The Exchange Trip

Hello guys! First of all, I want to say sorry for this late post, I should've done this one week ago, but unfortunately I arrived home so tired and I also had a lot of things to do, and I didn't have time to post before. Well, this post will be a little bit different from the other ones, because now I'll try to do an evaluation of these couple of weeks I spent in the US.

The arrival

I spent these two weeks at the house of an American family, and my host family was just amazing, I couldn't ask for more. Eric, the young guy, is as old as me, and he studies at the Community School. I followed his schedule during the two weeks and I also tryed to take the classes that interest me. Scott, the father, is a teacher also at the Community School, but in the Middle School, so I didn't have classes with him. Naomi is Eric's mother and Sara is his sister. They all were so kind and welcoming for me and I hope I can come back someday to see them again.

We and the guys of the Community School

The Community School is a little bit different from our school, even though there are a lot of similarities. The classes normally last 50 minutes, and each student choose what classes he wants to take. It happens because in the SAT (the ENEM is the US) the students also can choose in what subjects they want to be evaluated. This kind of educacional system has its bad and good sides, and I do prefer the Brazilian system, because in Brazil we have a deeper concept of all the subjects, while in the US they normally just have a kind of overview of the subjects they won't use in the college.

We and Pilar, the Spanish teacher

About the classes, the ones I most liked were Spanish and American Dream, I'm sure. Pilar is just an awesome teacher, and her classes are so dynamics and funny. I could improve my Spanish and I also learned a lot about Spain. Well, maybe I liked it so much because I love learning languages and I also love our Spanish classes at SESC High School. Maybe some of the other guys have already explained here what Ameican Dream is, but I'll do that again. It's a kind of class that mix literature and the American culture and way of see the world, and it's also about sociology and philosophy. When we arrived in the Community School, the students were reading and analysing a book called Middlesex, that tells the story of a Greek family that decided to go to the US to try a new life, and it's all about prejudicing, exploration and what that family had to face to build a new life in a completely unknow place.

We visiting the Wood River School

I'm pretty sure that one of the best parts of our trip was all of the activities we did during those two weeks. With all these activities, we learned a lot of things and also experienced situations I know we'll never forget. And we did it all thinking about representing all the community of our school in the best way we could. We always tryed to show them the wonders of our country, and everything we learned during these two years we spent in SESC High School. We went to an American public school, we presented our states to all the Community School, we cooked for the Americans kids and teenagers, we went to the Nordic Party, we met the mayor of Sun Valley, we had an interview to the newspaper, we helped the competitors of a Skiing race, we did a presentation about Brazil to the kids of the Middle School and lots of other things.

The Nordic Festival

Brigadeiro to the Elementary School

Super Bowl + Brazilian and American food

The interview to the newspaper

The Nordic Festival, again :)

Para finalizar minha participação aqui no blog, nada mais justo que terminar meu post em português. Como já disse, a viagem do intercâmbio foi simplesmente incrível, conhecemos pessoas e vivenciamos experiências que jamais esqueceremos. E sempre levamos as lições da nossa escola e o amor pelo nosso país no fundo do peito. Nem por um momento esquecemos que a nossa principal missão era representar toda a comunidade da Escola SESC de Ensino Médio e mais que isso, o nosso Brasil, da melhor maneira possível, e foi com orgulho que assumimos essa responsabilidade. E para quem pensa que acabou, essa foi só a primeira parte do programa de intercâmbio, pois em Junho teremos vários alunos e professores americanos na nossa escola, viajando conosco para o Pantanal e então todos terão a oportunidade de vivenciar essa experiência. Todos nós estamos cheios de novas ideias e momentos, e queremos compartilhá-los com todos vocês. Não esqueçam, a viagem foi somente uma parte. O que essa viagem representou e o que traremos para a nossa escola é de igual importância. Então, vejo todos vocês em Março, e vamos com tudo para 2011, que será, sem dúvidas, um ano incrível. Abraços carinhosos, Jordy B. Pasa.

Shopping!

