Doctors and Logistics

Today I haven’t done much. I’ve decided to apply to a high school. I know, I know. I was supposed to be this unschooler, but it just wasn’t working for me. So I’m applying to Academe of the Oaks. My parents still have to ultimately decide if I can attend, but for the moment I can set it all rolling. It will still count as unschooling because I will be learning logistics and applications and such. But anyways, today I’ve also been searching the web for a new doctor to assess my knee. Other than that, not much happened today.

The Help

The other day, 9/11/11, I went to the movie theater with my mom and her friend and we saw The Help. It was a very interesting movie, and it was quite shocking to see how the African/African-American population was treated back in the day. I did already know to some extent of how bad the conditions were, seeing as i have been in school up to this year, but seing it portrayed like that just goes to show how drastic it was. But other than all that, I really enjoyed the movie and it was pretty funny how much my mom was sobbing next to me, but i understand why.

August

Since I started this blog in September, but I’ve been unschooling since August, here is a bulk post of what I have done.

8/1/11

Mar E Floresta is excited to welcome all of the new villagers that arrived today. Even on their first day, all the villagers were busy. Counselors gave them a tour of the whole resort. Later, the new comers got to know each other by playing games in Portuguese and even singing songs, of course, in Portuguese

8/2/11

Mar E Floresta’s counselors put on a really cool programma de noite today. Inspired by this New York Times gallery, they taught villagers about homemade soccer in Africa. In many places, children can’t afford factory made soccer balls, shoes, or nets. Instead, they have to improvise. While non-standard, their creations are often impressive and inspiring. Surprisingly, it’s often these children who fill up professional soccer teams around the world.

Mar E Florestians got to have their own experience in DIY soccer. Teams of villagers made their own soccer balls out of trash gathered by the counselors. Each team represented a different African Portuguese speaking country and everyone took their hand crafted soccer balls and had a mini world cup.

8/3/11

Today’s lusomania was about the beautiful street art painted in Brazilian favelas. This art is often characterized by its bright colors and gargantuan scale. Take a look at the first few pictures below for some examples. While these murals can be beautiful and inspiring, they are very controversial. Most of them are illegal, yet many believe that they have an extremely positive effect on the favelas by adding beauty to a place often characterized by its poverty.

Inspired by the pictures of art in the favelas, villagers went outside and made their own colorful paintings. These paintings will hang on walls of the Bandejão (cafeteria) and Sala Mia Couto (activity room).

8/4/11

Counselors taught about Mozambique, a country scarred by a history of war, but gifted with natural beauty and resources. Recently, Mozambique has become much safer and is transforming itself into a tourism hotspot for the Portuguese speaking world. With this in mind, villagers went to work creating promotions, in Portuguese, for tourism in Mozambique. One group focused on history instead of tourism and decided to create a quick video about Mozambique’s war for independence. Regardless of their project, villagers learned a new way to look at a country that is known by many people only for its violence.

8/5/11

Villagers found a cool spot on the rocks by the lake to sing songs, today. The weather was absolutely perfect for the event and the scenery was beautiful.

The greatest highlight was watching O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias orThe Year my Parents Went on Vacation. This film is about São Paulo in the 1970s and about a boy who is forced to move away from his family. It is set against the backdrop of fear of a repressive and often violent Brazilian government. O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias is a very powerful movie and has a lot to teach about Brazil in this time period.

8/6/11

Without a doubt, the Brazilian Micareta dance party that was thrown at Mar E Floresta yesterday was the highlight of the week for several villagers. As the sun set on the beach,villagers moved to loud Portuguese language music blasting from village speakers. Some had fun waving bubble wands in the air, while others had fun running

around and popping bubbles. It didn’t take long for Chinese villagers to join in. The dance floor suddenly became more crowded, but also more active as the Portuguese villagers taught the Chinese villagers new dances. When the time came for the dance to be over, villagers migrated inside to where the Chinese were holding their dance. There, our villagers got to experience new Chinese music and dances.

8/8/11

Macau Night is unique for both Mar E Floresta and Sen Lin Hu because it’s one of the few times that both villages share the same space and do the same activities. Macau night celebrates the Chinese city of Macua, which was colonized by the Portuguese in 1557. Macau is important because it helped to connect the early Eastern and Western worlds through Portuguese trading ships.

Modern Macau still has Portuguese as an official language and it is considered by many to be the casino capital of the world. With this in mind, villagers celebrated Macau by playing a variety of casino themed games for fun and prizes.

Once the casino closed, all villagers (Chinese and Portuguese) travelled to the camp fire where everyone shared their songs with each other. At the end of the night, they wrote down a wish for peace. Groups of villagers (according to their cabin room) recited their wish in their target language and in English, then burned them in the fire. While the written messages of peace may get carried away as smoke, we hope the villagers will keep their wishes with them and strive to make the world a more peaceful place.

