I eventually ended up apologizing and explaining to my family's maid and cook that it was natural to me and please just bear with it.

If you ever come to Brasil bring a handheld traditional fan.It is extremely hot, most places don't have airconditioning, and it will make you many friends and give you something to talk about as it never occurs to anyone else here to bring one, despite the fact that it is an excellent idea ^^.

Orientation Week

At the acai restaurant with the girls again, acai turns your lips positively black when you eat it by the way, so be prepared to look like a bad vampire extra from a shoddy horror film after consumption :p.


On tuesday orientation week finally began. For the first day all the exchange students went to the house of Mario Perez, who is basically in charge of us all, for four hours to meet each other, be told yet again the rules of rotary, and be given a very entertaining talk by the president of the travel agancy we will be using for all of our trips.My district ( 4480) is very large although it doesn't have much diversity as far as students are concerned and half of them at least were American, we also had no one at all from Asia , which was bitterly disappointing to me.I rather supposed my expectations were going to be too high though as I came from an extremely good district in Ohio, also it seems that my fears about a lot of the exchange students that came to Brasil, came mainly in order to party and not much else as a result of it's reputation as the ultimate party country.Still having to deal with it in actuality is a bit rough epsecially since Brasil isn't a country I'm exactly passionate about I knew would already have a struggle loving it,so I was really hoping that my district would be a really great group.. ah well.. at least a few of them are really nice.Alyssa,Eva from Germany,their host sisters and friends, and I went out for acai at a restaurant that evening ^_^, it was really enjoyable just to go out with a group of girls , talk and have fun. Alyssa and I both adore acai as well, which is a plus ^^, although I have the hardest time convincing Brasilians that not only am I already famliar with it but have been consuming it for years in the USA, as they seem to be under the impression that no one outside of Brasil could possibly know of it's existance ^^.

Our second day we headed to a water park for a full day of relaxtion, bonding time, and sunburn.Starting out on the trip I wasn't too optimistic as I had to endure an hour long bus drive listening to all the different ways the exchange students I was sitting with were breaking every single rule ( I did sit with the wrong group on the way up), how they were turning into alcoholics here,way too many details of their sex lives, their cravings for such exalted substances as Mac n Cheese, all the charming ways they use webcams to sexually stimulate their boyfriends back home, and how they just wanted to run away and live in Brasil forever. My thoughts on the matter were that if they ran away in Brasil and died of STDs in some hovel that would be fine by me..although I really should not be so uncharitable..bleck... I was just exceptionally fed up at the moment.Once we actually got to the water park though it was great fun, and was perhaps the most enjoyable day I've spent in Brasil.This water park was fairly large and had the advantage of having absolutely no lines ^^ and naturally heated water drawn from hot springs, very nice as it was actually a relatively chilly day ^^.I pretty much just spent time running around in the park having fun and getting to know people, since my district is quite large though we never actually did things all together but were usually in about three or four different groups wandering around. I did meet some fun ,cool people amoung the exchangies though ^_^ and I do hope that they will be good friends as I'm definitely in need of some.

Thursday afternoon we all grouped together and headed off for a several hours to tour the largest Guarana factory in the area and a local tv station.It wasn't the most exciting way to spend the day ( although that might have had something to do with the extreme heat) but I found an awesome German to spazz about Japan all day with ^_^, he wanted to go to Japan more than anything as well and never really considered Brasil, so we had lots talk about and sympathasize with.The Guarana factory was resonably interesting and I couldn't stop thinking that quite a lot of people I knew would really have enjoyed visiting it, whilst the other exchange students whined about being bored to death ^^.They also gave us free hats which was fun, and we all promptly started to model them. Then it was off to the tv station for a short lecture and tour of it, during which some of the students took advantage of the broadcasting room to camwhore to their heart's content :p.

