Well I am still in Houston currently, enjoying a relaxing Christmas eve with the family, but I wanted to start this off anyway. Lots of prep going into my departure. I have applied for my visa at the Brazilian Consulate and am going to pick it up on December 30th at noon. Can't wait until that process is over... so much paperwork.
Before driving home last week, I had dinner with the three other Vanderbilt students going to São Paulo this spring. One of them is a girl from my Portuguese class, Kelly, so I know her already and she's really sweet. There's another girl named Liz and a guy named Frank. They seem pretty cool, so we'll see. There are about 21 participants in the program in total from lots of other U.S. universities.
The university (Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, or PUC, pronounced "POO-kee") has assigned me a student guide/buddy ("estudante-PAI," for Programa de Acolhida ao Intercambista, and my best translation of that is Exchange Reception Program). Her name is Débora Vaccari, and she emailed me a few days ago sounding very excited to meet me and to get to know me. I am slightly relieved that her email was in English. I know I'm supposed to be learning Portuguese but I will need all the help I can get, and it might be helpful if she were bilingual. Which she is apparently. But, I'm very proud to say that I responded with a lengthy email in Portuguese. We'll see what she thinks of my mediocre grammar.
I can't even begin to think how I'm going to pack for half a year in another country/climate. Maybe Débora can help me out with that.
15 days and counting!
