3.30.2006

I like the weather here...it always varies. Well, in the rainy season anyways. You always have to be ready for the rain, weather the day started out sunny or not! I love helping out with the teaching. The other day, Andréa asked me to make some quiz questions about a movie that the kids were watching. It was so awesome. Now she's using it for 2 other classes of hers. At least I feel helpful doing that! On Monday, Andréa's sister Cristina had to go somewhere, so she left me in charge of her 2 afternoon classes. The first one is an advanced class, so they're very good at English. WE only did a crossword puzzle, and a few other word games, and then we listened to an English song and they had to fill in the blanks for the lyrics. For the second class, she told me they were only going to watch a movie, which I was glad about, because they speak very little English! That was a fun day.
We went to Vôo Livre again yesterday. Graça just brought some review pages for the kids to do. It's a good thing too, because it was almost as if she hadn't taught Present Continuous to them at all! The funny thing is, they're teaching them all this grammar,but it all has a title. Stuff like Present Continuous, Countable and non-countable nouns, things like that. However, I don't ever remembering learning all the titles for things like that. So, Cristina asks me if it's right, and I don't know, because I learned all the grammar stuff so long ago!
I love the food here so much. We have rice and beans every day, but Vera makes such good food to accompany it. One day she made these tortillas with corn, and sauce and meat inside. So good. And sometimes she makes these flat noodles(I think it's linguini) with some sort of a sauce and meat and corn. They like to eat eggs with anything. I did try pizza with eggs on top, very good. And they put eggs on top of noodles, too. But it's very good!
The Brazilian people are very nice. They always say hello to everybody, and even if they meet for only five minutes or something they can strike up a conversation. It's so neat.
I've been able to go to 2 of Anrdéa's university classes with her. It was fun to go, but I didn't understand a word the proffessor was saying! I think she's taking law, so some of her classes are really boring for her even.
As I learn more Portuguese, I realize how difficult it really is. Not just some of the pronunciations, but the verb conjugations and past tense and future tense. It's craziness! Sometimes when I'm around everyone speaking Portuguese, I tune out, just because they speak so fast. It's funny though, somehow I always know when they're talking about me!!!
I think that's all for today...sorry to keep you all waiting. I don't do it on purpose!! And if any of you want to know about something in particular, just let me know, and I'll write about it.
Love, Ashleigh :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Neta
We really enjoy hearing from you and all the experiences you're having. You're awesome. We love you.
Love Oma and grandpa

Singing Lady said...

Hi Ash ,
It is always good to read about your experiences. When we miss hearing for a few days, you just make us all the more eager to hear them.
Remember you didn’t learn to speak and write English in a few weeks so understandably it will take a bit of time to learn Portuguese.
I am sure it too, will come in time.
What an experience you are having though! We love you lots and miss you.
Nana & Pops

Now for the Portuguese version just so you can practice!


Hi cinza, é sempre bom ler sobre suas experiências. Quando nós faltamos alguns dias você faz-nos apenas mais ansiosos para ouvi-los. Recorde que você não aprendeu falar e o escrever a inglês em algumas semanas assim compreensìvel fará exame de um pouco de tempo para aprender o português. Eu sou ele certo ele demasiado virei a tempo. Que experiência você está tendo though! Ame-o assim muito seu Nan & PNF
xoxoxox

Anonymous said...

Hi Ash, Just a short note to say how much we miss you.Keep on sending your updates as often as you can. They are very interesting and are turning out to be a diary of your experience there. Nana is printing them out and will be putting them in a binder so we can read them from time to time.

We have lost all our snow and it was about 15 degrees today!!and the sun was out.

Love Pops. xoxoxoxoxo