Life in Brazil
Belo Horizonte
Mari was born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. With her mother Patricia and older sister Laura, Mari lived there for 11 years. Belo Horizonte is a densely populated area. All of Mari's friends lived everywhere around the area. She had friends who lived two hours away but went to the same school. Belo Horizonte is also a place that never gets cold - 50 degrees was the coldest temperature year-round.
Fun Activities
The closest mall to her house was a 10-minute walk - Diamond Mall. At least once a month, Mari's mom brought her to the mall for ice cream runs.
Across the street from where she lived, there was a plaza with a bunch of bakeries and stores. Here, she bought her school uniform. On Sunday mornings, Mari and her sister would go there to get bread and snacks for breakfast.
"My favorite day of the week was Sundays because of all the fun things we did like going to the mall or plaza." -Mari
Traveling
With her mom and sister, Mari went to the beach a lot. They drove to Rio together where there are countless beaches. Together, they loved watching the crazy sand castle contests. They drank coconut water and watched people compete. Mari, along with her mom and sister, also traveled a lot in Central and South America. They went to Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and more! Subsequently, Mari learned a good amount of Spanish and considers herself fluent.
Mari and her friends from Italian school.
School Life
Mari was not a good student. She got 4/10s for most of her assignments and only did well in English language class, Italian class, and art class. Her elementary school was Italian - Mari's mother was dating an Italian guy at the time and his kids went to this Italian school. She took Mari and her sister out of regular Brazilian school and put them in the same Italian school to learn Italian. This succeeded as Mari is now fluent. At this school, most kids spoke Portuguese and every other subject was taught in Italian. There were pretty mixed ethnicities but most kids were Brazilian or of Italian descent. When Mari left this school, all her friends took a photo together and gifted a frame of the picture to Mari as a goodbye gift.
Visiting Grandma
Mari's mother could not take care of her all the time so Mari spent lots of time with her grandma at her house. Her grandma lived on top of a hill and at the bottom of the hill was another mall that Mari loved. Her grandma used to bring her to the mall and let her pick out toys. On the same street, there was also a little farmers market every Sunday (all year round). Mari and her sister would get fresh food and vegetables. After getting food, Mari and her sister loved making dishes together.
When Mari found out she was immigrating to the United States she was incredibly excited. She heard of Disney World and wanted to rub it in all her Brazilian friend's faces: