So, I have been in Brasil now 50 days and I have learned so much.
For starters I have learned the highs and lows in living in a 3rd world county. 1% of Brasil's population has 50% of the money. Which means that the other 99% of the population has the other 50% of the money. Seeing all the favelas and seeing how poor some areas and some people really makes you appreatiate what you have at home, which I know for sure I have been taking for granted.
That brings me to my next point, things that have been taken for granted. The things that I took for granted the most were having eye contact with my family when talking to them, and being able to sit in the same room with them. Skype is amazing yes, and has helped alot but is not the same. I miss being able to sit in the same room with my family and just sit there, not saying a word but knowing that they were there with you. I took for granted the times my dad would come in my room and talk to me before I would go to sleep and in a way I would always blow him off, or how my parents would talk to me and being a teenage girl not wanting that. And yes I even miss fighting with my sister, I miss the yelling at eachother, the silent rides to school, us freezing our butts off in the car and all of our good times. But the thing most exchanges and I have to agree on that we miss the most is being able to hug your family. That is the one thing every exchange is excited to do when we first step foot into our home countries.
As other exchanges go, I spent the last week in Sete Lagoas (seven lakes) a city that is about 5 hours away from my city (depending on how fast you drive) at an orientation and a language camp with about 14 other exhchanges from all over the world. There were 4 Australians, 2 Tiwanese, 2 Americans (the other is from Washington State), 2 Germans, 2 Mexicans, 1 French, 1 Hungarian, and 1 from Denmark. It was so nice to be able to speak to everyone in the common language of English! (you also take that for granted when you only speak and listen to portuguese in your house). Everyone was super nice and we all got along so well. I cannot wait to see them again and hopefully have many more good memories before the Aussies leave in January. Sete Lagoas was such a fun week I enjoyed it so much!
My first 50 days in Brasil have flown by, and lets hope these next 255 bring me a lot of happiness, travel, sun, bronze skin, and some life long friends!
