Obrigada!

I will never forget my two weeks in Brazil or the last day at school with everyone.  I have already played these memories over again and again in my head. On that last day I went around and around giving hugs, saying goodbye, and promising to keep in touch with my new friends. It was amazing to look around at the group of people surrounding us and think through all of the great times that I had with each one of them. They are a fantastic group of students, and I feel so privileged to have been able to spend two great weeks with them! 

It was so hard to say goodbye, but we finally did and got in the bus. From the bus, we pulled up the window and said more goodbyes through it while holding some of the students' hands. I will never forget pulling away from the school and seeing students crowded, waving to us. I took one last look at the crowd and each person's face. I have replayed this several times in my head since I have been home. It was so sad, but just looking back on all of the good times that we had together, it was so special. When we got to the entrance of the school, we saw students running through the building to the other side so that they could wave to us yet again. I think that most of us had tears streaming down our faces until we got to the airport (the United States for some of us). For me, goodbyes are always hard, but these goodbyes were especially hard because I had built good relationships with each of the people that I looked around and saw. 

I just wanted to take the time to thank all the SESC students and staff. You all are incredible! You were so hospitable and welcoming to all of us! You all had such a big impact on me (and I think the other Community School students would agree), and I will never forget you and our experiences. Thank you for all of the memories, experiences, and friendships that each one of us got out of this trip. You are the best! 

p.s. Enjoy the rest of your stay, Eric! I'm so jealous!

Saudades, Brasil!

~Meredith

Portuguese, Portuguese, and more Portuguese.

It's all (mostly) that I am talking in. It's quite fun (and hard) to try to speak everything and understand everything.  As it generally always is with learning a new language, there are many funny moments with mistranslations of things or me saying the wrong things (the cow is salty, as opposed to the beef is salty).  Whether it is the brazilians all trying to reach me how to say sim (yes) correctly or saying órgão (organ, a very hard word to say) it's always fun and funny (two very different words).  There's no more english being spoken (mostly) except when I can't say something in portuguese or they can't explain something to me the portuguese so that I can understand it.  

However, one side effect of speaking all in portuguese is that my written english seems to be getting worse.  As I was reading through this, I found many many grammar mistakes and mispellings and other bad mistakes that I shouldn't be making.  In this post I will personally take responsibility for the grammar mistakes but blame it on portuguese.

After having attended classes for two days, I appreciate so much more how much easier TCS is.  We don't have to take 4 hour tests on a saturday morning or take biology, chemistry, and physics for all four years of high school.  I have yet to get used to attending classes all day (7:30 to 4:35) so by the time 4:35 rolls around I am exhausted and all I want to do is sleep.  But there is still the rest of the day to get through.  

It seems very strange that I am the only american here.  On the day everyone left I was standing in front of the building where everyone was gathered to say goodbye and random people came up to me to hug me and say goodbye, only to be surprised when I told them that I was staying.  That just goes to show that brazilians are much happier people and even though we might not have known them, they knew us and wanted to say goodbye to those who were leaving.  

But yea.  That's all for now and I'm off to go do something after having woken up at 10 o'clock here.

Tchau from Brasil!!!

ERIC

PS.  Tapioca's are delicious

PPS. So are mangos

PPPS. Mullberry (amora in portuguese) juice is quite good as well

Idahome

Well, after a tearful goodbye and a long day of traveling, we've made it home to Sun Valley. We actually got back two days ago, but it has taken us a little while to re-charge and get back into the swing of things. I've mainly been sleeping, telling my parents many stories, unpacking, putting my treasures on display, and sifting through the 1,600+ photos I took. However, I haven't been able to stop thinking about that goodbye.

On the final day of our time in Brazil, we attended classes in the morning, had our final lunch (filled with many tears on my part), and had to say goodbye to all of the amazing people that we met (filled with many more tears on everyone's part). Most of us couldn't help but breakdown when a large group of students skipped their 4:00 workshop to say goodbye to us. I gave a few notes to some of my very close new friends (thanking them for their kindness and generosity, complimenting them on their wonderful personalities, and reflecting on our fun times together) and was pleased to receive some notes of my own, even if they were written in Portuguese! I even received a hand-carved wooden trinket from one of my dear friends Matheus that he brought from his home state in Brazil. What really made me lose it, though, was just looking around at all of the bright faces of the students. With so much joy and friendship among them, I couldn't help but reflect on the amazing time that I had being apart of it all. The people that we met are genuinely incredible, and I feel so lucky to have met them. Many long hugs were exchanged and group photos were taken, and the Americans were herded onto the bus and driven off into the Rio sunset. At the airport, we had another tearful goodbye as we parted ways with Eric (who is lucky enough to still be at SESC!) and Geraldo, our Brazilian Cutthroat who we've all gotten to know so well. Since he's staying in Brazil until college at Lafayette in the fall, we were forced to say a real goodbye since we don't know when we'll see him again. Just reflecting on all of the things that Geraldo has done for us, remembering all of the fun times we've had, and thinking about how truly successful he will be made most of us tear up yet again. So, it was a tearful day of sad goodbyes as we were forced to part ways with the wonderful people that we'd grown to love in Brazil.

