Three Months Until My Last Day

A short insight into some thoughts on what marks exactly three months until my last day of my Fulbright grant:
I got home from buying materials in town and tried to be productive by planning my conversation club for tomorrow and working on the short answer and essay portion of the Mitchell App. It’s kicking my butt. The Mitchell Fellowship you ca't get any help on your application, and it feels like I'm going into this blind. I got a draft down though. I got my time for the conference on August 28th, the Conecta IFB one that I present in Portuguese. We were notified by the IFB coodrinator of the event that she would like my co-worker and I to take part in an event. It will be a round table discussion 9:30-10:30 am about study abroad and international experiences. Let me repeat- in Portuguese. I've never presented in Portuguese before. We also found out a few days ago that we will then have a diplomatic meeting the same day shortly after with Secretary Casagrande. Busy busy day. Lots of upcoming events to juggle along with fellowship application and everyday teaching and planning. Today marks exactly 3 months until my last day of my grant. I'm not sure how I feel to be ending two years in Brasil. Nervous (no plans yet for when I return), relieved (to speak and think in English again), excited (to see my family), and sad (to be leaving this beautiful country, cultural, and people) I supposed.

O Maior São João Do Cerrado

I met with Amanda and her roommate Isabel and then two of my student friends Wemerson and Paulo and we went to O Maior São João Do Cerrado Northeast Festival in Ceilândia. It was a lot larger than I expected and by about 11 pm when we were leaving there were at least 50,000 plus people there. When you first walked in there were hanging flags and a small house village of shops set up. Then, you walked into a maze of food vendors selling- hot dogs, burgers, acaraje, arroz carteira, yakisoba, canjica, and alcoholic drinks out of pineapples. I ended up buying Paulo and me a hotdog, because I’m obsessed with Brasilian hotdogs, and it had batata palha, cheese, ham, sauces, and other goodies. Paulo helped me open the ketchup packets, because we all know I suck at that and normally spray them all over myself. Then we walked through the rollercoaster portion, and Paulo convinced me into my desire to ride the Kamikaze ride, which is the swinging upside down carts. Amanda and I each bought the 4 for 20 reais ticket deal. The kamikaze ride was insane and luckily it didn’t hold us upside down at the top, like it did for prior riders. Amanda and I ended up giving most of our tickets to our friends to ride new rides, since we have the rides more easily accessible in the US, and one of the friends had never been on the rides. It was great seeing their reactions to the rides! Paulo went a little crazy with bumper cars and his maniacal look said it all. Next, we went back to the concert area, which was a huge concert set up, and watched the Henrique and Ruan set. There was a song or two that I actually recognized the chorus and could sing along (faking my way along I mean). We stayed halfway through the set and ended up heading out about 10:30 pm to call the ubers, and everyone made it home safely by midnight.

Midyear Seminar Fulbright Year 2 In Rio de Janeiro

My first year Fulbright midyear seminar was held in Salvador, but this year we had it in Rio de Janeiro! This year's conference I got the bravery to apply for a position to lead a workshop, and I won the spot. We spent Tuesday-Thursday at Fulbright ETA led workshops, workshops presented by graduate students, Foreign service officers, private sector Fulbright alumni members, and education field specialist Fulbright alumni members. This is about the time of the year when we start kicking into the mindset of- what comes after Fulbright.
Our hotel was right on the Copacobana beach, and my room was an amazing 25th story view overlooking the water. The hotel also had a rooftop heated infinity pool!
On one of the seminar days we spent learning more about the culture of Rio and taking a trip through the city. We got to explore the Escadaria Selaron, and it was my second time there. I bought a capirosca with mango, but it was more alcohol than fruit. We were supposed to go to Sugarloaf Mountain, but it was closed due to the high winds, so instead we went to Christ the redeemer!

Infinity pool on the rooftop

The rooftop view from the hotel

Our view looking out from the hotel

My last seminar conference with Fulbright as an ETA

Spot my name on the presentation list!

My coworker Amanda and program manager Karina

I took a photo exactly here one year ago my first time exploring Escadaria Selaron

Everyone loves a fruit capirinha--> caipirosca

The view from the Christ the Redeemer statue

But first a selfie. The wind was very strong!

My amazing Centro-Oeste Regional group

It was hard to capture a good photo with it being so dark, but we cleverly used a lit sign nearby to help with lighting

  

One of my best Fulbright friends I've made through my second year journey- Maddy 

Cheesin' on Copacabana beach

Escaped for a quick beach walk after I finished lunch early one day

English Immersion Program

"One hundred and eleven students from Brazilian public schools are participating, from July 1 to 5, in an English Immersion program “English Immersion USA” – sponsored by the United States Embassy and its Consulates in Brazil.  In this thirteenth edition of the program, all Brazilian states and the Federal District are represented in Brasilia for a week totally immersed in American culture with plenty of time to practice their English.

During the program, students will attend conversation, history and geography classes, play sports and learn about American culture and cuisine.  In addition, all of the participating students will present an action plan in social entrepreneurship to be implemented in their respective communities, using their experience and learnings from the immersion week in Brasília.  All activities will be conducted in English so that the participants can develop their skills in the language and deepen their knowledge of the cultural diversity of the United States.

The selectees are between 15 and 18 years old, are all engaged in social projects in their communities, have academic excellence and were semifinalists of the selection process to the Youth Ambassadors Program in 2019.  All expenses, such as air transportation, accommodation, health insurance, meals, and cultural programming, are sponsored by the U.S. Embassy and its consulates in Brazil.

Photos of the program are available on the Flickr site: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmEHtQGY "