In honor of throwback Thursday, I’ve decided to post a few photos from my Rotary exchange in Brazil. It’s now been over 7 years since I first took off on a plane by myself to a country I had never been to.
I was looking through some old emails that I used to send out when I was away on exchange. Here’s an excerpt from one, written after I had been in Brazil for about 4 months:
I went to my family’s beach house this last weekend. It was so relaxing. Nothing to do at all except go swim in the ocean, and lay outside, sleep in a hammock, and eat coconuts. I went for a walk around the town as well, trying to pretend to be a Brazilian, but even still, everyone stared at me, and one Brazilian shouted out ‘Hello! Welcome to Brazil!!’ (Brazilians are incredibly welcoming and friendly). I think it is partly the clothes. I have to start buying smaller sizes and get huge hoop earrings, maybe then no one will be able to tell I am a foreigner. I also ate a whole fish (even the eye!) I was very scared to do it, but it turned out to not taste that bad. I also ate a stingray, and the other day I drank cocoa juice! You would think it would taste like chocolate…since it is cocoa, but it is actually white, and sweet, because I think it is a different part (the fruit, and not the bean) but I had no idea it was so delicious, and that it even existed. I got very sunburnt at the beach house though. Now I know to use my sunscreen…
Those were the days!
