June has been a really busy month for me. As I said in the last update, I changed host families at the beginning of the month and am enjoying my time with my new host family. The transition has been smooth and my language development has made it much easier. I can converse, ask questions, and even follow along in conversations with about 3-5 people. In class right now, I can understand a majority of what my teachers are saying, except in a few classes because sometimes my teachers use lots of big words that I don’t know yet but I am learning new things every day.
At the beginning of June, the Interact Club of Flores da Cunha took me to some sites in their city. I visited a clock tower and even took a tour of it, all the way to the top. Another activity we did was visit art in the street. That week in Flores da Cunha there was a religious holiday, and so lots of different businesses and groups make art in the street out of wood chips and it was so cool! After the tours and sightseeing, we went back to their headquarters and had some snacks and we talked about exchange I even got to meet a future outbound who will be going to a city in Wisconsin!
Recently at school, my class has been preparing for CETEC Festival. CETEC Festival is a once-a-year project that each class is required to complete. Each class must create a play/skit according to the theme. During the first semester, we brainstormed and discussed our ideas to form a main concept. Unfortunately, my language wasn’t as good and I understood close to nothing when 30 students were conversing about what they wanted to do. Now that we are in the second trimester we finally started rehearsing and practicing. My class will present in the second week of July so it's coming up! When signing up for jobs, I decided I wanted to help with scenery. So for the past few weeks, I’ve gotten to paint, cut, glue, and much more. Another thing in school that is exciting is that the third year (your seniors in high school) got to design hoodies for the whole class. My class’s hoodies just came in and I like them. The back of the hoodie says our class name (Gama 3) and we chose the colors navy blue and light yellow.
Another thing that has been going well lately is volleyball. I have continued to play with the same team and recently we got third place in a tournament! This is a big moment for us because my team is made up of teenagers and we are playing against adults. During this tournament, I also earned an MVP of the game award! I have continued to play as one of the setters for my team in the front row and a defensive player in the back row.
One last thing that happened in June was my Rotary District’s yearly conference. Originally the conference was supposed to happen earlier but due to the floods and conditions, it was postponed until the end of June.
The conference was all day and unfortunately, all of the other exchange students staying here in my district already went home but I was able to meet some of the outbounds who will leave in the next 2 months to start their exchanges. One of the exchange students will be going to my district back home so I will be able to see him when I return home. It was really nice to meet the outbounds because I was able to answer some of their questions and even talk about my own experiences here in Brazil.
Overall June went by so fast and was a great month for me! I can’t wait for what July has in store. I am almost halfway done with my exchange which is crazy to even think about. I have a feeling the next 6 ½ months are going to fly by and I’ll be back in Galesburg before I know it.
My team after we won 3rd place!
View of the street art from the top of the clock tower in Flores da Cunha
View from one of the classrooms after rain
Me and my friend Isa listening to music being played by some students at school
Cleo (one of my host family's cats) is curled up in a blanket on my lap