Gabriel Bondar - PARTNERS

2010-02-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

Friday - February 26th:
UHUUL!!! My american mom, Max (american mom's friend) and I went to a hockey game! It was great. I've never seen it live...it is totally different from watching it on TV. Although it is almost impossible to see the puck on TV, it is easy to see it when you watch it live! Playing it requires a lot of motor coordination, because you must have enough balance to ice skate and hit the puck at the same time! The players make it look easy.

Saturday - February 27th: The Indy weekend started today! Tessa and Mariana picked me up and we headed to Jhani's house. We arrived there at 10 am and met the other YAs. First, we went to the Children's museum, a very interactive museum, similar to "Museu da PUC" (Porto alegre).

Then, we went to the "Love" monument so that we could take pictures. I've been to Israel, and there is a similar monument in Jerusalem. (but it's written in hebrew).

Then, we went to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at the center of Indianapolis.

After that, we went ice skating!!!! Despite the fact that I couldn't last more than a minute without grasping the handrail, it was great! I fell once, and, unfortunately, I wasn't wearing gloves (I had forgotten them in the car)...But, at least, I think that falling only once is pretty good for a beginner.

We went to the IMAX theater and half of the group watched Avatar and the other hald watched Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief. I saw the second one. I've already read the book, and the movie has nothing to do with it! (and when I say nothing, I mean NOTHING)

Then, the boys went to Rosane's house, a brazilian who used to live in Rio Grande do Sul. Her son has a PS3, and we played "Rock Band: the Beatles" for hours! Playing the drums was so cool!

I knew it would be such a busy day!

Sunday - February 28th:

Today we had the Feijoada, the last and main event of our stay here. We made a personal presentation, a powerpoint one and a show. It was great, because I could talk to almost everybody who I've met here!

I want to thank everybody who made this opportunity possible for me:
- Partners of the Americas and the Youth Ambassadors program, which has achieved its goal: changing the lives of six teenagers;
- Jhani, president of Partners - Indiana, who has always been with us and who made us always go in the right directions;
- Leslie, the coordinator of the YA program, who has done a wonderful job;
- Laura, for bringing us to great places and planning awesome things, like the Chicago trip;
- Ana Isabel and Ana Mary, whose help in Brazil was indispensable;
- My brazilian family, which has been there for me all the time;
- My american family, which made me feel at home here. When I asked people to applaud them today, it was because they really deserved it;
- Everyone who has helped me here!

It was Amazing, Awesome, Astonishing and Astounding!

2010-02-20T12:13:00.000-08:00

Saturday - February 20th, 2010:
The three of us (I, Ben and Mom G) woke up at 6 am. I had gone to bed late last night, so it was a little bit difficult to wake up...

We went to an indoor place to play tennis (my american mom had a tennis lesson) at 7. I could say I was sleepwalking when I got out of the car, and it was so cold outside! But when we entered the place, the heater made me feel comfy.

Then, we went to Le Peep to have breakfast. I had a delicious omelette!

After that, we went to the racetrack where the Indy 500 takes place! Yes, the famous race, which Emerson Fittipaldi won twice. We went to the Hall of Fame Museum, which had cars that had competed once and images of the champions. We also saw a video there about the history of Indy 500. I learned a lot!

Emerson Fittipaldi!!!

Later, we visited the Indianapolis Zoo, a place that reminded me of Shedd Aquarium. We bought the tickets and received a map of the zoo. There were six areas: Oceans, Marine Mammals, Deserts, Plains, Encounters and Forests. Each area had a different environment, which depended on the animals that were exhibited. So, due to the animal diversity of the zoo, you'll find pictures of animals which live in different habitats here.

Who has the guts to touch a shark? It was a Dog Shark...but still it is a shark!

This is not a painting!!!

Now you know how cold it is here...the Polar Bear was outside, and so was I!

This is Timon (Timão), from the Lion King!

Llama!

See ya, Folks!

2010-02-15T14:46:00.000-08:00

One more picture of Chicago (February 13th):

Monday - February 15th, 2010:
Today I woke up and there was a lot of snow outside. The roads were covered in snow, and so were the roofs. The houses looked beautiful! I and Ben had to shovel the yard so that our cars could be driven without slipping. This task was a little bit unfair: Ben had an effective machine which could get the snow out of our way in a second and I had to use a shovel. It was a funny task, like playing in the snow!

