Maria (Alejandra) Garcia Narvaez

2010-11 Outbound to Brazil

Hometown: St. Augustine, Florida

School: St. Augustine High School

Sponsor: St. Augustine Sunrise Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida

Host: Bom Despacho-Arraial Rotary Club, District 4760, Brazil

Bio

Alejandra's Bio

Hello, my name is Maria Alejandra Garcia and I’m setting sail to Brazil come the end of summer. The town I live in is quaint but I love it! It’s the little things that make it charming, like the fort wall overlooking the water, the Lightner Museum’s water fountains and balcony, and the much appreciated beach.

I live with my madre, my dog Brownie and my cat named Cat. My father lives in Naples with his wife and two daughters Carolina and Daniella, whom I see occasionally. My other brother lives in Pennsylvania with his wife Nancy and two kids, Cesar and Gaby. I grew up with my sister Sandra so we’re really close and I miss her now that she’s living in Tallahassee. She started traveling when she was 16 and I believe that sparked my curiosity to explore the world. I decided to do the exchange because I strongly believe that you have to live your life in the moment and set out to try new things without putting them off otherwise you’ll never go through with it.

I’m really active at school where I’m a member of the AICE program, the swim team and quite a few clubs. I’m a dedicated dancer and have been since I was 4. I go to The Dance Company and let's just call it my home away from home since I practically live there. I don’t play any contact sports but I wish I did. Therefore, I’m determined to learn soccer in Brazil and COMPLETELY convinced that I'll come back a pro. The smallest things make me laugh...we’re talking knock-knock jokes and the silliest riddles here. In a nut shell: I'm short, goofy, and outgoing.

I want to say "thank you" to my family for supporting me on this journey, the friend who gave me pep talks when I had doubts, and those who have stood by me every step of the way (you know who you are). I’m looking forward to the challenge of living in another country for a year and would like to thank Rotary Youth Exchange for this opportunity. I’m not gonna lie, I’m kind of scared. However, most importantly, I’m excited, leaving open minded, and ready to face the adventure that awaits.

Adeus!

August 20

Day 13: I'll admit, I was quite upset upon departure from the states but now that I've been in Brazil for over a week I don't see what I was so worried about. As soon as I saw my family at the airport with a "welcome" sign I knew I'd be okay. Every moment spent in this beautiful country makes me realize I'm exactly where I need to be. I fit in with my 1st host family immediately. My dad, Elano, is always looking out for me. He always brings home a different kind of food for me to try and every time I'm done eating he makes me eat more. Needless to say I quickly learned the phrase "I'm full". My mom, Tereza, treats me like a daughter. We walk down the street arm and arm and already she talks about how she'll miss me when I switch houses. My eldest younger brother Elano Jr. has been my salvation. He's the only one who speaks English so y 1st couple of days I would just stare at him and he'd translate. The youngest is Vitor and he's 11. Alas I have someone to give a knuckle sandwich to and just have fun with. The other day we went to the little kids park (there's a sign saying 10 and under only) and cracked ourselves up on the sea-saw. Him and I sing and dance in the car together...Justin Bieber is a big deal over here so naturally my rapping abilities in "Baby" were much appreciated. 

September 8

The town itself was very historical and beautiful as well. We got a guide in this horse carriage. Minus the excitingly decorated buggy, I thought it would be similar to St.Augustine horse tours: slow and somewhat boring. My oh my was I wrong, that hello-kitty decked out ride galloped full speed down those narrow stone roads! The sights we visited were all facinating. The slave and rich folk's churches had real gold ranging from 8 to 460 kilos (respectively). You just walked in and were left in awe at the hand work people did thousands of years ago. Other sight-seeing included a fountain with an interesting legend. There were 3 statues that spewed water out. The 1st story claimed that if you drank from the statue #1's water you'd be happily married, take a sip from #2's and you'd be left a widow and get ready for a nasty divorce if you dare swallow the H2O from #3. Eventually someone must have realized that 2/3 of the tale was negative because currently the statues spew out love, health, and riches.

On our last day we stopped at São João del Rei. We had lunch and saw an old school train station then saw two more churches. One of them was of São Francisco and actually held the tomb of an ex-president. The church took around 40 years to build and held giant wooden structures all around which were built by one man, alone!! Next to the alter there was a unique chandelier. There's only two in the world and it's twin is currently residing in the Louvre. Afterwards we went to another church that had all these paintings on the ceiling whose eyes followed you everywhere you went.

