Kayaking and RYLA

Hey everybody! Been a little while since I last wrote, and I have been having some fun experiences!

This weekend was a very busy weekend, it started off with RYLA early on Saturday morning. While RYLA here was quite a different experience I was really happy to be back and involved with such a great program. At RYLA I had the opportunity to meet some of Paraiba American football team, which was pretty cool. So, RYLA started at 8am on Saturday morning. All of us exchange students were there, but we weren't exactly participating. I helped run it more than anything due to my past experience with RYLA. The morning was almost entirely guest speakers and presentations, while the afternoon had a few activities before going home. So here it was around 40 people, and just one day. All in all it was great to see RYLA in a different part of the world.

Before I talk about Sunday I have to give a bit of background information. I go to the gym every single day except Sunday when it is closed, so naturally in that time I have made a few friends. One of my best friends is one of the personal trainers, Junior. So on Friday when I came in he actually invited me to go with him and some of his friends on Sunday to kayak out on the ocean. Naturally, I said yes. So on Sunday morning I woke up slightly earlier than what is generally accepted as humane, walked to the gym and got a ride with Junior to our place of departure. We were to kayak ~2km to a sand bar/island that is actually quite famous called Areia Vermelha (I'll put a photo or two). When we got to the beach I was greeted by a few other people around 30 who were setting up the kayaks. I started helping, and immediately felt welcome in the group. More people trickled in, and the kayaks were moved to the beach. All in all there were 15 of us. After taking some pictures and doing last minute things we were all ready to go. I have gone kayaking and canoeing many times, but ocean kayaking was something new. Fighting against waves and currents for 2km was incredible exercise, but I honestly had a blast the whole time. I didn't feel at all tired (yet). When we got out to the island 8 boats each carrying around 50 people had already arrived, plus a few other kayakers, private boats, and jet skis. Umbrellas were set up on part of the island and vendors wandered around selling refreshments. If you have googled Areia Vermelha you by now know this place is GORGEOUS. So we went exploring for a bit, taking pictures, jumping in turquoise blue pools, and enjoying the crystal clear water. We spent roughly two hours on the sand bar, during that time I also got to try paddle boarding. Long story short its hard and I was bad at it. We hung out in the warm waters, explored bits of coral reef/sandbar that would appear, and just talked. In the end we had to leave at around 11:15 because the entire island was underwater once again. The journey back was easier, but definitely quite the workout. Once backI said goodbye and thank you to everyone, and headed home, and passed out. While kayaking I didn't feel too tired, but oh boy was it a workout. I just saw Junior in the gym today and he said he slept all afternoon yesterday. I did eventually get up around 5 to watch a movie with a friend before watching yesterdays awesome moon! All in all it was one of the coolest things I have done in Brazil and in my life, so a big thank you again to all of my new friends. It was absolutely a blast, and I was blown away the whole time at the beauty of this place.

Other miscellaneous things I have been up to, run run run run and baking!!! I made a peanut butter-nutella cheesecake, and it was amazing. It was like a giant Reese's but with Nutella and in cheesecake form. Also I learned that you can bake Quest cookie dough bars to make protien cookies!!!!

Anyways, check out the photos!

MONKEY BREAAAAAAD

Hey guys!

I wrote this on Monday, but then had a ton of trouble with the video, so that's why the days/times are all wacky.

It has been a wonderful Monday. I didn't have much planned so I decided I would make a video of me baking this afternoon. Since coming to Brazil I have done a lot of baking including now four cakes and cinnamon rolls. It's a lot of of fun for me and I'm learning so that's great. I also am really thrilled today because I ran 15km!!! In a matter of weeks I have gone from being proud of 7km to doing 15km!! I'm just thrilled about how much progress I have made running, and so quickly too.
Anyways, lets jump into what I made today.

I have done everything here from chocolate coconut haystacks to deep dish chocolate chip nutella filled cookie cakes, but today I decided to do something based loosely off this. So after returning from my awesome run, I got to work. As I said, I have done a lot of cooking here, so it wasn't uncommon for me to see me running about in the kitchen. I'll put a link to the tutorial video that I loosely based my recipe off of, the major difference being I made my own dough. I would love to put the recipe for you guys, but when I cook I tend to just kinda...whing it so I don't have exact measurements of anything. If you really want more info feel free to contact me. I do highly reccomend trying this if you have some spare time, it was absolutely amazing, and my host family devoured it in less than 2 hours. I had a blast making it, and it was just all around a great activity. Anyways, here is a time lapse of the kitchen as I cooked, and some photos of the finished project!

Thanks for reading/watching
Jonah

Fooooood!

Hello hello!