Before shoveling:

While shoveling:

After shoveling:

We even had time to play! :

Later, we went SNOWBOARDING at Glenns Valley Nature Park! Thumbs up, it was wonderful! We had to watch out for kids in our way down the hills...we didn't want to hurt anybody. Of course I fell a lot, but it made snowboarding even funnier!

2010-02-14T19:07:00.000-08:00

Please read the last post, which is under this one, before. (Leia antes a última mensagem, que está embaixo dessa.)

Saturday - February 13th, 2010:
We woke up, had a quick breakfast and headed to Chicago at 8 am. It is a city with HUGE buildings and a beautiful lake called Lake Michigan. I took some pictures inside the van:

We were heading to Navy Pier, and started taking pictures. Suddenly, my camera's batteries were dead. Then I thought: "I have more batteries and I brought them". While checking my pockets, I remembered that I had left my bagpack at Jhani's house, and my other batteries were there. But, since I was surrounded by nice people, Laura took me to a store and I bought more batteries. They worked! What a relief!

Then, we went inside and ate at Bubba Gump, a theme restaurant about the movie "Forrest Gump". I ate fried shrimps (delicious) and everybody had a good time. It was funny, because the waiter asked us questions about the movie and made our minds work a lot when he propounded riddles.

Later, we went to Shedd Aquarium, a marvelous place! I think I took about 50 pictures there, so I can't upload all of them here. I'll try to summarize and tell you the best things. While there, each person in the group had enough freedom to go wherever he/she wanted. As we could not take pictures using the flashlights, some of my pictures were a little bit blurred.

At 2 pm, we watched a show called "Fantasea", in which 5 great animals did some tricks. Unbelievable! It was a little bit hard to take pictures of the show, because the animals kept moving all the time. But trust me: You would have liked to be there.

Then, we continued our trip at Shedd Aquarium. Luckily, I could find two Hollywood stars! The first one is Nemo (do filme "Procurando Nemo")!

I also found the Penguins of the movie "Surf is up" ("Tá dando onda").

Then, we wandered throught the city. Tall buildings are the main characteristic of the landscape...

We also took pictures on a fountain. It is said that the water can go up to 10 feet...But the water was frozen! One more thing added to my personal Guiness Book: First frozen fountain that I've ever seen in my whole life!

After that, we went to the Millenium Park to see "The Bean", a metal sculpture that looks like a bean. Images are reflected by "The Bean" in such a funny way!

Later, we went to the Magnificent Mile to watch 3D fireworks! All the fireworks were heart-shaped, as Sunday would be Valentine's day.

We had dinner at Giordano's, and we ate a different kind of pizza; It looked like a pie. The sauce was on the top, cheese in the middle and the flavour in the bottom!

In the end, we went to John Hancock Center, a building which has 96 floors. We took just 40 seconds in the elevator to get on the top! We had a beautiful view of the city at night!

We went back to Indianapolis and arrived at 2h30 am at Jhani's. After a big and tiring day, it took me a second to close my eyes and sleep.

Sunday - February 14th, 2010:
We woke up early and Jhani took us to Edinburgh Outlet Mall. Things were SO cheap!!! After that, my family picked me up and I told them how the trip had been. And now I'm writing to you!

See ya, folks!!!

2010-02-14T18:17:00.000-08:00

I'll talk about more than 1 day in this post, so I'll number the days.

Sunday -February 7th, 2010:
Today the Super Bowl took place! Since it is a great event here in the U.S, we had a party one of my american mom's friends. It was awesome and something we don't have in Brazil. Each family that went to the party brought food, and we had dinner there. I met a lot of people there, as Luke, a cool kid that was decked out in Colts make up. His mother was brazilian! Unfortunately, the Colts lost...But the game was exciting and the party was worth it!

Friday - February 12th, 2010:
After coming from school, I took a quick shower and packed my things up, because I was going to spend the weekend with people from Partner of the Americas. Tessa and Mari picked me up at home and we went to Jhani's house. Laura (a member of Partners - SO funny) rented a van so that everybody could go in the same vehicle to Chicago on Saturday. We went to Steak 'n Shake to have dinner (Cheese Fries!!!!).

