Great! Another chance for me to show few snatches from my SP-350. So here's the story...
This weekend was the week I have been waiting for is finally there! The week I will take my IELTS test. To be honest, I wasn't preparing that much, considering my confidence in English and my everyday practice in English conversation and listening with my friends. Haha, confidence is a good thing!
So I went to a city called Campo Largo, at Friday (06/07/07) morning. I took a 10 o'clock bus from California, spent long entire day inside a not-so-cozy bus that kept stopping at places. It's not that it annoys me, but this whole stopping-from-town-to-town thing made my trip slower.
In-bus-view.
Watch the speed, listen to the coughing people, admire the beautiful view, then you'll understand my phrase of 'not-so-cozy'.
Watch the speed, listen to the coughing people, admire the beautiful view, then you'll understand my phrase of 'not-so-cozy'.
I finally got to Campo Largo at about 3-4 o'clock in the afternoon. I had to wait at a gas station, and seeing no one was there to pick me up, I initiated a call. Tried to call Itamar, my Brazilian dad, but without credit on my phone, I attempted a call on which the call cost will be placed on Itamar's tab. Without knowledge that I have called from the different area code, I called on Itamar's number without adding the areal code before, which brought me calling another person, that said I have called the wrong number. Unbelieving, because once Itamar had wrongly recognized my voice, I called three more times, which in the end the guy finally picked up and got terribly angry, saying, "por favor cara, estou trabalhando aqui, voce fica ligando e eu tem que paga na minha conta tambem!! eu nao tem filho chamado samuel, voce nao e meu filho cara!" (man, please, I am working here, while you kept calling and I'M the one that have to pay the call cost!! I don't have any son called samuel, you're not my son!)
Hahahahaha... pissed off but felt sorry about the guy, I turned off the call. Then I called Eunapio, the guy that's supposed to pick me up, and thank God, he was there. I am finally at his house. That afternoon I got to know the family better, they have three cool kids called Akson (19), Adrial (17), and Natani (11). Yes I know, Brazilian names are sometimes weird, but hey, what it is in a name, right?
Later that night, breaking my plans of staying home that night and studying, this family took me out to a family dinner with their friends. I got to know more people, talked a little, was admired being an exchange student, and finally we had dinner. It was fish, and I was meat fasting, so there wasn't much to eat. The fish looked good though. After dinner, I played with the kids there, helping them putting some things together on their computer.
(left to right) Natani, Adrial, Cassia, and Renan. Having good time with their computer.So there we were all night, playing computer while the parents are having after-dinner talk. What I noticed from this family were their life were so simple and happy. Their house was not that big, their clothes and computer were simple, but they love life and God. And I think it was all that matters.
All they did that night were playing some poor imitation of Who Wants to be a Millionaire bible-version, DXBall (a modern version of "Pong"), and watched some biblical presentation. And they were (to my amazement) extremely happy! When you see how simple and humble people live, suddenly you would realize how God had really put great things in your life.
That day ended awesome. I went home exhausted and sleepy, but I slept well (even managed to read my bible and study a little before I sleep!) and woke up eight o'clock in the morning.
Took shower, made myself up, and finally got on the bus with Akson to face my big test day.
Curitiba was the most beautiful city I have seen so far. Sao Paulo was great, but it was too big and crowded. Curitiba was like in the middle. There was not that much car, the air was amazingly refreshing, there was huge tall apartments all over the place, making you feel small walking around the city. The only thing I remembered disliking from the city was the super strong wind.
We got to the Central Cultura Inglesa early. Way too early. We still had time for a few cup of coffee and tea, and even got to know some of the other IELTS candidates. Surprisingly, most of them were older and looked smarter than me! Which is nothing intimidating, because I know it wasn't a competition, it just surprised me how old these test-takers were.
Finally at about 10.45, the test began. The first was a conversation test. The test was given by Marry, a woman from Holland that had been living in Brazil for quite some time. She was nice, and later I knew that she was the one that been responding my English e-mails to the test center. The fun thing happened when one of the interview question popped up as, "tell me your most wonderful experience attending one big event that bring many people together". I responded, the event was a youth crusade my church made, called Come Home, last year. She looked surprised, and later told me that she's a Presbyterian! She invited me to her church, asked me about my t-shirt (I was wearing a brown 'i'm addicted to purity' jesusbranded shirt), and in the end we had a nice goodbye. I felt so positive!
