Why Kira, Why?

Hey guys.

Wanna know the reason for no updates? My mãe (mother) works on the computer for a living and I am allowed to get on for about 30 mintues every 2 weeks. Which means I write about half a blog before she yells at me to get off. I thought I'd use my limited time to explain. I switch families soon so once I do, I'll be updating weekly.

Fact: It is not unusual for a boy to go, "Hi, my name is BLAH BLAH. Can I kiss you?" And the Brazilian can't figure out why, if, in their opinon, the boy is cute, I tell them no. In fact, my friend (a girl) said, "Hey, Paulo will sit here." Pointing to the chair next to me.
"Paulo?"
"That boy." She pointed to the one I was talking to.
"Oh, okay."
"Alright, so he'll sit here and you two can make-out during the movie."
"Um.... no thank you."
"What?" our conversation was now drawning a crowd of girls. "You don't want to kiss him?"
"No thank you..."
"Why?"
"I don't know him."
"So?" She really was confused.
"Um... It's a diffrence in culture."
"So?"
"Um... where's the bathroom?"
"Ohhhhh." She suddenly understood. I am not sure what was going through her mind, but okay. She showed me to the bathroom and by the time I came out, the movie had started.

Eating Water and Pony Curses?

Hey guys, 

Today, I discovered something even worse than those forwards you get in emails....

FORWARDS IN PORTUGUESE

For the record, the words in Portuguese to say: "send this to 10 people" is this: Enviá-lo para 10 pessoas

...Forwards.... oh how I hate you.....

And I realized that I forgot to add in a Brazilian Fact! Here it is:

The watermelons in Brazil are 97% water. At first, I didn't believe them. I can now tell you this, watermelon in Brazil is 97% water and 2% seeds. I was gnawing on the white part just to get some flavor!

And.... since that fact was for the last post, here's the fact for this post:

There is on cool Brazilian commercial/forward I want you all to see :D

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AFna6R-rAo

Drama and School

Hey guys, I know it's late, but it's actually not all my fault. A couple weeks ago I was very tired and stressed out. In a hurry, so the Rotarian taking me to São Paulo wouldn’t have to wait, I locked every door but the back door. Apparently there were two men working on our property that day and they could have waltz in and robbed us. Luckily, no such thing occurred, but the dog did come in and pee everywhere. In the heat of angry, my host mother told me she wasn’t going to talk to me anymore and that I wasn’t allowed onto the computer, hence the late update. I wasn’t complaining though because I feel so bad that I forgot! A little later, after hearing that her daughter wasn’t doing well with her host family in America, she exploded on me. The final straw for me was when she said that I left the door open as a rebellion against Brazilian culture that I clearly have no interest in learning. I told the Rotarians down here about it, and they talked to her. Things are better now, but they told me if she gives me the silent treatment or screams at me again, to call them right away and I’m out of here.

                                                  

So besides that drama, things are fantastic! I now understand 90% of what people say to me! Sometimes it’s really frustrating to completely understand someone, but have no way to prove that I understand. Conversations go something like this:

Person- “PORTUGUESE PORTUGUESE PORTUGUESE” Translation: something along the lines of, “Man, this party stinks.”

Me (completely understood everything that they just said )-  “I understand.” I say it in Portuguese of course. I usually nod too.

The person stares at me all skeptical. “Of COURSE you understand.” They give me a sad look, pat me on the head, and talk to me in English.

The poor gringa… doesn’t understand anything. The best parts are when someone says something like this:

Turning to an English speaker, “PORTUGUESE PORTUGUESE PORTUGUESE” Translation: “Can you ask her if they havebrigadeiro in America?” (Brigadeiro, for those poor poor people who don’t know, is like a mix of fudge, chocolate, and topped with chocolate sprinkles)

And then, before the English speaker can translate for me, I say, “Não.” (No)

Then both the English speaker and the one asking the question both turn to me and go, “Wooow! You understood!”

This kind of stuff happen all the time and I find it so funny!!

Brigadeiro:

I started school and I have made some really great friends. Everything truly is just amazing. Brasil is simply incredible and I’m going to enjoy every moment I have here.

Loves-

Kira

Lazy Days

Turns out I don't have the pictures.... I really miss my camera. :( Hopefully I get it back on Saturday...

So I don't have any pictures but I can tell you about my day.

