Messing Up

It happens sometimes.

Earlier this week, my host parents sent me out to buy bread. In Brazil and pretty much everywhere except the United States, people actually eat real bread (yes American, I am hating on your flimsy bread), and therefore you must buy it at the bakery...or bread-vending place. Whatever it's called in English.

To be fair, my directions were given after a long set of confusing instruction and much bandying of words between my host parents (everybody has their specific bread preferences, it seems. Me? I love bread. It's a bit of a problem.), they sent me off.

So, right. I went to the bread-store-place and got what the told me. 7 loaves.

But when I got back, it appeared I was supposed to get 7 loaves of two different types of bread.

Oh, right. Gotcha. I totally...did not understand that part. Whoops.

It's not that it was a big deal or anything - I just feel like it's worth mentioning if only to say that it's okay to mess up. We're here to learn. You know that. Your host parents know that. Your host siblings and people in your host community know that. You mess up, you learn from your mistakes, and then you try harder until you get it right.

It might be a good idea to reiterate this to yourself. And just remember - we've got your back.

Three months left.

- Jake

Canoa Quebrada

I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Canoa Quebrada is a beach located in Ceara, about a two hour drive from the city of Fortaleza. The city itself isn't so much a city, but more like a conglomeration of settlements. There's the main settlement, and then there are a few small housing developments a mile or two away in any direction, and it's like that.

Everybody arrived at the apartment of one of the AFS volunteers at 9:00AM (what? 9:00? On a Saturday? That's so early!) for our 10:00 departure. We actually left at 10:15, but this is basically 10:00.

Just a small part of the AFS Family

 It was during this time that I learned that we were actually receiving four exchange students instead of two, and that AFS was starting a new chapter in Caucaia (go to another language for more information...English Wiki is seriously lacking the goods this time) and placing two of the students there, one from Germany and the other from Thailand. Unfortunately, one of those students arrived by 9:00 but hadn't paid in advance (because his host parents didn't tell him about the trip, or something...?) and couldn't go. But he was the only one. We other seven went. Poor guy. Next time, I'll drag him by the ear.

Yes, we actually went to Broadway. Who knew?

We stayed in a pousada (hostel) owned by a guy who lived in Italy. Laura, our resident Italian, was delighted.  Not everybody had arrived, but we went to our respective rooms. Boys and girls. In total, we were 15, 8 boys and 7 girls. Five of the boys were arriving later, so it was just three of us to start.

And here it is. Pousada.

Well, we did some quick math and figured that the girl's room was bigger, so we needed to switch. But no. You know how girls can be with these things (no offense). So instead, we guys were going to vote somebody off the island, so to speak, to sleep in the girls' room, or we were gonna half to break out the hammocks and sleep on top of each other. Almost literally.

Just before lunch.

We went down to lunch, which was actually too much food. I think my stomach has shrunk. I am definitely not eating as much as I would be eating in the US, and I don't feel any hungrier. 

After lunch, we took a ride to the beach. I'm not actually sure how the transportation system works, since we never once paid these guys anything. But...

Sitting on the back. Don't try this at home.

It was pretty crazy. Almost crashed with tourists that didn't understand the road signs a couple of times (which was really scary, considering that there were no doors or windows and four of us weren't even in the car) but then we arrived at the beach. I think these drivers just like to show off, because we inclined it on the sand at a pretty solid 45-degree angle. Don't let go, don't let go...

But the beach! I was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

But then, so are we. :)

There was only one buggy (that's what I'm calling it), so we had to wait for the second group to get here. That called for a dance party.

See? I didn't even make that one up. 

One of the volunteers taught me and Elif two traditional dances, which I may or may not have already forgotten. And no, it's not all just salsa. And yes, it is much harder to dance on the wet sand. But I think we covered it pretty well.

But then they arrived and we set off towards our real destination: the symbol of Canoa Quebrada, a certain point in the sand formation.

This, and between the pass. But mostly this.

And then we took so many pictures it's taking too long for me to look through them all. But here's a favorite:

What am I doing? What is Elif doing? Why are we up there?
How did we even get up there? Why didn't I take a picture
of that?

As it turns out, the symbol of Canoa Quebrada is the same symbol that is on the flag of Turkey. So weird. Yet so awesome. Welcome to AFS. 

It's actually really, really, really tall.

 And then, y'know, shenanigans galore. What else?

This kid's name is Kiki. She's awesome.

And then, while everybody else was having fun and shouting like
"massive surprise inheritance", I was actually working on something.

We decided to go swimming.

To Africa.

To Africa!

Sadly, we did not reach Africa. The conversation went something like this:

Elif: Guys, we have to go deeper! *goes farther out*

Alex: Elif, you're so small! Don't get swept away!