This last Sunday was my official one month "anniversary" in Brazil!!! Cheers to that! Just looking back over it, it has already been quite an adventure. I have definitely had some ups and downs in this last month, but I always try to keep it positive, and it has been great. I have met hundreds of awesome people on a totally new continent. I have made great friends who I will remember forever. I want to give a big thank you to all of the friends and family from all around the world who have supported me, helped me, shaped me into the person I am today, and made all the amazing experiences I have had possible!

Of those amazing experiences, the one I have picked out to talk about today is food! So since arriving in Brazil I have been having some of the best food I have ever had. The fruits are absolutely amazing. The chicken is really great, and the Brazilian Barbecue is amazing. However, this Sunday I had what I think was one of the best meals of my entire life. It was at the birthday party of a fellow exchange students host aunt. After a while of waiting the food started coming, and I just was blown away. I have never liked seafood, but I ate all of it at this meal, it was wonderful. So a big shout out to the chef, and check out the pictures below!

Other little things I have been up to include managing college stuff for next year (when it gets confirmed I will post on this). A looooot of running, I am really getting back into it. It's a lot of fun here, I do anywhere from 6-10km a day, either on the treadmill in the gym or out along the beach. Infact all of the fitness stuff here is wonderful, and the food is great for it too, since it is mainly fruits vegetables and meat. I have been having a lot of fun meeting up with everyone and failing at bowling or sitting on the beach with my new friends. Those of you who follow my Instagram know that not too long ago we passed 1000 views here on the blog so thank you! It's humbling to know how many people read this. Thats really everything I have for now, I'll write soon!

Thanks!
Jonah

Settling In

Hi everybody!

It's been a while since I wrote anything on here and I figured I would update everyone on what I have been up to.

Well, we are definitely hitting the point of just settling in. Last week was pretty standard. Nothing too important happened on Monday, but on Tuesday I headed to the Policia Federal where we spent a huge amount of time getting all the paperwork for my ID in order. It was nice that we were able to do it all in one go, but there also is a kind of funny story with it. We actually got lost going to the station because not even google had the correct address!

Another really interesting day was this Saturday night. On Saturday night I went with my fellow exchange students Louise and Anniina to a birthday party. We went with Louise's host family, and here 15th birthdays for girls are huge. Honestly, this was bigger and fancier than any wedding I have been to. Everything was so formal and fancy. There was a whole crew of professional photographers there the whole time, and a band I was told is quite famous
in Brazil. We all were dressed up quite a bit too. Inside they had unlimited food, and served champagne the entire time, and it is expensive here in Brazil. The party lasted long after we left at three AM. All in all it was a great thing to experience, but just seeing the amount of importance that was put on that birthday was something crazy. I had a great time, made a few friends, and ate a ton of amazing food.

I also want to give a brief shout out too some of my class who took me out last night and we had a great time at dinner then laughing at how bad the American is at bowling.

All in all I am settling in and getting used to the schedule here, and enjoying it quite a bit. I'm getting to go to the gym daily, and or run on the beach and it has been absolutely wonderful. If I start running a bit low on things to post about I might start doing a few posts about fitness, but I'm not sure. It's been a lot of fun getting to go get sandwiches or empanadas with friends and eat them on the beach while watching the ocean, and of course who could forget the fresh coconuts!

Thank you everyone for reading! Until next time!
Now for some photos I promised I'd post
Jonah

Orientation!

Hi everyone! It has been an amazing week!

So starting off I had a bit more of a normal week, starting to get into the swing of things. Class is going pretty good for me, and its a lot of fun. Everyone is really nice, they all talk with me a lot and help me out with anything if I need it. I am also starting to make a few friends at my gym which I am going to every day since everything is started up. Really, its just nice to be having a normal life a sort of. I think its going to be a lot of fun here.

Now, what I was really excited to write about was orientation in Maragogi. Friday morning all of the exchange students in JP met up at a bus stop, and before long a bus pulled up with more exchangers in various other parts of the district. We piled in and the adventure started. We had a long bus ride to Maragogi, and we stopped a few times to pick up more exchange students, but we made it eventually. We had a lot of fun playing a few name games and listening to music while talking, but after a while the lack of real food started to get to us. Near the end of the long ride we were a bit quieter, but then we arrived! We were in a small hotel that consisted of a main building that had the reception and kitchen and what not, and a half dozen small buildings that were pure housing. We took up the majority of the hotel but there were other people there. Right from the start I knew it was going to be a great weekend. All of the exchange students were so nice and so much fun to be around, and the scenery was amazing. We were directly on the beach, without so much as a fence between us. For the first few hours we got to run around on the beach, and we didn't really do to much. Then later we got dinner, and it was amazing. After dinner we had a Rotary presentation on some trips that we would have the option to go on later in the year, and a few general things. Then it was free time for all of us until we went to bed. We all had a blast hanging around the beach at night, talking, playing volleyball or juggling soccer balls, and just enjoying it to the max. We went to sleep right around midnight, and we had to be at breakfast at 7:30 the next morning. 

