Emmys Big Adventure: cookie dough!

okay so its a tad weird to be naming this blog cookie dough, but that is what i just made (and no, i didn't just eat the lot before i actually turned it into real cookies, it actually tastes rather good in that form too). my beautiful babies currently in the oven transforming into big yummy crunchy complete cookies (with m&ms in them too, a little bit of added sweetness!) i guess thats life isnt it. were just little pieces of cookie dough. some of us are choc chip, some have bright colourful m&ms, some are just plain old cookie dough. we all taste and look different, and we take all our lives to cook, to become finished. we grow and form all our lives. some might get burnt bums. others, may stay a bit doughy in the centre, but thats what adds more individuality, and who gets to make the decision about when that little lump of dough is ready to come out and be appreciated for what it has grown into? i cant say i know. can you?

food for thought (get it... cookies... food... )

hahahaha

okay, enough of the serious stuff, but i occasionally like to throw a bit in here and there. just shows some of the whacky things that goes on in my head i spose, although i dont theink anyone will ever be able to figure out everything that goes on in my head! near impossible ive been told hahaahaha

okay so at the end of my blast blog i was just telling you how i was off to a RYLA conference i think :)

yes, yes i was, okay. so the main thing i need to tell you was that it was really cool!

it was at this place which was kind of 40 minutes away from BH (belo horizonte for those of you who hadnt worked that out yet) which was kind of a cross between a resort with the big fancy outdoor pools and saunas and stuff, and a scout camp type thing, with the big group eating area with self serve, log cabin type things to sleep in, and a big lake and natural pools and waterfalls.

it was SSOOOOO cool. :) look, im not saying it didnt have its boring times ( it was a conference in portuguese after all ) but it was sooo good to see the other three aussie girls in my district again, and to meet all the other inbounds and outbounds (oh my god there is i think 2 students going to my district in aus! its soo cool! im gunna bully them into taking stuff home to aus for me if they live in ballarat which i hope they will!) ... must talk to laurie about that hahahaha

also met a whole heap of rotaract kids from around and/or in BH so that was really cool :) some of the guys told me they were gunna take me to the futebol!!! woop woop! i told this to mum, and she said, oh my god, i never thought i would see you excited about wanting to go to a sporting match... hahahahahaha but i am! the futebol over here is nuts! (futebol being what aussies call soccer )

i think it was just a relief to talk to people in my normal aussie accent and actually have them fully understand me! the other girls enjoyed this too... except billi, who now when she switches to her 'aussie accent' speaks with a full american twang. and its funny coz she thinks she is talking normally and we were all having a great time bagging her for it :) she is going to have one hell of a time when she gets back to aus for sure hahahahaa.

i wonder what my accent will be like when i get back, and whether i will be able to still be able to switch from my portuguese accent to my aussie accent like i can now.... hmmm

anyway, it was mostly fun, appart from big long boring speeches that the four aussies couldnt understand ahahaha. isnt it great to be one of the newcomers!

on the saturday night i got talking to some of the guys (once again becoming better friends with the guys than the girls) and found out that HALLELUJAH! someone had bought a guitar with them. :) i practically ran to their cabin, and we sat there for about 4 hours just singing and playing guitar. oooh, and we watched a bit of house of was too. i find it funny that paris hilton gets a pole through her head teheheehehe. it was a great night :)

i am going to be spending the next few days running around buying last minute things that i need for my Sul Do Brasil trip with rotary! its on FRIDAY!!!!!! i cant wait! i get to go to the foz do iguacu so i am really excited about that!

i went to feira hippy with lara and joanna on sunday. feira hippy starts at 5am and finishes at 2pm, and blocks about km of on of the city main roads :) luckily it is pretty close to my house so i can get there pretty easily by bus. it is amazing. you start at one end and just weave your way row by row down the feira. first is a food section with all the food you can eat there, then shoes then bags, then jewellery, then crafts, food again, then childrens clothes, adults clothes homewares and more crafts then more food at the end. i guess the food at intervals is for if you get hungry or thirsty on the way hahaha. well, we definatly got thirsty. we went at 10am, and left at 1:15. the best thing about feira hippy is that everything is soooo cheap! i got 4 tops for 50 reais. anywhere else i would have got one or two.

i also got a necklace with a guitar hanging off it :) unfortunatly not a full sized one (although that would be really cool, cox then i would be able to always carry a guitar with me and play whenever i wanted!) i unfortunatly didnt see any guitars at the fiera, but im sure if i keep going back that i will see one somewhere!

the picture here is a birds eye view of part of the feira. lol

oh yeah, and i am now 17. happy birthday to me. it was certainly a different birthday to what im used to. got up at 5am, made myself pancakes before school, whilst skyping my family. they had a cupcake with candles and sung happy birthday, and then i just talked to mum and dad while eating my pancakes. it was strange, becuase with birthdays at home in my family, we go into the persons room, jump on them and sit on their bed while we open presents, so it was weird getting up to an empty house and not seeing any sign of life before i walk out of the house, even though this is my normal routine now.

i get up and get ready for school and leave before anyone else in the house even wakes up. i blew out the candles on my cake in australia, and went to school, to be told that we had not classes because the students from like 5 different schools in BH were having a big rally in down town because BH students are the only students who pay full price for the bus to school, and they want to get it changed so that we only have to pay half price. i walked with the group from my school for a while with my friends ( gustavo brought his guitar with him which was an extra bonus) but when we got sick of that we went to savassi for a while. anna and i got something to eat, and she bought me a birthday cake :) she is really nice. i went home, got ready to go out, then went to shopping cidade with a few of my friends. most of them couldnt come becuase they were either earning money or out of it but at least a couple could come. we had a good time, saw a movie, went to the arcade with the guys and played a racing car game lol, and had fun :)

i got a pair of trackpants and a long sleved top for the 'cold weather' on the south trip from my host family ( pfft they havnt been to ballarat obviously). the next night was my combined party with my aunty. it was really nice except the only people that knew it was my birthday was my aunty angela, my grandma, my host family obviously and my friend Lara. (from germany) so it was a nice night but it wasnt like it was

my birthday. people looked at me funny when they dragged me up when they were singing happy birthday to angela. hahahaa. oh well.

lara (girl in the black top in the photo with me) gave me a cute little teddy bear from germany, and angela gave me a really nice hair clip.

my favourite part about the party of course was the fact that angela had hired a band to play at the party, so they played live salsa music all night :) was great!

i just noticed that there are a few other things to write about, on being easter, or more specifically, the easter eggs over here. they are wrapped in kinda like cellophane, and they are very expensive, and awesomly displayed!

there are these arch things all the way down isles in supermarkets and stores and the eggs all hang from it!

as i said, they are all ridiculously priced, but it is just soo cool! i love it, and i wish they would do it in aus (without the expensive prices!)

its soooo cool! i had to take photos!

the other thing i had to mention was that at Praca da Liberdade, there was a celebration for multicultural awareness and stuff, and all the trees down the avenue down the middle were wrapped in different materials and depicted different people from different countries, races and professions! it was soo cool, so i will put the pictures some of them up!

opera singer woman, (her boobs are almost falling out of her dress at this point of the week as it is the day before they took them down )

african lady?

dont ask... i think its supposed to be like a belly dancer woman, but i cant decide whether the black bit is a face scarf or a beard, in chich case it is a crossdresser, symbolising the embracement of alternative sexuality???... no idea hahahaha