Elif: *rolls eyes*

Me: Deeper! Whoo!

Elif: Whoo!

Laura: No! Guys, there's nothing there but Africa! *dramatic pose* Africa, I say! *she pauses* No, wait, is it really Africa?
Me: It's Africa.
Alex: Africa?
Laura: AFRICA!

It's what we do.

The others arrived, so we went to dinner! Comedaaaaaa!

In this new group were the other two from Thailand, Int and Puri (who we called Juni), two other volunteers from AFS, and this guy that just knew all of them from school. Sitting in that restaurant, we had the United States, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Thailand, and Brazil. 

How often do you get to do that?

After dinner (and after the digestive process had settled a bit), we went to a luau. Or, rather, a "luau". A Brazilian luau, not a Hawaiian luau. There was a hut on the beach that swayed back and forth, and there was a small fire in the sand. Had it not been for the deadly combination of Reggae and Forro, I may not have actually started to get tired. Should have drunken more coffee.

Speaking of which, Brazilian coffee is absolutely wonderful. Do drink it. 

But I made it through and we went to the streets, in front of a bar, where people were dancing. Two dance parties, in one day? You're kidding me, right? (Okay, so the first wasn't actually a dance party. Now shut up.) AFS showed us some Brazilian dances, and I, in all of my foresight (read: somebody said it would be a good idea), had already learned most of the lyrics to the more popular Brazilian dance songs (this generally isn't my style), which made such a difference! Because, y'know, that just makes the whole thing so much better. 

We finally arrived back at the hostel around 3:00. 

Then I got voted into the girls' room. D: Just kidding. It wasn't that bad. Just had to wait a long, long time to shower. It was near 4:30 by the time I finally get to bed. 

The next day, we took a boat trip. Or, rather, we got on a boat, got swamped by waves, and then went back to the beach. :)

We were on a boat, and I was sitting at the bow with Laura. I sang Come Sail Away. Because I could. (Read: Because everybody was like, 'Jake, sing something!' And the only other thing I could think of was 'My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean'. They might have tossed me overboard.) Being at the bow in a boat like that is a great idea, because the waves were merciless. Absolutely merciless. This one huge wave came and knocked me and Laura towards the mast. I dunno if anything has ever been so much fun. We were laughing and coughing up water, which was pretty hilarious. I almost fell overboard a couple of times. 

Then we went on top of the sand and took weird pictures. You must do this every chance you get. And just fyi, it's a long way down...

Weird pictures: 

Charlie's Angels...again

I was meditating. It's a pretty big deal.

Celebrate good times ~ 

The beach. To the right you can see the shack that served food.

Wuz here. Just in case you were unclear on that bit.

Afterwards, we went for a BUGGY RIDE! I have videos. I have not yet checked them to make sure we didn't say/do anything blog-inappropriate (just kidding. AFS kids are always professional) before I post them. The buggy trip led us to some interesting places, and most of the following photos are from there. Elif still hasn't uploaded her photos, and she has a lot of good ones, so I might just, y'know, steal from her...

I was pretty impressed.

I thought there was a bench, so I sat down with
everybody else...
There was no bench. 

Posing with Elif.

What is the only thing that could possibly attract that amount of people?
And if you guessed ice cream, please try again. Soccer.

Dinner!

Afterwards, we went dancing again. :D I almost pulled an all-nighter, but the coffee crash plus the dangerous combination of forro and reggae finally got to me. After discovering that I had, in fact, tanned (Brazil is magic), I took several trips along Broadway to look at merchandise (read: eat ice cream) and score some last photos...which are all on Elif's camera. Once she uploads them...

AFS Fortaleza 2012. 

Note: Not all of these pictures are mine. Julia, an AFS volunteer who was with us, put them on Facebook ie publin domain, and so I borrowed exactly 20. And then I probably deleted about 5-7 in Blogger angst. Big thanks to Julia. : D

I'll post/link to videos later. 

The Last 100 Days

Warning: Lots of cake in this one.

It starts tomorrow.

Or, at least, I think it starts tomorrow, because I have been getting some pretty conflicting return dates. June 28. June 24. June 23. July. Aghh.

Nobody else knows who's gonna win this starting contest...

I received an email from the community theatre group I usually do during the summer, and we talked about how I would audition, and when, if possible, and they ask me, "When do you get back?"

To which I replied: "Nobody actually knows."

This is where I wonder if anybody has actually bought our planes tickets yet. AFS, sometimes you make me wonder. (Note: AFS in your home country is responsible for buying your return ticket.)

