The weekend passed by in a haze of sunbathing, caiprihanas and a rather exciting excursion to apparently the worst nightclub in town! It was the suggestion of Monica's boss who took us with her to the place that only played sertaneja music. This is a style of music traditional to southern brazil, which has a simple ballroom dance to accompany it. Well i say simple. Monica and I, both trained dancers, thought the one step two step pattern looked incredibly easy and quickly took to the dance floor to glide as gracefully as the little old couples that were there (it was only 6pm...) however the dance was more difficult than it seemed! But we did have a lot of fun trying. Since this night however, everytime I've told someone I went to "Club Olimpico" they burst out laughing and tell me that they will show me MUCH better places to go out! Still a fun evening.
Since then I've spent everyday at the school I will be working at...The New York School. It is a private language school in Cascavel that teaches all ages from 4 to 84! Although it has two sites in Cascavel, teaches three languages and has a huge number of staff it still feels like a family :) Denise the principal of the school has already made me feel so welcome by inviting me to her house, to her son's birthday party and has introduced me to everyone I need to know. So far have only taught one class. A one-on-one lesson to a Brazilian doctor who wants to improve his already impeccable english! It is more of a chat to keep him practicing the language, but he is very interesting and has travelled the world so am really enjoying this class. Otherwise I have been into advanced classes to talk to students about english culture and give them an opportunity to speak with a native English speaker. Yesterday I spent an hour with a group of fifteen year olds who were intriged by our A-level and university system as well as how our government worked and more personal questions about my own family life. Everyone wants to know everything about me! Cascavel doesn't get many tourists so they are very excited to have me here. I feel like they know all of you back home already haha. They are constantly asking about "meu namorado" (boyfriend), here the first question you seem to ask someone is whether they have a boyfriend or girlfriend. They all think he should've come to Brazil over Australia...see I told you Murray!!! Start my conversation classes with students tomorrow and hopefully an after school club at a public school next week.
Also this week I found out I got into St Andrews so very happy about that also! This year is set to be a fantastic one :) To celebrate that...and to toast to my Mum's birthday, Gabi and I went out for drinks with her friend Mari. Mari doesn't speak much english but we managed to have a conversation where I spoke the little portuguese I knew and she replied in english! I really hope to have learnt a lot of portuguese by June, it is not the reason for my trip, but rather a nice side-effect if I do manage to learn a lauguage.
Skype is all set up so add me lottiebarker.
Big love to everyone back home. xxxx
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