(I'm still talking about Friday) After that, we headed to Fry's, the cheapest electronic store I've ever been to in my whole life. If we followed our schedule, we would only have 20 minutes there, because we would watch a movie at 9h30 pm. However, as good shoppers do, we stayed there for an hour! Results: We were late to the movie. It was not possible to watch a movie on a huge screen (that is the IMAX experience). We decided to watch "Valentine's day", a romantic comedy...The movie was pretty good, as its cast was awesome: Jamie Foxx, Julia Roberts, Jessica Alba and more. We came back to Laura's house and slept, preparing ourselves to visit a huge city....Chicago!

2010-02-04T17:17:00.000-08:00

What is different here:

- Young people text each other everyday. It's impressive how they can easily stay hours sending messages to each other instead of calling. Ben, for example, texts his friends everyday. Once I told him: "I'm going to hide your phone for one day, and I bet you will freak out." Actually I wouldn't do this, but it would be funny to see what would his reaction be. Just for you to know how often I text my friends: Last time I did was on January 1. But that was a special occasion: I wanted to wish everybody a happy new year.

- Cities are different. I don't know how to explain this very well, but the structure and architecture are different from what I'm used to. I mean, here there are factories in the middle of the cities. In Brazil, they are usually located far from the cities, because then we won't see the polution daily. Here the suburbs are safe; there, they aren't as safe as the cities.

- Traffic is different too. Here, the roads are all made with concrete, while we have a lot of streets in Brazil which are made with paving-stone. And everything here is like a road or a highway. I mean, they don't actually have streets here. Everything is bigger...And there are a lot of side roads here, which connect the main roads to each other and to highways (which sometimes are interstates.)

- Life at home can be strange for who is not used to it. Here, we don't have maids everyday. We have to clean our own rooms (which can be tiring, but it's learning to take care of ourselves, be a little bit independent). Here, we have to cook our food and wash the dishes and clothes. We don't have a maid which does everything for us. I think that's one of the reasons why young americans do not have a lot of problems when they go to college and live in a dorm. They are already prepared to do that, and they know how to take care of themselves sooner than brazilians. That's why I'm not surprised that here people get their driving license when they are 16. I've been trying to help the most I can here with the domestic tasks - I help unloading the dishes, I use the washing machine to wash my clothes, I help with the thrash and other things. It's easy to live here, because my american mom and brother are organized and they help each other. So when somebody is too tired, another person will fulfill the task. That's how we are doing things here, it has been pretty easy.

- There are no motoboys here. Actually, I haven't seen a single motocycle here. Pizza and other delivery guys use cars.

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Well, today we had fun. When I came back from school, we visited the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. It was a big event, the inauguration of a new exhibition: "Pistols - Dazzling firearms". The guns were all decorated; we could see the meticulous work of engravers and craftsmen, who were able to give life to those pistols. Some of them had historical scenes engraved on them. They were so beautiful. They mainly used gold, silver, pearl and ivory, so they were almost all shiny. The exhibition featured guns who were made in the 1800s and the 1900s. We also met a guy named Sean McVicker, a master engraver from Northern Ireland, who taught us a little bit of the history of this fascinating art. I'm sorry about not having pictures...That's because I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the museum.

Things are great at school. Yesterday, I gave my first speech. It was about Truman's show philosophy, and it was a very deep subject. It was actually a good way of introducing myself to new people, because I said I was brazilian before the speech, and some of the students who were listening to me hadn't known that before. I feel my english getting better each day, and my fluency too.

See ya, folks!

2010-01-30T19:45:00.000-08:00

Big day! I woke up at 8 am. Then, Mari (another exchange student of Partners) and Tessa (Mari's american sister) picked me up at 9 am. Before going to Muncie, we brought Emily (Mari's american sister) to Ball State University. We visited one of the buildings quickly, and I found out how a dorm is! It is so small, smaller than you can ever imagine. Emily showed us a room in which the students have fun, and there was a wall where we could sign our names. Guess what? I did!

We went to Muncie, where we met Rafael, Túlio, Chris, Maitê, Leslie and Chris's american family. We ate at Pizza King, where we had a wonderful pizza and we were able to catch up.

