Well, Swine Flu definitely has Brazil in a dither.  School already started a week late after winter holidays here, and now next week will be canceled as well.  For a while Curvelo was one of the few cities in the state without any cases, but the first girl to get it here was dead two days later, and people are pretty tense about it.  At the Rotary ( Read more... )

Another round in the big city.  I´d already gone once earlier this week to get my visa sorted out ( a positively miserable experience that cost me R$ 200 and any respect I ever had for the other Rotary student I traveled with), but this time around we were going for a sort of combination birthday party, since a whole slew of cousins and uncles ( Read more... )

My Portuguese is still struggling, but I´m learning new things about Brazil all the time.  Today a girl complemented my hair, and noted how blond it was.  I thanked her for the complement, but insisted my hair was brown.  For those of you unfamiliar with my hair, it is not even dirty blond.  It is in fact auburn, and rather longer than is really ( Read more... )

A  Note:  At some points in the following account I may be inclined to be somewhat more frank than you might prefer.  This does mean that I will be out and out inappropriate, so  I think you can handle it just fine.  We´re all big kids here ( Read more... )

            Belo Horizonte was great, but the weekend passed by very quickly.  We had a great view of the city from Amanda´s appartment and during down time I would just sit there and stare at it while terrible translated 90´s movies played in the back ground ( Read more... )

           My family and I are in the capital city (of my state, not the country) of Belo Horizonte for the weekend, so there may be some sizable gaps between entries.  My host brother is leaving for his exchange to North Carolina on Sunday, so we´re tying up loose ends before he departs.  This city is like none I´ve ever seen - it´s hard to ( Read more... )

One of the things they tell us when we sign up for this exchange is that we´re going to have to represent America and discuss politics.  I was prepared for this, but it didn´t seem like my family or any of the Rotarians were really interested in quizzing me about anything more in-depth then the name of my home country.  Last night, however, was my ( Read more... )

So, I went to my first Rotary function here in Minas Gerais.  It was somewhat... different than expected.  The rotarians I am used to are pleasent but business like people.  They have get-togethers in closed-in spaces, exchange business cards, discuss polio, and shake hands upon being introduced.  I am assured that rotarians in big cities such as ( Read more... )

This ship is landed, and I don~t quite know what to do with myself.  My host parents  don´t have wi-fi, so I´´m using my host sister´s computer - thus, entries will be kept rather short untill she heads back to school.  This is frustrating, because there are a million things I want to talk about, but I´ll get to that when I can ( Read more... )

A man whose name I can't remember once said that to travel hopefully is better than to arrive. He may have been right, and I am taking that chance and shall endeavor to let any panic I have ebb away unabated. I'm currently sitting at gate 27 of the Syracuse International Airport, preparing to board flight 4480 to Chicago. Even if all else is ( Read more... )