Blame it on Rio

Part way through my junior year in high school I kind of realized that I somehow just didn’t belong there. It’s not that I didn’t have friends. I got along with just about everyone: the nerds, the jocks, the dirtballs. Grades were good. I was a varsity wrestler and football player. I even had a lead in the school musical. Still, it never felt right to me. I wanted out. I wanted more.

I really wasn’t looking forward to my senior year. I had worked hard to earn enough credits to graduate at the end of my junior year. What I hadn’t done was to check all the requirements for graduation. Like the requirement that you have to complete 8 semesters. The guidance counselor and principal informed me that not only did I have to complete 2 more semesters I still needed to carry a minimum credit load as well. I had already taken most of the classes that would prepare me for college (Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, etc.). What was left for me to take at my small-town school were classes like Foods and Nutrition, Chorus, and Comparative Religions, which are all fine classes but the prospect of me filling up a year with them would have been a living hell.

I certainly wasn’t going to drop out.

I’m not sure where I got the idea but I started thinking about being an exchange student. I could go away for a year, ostensibly to further and broaden my education, and have a bit of an adventure to boot. Problem solved. So I decided to apply. My biggest obstacle would be in the interviews with the selection board. I had to convince them that my motivation was for academic and cultural exchange reasons. Not entirely untrue but I did have other motives.

Apparently the bar was set really low for acceptance because I passed with flying colors. I remember filling out a questionnaire regarding country preference. I don’t remember specific countries that I was interested in but I do remember the gist of my priorities.

I didn’t want to learn a new alphabet so all the Asian countries (and others) were out.

I struggled with middle-school Spanish (and English for that matter!) so I wanted a country where English was common as a second language.

I’m not a fish eater so I was guessing the Scandinavian countries would be out as well.

And it wouldn’t hurt if the girls were good looking too!

In the end I was offered the chance to go to Brazil. This was somewhat fortunate because we had a Brazilian exchange student in our school the year before and she left a very positive impression of Brazil.

So, shortly after my 17th birthday I boarded a plane to leave my Wisconsin home for almost a year. I was heading to a country where I didn’t know the language (I learned “window” and “aisle” on the plane) and I would be living with people I’d never met. The city where I was headed, Teresina, was located about 5° south of the Equator and was about as far away, climate-wise, as you can get from Wisconsin. I arrived in Brazil in the middle of their winter. It was 95° outside.

There was a big welcome party for me at my host family’s house. And almost no one spoke English. This may be a long year I thought.


More of my Brazilian adventure in the future…..