That evening I went out again with Alyssa,Eva,our host sisters and some friends but this time to a Japanese Restaurant ^________^.Alyssa and I were so excited as we having been craving Japanese food like nothing else ^^.It was quite the oddest Japanese restaurant I had been to though as none of the staff were Asian,almost none of the items had their japanese names on the menu, but instead were in portuguese making it very difficult to order different types of sashimi, a lot of the dishes were not Japanese anyway, they didn't have such side dish staples as edamame or seaweed salads at all,and they found it extremely odd that I wanted to order hot green tea instead of fruits juice.Honestly what else apart from green tea, sake, and Japanese beer are you supposed to drink when eating Japanese food, certainy not pineapple juice with mint ?I still had great fun though, in fact it was probably much funnier to me because of the fact that it wasn't in fact very Japanese, a fact that became clear to me when I requested a bowl of miso and was met with extremely blank stares ^^, really who doesn't know what miso is ???? It's one of the most famous imports from Japan. I eventually just ended up asking for soup and was served a delicious, steaming bowl of miso a few minutes later ^_^,I must wonder what they do call it if not miso??? they must call it something afterall you can't run a proper business and have such a vague name for such a staple :p.

The last day of orientation we had a churrsco in the afternoon and early evening, again at Mario's house.It wasn't terribly exciting, they sat us down and lectured us on stuff that we already knew and then they had a fairly hilarious attempt at teaching us some Brasilian dances.It was basically epic fail on all our parts but at least we had fun laughing at each other ^_^.We then just sat around and talked for a few hours and traded pins ,cards etc...I had to leave the party at seven in the evening as I had to catch a bus back to Lins that night.My host family in Rio Preto was leaving somewhere the next morning so I had to be back to Lins by that night.I was really sad to part with my family in Rio Preto as I felt more comfortable and happy with them after a week then after six weeks with the Hiratas. But such is life and I do hope to go back and visit them sometime again while I'm in Brasil.I was really touched by how genuinely fond they seemed of me and how warmly they had welcomed me into their family, from they way they hugged me whenever I was slightly down, teased me, constantly made an effort to talk with me, ran through the rain laughing with me even though they couldn't undertand why I actually liked the rain, and even adopting my habit of saying aish... constantly as they found it so endearing.The bus ride back was quite uneventful, although they don't announce what the stops are so you have to pay really close attention to make sure you get off at the right city ^^.I didn't really do anything at all the entire weekend as most of my Brasilian friends weren't available and Alyssa was still in Rio Preto, so it was a bit of a depressing end to the week but at least when I returned to Lins I found a letter from my aunt and a box full of cooking utensils,clothes,Japanese Literature,Tacitus,and ingredients to cook with from my parents, waiting for me so that cheered me up immensely ^_^

Sarah showing off some fantastic chopstick skills at lunch, the both of us were thrilled to see chopsticks and insistd on eating everything with them, something that Pierre could not for the life of him understand and kept teasing us about and calling us crazy ^__^, which we were of course :p.
Most of the people I hung out with during the day ( although we are missing Alyssa,Tim,Alejandra and few others in this photo), here we are trying to figure out what to do after we got seperated from everyone else after lunch.
Some of the swimming area of the water park, it was so so much bigger but I didn't have time to walk over and take any pictures of it, sorry.
Pierre and I at the end of the day at the water park, happy, sunburnt, very tired and silly as ever
Inside the guarana factory
Pierre ( France) being fun weird and very faily french gangster as usual ^_^
me and Tim ,our only Australian and a very fun laidback bloke, modeling out fabulous free hats ^_^
District 4480 curled up by all the guarana, btw guarana is a very famous soda that they only have in Brasil and is made with a special berry from the Amazon region. I'm not terribly fond of it but I think that has more to do with my dislike of soda in general, rather than being a slight on guarana, I'll probably end up bringing a little back with me for some of you to try as it is fairly iconic here.
My only real picture of Rio Preto, sorry for the awful quality, I hate those stupid power lines as well, must they always be in the way???
Preston ( nebraska) camwhoring and playing with hairspray at the tv station
At the Japanese restaurant with the girls ^_^

A haircut at last, a family that I finally felt I belonged with, and a positively absurd party

Me with my lovely new mother Lissandra and sister Larissa a few minutes before I left for Lins.