My birthday was on a Thursday this year so I went to school and at lunch time all the kids in the 2nd and 3rd year surprised me with a surprise party. They all pitched in money to buy sodas and snacks and then my classmate made a cake. I have to say it was one of the sweetest things ever done for me. Now, let me describe to you a painful yet entertaining birthday tradition in Brazil. I have no idea how this came into existence but on the day of your birth, you get egged. I knew it was coming because I was warned by some and the kids repeatedly told me how good eggs and coffee are for your hair. I was thinking maybe 5 eggs total, no big deal right? Then I see Kyara walking towards me with 30 eggs and all the kids start swarming her to get some. This was when I started running away. Unfortunately I wasn't quite sure where I was so they caught me pretty quickly. Since the eggs were bought directly after school they were very cold and hard from the fridge. Ergo, the first time with my skull or upper body it wouldn't break. Logical solution? Hit harder. I  imagine I have a clue as to what it felt like to be stoned in the Jesus days. At the end I was given the last uncracked egg to break over my own head for a picture. Really guys? You didn't stop to think for 1 second that I'd just hit the person right next to me. And gee golly you can bet your dollar I hugged everyone I could catch! That night we had a party at my house with friends and family. My guests attempted to teach me how to dance "funky" and my grandma made this gigantic sandwich. It was a fun night and after everyone left I had the chance to phone my gorgeous sister Sandra and Skype the special woman who gave me birth :) Looks like 18 is my new lucky number.

This Saturday I got to go to my 1st wedding. The bride was my dad's cousin and since we have a nice car, he drove her to the church. The after party was different than I expected. The music ranged from Portuguese to some good ole' English classics: my favorites were "I Will Survive", "Another Brick In The Wall", "Dancing Queen" and let's not leave out Akon's "Dangerous"! In case you are wondering, Gloria Gaynor stirred things up a little bit and did a duet...with me.

Today is Brazil's independence day and there was a parade early in the morning. Tonight everyone is going to the Praça Mall to eat ice-cream and probably dance in the street. Now it's time for the update on my ordinary life. I go to dance class and the gym 4 times a week at my athletic club and you'll be proud to know that I can walk all by lonesome without getting lost. I take guitar twice a week and so far I've been taught a Portuguese song and "I'm Yours". I say taught because I haven't quite grasped the learning part (yet). Rotary here has community service projects every week for the exchange students. So far I've visited a rehab center and helped out at the special Olympics.

I explained in my last journal how d's are pronounced like the 'g' in gentle but since it makes more sense I'll now refer to it as a 'j'. You should also know that r's are pronounced like h's. So for this journal my favorite Portuguese pronunciation of an English word is "Red Bull". Example: No, I don't personally drink HEJ BULL but my sister and her boyfriend are quite fond of the drink when undertaking a long road trip. HEJ BULL.
So there you have it folks, the bigger events in my life up until today. Ate mais!

I finally went to a sweet 15 birthday party. It's the 2nd most important day of your life right next to your wedding. The planning takes place years before the event and there's an entire hour ceremony full of rituals and traditions welcoming the girl into womanhood. I was told it wasn't that great of a party but to me it seemed like quite the event. That same weekend I went to a club. Since I just recently turned 18 it was my 1st time ever and I had the most splendid time. There were neon lights everywhere, English techno music playing , and creepy guys hitting on you everywhere. I guess some things don't change no matter what country you're in.

I visited Rio the week after and enjoyed myself thoroughly. I traveled with Elano and my mom by plane (a 45 flight compared to an 8 hour drive). We arrived at night so we met up with an uncle and had dinner then proceeded to our hotel in Copacabana to get a good nights rest for the next day's events. My brother, the founder of PECA, was filming a documentary about his organization so there were cameramen filming us walk out of the hotel as we made our way to the lecture. It was held at the local high school of actress Bia Arantes. It was my 1st time attending a PECA event and I found it really interesting. Afterwards we went out to a shopping mall for lunch with the actress and her mother. This mall had about 8 floors and was bigger than any mall I'd seen in Florida and obviously put Bom Despacho's little praça to shame. For the 1st time in Brazil I was able to eat Japanese food (sushi!!!) and frozen yogurt. Afterwards we went to Brazil's equivalent of Hollywood: Globo. We were given a tour of the environmental area, a couple sets and met the director of Globo's environmental policies. While we were there, the filming of a show was taken place literally the floor right below us and a popular Brazilian band, Fiuk was playing. The next day was supposed to be beach day except it was raining so instead we met up with Bia again at another mall (only 4 stories but considered the "highclass" mall). I had frozen yogurt again and then we parted ways to go to another mall where we were to meet another one of Elano's actress friends. This one was called "New York Mall" and was complete with the statue of Liberty at the entrance. There were a lot of American stores here, it was 3 stories tall but so wide I think it was bigger than the other 2.

