Mid-April Update

Since my last blog update, everything's gone back to normal. My hands are healing up nicely. They just look like they've been bleached now. I've been keeping myself busy though. I remember Vitor (exchange student from Uberaba who was in Collingwood) saying there's not enough time in the exchange. I know what he means. I'm down to the last ten weeks of my exchange. I've found that since I've gotten into a regular routine here, and am now comfortable with the language and town, time passes a lot quicker.
On top of futsal and soccer, I've taken up jiu-jitsu and capoeira. Jiu-jitsu is a popular martial art and Brazil is known for it. Capoeira is a martial art invented by Brazilian slaves to evade their slave masters. It has grown to be more of a cultural dance and can be choreographed for performances, like those that I saw during my Northeast trip in Lencois and Salvador, but most Capoeira is improvised. Here's a Capoeira video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8xxgFpK-NM .
In 3 weeks, my family will come to Brazil. I'm really looking forward to seeing them and I'm planning a great trip for them. They'll land in Uberlandia on a Wednesday night and we'll stay there until Friday morning. From there we'll drive north to Caldas Novas for a Rotary district conference. We'll stay there until Saturday afternoon and then drive south to either stay in Rio Preto or Uberaba to sleep for the night. Sunday morning, we'll drive down to Sao Paulo, SP and watch the Campeonato Paulista soccer finals. This will be unreal. Sao Paulo has most of Brazil's top teams and we'll get to see the best play. There are firms for these clubs so depending on what seats we get and who's playing, I'll have to start thinking about safety. After the game, we'll check in to a hotel and stay in the city overnight. Monday morning, we'll make a two-hour drive to Guarujá Beach. I've never been there but I've been hearing it's a great beach, not as great as those of the northeast but no doubt better than Wasaga. We'll stay overnight there, then head to Iturama the next morning. When we arrive in Iturama at night, we'll head straight to my first host family's cottage. We'll sleep there for two nights and spend our time either there or touring around Iturama, seeing what I do on a typical Wednesday. After spending just a day and a half in Iturama, we'll drive three hours and return to Uberlandia. The trip is unfortunately only 10 days long since my parents worried about overstaying their welcome. This wouldn't be an issue but the flights are already booked and would cost 2000$ to change, which is more than the flights cost themselves. The trip will be dense, but great.
I feel my time running out as I only have 10 weeks left before I leave Brazil, and meet the new house in Canada. The last two months should be unreal though. June will just be a month of parties. I'm turning 18 here, which is the age in Brazil when you can drive, drink, etc. We'll probably end up doing a birthday/going away party on my birthday, 11 days before I leave. Then, when I get to Collingwood, I'm sure there'll be a lot going on.