12/28/2005
Hey all- here is the December update letter that i promised....

The weekend of the 17th was my birthday party weekend.... yes.. i realize that should've been the weekend before... but we had this special dinner party for doctors to go to last weekend and a family churrasco... so my b-day party just wouldn't fit into that weekend... anyways... yeah... ok. so I guess I have a lot to catch you guys up on... so let's start with the weekend of the 10th-

On Saturday, December 10, we had a chic party for the doctors of Araçatauba. My host dad here is a doctor, so the whole family (plus my sister's boyfriend) went. At first I felt really uncomfortable and really out-of-place. Everyone was so posh and just so. well. so not what I'm used to. wearing Gucci, LV, etc. And I felt quite under-dressed. Tables filled with expensive foods and a bar and bartender with only the best drinks. Everything and everyone was just so "perfect"...Anyhow. We sat down and talked as "Hotel California" played softly in the background.I was sure that this was probably going to be one of the most boring nights of my brasilian exchange.but then, out of nowhere-there's this CRAZY drumming and like 15 or 20 kids walk in with these huge drums. and fireworks start going off, and everyone stands up and starts throwing confetti.and begins to SAMBA!! While everyone is beginning to samba, these women dressed in traditional Carnival outfits come in and begin to samba with everyone. masks and all. it was INSANE!! After the Carnival people left, they turned the lights out and just had black lights and disco balls and the place turned into a bumpin night club (this is true people, I could not make something like this up). It was totally crazy. All these doctors and doctors wives start breakin-it-down until they are completely wasted and dripping sweat. I have never seen anything like it before. such an amazing change in these people-all through the power of the right music!! It was totally wild. My sister, her bf, and I left around 2:30am (we had been out the night before and were really tired). but my parents stayed until about 4am!! The next day (Sunday), we had a family churrasco at my aunt's house. It was pretty fun. There were about 15 people there. Nothing better than churrasco (brasilian bbq). really, it is awesome. After the churrasco we all came home and took a much-needed nap!

The weekend of the 17th--
Exchangers began arriving for my birthday party weekend on wed, but my party was on Friday. 12 exchangers came from out of town for my party... there are another 10 just in my city.... All the exchangers and about 10 brasilians came to the birthday party. We had a good time... churrasco (brasilian bbq), pool, dancing to hip hop music... etc... all the necessities of a good party... oh, plus a big yummy cake!! (have I already mentioned that brasilian cakes are freakin awesome?!) The party started at 2pm and went until a little after 10pm... afterwards we all went to this bar called Quattro... and I ate a really good Caesar salad--for the first time in brasil!! It was truly mind-blowing... We had some miscommunications between exchange students and I had to walk with a couple others to pick some people up at a club and bring them back to Quattro with us. but we got everything figured out. Side story-- this story should give you a good idea of brasilian guys. and their relentless efforts for women. We were all sitting down at this humongous table at Quattro ("we" being all the exchange students who came to my party that day and Raphael Liu-my brother in my second host family). I was sitting at the head of the table and Hilary was next to me and next to her was Wyatt (a guy from LA) and Sofie (a girl from Denmark). Sofie is this cute little blonde that every single brasilian guy seems to fall madly in love with. so it wasn't much of a surprise when a random brasilian guy started blowing her kisses from another table. the thing is-wyatt and sofie are a "couple"-(I guess you could call them that) and so Wyatt got pretty angry. And he yells at the guy in Portuguese and puts his arm around sofie and tells him that "she's with me" kinda thing. The brasilian guy nods his head at wyatt, smiles. and CONTINUES to blow kisses at sofie and give her "the eyes." ahahaha!! With Wyatt sitting right there looking at him!! I nearly peed my pants I was laughing so hard!! Wyatt, on the other hand, was quite miffed. but luckily not angry enough to stand up and do something about it. I think mostly because I was laughing too hard for him to get that angry. anyways, there you go-lesson number one of brasilian men??--"no" never really means no to them. On Saturday we had a churrasco at Andrew's house and then headed out around 12am to a club called Calypso. It's the best club in Araçatuba. and supposed to be the best club in inland brasil (in other words-the best club outside of the beaches and big cities.so how good can it really be??). But I guess it's pretty nice. All the exchange students and some of my brasilian friends went, and we had a killer time. We stayed until 5:30am and I swear I had no idea where the time went when we were leaving! It was so awesome!! On Sunday we had another another churrasco (ahhhh!! So much MEAT!!) and then at night we went out to Peking Palace (My second host family owns the best hotel in town and a Chinese restaurant-they're Chinese.and Peking Palace is the name of their restaurant) and my second host dad fed all of the exchanger for free!! It was my first taste of Chinese food in brasil-and it was AWESOME!! I can't wait to move into my second host family next month cuz I'll be eating Chinese food everyday!! Woohoo!! On Mon, Tues, and Wed, we hung out with the remaining exchangers... going out for pizza and swimming n stuff like that. Good times.. it was really a blast to have everyone around for nearly a week!! But I was soooo exhausted when everyone left-I hadn't gone to bed before 3am since people started arriving in Araçatuba the Wednesday before!!