Sand castle in Rio

On our last day it was a little cloudy but I was determined to go to the infamous beaches so we walked to all the major beaches, saw the winner of Big Brother casually walking on the street, and of course ate frozen yogurt again. Every single one of the beaches was absolutely beautiful. The water was a deep (and mind you, clean) aqua that despite the temperature lured me in for about 5 seconds until I realized I had to walk back to the hotel in the wind with no towel. Another interesting site was the sand castles. I can't even really call them sand castles because it was more of a piece of art. There were men all down the beach sculpting these intricate masterpieces complete with people, houses, windows, roadways...everything! I was reluctant to leave but I look forward to returning with all the other exchange students on the Northeast trip.

When I got back to Bom Despacho everyone wanted to know if I'd rather live there and I could truthfully answer that I was perfectly content where I was. I have a family, friends and a life in Bom Despacho that I wouldn't trade for all the frozen yogurt and clear beaches in the world. The next weekend our family rented a house in Betim along with the other 2 aunts in Bom Despacho and their families. We spent the weekend lounging in the pool, playing pool, and eating lots of meat. I also learned how to make brigadero which is condensed milk mixed with chocolate...I think I may have just found my downfall.

On another note, elections are taking place this Sunday to elect a new president into office. According to the polls a woman is in the lead and should she win, she would be the 1st woman president in Brazil's history. Paying attention to the advertisement campaigns I must say I'm a little disappointed in the US's candidates habit of bashing one another. I have not seen or heard a single advertisement for one opponent critizing the other. There are hired cars that cruise down the street with giant boom boxes blasting catchy tunes, which I admit can get annoying, and the TV commercials are all positive and based on themselves. I mean it, not a single negative jab at an opponent to get ahead of the game. I think that's something to be admired.

As far as my Portuguese is concerned, I've been getting better with practice. I was in street the other day and all of a sudden realized I could understand what the people on the street were saying to one another. I've also come to the conclusion that the hardest words to pronounce are the American ones used here. I've spent my whole life saying "milkshake", "internet", "notebook" (which means laptop here) one way and now I'm expected to say it completely differently. You might as well call me Clouseau ("hamburger" has also given me great grief). The other day a girl at school told me I was starting to look Brazilian. She couldn't explain it but she said that something in me changed since I'd gotten here. Before I was clearly American and now I was capable of passing as a native. I called her crazy and laughed but it made me proud. Now all I need is to start dreaming in Portuguese and we can call it a done deal.

November 16

Day 100: Hey there peeps, this now time to be updated on my Brazilian life. November was pretty routine. My life here is starting to feel more grounded, thus the sensation of curiosity has shifted. I now know where all the best spots in town are to eat, get ice cream, as well as the places I should stay away from. The reality that I live here has settled in and I can't label it as a good or bad thing because truth is, it's my life which as we all know has it's ups and downs. Every time I leave town I come back to "home" not, "my host city". I feel comfortable but in the beginning of the shift life was confusing because it was such a huge step and at times felt boring because nothing was new anymore. Then I focused on the high lights and realized what an amazing occurrence was taking place. For instance, I have my own friends who call me to go out, I can go to the plaza on the weekend and have an ice-cream alone if I wish because it no longer feels like I need a tour guide. Of course right when you find your ground, things are switched up. In other words, I switch host families this week.

Rewinding to the past: I attended my 1st inbound orientation in Belo Horizonte and it was funny to see us all get along within the 1st five minutes together. My district apparently hosts the most students, so the weekend was never boring since there were always people to talk and get to know. All those things Rotary says about finding life-long friends through the program are actually true. I can say with self assurance that even after I'm back in the states, I will still have the friendships with the amazing inbounds I've met. The day after the orientation I went to an Interact event in Moema (Bom Despacho's neighbor town) which was fun and eventful however combining the previous weekend of no sleep with my newly made friends led to exhaustion.

There was a concert scheduled for Gusttavo Lima that I was looking forward to that unfortunately got canceled the day of because the fire department declared the location unsafe. For the life of me I couldn't understand why they would wait until minutes before the show to inspect it but on the bright side it got moved to later this month. My friends Kaylee (from Holland) and Liisa (from Finland) had come to visit me that weekend and attend the show so naturally we were bummed but then my mom called the hotel and found out what restaurant the singer was at so we shimmied on over and got to sit down and eat with the guy which we all agreed was more fun anyways. After they left my other friend Doris (from Austria) came to visit and she actually exclaimed that my city was "big!" leaving me shocked but it turns out her town doesn't even have a plaza so I'm counting my ducks...or however that expression goes.

I also visited Juiz de Fora for a cousin's confirmation and went to the movie theaters for the time in Brazil. It's the 3rd largest city in Minas Gerais which means it has a lot of American influence therefore the movie was in English with Portuguese subtitles and the shopping mall was complete with McDonalds, Burger King...you name it. Now let's talk community service! I went to a school in the poorer part of town for "children's weekend" (we should really put this holiday into effect back in the states by the way) and served lunch. The kids were really eager to meet Ball (Thailand exchange student) and me and hear anything in our native languages. My club also had their annual fundraiser which was...wait for it...Italian night! If you know me very well, you know my love for Italian food and this will all make a lot more sense. On this very night I was also required to dress up as an Italian which is hard to explain so I'll enclose a picture. We also went to a church in the poorer part of town to put on a festival of sorts for the people of the community and made more hotdogs than I ever care to see again. 