Then, we went to a place where we did volunteer work. It was tiring, but rewarding. We made blankets, a task that took the whole afternoon. Next week, they will be donated to Riley Hospital for Chidren, to children which I'm sure will be smiling when they see our work. That's what makes volunteer work so good.

I came back to Indianapolis with Leslie, who took me, Rafael and Maitê to Shapiro's, a jewish deli. Bill (american dad) and Ben picked me up there, and we went to FOGO DE CHÃO!!!!! It is a Gaúcho restaurant, in which we had barbecue and rice and beans! Now I won't be homesick! That was so nice of them!

When I came back to our house, I gave my american mom the gifts that I had left in Tulio's baggage. She got very happy, which made me happy!

See ya, Folks!

2010-01-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry I'm not posting here everyday, but I've been very busy here! (having fun, visiting places, playing with my family, doing homework...). Yesterday, I and Ben went to "The Gathering Place" to play soccer. Man, I was missing it so much! It was a very funny (and tiring) game, and we might go again there tomorrow. There were a lot of hispanics there, and we talked in Spanglish (mix of spanish and english) with them.

I've been playing a lot of ping-pong and Fifa 10 with Ben here. The outcomes of the matches are simple: he wins almost all the ping-pong matches, and I win almost all the Fifa 10 matches. It's been very funny.

I've just finished an essay on "The Truman Show" and I will present a speech about it next week. A lifetime quotation my family always told me: "Do not be afraid of making mistakes." So, even not being native, I will try to do my best here on everything I do. And I won't let the fact that I am not native stand between me and other people; I will still try to talk with them and express myself the best way I can.

See ya, folks!

2010-01-23T16:53:00.000-08:00

First, I would like you to meet the dogs that live here with us: Frodo, a yorkshire, and Gandalf, an airdale. Frodo is a lazy dog that just wants to be pet and stay on your lap. It's always a funny situation when I am walking through the house, and suddenly he appears in front of me on his back, wanting his belly to be rubbed. Gandalf is the opposite of Frodo: He is totally hyperactive and playful. Sometimes I think that, instead of sleeping, he plays with his toys. As Gandalf is a long name, we just call him Gandi, making it easier to say. Well, enough for the dogs right now.

Today Ben took me to visit Indiana University. It's as big as a city. Really, I'm not kidding...that thing is huge! It has about 40 thousand students, which makes me feel that Center Grove (my school) is not as big as I thought. The students live near the buildings, in dorms, apartments and fraternity houses. There is a big football stadium, in which home games take place. As you can see on the photos, each building is huge. Now imagine that there are actually a lot of these buildings.

I found a message of "Shalom IU" (hello Indiana University, in hebrew) in the soccer field. Coincidence or destiny???

Obs: A couple of days ago, I cooked some "Pão de queijo" and Ben grilled some steaks. I didn't have time to upload the photos that day, so I am doing it now!

Obs.2: Greetings to my only red-headed friend, who follows the blog daily!

See ya, folks!

2010-01-19T13:01:00.000-08:00

Center Grove. Biggest school I've ever seen in my whole life. It has about 2500 students, and all of them are high schoolers (aos brasileiros: estudantes do ensino médio). Each day I meet new people, and I have already made good friends.

Each class lasts for 1h30min. There's a lot of subjects here: some of them are elective and some are not. I'm taking American Government, Advanced Speech, American History, Physics, Pre-Calculus, American Literature, Study Hall (free time to study and do homework) and Gym (working out) classes.

Center Grove is an example to all public schools in the world. It is a feature of a high developed country: It has new technology and good teachers. And as it has a lot of students, it has an infrastructure that allows the students to develop whatever they want: Football field, Tennis courts, Computer room, Cafeteria (where we have lunch everyday) and so on. I'm sure it has the same quality as the private schools I know.

I was surprised when I found a tornado warning in a classroom. They explained to me that, especially on the spring, it is something that may happen.

I am impressed with how much importance people give to sports here. Every single day, there is at least one event at Center Grove related to sports. There are a lot of teams: basketball, volleyball, football, soccer and so on.

