First days in Brazil!!

Hello everyone! Or rather, I should say, bom dia!!

So here I am in South America!! That´s still a little difficult to believe. When I first arrived in Rio de Janeiro, it was 5 am and the airport terminal was quite empty, and felt gray and daunting. But by the time I got to the bus station (even though as Bryley said, I was afraid to get my stuff stolen there, especially since I very much resembled a donkey when I first got to Brazil - here I am reminiscent of reading Jona´s first entries from SF and her title Donkey in San Francisco, haha), I felt better since the station turned out to be lighter and friendlier than I expected haha. So I guess you never know beforehand!

The trip to Juiz de Fora, the city I am staying in now, took almost three hours by bus from Rio, and went thru many beautiful, green hills, and almost jungle looking areas! When I arrived at JF station, there were two AIESEC members there, and the other two trainees, with a bunch of green and yellow balloons (Brazilian colours)! :) And from then on, I´ve met a number of very nice Aiesecers, my host family, and the people at Saci International School, where I´m going to be working! Today was my first day. The teachers are very friendly, they all speak English really well, and when I arrived, there was a bit banner on the wall that they made for me (and which I think I can take back with me when I go home... although it will make me a super donkey ;)), with photos of the different classes I´ll be working with. I visited a few today, and will be visiting a few tomorrow, and from next week I will start working more with individual classes at a time. Or at least so I understand ;) The kids are of different ages, they´re all very cute, but some are shy and need to get used to me being around, and speaking English; while other kids are very outgoing, I met some 8-9 year old girls at lunch today who wanted to know lots about me, and in one of the classes one of the boys kissed me on the cheek hahaha. Oh yeah, a note on that: yep, when you meet Brazilian people, you kiss on the cheeks, one, two, or three... apparently, it varies lol. So I kissed many teachers on the cheeks at school today, and all the Aiesecers when I met them. But I was already familiar with this, they do the same in Spain, and Pedro, another trainee in Shanghai, did the same when he first arrived. (Although I think, men just shake men´s hands... but women kiss!)

The school is set in a nice place, with lovely green hills around. Actually, JF in general has a lot of hills around, it´s very green, and it´s quite pretty here! The city itself has many hills around it, which might take a while to get used when going by car or taking the bus, like I have to to go to school. The city has about half a million people (so, the same population as my home town), but it´s fairly small by Brazilian standards (I think the country population is like 192 million or smth...), but it does feel like a city anyway. I went around town a little yesterday with the other Aiesecers, so it was great to see a bit of the city already. My host family´s home is about 15 minute walk from the centre of the city, which is nice. It´s a lovely comfy house, the family is very nice, and they have a very friendly dog :) I´m trying to learn a bit of Portuguese as apart from Aninha, my Aiesec host sister, her family doesnt speak much English. Her dad knows some phrases, and is really trying to communicate with me, which is sweet. So after I´m done here, I´m gonna try to go learn a bit from my book I got from Simone :p But it´d be great to learn how to speak some Portuguese in any way, it may come in handy sometime, and as you may know, it´s a pretty language.

So these are my first impressions so far... the people are very friendly, and I quite like the city so far, it´s not very big and I dont think it´s touristy, but thats ok, as it will probably give me more opportunity to learn about Brazilian culture, esp since I heard this is a quite a typical Brazilian city. And it´s near (for Brazilian standards) to many nice places around this state, Minas Gerais, which I heard is very beautiful. One of the teachers at school told me today that she would love to travel around with me :) And her grandma has a house in Copacabana, hehe :) I think I´ll be able to find enough people to show me around here, which is great.

Well, that´s that for now... Thanks for your comments girls!
Let me know what you all are also up to, and I will try to keep you updated as much as I can!

Muitos beijos!!!

Intro to Mascha's Blog...

Dear Mascha (and future readers of Mascha's blog),

So Mascha, when you read this you'll be in Brazil!!!

Hope you will use this to let us know all the things that happen while you're there!

I told Mascha I'd make this blog site for her as a good bye present so she can use it to keep us up to date on everything that's happening there! A few hours ago I went to the airport to see her off together with her mother. I think Mascha was a bit nervous about the bus station in Rio since she had heard that it isn't all that safe... (thanks for that Gabi ;) haha, no it's good that she's aware of things like people who want to steel your bags!).

We said our goodbyes on this first sunny and warmish day of spring and she slowly disappeared into the abbiss of the inner airport with her 9 kg hand luggage...

Off to catch a flight to Paris, then to Rio where she takes the bus at the dreaded bus station and gets off again in Juiz de Fora, where her host family will be meeting her.

I'm sure that when she reads this she'll still have all her things and have settled into her new home a bit already.

Mascha, I wish you the best of luck, and hope you will make some wonderful friends, learn a lot about the language and culture of that special country you're in and have a BLAST!

Enjoy it before it's too late and you're back in this grey, flat country!

-xxx- Bryley



p.s. all future posts will be done by Mascha herself...