Kestral Johnston: Two months....

Wow, it's been two months.....Two months packed with so much more than I could ever write. So in a short summary of the past month: I have been sick, gone to 2 flower festivals, learned more Portugués, attempted to be the interviewer in a school project, gone to a radical sports festival, two barbeques, and met with exchange students. Slowly things are coming together, sort of like a puzzle. Each day I seem to recognize more words and speak more. My grammar is still pretty bad, and depending on the subject I can't understand everything. The slang in Portugues  confuses me. Despite all of this though, I'm amazed at how the human brain learns.

After the parade with everyone in their blazers

The public telephone in Holambra. They look like Dutch wooden shoes

At the beginning of September, I went to Holambra for ExpoFlora with the other exchange students. Holambra is a small town, about 1:30 from Atibaia. This town is a Dutch colony, and so many of the things in this town are Dutch and many people speak Dutch. All of the flowers sold during this time are from the area of Holambra. One of the most popular and known flowers of the festival are the Rosas Multicores. The festival was extremely hot, and what made it worse was at the end of the day all the exchange students had to participate in this flag parade with out blazers. It was extremely hot!!! And unfortunately I lost two pins off of my blazer....at least they were Brasil pins I guess.

My favorite flower :)

More Japanese dolls in floral attire

Mt. Fuji made of flowers. Atibaia has a very big Japanese influence.

That same weekend I went to the Festa de Flores e Morangos, which is a flower festival held in my city of Atibaia. Like in Holambra, all of the flowers sold at this festival were from the surrounding area of Atibaia. It was a flower-filled weekend to say the least.

Flower butterflies (borboletas de flores)

Japanese Geishas with clothes made entirely of flowers

Above the city of Atibaia, after a churrasco

Barbeques here are a very important part of the culture and happen almost every weekend. They are called churrasco, and refer to the meat that is cooked in the brick oven. They go on for about 5 hours and include all you can eat food and many people to converse with! It's a good place to practice my Portugues.

The oven

During the last couple weeks I had a nasty cold that made me lose my voice for 4 days, and I didn't go to school for almost a week. I couldn't stop coughing. Being sick was the one time I have truly felt homesick and wished I could just be back in my own bed, knowing what kind of things my mom was giving me to make me feel better, and knowing how to explain what I was feeling. I'm all better now though so that's good.

I think I will be going to the beach here soon....so excited! Especially after experiencing the cold part of Brasil. It was about 38 degrees C one week and then single digits the next. I had on 2 sweatshirts, smartwool socks, and 2 t-shirts. It wasn't as cold as Steamboat I admit, but with the wind chill, and no heating in the buildings, it definitely made me cold!

 This was my favorite thing that I saw in Holambra. They had these umbrellas that each had sayings like this on top. It reminded me of why we are exchange students, to inspire others for acceptance.

My friends from school!

Anyways, that has been my month in a nut shell and I can't wait for what comes next in my adventures here. Tchau, bejiosss. s2