On Saturday morning I got up and headed to breakfast, again, the food was just amazing, a theme that continued throughout the entire orientation. Right after breakfast I was just hanging out and then all of a sudden there were tiny lemurs in the trees. They were small enough to fit in just one hand, but they were a bit shy. A few exchange students held out grapes and the lemurs would bite it or take it from them. One little guy came up to me, and held onto the tip of my finger for balance while he took the grape I was holding. Honestly it was so cool, they were so cute, and it was just an unbelievable experience. I don't have a photo of it, I am waiting for someone to send me the photos they took of me feeding the lemur, I promise I will upload it as soon as I get it. After that, we got our blazers and took large group photos. I also don't have that one but it will get uploaded. Then afterwards we had a longer meeting that was more the orientation part of this little trip. We got all the info we needed for the year, and took care of some paperwork. Once we had that out of the way, we had free time again, and as it was shaping up to be a hot day, we all went to the beach. A lot of people jumped in, while I just sunbathed for a while, before we got to have Brazilian barbecue for lunch, which left the entire area smelling wonderful for the next few hours. After lunch, more sunbathing and leisure activities. It was wonderful. The weather was perfect, the company was great, the area was beautiful, and a carefree feeling fell over everyone. I just relaxed in the sun while talking, before going for a run along the beach. Around two we all walked down the beach to where a boat was waiting to take us to a shallow sandbar area that was a lot of fun to swim in. The water was crystal clear and warm. We goofed around, jumping off inner tubes and swimming. Several of the Finnish exchange students and I tried to make a three person tower, which after much splashing around eventually succeeded (see photos). After an hour we went back to the hotel where we relaxed more before eating some great food. Then, after dinner we had a cultural show! A group came and gave us a sort of class and then a performance of Capoeira (google it). Then, directly afterwards, There was a DJ set up under the shelter next to the beach where we got to dance to all sorts of music including the Brazilian Forro! We spent the remainder of the night there, having the time of our lives. 

This morning it was just a quick clean up, everyone trade pins and lets go. I gained even more pins, and my blazer now is completely full on the front, they are just packed in. We all slept a good deal on the bus, the rest was greatly needed, so the ride passed quickly. 

The combination of the perfect location and perfect group of people created a magical weekend, that left us all just feeling relaxed, happy, and extremely sun burnt. I can't quite put into words how great it was, but it was a wonderful weekend, with wonderful people. So a big thank you to Rotary for making it such a wonderful orientation, and such a memorable time.

Thanks for reading!

I am trying to get a slideshow or secondary page where I can just drop all the photos but just bear with me!

First Days of School and Settling in

Hi guys!
It has been an exciting week since I last wrote. Everything from school, to rotary, to surfing has happened, and it has been great! I figure I'll just kinda go through it chronologically.

So, the first 2 days of the week were spent being like "oh yeah first day of school tomorrow", but then it didn't really happen till Wednesday. Finally on Tuesday evening I got my uniform for school, which really brought home that it was happening tomorrow, and that was great. Unfortunately, here my first class starts at 7:10 AM, so I have to get up pretty early. The good news with that is I get out at 1:00 PM, so my whole day isn't just gone. On Wednesday I got up, and we went to the school. I spent the first hour doing some of the paperwork for my entry in school with my host mom, then I go to go to class in the second hour. Overall, the school is structured a lot like schooling in Spain, you have your classroom and class, and the teachers move around not you. Then in the middle of the morning there is a break where we can go play indoor soccer, talk, or get something to eat at the cafeteria of sorts. School is going to be a little weird for me for a few reasons. First off, this is the southern hemisphere, so they just came back from winter break. That being said, we are in second semester. The school wants me to be with the same class in both parts of the year here, but what that means is for this first semester, I am with the equivalent of a junior class, however, in Brazil, they graduate a bit younger, so everyone is roughly 15/16. That makes school a little weird, but its not too important. Everyone has been nice to me, when I try to understand the classes I can get quite a bit, however I think part of that may be because this is mainly material that I covered 2-3 years ago. I'm trying to find some stuff to keep my mind active, and recently I have been watching Khans Academy videos online. The second and third days of school got better and better. Lots of people talk to me now at all the breaks and everyone is super friendly, so its really great for the social and cultural part of my exchange. I'll make sure to write an update on it within a few weeks.