Today we went to the neighbor's house (they came to ours yesterday and I need to get the pictures my host sister took). We played with their bird and then we played Brazilian monopoly. It was almost exactly like in America, only I couldn't read the chance cards and it was such a pain to buy houses. Still, it was much easier than the one I was use to.

We then ate some really yummy food and went home and watched TV. The computer has a password so I wasn't able to update this during that time because my mom was at work and only she knows the password.

Things I wish I brought:

1. My clock/alarm clock/ radio. Our house has one clock in it and I don't have an alarm clock either. Brazilians, unlike me, don't care about time.

2. My pillow. Brazilians like slightly harder pillows.

3. More music. I put 27 songs on my MP3 and I wish I put on more...

4. White Stripes.

5. Movies. Mostly Megamind. I love Megamind. But there are plenty of other movies I miss.

6. More pencils and notebooks.

7. My purse

Things I'm still not used to:

1. Eating the meals at times that are weird for me

2. Eating lunch for breakfast. Totally for serious! Sandwiches, pizza, cake. If I get to America and have a sandwich for breakfast, don't ask.

3. Eating dinner for lunch. AND after we eat lunch we have dessert. FUN FACT: The word for candy: docey (I don't know if it's spelled right but that's how I pronounce it) is used for all sweets. Ice cream, cake, candy, is all called docey. It really confused me how they taught me the word for candy and then used it to describe a pudding.

4. P-o-r-t-u-g-u-e-s-e

5. Portuguese

6. House rules I have never had to worry about before.

4, 5, and 6 are all mind set backs, and those are the easiest to get over. The reason why 1, 2, and 3 are so hard is because it’s something my body has to change, and it doesn’t like that.

Now it’s time for: SOMETHING I HAVE NOTICED ABOUT BRASIL:
People here love to shower. Once a day I understand but no! I mean like 2, 3 times a day showering. First question I am always asked: “Are you hungry?” The second question is, “Do you want to take a shower?” I always answer ‘Yes’ in hopes of becoming more Brazilian. I hope my hair doesn’t turn green… haha.

Well, loves! I really am lovin Brasil

-Kira

Hehe, My Bad

Wanna know why I haven't posted? Kira was smart and left her camera that had all her photos on it in her friend's car. I don't want to post without the pictures, it just isn't as cool.
So I will rewrite my 3rd day because I do have those pictures and unless I end up doing something that literally takes all day, I'll post it tomorrow.
Goodnight, I am tired, blah blah.
Love ya-
Kira
PS it says like 7 o'clock but it's 10:30 here and I'm running on 4 hours of sleep. People in Brasil do not sleep.

First Two Days in Brazil

Hey guys! I know I should have updated yesterday being my first day and junk, but I was so tired and busy…but mostly tired. I am having a really fun time down here in Brazil.

I arrived in Brazil at 8 o’clock. By the time I was done using the bathroom and finding my luggage, it was about 8:15. This was when I met my host family and a couple Rotary people. They had a big sign and screamed my name. It was very awesome.

My plane ride from Salt Lake (Utah) to Dallas (Texas) was 2 hours and 15 minutes. I got a window seat and we flew right over the Rocky Mountains! It was super, super beautiful. I have no pictures because I couldn’t find my camera. Very pretty though. I’d take the flight again just to see those mountains at 30,000 feet.

From Dallas I took a 10 hour flight (originally 9 hours and 45 minutes but it ran late) to São Paulo Brazil. This time, I had my camera. However, it was very dark when I was flying and most of the time it was just the ocean. However, I did get pictures of the sunrise, the clouds, and São Paulo.

When I landed they asked me if I was hungry and took me to a restaurant in the air port and bought me some Brazilian food. It tasted good, but it was very hard to chew. A Rotarian took pictures, but I haven’t got them yet.

We spent the day mostly at the house. We drove around a little but really didn’t do much besides eat at this really yummy restaurant. Everyone told me about the amazing meat and fruit here, but they forgot to mention the juice! I’ve drank more liquid in these two days than ever before HAHA. My host family’s family came over and we had some pizza. For those who don’t know, Brazilians don’t eat dinner until around 8-10ish o’clock when they actually have dinner. Most of the time they eat a few snacks and call it good. So when 9 o’clock came around, I was ready for bed, not food. I managed to eat one slice of that yummy pizza. They kept asking if I wanted more, and I kept saying no. When asked why, I pointed out it was like them trying to eat at 12 (that’s around what time they go to bed).

I was bad… I didn’t take photos.