The long journey home went smoothly, for the most part, even though our flight in Houston was delayed a bit and we had to sprint through the Denver airport, only to discover that our plane from Denver to Boise had a loose board in the ceiling (which was thankfully taped back together...). But, we did make it to Boise safely and were greeted by my Mom and Dad, who had decorated the Community School bus with welcome home signs and streamers and took us to Red Robin for good 'ol American cheeseburgers!

On the bus ride from Boise to Sun Valley, we discussed the trip as a whole and reflected on our experiences. I think that while all of us were very heartbroken to leave such a perfect and pleasant place, we were thankful to have been blessed with the experience. I just keep reminding myself of the many experiences that I had and amazing people that I'm now friends with. Thank goodness for email and social networking; I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't stay in contact with all of my new friends!

I miss all of our Brazilian friends so much, but I'm very thankful for the experience.

Here are a few photos from our goodbyes.

We hope you're still having a good time, Eric!

Tchau!
Sophia




P.S. While most of us have put many, many photos up on our Facebooks, I know that they aren't accessible to everyone, so we're currently in the process of creating a Picassa album in order to share all of our photos. We'll keep you posted!

Last Day :(

Well, the day has come. In 10 hours, we will be departing from the Rio airport, heading home. It's come too soon! I can't believe it's been two weeks! In a strange way, it seems like it's been both shorter and longer than that. In a way, two weeks is hardly anything- I feel like there is still so much more we need to do, and so many more people at the school to meet! But at the same time, it feels like we´ve been here forever. I can't believe that I've only known most of these people for only two weeks-  I feel like it's been so much longer. I can't believe it was only two weeks ago that I was whining about being stuck in Houston. And though, of course, there's still so much more that we could do, we´ve done so much! We´ve been to Ipanema, Copacabana, and Cristo Redentor- all of the major attractions of Rio. But we also did some amazing things that the ordinary tourist doesn't expereince. We spent a wonderful week in the Pantanal, seeing the beautiful river, the increadible animals, and learning more about SESC. We were taught all of the vital Portuguese frazes (arrasa- you rock!). And, most importantly, we met so many wonderful people! Though it was a challenge keeping track of the names of everyone who cheerfully said "Hi, my name is --!", it wasn't a challenge to make friends with all of these people. Everyone has been so helpful and friendly. As I said before, I can't believe that I´ve only known these people for two weeks. The students at SESC will be what I will miss the most about Brazil, and also what I will remember the most about the trip. I don't look forward to having to say goodbye to all of these people in just a few hours. Thank god for Facebook!
Well, I guess the next time I talk to any of you will be when I'm back in the US. I don't want to go!

-Camille

Is Dancing Fun? (Isobel's version)

YES! I don't know what Eric was thinking when he said that dancing wasn't fun.  Don't listen to him because he's crazy and dancing is so much fun, and it is especially fun with crazy Brazilians who also love dancing! On our last night of the Pantanal (goodbye Pantanal!) we had a huge dance party and oh my gosh, it was so much fun! At 7:00 my group ventured out onto the river to have an evening boat ride.  Again we saw alligators and birds and iguanas, and it was an absolutely wonderful way to spend our last night in the Pantanal, but our evening didn't stop there.  When we got back, we ate dinner and rushed to our rooms to finish packing and get ready for our party.  I walked out of the room wondering where in the world this party be, but I found it rather quickly by following the flashing lights and pounding music coming from one of the main buildings at the hotel.  I walked in and found Americans and Brazilians all jumping and dancing and having fun.  Of course I expected to see something similar to our dances back at home, where the dancing there involves standing in a circle and either jumping and waving your arms, or fist pumping.  This dance, however, was very different.  Almost everyone danced the entire time, and they all knew how to dance really well! I do admit that there was a good amount of jumping, but this jumping was mixed with different and crazy foot steps and dance offs between the really good dancers.  I didn't understand or know most of the songs because a lot of them were in Portuguese.  During one of the songs, everyone grabbed on to each other and jumped in a a big hugging circle, and then everyone stopped and held up a finger to show that they were listening to the song.  I looked around in confusion to see if I could figure it out or if someone would explain it to me, but the next second, all of a sudden, everyone started to jump around while hugging one person in the middle of the circle.  Then they all stopped for another couple seconds, and then they all grabbed on to another person and started jumping/ hugging them.  It was insane! I had no idea what was going on, but it was still fun.  Later I found out that the song was saying that everyone should hug someone with a black shirt or everyone should dance with a girl.  We danced and danced and danced until midnight, when we had to get packed and out of our hotel rooms so that we could get on a bus, and then catch a plane back home to Rio.  It was the funnest dance ever! It was a perfect way to end our trip to the Pantanal!

