I AM FINALLY HERE!!!!!!

Hello all,

Well, my Fellowship is underway, and it is almost surreal. I am writing this post at about 11:30 p.m. fro a hotel in Brussels. The last 72 hours have been a whirlwind, and I have so much to share with you. I have finally started this wonderful adventure for which I have been preparing for many months. Many of you may not know, but I was selected as a Marshall Memorial Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. I am one of a group of 14 young professionals from the U.S. who are selected to travel to Europe to study politics, nonprofits and business. Over the next three weeks, I will travel to Brussels, Amsterdam, Rome, Tirana and Bucharest. There are also European counterparts who will be traveling to the States next week. I was informed that I am the first fellow from the great state of Louisiana. I am able to do this because of the wonderful German Marshall Fund (learn more at gmfus.org), my amazing family and a supportive CEO in Bruce Willson. Thanks to all of you.

My adventure started on Thursday and I'll catch you up briefly. I arrived in D.C. on Thursday (late, because I missed my connecting flight in Atlanta on Delta. What a shocker...). Once I checked into the hotel and made the short walk to the GMF offices, and feeling very Mary Tyler Moore, by the way, I was immediately struck by the warmth and professionalism of the GMF staff. Emily Robichaux (a Baton Rouge girl!) and Sasha Kapadia have called and emailed me many times over the last few months to prepare for the fellowship. They have done a tremendous job in making us feel welcome and in preparing us for this important time. The other thing that struck me was the caliber of the other Fellows. I was so overwhelmed and humbled by the talented people with whom I will be spending the next 3 weeks. Bankers, political leaders, scientists, top-ranking military personnel, foundation professionals... and me. Receiving this fellowship meant a great deal to me before I arrived. Actually getting to meet the other fellows and the extremely professional staff at GMF let me know that this is about to take me to the next level in a number of areas.

We ended Thursday with a dinner and discussion at the residence of the Honorable Joao de Vallera, Portugal's Ambassador to the United States. The ambassador gave us a great framework for Southern Europe's relationship to the European Union. He was also gracious to let me practice my very broken Portuguese on him. He served us the most amazing dinner, including a white port that was exquisite. I MUST find this when I return home. I even tried foie gras and was delighted to find that it was a wonderful new addition to my foodie palate.

On Friday, we had more briefings and then headed to Brussels. We hit the ground running. We had a great presentation over lunch about the European Commission. That was followed by a walking tour of Brussels. This is a truly amazing city. He only thing I ever knew about Belgium was that my CODOFIL teacher was from here and that awful AT&T commercial making fun of the city. It is so diverse and lively. I tried another great food tonight. I am officially in love with mussels. That's right, I had mussels in Brussels. LOL... I also had a Belgian waffle. Unbelievably good.

I am about to drop with exhaustion, but I didn't want to disapoint my public;-) I am posting a few pix, including one with Ambassador de Vallera, our angels at GMF ( Emily, Sasha, Anne Marie and Laura), some of our briefings and our tour of Brussels. We travel to Antwerp tomorrow for the day. I am really looking forward to it.

Stay tuned.

Preparing for A New Adventure

Hello to everyone who followed my blog last summer when I went to Brazil as a part of the Rotary International Group Study Exchange. I am so blessed to have been selected as a Marshall Memorial Fellow from the German Marshall Fund of the United States. This wonderful program sends American professionals to Europe to learn about business, government, nonprofit and policy issues and they send European professionals to the United States to do the same. I will be leaving in a few weeks on this monthlong adventure. I hope that you guys continue to follow me and say hello every now and then.

WHY I LOVE BRASIL

Now that I have been back for over a month, I have had a chance to take a breath and to look back on my amazing adventure in Brazil. It is a wonderful country and being able to live as a Brazilian for a month was a life-changing experience. I am a fan of lists, so I want to share my top 10 things I love about Brazil, or Brasil, depending on your orientation!

10. The FOOD! - I am from Louisiana, and food is the center of our culture. It is the center of Brazilian culture as well. Although I ate a LOT of rice and beans, I also had acaraje, cacqui, couvi, carne, brigadera, pudin de leche, mamao, morango, melon, maracuja and cafezhino. We think we've tasted papaya and mango. Go to Brazil, I promise you'll never think of fruit in the same way!