The next big thing that happened for me was surfing. I woke up yesterday around 11 and they were like hey ya wanna go surfing with your older cousin. So naturally I said yes. We left around 2 and drove for roughly 40 minutes to an obscure beach, where we then climbed through the jungle a little bit with surf boards before reaching a beach with many surfers. Just above the beach there were some amazing cliffs, they were absolutely breath taking, and I was so sad I didn't have my camera. I tried surfing almost right away, and it didn't exactly go to plan. I had a lot of trouble just getting out to where I needed to be. The waves were around 1.5 meters usually, so after all my experience with the ocean after living in Iowa, I wasn't exactly prepared. When I finally did get out there, I didn't really catch any waves. It rained for a few moments which was pretty cool. I periodically got trashed by I slightly larger wave. Then my cousin caught a wave. One or two waves later I saw one that I thought looked good so I turned to face them to ask if it was good. Everyone started yelling, I turned around, and got pummeled by easily the largest wave we saw all day. We'll just call it a cultural experience. So after sitting out there for 5-10ish more minutes, I went in. Gabriel and I did take some cool pictures, but we only had a GoPro which isn't as good for photos, nonetheless they came out pretty cool and I will attach some of them. Eventually Gabriel did try to go in, but he didn't make it out to where he needed to be and came back within 10 minutes. We spent probably about an hour and a half just messing around waiting for the others, and I got prettttyy cold since I didn't have a surf shirt, just my bathing suit. That night we went home and I just had a quiet night in. Today we had a Rotary Event, so just before 10, me my host mom and dad all packed into a car with my blazer and headed out to an elderly home where my rotary club is doing a project. We got to see them helping out, talk to some of the elders, help a bit, and take some photos for youth exchange. (I forgot to mention, all of the exchangers except one were there). After that we just came home.

Unfortunately I have been feeling a little ill since around Wednesday, and it really decided to hit me on Saturday night, so since then I have not done to much except for lie around. Hopefully I'll be up and about having more adventures soon.

This week should be the first normalish week of school, which well be great to get to experience, with the only exception being inbound orientation starting on Friday! It will be a lot of fun and I will get to meet everyone! I'll make sure to post a lot of photos so check the blog, or follow me on my instagram if you don't want to wait.

I also want to give a shout out to some people back home, you guys have been the best with helping me out with various things like me not having contacts here (big thank you to my mother for sending them out). And everyone else for being supportive, and making me laugh so much.

Recife!

Hi everybody!

(I wrote this yesterday but then my wifi started acting funny so thats why the times are a littttle off)

I am back in Joao Pessoa, and it seems like I will be here for a while. We arrived earlier today from Recife, which is about an hour and a half to two hours in the car.

We went to Recife for a few reasons, the first and main one was we had to drop Pedro off at the airport. He is off on his exchange in Denmark, and he has arrived safely after quite an adventure of lost tickets and baggage. Anyways, around 10 o'clock on Friday, the 5 of us left for Recife. It was a quick drive, but I was still very tired from my travels.We went directly to the airport where I met my host grandmother and a cousin who spoke very good English. She studied in the USA for a year in college. We just hung out at the airport for quite a while waiting for his flight, talking, and having a good time. We had lunch, then Pedro was off to start his adventure. I was taken all around Recife for the next two days.

We got to my grandmas apartment and relaxed for a while before my host father left to go back to Joao Pessoa for the night. I was shown a bit of the city, then that evening we went out to see Olinda, an older part of Recife. I didn't take too many photos, but like any city at night, it was pretty cool to see. My host brother and cousin got tapioca for dinner (google it I don't know how to explain it :P) and I just had a fresh coconut. I wasn't very hungry so that was all I had but it was amazing. (All the fruit I have tried since arriving here has been absolutely amazing.) They just chop off part of the coconut and give you a straw. Then when I finished they chopped it in half so I could eat the fruity part on the inside. It was awesome. Eventually we went back to the apartment, and I went to bed almost immediately.

The next morning the plan was to do a bit of shopping for things that needed and just to see everything. We also wanted to go to a museum. Unfortunately we never did make it to the museum, but we did do everything else. So they day started off with the very sweet and slightly threatening demands of my host grandmother, saying that I needed to eat more. Directly after breakfast I went for a run on the sidewalk next to the beach. After that we left for a mall. I really didn't have anything to get other than pajama pants and normal toiletries, after that we stopped in a shoe store and that extended the trip for a while. We went back to the apartment and ate lunch, then laid around for a while and just relaxed. I was pretty tired again so it was nice. Then, we went to the house of more extended family. We spent around 4 hours with them and their baby, and I got to make everyone crepes which was a lot of fun for me, and everyone seemed to enjoy them. Once again when we got home I went straight to sleep.

Today, I woke up and ran up and down the stairs a bajillion times or so. Then we had breakfast again, and we left for Joao Pessoa shortly after. It's fathers day here in Brazil, so the whole family was in Joao Pessoa when we arrived, so we have been with them this whole time.

Tomorrow will be my first day of school, and I recently learned it starts at 7am, yikes! I'll write an update about school some time.  The language is getting easier every day, I don't think it will take me too long thanks to my spanish. Thats all for now!
Jonah