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Okay... more intense updating. Please prepare yourself. I will try to summarize to the best of my ability. Here we go.
Monday, April 19 - Thursday, April 22
On Monday, had a great time at the orphanage with Keri. I went to her Portuguese class with her after we came back from the orphanage, and the people were really nice, but I got a little ADD because it was basic material I had learned already. But after the class was amazing because we played volleyball!!! Carlos invited some friends and we all got together and played at the university he works at. It was amazing and intense. I think we legitimately played for 1 hour and 40 minutes or so. It was awesome.
On Wednesday, it was a holiday called Tiradentes, so we did not have class nor was anything really open. I hung out with Nick and we went to like five different pharmacies looking for this cream stuff for the nasty bug thing that was on his foot. We had lunch at the really awesome vegetarian buffet place, then we walked around some and then went to the grocery store. After that it was a pretty relaxing day.
Friday, April 23:
I actually had a class this Friday because two weeks previously my PPIC teacher was in a minor motorcycle accident, so we did not have class. However, we had to make it up, so we made it up on Friday. After class, I met up with Keri and Nick, and we went to BIG. BIG is a chain owned by Wal-Mart here in Brazil. They also have a Wal-Mart... so I am not exactly sure why they have two stores selling the same stuff. No idea... But it was cool going and being able to buy necessities. Afterwards, Keri and I got coffee, then we met back up with Nick and then Carlos for the movies. We went and saw The Book of Eli with Denzel and it was quite interesting. I have never seen anything like it before, so I enjoyed the originality of it. The plot was not fully explained and laid out in my opinion though, but overall good movie. After the movies Nick and I went out with my friends Hellen and Susan. We went to this really chic bar/restaurant in Batel to celebrate the recovery of Hellen's friend who had cancer and he is in his late 20s, early 30s. It was a really great time. I was able to talk in Portuguese with Hellen and her friend that I met named Ana Paula.
Saturday, April 24:
I took a personal day... during the weekend. haha I legitimately bummed and watched movies all day online. I found this really awesome website that you can watch movies and they are pretty good quality too. It was very nice.
Sunday, April 25:
I had church and we learned about Revelations 14 - 16. It was really amazing and definitely made me think.
Monday, April 26 - Thursday April 29:
I was really excited because on Monday I was finally able to attend an ISE Ambassador meeting, which is an organization I am happily involved in at tech through my department. And of course it was the last meeting of the year. I was able to attend because the girls from the orphanage were on a trip with their chorus group in Sao Paulo
On Wednesday, I had lunch with Ruth's family again, but this time at a different family members house. All of their houses are so beautiful... granted I have only been to two, but they are just amazing. They had fruit trees in the backyard: lime, passion fruit, and maracuja (which grows on a vine I found out). I was able to try the last good passion fruit on the tree. It was very tasty. Lunch was delicious as well. We had rice and beans, of course, salad, creamed corn (?) maybe, and grilled chicken with vegetables. And for dessert we had coffee and Ghiradelli chocolates, which are actually American chocolates. I did not know this. They are from America and I know this because the bag said they were from California. So, overall great lunch/experience and great day.
On Thursday, I had my first Portuguese test for my Portuguese class at PUC (my university). And I think it went well. I am still not sure what I received on it, but I felt good about it. Also on this day, I did grocery shopping and laundry. Quite exciting I know.
Friday, April 30:
I met up with Sarah, who was in my first Portuguese class in Brazil at Celin, and we did some exploring in the city. We went to this really amazing old building that had been renovated. You could walk around and look at the different rooms with the old artifacts in them. The architecture and details of the walls and such was incredible. Then, on the top floor there was an art exhibit from Bahia (North of Brazil). Lots of color and life in these paintings and displays. Afterward, Sarah and I went and had lunch at the famous vegetarian buffet place. hahaha. She had never been there AND she is vegetarian, so I had to take her there. We had a really awesome lunch and conversation. Then, for dessert we went back to the really cool renovated building because they had a really cute cafe. We ordered some lattes and what we though would be carrot cake... it turned out to be a cupcake with an indeterminable flavor. It might have been vanilla... but it definitely was not carrot cake as Americans know.
Later that evening I was picked up by Hellen with Susan and we went to have a girl's dinner at Ana Paulo's, who is the girl I met the previous weekend. She had a really cute one room apartment and she made us this really tasty soup with pieces of beef in it. While eating we were watching CSI and it was awesome. I love CSI. I can follow along in Portuguese now better than I used to. Then, we were watching Two and a Half men because Ana Paulo loves this show and wanted to show me it. Its American, but I had never seen it before. It is pretty funny. What was more funny was her asking me what things meant like "bite me", "Screw you", and "woo woo". Haha. My favorite was explaining that "woo woo" is what some parents say to their children instead of saying penis. Yes, so after all the girls were made up and pretty we went out to this bar/grille called Santa Marta in Batel, which is a very nice area of Curitiba with lots of chic bars and such. It was quite crowded and took us a little while to get a table. It was not the best place to go to meet other people because there were tables everywhere and everyone was stuck with their own group. I did not mind though because I really enjoyed listening to the live band play Eagles, Eric Clapton, etc and trying a Strawberry Daquiri cocktail, which before this point in time I had not known existed. Overall, I enjoyed the day and night.
