Summer in Brazil

I was warned about the summer rain here and I haven't been disappointed. Here's the forecast:

Summer started off with an amazing trip to the northeast of Brazil from mid-November to mid-December. The trip was legendary, with 52 exchange students from 16 different countries, we had a good time. I have heaps of stories from the trip, involving a danish Borat in a mankini getting pulled off the world's tallest water slide by security, my Iturama stalker following me to Rio de Janeiro and many others. Before the trip, people in Iturama would ask me if I would be going to a certain beach. We hit every one mentioned. Then it was back to Iturama. And the next day, off to Uberlandia for Christmas. Christmas eve was great, a lot like a Canadian one. Had a great meal with my host family in their city apartment, while skyping my host sister and her host family in Oregon and my family in Collingwood. Christmas day was great, and felt very different from a Canadian one. We went over to my host grandparents house at about 8am. There, we ate churrasco (brazilian barbecue) and had a gift exchange. From there, I went with my host cousin to the mall. We spent about two hours there, then I got picked up and headed back to the apartment. We spent the afternoon watching movies. I remember one was called "Cadavers". Definitely straying from the Canadian norm, but it was a great day nonetheless. On boxing day, we ate some more churrasco and drove back to Iturama. 

Christmas morning

I then spent a few days relaxing and meeting up with the friends I hadn't seen for a month and a half. I spent New Year's Eve at my friend Italo's house. Him and my buddy Cayo organized the party. I was impressed. It looked as if it was set up professionally. There was good food, open bar and about 50 people. I switched houses a few days after and am now living with my second, and potentially last host family. They're a great family. I have an 18 year-old host brother Bebeto, a 19 year-old host sister Giovanna and a 24 year-old host sister Juliana. They're really cool and are always taking me out with their friends. My host dad José Humberto and host mom Julinese run a Shell gas station. People hang out there every night and it gets almost as big a night crowd as the bars do. It works out great because there, my host siblings and I can pick up whatever we want and charge it to a family account. I was told to go there when I'm hungry as they often run out of food in the house. Everything's going well right now and this exchange will just keep getting better. I've switched to a gym with better hours so I'll start going 6 days per week now. I'm playing more soccer now that my host brother takes me to play with him and his friends. If my body can hold up, everything should be good. I'm really starting to love the town and I feel like I know most of the people I see. Tickets for Carnaval, one of the world's best parties, have gone on sale. I've also decided to get more involved with the community. I'm starting to help out with the senior's shelter my last host mom, Telma runs. I will start pushing past the shift system our Interact club has for community work and start helping out at the soup kitchen they run. Hopefully, this entry has freshened up the blog after being idle for almost a month- sorry about that. I may post stories about the northeast trip, but if not, I have new ones.