katie christon

I can’t believe that just over a week and a half ago, I was back in Madison taking my final exams! Now I’m here in Brazil… meeting people, making travel plans, teaching, eating, partying… wow. This is the life ;).

Me, Mateo (US), and Daniella (Peru) — the group I present with at the schools

We went to a school called CEL the a couple days ago and after we were done presenting, I met a guy named Lucas who was in the class. He speaks a little English, and we had a really funny moment when we were taking pictures because I snuck a “devil horns” (also known as “bunny ears”) behind his head when he didn’t realize it. We had a pretty good laugh afterwards– it’s awesome how easy it is to connect with people who can only speak a little bit of the same language.

Me putting “devil horns” on Lucas, as student at CEL

Yeah, if someone asked me what my favorite part of being here was, it would definitely be meeting the students in the high schools. I can learn so much from their thirst for knowledge and their energy. Although, I would say that a close second would be this dessert called brigadeiro which is made with condensed milk and chocolate. It is sooo tastey. I met a girl named Marina the other day at dinner, and she bought me some. To describe how amazing it is, she said that it is a “gift from heaven to bring peace to the world” haha– I’d have to agree.

Brigadeiro … yummmm.

Everything here is still going really well (as you can probably tell), but the only thing is I keep getting lost!! It all works out in the end every time (thanks to the AIESECers here). For example, last night, I looked up the address for this pizza place called Bom Pedaço on Google, and walked to the address. Turns out, the address was completely off– I had walked 45 minutes in the WRONG DIRECTION. On my way back home, I had completely given up on finding the place when I ran into a couple AIESECers who pointed me in the right direction. When I finally made it to the restaurant, there were unlimited pizzas of all the flavor/topping combinations I could wish for waiting for me. Bacon… hot dog… ice cream… pineapple..etc.

Salad Pizza (left) and Ice Cream Pizza (right)

After eating a lot last night, getting lost for an hour and a half– I slept really well last night. In fact, I didn’t even get the chance to change into pajamas before I passed out in my clothing on the couch. It’s funny– me and the other trainees here are trying to find phones to use, and Paulo (a friend of mine here) suggested that maybe I should get a GPS instead.

Daniella, Paulo (aka Hock), Mateo, and Marcos (aka Love)– trying to figure out the phone situation

This morning, me and my roommate Bianca bought our tickets to go to her home town which is about a 2 hour bus ride from Sao Carlos! We will leave tomorrow evening and get back on Sunday.

:)

When I came to Brazil, I thought I’d have enough time every day to write in a blog, but it turns out that there is so much to do, I may not have the time to write everyday. But I’m definitely not complaining– I like having friends to do things with! Below is a picture of me with some of the friends I met here whose house I went to today.

They made a dish called pastel and another thing called tapioca. Pastel is dough with fillings that is then fried. You can fill it with anything– meat, cheese, vegetables, or even sweet things  like chocolate and bananas.  Tapioca is not the same tapioca as tapioca pudding– it is a type of flour that you cook and put fillings inside. Sooo good!

Frying patel– you can see what it looks like in the dish on the right side of the stove.

Also, here is a picture of the tapioca cooking on the stove. Inside, we put cheese, tomato, and oregano.

Tapioca filled with cheese is cooking on the frying pan.

Last night, AISESEC Sao Carlos had a party to celebrate the new members and to welcome all of the trainees to the city. It was so much fun! I tried my first caipirinha which is a drink made with cachaça, sugar, and lime. Totally awesome.  Then, we went to the dance club here called Banana. The girls here really know how to dance! They had a live Brazilian band playing, and it wouldn’t have been a problem, except that at one point they were asking for volunteers for something. I didn’t know what they were asking for, but my friends here told me to try it. I was chosen– and given the chance to dance ON STAGE with these other girls. Let me tell you, I cannot dance. And the girls here REALLY can dance. It was fun, but slightly embarrassing– worth the experience though I guess! You can see a video that I took of the band here on my YouTube channel (sorry, but the video does not include my embarrassing dance experience) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdmeRGPlnJM&feature=youtu.be. Also, somehow a picture of me and my friends wound up on their website, which you can see below.

The picture of us at the club Banana (from their website!)

Yesterday before going to Banana, I worked at one of the high schools here. We were teaching about internet and globalization, and I was surprised at how interested the kids here were about these topics. They were asking a lot of questions, and paying attention (not sleeping or talking a lot). You can see a picture of me with the students below. Some of them asked me for my blog’s website, so HELLO to you guys if you are on this website now :-)

Students in Sao Carlos

Other cool things that have happened these last couple days include going to the AIESEC Sao Carlos general member meeting! It was great to see the Local Committee here, they are all really nice. Their meeting is two hours long though! Our’s is only one hour, so it’s longer here!

AIESEC Sao Carlos

Well, hopefully I will be able to  post more often going forward because I feel like I have so much to say! Either way, things are good here. To leave this post on an inspirational note: here is a video they showed during their meeting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLLFPfk14UI. Enjoy! Good night!