Hello guys! First of all, I want to say that I'm sorry for all this time I didn't post here, but we're having really busy days here in Sun Valley. Today, our day was pretty different from the other ones. We didn't have classes, because this Wednesday was what they call as Powder Day, which is a kind of day that happens once a year, when the head of the school decides that they won't have classes and almost everybody go skiing or some other outdoor activity. Of course, we didn't go skiing because this is such a dangerous thing to do and we don't want to get injured, so we decided to go to Twin Falls (a city that is about two hours of Sun Valley) to go shopping! You may not understand why we had to go to another city to but some stuff (mainly gifts), but here in Sun Valley things are really expansive, specially because this is touristic city and normally rich people come here to spend vacation and they can afford for all these expansive things, but we're not rich and that is why we had to go to Twin Falls. Twin Falls is not exactly a big city, but it's kind of big if we compare it to Sun Valley or Ketchum, for example. We arrived in the city and went straight to the shopping mall, where we found good sales. I mean, really good sales. For me, the best stores we went were Macy and Target, but there were some other good ones too. I bought some gifts to my family and to my friends, and unfortunately I didn't bought many things for me, but that doesn't matter. The most important things I'll take with me are the memories of all these days I'm passing here, and I'm sure there's no souvenir better than that. We spent almost the whole day in Twin Falls, and we arrived here in Sun Valley about 7 p.m., I think. Then, we had a Greek dinner at Jim's house (the Raisa's host father) and that was just amazing. We had a lot of Greek food (Jim is Greek) and we also learned some words in Greek such as Opa, that means Yey or Yupii. Well, Greeks normally say that when they are very happy =D Now I'm home and tomorrow we will have one of our last days in the Community School. That may sounds sad but this is not a good moment for sadness. We're all so happy with everything we lived and learned here these last couple of weeks. The moment of leaving we'll be sad, but we know that on June we'll some of these guys again and it turns things easier. That's all for today, folks. Hope you're all okay in Brazil, warm hugs!

Hello guys! Here I'm again to tell you all about our adventures here, in Sun Valley. Yesterday, as well as the other days, everything was incredible. After ice skating (which is the most difficult thing I have ever done. I mean, that was REALLY hard), we went to Rico's, an Italian restaurant in Ketchum, near to Sun Valley. The food was great, specially because I love Italian food, but something really surprising happened that night. Do you know who we found in Rico's? Arnold Schwarzenegger! I got really surprised with that, how could I wonder a Hollywood star having dinner in Ketchum, at the same restaurant of us? Yeah, that was weird. Anyway, after the dinner and Arnold, we went to a hockey game, and that was amazing, because I had never seem a hockey game before. I mean, I found out that hockey is such a violent sport, but that's ok. Soccer can be really violent sometimes too, and it's still popular. Just after the game, Eric drove Yara home, because her host sister wasn't there, and then we went home. At the Community School they don't have classes on saturdays as we do, so today we had a different schedule. We woke up early and went to the school, where we would find the other Brazilians and some other students and go to a Cross Ski race, where we would help the racers with water and whatever they needed. It works like a social project, and that was awesome. I had never seem a Cross Ski race before, and this is a really exciting sport. We passed the whole morning helping the racers and then we got back to the school, where we decided to go to the lodge to have lunch. Here in Sun Valley there are a lot of lodges, but this one we went is the most popular one (I think). It's a kind of ski station, store and restaurant. There, we had lunch and then everyone went back home, because there was no schedule for this Afternoon. I was really tired, so I decided to sleep during the Afternoon and in the evening, there was a special dinner at my host house. Eric's grandfather and grandmother are going to Los Angeles tomorrow (actually, they live there), and we had a kind of farewell dinner. The food was just great, specially because I had rice and beans, which made me remember Brazil. Guys, I'm missing Brazil so much. I mean, I'm having a wonderful time here, but I just love my country and I always miss it. Anyway, I'm passing a short time here, and I won't think about 'saudade' (sorry, I couldn't find a word in English to use here) anymore. I'll just enjoy the time I still have here. Well folks, I think this is all I have to tell you until now, but tomorrow I'll try to post again. Our sunday will be amazing, we will watch the Super Bowl, which is the final of the American Football Championship, and here it means just like the final of the Soccer World Cup for us. Also, we'll have an American-Brazilian lunch, because the Brazilians will cook a typical Brazilian meal (I think we'll do Salpicao) and the Americans will cook a typical American meal as well. I'm so excited about that, I'm sure they'll love the Brazilian food. Ok, now I'll sleep because I'm still tired (actually, I think that's because of the difference of time between the US and Brazil, I'm not used to it yet) and tomorrow I'll talk to you again. Hugs, Jordy :)

More pics!

