Sou Corinthiano

Before I came to Brazil, I looked into what clubs were best in the country's Liga do Brasil. Vitor (the Brazilian on exchange currently in Collingwood) told me without a doubt, Corinthians. I looked into the team and I was impressed. They have several Brazilian internationals, including Ronaldo. What I didn't know in Canada however, was that there are two other teams in Sao Paulo alone, and support is split fairly evenly for all three. When I got to school here, everyone asked if I supported a club here. I stuck to Corinthians and whenever I answered with them, there would always be people be saying "e corinthiano!" (a Corinthian!) or "corinthians e fouder" (literally, "Corinthians are fucked"). But at the same time, people always give me shit, trying to switch my support to one of the other two, Palmeiras or Sao Paulo. This is especially true when I mention this to a Palmeiras fan since there's some fierce rivalry between them and the Corinthians. The Clube do Corinthians was founded in 1910 and this year marks their "centanrio", or hundred-year anniversary. In celebration of this, my friends and I had a party at school. They built a cake, popped some corn and I bought a bottle of Coke. During our lunch break, we brought a few tables together, sang some Corinthians chants and ate until we had to go back to class. Some Palmeiras fans were part of it, poaching our food and staying silent during the chanting. I feel like the Yank from Greenstreet Hooligans, being taken in the community this clubs' supporters. If I could, I would consider getting a tattoo as well. I have also had some close calls with fights, not related to soccer though. If you ever come to Brazil, always practice "cuidado com as mulheres" (caution with the women). Supporters are passionate about their clubs here, and Corinthian fans say their blood runs black and white. This is now true for me in two ways.

My school stopping to watch a Corinthians match at a during a field trip.

Here's an English webpage about the Corinthians' fans: http://www.corinthians.com.br/internacional/_en/index.htm

Beatle Pictures

I've had a few requests for pictures of the beatles I was talking about. These were on the floor of a restaurant I went to. (for reference, they're bigger than a loonie)

First Quarterly Report

I know most of my family and friends back in Canada have already seen this but here's my first quarterly report for my exchange. This sums up a lot of what I've been up to here. I know it's long, but I've been told it has quantity and quality.

Today marks my third month on Exchange in Iturama, Brazil- and what a time it has been. It has been an amazing experience so far and although I have had my difficulties, I have loved being immersed in a new culture again. At the young age of 12, I went on exchange to Paris, France and have hungered for the same feeling of immersion I felt there. Brazil has more than satisfied that appetite.

In only three months, I have learned a new language and can confidently say that with Portuguese, I am now trilingual. When I came here, I could hardly understand anything that people were saying and made my best efforts to speak with people, though often resulting in gibberish. I’ll admit that I did rely on my English-speaking friends for a while. But in the past month, I have started telling them to stop speaking English with me, and my language skills have greatly improved. At all the orientation meetings in Canada before I left, I was told that at around three months into the exchange, I would start to feel confident with my language skills. I’m definitely following this trend. I no longer have to translate in my head from English to Portuguese and I’m even dreaming in Portuguese now. I have been going to Portuguese classes since my third week here and the classes are becoming increasingly easy for me. It amazes me how much easier everything in the exchange has gotten as I improve my language skills.

I was very lucky to get the family I have. They are simply great. I have a host brother named Luiz Otavio who’s nine years old. I usually spend time with him showing him how to play rugby (he really likes the sport now and bought his own ball last week) or working on the house we made in his computer game Sims. I have a host sister named Anna Laura who’s 16 and left shortly after I got here for her exchange in Oregon, USA. I have a dad who works as a doctor at both the private practice he runs and a public hospital. We have had some great conversations, mostly comparing Brazil and Canada. Finally, there’s my mom who, incredibly, runs her own clothing store, runs a shelter for abandoned, mostly disabled seniors, attends law school and does artwork. I don’t know how she does it. Although she’s always on the run, she always has a smile on her face and goes out of her way to help me out with Portuguese or any problems that arise. It’s amazing how many people my parents employ around the town through the businesses they run, groundskeepers at their cottage and three farms, and housekeeper in their home. They have two housekeepers here at the house, Marcy and Simone. When I got here, I thought that I would really make an effort to help out with any chores around the house. But they take care of most of them. I still make my bed everyday here, even though I know Marcy remakes it. If I leave the pillow on top, she puts it underneath the covers and vice-versa. I have already met my next two host families and my potential third. They are all super nice and friendly people who I look forward to seeing more of.

I have tried to keep myself busy here so I don’t let my exchange go to waste. I have accomplished this for sure. I joined a gym in my second week here and shortly after, my mom bought me a present of 66 sessions with a personal trainer. I’ve been taking advantage of this. For the first two months I went with him three days per week and now we’re doing five sessions per week. I also go by myself one to two nights during the week and the occasional Saturday. I also started playing volleyball with my school team with one or two practices during the week. Then, there’s the sport Brazil is known for- soccer. I have really grown to love playing this sport here as it is great for making friends, keeping fit and is a staple of Brazilian culture. I began playing with my school futsol team during the first week of school. This is basically indoor soccer with 5 players a side. I went with my school two weekends ago to Jales in the state of Sao Paulo for a three-day long, sudden-death sports tournament. The school I’m attending is called Collegio Objetivo and is a private, franchised school. The ten other Objetivos in our area gathered for this tournament. Volleyball went well, easily winning our first game and losing a drawn-out, three set battle in our second. For futsol, I was shocked to find that for some reason, I was chosen for our starting line-up. Being a Canadian in Brazil, this didn’t make much sense to me. We lost our first game 10-1 and it was (unbelievably) me who scored our lonely goal. The team we lost to went on to win the championship so that offered some consolation. After this tournament, it seems that sports at my school have stopped for the meantime. I have wanted to find a soccer club to play with since I got here. Last night I began playing with IEC (Iturama Esportes Club). They practice four times a week and the players are unreal. I definitely have my work cut out for me to get to the level they play at. I believe sports have been great for me, as they have helped me make a lot of new friends and further immersed me into Brazilian culture.

