Engrish Movies

After my first week in Brazil, my family suggested I start watching movies in Portuguese to help learn the language quicker. I went with Marcy (one of my family's housekeepers) and Luiz Otavio (my host brother) to pick some up. The store had mostly American movies. Marcy suggested some Brazilian-made movies and I picked two out. Then I looked at the American ones thinking that since I would already know what was going on, it would be easier to pick up on the dialogue. The translations for their titles were hilarious. Here are some I've noticed:
Ocean's Eleven= Eleven Men and A Secret
Ocean's Twelve= Twelve Men and Another Secret
Ocean's Thirteen= Thirteen Men and A New Secret
The Goods= People Selling Cars
Funny People= Who Are You Laughing At?
Die Hard= Skyscraper Attack
Die Hard 2= Airport Attack
Jaws= Shark
The Dukes of Hazard= The Good Lookings: A New Ballad
The Hangover= If Drink, Don't Marriage
Shaun of The Dead= Everyone Almost Dead
Step Up= If She Dance, I Dance To
Like Mike= Little Superstars
Meet The Parents= Getting A Cold
Home Alone= Forgotten Me
Rat Race= Everyone Is Mad! Race For Million$
Airplane!= Tighten Your Seatbelts... The Pilot Has Gone!

Technical Difficulties

I woke up Saturday morning to a great surprise, my macbook wouldn't charge. It turns out the cable for my charger had a short. I'm generally a fan of Apple products, they work great until they don't. And unfortunately for me, they often don't. A phone call would fix everything, if my level of portuguese was higher than a Brazilian three year old's. Once I can get someone to translate and call in for me, it should be easy to have it replaced. Until then, I'm using my family's computer and can't drop any more photos. All I've got is words. At least when I'm typing, I can't mumble.

It's Gon' Rain

A 6-month drought ended last night. Looks like rain season has begun.

First Month

My time in Brazil has been great so far. I've been here almost two months now and the time has flown by. I started my year in the country, landing in Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo. It's the biggest city in Brazil, people consider it their New York, and is the 7th largest metropolitan area in the world. After a 5-hour layover, I flew to Uberlandia, Minas Gerais. Meeting my host family was amazing. They were holding a massive welcome banner for me and said I was their new son. That weekend my mom, Thelma said she now had a coffee son (Luiz Otavio) and a milk son. We spent a few days at their apartment in Uberlandia then headed to my city, Iturama.
The first night here was crazy. I went with my host sister (who's now living near Portland, Oregon) to 'rodeo'. It was like a normal fair at first, a bit bigger than the GNE, then we went to a stadium where there was bull riding going on. The stadium was about half full then the bull riding stopped and a country (sertaneja) show started. Thousands of people piled into the stadium and we stayed there until around 12. Then, everyone migrated over to a club called Cabana.  It was unreal- we stayed until almost 8am.
I had two weeks before school started and spent that time playing soccer, basketball, swimming and hanging out with friends I met at the rodeo. Then school started, at 7:30 am. It was rough. First few weeks at school consisted mostly of sleep. I started bringing my ipod to school and that helped keep my head of the desk. For awhile I could hardly understand any portuguese and there were few people who spoke English. School was good though overall and I met a lot more people. On the weekends, my family has taken me to see their other properties. Along with their house in Iturama and their apartment in Uberlandia, they have a cottage and three farms. I could go on forever about my time here but instead here's a few photos.

An all-day restaurant we went to near Uberlandia

Taping of a show called Altos Horas in Sao Paulo

Some of us from Interact,  a Rotary group

Our plane getting jump started by a tractor

View of Iturama from a plane tour

From my bedroom at the apartment in Uberlandia

First Post!

I'm sorry it's taken me so long, but here is the first entry to the blog I'll be writing in throughout my year on exchange in Brazil. The first month here has been nothing short of unreal. I've had a lot of fun, made a lot of friends and surprisingly, improved my portuguese a great amount. I will write a full post about it, but I'm short on time right now and am going out to play soccer for the night in a few minutes.

Here is a picture from my first night in my city Iturama, at a club called Cabana. (taken around 5am)