Missa e Sorvete

Since the last time I've written, I'm pretty sure a lot has happened. I started taking karate classes at a school kinda near my house and it's super nice to be able to get out and do that. I can walk there and the students are very nice, and don't know my host sister, which is a major plus. Because all of my friends know my host sister, and I was beginning to think that there was no one in this city who she didn't know. But I've been doing that Monday, Wednesday, and sometimes Friday. Fridays are harder though because there are churrascos and other stuff going on and the class ends a bit late to still go do other things.

Last Sunday, I went to mass with my host sister. The church is really pretty but I didn't understand much of the service and we got there late so there was only room to stand, which made it feel a little long. But overall, it was nice. And we ate cachorro quente afterwards, which I enjoy quite a bit, though it was with my host sister's friends, who sometimes are pretty intimidating. 

Friday evening, we went to my host sister's school for a gincana, which I guess can be described as a dance competition. Basically the whole school is divided into two teams and then they have to it together a number of predetermined pieces and each team has a turn to perform each dance, then after each team has gone, some professors choose a winner and majority gets the piece, then in the end, whoever has won the most pieces wins the whole event thing and that team gets the trophy. My host sister's team won, for the record. 

Then yesterday, also Sunday but not the Sunday I went to mass, I went and had ice cream with friends from school. It was really nice to hang out with people who aren't my host sister or the other exchange student. Especially since these people are really, really nice and include me in conversations despite the fact that they know they'll have to repeat things about 500 times before I'll understand what they said and then I'll only maybe get it in the end. But we ate ice cream, like I said, then hung out on the...I guess what's the equivalent of the square and watched some people mess around on a slack line. Then we went to someone's house kinda near mine and ate Japanese food. In the end, I'm pretty sure that's the most fun I've had here since arriving, and it's not like I was the least bit discontent before.