On Monday I went to the gym and then at night I went with my host brother Nicholas to a restaurant with Gavin, Tanguy, Julie and Olka as well as a lot of Rotex. So it was 5 of the 8 Recife exchange students. Nicholas showed everybody pictures of me sleeping and told everyone how I think belts are “sexually cool” when in fact I said they are “actually cool.” So yes, after always being an older brother, now I am the younger and have an older brother. However, the difference in this case, is that if I wanted to beat him up, I probably could. He is a head taller than me, but not as strong.
We are very different. Our tastes in music, clothes, people. Our interests. He loves cars, beer, Germany, computer games. But honestly we get along OK. It’s cool.
On Tuesday I went to the gym and my host parents and sister returned from the city Natal where the oldest host son’s son was just born. So I got internet back, the refrigerator was restocked, and my host Mom called my previous host Mom to ask about the money from December that I still hadn’t received. She told me I would get it the next day.
On Wednesday I went to the gym in the morning. In the afternoon I went out to try to put credit on my cell phone with my debit card. I didn’t succeed but I did randomly meet a friend who lives in the same building as me and goes to the school where I used to go to, so we traded phone numbers so we could hang out some time.
At night I took the bus to Boa Viagem to my friend Lucas’s house. Last year he did an exchange in the US, in Georgia. Our friend Karina and her friend Bella came. We discussed the US and Brazil and I made a comment about how Brazil is so much poorer than the US, and Lucas said Brazil is a developing country, while the US is developed. However, Brazil was the last country to enter the economic crisis and the first to leave it. European countries borrowed billions of dollars from Brazil. On Tuesday every TV channel was interrupted by a special report from President Lula and he talked about exactly this. He credits the reason for Brazil’s success in the good attitude of the Brazilian people; hard-working, sensible, and the fact that they continued to buy and consume, as Lula had advised them to from the start.
I took a taxi back home and payed with the Rotary money from December that I had just received that day.
On Thursday I didn’t go to the gym because it was closed because of Christmas. After lunch I went to the mall with my host father to buy a present for my secret friend. But he bought it for me instead so I wouldn’t have to spend my Rotary money. I put credit on my cell phone then went to the book store until he finished with the shopping. I told him that this would be the first Christmas I would celebrate because I had only celebrated Chanukah before. He explained to me how the Jews are waiting for the Messiah to arrive, when in fact he already has, and if you look in the Torah it gives all the signs that show that the messiah would come as Jesus, the son of God, from the lineage of David, etc, etc…
Frankly, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter either way. If there really is such a thing as a messiah, and he already arrived, well then great. I honestly don’t think he made such a difference. And if the messiah hasn’t arrived yet, well then that’s great too. We can keep waiting. Either way, I don’t see how the hell it makes a difference in our lives.
So then we went to Church and I ate the body and blood of Jesus, or communion as it is called; a piece of bread dipped in wine. The priest pointed me out to the entire congregation as Matheus the American due to a request by host mother Edileusa and so I had to stand up and everybody clapped for and now knows me.
Then we went back to the house, I showered, dressed, prepared my present for my host family, which my real Mom had bought and mailed to me. It is a big photo book of pictures from the Chesapeake.
So, we drove to my Aunt’s house in the neighborhood of Piedade, where I was living before. The whole family was there. I watched the Shrek Christmas special, my friend Karina called me and wished me ‘Feliz Natal’ which is Merry Christmas in Portuguese. Then we did the gift exchange. I didn’t know my secret friend, only his name, “Toto” but when I said it I pronounced it wrong. I put the accent on the first ‘to’ when really it goes on the second ‘to’ so everybody laughed. All the uncles drank whiskey and got drunk and gave me the nickname, “Papeiro-man.” A ‘papeiro’ is a pan used to make baby food. Haha. Very funny.
I received a gift from my host family, a shirt from ‘La Camiceria.’ Before leaving, they also gave me a bottle of perfume, “Agua-Verde” which means ‘green water’ and it is the first bottle of perfume that I have ever had. Well, cologne, whatever. I’d never owned or used perfume or cologne before.
At the party I gave the books “Bringing Back the Bay” to my host family and looked at the pictures with my host Mom and pointed out all the ones of Annapolis.
Then I drank coke, ate meat and rice and talked with my cousin Marina, who lives in Olinda, very near to my cousin Elias.
The cake was awful, but there was some ice cream soup, which is absolutely delicious.
On Friday it was the whole family at our house, down below in the party salon, eating the leftovers from Thursday night. I wore the shirt that my host parents gave me the night before, but I did not like it at all. It was white with magenta stripes, but it was not a t-shirt. The sleeves went past the elbows but not to the wrists. It was too big and the part around the neck was a diamond instead of a circle.
