Oi,

Well I started school just over a week ago now and I’m enjoying it. I go to a school called Colegio Do Carmo, it’s a coed private school that is on the same block as my apartment so I walk to school. School starts at 7:20am so I have to wake up pretty early which I am struggling with because Brazilians tend to go to bed super late! School ends at 12:50pm which is good because we then have the rest of the day to do anything we want.

On my first day of school I had set my alarm for 6:15 am which would give me 45 minutes to shower and get ready for my first day of school. But for some silly reasons I pressed the ‘stop’ button instead of the ‘snooze’ button and ended up waking up at 6:50am. I then only had 20 minutes to shower, eat, get dressed and get to school! But some how I managed to get to school on time even if I did have wet hair.

School works a little differently here, they have primary school, middle school and high school. Only the last three years is considered high school so I am in second grade which is equivalent to year 11 in Australia. My 15 year old host brother Paulo is also in second grade and is in my class. School here is really casual compared to school ion Australia. The teachers literally wear bored shorts and a singlet and we call them by their first names. If students don’t pay attention they don’t care because they believe it’s up to the student to learn.

Because school finishes at 12:50pm we only have one break which is for half an hour. After school is finished we usually go home for lunch because it is the main meal. On a Tuesday school works a bit differently, at 12:50pm everyone goes home for lunch and then must come back again at 1:50pm to sit exams. But I’m lucky and don’t have to go back to school for exams because I’m an exchange student 🙂

I’ve made some really nice friends at school and everyone is really nice. Everyone calls me “Gringa” which means foreigner and everyone always tries to copy my accent. The teachers don’t make me do any work but I try and listen to the lessons so I can learn Portuguese better, even so I still get pretty bored during lessons.

Overall my first week was really good and I’m excited for the rest of the year at my new school! 🙂

They still use chalk boards at school!! And students are not allowed to use calculators which I think is crazy!

My School uniform is simply a tee shirt. Girls have to wear long pants but boys can wear anything. Also there is no rule about footwear so most days I wear thongs to school.

Tchau Tchau for now!