January 28, 2016
Sorry for the late update, my phone was stolen here and my family and I
were in another city where I was unable to access internet. I'm very
well settled in here and I couldn't have asked for a better host family
to have for the first half of my exchange.
The school year ended in
December so I just finished summer break here and I had the opportunity
to get to know some other cities and states in Brazil, including an
amazing trip to visit Felipe in Sao Paulo, the exchange student that
lived in my house last year. Felipe showed me lots of cool places and it
was amazing to see the difference between the South, where he is, and
the Northeast, where I am living. The state of Sao Paulo is much more
modernized, organized, and and has a much wetter climate. Coming back to
my region I almost feel as if I had stepped into a time machine at
least 10 years backwards and rain is a very rare occurance. Every rotary
meetting I go to is a two hour discussion on the water problem in my
city because it is becoming a real problem in my city and many others in
the region. Our apartment water gets shut off every day between 1-5pm
and sometimes there will be no water to shower in the morning.
After
seeing many different parts of Brazil, there is one thing I noticed is
the same in every place, you have to be careful. I found out that
Campina Grande is ranked 25th in most dangerous cities in the world
based on murder rate and I'm always receiving warnings to be careful
with cell phones and to not walk in the streets. That has been the real
culture shock for me. The safety and comfort of the United States is the
thing I miss most. I even learned the hard way that you can't bring a
cell phone to shows because it will get ripped right out of your pocket.
Besides being frustrated with part of my situation I am having an
amazing time and my Portuguese is coming along very well.
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