The Power of Teamwork

I apologize for not posting in a while. I forgot my blogger password then my internet was sketchy. This was written on February 12.

On Wednesday my class had a big history test. History class was the last class that day. I had two periods of Portuguese class before. Usually on Wednesday I also have Sociology, but I had Sociology in place of Portuguese on Monday (The teachers switched times). So I had over three hours of Portuguese class on Wednesday. During the class, students were frantically skimming their history books and trying to get in some last minute cramming. Some of them mentioned that they wanted to get the test postponed. I thought the kids were kidding, but they said they could try to. During the break before history class, the entire class waited outside the teachers office for our history teacher. Our history teacher is very intimidating so the girls pushed the guys closest to the door. The teacher came out and a brave student explained that they weren't ready for the test and they needed more time to study. She looked really angry and said something in Portuguese to the class. A kid translated for me and the teacher said if we found a free classroom next Thursday, we could take the test then. Three minutes later, we had a room reserved from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. I explained to the class that at my old school, if we had a test planned, we would take it on the day it was scheduled. Though, we never tried confronting the teacher before class started with every student from the class, not that I'm encouraging any deviant behavior... Teachers are a lot more flexible here. They don't assign much homework. I only have Sociology homework this week. But students have to study a lot more. Tests count for a large percentage of student's grades. Only my Psychology and Sociology tests have multiple choice questions along with many short answer questions. History tests have documents that you have to use to write essays (similar to DBQ essays). Students have to buy their own testing paper for every test that they purchase at the Papelaria in the school.

I do not have school on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday next week because it's Carnival. It's celebrated forty days before Easter, right before the start of Lent. People dress up and have parties. In Brazil it a much more important holiday. Here it just means no school and hanging out with friends. Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is having many concerts over Carnival. Singer Joss Stone will be performing in Lisbon along with other bands. Happy Carnival!

Exploring Santarem

The construction on the school is still underway, but they have started repainting the outside of the school. The new color is a very bright mustard hue. All the kids think it's atrocious. The school is positioned at the top of a plateau that overlooks the river, fields, and smaller towns. Driving to school every morning from the valley it looks like a gold building on top of a cliff. The bell rings around 8:30 every morning. A lady comes to unlock the classroom doors and the kids slowly trickle in. There are no morning announcements or any announcements. I don't think the school has an intercom. There is very little school spirit at the school mostly because there aren't sports teams. If you want to play a sport you have to join a club in the city.

Speaking of the city, Santarem; I had a chance to explore it today. After school, I went with my friend to the mall and had lunch. We met up with three more of her friends and went shopping at the mall. Some stores were really expensive and I have to make sure to convert the Portuguese currency (euros) amount to dollars so I didn't end up spending $50 on a t-shirt. Portugal doesn't have any American chain stores like American Eagle or Hollister, but they have their own chain clothing stores. Two of my favorites were Bershka and Stradivarius. Almost 80% of girls here wear hiking boots and skinny jeans, which I think is an odd fashion trend. The others wear sneakers or converse or boots (like leather boots or Uggs). They wear lots of sweaters since it's so cold in school. The guys wear hiking boots too, but sneakers as well. They wear t-shirts, polos, plaid shirts and jeans.

We left the mall and walked down to the center of Santarem where all the streets are made of cobble stones and the walls are covered with mosaics. Shops line the streets on either side. The streets are very narrow; they can fit about one small European car and there are sidewalks on each side of the street. We looked at some more clothing and jewelry stores. They took me to Portas do Sol Park. It was on the edge of one of the three cliffs and overlooked the Tagus River and the agricultural area. Santarem use to have a wall surrounding it. The wall in the park was restored and you could overlook the wall to glimpse the magnificent views below. The train tracks follow the winding river and occasionally a train would speed along the laid path. The vineyards spread across the land, the smaller villages are white specks in the distance, the roads snake through the green fields leading to the villages. I took pictures of buildings and mosaics and random doors, which my friends thought was funny. I was explaining the contrast it had from rural NY. I had to meet my host sister at 6:30 so we had to speed walk back to get my backpack from my friends apartment. We made our way along the cobble stone streets as the sun was setting. Weaving around parked cars and dodging pedestrians and moving vehicles on the narrow streets we made the trek back. It was dark when we reached the apartment building. The street lights and car lights flickered, lighting up the city. There were no clouds so the glimmered in the sapphire sky. A good end to a busy day!

Thursdays are definitely my favorite day of the school week! So I arrived at school about five minutes before the bell rang. My host brother went off with his friends so I decided to head up to my classroom. As I rounded the corner to the stairs, I saw a huge furry creature at the end of the hall. It was half waddling, half scampering as it plowed into the doorway of the office. I couldn't tell what it was at first. It was about the size of a small corgi dog and it had all different colored fur. As it disappeared into the office I realized it was a very fat cat. I asked one of my classmates and they explained that the school had two cats that lived there. There use to be a dog too, but now it's fertilizing dandelions (if you get what I mean). I think the cats use to be strays then someone fed them and they stayed. Personally, I think a cow would look lovely in the courtyard at my old high school.

