I'm in Belem already!

It is hard to believe that I have been in Brazil for 7 weeks already! The last few weeks in Lavras were very full of some exciting adventures. Then I was able to spend a few days in Rio de Janeiro before flying to my new home in Belem, Para. I'm sorry that I have been so bad at updating this blog. I had limited access to the internet and I have an online class that takes up much of my internet time.

Alright, time to recap a little.

One of my favorite people in Lavras is another girl who rents from the same woman that I did and her name is Lilian. Although we sometimes struggled with the communication aspect, I feel as though we connected quite well. I would sit near her at every meal. She introduced new Brasilian music to me and encouraged me to look up the lyrics in order to try to learn more Portuguese and the proper pronunciation. We also played pool  (sinuca) together (and won) and went to the fair/market in the square. I really enjoyed spending time with her. I already miss her but I am very thankful that I was able to meet her in Lavras. There are many other people that I met in Lavras, but I would have to say that she sticks out as one of my favorites that I will always treasure and remember.

I did many things in Lavras, mostly my Portuguese class which involved several adventures. As our final project, all the students put together a slide show of our experiences in Lavras. I would like to attach it here so that you all may see it but I am not sure how to do that. We did many things in class. The last few weeks we visited different places to ask people questions and converse with them. We went to a few schools and spoke with the students of our instructor's English classes. It was a neat experience to converse with people in Portuguese and then the next day having them try to ask us some of the same questions in English. I really enjoyed talking with the students, they ranged in ages from about 11 to 17. We also had class in a gym where we were instructed how to do some exercises and stretches in Portuguese. Another day we went to a veterinary clinic and asked them some questions about what they do. We conversed with a few professors at the university (UFLA) as well about some of the expectations of what classes will be. Of course we had classroom sessions as well which were very helpful with learning some of the grammatical aspects of the language. Overall it was a good course and I'm glad that my first five weeks were focused on learning Portuguese.

Along with the class, we also had the opportunity of experiencing some of the culture through festas and going out. We went to one graduation party on campus that was quite fun. It had good food, good music, some dancing and provided a good way of meeting some new people and practicing some of our Portuguese. I will always think fondly of Lavras, it was a good place for me to be for the beginning of this experience but I am so very happy that I am in Belem. I feel as though I am going to grow so much more here. I will elaborate on some of my other experiences in Rio and Belem in other posts, but this one wraps up Lavras.