Today I woke up to the sun shining into my room. How is this winter?!?!?! Anyway, I got up and we had some pizza for breakfast. They asked me what was normal to eat in America and they thought eggs were something odd to eat in the mornings. I mentioned how it was odd to eat pizza in the mornings and they told me it was very normal for Brazil. At least it was very yummy. I had some juice and fruit with it. After that we changed and went to a party. My host sister’s god father’s family party.

It was so much fun! When I arrived, I went with the other teenagers to go shopping. It was a very crazy fun drive :). We came back and we hung out at their house. My host sister kept calling it a farm, but it was in no way a farm. There was a pool and an awesome BBQ!! I kept saying, “How pretty! How pretty!” in Japanese and everyone kept laughing. Apparently their view was so mundane it just wasn’t very pretty.

You be the judge. Personally I found it very kirei (pretty).

No one was swimming but I was burning hot. When someone went into the pool, I joined then. Everyone kept saying it was cold, but I was dying of heat. From the moment I got off the plane I have been cold twice, and both happened today. Some winter LOL. I got cold in that ice cold water and when I was eating ice cream (pictures later). The water was VERY, VERY cold. I was shivering. They were very concerned with my shivering and almost made me get out.

The party was a blast. The people were really nice and a lot of people there spoke English. I spoke mostly in English but I did have a conversation in Japanese and picked up some new Portuguese words. It was funny though when I said, in Portuguese, "Turn up the music?" and the guy shook his head and said (in Portuguese), "Please talk in Portuguese." Everyone, inculding me started to laugh. They all understood me but the guy thought I was speaking English.

I hung out with the other teenagers at the party and I really had a lot of fun. When someone pointed the sunset out to me I had to take photos:

Brazil is so beautiful and I hope I gave it some justice with those photos. I wish you guys could have seen it. It really was pretty. Very kirei.

A about an hour later, the sky turned purple. I took a ton of pictures, but they didn’t show up! It made me very sad. Here are the photos anyway:

After we got back home, my host sister’s boyfriend came over. They offered to show me what Brazilian ice cream was like so mãe (mother) drove us down to the ice cream shop. My sister explained to me that it was a fruity treat, but when I saw it I thought “Chocolate…”

At first, it didn’t taste very good. But, I continued to eat it anyway. By the time I was half way done with it, I knew American Ice Cream was officially ruined. It was so tasty! It was called açai and I loved it! Afterwards we took a taxi home. In all, it was a really fun day.

And for the first time ever… SOMETHING I HAVE NOTICED ABOUT BRAZIL! ...yay… Every time I post a blog, I am also going to post something I have noticed about Brazil. This can be a random fact or something that is totally different than in America. Today’s fact is: My middle name in Portuguese is equivalent to the English word for ‘bitch’. “Hello, nice to meet you. My name is Kira Bitch Robb.” I’m totally serious. My host family died when they saw my name on my suitcase. I’m not going to tell people here my middle name >_<

Here’s one more thing I am going to add to every blog. A list of stuff I am going to have to get used to. Ready?

1.      Eating every meal with a knife regardless if it’s a salad or pizza

2.      Throwing my toilet paper away

3.      Brazilian key boards

4.      Brazilian Veggies

5.      Hearing/speaking/reading/learning Portuguese

6.      Speaking Japanese

7.      Doing dishes by hand

8.      Seeing green everywhere

9.      HUGE cities. HUGE

10.  Military gates

11.  Going to bed really late/a lot less sleep

12.  Having what would be American lunch for breakfast

13.  Having what would be American dinner for lunch

14.  Lunches here are HUGE

15.  Not always having dinner

16.  Having dinner around the time I would usually go to bed

Hopefully this list will get smaller and smaller the longer I stay here. My Portuguese is coming along and I think it will be better the longer I stay here. I also think once I start school it will also help (I start school on August 1^st).

Yes, I posted this on my 3^rd day. Wanna know why? I started this last night but the pictures weren’t loading. So I posted it today, and the computer had an error and I lost everything! So I had to retype it. Sigh…

Oh well! I really am having a blast down here. I took a ton of pictures today and I will add them to the next post! That will be very soon.

Love from Brasil-

Kira

I'm Off!!

Hey guys I'm leaving out the door right now. Words cannot describe how I feel.
But this will be my last post in a long time from USA. ^_^ I'll "see" you guys over my blog!
Love-
Kira