In Psychology, we talked about hippies. The guys were eager to explain what American music artists influenced the era. In gym we played volleyball. I was so ecstatic that I didn't have to play before I left my other high school because playing volleyball usually consisted of me ducking and apologizing for missing the spiring orb that was coming crashing towards my head. Well I haven't improved much, though I tried not to duck. We joined with another class so I got to sit out with some other girls for the last few minutes. They proceeded to sing at the top of their lungs any song that popped into their heads. It was hysterical when the gym teacher started dancing. The kids bring their gym clothes in every gym day. There is a lady who takes their student card and in return gives them a key for a locker to use during class. The locker room is much smaller than at my old school, with only one row of lockers and three shower sections where we change. Even though it's warmer here than NY (around 50 degrees), the school is colder. Really, I'm not kidding, I know how cold my old school can be. But they have no central heating in the school so everyone just keeps their jackets on. Some kids even wear gloves in class. I can't wait for April when it'll be much warmer. In Sociology we finished watching The Constant Gardener and started The Dead Poets Society.

After school, my host mother picked me and my host brother up and we went out for lunch in Santarem. After we went to the heart of Santarem where all the shops are. I got the rest of my school books and got to window shop. The road around the shops is made of cobblestones and there are mosaics on many of the shop walls. We stopped at my favorite shop, the Pasteleria for croissants and rolls. We also went food shopping before heading home. My history teacher let me take home and finish my test that we took on Wednesday. After translating the question on the internet, I realized I wrote some completely different answers so I have to fix that. I have a psychology test Monday. Now that I have the book, I need to start translating it. I predict lots of studying for the weekend...

You expect us to Run?

Sunday I went to church with my family. I asked them what time church started and they replied noon, so I asked what time we would leave and they replied noon. That's Portugal for you! Promptness isn't always a concern. Students wander into class 10 minutes late and teachers hardly blink. Monday was the longest day of school. Who ever thought of these 1 hour 40 minute classes obviously never sat through one before. I can say I have perfected doodling in all my margins. Too bad I'm not in art. I had Psychology, History, and Portuguese. In Psychology we actually talk about the same things that I learned in the JCC class I took my junior year. We talked about some of the same experiments that I studied last year so I can understand some discussion. History was okay, but Portuguese was hopeless. All they do is read long poems and discuss them for 100 minutes.... I thought the class was never going to end! Today's classes were better because I had PE to break up listening to random words. I did research for my project in my first class then headed off to PE. It was freezing outside and inside today, but we went outside to run. I truly believe I was the only person who kept running for the whole 10-15 minutes we were outside. The guys here are girlier than the girls I joke with my friends and they agree. 3 out of the 5 guys in my class have compact mirrors and they check their reflection in any reflective surface possible, including the car windows as we headed back in the school after our run. The guys couldn't believe I didn't know any of Portugal's soccer stars. I had to explain that America was all about football, basketball and baseball. Soccer is a religion here and you can definitely tell by how good all the guys are at playing soccer. For the remainder of the class, we played soccer with another class and all the guys have amazing footwork skills. Tomorrow I have a mini History test that I think is about the Soviets spreading communism... at least that's what I hope it's on. I don't have any of my course books yet, so it's kind of hard to study, but there's always the internet.

Weekend

On Saturday, Jan. 23 I went with my host family to do some errands. We went to a pasteleria in Santerem. They had rows and rows of delicious looking pastries. One typical Portuguese pastry is phyllo dough in a mini pie shape filled with an egg mixture that is baked until it is browned. They had all kinds of cakes and donuts and fresh croissants. You could also get coffee there. I have yet to see anyone drink a cup of coffee. They have espresso that they serve in tiny tea cups a little bigger than the size of a shot glass. After purchasing some pastries and rolls we headed off to some more shops. We went to a bakery to get more fresh bread. The bread they get has a very hard crust, but is really soft of the inside. Perfect for spreading all the great cheeses on. They have really good goat cheese and other milder cheeses that are served with lunch and dinner. After the bakery, we went to a magazine shop and then to their "mall" to get me a portuguese/english dictionary. Then we went to the butcher shop. My family was surprised that I didn't have a butcher shop in my town. "Where do you get your meat?" They asked. "The supermarket." I replied. The butcher has the meat displayed behind glass. First pork, beef, lamb and then poultry. They told me if you want goat you have to call ahead to get it. The butcher had another display of sliced meat and sausages.

For dinner Saturday night my host family's relatives came over. We had an indoors barbecue. We all sat around the kitchen table. There were two portable stove tops placed in the center of us. They had a square base and a teflon circular plate on top. There was some fuel in the base that made a flame under the plate so it was like a gas stove top. There were platters of meat and everyone took what they wanted and cooked it themselves on the hot plates. After dinner, my host sister and I watched an episode of Glee.

