We are family.Nós somos uma família.

      Hi y'all! I hope you're having a great summer. This was an incredibly exciting week in our family. I got my host family and my travel itinerary. I will be living in  Sao Bernardo do Campo which is a suburb of Brazil's largest city Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo is the 7th largest city in the world! Yay! I have a mom and a dad (duh) and a little brother and sister. My sister is barely a year younger than me and my brother is three years younger. I'm thrilled to have younger siblings especially a sister! They're Catholic and have one dog. That's all the information I've been given so far. I've written to them and will hopefully hear back soon.
      I also got my official travel itinerary. I leave for Miami on August 6th at 8 am. I have a layover in Dallas for an hour then I'll arrive in Miami at 1. I spend a day there for orientation where I'll meet up with the other exchange students from America going to Brazil. I leave Miami on the evening of August 7th and I arrive in Sao Paulo incredibly early on the 8th. There I meet up with all the AFSers from all over the world who will be in Brazil. It's going to be amazing to get to meet all the friends I've made on Facebook. I have a short orientation there and then go on to my host family.
       In sad news my friend here became unable to go to Brazil and had to give up her spot. She made me promise to have enough fun for both of us. On the flip side a good friend of mine that applied and was originally was rejected was given her spot. Yay!
     In the meantime I'm checking things off my Texas bucket list. Today mom, Aunt Amy, and I went down to Austin. We went kayaking and to Barton Natural Springs. Then we had dinner at Chuys and cupcakes at Hey Cupcake!. It was an awesome day and in memory of it I have the most awkward sunburn in the history of sunburns. It's seriously bad. Just patchy burns on my back and shoulders and one on my wrist. Ugh! Overall though an awesome day! I hope you're all having a fantastic summer.
Tchau!

Closing time.Hora de fecho.

Hi Y'all,
    So it's official, I'm no longer a high school student.

Finals are done. My books are turned in. Fines were paid. And finally yesterday they gave me that coveted high school diploma. No more class, pep rallies, or homework for me. I'm all done with my required education. Graduation was bittersweet. My least favorite teacher hugged me twice for an uncomfortably long time, told me he'd really miss me, and called me girlie. When I went up to receive 

my diploma, before I walked on stage, I asked the man if anyone had ever tripped before and he said, 

"Nope, you'll be our first." So with that vote of confidence, I walked across the stage. They announced by BP scholarship and my name. I shook hands with two men who I assume are of some importance by their fancy robes but honestly I have no clue. For all I know they could have been janitors. Then I received my diploma holder. I then excited the stage and received my real diploma. I'm really proud that I didn't trip because my feet were in so much pain from my gorgeous heels that I could barely walk. I was having visions of me pulling a Lizzie McGuire and tripping and taking everyone and everything down with me. Thankfully, that didn't happen and I walked the stage with some grace. I think my grimace actually looked like a smile to the audience. I'd like to give a shout out to my wonderful friends and family that came and sat through several hours of monotonous speeches and over 600 names being called just to watch me walk across the stage for 5 seconds. It must taken a lot of love to go through that and don't think I didn't see you playing on your phones during the speeches. 

It didn't hit me until today when I was cleaning out my room that I was actually done. I saw all my yearbooks lined up in my room and tossed out all my accumulated notes and school papers. It was both exciting and terrifying to realize that, as everyone keeps reminding me, I'm now an adult and on my own. I took my last SAT on saturday and now all I have left to do is to apply to college.

In AFS news, I got Rosetta Stone. I've been working on it a little everyday and now know some pretty basic Portuguese. I also sent in my papers for my necessary background check a few weeks ago and I should get that back for my visa by July 1st. I've met several people that are going to Brazil on Facebook. They come from Germany, Turkey, Italy, Seattle, and right here in San Antonio. They all seem really sweet and I can't wait to meet them in person. It's officially 59 days until I leave. Tchau!