Gabryel Rayo, Lorena Moreira de Oliveira, Gabriel da Silva Oliveira and Igor Yudi Ariga arrived at Mountainview from Sao Paulo at the start of the term as part of a Brazilian government-funded programme which aimed to give students, who normally would not have the opportunity, a chance to travel abroad and further their education.
To take part in the exchange programme the students had to pass an academic exam and based on the position they finished they were allocated a random city in either the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada or New Zealand.
For Gabryel the exchange was a great way to improve his English, meet more people and gain confidence.
Lorena said it was a great opportunity to leave the country.
‘‘I saw this as a way to meet more people, learn about things, and improve my English because I had never spoken to a native speaker before. It was also to learn autonomy too, how to deal with things alone.’’
Igor wanted the chance the meet people from other countries and make friends.
‘‘I think there’s no way better than just coming here and seeing everything for yourself.’’
Like the others Gabriel was also very keen on using the exchange to work on his English skills.
‘‘That’s my main goal because in Brazil I didn’t feel very confident with the way I spoke. Most English teachers in Brazil, from basic school, barely even speak English.’’
Igor joked his favourite part of being in Timaru so far had been getting KFC.
‘‘I really like the Timaru beach [Caroline Bay], I even got to see a penguin. It’s really cool for us to have the opportunity to come here and see and learn about this beautiful country.’’
Lorena said weather, food and people were some of the biggest differences between Brazil and New Zealand.
‘‘At breakfast we normally have a little portion of food but eat a lot at lunchtime and dinner. At lunchtime here you just eat little portions so in the first week I was here I was starving.
‘‘The summer here is like our winter. Brazil is really hot, our normal temperature would be like 36°C every day.
‘‘When I came here everyone was saying ‘hi’ and ‘good morning’ to me in the street and I got really happy because people here are so friendly. I’ve also found it’s quite hard to cross the street, I’ve almost been hit by a car like 10 times.’’
She said she had been really enjoying her time at Mountainview.
‘‘In Brazil we just have one set of classmates, all our classes are in the same room and you can’t choose your subjects. Teachers would come in to give their class but here we have different classmates in each subject and we get to go around to different rooms around the school.
‘‘School is a lot more fun here because you have the chance to meet more people and be in a different ambience. [Mountainview] is really pretty and the teachers are really lovely, they constantly make us feel included.’’
Before the students return to Brazil they were looking forward to learning as much as they could, especially te reo, making some Kiwi friends, volunteering at the EcoCentre, and visiting Queenstown.
- Connor Haley