First off I should apologize for being woefully lazy in regards to this blog. I believe it has been three weeks since my last entry and it's not as though I haven't had time to update, it's rather that I'm simply a terrible procrastinator.I shall really attempt to be prompter in future though, so bear with me^^.Three weeks ago on the 19th of september I left for Rio Preto, which is one of the largest cities in my area and is about an hour and fifteen minutes drive by car , although three hours by public bus * shudders.I had to go to Rio Preto for my orientation for inbound exchange students in rotary district 4480.Orientation actually did not commence until the 22nd and lasted until the 26th; but Alyssa's host family was taking her early as her temporary host family wanted her to come early to spend the weekend and as my temporary host family was equally excited to have me come earlier it was far easier to just go several days early with Alyssa.I was quite excited at the prospect of finally having the chance to see a bit of Brasil apart from Lins and at the chance to get away from my host family in Lins as well and go to a family that actually seemed interested and excited about me,even if I was only going to be able to live with them for a week.

Before meeting our new host families Alyssa and I went with Ana Paula and Mariana to get our hair cut in Rio Preto.Ana Paula goes to quite a good stylist and agreed to schedule appointments for the both of us.An opportunity I was delighted at as I had been feeling unkempt and hideous for quite some time now because it had been over seven weeks since my last cut T_T ,and finding a good stylist in a different country where you can barely even communicate is daunting to say the least ^_^.The stylist did an excellent job on me although I had quite the trying time attempting to persuade her to cut my hair in the first place as she had declared my hair perfect and was rather woeful at the prospect of trimming it .Fortunately her technique was superb and my only problem now is to devise a way to come back soon as people here barely get their hair cut so it's not as if I can just go with Ana Paula in another five weeks.It is interesting to me that most stylists here seem to have their salons inside their own homes, which makes them difficult to find if you don't know the right people but also creates a lovely relaxed chic enviroment, we curled up in her kitchen and drank cappucccino ( my first decent unsweetened cup of coffee in seven weeks ^_^) and ate cake together while chatting during a break. It was one of the most welcoming and friendly atmospheres I had experienced in a business enviroment.

We met up with our respective host families at a mall and bade farewell to Ana Paula and Mariana that evening.I was slightly apprehensive that this family would turn out to be similiar to my current family in that they seemed loving and fun in writing but in actuality were far from it.I needn't have worried however as this family could not have been more different from the Hiratas.My host mother Lissandra made me feel welcomed and loved from the start as did my younger sister Larissa ( 16 years old ). My youngest sister Nathalia ( 9 years old) was extremely shy to talk to me at first but after I pleaded with her she brightened up and in a day was making fun of her friends for acting silly and being shy with me ^_^.I will never fail to find it odd that so many Brasilians are very shy and hesitant to speak their native portuguese with me and feel far more confident trying to talk in bad english, which I never let them unless it is only a sentence to explain a word etc...I have to beg , plead and cajole them to speak portuguese and usually have to start by stumblingly asking them not to be embarrassed and that they are making me sad that they won't talk with me etc... whereas I should be the one embarrassed as my portuguese is still essentially epic fail.I went out to eat friday evening with my host family and spent some time getting better acquainted with them.My week with this family was so good for my portuguese and really makes me wonder how much father I would be along if I lived with a family that was younger,talked with me, or did things with me more often as I was constantly talking whether it was to ask questions,explain things about me, my family , the USA etc.. or just curling up with my host mother and youngest sister while teasing Larissa about how incredibly slow she was at getting ready :p.

On saturday night Larissa and I had a fifteenth birthday party to attend.In Brasil fifteenth birthday parties are essentially a formal debut and quite and elaborate affair so I was thrilled at the oppurtunity to attend/observe one ^_^.This being Brasil although the party began at nine in the evening we actually didn't arrive until a quarter till eleven as Larissa really does take an age to get ready for a party. I think all told I was ready in about twenty minutes and she took over two hours so I spent most of my time waiting around talking to my my host mum and together we engaged in some lively teasing of Larissa ( I've really missed having someone to tease ^_^ and clearly I was spoiled by how fast Bananas can get ready ^_-).

