hey everyone, so despite a few hiccups along the way, i am in Belo Horizonte (BH) with my first host family. i have done so much in the last few days i dont know where to start so the best place is probably at the start!
so staying in Sao Paulo (SP), i got probably 45 minutes sleep before i had to get up and leave for the airport in the morning again. the house we stayed at was absolutely huge!!! SP is truely humongous it is amazing how big it is. it just goes on for miles and miles.
at the SP airport, i was absolutly craving real food as i was sick of aeroplane stuff, and i managed to communicate through sign language and broken portugese to a poor girl working at one of the cafes in the airport that i wanted one of the focacias in the window and a pear. i was craving fruit! the foccacia had buffallo motzerella, tomato and bazil in it and was absolutly drool worthy after the lovely plane food. i even went back for a second pear because it was so good lol.
we sat in our terminal for about an hour waiting for our plane to board and i learnt a new card game called maoi maoi. its like uno but with a normal pack of cards.
on the plane to BH i slept almost the whole way, it was great lol. i woke up in the last 10 mins or so and got some great pictures out the window. SP is nice, but the country side and city of BH is truely beautiful. there are a lot of open mines aroundthe place so i got some photos because i knew dad would be interested.
finally in BH i was greeted by Marcio, my host father, Mariah my 14 year old host sister and my host mum Marilia. they told me that they had a birthday party in the afternood for their uncle and it was in the district, so that we were going to go and have something to eat and have a drive around. we went to a shopping centre which was rather large, and got, would you believe it, my first proper meal in brazil, Maccas for lunch lol.
we had a wander around the centre, and then we went for a drive around lake Pampulha. it is sooo big and we drove all the way around it :)
we went to the churrasco (brazillian BBQ) at Marilias uncles house. the music and food was great buti could hardly speak to anyone as no one spoke english. lol but everyone was very friendly.
we finally went back to my home for the next 3 months i had a shower and went to bed as i was so tired. despite this, i didnt really sleep that well and woke up early. everyone got up around half past 10 on sunday, we had breakfast and i learnt that everyone goes for a walk on a sunday. they close off the main street in my neighborhood, and i mean EVERYONE goes out and walks runs or rides :) it is really nice and it gave me a chance to go out and see the neighborhood. i had to borrow a pair of runners from mariah as i hadnt brought any. i will have to add that to my 'to buy 'list. we went home for lunch at about 2. the food here is so yum! mariah and i watched what happens in vegas in portugese with subtitles lol. it is good because it helps me to identify words in portugese better.
the church that my family goes to operates in the evening rather than in the morning like in australia. they went to church at 8pm and i was going to go but i was too tired so i stayed home and tried to get some rest. when they got home, we had some dinner, which in brazil is a light meal. i had a toasted cheese and ham sandwich.
we went to bed around 1am, aparently this is quite normal in brazil. i didnt sleep to well again last night, i am still being messed around by the jetlag.
when we got up this morning, we had breakfast then mariah and i took mon cherry for a walk with her friends. we went all over mangabeiras, and i took some really nice photos of flag square and the little streets. the streets here are soo steep, i am going to be so fit by the time i leave here! i also love the paving on the pathways on the side of the streets, there is all different patterns and tiles, it is so creative. anyway thats about it for now, i am just about sick of writing! lol
until next time,
Tchau!
Em
