Feliz dia des Maes!

(We're a little late with our posts, but here's a recap of our activities from the last few days.) On Mother's Day, we woke up with a mission – to sneak away and buy a gift for our host mother. David and I tried to make up excuses to visit the supermarket, but our host family had such wonderful hospitality that we didn't actually need anything. We were finally able to slip away to the supermarket across the street and buy flowers for our host mom. We weren't quite sure how to sneak them into the apartment, but David had the brilliant idea for me to create a diversion by running into the apartment while screaming and waving my arms. The family would then follow me to find out "what's the matter with this gringa" while David got the flowers into the apartment…luckily we didn't have to resort to that plan!

We've had an amazing host family this week, and have eaten delicious Brazilian, Italian, Arabic, and Japanese food. Thankfully, we were able to spend a bit of time in the gym that afternoon. We were also able to show off our karaoke skills with our host dad. We sang everything from Elvis to the Beatles, U2, and Banda Eva in both English and Portuguese.

That evening we enjoyed a family dinner at a churrascaria at Murumbi. We met the rest of the family and really enjoyed our time with them. I tried some new foods including raw oyster, raw kibi, chicken hearts, goat, and warthog.

We got home from dinner about midnight and then packed our things for our early morning departure (5:30 am!). David and I rode the metro by ourselves to meet the rest of the group and then boarded a bus (a Brazilian version of a Greyhound) for a 3.5 hour ride to Botucatu. We visited the city hall and then attended a Rotary Club meeting that night. Our Tuesday activities included a visit to UNESP's (Sao Paulo State University) Fazenda Lageado (very similar to Texas A&M University's Agricultural Experiment Station) where we met with several professors of the college of agriculture and life sciences. We visited the eucalyptus plantation where we saw examples of the amazingly quick growth of this tree species. The trees grow about 10 feet the first year and can be harvested after 8 years. They are used for paper production and as an energy source. We also visited the coffee museum where we learned about the process of harvesting, drying, roasting, and grinding. The free coffee samples at the end of the tour were a definite bonus!

We had our first Rotary Club presentation that evening, and the club members were extremely welcoming and generous. We had worked hard to learn how to present our presentation in Portuguese, and they were very receptive to our efforts. It was a great first presentation experience!