I have been keeping in touch with the other four American students who are in Portugal. We've commented that our host families are more American than we are. They watch all the American movies and TV shows. An important thing to do, or not to do I should say, is to have no expectations. It's hard, but it makes everything easier. If you don't have a preset mindset about how everything will be then you can be much more flexible when it doesn't go according to plan (and you can be surprised). There were also some stereotypes that us foreign exchange students related to the Portuguese culture, which weren't entirely true. For example, not all Portuguese take their time and have a slower pace than Americans. My family rushes around everywhere. Plus all Portuguese are not shorter than Americans. My family is very tall. The mother is close to 6 feet so me thinking I would be with people my height, yeah not really. ; )

It's a Small World

Yesterday I had Sociology, Project, and Psychology class. I have absolutely no idea what the teacher talked about in Sociology. All I know is that she went over the homework (which I couldn't do, since I don't have the books yet). In Project we went to the computer lab an looked up information for our report. And in Psychology we talked about conforming to groups. We had a girl step out of the room and the teacher drew three lines of different heights on the board labeled A, B, C. Then she drew another line the same size as C, but told us to all say that it matched line B. The girl came back in and we all said B matched the line so she did too, even though the evidence was right in front of her. Another thing about the school, which is kind of awkward, they don't have toilet paper in the stalls in the bathrooms. They have toilet paper as you walk in the bathroom, but not in the stalls, which I think is very strange. One of the girls in my class invited me to come to her martial arts class sometime. I think that would be lots of fun to do. My family picked me up from school early and we went to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. It's about the distance from South Lewis to Watertown I think. Of course we made it there very quickly because Europeans drive very very fast. My host father reached 185 km/hr on the highway which is 115 mph! In Lisbon, we ate at an Italian Restaurant. The owner was American, but he learned to cook in Italy. The ironic thing was he knew where Syracuse was and expressed how much he liked upstate NY. "There really is no place like it!" he exclaimed. Thinking about it, I had to agree. You really don't realize how much you appreciate places, people, things until you don't have them anymore. (And there really is no place exactly like northern NY). We went to the hospital after to visit a relative with a broken leg. We went to one of the shopping malls after. The mall had expensive stores like Tommy Hilfiger, Prada, and Armani. Below the clothing shops was a supermarket. Portugal has some similar brand names (like Barilla Pasta and Vitamin Water), but lots of different European ones as well. Of course being close to the ocean, their seafood selection is much better than upstate NY too. The mall had moving ramps so people could take their shopping cart right to the parking garage. To get into and out of the parking garage, you have to drive on a winding ramp that is very very narrow. If I rolled down my window, I would only have to stick my pinky finger out and I could have touched the wall. That being said, I have only seem one hummer since I've arrived. Most everyone has very small cars because the streets are so narrow and there really is no need for enormous vehicles. Some Europeans refer to American vehicles as "muscle cars" because of their huge size. On the car ride back to Santarem, the roads were packed because it was rush hour. Europeans don't believe in leaving room in any direction when they drive. All the cars were literally bumper to bumper.

2nd Day of School

So today (1/20/2010) I had Portuguese class, Sociology class and then History. In Portuguese class they read a poem that was about some general (I really only knew that because there was a huge picture of a general on the page next to the words). They discussed it after and I tried to pick out words I knew. Then after the fifteen minute break I went to Sociology. I don`t really know what we talked about. Something about globalization.... The class had homework, but I don`t have my books yet, so I can`t do it. Then my final class was history. I had history yesterday too and today we had to take a test. The teacher let me use a book and try to answer the essay question. The test was a document on the Potstam Conferance after WWII and the students had to write about what the world was going through at this time. I used the book and tried to pick out phrases and words I knew. I wanted to say a lot more, but I didn`t know the Porguguese translation. I hope the teacher will be able to understand my broken Portuguese sentences. After the test, the teacher lectured. I could understand more today. I could understand that the main topic of discussion was alliances after WW II but I didn`t get all the details they talked about. I could answer a few questions the teacher asked me about NATO but mostly I just tried to follow along with the discussion.

A little bit more about my class... I am with the same group of students for all my courses. There are 15 students, not including me (5 boys and 10 girls). The school is under construction so we have some of our classes in trailer-like buildings that are set up outside. The buildings are two levels with four classrooms on each level. There are three rows of tables with about five tables in each row. Each table has two chairs. The teachers either speak or just write on the white boards. The walls are bare and white but there are windows on either side. One of my classes will be taking a trip to Lisbon to see Universities later in February so that should be fun. Tomorrow I will have Psychology class, Gym class, and Sociology. Every Thursday in Sociology we watch a movie so it will be easier to understand. My host mother is helping me learn pronunciations of words. I have to forget how letters sound in English and learn a whole new way to say the letters.