9. The Lifestyle - Brazilians work hard and they play even hard. A premium is placed on enjoying life and family is the most important thing in Brazil. And when there is an opportunity to celebrate, well, let's just say I went to parties that were held just because it was Tuesday.

8. The Environmental Responsibility - although Brazil has many pollution-causing factories, day-to-day living is very eco-conscious. This is a lesson we could learn in the states.

7. The diversity. - You can't look at someone and classify them as "Brazilian". Brazil is like America, and Brazilians come in every hue. It's great, which leads me to...

6. The No-Race Thing - Brazil is a melting pot and it is easy to understand when you look at the history of the country. Outside of Japan, Brazil has the largest number of Japanese in the world. There are many people of African descent, European descent and every country and continent you can imagine. However, if you ask someone "what" they are, they will proudly say that they are Brazilian. For a month, I never heard, saw or experienced anything that made me feel "other". I can't go a week here without feeling that I'm being judged, fairly or unfairly, because of the color of my skin. I wish we could learn this from the Brazilians.

5. Patriotism - Brazilians are amazingly patriotic. They have the coolest national anthem ever and will sing it any and everywhere. You see that green, blue and yellow flag everywhere! I can't wait to go to Recife and Olinde to experience that side of Brazil.

4. The Community Service - I guess I saw a lot of this because I was on a Rotary trip, but Brazilians who are wealthy feel a real sense of responsibility for those less fortunate. I saw this on a daily basis.

3. Style. - Brazilians are the most stylish people I've ever seen. And it's not about designer labels, since those aren't really available to most. It's not about makeup or bling, because most Brazilian women do not wear makeup, and even the most wealthy Brazilian women only wear simple gold wedding bands and not much else. They just carry themselves well and know how to put a look together out of nothing. I strive for that!

2. The relationships - I developed relationships with people who I will have in my life forever. I feel as though I have brothers and sisters and surrogate parents and children in Brazil. Tais and Renato, my first hosts, are my brother and sister. My second host, Sandra, and her wonderful children Estela and Victor stole my heart and I will be going back to stay with them. Luciana and Therrazina were unbelievable hosts in Santos. Thais Helena Pavanelli is a goddess to me. I got to hang out with some amazing kids from the Eduardo Gomes School one Saturday in Minas Gerais, a neighboring state to Sao Paulo. I am now Facebook friends with many of them! These are people who inspired me, who I will never forget.

1. The People - In a month, I never expereienced anyone being rude or nasty. Especially when they found out that I was an American, they tried really hard to understand and help with my butchered Portuguese. They are so kind and so excited to have people visiting their country and are appreciative of our interest. Many of them thought I was Brazilian... I think it's the hair;-0 I am so grateful and humbled to have met so many great Brazilians!

This was an amazing experience. I will never forget it. It has made me want to do more, see more and be better than I was before. Thank you Rotary, International. If I get the opportunity to be a part of the organization, I will make it my mission to get people excited about the GSE program.

More pix

Good morning! Just wanted to post a few pics. From the top: Me at the magic fountain in Pocos de Calda. Folklore has it that if you drink from this spring, you will make a long a happy marriage. I also threw a 25 cent Real in the "other" magic fountain and made another wish. I'll let you know if it works...; hanging out at the pool in Lindoia; Mosavi, our tour guide for the week we were in ABC. She speaks no English, so it was a very interesting week, but miraculously, I understood what she said; hanging with the British GSE team and some exchange students at the conference. These kids are amazing, so self confident and smart. I definitely want my niece and nephew to consider it later on; Luciana and her kids and Felipe; with some of the teachers from Eduardo Gomes at Pocos de Calda, being somebody's angels!

Mystery Drink

I have been asked what I am drinking in the pic I posted yesterday. This is interesting. I am drinking coconut juice. Out of an actual coconut. You can buy these on the beach in Brazil for $1. You go to the stand, order a coconut juice and a guy picks one out of a barrel, whacks the top off with a machete and puts a straw in it for you. The juice is an interesting and acquired taste. When you are finished drinking the juice (and there is a lot of it), you give the shell back to the same guy and he wields his machete again and slices it so that you can eat the meat out of it. It is fresh and healthy, and you see a lot of joggers and exercise types drinking it after a jog on the beach. I am not drinking some exotic mixed drink, although Brazil is full of those too. Just coconut juice. But it was an experience and that's what I'm here for.

