90 more days

If there is one thing that I take away from my year abroad it would be that no matter where you are there will be people you can count on.  Traveling to a new place is scary.  You don’t know anyone, the language is a mystery, and you don’t know how to act to fit in.  you become so dependent at the beginning.  Then, once you get into the groove of things you learn more about yourself than you could have imagined.  I have exactly 90 left in Brazil.  The thought of this makes me cringe on the inside.  It seems like such a short amount of time.  I know is actually a long time, but to me it feels like next week.  90 days.  I know everyone in the States is really looking forward to me coming back.  I am too, its just that it’ll be really different for me.  The States and Brazil are so different.  And leaving everyone here, not knowing when or if I’ll be coming back is a lot to handle.  When I left the States I knew I was coming back.  I hope and pray that someday I’ll be able to come back to my small Brazilian town.  But I don’t know for sure.

            My time abroad has also taught me how much I love to travel and meet new people and discover a whole new culture.  Paracatu is so different from Shelby.  I grew up in Shelby, and then I finished my journey into adulthood in Paracatu.  I love it here.  Through Rotary I’ve made friends from all over the world.  More than I could have ever imagined.  I hope one day to get to travel the world and I hope that it works out. 

            I kind of dread packing all my stuff up to travel back to the States.  My stuff has multiplied in ways I can’t fathom.  I have no idea how I amassed so many things.  But there are some things you can’t pack up.  I would love to pack my new kittens up and bring them back.  Or all my new best friends.  All the delicious food.  Certain smells.  These things can’t because they are intangible.  That’s the part of traveling that’s not so great.  Leaving a place you have come to love and call home.  At the same time its always nice to have a place you can always call home and always go back to.  My friends and family in the States have supported me through everything.  I wouldn’t trade them for anything.  Leaving for a year can really open your eyes to what is important and what isn’t.

            Lets skip to what I’ve been up to.  I ended up staying at my second house.  Woot woot.  I recently went to a concert for Henrique and Juliano.  They are semi-famous singers.  They were the Brazilian versions of country singers, so that was really interesting.  Also a few weeks ago, I went to a costume party.  That was fun.  As you all know, Brazil does not celebrate Halloween.  I know, that was really sad.  But this costume party reminded me so much of Halloween.  Everyone went all out with their costumes.  I went as a Native American Indian.  I’ll be posting pictures of both of these events later.  And this past week there was a big sporting event called, Jogos Escolares de Minas Gerais, or JEMG for short.  It was a three day long event where from 1PM until about 6:30 schools from all over MG came and competed.  My school wasn’t competing much, so I sat with kids from different schools.  Brazilians are very competitive about sports.  They take it so seriously.  My favorite Brazilian singer is coming to Paracatu in a few months, and I’m very very excited to see him perform.  His name is Naldo.  I think he is awesome.  One of my school teachers is moving, so later on this week my entire school is throwing her a party, I’ll be posting pictures of that as well.

            My life has been crazy and hectic recently.  It seems like every single day I have things to do.  I’ve finally gotten into a groove with things.  For those of you who don’t know, I got accepted into my dream school UNCW.  I think this is awesome and amazing.  I will be back in the States on the 21^st of July.  You can contact my dearest mommy, Sandra the amazing Yarbro, if you want to meet up with me J  I am really looking forward to telling everyone about my year abroad.  I also can’t wait to just hug everyone. 

I chose this song because I listen to it before I go to bed every night.  I really enjoy and the lyrics speak to me.  I can relate to feeling this way when I arrive back in the States.  The entire song just speaks to me.  I hope that everyone who reads this blog, takes the time to listen to this song.  Even if you’ve already heard it before.  It would mean a lot to me.