I have finished 16 years of life and am starting on the 17th,with hopefully many more years of good fortune,as well. These are a few pictures I have taken, one is of my older sisterLuiza and me. We were singing and having a dance party in her bedroom. The other is a picture of my younger sister, Ludmilla when we were decorating the Christmas tree. Fun, all and all, but I am missing the smell of my home during the holiday seasons. While passing by a bus coming home the other day, some kids were celebrating a birthday touring the city with friends and eating cake. There were dancing characters on the back of the bus and music was blaring. I added this picture just because it was funny, there is no real meaningful explanation behind it.
Another exciting part of my life happened two weeks before my school, São Fransisco de Assis, ended. I was sitting in class when all of a sudden three people came into my classroom. One was a Enlish teacher who worked at a language school and the other two were Foreign Exchange Students. A young girl from Germany who was on exchange to Brasil, as well as Frances who came to Homer when I was in 8th grade and stayed with the Gavenus family for one year(2005-2006). When they entered my class I did not realize who was standing in front of me. They came to explain and discuss the language program that they work for, with the kids of my class.
Later on I went downstairs to use the restroom, when I saw four little Brasillian girls trying to speak with these foreigners in English. Thinking to myself, well I am just like these other exchange students, were walking in the same shoes. I went over to them to say hello, ask how their experiences were going in Brazil and if they were struggling with the language as much as I?
First, speaking in Portuguese, I asked the Brazillian girls, since one of them rides the school bus with me, what they were doing and she told me "trying to talk with them in English or Portuguese." I thought this was really cute and introduced myself to Frances. I told him that I lived in Alaska, the next thing he said was that his exchange year was in the city of Homer. Right then I realized I knew this person in front of me, and what a coincidence to meet him in Belo Horizonte a city of four million people!Not only that but, in Homer I had never seen or met him. I had only heard his name a ton, since he was the soccer star of the season for Homer High. But since I was in 8th grade at the time, I never had the chance to meet Frances.
We talked for quite a long time, and he shared with me that his family owns a farm in Belo Horizonte that he would like to take me to. Frances also has a very close friend that can give me Portuguese lessons, that's another added plus.
This was just one experience out of the many that has shown me that this world is incredibly small, and great do things come out of it. This encounter was really miraculous and to this day I am stunned, at the thought of what actually happened.
Feliz Natal