The best part, though, was learning how to do Brazilian dance.  They taught us how to do a couple different types of dance, but my favorite was a dance called "rebolation." It involved a series of steps which forced you turn your feet in and out, and move them in all crazy directions.  When they first taught me, I was completely confused, and I probably looked ridiculous.  For a while I just flapped my feet around.  I'm sure that I looked super goofy, but soon I started to get it.  Then it got really fun; I learned how to go forward, back, side to side, and walking.  Some of the Brazilians were REALLY good at it.  I am definitely still a beginner, but I'll practice!

So, now we are back home, and of course we all miss the beautiful Pantanal, it is so nice to see all our friends again.  It is crazy and sad to think that we will be leaving soon, but we are all enjoying our time here while we still can! Luckily today is English Day, which is exciting because WE SPEAK THAT LANGUAGE! After playing flag football (which was confusing seeing as I know close to nothing about football), we are off to have a "quiz" about some environmental moives. 

Beijos!
-Isobel

Oh, P.S. Happy Father's day to my daddy and to all the fathers! We miss you and love you!

Last Day in the Pantanal

It's been a few days so I thought I'd leave a note for all of our dedicated followers...! Today is our last day here in the Pantanal. By the end of the day, all of us will have gotten the chance to participate in the following: big, 3 story boat ride on the river, motor boat ride through the creeks off of the main river (my personal favorite), a visit to the town of Poconé and it's SESC school and community center, a visit to the boboletària (butterfly dome - one of my favorite Portuguese words) and the visitors' center on site here at the hotel/preserve, a visit to the ranch/farm where they keep horses, rehabilitate lots of species of birds, esp. parrots and macaws, and run a huge composting/recycling center among other things, take a motor boat ride at night, and take a motor boat ride at dawn to watch the sunrise. It's been busy and fun and there has been plenty of time left over for swimming, dancing, singing and even for a horseback ride (in Meredith's case!). For the next 24 hrs or so you likely will not get a new post, because here is our itinerary for our return to Rio:

- check out of our rooms by 10pm
- party until midnight
- load the bus and drive back to the airport (2 hrs) at 1am
- first of 2 flights leaves sometime around 5:30am I think
- back by lunch to the school
- community service in a favela at 2pm!!!

My guess is we'll all be exhausted and get to bed early tomorrow night! On Sunday we will be at school all day for 'English Day' - they have a whole day of activities planned in English so we should be able to help everyone make the most of that! Then Monday we do a last day of sightseeing in Rio (Cristo Redentor - the iconic statue of Christ on the mountain top and Ipanema beach). Then Tues we'll got to classes for the last time and head to the airport for the long journey home! Woah - it's gone quickly, but it's not over yet! We'll try to get some good posts up when we get back to school. My camera is broken so we'll have to rely on others - everyone has been taking plenty so it won't be a problem! Can't wait to see Natalia and Geraldo again - we missed you two!
- Chauncy

Good Morning!

Boa noite from the beautiful SESC hotel in the Pantanal.  It's crazy to think that this is only our second day here! We all have been busy exploring the surrounding area and enjoying our time here.  This morning, while all were asleep and well in their beds, Group A (the best group ever!) woke up bright and early at 3:45 am to go on a boating adventure.  Feeling groggy and exhausted, we wandered out to meet 3 little jet boats sitting on the Cuiabá river.  We climbed in and we were off! The guide flicked a super powerful light from bank to bank and we could see tons of pairs of reflecting alligator eyes.  He would then illuminate the trees and we could see about a million different species of birds.  It was absolutely incredible, but that's not even the best part.  As we went, the sky began to change from dark to light pink, then to red, then to a beautiful combination of orange and blue.  We continued to zip along the river, passing trees and alligators and all sorts of wildlife, until the boat came to a stop.  I looked up and saw the sun begin to appear through the trees.  We sat in silence watching the sun rise over the river for a few minutes, and then we turned around and zipped back home again.  On the way I discovered that instead of the freezing, icy rivers that we have at home, the water is incredibly warm!  Perfect water for a bath or a hottub!... well if you want to bathe in dirty water with piranhas and alligators.  Despite our early wake up, it was a perfect start to the day.  Luckily we had time to go sleep afterwards.

Isobel