Cultural Presentation to the kids

My host dad asked about my expectations about the travel. He asked me if they are corresponding with what is happening. I told him that in fact everything is being more than what I expected. All the experiences are being extraordinary, and I mean it. The American culture is different of what I used to think, the people here are not all that we suppose they are. So, definitely I am having more that what I expected!

Our day today was busy too. But we had a lot of fun following our schedule. I attended to French class. At French we are watching a movie and everyday the students have to do a little composition about what they have watched. Although I don't know anything of French I realized that the structure is very similar to Portuguese. I am even helping my host sister with her compositions.

I also had English class today. It was amazing! Actually, all the English classes are being really interesting. Since I arrived they are studying three different works of three different authors and comparing them. They are analysing the movie "Apocalipse Now" (about the Vietnam War), the book "Heart of Darkness" written by Joseph Conrad (also about the Vietnam War) and the poem "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot. Today we were talking about the similar metaphors used in theses works as duality and the using of light and shadow, God and Evil, etc. It is being awesome!

Some I also found very interesting about the English Class was that once we had 3 teachers in the class. The English, History and Law and Literature teachers were in the class. The English teacher (Tim Price) was explaining about the book's style, while the History teacher (Bob) could give the historical context of the Vietnam War and the Law and Literature teacher did some notes about the class. It was really amazing! Having teacher specialized in different areas to explain a same subject was something I found very interesting.

Today we did a cultural presentation to the Elementary School. The children were around 9 and 10 years old and we had a lot of fun. Firstly, Weell told them about Brazilian flag. Geraldo told them about Brazil's location. Melina talked about our school's city (Rio de Janeiro). I told them the legend Curupira and they were amazed. Jordy talked about "Turma da Monica" (Monica's Gang), which is a very famous cartoon in Brazil. In addition, Jordy and Yara taught the children to dance forro and finally we played some games with them as amarelinha and bolinha de gude. Melissa, who is one of the responsible people for the exchange in The Community School, liked when we told her that in our school we do voluntary work with children, playing pedagogical games with them or telling stories.

After it, we had the opportunity of going to Gondola. I mean, we went to the top of the mountains by a kind of "bondinho" and we had a lot of fun there. These days it is snowing and it is really beautiful.

Posted by Amanda Furtado