As you can see, I took some pictures of the classroom, the cafeteria, and the outside. I know it looks like a mall, but that's the size of Center Grove! Man, I'm enjoying the U.S so much!

2010-01-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

What an awesome day!!!! Today, as we were going to have a party, Rachel (american sister) and Bill (american dad), who live in Chicago, came here to Indiana to celebrate Ben's and my birthday. So today I first met them! They are very kind people, Rach is always in good mood and Bill is so funny!

When I woke up, I decided to make them something typically brazilian...so I cooked what we call "Pão de queijo". It was very surprising, because I actually didn't know I could do it, nor how easy it would be! Everyone was hungry, so the plate got empty very quickly!

Then, a surprise was waiting for me: a gift! The Griesinger family bought me a Indianapolis Colts (american football team) jersey!!! You'll be able to see it on the photos I uploaded. It was a funny situation: yesterday I went to a mall with Ben, and I almost bought a Colts jersey (I didn't buy because I went to another store, and when I came back, the store was already closed)...What a lucky guy I am!!!

After that, Alex and Amy (Ben's friends) joined us and we went to Duckpin Bowling, a place where bowling is a little bit different than usual; the ball is small and so are the pins. As it is small, the ball actually doesn't have the three holes, so people that aren't used to it may have some problems using it. When we got there, Jimbo (one of my american mom's friends -the funniest guy I ever met) joined us. Then we played. I lost both of the games, but it was worth the time I spent there, because I had a lot of fun. Then, we went to a restaurant and had barbecue!

When we came back to the house, we ate the birthday cake. But before that, I had enough time to take a picture of it. It's the brazilian flag! Then, we watched to Colts game. While the game was going by, the whole family was explaining me the rules of american football. And, to finish the day on a high note, the Colts won the game. I found out why american football is so popular here...It so addicting. We are going to schedule a game, because I'm looking forward to playing it. Now I can declare myself a Colts fan!

In order to distinguish who is Bill and who is Jimbo, here's a hint: Jimbo is a big Colts fan!

2010-01-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

Yeah, it is my birthday!!!! Aye folks, I'm now seventeen years old. I had an awesome day, and it's gonna be even better tomorrow, because we are having a party! We will go bowling and then have dinner at a restaurant (btw, I think it is a fancy one). As Ben (my american brother) will turn 18 on the January 18, we are having a party together tomorrow.

The whole city is wearing blue this weekend, because the Indianapolis Colts (american football team) is in the playoffs. Their jersey is blue. It is very impressive to see how addicted people here are to football!

Today, instead of working out for 1h30 in the Weight Room, we went to the gym and played some basketball. It was very funny, but I can't compete with these guys...I mean, they are so much better than I. As it wasn't actually an official basketball game, we could mess with it a little...so when the ball was reaching me, I used my head and feet instead of my hands (sorry, I'm a soccer player). It was very nice, I almost scored using my head.

I'm surprised about some things here...like the way americans greet when they first meet. Most of the people I met here just shaked hands when they first see me. In Brazil, it is common to kiss the person you met on the cheek (if it is a girl) or kind of hug (if it is a boy). Therefore, when I meet someone new here, I wait till they make the first move. Because believe me, there are all kinds of people here, so it is impossible to predict what they are doing. A couple of people here hugged me.

We had dinner at Louie's (the best burguer in town, according to Ben), a big bar which is almost always crowded. We first tried this spicy buffalo wings (It is just the name, actually it is chicken, because buffalos don't have wings :P). Ben said it would be just hot, not very spicy. But when I put it in my mouth....It was like chili pepper! Lucky I had a bottle of water in front of me. Then I had a marvelous cheeseburguer.

I want to thank all the people that sent me e-mails and messages because of my birthday. I'm trying to answer each one of you, but it is a bunch of messages! Thank you guys!

2010-01-13T12:44:00.000-08:00

Today was my third day at school. I had my first workout class today, so my body is aching a little. People said that lunch was horrible at the school. Actually, it is not!! Monday we had pizza, corn and rice. Yesterday we had chicken nuggets, smashed potatoes and another pizza. And today we had Mac and cheese (delicious), cheeseburguers and french fries. So for the people who said I wouldn't eat a thing at school, here is a message: nothing is impossible, my friends, we just need a couple of junk foods :P

We had a snowball fight today! It's awesome! And I made an angel when I laid down on the snow. I wrote my name on the snow and I even ate some. It tastes like ice...

