This is my fourth day being in Brazil, and things are so hectic and new!
The plane ride over went without a hitch, however the last stop at GOL airlines they tried to charge Devin, West, & I an exhorbant amout of money for our luggage being over weight and they wrote us a bill for all three of us combined, and would only take Brazillian currency. We almost missed our flight because checking in baggage took forever, but we got there. Also, the climate change was very very hard to get use to. Going from 20's in Alabama to 80's in less than 24 hrs was uncomfortable. Howver, since then it's rained some (also annoying since i have to walk to school and it generates mud) it has cooled down and the temperature is nice.
The first 2 days I spent at Karina Costa's house (she was a foreign exchange student from brazil at Montevallo in Fall 07). She's been helping me to adjust to the immense culture shock and language barrier. Just trying to buy something at the store is now a semi-complicated event, i've been taking it granted the simple act of being verbally understood! Karina and her sister Valeria helped me buy things for my apartment and took me out to eat(the later a little more difficult considering i'm a vegetarian, and as in the U.S. most restaurants cater to meat-eaters, but here i couldn't fully read the menus.). Her parents were also very helpful and kind in a way that the language barrier didn't hinder. I am very thankful for all the help they give me while i'm in such unfamiliar territory.
I am in a small apartment that's about a 7-10 minute walk from campus. It is walled in, like all the houses & apartments here (pictures later) , and in a very rural area. The landlady is nice woman who is very patient with my limited portuguese. It seems so far that any conversation involving portuguese with her also involves hurridly tracking down words in my english/portuguese dictionary, exagerated hand motions and charades, as well as laughter and an understanding smile at the end.
It doesn't always go so well though. When I showed up at the the building I was to go to Portuguese tutering at, i couldn't find anyone who spoke a word of english as well and i generated alot of confusion to a few secretaries repeating over and over "Oi tudo bem, Fala ingles?"... strange looks, wondering why this girl is asking so many questions. My hair color ,facial features ect is i guess very common here, so many many times i've been mistaken for being fluent in portugese, and people will start talking and i have no idea what they are saying! I am just another person in the crowd, until I open my mouth and everyone starts staring at me (there are very few americans in Goiania. I have yet to come across another that's not in the exchange program).
After the receptionist told me classes did not start until march and to come back then , i saw my tutor in the hallway and everything ended up fine.
So, today I will go again to tuturing and learn this vary valuble skill of speaking portuguese. I can't wait until my conversations are less akward and frustrating!Francisco ( a professor here, one of the profesors responsible for us while we are down here) is planning to take us to the Goiania zoo if it doesn't rain to much, and later tonight I'll be going to Karina's sister's concert(she is a singer, and locally known. She was stopped by someone at the mall who recognized her because of her cd).
I still can't belive I am calling this city with 1.2 million people home for the next six months. Wonderful, fun, scary, lonely to be without pretty much everyone i know, different, and exciting. I'd have never guessed the first time I lived in my own apartment it would be in Brazil!