We finally arrived at the party and spent an hour or so talking with people until more diverting things began to happen at the party.It started off with a large amount of the guest of honor's best friends or classmates and their dates forming a processional and then a pathway of raised roses and candles for her to enter through.She entered and began to waltz with her father,grandfather and of course her boyfriend whilst a photographer flitted about her snapping pictures and her friends formed a ring with lit candles to surround her.After the dancing there was some sort of speech by her father and then a man came into the room bearing upon a pillow a single lavender high heeled sandal, he then knelt at her feet and delicately fitted it onto her foot.I practically died of laughter at the absurdity of it all, I was quite aware that most Brasilians I've met are disconcertingly obsessed with disney but I hardly expected to see bad reenactments of Cinderella when I attended parties ^_^.After that was the presentation of the cake which involved two men clad only in trousers and bow ties running down the center of them room bearing it above their heads and presenting it with a flourish.It was the epitomy of bad taste, who hires half naked playtoys for a fifteen yeat olds party????I could hardly believe it at first and took so many pictures of them to prove to myself that I wasn't actually hallucinating :p.The cake itself was quite pointless as well, as they never even ate it although considering that it obviously conatained a great deal of fondant it probably would have tasted vile anyway.It still bothered me though as I have had so much experience making cakes and pastries for special occaisons and believe that it is just bad taste to have a center piece that isn't actually appetizing as that is the primary function of it, regardless of the desire for attractiveness and it's hardly as if both qualities are especially difficult to attain ^_^.

Later that night they opened up the dance floor, which Larissa was pleased about as evidently she loves to dance.I did dance some although I've resigned never again to try and dance much in five inch heels as it's ridiculously tricky to mantain balance ( I really need to find a balance board here to work on mine ^^).There was a man who danced with and threw flames around the birthday girl on the dance floor, so that was entertaining.The people at the party had trouble believing that I had seen things similiar or superior to this display, I'm not exactly sure why though as it hardly seems uncommom to me.They had an interesting thing where the staff went aroung blowing whistles and making people open their mouths where upon they poured some type of liquor into their mouths,grasped their heads firmly and shook them extremely rigorously for twenty seconds or so.Evidently this was supposed to make them go crazy or some such thing.Well me being rather amused and curious at the whole ordeal decided to give it a go and as the staff were very fond of me at this party ,so instead of just shaking my head ,I got the privilage of being the only person that they actually picked up and twirled around the dance floor in their arms ^_^.The alcohol and spinning didn't have any effect on my though ( even though I tried it again the normal way just to experiment) but I've always loved spinning in circles so I didn't regret it in the least ^_^.Around three it was anounced that they wanted to everyone to leave with in forty minutes, something that shocked and dismayed the Brasilians who then spent a great deal of time complaining about how it was a terrible party and who leaves a party as early as three anyway? I didn't mind in the slightest though as I was unusually tired at the time and quite happy that my host sister was being forced to return home ^^. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed myself though as it was quite the most absurd event I have attended in recent memory and I could barely stop laughing at most of things which went on, which was of course why I enjoyed myself ^_^.I am extremely happy that these parties aren't common in the USA though as they are a terrible waste of money and I would far rather travel to some interesting country as opposed to having a party at which everyone fawns over me.

Sunday was relaxing and lowkey.I spent it with my host families visiting their aunts and grandparents and having to explain that I didn't mind in the slightest that they all were extremely loud and talkative when their family was together as it was hardly relegated to Brasil as they seemed to think and actually highly remniscent of my own family ^_-.My host family was amazingly and sweetly insistant and perserving in their attempts to find me food that I like and I think we must have gone to five or six supermarkets until we located one that sold sushi and raw vegetables that I like.Something they need hardly have done but that was wonderfuly kind and welcoming of them especially as they couldn't actually understand why I would actually want to eat raw fish and vegetables anyway ^_^. I was ecstatic at the prospect of finally having healthy food as I had been positively pining for it and spent the entire week eating lightly steamed vegetables and sashimi.... ahhhh... bliss ^_^.