Saturday, May 1:
This is the Brazilian's Labor Day, so many things were closed. Normally, if it falls on a week day, there are no classes. It was a very low key day for me and I just mainly relaxed, talked to people online, and watched movies.
Sunday, May 2:
I met up with Ruth and then we met up with her friends from her graphic design class to go get sushi. First, we stopped off in the historic area because we had to pick up one of the guys brother. I was excited though because we had time to walk around the Sunday market for a little bit. I really need to go again, and plan on it, to actually buy things. After we left there we drove outside of Curitiba to another city called Campo Largo. The sushi lunch was at a girl named Karina's house. She is half Japanese and half Brazilian. There are a lot of Japanese people in Brazil, especially in Sao Paulo. It is said that Brazil has the largest population of Japanese people outside of Japan. Quite impressive. But yes so I had a really great time at Karina's. It was a make your own sushi roll type thing, so that was fun trying to figure that out. Karina ended up showing me though the right way to do it which was very nice. After lunch we goofed around and took lots of pictures outside in her yard. It was a beautiful day. Then, we went to the store to get some cake and ice cream for dessert. There was around 6 of us crammed into a compact car. haha. It was a fun time driving down the road. We went back to her house and had the dessert with coffee. Then, some people started playing pool while other just sat around and talked. It was really cool because Karina really wanted to speak English with me. She had studied it a while ago, but then had stopped practicing. So, it was really cute because she was really exciting about meeting me and talking with me. So, we talked for a while and then I played some pool and lost. haha. It is not one of my strong games. When it was getting later everyone said it was time to go. One of the guys Eduardo took Ruth and I home which was really nice of him because it was really out of his way. I was not able to make it to church because of the timing of everything, which I was really bummed about. I am really interested and excited about going through Revelations and understanding it better. Luckily though, the sermons are on the internet. :)
Monday, May 3:
I had my second PPIC test this day and I am not exactly sure how it went. I studied a lot for it and had a really awesome study sheet. It was cumulative and then there were some theoretical questions on there that I had not anticipated. Hopefully, it will turn out for the best though. After my test, Keri and I went to the orphanage and had a really great time. There were a lot more girls this time, which I had not expected, but it was still really great. The main thing we are teaching is numbers, colors, basic greetings/sentences, names of basic objects, and just practice reading different material. Also, many of the girls have an English class at school, so we try and help them with their homework as well. After we left, I went to the grocery store and then met back up with Keri for dinner. We went to the middle eastern restaurant that has the amazing Schwarmas. After that we walked over to the mall and walked around there for a while. We were going to get some dessert or coffee. We went to this frozen yogurt place and tried the frozen yogurt to see what to get, and the two flavors they had were regular and some fruit that Keri had known but I did not. So we tried them and the normal was really normal. It was legitimately frozen plain yogurt, not even vanilla. And the pink fruit flavor made me make a fish face. I thought it was a little tarty. The free sample was ample, and we were not wowed by the flavors, so that ended up being our dessert for the night.
Tuesday, May 5:
I went to the grocery store because I really needed to buy things obviously. And I precariously picked things out and made important decisions regarding prices, items in general, and brands. I also got lots of fruits and vegetables and took the time to pick out the best ones and put them nicely in those plastic bags... So I get up to the cash register and get ringed up and everything is in a bag in my cart. I give the cashier my card and it doesnt work... She tries again and it still does not work. This has happened before at this same grocery store, so I ask her to hold on and think I am going to just go get cash because I know there is money in my account. So, I go and try two different ATMS and neither work. Do they say that I have no money? No. They just restart to the main screen every time. So, I was super frustrated and upset, and had to tell the cashier sorry but I could not pay for those things. Come to find out when I got home... there was $0 in my account... I had checked the previous day and there was money, but apparently my bank said my credit card was paid off without actually taking the money out of my account. There was some lapse... so yes.
TODAY!!! Wednesday, May 6:
Never fear though I just ended up going to the grocery store again and picking out the same stuff. This time I had cash though and it was a successful trip. After my adventure to the grocery store, I went and met up with Ruth to get some studying done for our Simulation test on Tuesday. I did not have my night class tonight because the professor had a trip. Regardless, overall today has been a productive day and hopefully tomorrow will be as well. And hopefully, my entries will be shorter. haha Sorry....
Until next time...
AG
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