8/9/11

On the outskirts of Rio De Janeiro lies the world’s largest land fill. Every day, workers comb through the trash in search recyclable material that they can sell. They are Brazil’s trash pickers and they perform an important function by making sure that things that could be reused don’t go to waste. However, the pickers often have poor working and living conditions. Some have unions and others don’t, but everyone needs to fight for an acceptable standard of life. To learn about this, villagers got to become trash pickers for an evening. Groups had to do different jobs involving colored cards that represented trash. Some had to sort the cards, others had to count them, while others had search the camp to find them. Some groups were lucky enough to be unionized. They finished quicker and got a better price for their pseudo trash. Other groups simulated non-union workers. They had to visit a middleman before they could finish and barter with him to sell him their trash. The middle man always paid a lower price than what the unionized workers could get. At the end of the program, villagers formed a circle in the sala mia couto to reflect. There were a variety of opinions, but I think that everyone agreed that they state of inequality throughout the world, especially after learning about the trash pickers, is shocking.

8/10/11

Today, villagers learned about the history the Portuguese Speaking world. In the 16th century, the Portuguese were renowned world explores. To learn about this, villager’s became Portuguese sailors for an evening. They sailed, in their imaginary ships across the planet to places like São Tomé e Príncipe, Goa, The Azores, and Brazil. Each port was represented by a counselor who quizzed the villagers about their knowledge of the lusophone world. Successful villagers scored some goods from the port and then set sail to the next destination. They had to be careful, though. Pirates roamed the village and slowed villagers down with their own Portuguese themed tests. Villagers raced from port to port, competing for first place while trying to get the most loot. This is a great example of how Mar E Floresta makes learning interactive, memorable, and fun.

8/11/11

Although Mar E Floresta doesn’t close until Saturday, this is considered by many of us to be the last day of normal village life. Tomorrow, provided the weather is good, villagers will travel to the German language village near Bemidji for International-Day. I-Day is an exciting festival where villagers from all Concordia Language Villages gather to learn about each other’s culture and share their own.

While everyone is looking forward to I-Day, it’s hard not to feel a little sad at the end of the last normal day here. For example, villagers went out after breakfast for one of their last games of Futebol (soccer).

8/12/11

Villagers rode a bus for two hours and arrived at Waldsee, the German language village. There, villagers got the rest of the day to participate in various activities. Among them were a language village film festival, a Model UN Global Summit, and a counselor dunk tank.

At the end of the day, each village performed their own dance in front of all of the other villages. In this way, villagers got to show off what they learned at their village and learn from others at the same time.

8/14/2011

Last night I met one of my moms portuguese friends from a long time ago. His name was Tony Oscar. I first saw him when ever my friends dropped me off at a coffee shop where he and my mom were. We talked a little bit in portuguese or rather I listened and tried to understand while he talked in portuguese and I responded with simple portuguese words or just in english. We talked about where I was going to be moving to in Brazil and he said it was a really nice place. So we talked at the coffee shop for a little while and then we drove over to his house which my mom told me was really close to where we used to live in Athens. Me met his wife, Hemma, and his daughter, Vanessa. We then went up to his office. For his job he plays percussion and I think he records it sometimes too. He showed us some instruments that were lying around. One of them was a drum called an Udu drum. It was made of clay and you could cover the end of it while you were playing and it would change the sound. It was really cool. Another instrument he showed us was the Berimbau which is a Brazilian instrument and I’ve seen it played before when I’ve watched people doing Capoeira. The last instrument was a street Cuico that Tony said he bought at a street vendor in Rio. This instrument was really funny to play cause it’s a drum head with a little toothpick looking thing sticking out the back and you have to get a wet sock and put it on your hand and rub it back and forth and it makes a really funny sound, almost like a donkey braying. There was one more but I don’t know the name of it but it was a kind of shaker and it was really interesting. It was really loud too. I think he was a pretty cool dude and he invited me back sometime to play some drums with him and maybe help with some kind of recording.

Mowing the Lawn 8/15/2011

Sun warming my back,
bitter exhaust fills the air,
mingles with sweet grass.

Today I went outside to mow the lawn. I hadn’t done it in a pretty long time, so I didn’t really remember exactly how to make everything work. I open the shed and I see the lawn mower, but it is not all together, so I was a bit confused. I came back inside and asked my mom what needed to be done and she said that there were two screws on top of the mower and you can attach the handle that way. So I go back outside, see the two screws and I put the handle on. Now I can take the mower out of the shed. once out I roll it to the starting position and attempt to turn it on. it does not do anything. I try a couple more times and still nothing happens. I run back inside to check with my mom. She says to hold down the bar on the handle and pull the starter which I’ve been doing, so I go back out try one more time. Still nothing. Now I go back in and my mom mentions something about a red button that’s to be pressed 3 times. So I go back out for the last time to test it. I press the red button thrice, (hehe does this work here?) and hold down the handle, pull the starter and wallah! it starts. so I put my ear buds in turn up my iPod and get to work. I cut the grass in lines across the yard, being careful around the plant boxes and around rocks and things. About a 1/3 of the way in the mower runs out of gas and I have to fill it back up, but it was pretty self-explanatory and easy to take care of. About 40 minutes rolls by and I’ve finished the back yard. Now I move to the front yard. It’s a little difficult to get the lawnmower up the giant hill beside my house but eventually I drag it up. It takes me about 20 minutes to do the front yard although the back yard seemed easier, probably because the front is full of sticks and composed of small annoying hills. I then happily go back to the shed unscrew the handle and stuff it all back in.