It is 12:27 a.m. and I am just getting in from a Rotary meeting. I am about to drop. I'll post later today!

Tchau,

Shannan

quick pix

Just posting some pix from the last week. They include my host family in ABC-Sandra, Victor and Estela, our costumes from the Conference (the first and last time that anyone will see me in a cheerleader uniform), our pizza party at the home of Pufe (Poo'-fy), a really cool Rotarian, and views from Santos. As you can see, it is beautiful here, and we are being treated like royalty. Well, I'm off to another day of Rotary.

Tchau!

Finally! Wi-Fi!!

Oi! (That means hi in Portuguese),
I feel like I have been in outer space for the last week or so, because I have not had wi-fi access. I am not on my computer right now, so I can't post the great pix I've taken. I will do it as soon as I can. When I last posted, I was leaving the Rotary District Conference in Lindoia, a beautiful countryside town in Brazil. We proceeded to ABC, which is a suburb of Sao Paulo. It's called ABC because it is an area consisting of three areas names after saints-Sao Andre, Sao Bernardo and Sao Caetano. It's sort of like the Ark-La-Tex. I was matched with a WONDERFUL host family in Sao Caetano: Sandra, who is a lawyer with her own practice and her great kids, Victor, who's 15 (future NBA player and diplomat; his English is impeccable) and Estela, age 10 who is a cutie pie. I have been staying with them for the last week and they are truly people that I think will be in my life forever. Sandra's parents also hosted another of my teammates, Ariej, and so we spent some time at her parents' house during the week. Her relationship with her mae (pronounced "my", or mother) and pais (pronounced "pie"or father) reminds me of the relationship I have with my parents. Miss you guys. Ma, I'm going to want some gumbo when I get home.-) I also got to see Tais, my first host sister, at a Rotary meeting this week. I have been really lucky to meet and be hosted by some wonderful people who have shown me wonderful Brazilian hospitality!
By the way, Sao Paulo and the surrounding area experience a wicked cold spell last week. It got down into the low 40's. Apparently, this is the coldest snap in 40 years. I guess we brought the cold. It's still pretty cool here. It's weird, because it is winter here, and I'll go home to 90+ degree weather! Gotta love a Louisiana summer!
We visited a number of Rotary meetings and vocations in ABC during last week. On Saturday, Crystal and I went to another state in Brazil, Minas Gerais, to a city called Pocos de Caldas. It was about a four hour drive and it was really fun. We had visited a school earlier in the week called Edouard Gomes, and it is a really great place where kids are encouraged in real-life endeavors. We met with a group of high school students (schools in Brazil are typically K-12) at the school who have started an ONG, or what we would call a non-profit in the States. They were so impressive! Check out their website at http://www.oosfera.jindo.com/ . We traveled to Pocos de Caldas to visit a glass factory with an ONG component and to wander around the city. Visiting a glass factory does not on its face sound very cool, but these were artisans and it was fascinating. The city was beautiful as well, and it was a nice change of pace. Our team leader and other group members made other plans for the day with their host families, but Crys and I decided to go, since it was something new and had already been planned. I'm so glad we went. The kids were great; really trying to practice their English and asking us the cutest questions about American culture. You could tell that they were very excited to have the "Americanos" with them. They know a lot about the NBA and Sex and the City, which is at the same time cool and disturbing!
Today we transferred to Santos, which is a seaside city an hour from Sao Paulo and ABC. Crystal and I are being hosted by Luciana, who was a member of the Brazilian team that we exchanged with. She is showing us a great time! She's got three kids, her daughter Bruni, who is 18 and makes a mean brigadhera, and two sons, Cauan, who is 14 and loves tennis, and Igor, who is ten and sooo cute! She has a beautiful home, and she and Felipe, another Brazil team member have just gotten pizza for us. Brazilian pizza is a work of art!
I will post pix when I can. Thanks for the comments. I am happy to be here, but I miss home and my normal life! We're here for three days and then four days at the beach. Aaahhhhhhh! I am still pinching myself at having been blessed with such a wonderful opportunity. Oh, and I think I speak Portuguese now, too! Thanks for reading, I will post again soon!
Tchau,
Shannan