Oi, amigos!!!!! 
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The airport shuttle arrived at our rental house at 3:00 pm on Monday. We loaded up all 27 bags and boxes into the back and front row and then crammed into the remaining 6 seats. We got to the airport not long after and proceeded to rent 5 luggage carts. Printing our tickets and checking our bags took a while, due to our family of seven….. We got through security with minimal issues and found our gate. The plane hadn’t arrived yet and wouldn’t until 20 minutes before we boarded. We finally hopped on the plane and were off the ground by 6:30 pm.
The flight to Miami wasn’t very eventful and by 10:30 pm we were boarding the plane for Brasilia. Once we got on, we quickly realized that we were about the only Americans on board (even the flight attendants were Brazilian). It was fun to hear the language, but we couldn’t pick out a single word. We were getting ready to leave and the flight attendants were having everyone sit down. There was one attendant who the Brazilians named “the witch”. She kept racing back and forth yelling at people to sit down. It soon became a funny joke between the passengers and the Brazilians liked to imitate her.
The plane left the gate on time and we were sitting on the runway, when the pilot came on and said we were overweight. We went back to the gate and sat, and sat, and sat…. 3 hours later, 1900 lbs. lighter, 6 people less, and with one petition created we left for Brasilia at1:30 am. Sleep didn’t come easily for us because the lights weren’t turned off until the attendants decided to serve “dinner” at 2:30 am. Sam also had a stomach ache and Madison woke up every time she moved, but the rest of the family didn’t have much trouble falling asleep. To be honest, we think Aubrey got at least 12 hours of sleep that night.
We got into Brazil at 11:30 am on Tuesday (3 hours later then we had originally planned…) and realized how hot it was when wearing pants; plus, most public spaces do not have air conditioning…including the airport. We went through customs and grabbed about 6 luggage carts (they’re free in brazil!) We claimed our baggage and met our sponsor family, an embassy family who is responsible for helping us adjust to Brasilia. Our luggage and family were loaded into 2 large shuttle vans and 2 cars and we left for our temporary home. We got to our temporary house, started to unpack, and caught up on much needed sleep.
We haven’t done much this week, but we’ll give you a quick overview of everything we’ve done:
· Tuesday- Slept, unpacked, and then went out to dinner with our sponsor family. We ended up eating at a local pizzeria a few minutes from our house. The pizza was good, but there were a few slices left over of the veggie pizza (no one liked the pea, corn, and eggplant combo)
· Wednesday- We relaxed and got situated in the new house. We went out to this super yummy Brazilian buffet place for lunch. Sam’s favorite was the beans and rice and Maddy liked the pasta bar. That evening we found our new church building and went to youth group there. We met a lot of fun and friendly girls who go to the school we’ll go to as well.
· Thursday- We went to the Embassy and got a lot of needed work done. We spent most of the day there getting our Brazilian Identification cards made, making school bus arrangements, meeting the US ambassador, creating security badges, and meeting the other Embassy workers. That night there was an Embassy “Meet-and-Greet” party for the new and departing families. It was actually rrrreeeeaaaalllllyyyy boring- the worst party we’ve ever been to. We showed up, our family picture was displayed on a PowerPoint, and then we had the option of buying a crappy $10 burger. We ended up leaving and going to eat pizza with our sponsor family again (random coincidence). We decided to eat at “Pizza a Bessa” (Sam’s new favorite restaurant) and it was DELICIOUS!!!! It was basically an all you can eat pizza buffet, but you didn’t have to get up. Once a pizza was done the waiters would bring it around and you would tell them if you wanted a slice. It was super fun to see the different types of pizza they had. They had a margarita, 4-cheese, hot-dog, chicken garlic, stroganoff, Mexican, arugula, pepperoni, sausage, ham and mushroom, bacon, and beef savory pizza. A few of the sweet ones were cinnamon banana, chocolate marshmallow, chocolate strawberry, goibada cream cheese, and a sweet coconut pizza. The chocolate and banana pizzas were served with ice cream and chocolate sauce on top. It was super yummy and our plates were piled high.
