"Era Uma Vez...."

"Once Upon a time..." 

There lived a young woman who so desperately wanted to learn Portuguese . She traveled thousands of miles through the sky to a distant land where almost everyone speaks, sings and dances to the beautiful language.  Upon her arrival she met with a master as often as she could, but the language just kept slipping away. After a month of less than satisfactory progress she decided it was time for something drastic....


So drastic I'm almost embarrassed to tell you: 

I'm back in High-school.

I know, I know the disgusting place of crushed dreams and wasted hours staring blankly at a frozen clock. And while school is drastically different here, the same unpleasant atmosphere is undeniably present. 

So I'll explain. We've been discussing my options as to how I can live In Brazil next semester. With my current visa I have to leave every three months and I can only stay in the country for 180 days of the year. After drawing out all the options we discovered the easiest way for me to get a visa is to just enroll in school , and since I don't have a Brazilian high-school diploma- that's exactly what I need. The obvious advantage of the school is that I'm constantly forced to speak Portuguese which is the best way to learn the language .

Additionally it is already offering me some great insights into Brazilian culture. Here in high school you spend all day with the same class in the same room, but different teachers come and go. Also the day is much shorter, most students only stay in school for the morning or the afternoon not both. I've only been there two days but I'll be excited to learn how they choose to focus on history and the humanities in general. 

For my Portuguese lessons I've been writing a lot fairytales, and sometimes I surprise myself half way-through with where I want to the story to go.  Going back to high-school is a chapter I never thought I'd write.