Then we had a break until 12.45. During the break I and Akson went out eating vegetarian pizza, take a walk around town, and I got to know Akson better with his passion about cars and life. He was a cool guy. We went back stomach-stuffed (I ate three big slices of pizza and Akson ate even more: five) to the test center and I finally faced the listening, reading, and writing test.
The whole remaining test took about four hours. It was not exhausting, the test was mostly easy, but you have to be really paying attention. Thank God I finished wonderfully. Let's just wait for the result in two weeks from now.
As we finished in 4 PM, I didn't have more time to go around town, because Akson had to go to church at 6. So we took a bus back home. Oh there is something cool about transportation in Curitiba, though. They have this beautiful long orange bus, a neat bus station, a similar-with-transjakarta in town transportation, and be said that Curitiba had the best transportation system in Brazil. Next time I will put some pictures here about the city.
We went back to Campo Largo, and Akson showed me this fun-looked-like-pasar-baru-alley, all lighted up and with all the stores open, there were even this one chinese food restaurant. Considering the alley looked exactly like Pasar Baru (minus the huge roof and wider alley Pasar Baru has), I was amazed and took a moment to memorize it.
All they did that night were playing some poor imitation of Who Wants to be a Millionaire bible-version, DXBall (a modern version of "Pong"), and watched some biblical presentation. And they were (to my amazement) extremely happy! When you see how simple and humble people live, suddenly you would realize how God had really put great things in your life.
That day ended awesome. I went home exhausted and sleepy, but I slept well (even managed to read my bible and study a little before I sleep!) and woke up eight o'clock in the morning.
Took shower, made myself up, and finally got on the bus with Akson to face my big test day.
Curitiba was the most beautiful city I have seen so far. Sao Paulo was great, but it was too big and crowded. Curitiba was like in the middle. There was not that much car, the air was amazingly refreshing, there was huge tall apartments all over the place, making you feel small walking around the city. The only thing I remembered disliking from the city was the super strong wind.
We got to the Central Cultura Inglesa early. Way too early. We still had time for a few cup of coffee and tea, and even got to know some of the other IELTS candidates. Surprisingly, most of them were older and looked smarter than me! Which is nothing intimidating, because I know it wasn't a competition, it just surprised me how old these test-takers were.
Inside look of the Central Cultura Inglesa Curitiba.
Feel the vibe. Feel the silence. The place is amazing isn't it?
Feel the vibe. Feel the silence. The place is amazing isn't it?
Finally at about 10.45, the test began. The first was a conversation test. The test was given by Marry, a woman from Holland that had been living in Brazil for quite some time. She was nice, and later I knew that she was the one that been responding my English e-mails to the test center. The fun thing happened when one of the interview question popped up as, "tell me your most wonderful experience attending one big event that bring many people together". I responded, the event was a youth crusade my church made, called Come Home, last year. She looked surprised, and later told me that she's a Presbyterian! She invited me to her church, asked me about my t-shirt (I was wearing a brown 'i'm addicted to purity' jesusbranded shirt), and in the end we had a nice goodbye. I felt so positive!
Then we had a break until 12.45. During the break I and Akson went out eating vegetarian pizza, take a walk around town, and I got to know Akson better with his passion about cars and life. He was a cool guy. We went back stomach-stuffed (I ate three big slices of pizza and Akson ate even more: five) to the test center and I finally faced the listening, reading, and writing test.
The whole remaining test took about four hours. It was not exhausting, the test was mostly easy, but you have to be really paying attention. Thank God I finished wonderfully. Let's just wait for the result in two weeks from now.
As we finished in 4 PM, I didn't have more time to go around town, because Akson had to go to church at 6. So we took a bus back home. Oh there is something cool about transportation in Curitiba, though. They have this beautiful long orange bus, a neat bus station, a similar-with-transjakarta in town transportation, and be said that Curitiba had the best transportation system in Brazil. Next time I will put some pictures here about the city.