· Friday- We went to the school and finalized all of our info for that. We met a lady (Noella) who is in charge of getting new students ready and acquainted with the school. She gave us a tour around the campus, which is actually pretty nice. It is a gated area and you travel from room to room outside. It’s pretty neat because the rooms are in closed walls, but everything else is open and outside. We visited the cafeteria and saw the lunch that is served (it’s like a restaurant)- for lunch each day you can choose from homemade feijoada, pão de quejo, a salad bar, pinto beans and rice, and a lot more. The menu changes every day. The school runs on a A and B schedule and on Wednesdays, school doesn’t start until 9 am. Every day after your 2nd class of the day you have break for 20 minutes and most kids use that time to eat or buy a snack. Before lunch you have 30 minutes of study time/teacher help and then you have an hour for lunch. After we finished the tour, Sam, Madison, and Aubrey got their schedules made and chose our classes. We also took a look at the clubs and sport teams while we were there. The fall season is just finishing and this week the sport teams were all traveling to São Paulo for a tournament. The teams travel all over Brazil for different competitions and games. We got everything finished and then traveled downtown to buy uniforms. It took a while to try everything on and decide on what everyone wanted. After the uniforms were purchased, a few of us went on a big shopping trip to get needed food and house accessories.
· Saturday- We went to a church activity for the kids in the area. The activity went from 9am-4pm and while we were there we played games (soccer, dodgeball, ping-pong, Uno, etc.) and participated in skits with other youth our age. For lunch we got a taste of traditional Brazilian food – it was basically yellow rice with chicken (bones and meat). Afterwards we went to a large celebration for all the embassies represented in Brasilia. It wasn’t quite what we were expecting- it was super crowded and really loud.
· Sunday- We went to church (everything is in Portuguese), but a few of the American embassy families attend as well and are in the same boat as us (not fluent in Portuguese). The main service was not translated, but the classes were taught in Portuguese and English.
Since Tuesday afternoon, we have learned that…
*Our jungle in the backyard will never be quiet due to the constant singing of the birds during the day (think of the bird house at the zoo and multiply it by 10) and the bats in the evening
*It rains at least twice every day out of the blue…. like one minute it’s all blue skies and the next it’s a torrential downpour and then a few minutes later it’s completely sunny again
*Brazilians put peas on pizza; we don’t know if this happens regularly in the US too, but it never came up with our family
*Pasta is often served with lunch and dinner at any traditional Brazilian restaurant, something we didn’t expect
*Cars tend to swerve into a neighboring lane without turning on their turn signals. And motorcycles, well that’s another story. They, on the other hand squeeze through masses of traffic barely scraping by car mirrors without hitting the car. In Dad’s words, “That’s why you don’t stick your hand out the window.”
*The beans and rice are to die for!!!!
*Barely anyone speaks English, which we had planned for; but we better learn fast. It’s hard to leave Dad even at a buffet lunch for the fear of someone asking us questions (it has already happened more than once)
*Occasionally exotic animals show up even in the city- a few weeks ago a puma was found in a backyard 8 blocks from ours and an anaconda was stretched out across a 4-lane road…. YIKES!!!!
* Sam is easily creeped out by the 4 sets of lamps that are super bright at night in our backyard; they can be easily seen through the 2 layers of window drapes. They look like the lamps from Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (if anyone knows what I’m talking about). Sam thinks the White Witch or Mr. Tumas will pop out as she’s getting ready for bed.
*We are all afraid that an animal will be waiting for us in our bed due to the unsealed door in the laundry room. Dad had to chase a baby gecko around the house a few nights ago to catch it and let it go. Maddy also found a medium-sized millipede on her bed the other night. She also likes to say that we have immortal ants. You squish the ant and pick up the toilet paper and the assumed dead ant speeds out of reach because it realizes its life is at stake. You can also rinse them down the sink, but sometimes they come crawling out of the drain after the water has been turned off.
*Fruit trees are everywhere! In our opinion, a mango from the store tastes just as good as a mango you picked from a tree off the side of the road.
*People here are super creative with ways to earn money on the side of the road. In the past week, we have seen: a man balancing a ladder on his shoulders with a woman waving flags on top (this was not a small ladder), three magicians performing magic tricks, and two fruit jugglers. All of these shows were being performed in the middle of large intersections. They have it timed just right to complete the trick and collect their money before the light turns green.
We love you all and miss you tons!!!! We would really like to hear from you, so feel free to write back
With love,
Holman Family (composed by Sam and Madison)
All of our uniforms- getting ready for the 1st day of school
Yummy buffet spot for lunch, most of the restaurants are outside here.
Beautiful sunset
View of Brazil from the plane
Who doesn't love a fresh picked mango?
The main bridge in Brasilia
View of the lake from our house
Flowers on a tree in our backyard
Gwen passing time, coloring at the Embassy
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