The past two weeks haven't really been too exciting, but I feel like last night and a few other small things justify a blog post. (:
PE (for those of you who don't know, Physical Education or Educação Física), has changed from playing random sports in the school gym to, get ready, swimming! Okay. It's not that exciting. I kind of hate it, actually. I got put in the middle class, so I'm actually not as bad as I thought I was, and it's also made me closer with the half of my class that I don't know that well, because nobody in the middle level speaks English. Now don't get me wrong, I speak Portuguese all the time here, but (I don't know if this holds true for all exchange students) it seems like most American exchangers get in closer with the kids that know a little English in the first few days. So my best friends at school speak pretty good English, which is why I ended up becoming friends with them so fast in the first place--communication is key. (; We have to wear goggles, swim caps, one-piece swimsuits (girls) and really tight speedo-like things (boys).
Mother's Day was last Sunday, so my host siblings got up early to cook breakfast for my host mom. I got her a necklace, and we all went out to a Mother's Day lunch with my mom's extended family, at which they all told me that if I ever get married, they're all coming to the States for my wedding. And today is Mother's Day in the United States!! Happy Mother's Day, mom, I love you and miss you tons. (:
Alexandra left Portugal on Wednesday, so I'm all alone now. Kind of freeing in a way, but weird that I don't have anyone to call up to hang out when I can't get Portuguese to come out of my mouth any longer.
Friday night I went to JazzMinde with my host parents. Minde is a small community, and my host parents are pretty active members in it; they know everyone and are involved in lots of community activities. So, we got there early, my host mom helped set up and we all kind of wandered around backstage before the jazz started. I only stayed for the first band, because I was really tired (I was sick on Wednesday) but the whole jazz weekend was a success.
Yesterday, I hung out with my friends from school for the first time since being here. This isn't really surprising, since they all live in Leiria or Fatima, which is where I go to school, so it's hard to arrange stuff since there's not much public transportation around here. At 9 pm we met at my friend Juliana's house, and her parents drove us (4 crammed in the backseat of a little hatchback car) to Leiria, where we went through the hugest McDonald's drive-thru I've ever seen. Juliana's parents dropped us off at Feira De Maio, which is a huge fair that only happens in May. We rode one ride, before Diana and Helena called us and we had to run all over the fairgrounds to find them. We put our overnight bags in Helena's parents' car, and went back into the fair. It was pretty much like the State Fair, with tons of fun rides of questionable safety, expensive food, cotton candy, and lots and lots of people waiting in line for the bathroom.
We rode a few more rides before the fairgrounds started getting really packed, at which point we left to go to the bus stop where we were going to catch a bus to take us to a discoteca (like a club). But there were tons of people waiting at the bus stop, so we decided to walk to the disco. We walked uphill for about 35 minutes (we almost beat the bus we were going to take though, it passed us when we were getting near the disco!) and FINALLY got to Sushi, the disco. We successfully walked across Leiria at one in the morning. You're supposed to be 17 to get into this disco, but all my friends are 16 (ages and grades work differently here, I technically should be in the 12th grade here). We just walked in and they didn't give us any problem, which was kind of expected. But there were some really mad Portuguese teens out there that apparently weren't allowed in, and they were complaining as we walked in that "THEY'RE LETTING 15 YEAR-OLDS IN AND NOT US?!" We danced until about 4:30 (creepy guys kept trying to dance with Diana), when Helena called her mom to come pick us up. Then we all went to Helena's house, and crashed in various places throughout her house.
All in all, it was a pretty good night. (: Except for the four hours of sleep thing.
Don't have any pictures of anything recently, because my camera broke before I went to Porto. I've been using Rita's camera, but I can't take it everywhere with me. The one above was taken at the disco by some random photographer and then posted on the internet. Weird. I can't believe I only have a little over a month left here, time's flown. I love my Portuguese friends, and I'm so thankful for everything they do for me every single day. My host family is amazing. I feel like exchange is breaking my heart and sending pieces of it all over the world with all the people I've met, to have even more adventures and, hopefully, secure me a place on other exchanger's couches all over the world if I ever need one. (:
Also, Barcelona keeps advancing in the UEFA league. If it's a final between a Portuguese team and Barcelona, I don't think I'm going to live much longer. Haha. But really.
