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My March in Brazil was crazy. I hardly went to school at all.

It began with probably the craziest weekend I’ve ever had. Friday afternoon I went to the center of the city with a friend from my class to buy a new cell phone. There was no problem with my other cell phone, I just wanted a cell phone from vivo because it has really good bonus minutes. I had been spending 50 reais a month and from now on I will spend half that and be able to send more messages and talk more.

 That night I went with my host family to an Aunt’s house for a family gathering in anticipation of the huge wedding on Saturday night. I met my host sister’s friend from Germany. She speaks Portuguese and English fluently. I also met some cousins from Rio de Janeiro.

That night was the “Festival de Verao.” ‘Verao’ means ‘summer.’ It is a huge show at Chevrolet Hall. My host uncle managed to get me a free ticket to ‘camarote’ which is more expensive and gets you closer to the stage with some other special privileges. These include a t-shirt from the show, a balcony area and a separate area with electronic dance music. I got in around midnight and found all my friends from my new school. We went to the very front, right by the stage, and were a couple feet away from Ivete Sangalo, which is one of the Brazilian popstars. She is very hot, and I like her music! After that there was a hard core rock band. I got home around 6:00 in the morning. I slept a bit, then after lunch went with a few exchange student friends to a nightclub in Boa Viagem, the neighborhood by the beach. It was a special event and that’s why it was during the day. I got in and out without paying, but I had to leave just when everything was getting started to go home and get ready for the wedding.

I took all the pins off my rotary blazer for my suit. It is actually a very nice blazer. The wedding was in the Instituto Ricardo Brennand, which is a museum of medieval weaponry and art. This wedding was extremely chique. After the ceremony with a dress the length of an anaconda, there was live music, appetizers and champagne. I messed around with my host cousins, and then hitched a ride to Boa Viagem to go to a 15^th birthday party of a girl from my class from school. I went in my suit when everybody else was in shorts and t-shirts! That day I also didn’t get home until 6:00 in the morning. That night, Sunday night, I went with my host parents to another host aunt’s house.

So, the following week I only went to school until Wednesday, because Wednesday afternoon my (actual) cousin Andrea arrived in Recife with her friend Gida. My host brother Nicholas and I took them to their hotel, then we showed them the center of the city where there was Carnaval, and showed them the ancient synagogue, and went to a place with a nice view to take pictures. Then we went to Shopping Recife so Andrea could buy flowers as a gift for my host mom. Then Andrea, Gida, Nicholas, my host parents and I went to Pizzaria Atlantico, which has the best pizza in Recife. Andrea was disgusted by the fact that I put ketchup and mayonaisse on a five-cheese pizza.

Then we went back to my host house and we called my Mom (who is Andrea’s Aunt in law) and my Aunt Lolly (who is Andrea’s mom) on skype. Then Nicholas and I took Andrea and Gida back to their hotel.

On Thursday I didn’t go to school. I went to Andrea’s and Gida’s hotel and went swimming in their pool, then we all took the bus to my host house and had dinner. Then my host Mom drove us to her sister’s house in Olinda so that Andrea and Gida could see Olinda. Then she dropped us off at Karina’s house in Boa Viagem. Karina has an older brother and he had friends over. One of the friends did exchange in Alabama so he spoke English. Then Karina’s brother, Andre, took Andrea and Gida back to the hotel then dropped me off at my house. On Friday Nicholas and I dropped off Andrea and Gida at the airport. For the first time in 7 months, I saw someone from my family! It was nice.

Friday I slept all day and night and when I woke up Saturday I felt sick. But I didn’t have anything packed and my flight to Sao Paulo was that night! My host Dad went and bought some medicine for me, and I got better in time to pack everything for the trip, drop the rest of my stuff off at my next host family and get to the airport in time. The people at the airport were cool and I got a picture with them.

My flight actually stopped in Rio first and then I get off at Sao Paulo. There was a guy from Belo Brasil waiting for me. I was super hungry and he said we would stop somewhere on the way to the hotel to eat. You would think in Sao Paulo, there would be something open at 2:00 in the morning, but we didn’t find anything until we got to the Hotel. There was a Habib’s, which is an Arabian/middle east style fast food.

I woke up my roommate in order to get into my room, and slept until 6:00, then woke up to have breakfast and get on the bus.

So, we drove right from Sao Paulo to Foz do Iguacu, a city that is on the border of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, and near the biggest waterfall in South America, which has the same name. On the bus I sat next to Ryan, a redhead from California who lives in a city near Rio and does Capoeira.

We stopped for lunch and dinner, which I had to pay for. Every day of the trip we ate breakfast in the hotel, payed our own lunch and dinner was payed for.