My family had a minture poodle puppy called Baby, who was quite cute. Although I found it immensely diverting that my host family considered 80 F far too cold for her and made her wear a fleece dress during some of the time I was there.When they inquired as to how I liked it all I could bring myself to say was that I have always preferred dogs with only their natural coat as adornment ^^.I also then had to recount stories to them of my dearest Zipper ( my little cute kitty ^_^) shivering in 20 F weather and walking through the deep snow while going up to paw at the door to be let in, an account they were shocked by as the concept of allowing a beloved pet outside in such conditions in beyond their comprehension ^_^.
The sunset from the back of my family's house
Larissa's bedroom ( and mine for the week) and yes this is actually a perfectly common and acceptable way to decorate your room.I sometimes long for the refined sophistcation of my own with its gentle focus on living plants,books and learning, art, light,and soft fluid fabric..sigh...I also can never get over the fact that they all have these massive framed photos of themselves over their beds...how do you keep from dying of shame I wonder
The back of the house
The view from Larissa's balcony
At the party , I was lazy in uploading photos so there are tons more at my facebook if you haven't seen them

Me being forced to wear a dress, I don't think most people have ever even seen me in one so here is a photo to prove I am aware of their existence, actually I adore dress design due to my study of fashion, I just always feel ridiculous wearing them

Forming the pathway for her to pass under ( I apologize for photo quality, lighting was simply dreadful at the party )
The charming cake bearers. What, don't you want to hire some for your next big event :p?
That stuff was disgusting and I have no idea why they were serving it as it seemed little more than congealed pepto bismal, luckily I didn't actually get a cup but due to my curiosity I did sample a friend's as I couldn't believe that it was actually all that bad, my mistake .

The guest of honor herself, looking nice and silly, although at this point in the party that was actually the formal theme. Did I mention she changed outfits four times?

A grand explore among other things ^_^

Well this past weekend was quite low key but enjoyable none the less ^-^, I do tend to get excited about the oddest things anymore though, recently it was the weather this weekend.In the past few weeks it has been in the 90s and constantly sunny, but over the weekend it finally became cloudy, cool and rained all saturday ^-^, I was ecstatic as melancholy weather puts me in the most artistic and inspired moods.I spent most of saturday curled up with my computer and copious cups of tea finishing up my blog updates, writing letters and sketching fashion designs. That evening I went to meet some people from school at a friend's house for an enjoyable evening of games and a movie.I had to put up with them watching a posivitely dreadful horror film for a bit until everyone grew too disgusted with it and abandonded it in favor of more pleasurable pursuits, namely mimica ( charades but for movie scenes ) and dessert ^-^.Alyssa and I attempted to act out some scenes but unfortunately my cultural references being slightly from the norm, we had a bit of difficulty coming up with ideas, and after they failed to recognize the famous riding scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail we gave up all together, as the only thing I could think of ended up being asian and when you mention asian film they think of Jackie Chan and Jet Li ( shudders) instead of Zhang Yimou, Gong Li,and Wong Kar Wai ^_^.

This afternoon after what seemed to be ages of cajoling I finally convinced Alyssa to come on an explore of Lins with me.We got rather a late start but we still managed to spend a fair amount of time wandering about central Lins while Alyssa got some photos developed.We found the town park/square which is tiny but very pretty and proceeded to take most of our photos there.Which has the unintended consequence of making Lins appear far nicer than it actually is ^_^.I also made it to a grocery store ( probably boring Alyssa to tears in the process but she was a good sport ) and spent a long time wandering around trying to figure out what is available here and plot things to cook ^-^, all the whilst bemoaning the prices as anything of very good quality is usually imported and therefor absurdly priced.I spent several minutes agonizing over whether or not to purchase a few hundred grams of camembert but in the end sadly decided against it due to the exorbitant price T_T. I am positively dying for want of good french cheese,bread,lovely fresh vegetables, wine,mochi, and Japanese food here as all these things are either impossible to come by where I live or exceptionally expensive ,and rather to my dismay I've become slightly stingy now that I no longer have a job T_T.I did procure some ingredients for biscotti and I do hope I will be able to make some before I leave on saturday for my Rotary inbound orientation. All in all it was quite good fun and I plan to entice Alyssa out again soon so we can work on getting to know some of the other areas around Lins ^_^.
I'm not sure what these steps were supposed to lead up to, it was almost like a gazebo without a roof ^^
Looking down at Lins from the park
random street around Lins
Some sort of official looking government building I chanced upon
At Estella's for pizza ( I'm getting so sick of Brasiliand pizza !!) and games
Shops and parks in dear little Lins ( have you noticed how often I emphasize that this place is miniscule?^^)