We went back to Campo Largo, and Akson showed me this fun-looked-like-pasar-baru-alley, all lighted up and with all the stores open, there were even this one chinese food restaurant. Considering the alley looked exactly like Pasar Baru (minus the huge roof and wider alley Pasar Baru has), I was amazed and took a moment to memorize it.
There I was, posing happily next to a lamp stand in Brazilian Pasar Baru.And here goes the video. You didn't think I would leave it out did you?
Continuing home, I passed a catholic church in the town center. There was this tall black cross with the writing "Unidos Em Cristo", meaning United in Christ. Loved the cross' prominent position and the brave sentence, I took a picture of it here:
A surprise waited for me at home. Akson's mother said that her sister-in-law and her family wanted to see me before I went home that night. It was Saturday, about five o'clock in the afternoon, and the family were preparing to go to church. Seeing no more reason to stay at their house, I gave the housewife a nice Indonesian scarf, left some souvenirs for the kids, and hopped in the car, where they then took me to their family's house. I found out that this next family were also a relative of Itamar. The head of the house (Clayton) was Itamar's oldest brother.
When I got there, they were having a little party, because it was someone's birthday three days ago. I jumped in the fun, had some cake, sodas, and chatted with people. Then we rented a movie and watched Superman Returns (it was a good movie, I will review it another day), then chatted again.
The photo I took few moments before I left Clayton's family home. Look at the smile at those faces... ^^People there LOVED me! There was this sort of amusement of first-time-receiving-an-exchange-student-in-our-house, and they treated me so special! They sat with me, talked and explained about the city, about their kids, about their family life, and how difficult it is to survive life these days. Yes sir I know that! =)
And there was this little girl called Tatu, aged about 8, she and her friend kept following me that whole afternoon. I was watching TV, and she kept passing and running in front of me to get my attention. She would then giggle if I smile at her. She would then whistle, called me, gave me the TV remote control, and giggle and giggle again. When I had a talk with her dad, she would sat on her daddy's lap and just STARED blankly amazed at me, until I thought maybe there were something wrong with my face. Even when I took shower later that night, I heard whistles outside the bathroom window, and when I came out, these two girls were giggling and running away from me. Hmm... I was speechless.
Tatu (in orange) and her friend. Even they kept giggling when we took this picture.After taking those pictures, I said goodbye and gave the kids my infamous 'I Love Indonesia' buttons. They were happy and put it instantly on their shirts! Still at the picture I took with Tatu and her friend, you can find my buttons on their shirts.
To my surprise, Clayton's wife gave me this beautiful Converse All-Star Miniature keychain, saying that she would have given me something more special and more 'Campo Largo' if only she knew I was coming. Isn't that sweet?
And here is the keychain now! Hanging beautifully on my Rotary Blazer.
To my surprise, Clayton's wife gave me this beautiful Converse All-Star Miniature keychain, saying that she would have given me something more special and more 'Campo Largo' if only she knew I was coming. Isn't that sweet?
And here is the keychain now! Hanging beautifully on my Rotary Blazer.And about 10.15 that night, Clayton and a friend took me to the bus station. People waved goodbye, Tatu and her giggle-all-the-time friend giggled and said "tchau!", and there I left, leaving smile on everyone's faces.
The bus got to Campo Largo at 10.45. A lot later than I thought it would, even I feared of not getting home that night and lost my ticket money, because the bus left me. But it was there finally.
Night trip was faster. I slept for about three hours, and finally got home. Arrived at California at 4 AM.
And my amazing weekend ended!! How great it is to be able to see two cities, to meet so many new people, to be loved and remembered, to finish one big test that determine my future, all only in two amazing days! I'm thankful to God for this chance, and I really will miss this people when I have left Brazil.
So I guess this will close my post for now. See you in more stories to come! Love you guys!
The bus got to Campo Largo at 10.45. A lot later than I thought it would, even I feared of not getting home that night and lost my ticket money, because the bus left me. But it was there finally.
Night trip was faster. I slept for about three hours, and finally got home. Arrived at California at 4 AM.
And my amazing weekend ended!! How great it is to be able to see two cities, to meet so many new people, to be loved and remembered, to finish one big test that determine my future, all only in two amazing days! I'm thankful to God for this chance, and I really will miss this people when I have left Brazil.
So I guess this will close my post for now. See you in more stories to come! Love you guys!
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