This
may not come as a surprise to you, but living in another country has been, by
far, the greatest change of my life. For example, milk now comes from a box as
opposed to a jug. This may not seem earth shattering but these small changes
emphasise the slightly larger changes that have rocked my world. Such as not
speaking the language of everyone around me or even that this is the first time
I have spent away from the community I have grown up in. But describing these
changes does not do them justice. To fully understand what it is to be an
exchange student you have to understand that every single thing that I valued
or cared about suddenly has no impact on my life. My grades, my relationships,
my success and failures, are all, for the first time, truly in the past. That
is not to say that I do not care about these things or that they have not
helped shape me into the person I am now. For example, I worried about my
grades for months. Now it’s as if none of that ever happened. Other than just
straight up missing my friends and family, this is the leading cause for
homesickness. I start to look for these things to dedicate myself to, as I have
more or less done for a decade, only to find that they no longer exist. Where
art thou milk jugs?
Despite
these drastic changes I am having an amazing time. I cannot explain everything
about my life because most of the time I do very normal, living in a house
stuff that makes for very mundane writing. However, I will, more or less,
explain what I have been doing here. On the first day in Brazil, I fell in love
with my host family. They have taken me to some amazing places such as Rio de
Janeiro, a beautiful city on a mountain called Teresopolis, and the beautiful
beaches of our own city, Saquarema. Unfortunately, these amazing trips do not
make up my daily routine. The only two things that really remain consistent for
my Monday through Friday routine is school and jujitsu. Although I enjoy
school, it is difficult not understanding language because I am restricted to
talking with the handful of students in my class that speak english. I do try
to speak as much portuguese as I can muster to the other students but I am very
limited in what I can say. Jujitsu is a martial arts that reminds me a lot of a
more refined version of the wrestling I used to do with my older brothers.
Although I lose almost every single match I absolutely love it.
There
is so much more to say that I cannot really put into words. I am really
grateful to be here. I will continue to send updates on what I am doing.
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