Speaking of hot dogs I would like to discuss the size of simple food items. Hot dogs for instance, come with tomato sauce, cheese, ham, corn, and crunchy French fry looking things on top of it all. This is all ON the hot dog and you're always offered ketchup and mayonnaise as well. Hamburgers are pretty much the same except you can get an egg in there too. Everyone seems to be perfectly alright with it except me who can't take a bit with the whole thing falling apart but I like to believe I’m getting the hang of it.

On a historical note, Brazil elected the 1st female president: Dilma. The 1st run around she didn't have over 50% of the populations vote so the 2 contestants with the highest numbers proceeded the round 2 which were of course, Dilma and Serra. Much to my sadness, round 2 consisted of a great amount of bashing opponent's campaigns but at least it was clean for a while... 

January 16

May 27

The months of February, March and April were different that the first half of my exchange. Before, every experience felt like a lesson. The latter half of my exchange was less a course and more of a full emersion. Obviously when you land in your host country you’re fully involved but it's different once you settle.  The glorious tourist days come to a halt and I became another resident.  I it was like being a newborn baby all over again. The act of being brought into the world was a celebration, the first step was applauded, my first words were cherished and even the mistakes were smiled upon. The beginning was easy because I was the center of attention and everything I did was labeled cute. I could say something wrong but people would still “aw” because the fact that I said anything at all was precious. With time, I was expected to correct my errors and even if I can still get away with small slip-ups there was always this hard critic that wouldn’t get off my case: me.

The hard work was worth it when people started to lose their curiosity about me. It proved that I was no longer a sore thumb, that I was accepted. I realized who my true friends were, and I now have the true sense of what it feels like to live here. Whereas before I felt I stood out, now I blend in and there’s this feeling of belonging that just wasn’t as snug a fit before. I love the feeling of having inside jokes with everyone, going to my best friend’s house every day after lunch to watch an old soap opera, waving to people around town, going to dance class and being just another student. Only recently was I reminded of the fact that my place here is, sad as it is, temporary. I’m constantly flooded with questions regarding the date of my departure which are immediately followed with a sad face and plea to stay longer. I was told I’d be sad to leave but I didn’t know I would feel this strongly nor did I understand why. So one day I went for a walk with the company of my iPod, put on depressing music to awaken my sensitive side and thought about it.

It dawned on me that my entire life up to August of last year was of equivalent importance to the 10 months spent in Brazil. Bottle up every single feeling I’ve had to this day and then put that into one year. That's what this exchange was. Confusion, betrayal, happiness, victory, love... you name it. I’ve practically already felt all these emotions but the difference is that the second time around I didn't have the support group I spent 17 years building. So what's the big deal? If I already felt everything it should be easier the second time around. Not so much. Everything I felt here was at least twice if not thrice as intense the second time around. I think that the whole time, underneath everything I was scared. Realizing I had such strong feelings for people and a place I had known for such a short time frightened me because in the back of my head I knew I’d eventually have to say goodbye. Yet I couldn’t stop myself from getting attached.

I came to love everything about my host country in less than a year with as much passion as I do the States. I saw sunrises and sunsets that I could have sworn were a mere creation of Photoshop. I formed friendships that I thought were only so compatible in movies. I felt deeper. I had a pleasant run in With Al Kalter in Manaus. We stayed up talking late one night with my friend Kelly from Texas and he said something that I hadn’t thought of before. All along I thought this was such a milestone because I was embarking on this journey alone. I called it my first act of independence. But as wise Al pointed out, I’ve been more dependent than ever. It was all those pillars, in the end, that lead me to become the self assured person I am today.  Through dependence I learned to be independent but it had to be a leap of faith. It couldn’t have been with my biological family or life long friends. The people and places that helped me had to be ones that I had a set time to rely on, and a marked day to say good-bye. New experiences and surroundings will lead to more changes but it's not as abrupt and dramatic. Leaving the states was scary because I was leaving everything behind for the first time but I knew I was going back. What about now? I have a family, friends, and a community that I got attached to and in two weeks I'm saying my farewells without knowing when I'll return. I don't want to forget a single detail of what I've experienced. I don't want to be forgotten here. My heart is split in two pieces. I can't favorite one over the other and yet I'm getting on a plane and choosing to leave one behind. All I can do is promise to never forget what I lived here, what I’ve learned and most importantly: who I’ve become. So far going on exchange has been the best decision I’ve made in my life. I made choices, I made mistakes, I made repairs and I really looked at myself for the first time.  Gnōthi seauton: know thyself.