Weekend of the 24

That's right, Christmas weekend. No snow, no Christmas service, no Christmas music, pathetic Christmas decorations-not even a Christmas tree!! Could this really be Christmas?!?! Yes, well, it was. Honestly, Christmas and Christmas Eve were nice, they just didn't really feel anything like Christmas. more like.some kind of random, slightly unimportant holiday that people use as an excuse to get together to eat and drink (like St. Patrick's Day in America). Christmas Eve is a much bigger deal with my hostfamily than Christmas. On the afternoon of Christmas Eve I went tanning at Salla's house-it was 100 degrees!! Woo!! That is one scorchin Christmas!! I think Santa's suit is red cuz he caught fire when he came to brasil to bring the kids gifts!! When I got home from Salla's house, I took a shower and just as I was walking to my bedroom in a towel, my sister handed me the phone. It was Wiggz--a friend of mine from my city in Thailand. So. I got to talking with her, and my sister walked in my room to return my blow dryer, and my sister was wearing this gorgeous dress, hair and make-up perfect. and I nearly screamed!! My package still hadn't arrived from American and I had NOTHING to wear!! I was totally thinking that I could just wear some nice jeans and like a button-up shirt or something-WRONG!! I started to panic. but in the end, I ended up looking alright I guess. Not nearly as dressy as my sister, but it's all good-at least I didn't look like a complete slob (thanks to Raphael. he gave me a really nice black and white shirt for my b-day, so I wore it with my black pants with a green sash and green earrings to keep the Christmas theme going). By the time I left my bedroom, my whole family was over and we had-can you guess it folks??-another CHURRASCO!! My family also had a Secret Santa exchange where you were supposed to spend less than 3 reis on the gift (2.35 reis = $1 US).so basically kinda cheap, funny things.I got my aunt a pair of earrings. I got a Brasilian flag bandana. Then everyone got like 1 gift from their family. My cousin walked in, dressed up as Santa Claus when it was time to exchange presents. and if you wanted to get your gift, you had to sit on Santa's lap.. I tried to get out of that one. but it just didn't work. I got a beach towel from my family (in 2 weeks, we are going to the beach together for 5 days). I gave my hostparents and hostsister gifts from America. At midnight, everyone hugged everyone and wished everyone a Merry Christmas (with brasilian funk playing in the backround.). After that, Camila (my sister), Jon (her American "boyfriend" who is visiting for the holidays), Gustavo (my cousin), and I went out to some of our friends' houses for some parties. It was pretty fun. but it felt pretty weird to be partying and clubbing on Christmas Eve. Anyways, we got home around 3:30am. The next day, all the relatives came over again for a Christmas lunch. It was kind of like a Christmas dinner in America, but with a bit of a brasilian twist.. I know the names of the foods we ate in Portuguese and not English, so I'm not going to bother naming everything-but I will name a few that you would know-turkey, roast beef, potato salad, and white rice, with pudding and pineapple drenched in wine for dessert. It was fun. After my afternoon nap, I went for a four mile run, wished myself a merry Christmas. and waited another 6 hours to hear from my family in Portland. I do always love a phone call. So it was fun to get to talk with them. I also called the Wilsons and got to wish them a Merry Christmas too. Yep, that's about it for my Christmas adventure!! Hope you are all enjoying the holidays and have an awesome New Year!! See you all in 2006!!

Beijos para tudo mundo,
Kati