I talked to the old man Antonio, who is very nice and intelligent. He works in the Parliament of Recife. He told me how he reads 8 books a month and told me about some of the books he will read this month at his beach house, where he wakes up at 4:00 in the morning for the absolute silence that helps him concentrate so he can focus on what he is reading.
So, in my childhood my hobby was reading. I read hundreds of books. But around the time of my bar mitzvah, I stopped reading so much. I had homework, a sax to play, a computer, a dog, a bike, friends, sports teams. But more than this, I lost the will and the interest to read so much. Less books interested me.
Here in Brazil, I have read a few books, in Portuguese. This is good. But in the book stores it is hard for me to find books that I want to read. My favorite author is Michael Crichton. I have not found any of his books translated into Portuguese. But even if I did, I don’t know if I would read. I would rather go on the computer, watch TV, listen to music, or go out. I mean, I still like to read, of course. But I think that I will not ever read as much as I used to, until I reach old age and have the time and interest again.
After the family left some of Nicholas’s friends came over and we played Poker and Dominoes. We played a game with Dominoes that basically works the same as the card game BS. The strategy is tricky but I caught on.
Darkfall, more friends came and we played a mimic game where there are two teams, one person rolls a dice, gets a category, picks a card and has to act out the word. When it was my turn, half of the time I didn’t even know the meaning of the word I picked. Despite my language deficiency, several times I successfully guessed the word that one of my team mates was acting out, and when it was my turn to act, the word was almost always guessed. This type of game is very good for learning a new language.
While I was playing the game, I got a call from Ciro. When I went to the town Pesqueira in November, I stayed in a Rotarian’s house. His name was Ciro. About a week ago I sent him an email with my phone number. He called me and told me his family was going to Tamandare in January, and said there was room for me, I just have to get transportation there and back. Everybody goes to Tamandare in January, and I had been looking for a friend to go with, a house to stay in. So I am so lucky, and very excited!
Then we all went out to a place called “Zoo Burger” and I ate a burger and talked to Hugo, the brother of Nicholas’s friend’s sister. He is 17 and lives nearby. He already finished high school and will go to university.
College in Brazil is completely different. No college has dormitories or anywhere for students to live. It is assumed and expected that a college student will go to college in the city where they went to high school and will continue living with their parents.
High school is also completely different. If you ‘pass over the average’ you get to move onto the next year. Students here have to study and work hard just to graduate and go to the next year. In the U.S. the system is dumbed down to let the idiots graduate even though their grades are awful, and for any average student it is certain that they will move on to the next year, without trying too hard.
Then we went to Hugo’s building, played more dominoes, then Nicholas and I went to Habib’s, an arab theme fast food restaurant. Then we stopped by a fancy Peruvian restaurant where a friend of Nicholas works. They think that this restaurant is very expensive, because one plate is 40 reais, which is 20 dollars. I didn’t think that was so bad, because this is a normal price in the US. They explained to me that the average salary here is lower and also the cost of living. In Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo the salary and cost of living is higher. The US even more.
Then we hung out at a gas station with Nicholas’s friends. Why at a gas station? Because that is one of the few places to go. Basically, in Recife, you can go to someone’s building, a bar or a gas station. There are basically no parks, no place to play sports. If you want to go to a nightclub or a concert, you have to pay. This is why people from Recife like to travel to other towns, like Porto de Galinhas, Caruaru, Garanhoes.
On Saturday after lunch I went to Shopping Recife with my host mom and brother. I went to a store that alters clothes because the two pairs of jeans that I had bought a while ago were too long in the leg so the lady marked them. I payed for one pair, she said they would be ready Monday night and I could come back any time, pay the rest and pick them up.
Then I went to “La Camiceria” and luckily was able to trade the shirt I didn’t like; even though I had worn it, I hadn’t taken off the tag. So I got a black t-shirt that was 60 reais, while the shirt I was trading was 50 reais, and I used 10 reais that my host mom had given me to spend that day. So it worked out perfectly.
Then Nicholas and I went and played air hockey in the Game Station. It was intense. He beat me.
Then the whole family went to Church, then nicholas and I went to the grocery store to buy hot dogs and bread. I went home, showered, dressed, had dinner and then waited for my host counselor to pick me up. He and his wife and I all went together to the birthday celebration of Vilmar Cavalcante, a Rotarian in our club turning 70. It was in the Casa Rosada, there was a live band, good food, soda. My next host family was there and we all danced together and I got a gold shiny hat and bowtie and glowsticks and I met Vilmar’s nephew whose name is also Matheus. He is 13 and I was very impressed by how much he knew, and how much older than his age he acted. The impression was made even more confusing by his cousin visiting from Rio, who is 12 but taller than me and about twice as tall as him. Her name was Victoria, and I would have guessed her 15, at least. The cake was not so good, but I had a cafezinho, and then my counselor Antonio Goncalves drove me home.
On Sunday I stayed at home.
