Friday, 15 July 2011
After a 28hours flight, with a pit stop in Chile, just to chill with Muchachos, I’m finally here.
July – The adaptation
Different language, different food, cold, no friends
If you know me, you must know that I love eating. I’m always eating, every time, anywhere, but not everything. That’s your fault, mum! So I reckon that the food was the biggest problem. Not just because they love vegetables, but also ‘cause here we just have a big meal for dinner, lunch is just a sandwich or something like that. I was missing my rice and BLACK beans. But that’s alright, new country, new culture, new food.
16th of July – I’m freezing
The weather here is like in Brasil but colder, CRAZY. Sometimes it’s freaking cold, sometime its warm, sometimes its freaking cold again and again and again. But it wasn’t a big problem, I enjoyed it, okay not really, but it was a new experience. I’ve never had a cold winter before.
1st of July – Started School
The worst day of my life. No one really wanted to know nothing about me, I was alone, didn’t know anyone there, so I started to think about my friends, my school, how far away they are… Guess what? I started to cry. I didn’t want to come back to school anymore. I thought that it’d be like in Brasil, everybody would come and talk to me, but it wasn’t like that…
- Okay, July wasn’t that bad. Now I have to tell you about the good things.
I’m living with the Doubles, they are a lovely family. The house way bigger than mine in Brasil, but is not near the beach! I have my own room, my own bathroom, that’s really good! Ahaha I also have a brother here, but he is younger than me (15), it’s my first time as a big sister!
I had a birthday dinner with all of my host families, I loved it. I tried to cook brigadeiro (a Brazilian dessert) but I failed. One of my host sisters went to Brasil last year, so I spoke Portuguese to her and I have to say that her Portuguese is really good. I also tried to teach Samba to them, it was fun.
My host brother is a scout, so he invited me to go with him to the Big Burger Challenge, it was fun. We made a huge burger, with vegetables, chicken, brownie, everything, and we had to eat it. It wasn’t bad I just ate the brownie. As an exchange student I think I have to join everything, this is something that I wouldn’t do in Brasil, but here is an opportunity to make friends and learn more about the aussie culture.
I went to the footy (AFL, aussie football, it’s pretty much a mix of American football, with soccer and UFC) with Dan, he explained the game to me, I think I got it just blame the umpire if your team isn’t playing well. I really enjoyed the match! Oh, I also enjoyed my meat pies best junk food ever
I’m lucky because I have the best craziest Rotary Club ever. The meetings are every Thursday. We have dinner together, not breakfast like in Brasil. They are always happy, making jokes, talking about football… I have to do a speech every week, talking about what I’ve been doing, I like it, not just because it’s good to improve my English, but also because is good to know that they care about me.
August – Getting there
Going to school isn’t a huge problem anymore, but I still don’t like it.
I’m doing Maths, Art, Biology, Chemistry, English & History.
Maths is really different, they use the calculator to do everything. And they are learning some stuff that we just learn at UNI. I hate maths.
Art is the best class ever. The girls ( Mia, Steph & Rommie) are always dancing and singing and being crazy, i love art! We are making a sculpture; I’m trying to make “Christ the Redeemer” (is a statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro) isn’t very similar, but……
Biology is the same as in Brasil. I’ve studied the same thing that we are studying now last year, but it doesn’t mean that I’ve learned. Ahahah I usually sit with Rommie and Chelsea, they are soooo funny!
Chemistry is the best subject of the world, I love it! But I have to say that is a little bit hard to interpret the questions. However, I got 31/35 on the test! 8-)
English is okay, not that hard, but sometimes I struggle a little bit to do the essays. But the teacher is helping me, she gives me a different easier topic to talk about.
I love History, is my second favourite subject, and the teacher is amazing!
I’ve been talking to some girls at school, they are very nice. Some of them invited me to join the soccer team, as a Brazilian girl I should be a good player, but I’m not. At least we had fun! After one match I went to Stephs house, she is really nice. She told her mum that I don’t like vegetables so we had pizza for dinner ahaha I really enjoyed that.
I went to the cinema with Mia another really nice girl, she is being such a good friend here, always helping and making me feel welcome and we watched Red Dog, an aussie movie! It’s a good movie, i love movies about dogs not the ones that they talk.
The Rotary Camp was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I’m the only Brazilian but this isn’t a problem. I think it was the first here time that I was 100% happy, the inbounds and outbounds can prove it, I was always doing something like dancing, singing, talking, annoying people… I just stopped when I went to bed, but before that we had a “party”, it was soooo fun! Then Anthony told us to go to bed ): ahahah Oh, I have to complain about Dan waking us up with the Bombers theme song, and then he started to talk, we thought that he was in our room so we were like “where are you, Dan?” then we saw the speakers… lol
The inbounds were deciding where they want to go, so I was like BRASIL!! I was trying to make everyone choose Brasil, it didn’t work very well, but one guy is going to Brasil!! YAY! I’m trying to help him (Josh) with his Portuguese, I don’t know if he’ll stay in my house, but I’m sure that he’ll visit me next year!
To know a little bit more about Oz, my host family took me to the Healesville(?) Sanctuary, I saw kangaroos, koalas, emUs, etc. It was a very good day! =)
I also went to the cinema with Mila, the exchange student from Finland, she is such a cutie! The best thing about the exchange students is that we don’t need to see or talk to each other every day to maintain the friendship because when we meet is like we are friends for ages, we always have something to talk about, we understand our problems and we support each other, that’s why I love all the exchange students!
I went out for dinner with my host family lots of times, I ate different types of aussie food,lol just kidding, it was Italian or Mexican… etc… ahahaha
On the last weekend of August I went to the snow with the Hamiltons (my next host family, they are a lovely family), I loved it! I’ve never seen snow before, so it was totally a new experience! I tried to snowboard… I’m really good, just don’t know how to stop, so on the first time that I tried to slide down the hill I thought that I was awesome, but then I started to go faster and faster and I couldn’t stop. Conclusion: I fell. It really hurts. I slide down the hill a few more times, I fell a few more times then I decided to make a snowman yeah, I gave up because I was scared, my host sister Jessie came with me and we made the coolest snowANIMAL ever! We made a snow kangaroo and a snow koala! Ahahah When I got home I couldn’t move my neck, my arms, my legs… but I had a great time! I’m looking forward to go there again next year!
Well, I think that’s all. I’m way better now than I last on July, but I know that it can be better, I’m get used to some things, but not with everything yet. Sometimes I miss my family more than everything, my dog, my friends… I think about them every day and when I’m sad or angry, they always make me feel better. Every week I send them an email telling what I’ve been up to, I think this is a good way to keep in touch but not too much, so I always have something to tell them and they also have something to tell me.
Sometimes I wish I were in Brasil with my friends, enjoying our last school year, because I really miss them. But I love Australia! It’s such a beautiful country, with lots of things to see and I know that this will be the best year of my life, so I have to enjoy every single minute here. It won’t be easy but I’m sure that next year I won’t want to go home.
Thanks to all of those who helped me during these months; I really appreciate everything that you’ve done!
Love,
Jacque/Jacquie/Brasil
Xoxoxox <3<3<3