The main catholic church here in Lins ( or as Alyssa put it " it looks like a disney castle or does that not make sense?")
hmmm... all the park benches were hideous concrete with advertisements painted on them ( very classy )

An odd week and a lovely weekend in winter

My fifth week here was rather interesting as my host parents left on tuesday without really telling where they were going or when they would be back , in fact I didn't even know that they went somewhere for the week until they never showed, but it wasn't that big of a deal as my host grandmother had come for a visit so I wasn't entirely alone for the duration of the week.I did miss school one day as a result of Tania not telling me that she had arranged for people to pick me up.I just rather wish my host family would make more of an effort to communicate things with me, but evidently that's simply not how they do things.I went on a short trip with that was arranged by my school to another city nearby for shopping and a play.I did finally manage to make it to a bookstore but was so aghast at the prices that even though I desperately wanted books I didn't purchase anything T_T.We then proceeded to the theatre at which I experienced the positively worst theatrical production I have ever witnessed, from the cast of only five men ( attired in drag most of the time), bad popular american music mixed with fragments of gregorian chant blasting through a terrible sound system as their concept of a soundtrack,atrocius costuming consisting mainly of spandex and feathers ( and not much of that either, both the main characters barely wore anything), acting that was uninspired to say the least, and a pathectically redundant plot.It was quite the experience to say the least and was made even more diverting by the fact that most of the audience actually seemed to enjoy themselves and think it was decent ^_^.Even though it was ten on a school night and we still had an hour and a half drive home ,nearly everyone on our bus decided that we simply had to make a forty minutes detour to McDonalds.I didn't mind terribly as I was more bemused than anything at the lust for bad american fast food, but Alyssa was quite traumatized as it meant that she would get less than six hours of sleep that night. Everyone kept asking us if we were sure we didn't want any thing from McDonalds ^^, and I had to explain to them that I really didn't want to break my record of not eating there for seven years ^_^.My weekend was quite fun ( if not very exciting ) and I spent essentially all of friday,saturday,and sunday with Alyssa and her family at their ranch and apartment.I did finally get to bake for the first time in a month and I was ecstatic to say the least as this is the longest I have been without cooking or baking in the past two years . I am accustomed to cooking or baking things four or five times a week so not being able to or not having a well equipted kitchen has been a little trying for me here.I made chocolate orange walnut cookies for Alyssa's family and it was quite the most makeshift affair as we didn't have measuring spoons or cups,cookie sheets, cooling racks,the right leavening agent,spatulas, zesters,proper ingredients, and our oven only had three settings ^_^, but at least they turned out well enough that everyone liked them ^^.Alyssa's little ten year old host brother did insist on tryig to help me though and was most mischevious in the process.I spent half my time running around the table trying to wrest away the ingredients that he had snitched from me and attempting to explain to him that when you zest oranges without the proper tools it is inevitable that you are going to lose a good deal of zest ^^.I also fell completely and unrepentantly in love with hammocks during the course of that weekend and in fact spent most of my time swinging in them and scheming as to how I could accquire one for myself ^_^.
They insisted on posing with my cookies, so evidently this photo is somewhat of an advertisement for my cooking

On the steps of their ranch house, I really do like this one much more than my host family's as even though it's smaller it's much more beautifully designed and located
Me with my two culinary students

I was quite surprised and delighted to see that mulberry ( amore in portuguese ) trees are quite common here. So here are the girls trying to pick mulberries and getting covered in juice ^^ .
Lounging at the pool, while I dashed about trying to find something to put the cookies on to cool
Another solo shot Alyssa insisted on taking of me with my cookie dough
Outside the theatre with random people from my school
Waiting for the play to start
The lovely Ana Paula, I really do adore Alyssa's family and they really have been most kind to me.They also brew loose leaf tisane which is quite enough to make me appove of them ^_^
Trekking down to take pictures
A bit of the lovely river chockful of piranhas. Charming isn't it :p?