Hope you all are doing fantastic, take some time today to spend time with your mom, grandmother, aunt, mother-figure, whoever.
PE (for those of you who don't know, Physical Education or Educação Física), has changed from playing random sports in the school gym to, get ready, swimming! Okay. It's not that exciting. I kind of hate it, actually. I got put in the middle class, so I'm actually not as bad as I thought I was, and it's also made me closer with the half of my class that I don't know that well, because nobody in the middle level speaks English. Now don't get me wrong, I speak Portuguese all the time here, but (I don't know if this holds true for all exchange students) it seems like most American exchangers get in closer with the kids that know a little English in the first few days. So my best friends at school speak pretty good English, which is why I ended up becoming friends with them so fast in the first place--communication is key. (; We have to wear goggles, swim caps, one-piece swimsuits (girls) and really tight speedo-like things (boys).
Mother's Day was last Sunday, so my host siblings got up early to cook breakfast for my host mom. I got her a necklace, and we all went out to a Mother's Day lunch with my mom's extended family, at which they all told me that if I ever get married, they're all coming to the States for my wedding. And today is Mother's Day in the United States!! Happy Mother's Day, mom, I love you and miss you tons. (:
Alexandra left Portugal on Wednesday, so I'm all alone now. Kind of freeing in a way, but weird that I don't have anyone to call up to hang out when I can't get Portuguese to come out of my mouth any longer.
Friday night I went to JazzMinde with my host parents. Minde is a small community, and my host parents are pretty active members in it; they know everyone and are involved in lots of community activities. So, we got there early, my host mom helped set up and we all kind of wandered around backstage before the jazz started. I only stayed for the first band, because I was really tired (I was sick on Wednesday) but the whole jazz weekend was a success.
Yesterday, I hung out with my friends from school for the first time since being here. This isn't really surprising, since they all live in Leiria or Fatima, which is where I go to school, so it's hard to arrange stuff since there's not much public transportation around here. At 9 pm we met at my friend Juliana's house, and her parents drove us (4 crammed in the backseat of a little hatchback car) to Leiria, where we went through the hugest McDonald's drive-thru I've ever seen. Juliana's parents dropped us off at Feira De Maio, which is a huge fair that only happens in May. We rode one ride, before Diana and Helena called us and we had to run all over the fairgrounds to find them. We put our overnight bags in Helena's parents' car, and went back into the fair. It was pretty much like the State Fair, with tons of fun rides of questionable safety, expensive food, cotton candy, and lots and lots of people waiting in line for the bathroom.
We rode a few more rides before the fairgrounds started getting really packed, at which point we left to go to the bus stop where we were going to catch a bus to take us to a discoteca (like a club). But there were tons of people waiting at the bus stop, so we decided to walk to the disco. We walked uphill for about 35 minutes (we almost beat the bus we were going to take though, it passed us when we were getting near the disco!) and FINALLY got to Sushi, the disco. We successfully walked across Leiria at one in the morning. You're supposed to be 17 to get into this disco, but all my friends are 16 (ages and grades work differently here, I technically should be in the 12th grade here). We just walked in and they didn't give us any problem, which was kind of expected. But there were some really mad Portuguese teens out there that apparently weren't allowed in, and they were complaining as we walked in that "THEY'RE LETTING 15 YEAR-OLDS IN AND NOT US?!" We danced until about 4:30 (creepy guys kept trying to dance with Diana), when Helena called her mom to come pick us up. Then we all went to Helena's house, and crashed in various places throughout her house.
All in all, it was a pretty good night. (: Except for the four hours of sleep thing.
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| From left: Diana, Inês, Juliana, Diana, Helena, me |
Also, Barcelona keeps advancing in the UEFA league. If it's a final between a Portuguese team and Barcelona, I don't think I'm going to live much longer. Haha. But really.
Hope you all are doing fantastic, take some time today to spend time with your mom, grandmother, aunt, mother-figure, whoever.
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