| The past five months have gone by so quickly! It feels like Christmas was just a moment ago. Now I have only three months until the end of my exchange, and so far I’ve had some cool experiences! During the week, I go to a bilingual high school in the center of Uberaba. My class is small compared to most schools in Florida. There’s only one class of seniors, and it has fewer than 20 students. The school day starts at 7 am and ends at 12:15 pm, so I have the rest of the day to explore the city or work on hobbies. During school, I have a lot of free time, which has made it easier to be consistent with writing short journal entries like these: 3/6/26 Most of my school seems to know that I’m “the American.” I’ll never forget this one girl who totally freaked out when she saw me and said I’m basically a celebrity here. I’d never met or seen her before, and she was probably a few grades below me. I had no idea anyone outside of my class even knew me! Also, today is Women’s Day. The school gave all of the girls a small hand mirror. 2/4/26 Today we played a game during English class. The students had to write words in different categories that started with the letter the teacher picked. For example, if the letter was ‘L’ and the category was food, we had to write words like lemon, lime, lobster, and lettuce. Some people wrote online slang words, such as “looksmaxxing,” “mogging,” and “larping.” When the teacher asked me to confirm whether they were real words, I always just laughed and went with it because, technically, they are. 3/11/26 I just had lunch and ate meat that I’d never tried before. It reminded me of the other unexpected dishes I’ve had here, like corn with ginger and pizza with tomato slices instead of tomato sauce. All of those meals were a bit different than what I’m used to, but they weren’t bad. They were actually pretty good! 3/20/26 Today, my class dressed up as stereotypes. I just came in what I wear to the farm at home: boots, jeans, a tank top, and my hat. I just tied my flannel in a way that I usually don’t and braided a ribbon into my hair. I brought my rope (lasso) too. Some of my classmates also dressed as farmers, and it was interesting to see the difference in how stereotypical farmers from Brazil and the U.S. dress. 4/6/26 Today is Easter! My host family and I had lunch together. My host mom gave me a chocolate egg, and I spent the rest of the day reading. I have a cold, but fortunately, it’s not as bad as I thought it’d be. I’ll probably be over it in a few days. 🙂 Last week, I switched to my third host family. Now I live in an apartment with two Rotarians and a lot of plants. My host mom likes gardens, so my home has many flowers and small trees. It’s much quieter here than where I used to live, but I like it! Since I arrived, my host family and I have been going out often together. Most recently, a Rotary conference and a strawberry festival! |
2025-26 Jay outbound to Brazil