In Portuguese, there is this verb aproveitar, best translated as "to make use of (something)". We don't actually have a verb for this in English, but I think Thoreau said it best: “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die Discover that I had not lived.”

I think aproveitar is a little more compact, but that's just my opinion.

But, let me tell you, I am gonna aproveitar these last 100 days. I have trips planned. I am going to Canoa Quebrada (a beach - check it out) this weekend with AFS. I am going to visit Salvador in late April with my host mother, Elif, and my host mother's friend. During the semana santa (the week leading to Easter), I am going to do...something. That I have no quite figured out.

I don't even know where to begin with a checklist. There's so much stuff I want to do. It's like a hysteria. I have to cram everything in there. I have to find some way around these obstacles that pervade my life. Jeitinho, I tell myself. The little way. Like rain, slipping through the cracks. It exists.

“Your name is Rain, isn’t it? Rain slips in the cracks and slides through the seams. You can do it? Can’t you?”

We'll start with number one: I just forgot how to spell "obstacles". I should be so much more worried about this...

But because I like to keep positive, I'm going to say this: I think the fact that there even are obstacles for me to work around is pretty exciting. Adventure. Challenges. That's why I'm here. When I go out, I get sidetracked so often I should probably get myself a behavioral correction device so that those fifteen minutes don't turn into four hours, but I don't because the very idea of doing something I didn't plan out is exciting.

Serendipity is the isle we seek; and her ship: she sails by the name of spontaneity.

Or something like that. For those of you who don't know what serendipity is (it doesn't translate into other languages), think of it as a fortunate discovery. Like you went looking for a needle in a haystack and emerged with the farmer's daughter in hand. Or something like that.

My last post was about this not being real, about how I can't believe that I can actually have my cake and eat it too. Now this post I'm going to tell you it's becoming too real. You can't put an expiration date on this. I've been so anxious for the point where my Portuguese is fluent enough so that I can actually understand what's going on around me, and now that it actually have the nerve to show up I want more time.

Gotta go squeeze it out.

Ugur, from Turkey, came to visit us this weekend.

Cake. It may be a lie, but it tasted great.
We exchange students love our cake.

That reminds me. We just bought a juicer. Time to make some orange juice. Peace.

It's Actually Happening...Right?

Sometimes I wonder if this is actually happening. I can't wrap my head around it.

And then there are days when it all comes together. There are days when the world seems magical, and the realization finished creeping in. Things here are different. No, they're not different. They're exotic.

You walk out of school at 1:00, in the heat of the day. You see a friend waiting to be picked up, and you give them a friendly punch on the shoulder. Something really funny just happened as you left class, and you're still laughing about it. The sunlight feels good on your forearms and face, and although it's bright, you're wearing sunglasses, and you're pretty used to it now. And those everyday objects are so much more exciting, things you would never see back home: a man moving his tapioca cart to a different location; long, dead leaves stacked on either edge of the sidewalk; tons of kids in uniform and tons of cars - honking, anxious looking, chatter, acknowledgement.

It appears, for that moment, like a scene out of a fairy tale. That fact that you're on an adventure becomes fully realized. You're not in Kansas anymore.

But this is their lives. These people do this every day. To them, it's not exciting. It's all they know, just like your life was all that you knew. But then you did something crazy. You stepped outside your comfort zone. You did something extraordinary.

The magic comes from you. It comes from inside you. It's all about how you see things.

I quoted Paradise Lost in the sidebar because I think it hits the nail on the head: it's all about your perception. Keep it positive, and nothing can go wrong.

I quoted Jane Eyre as a warning. Look for the good things, and do not blind yourself to that full brightness. Your host country is a wonderful place. Your host family are wonderful people. Don't be a Miss Scatcherd.

I quoted Out of Oz for the simplicity. Live life without grasping for the magic of it. Just enjoy the moments. Know that there will be others. Know that when they come, they will be worth it.

Build that chain. Make it out of gold. Craft the links from clay. Flower symbolize love. Iron will strengthen it. Thorns will keep others away, for this is something personal and sacred. And that memorable day? That one you will remember years from now? It's here. Right now. Today. And it's tomorrow too. And then next day. And the day after that.

Now off to the gym. (Gotta prevent that exchange weight!)

Jake

Learn Another Language

AFS shared this on their Facebook page, so I am 'reblogging' it here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_4Q_N6J4xQ&feature=youtu.be

I thought it was pretty funny. :)

Also, as a note, I redesigned the blog, and added some of my favorite quotes that relate to the exchange experience. This is the same blog, it just looks different.

And also, non-Blogger users can add comments now.

Seven Months!

I have four months left. This is absolutely horrifying. Absolutely horrifying. I could cry. (Okay, not really. But it's that kind of feeling.)

