Wow, what an action-packed couple of weeks! I hadn’t been keeping up my blog very well lately because there weren’t many exciting things happening. But the past 2 weeks have been crazy!
I had decided not to try to throw a big birthday party because my birthday conflicted with my Pantanal trip, and my host parents were going away for the weekend. So you can understand that when Katia and Luiz told me that we had to go to a little gathering for one of their friends the Wednesday night before my birthday, I thought nothing of it. I was even a little annoyed because as the only American this town has ever seen, I get a lot of invitations to boring dinners with Rotarians and other influential people. But when we walked into the pizzeria, I was surprised to see all my best friends from school, along with just about everyone I know in Cassi. I was even more surprised when they all got up and started singing happy birthday! I loved it, receiving a mountain of presents and eating lots of yummy pizza and cake. It was the best birthday party ever!
That same week, Sylvia from my class found out that she passed 2 vestibulares (their college entrance exams) in first place. She was the first student in my class to pass one, so it was a pretty big deal. We planned her “trote” and a churrasco for Thursday, right after the weekly exams. Let me tell y0u, trote was like nothing I have ever experienced! It reminded me a little of hazing to get into a sorority or fraternity–they tied her up, threw water, eggs, coffee powder, flour, and sand on her, wrote the names of the colleges that accepted her on her face and arms, and then paraded her through the streets to the central plaza!! I would have felt bad for Sylvia, but she looked so proud and happy! I guess that’s the difference–it wasn’t really hazing because she already got into the schools. This was just the celebration! Once we got to the plaza, two guys untied Sylvia and used the rope to block off the street. Then we went up to the car windows and asked the drivers for spare change. We ended up making a couple hundred reais, which we used later to pay for the churrasco that night. A little different from grad parties in the US, but it was really fun!
Friday, my actual birthday, happened to fall on the first night of Live Weekend, a 3-night party at the nightclub in my town. A lot of my school friends were out of town for the weekend like my parents, so I ended up going with the “Live Club Girls” as I call them, the group of college girls who do promotions and get in free to all the parties. It made for a fun night!
