The Other Exchange Students

Janice

About a month or two after I arrived, my hostsister asked my family, if we would be interested in having another exchange student living with us for a month. Of course I said yes; the more the merrier right? and on the 29th of October she arrived.

Her name was Janice, and she was a 24 year old med student from Germany. To our delight she already spoke portuguese pretty well after having done an exchange year in Portugal a couple years earlier, and she quickly became a part of the family. Suddenly I had two older sisters, and the house was filled with four nationalities and three languages.

We got along really well, and her, me and my sister often went to cafes or the shopping mall together. My mom also took us on city tours in the car, where I tried Acaraje (A typical brazilian food), and me and Janice went on walks together to the beach to watch the sunset and to eat Acai (a type of ice cream made from berries from Amazonia).

It was fun to have someone else, who could relate to all the things, I found weird about Brazil, like the pure confusion from both of us, when we were told the busses here don’t have time plans at all, or how football games are basically national holidays.

Trip to Itamicirim

In the beginning of November the family of the canadian exchange student, who lives just outside Salvador, invited the three exchange student from Salvador to their beach house. While the three of us from Salvador do things together regularly, it was the first time seeing Chelsea, the canadian student, since our welcome weekend.

Me and my family drove to our own beach house friday night, and then they dropped me of at the other house along with the others saturday morning. This was also the first time, I met the family of Estelle, the french student, who I’ll live with after new year, and my family got to meet Estelle, who’ll live with them. They seem super sweet and even speak a bit of english.

Then the four of us (and Chelseas brother) had the whole day to do whatever we wanted in the sunny brazilian summer. Since it was a secured area, we could even go for walks and to the beach alone, which we definitely used to our full advantage. We spent the whole day at the beach and pool, eating acaraje and drinking coconut water. Since we speak varying levels of portuguese, me and Levke, the german exchange student, were appointed the designated translaters whenever we had to buy something, and while it took some time and confusion, we managed to get everything and communicate pretty okay with everyone.

After watching the sunset with the families at the beach, we spend the night playing games, showing each other music and dances from our countries and just talking until two in the morning.

The next day we repeated the success, until we were picked up in the afternoon. Somehow I magically managed to get through both days without getting sunburned!

Me and my family were originally supposed to stay at our own beach house, but the weather had other plans. I never thought, so many of our plans in Brazil would be ruined by bad weather, but when it rains here, it rains, which it seems to do every time me and my sister wants to go to the beach together.

So instead we went home early monday morning, but my sister, Janice and I took full advantage of that last night by going to Praia Do Forte nearby. Here it was already fully decorated with christmas light. I really love that place, and my sister knew a perfect little cafe with crepes and cakes.

The Future Exchange Students

At the end of November, I also had the amazing opportunity to be a part of the interviews for the future exchange students from our district here in Brazil. In every country the exchange students are interviewed by rotary members as a part of the application process, but here in Brazil the Rotex members help too, and they invited the three exchange students here in Salvador to come along.

We were split into two groups; the other two with the Rotex and me with the Rotarians. My task was primarily to do the english part of the interview and assess their level, as not all the rotarians spoke english very well. It was super fun and nice to meet all the future students, and even though they primarily wanted to got to Canada and Germany, I hope some of them comes to Denmark sometime.

Afterward me, Levke and Estelle went back to my house and spent the afternoon walking around a beautiful part of the city along the beach, where we ate Acai, bought necklaces and pins for our blazers and even saw a performance from a street drumming band.

The School

School here ends in the middle/end of November, so november was filled with a bunch of presentations from all the theater, music and dance clubs and sports competitions. The other students also had a lot of tests, but because I don’t have to do the tests, I had a lot of free time to talk to my friends and the teachers or just relax.

It also seemed to have gotten to that point in the year, where the teachers just kind of gave up and showed movies, did kahoots or just let the class relax and talk. There was also a lot of inspirational talks about the stress from all the tests and the third and final year next year, as we’re changing almost all the teachers.

The last day of school was purely to relax and say goodbye to teachers and friends. They have a tradition of bringing one of their uniform shirts and having everyone write their autograph on it. It was super cute, but of course I couldn’t do it, as I borrow my uniform from my host sister. Instead I got everyone to write small notes in my notebook, that I cut up and put in an envelope to clip onto my Rotary blazer. I still don’t know, if I’ll be in the same class next year or change, so while I’m sure, I’ll stay in contact with my friends no matter what, it was nice to make sure I had something to remember them all by.

The End

And before I knew it, November was nearing its end. It’s incredible how fast time flies here. It feels like I just arrived yesterday, and yet it also feels like I’ve known my family and friends for much more than 3 months.

School had ended and a long summer vacation, until the start of february, awaited ahead. Me and my friends had a bunch of plans for going to the beach, the cinema and a bunch of parties, now that we didn’t have to wake up at 5 am every day. Also christmas was waiting right around the corner, and decorations were starting to apear everywhere.

Unfortunately the end of November also meant, that we had to say goodbye to Janice. After spending four weeks with us, she had become a part of the family, and we were all sad to see her go. However before she went, me and her dedicated her last day to baking christmas cookies, listening to christmas music and get in the christmas spirits.

The recipe was one my grandma sent to my mom, when she was in Brazil, that my mom now sent to me, and they were definitely popular here. A portion that normally lasts us weeks in Denmark lasted about 24 hours here, but it was a perfect end to our time with Janice, before she travelled on to Argentina, and a great beginning to my christmas in Brazil.