I came with 300 reais in cash, and I had already spent 40 to get to the hotel and 75 for the night in the hotel in Sao Paulo, so I had just enough money to pay for lunch every day if I didn’t pay for anything else. So, this caused my trip to be less enjoyable than it otherwise could have been, unfortunately. Anything that wasn’t included, I couldn’t do. For example. I couldn’t go on a boat ride on the river to the bottom of the falls. One night everyone went to a nightclub and I didn’t. At dinner, only one drink was included and I could not afford to buy another one. One time we went to a lake and you had to pay to go on a boat ride. I did not buy a single souvenir. But you know what? Did I really need any of these things? No.

Another thing about the trip was that everything we did was very touristy. I guess you can’t avoid this, but at times it was to the point of cheesy or ridiculous. Also we had to spend a lot of time on the bus, but this was unavoidable, and the bus was very comfortable and we watched lots of movies, including a movie called, “Tropa de Elite” which was freaking awesome. It was about a commander of an elite police squad in Rio that goes into the favelas, and his search for a successor.

When we were in Foz do Iguacu there were about 75 exchange students. A huge amount of Germans, Mexicans, Danish, Canadians and Taiwanese. There were four Australians and Four Americans, as well as a South African, two Belgians, three Colombians, a Filipino, two Finnish, two French, one Hungarian, one Japanese, one Polish, two Thai and one Venezuelan. English, not Portuguese was the standard language of communications. There was also a lot of Mexican and German and Danish going on. A few of the exchange students who’s English wasn’t as good relied on their Portuguese for communication. Only the Australians and the South African were not fluent, because they arrived only a month or so ago because they are Southern Hemisphere.

Generally, the exchange students that were more intimate were from the same country, or live near each other here in Brazil, and had already known each other. Laya the German and Tanguy the Belgian from my city Recife were on the trip, as well as a few other exchange students that I knew from my multidistrict here in Brazil.

I hung out a lot with Todd from Tennessee and Cole from Canada, who are really funny guys. I also hung out with Cho from Taiwan and Sutti from Thailand.

We saw the falls from the Brazilian and the Argentinian side and visited Paraguay. We went to a city in Paraguay where all the fake goods in Brazil come from. Every second somebody walked up to me insisting on selling socks and USB sticks, as well as some other things that it would be better I not mention. After awhile it got quite annoying. And everyone was always drinking some kind of tea, in big canisters.

We went to a point where two rivers meet and mark the separation between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. On the last night we went to a Churrasco (Brazilian barbecue) with a show of music and dances from different countries of South America. There was a big guy with a string with balls at the end and he twirled them around and hit them on the ground to make a rhythm, and my friend Cho volunteered and went up to the stage to be a human obstacle.

After Foz do Iguacu we went to Canela and Gramado which are two small sister cities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul which is the southernmost state of Brasil. It was colder than Recife, and rained a lot more. I am sorry to say, we did not actually do that much interesting in Canela and Gramado. However, Todd and I went down 750 steps and then back up again in 15 minutes to see the bottom of a waterfall and consequently almost missed the bus.

Next was Florianopolis, the capital of Santa Catarina, famous for its beaches and beautiful woman and considered one of the nicest cities in Brazil. In Florianopolis we visited the beaches, malls and the center of the city.

We stopped in Blumenau on the way to Curitiba and visited the place where the second largest Octoberfest in the world occurs, and ate German food in a restaurant.

In Curitiba we went on a train ride through the mountains and visited parks and botanical gardens. One night we went to a restaurant that served more than one drink and had live music.

So, I had signed up to do the Rio trip after the South, but it was cancelled, I think because not enough people signed up. We didn’t get to Sao Paulo until 6:00 Thursday night because of all the traffic, so a lot of people missed their flights. Mine wasn’t until 11:00 at night. A man named Marcelo picked me up from the hotel and drove me to the airport. He is somehow related to my aunt-in-law, and my Dad has visited him in Brazil and he has visited my uncle in the US. He speaks English, is an engineer, is married and has two kids. He bought me dinner at the airport, helped me check my bag and invited me to stay with him and his family for a week in July. We talked about my trip, about how the South and Southeast of Brazil is different than the Northeast, about our families, etc.

My flight was a bit late, and it ended up that Laya and Jill got on the same flight as me, because they had missed their earlier flight. Laya and I shared a taxi home. I didn’t arrive until 4:00, at my new host house where I had never slept before. I took a shower, my new host parents gave me something to eat, and I slept in my new bed, which is quite comfy.

I have my own room, with a desk, a closet, air conditioning, a bed, and a sofa. There is a bookshelf full of books and drawers of CDs and DVDs that I can use.

My host father’s name is Carlos Pires and he is the father of my first host mom. He is in his 70s and was one of the founders of my Rotary Club. His wife’s name is Edna and her son’s name is Eduardo. He is married and has a little daughter and they are living here as well because they are in the process of moving into a new apartment.