8/19/11

Today I hung out with my friend Steve. This morning I woke up by him calling me. He then picked me up from my dads house and we went to his house. He grabbed his bike, and I had mine and we went biking. We went to Kirkwood and out to the belt line and back. Then I went to his studio with him cause he was playing hookie (he called in sick at work although he wasnt sick  ) so we went to his studio because he had to get ready for a show he had tomorrow with some german people who were coming in town. So I helped him set up some shower curtains over a mural that another guy that worked there had painted. After that I helped him to frame a piece he had made out of tape scraps that had been spray painted (because he makes art with spray paint.) It was really cool and the finished product turned out really well. I also helped David put up a giant concave mirror. After that I went to eat at Matador with Steve and my dad met us there. I had a really fun day today. As Steve told me, today I did bike exploration, art assisting, art consulting/ directing. So im pretty happy about today.

Steve’s blog: http://smashedlandscape.wordpress.com/

David’s website: http://www.eyekissfilms.com/

Capsule studio: http://capsuleatlanta.wordpress.com/

8/24/11

Today we flew into anchorage from Atlanta. It was a twenty-four hour day for me because of the time change in Alaska is 4 hours. Once we got into Anchorage we took a 2.5 hour bus ride to Seward. It was a really beautiful ride and the bus driver said a lot of very interesting facts and things about Alaska. He was also very funny.

8/25/11

Today we had the whole day on the water. I got to learn about glaciers because we sailed past the Hubbard glacier. They are very interesting and It’s cool how they calve. They do it so the glacier can keep moving. It works kind of like a caterpillar tread on a construction vehicle. The front of the glacier calves and it falls and goes under the glacier and then comes back up on the opposite side. The Hubbard glacier is 4 miles wide and 7 miles long. We also had the fire drill on the boat and we had to listen for the signal (which is 6 short horn blows and 1 long) and we had to get our life jackets from our rooms and head to the muster station to be mustered.

8/26/11

Today we docked in Sitka. The first excursion I had was a sea life discovery tour. We tendered to shore in one of the life boats and once at the pier we got into a half submersible boat. It was really cool because it was like a giant submarine when we were below and there were a bunch of giant windows. We got to see lots of sunflower starfish, and different kinds of fish, and there were a few crabs, and giant kelp plants. It was really cool. My second excursion was a kayaking trip. It was cool cause it was really nice outside and you could see lots of jellyfish in the water and we also saw a lot of salmon jumping out of the water because they were spawning.

8/27/11

Today we went through the Tracy Arm fjord and saw the Mendenhall glacier. It was really beautiful. At noon we docked in Juneau and I had one excursion, salmon bake. It was really good and you could go down a small path and you found a waterfall and this big waterwheel. There was also an old abandoned mine tunnel. When we were leaving I saw a black bear and it was really cool.

8/28/11

Today we docked in Skagway. It’s a really small city, it’s only 12 blocks long and 4 blocks wide. My first excursion was a rock climbing and rappelling trip and I was really excited. I love rock climbing. The first thing we did was get all of our gear on and talk over some safety things. We then got to climb and it was really cool. It was the first I’d had the opportunity to climb up an actual rock surface. Then we hiked to the top of the cliff and we had to rappel. It was really scary because I’d never done it before. At first you have to get all roped in then lean over backwards off the cliff and let some of the rope slide through the mechanism and walk down the surface. The scariest part was the very beginning when you had to lean off the side. Once you had gotten past that part it was really cool. At the end I learned how to undo all the ropes and send them back up and after that I helped everyone that came down to get unhooked and send the rope back up with all the gear. Afterwards we did a Skagway by Streetcar tour. It was very interesting and our guide was very knowledgeable. We learned about the Arctic Brotherhood and Soapy Smith and all the history of the city. We also visited an old mining cemetery.

8/29/11

Today we were in Ketchikan. The excursion I had was a flight seeing tour and crab feast. It was really fun to fly in the seaplane and it was my first time. It was really interesting to take off from the water and be able to land in water. We flew over mountains and you could see giant waterfalls and I saw a few mountain goats on one mountain. It was really cool. We then landed and went into a lodge to have our feast. The crab was really good and for dessert we had cheesecake with fresh blueberries on top. Then we took a bus back to the ship. On the way we stopped and saw about five black bears sitting by a lake. A fish hatchery was right on the lake so that’s why all the bears were by it. People took a bunch of pictures and then we got back on the bus.

8/30/11

Today was our last day of the cruise and it was also a full sea day. I hung out with all my friends and we did some scavenger hunts all over the ship. It was really fun. We also saw some whales and orcas breaching out in the sea.

8/31/11

Today we docked in Vancouver really early. We got everything all packed and we got off the boat and went through customs. We then got onto a bus to take us to the airport. The drive was about 1 hour and our driver told us all about the history and cool things about Vancouver. After that we made it to the airport, had to go through american customs. Our layover was in Seattle, then we came home.