I have also gone on a few trips throughout my state of Minas Gerais and a state to the south, Sao Paulo. With my school, I went on a one-day trip to Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo. This is the biggest city in Brazil and the seventh largest metropolitan area in the world. Brazilians consider it their New York. There, we started our day off at a book fair that seemed more like a trade show. Hundreds of stands were set up, selling a massive variety of books. Then, we went to the TV station Globo. This is the most popular TV station in Brazil. We stayed and watched a taping of a late-night talk show called Altos Horas.  The guests they had on that day were Middleweight UFC Champion Mauricio Shogun Rua, the director of the film City of God, a popular rock band called Capital Initial, a 14 year-old drum prodigy, and a really cool band from New Orleans called Trombone Shorty who played a mix of jazz, rock, funk and hip hop. It was a really cool experience to go to this city, be on such a popular Brazilian show and then watch myself on TV that weekend.

I landed in Brazil in Sao Paulo airport then flew to Uberlandia in Minas Gerais. I then stayed with my family at their apartment in this city. Since then, we’ve been to the apartment three times and it’s been really interesting staying in both a city like this and my town Iturama, where we have population equal to Collingwood’s with 36,000. It’s like seeing life in Collingwood and Toronto.

I also have an incredible trip to look forward to next month. On November 17^th, I will begin my 29-day trip to the northeast of Brazil. We will first visit the capital of my state Belo Horizante and then the national capital Brasilia. After this we will make our way up to the northeast and then drive down the coast ending in Rio de Janeiro. Where beaches are concerned, I will visit the top destinations in Brazil. This could very well be the highlight of my year.

I would really like to thank my sponsoring Rotary Club of Collingwood and my district 7010 for the life-defining opportunity you have given me. This year is doing more for me than I thought possible in Canada. I believe the life-experience I will gain here will drastically change me for the better with maturity, a third language and more worldly views than I could have formed in Collingwood. I am currently keeping a blog for my year here, so to stay updated with what I’m up to here you can go to jasonnashbrasil.blogspot.com. I would also love to talk to answer questions anyone has for me about my exchange and you can reach me at my e-mail below. I would like to give a massive thank you to everyone who has made my dream of an International Rotary Youth Exchange a reality; it is truly an invaluable experience.

Jason Nash

Exchange Student

Sponsored by The Rotary Club of Collingwood

jaynash_@hotmail.com

Rua Ituiutaba, 1038

Iturama, Minas Gerais

38280-000

Brasil

First Email

This is the email I sent out two days after I landed in Uberlandia:
Oi!!
It turns out the internet tonight is not wireless and they do not have skype, but this weekend I will have both and will be available to skype. My flights were great, although the layover in Sao Paulo was death. I went through security three hours early and it turned out there was nothing on the other side but a window overlooking the tarmac. No outlets to plug the Mac in so I read my three magazines cover to cover. I couldn't sleep on the Air Canada flight but it was good to be able to watch movies. I saw Up In The Air, Date Night and two hours of Bill Maher stand-up. The Uberlandia flight was interesting. We had to board a bus that took us to our plane and it looked like a private jet. Two seats per row on the left side and one seat per on the right. I got to sit by myself and the views from that flight were unreal. Today, we went to lunch at probably the craziest restaurants I´ve ever seen. Waiters are constantly running around with different types of food and asking if you want some of it. There was an offer in between every bite I took. The food I ate could last me two days. I tried some interesting foods such as fried cheese, fried bananas and chicken hearts. To my surprise, the last of those were amazing. We then went to a mall that was probably as big as the eaton center. We walked around for a while there and I looked at soccer cleats. They are cheap here and I probably will buy a pair. We then went back to their apartment, which is ridiculously nice, and basically just drank. They showed me a locally-made liquor (42.5% alc.) and I tried some portuguese port. I was able to buy some mini bottles of Peller Estates icewine at the airport (explained to the cashier that it was a gift and she helped convince someone in the store to help me buy it, very nice lady haha) and decided that it was the right time to give it to them. I gave them two bottles of white and one red. They loved it and really appreciated the gift. I haven`t been taking many pictures since I got here but I will start tomorrow. For tomorrow, I know that I will try some brazilian coffee and we might see Shrek 3 in 3D. I will skype you when I can and tell you all about it. It turns out I don't have our relatives´ emails on this account so could you please forward this to them and anyone you think would be interested. I am considering getting a blogging account but obviously can´t take care of that right now so i'll keep you posted.
Talk to you soon,
Jason

Beatles

I was walking to a Rotary meeting this week and I though I heard rain. I felt nothing but could hear it start to pick up. Then I realized it was not rain but massive beatles flying into the ground. The more I walked, the more of them there were. Crawling and flying around, it felt like a scene from Birds. I found out they're attracted to light when I finally got to Rotary and walked up to it's glass doors, which were letting it shine through. After getting through a field of them, I got inside, sat down, not knowing what the hell I just saw. I asked my English-speaking Portuguese teacher what was up with them. She said they were "like flying cockroaches that appear when it rains". My host dad has since told me they live underground and surface when it rains to have sex. Rain season has started so they'll be around for a while. People at the meeting didn´t mind them at all. They would either step on them (killing them with a crunch) or pick them up and throw them at eachother. I'm cool around them now but that night, I was slightly rattled. They're only harmless to an extent since my host dad (a doctor) had to answer four calls tonight about the ´flying cockroaches´ crawling into kids´ ears.