The neighborhood is called Aflitos and it is very close to the stadium of the football team Nautico. It is about a 15 minute walk from my old host house and my school. However, it is a farther walk from the main avenue which is where I have to get a bus if I want to go to Boa Viagem. So, now I have to take two buses, but if I switch buses at the transfer point “Estacao Joana Bezerra,” instead of on the avenue, I only have to pay one fare.

I think that this is not right. There is absolutely no bus that goes from my neighborhood to Boa Viagem. I would like to bring this up with the local government.

In my new house I am on the 13^th floor while in my old house I was on the 11^th and in my first house I was on the 4^th. I have been moving up all year! However, my first house had a pool and a big garden area with a volleyball court and this one doesn’t have any of that.

But I like this neighborhood the most. I think that it is the nicest, and there is a supermarket and a Habib’s right across the street.

I put up a map of Recife on the wall in my room to see all the areas of the city that I have not seen yet so I can make sure I do before I go. I started reading some Brazilian literature, a fictional autobiography by Erico Verissimo.

So, I got back from the South on Friday morning. Saturday morning I went to Joao Pessoa, the capital of the state Paraiba. Recife and Joao Pessoa are the two closest capitals in Brazil, so the ride is only about two hours. Joao Pessoa is the easternmost city in the Americas, and the second greenest city in the world, after Paris.

I know this because I read it on Wikipedia, not actually because I saw the city or anything. We exchange students went there just to practice for a big Rotary event in May where we will give presentations. So, there was a huge majority of Americans and we decided to dance the Macarena for our presentation.

Oh, yeah. There is a new exchange student in Recife. She is from Wisconsin, she is a redhead and her name is Maddie. She arrived in the middle of the year because she decided to do exchange more recently. She is studying at Colegio Boa Viagem, where I used to study and where Lauren and Laya study. Her host family is very rich and her apartment is on the beach.

So, let me get back to Joao Pessoa. We went to a Churrascaria and ate lunch, payed by Rotary. ( :  Here in Brazil, Churrascarias always have sushi. Except that, they are weird kinds of sushi, with cream cheese and fruit. But this Churrascaria had a huge variety of sushi. I love sushi! The problem with these kinds of restaurants is that they don’t have ketchup. Can you freaking believe that? A huge, fancy restaurant and they don’t even have any ketchup. What the #%$&?? It pisses me off. Good food is only half as good without ketchup. Apparently, here in Brazil, they only have ketchup in luncheonettes. Again, what the #$@&? Sorry, this just really pisses me off. It’s just ridiculous.

All right, don’t go and get all, “Oh, but it’s a different culture and you have to adapt. You can’t always have it the way you want it.” OK, yes, I know this. But seriously, restaurants that don’t have ketchup when luncheonettes do? From now on, I will have to buy my own ketchup and bring it with me. And then you know what will happen? Everybody is going to want to use my ketchup. Oh well, that’s life.

On Sunday I went with my friend Rafael to play soccer and swim at our friend Lucas’s house.

Monday I went to school for the first time in a long time.

Tuesday I didn’t go to school because there was another Rotary trip. The exchange students from Recife went to Caruaru to pick up the exchange students who live there. Caruaru is another city I haven’t been to yet. But we were actually headed for Nova Jerusalem, a city in the interior of Pernambuco that has the biggest open air theatre in the world. Every Easter season, there is an enormous play reenacting the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We all payed 20 reais to get in. There was a group of school girls, and they all mobbed Gavin, wanting individual photos with him. Hehe.

Well, the play started at 6:00. There were different sets for each scene, and there were men with red lanterns guiding everybody to the next set. It truly was huge. There were thousands of people in there. If you were at one end, you couldn’t see the other. The sound system was good, and unlike the other exchange students, I actually understood a lot of what the actors were saying. No, seriously this is a truly amazing experience I have had.

Think about it. I went to the biggest open air theatre in the world to see a world famous play that was completely in Portuguese and I was able to understand it because I have been living in Brazil for almost eight months and have studied and put in the time and effort to learn another language.

I had never read the new testament or really known the story of Jesus, so that day, before going to the play, I read a summary of the Gospel according to Mark, so as I watched the play I understood what was going on.

But this was not the reason I understood the play and the other exchange students didn’t. First of all, they just weren’t really paying that much attention. Also, the dialogue was very formal and the grammar was archaic. For example, the whole entire time the actors were using the pronoun ‘vos’, which nobody uses nowadays, and it has a whole set of weird conjugations.

On the long ride back to Recife, I started teaching Maddie a whole lot of Portuguese grammar, and for the time she’s been here, she’s doing pretty well. We stopped at the Rei das Coxinhas to eat some coxinhas and arrived in Recife around midnight.

So, that about wraps up my crazy month of March. Thanks for reading. I hope you had a nice Easter or Passover or whatever you celebrate.