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 17th, 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
Rua Ituiutaba, 1038
Iturama, Minas Gerais
38280-000
Brasil
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