Downtown!

Hi guys! Just two days without posting and I already have many things to tell you all. Yesterday, the day was pretty cool. We had classes during the morning (actually, until 1:30) and just after that me, Raisa, Weell, Amanda, Geraldo and Maria went downtown to visit some stores and touristic places. As I said before, the city is just breathtaking! The buildings make me remember Europe (even though I've never been in Europe), actually they call Sun Valley 'the American Nordic city'. Just after our tour, we went to a party, where we watched a ski race and a concert of a local band. After the party, Brett (Weell's host brother) drove me home. There, I spent a great time speaking about Brazil and US with my host family. I don't know why, but I really love talking about my country. And I'm also learning a lot about the United States and its culture. Well, now I`ll post some photographs I took yesterday. Hope you like it, warm hugs :)

Hello everybody! Today is our 4th day here in Idaho and everything is just being incredible! Yesterday, we didn't have plans for the Afternoon, so we decided to watch the basketball game at the Community School , and that was great. Unfortunately, the Community School lost both the boys and the girls games, but that is all right. After that, we had pizza in a restaurant in the downtown of Sun Valley and it was so funny. We spent a lot of time discussing the English accents. Today, as well as in the other days, we went to the Community School and took classes until 1:30p.m., and the school is really nice. I started the day with a French class (unfortunately I don't speak french, but that is good anyway) and after I had a Spanish class, that is really awesome. I really like Spanish, so that is easy to me. Just after that, I had an American Dream class, that is a kind of literature class but it's also about the American culture and points of view. That's really interesting. Here in the Community School, the students are able to choose what subjects they want to take, so people normally take classes about things they are interested in. We are taking the schedule of our hosts brothers and sisters, but we are also free to choose the classes we want to take. After the lunch, I also had Math and Physics classes. After the school, most of the Brazilians exchange students and some people from the Community School went to Wood River School, an American Public School here in Sun Valley. Guys, that is an amazing school. It's huge, and people of there were so polite with us. Actually, everybody here is so kind. Like I said before, we all are already missing Brazil and our friends and family, but this trip is just amazing. We are learning so many things that we'll never forget, and we're also teaching them a lot about our country and culture. Well, hope you're all ok in Brazil, and keep reading our blog, we're doing it specially for you. Warm hugs, Jordy.

Hello everybody! I think it`s my first post here in the blog and I already have a lot of things to tell you all. We arrived in Sun Valley yesterday almost by the night and we had an amazing dinner at Weell`s host family house. There, we first met our host families and it was definitely a wonderful moment. My new family is just great, Eric (the boy) is as old as me and he`s in the 11th grade at the school. His father, Scott, is a Community School teacher and his mom is called Naomi. They all are so cool, kind and polite, and I`m very glad I`ll pass two weeks with them. The city is just amazing, with a lot of snow in everywhere you look, and when people told me it would be cold here, I didn`t thought it would be so cold. Guys, I`m freezing! But no problems, I have a lot of warm clothes and Eric lent me somethings too. We have just arrived and I`m already realizing the differences between Brazil and USA. Of course we have many similarities, but we also have a lot of differences. First of all, I needed help to turn on the shower and the sink, because even it is different. In the breakfast, they normally eat pancakes with syrup (a kind of honey made of a tree, that one that is the symbol of Canada). I really didn`t want to taste that, it sounds strange to me! I also discovered they normally eat avocado in the sandwich, and that is such a strange thing. I told them that in Brazil we bow the avocado in a plate, put sugar and eat, and they think this is strange. Anyway, Naomi told me she will do some avocado sandwich for me to taste. I`m afraid of that! Today we came to the Community School by the morning and we are already taking classes with our host brothers and sisters, and we are having a lot of fun. The teachers are really nice and funny, just like in our school. Today we also did a speech during the Monday Assembly, when three of us (Amanda, Wellington and me) talked a little about Brazil and our states. The other guys will talk in the next week. I still don`t have plans for this Afternoon, but I think I`ll try to know the city better. Well guys, I`m already missing you so hard, but I`m having a really good time here. From now, you can read our blog everyday, because we`ll always post our experiences and adventures in The Community School and in Sun Valley! See you all here, ok? P.s. Comment, please! We want to hear of you what you`re thinking about the blog. Later, I`ll post some photographs. Unfortunately, my camera is not here and I can`t do that now.