Laura and Elif

This is actually tomorrow, which is the eternally-elusive Feburary 29th. It's a good thing 2012 is a leap year, otherwise I'd be freaking out about how I would hit the 8-month mark without the 7-month mark. And that's really confusing. 

I find that these points make good excuses to celebrate with the other exchange students...and that's exactly what we did last weekend. We met at the mall, watched a movie, an then went out to get crepes. These are not French crepes. Brazil has taken the crepe and...Brazilianized it, I suppose. They are much larger and flakier, and you can get them in either dessert form or dinner form (so, like, chicken, lettuce, tomato, etc.). This has been on the agenda for months, so now that's it's over, we're going to need another excuse to get together...

AFS Fortaleza 2011!

In other AFS-related news, three new exchange students arrived just before Carnaval. One from Germany (whom I have not yet met), and two from Thailand. Brazil has a lot of students from Germany and Thailand (and Italy). But I am most certainly not complaining. These kids are pretty legit. 

Some other exchange students and I want to plan a trip to Jericoacoara in April. If you don't know, Jericoacoara is one of the most famous (if not the most famous) beach of the Brazilian Northeast! If all works out, I will be totally pumped.

Rio/Paraty photos have been added. It took an hour to add them. Why must I always write so much...?

Cast of Characters

This post is more about the philosophy of exchange, I suppose. I'm not sure. No stories here, no action, just thought. This time it's mind, not matter.

One of the things I've noticed about going on exchange is that my surroundings are different. Call me Captain Obvious. I'm actually going somewhere with this.

Last summer, I read this book by Brent Hartinger called Project Sweet Life. Among other things, one of the dominant themes is whether you are who you surround yourself with. That really got me thinking. On one hand, it makes sense. Obviously, other people influence us. These have been psycholinguistical studies that show how syntax between close friends changes to become more similar. On the other hand, it begs originality. If we are who we surround ourselves with, then it follows that everybody has taken some part of themselves from somebody else. Obviously, something original had to spring up somewhere.

But it's an interesting question. I think that the answer is a bit of both. We have our unique selves, and then we have the parts of us that are bits and pieces of what we've encountered, and maybe they've been modified a little bit to become part of us. But I think those parts are traceable. I see my friends do something, and I think, 'You sound like your mother' or 'Annie always does that'.

So, inevitably, when you uproot yourself so abruptly, some part of you is gone. Just to avoid confusion, I'm gonna say this - you can't keep some part of you living back in your home country. I'm not saying anything to dispute that. Or maybe, in a way, I am. Doublethink it. (This is a 1984 reference. Read it, and then watch a happy Disney musical. Or go shopping for cute throw pillows at Target. Whatever floats your boat.)

A couple of years ago, whenever A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire was published, I read this book called Cast of Characters (hence the post title), and it detailed all of the significant characters in the New Testament. It described their role - why they were important. It was like a literary analysis of the Bible. I know that's really dorky. Work with me. I didn't particularly like it, but I thought the concept was interesting.

This crossed my mind Monday, when I was sick with nothing to do expect expand my ever-growing list of vocabulary words. Languages have so many words! (Once again, call me obvious.)

I think that, while real life is certainly not fiction, the elements of literature are definitely applicable. Granted, we're not in a story with a nice, tight plot and a dénouement and polysyndeton and conceits and all that jazz, but certainly, this stuff applies.

I just believe that everything is this big bowl of what is probably really disgusting soup. And so when you come across something new, into the soup it goes. And then that soup probably gets even more icky.

So back to the point. People.

Right now, my brain divides the people I know into two very distinct categories. There are the people I met before AFS, and the people I met after AFS. So friends, family, teachers, neighbors, etc. from Maryland are all in the first category. Anybody who I know because of AFS - volunteers, other exchange students, and everybody in my life in Brazil - falls into the second category. And as things currently stand, there's very little overlap.

I know, in the last post I said that my brain connects everything like soup, and now I'm saying it compartmentalizes everything like a waffle. It's yucky waffle soup. Or the astral dimension. Just work with it.

My brain also divides the influence from these people. Fluency in a language has been taken away from me, so I am forced to use other methods of communication (this isn't to say that I don't ever speak - I do, I'm just not fluent enough to understand everything that is being said towards me, nor am I able to articulate everything that I want to say). And therefore, I see things about people that I otherwise wouldn't. I spend a little more time pondering. It's like going to the beach and looking at all the shells, not just the smooth ones.

And the characters in my life - the people in my life - are different now.

And that affects me.

Just some interesting food for thought.

Will add pictures to the Rio post soon.