The Chaui Family
Waking up on the 23rd of September was a weird experience. Everything still felt a bit surreal, like I never really left home, or like I at least would return within a week or two. My brain just simply couldn’t comprehend, that this was the first day of a whole year in this place, and yet I was exited. It was pure joy that rushed through me, as I pulled curtains to reveal the city and my new home.
As school starts really early here, Cathi would be gone before I woke up on the days she had morning classes, but I would eat breakfast with my host parents and talk (mostly through google translate).
The breakfast here is definitely very different from the plain oatmeal I used to eat in Denmark. First of all a lot of it is warm, and they even had cake! For breakfast! I can’t complain though, as it’s all very delicious.
On my first morning I also got to meet Rosa, the housekeeper, who comes every day monday-saturday from early morning to around 12-15 depending on the amount of work. In the beginning it was very strange to have someone clean up after you and cook for you every day. I had a really hard time bringing myself to just leave the table without doing anything, but I quickly became fond of the cakes and delicious foods that would just magically appear, and even though she doesn’t speak a word of english, she is very nice to me, and we manage to get by, until I speak more portuguese.
The apartment is also really nice but certainly something, I have to get used to. I’ve never lived in a city, and I’ve never even been in a city this big! It’s weird how much noise there always is. and it’s really weird not being able to go outside on my own for a walk. Lucky enough there’s both gym and pool in the building, and everything is super close for me, who’s used to at least an hour in bus to get to nearest “big city”.
Above you can see the beautiful view form the apartment
I had about a week and a half between arriving and starting in school, where I could get to know the family, study portuguese and get used to the place.
As I said, I ate family with my host parents before they went to work, and then I had the rest of the morning on my own to read, watch a movie, study portuguese, go to the gym etc.
In Brazil lunch is the big meal of the day, and usually my mom would get home from work at that time too. That meant we ate lunch together, and sometimes my sister or host dad would join us before going back to work/university.
After lunch my mom would often take me places. On my first day we went on a city tour to see the coastline, her work, my school, the lighthouses and the city center. On another day we went to the mall, and most importantly we got ice cream no matter where we went.
One morning where neither Catharina or my host mom had work or school in the morning, we went to an organic market. It was a super fun experience, as it was outside on a really hot day with the tropical trees shading the colorful stalls. Truly unlike what I was used to. Here it also became clear, that it’s very obvious I’m not from here, and everyone would ask about where I was from, what I thought of Brazil and encourage me to try the food and the million different kinds of fruit they had. Everyone was super nice though.
Some days when sister didn’t have morning classes, we would go on a morning walk in the city and along the beach, where she would tell me about the boat clubs, the carneval, the upcoming elections and a bunch of other stuff about Brazil. We would also get coconut water from a fresh coconut from the sellers on the streets and go for a swim in the ocean.
One evening we also went to the cinema in the mall to watch the new Top Gun and buy school supplies for me.
In the weekend there was also a lady that came to do our nails, which was quite exited for me, who has never gotten my nails done and haven’t painted them since I was a kid. Catarina and I also went to lunch in the boatclubs restaurant nearby with her grandpa and his friends.
After starting in school, the trips mostly happened in the weekends, but one day, the 7th of September, it was the Brazilian independence day, and we all had the day off.
My mother, sister and I went to get brunch in a lovely little café. The food and the juice (it’s amazing how much juice they drink here, and how many different kinds they have) was amazing, and I tried something that was like thick waffles with cheese inside, that they dipped in either nutella or guacamole. Maybe it sounds weird, I thought so at first, but it was absolutely delicious.
Afterwards we went to a very famous church, where the Baianas come sometimes and where there’s a million small colorful ribbons tied around everything. It’s something you do when praying for luck or a good outcome of an event.
Then as our last stop of the day we went to the coast on the other side of the city, where you could see across the bay to where we live.
Of course there are also other family members than my sister, mom and dad, that I got to meet along the way. The first was my grandpa, who to my surprise spoke a bit of english. By now it’s almost easier to just speak in portuguese, but in the beginning it was very helpful. He has also traveled across the world and could share some great travel stories. At one point we talked about language mistakes, and he told about one time, where he was giving a formal speech at a club in USA thanking them for their hospitality. He wanted to tell them, that Brazil would always welcome them “with open arms”, except he made the tiny mistake of saying “With open leg” instead. That got a good laugh from all of us, and it also made me feel a bit better about any eventual mistakes I would make.
By now I see him at least a couple of times a week, often for dinner or lunch but we also frequently run into him at the mall or the supermarket. He also found out how much I love chocolate, and now I’ll be rolling away from Brazil by the end of the year, with all the gifts he gives.
And then I finally got to meet Paulo’s family after a week or two at his mothers birthday party. Birthday partys in Brazil is a bit different from the ones in Denmark, but it was really fun and laid back. It was in the evening, but because dinner is not a big meal here, there was just a small buffet with snacks, candy and a bit of food that people could take when they wanted. Of course there was also cake, which is a really big deal here, and it was absolutely one of the most beautiful birthday cakes I’ve seen. The birthday song is also really fun if not a bit complicated, but after four birthday partys I’m starting to get the hang of it by now.
At the birthday party I also met one of my uncles and his family, who’s going to be my third host family from around April 2023. They seem super sweet, and he has a son, Pedro, who’s a few years younger than me, and at his birthday party a few days later, I also got to see their home, which is just around 100m from where I live now, so I’ll be able to visit both families, when I want. He also made a brave attempt of speaking danish to me from google translate, which had the whole party dying with laughter and deeming danish impossible and weird.
And of course two birthday partys within a week wasn’t enough, because the next week it was my sisters birthday, and they all showed up with cakes and snacks as a surprise party. Here they also play a lot of games at partys, and my sister and I played a lot of uno with our cousins with their weird brazilian rules.
Little Wanderer 
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