The neighborhood here is very calm and beautiful. There are plenty of houses.

I can feel my english is getting better each day. I don't have to struggle anymore to understand what people say. I'm really happy about this, because if it has improved so much until now, I can't imagine how good will it be when I come back to Brazil.

Yesterday, we made a composition on american history about "american life during the great depression". There were 3 types of composition: I could write as if i were an urban dweller, a rural dweller or even if i were living in the Dust Bowl. Mr. Frank (the teacher) chose who would be what, and he told me to be an urban dweller. Today, after Mr.Frank read all of the compositions, I won an award for the best composition in the "urban dwellers" group! So I got extra points on my grades...but actually I won't need them, as I won't have grades here. But anyway, it was very surprising to me.

I bought a computer here, but it's arriving tomorrow. Now I won't have to bother my american brother anymore!

Obs: queria mandar um salve pro jayminho, que quer ficar famoso.

2010-01-11T15:57:00.000-08:00

Today was a big day! It was my first day at Center Grove High School, a school that has around 2,500 students...and they are all high schoolers!!!! It's very different from my brazilian school, that has around 1,000 from all ages (it goes back from kindergarten...). I met a lot of new people, and it was great. I got lost often today, because it's a huge school, but when I asked for help, everyone was very kind and tried to show me the way to my classroom. Unlike Brazil, here each teacher has a room, and the students have to move from one room to another. And they don't have a strict schedule, so we can choose the subjects we'll do on the first day of school!

People here couldn't believe that I gave up of my summer vacations in order to go to the U.S...But that's because they don't know how much fun it's here. I'm having an english overdose, so I'm learning a lot! It's easier to listen than to speak. I've signed up for advanced speech classes, american history, U.S government, pre-calculus, weight lifting (that's right!), american literature and physics. We have two different days here: the red one and the white one (these are the colors of the school flag). The red one has a schedule, and the white one has another. So today it was the red day, and tomorrow it's gonna be the white day, and it goes on and on...

Here's a picture of my american family. My american mom, Gloria, and my american brother, Ben. We're having a lot of fun here! I gotta go guys, cause I have homework to do! (and i'm supposed to be on the summer vacations...)

2010-01-10T10:25:00.000-08:00

After a very tiring trip, we finally arrived in Indianapolis. However, our baggage didn`t!!! So we had to talk to United and they said it would arrive in 24 hours. Then, Leslie, Jhani and Rachel picked us up at the airport and drove us Cracker Barrel to eat breakfast. I was on Leslie`s car, and we talked a lot. She`s very funny and it`s good to talk with her. After that, we went to Jhani's house.

When we looked at Jhani's house, it was like: '' Wow, big house, I wanna live here forever!" Although we didn`t have our baggage (nor other clothes), we went outside and played on the snow. That was the first time I've played with snow!!! It was awesome. We took some pictures, and then we went inside. Leslie talked to us about the " Do's " and " Dont's ", and then we drank hot chocolate. More people connected to Partners joined us, and it was very nice to meet new people. Everybody was very kind!

After that, the families arrived, and we met them. I`ve already knew a little bit of mine, because I had already talked to them by phone back in Brazil. They were great and wanted to make sure that I was feeling comfortable. We went to the supermarket and bought some food. When I looked at their house, it was like: "Ok, that's not fair. Another wonderful house...I wanna live here forever too!" My american mom, Gloria, is very kind. Ben is a great guy, he likes to play a lot...so we are having a lot of fun here. They showed me the house and we had dinner. I was very tired, but I had enough time to beat Ben on the video game (we played the soccer game...if it were the basketball one I'm sure I would have lost). Then, I slept.

When I woke up today, my american mom told me my luggage had arrived. Great! We had breakfast and now I'm writing. (I know there may be some mistakes, but as english is not my native language, I guess nobody is gonna get mad at me.)

Gabriel Bondar's Blog

2010-01-07T11:43:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! This is my first message of this blog. Tomorrow I am going to the U.S, and I'll send messages here weekly. I will show you how everything is going in the U.S during my stay! I'll post some photos too.
Bye!