Seasonal Changes Take Some Getting Used To

In Brazil, when we talk about the United States, the first thing that comes to our minds is snow. But you cannot imagine how snow is before you really see and live it. Well, I confess that I was really anxious to see, touch and play with snow. After all, I never saw it before.

Here, when I say I am from Brazil, people ask what I am doing here in a cold country if I can be in a country where the whole year is summer. However, that is not true. I can tell you that Brazil is not only sun and beach, there is cold and winter, too.

The first snow I saw was in November and I really enjoyed it. I could go snowboarding, build snowmen with the kids and my face did not freeze. Of course, it was just a little bit. I was so excited for the next storm to come.

The second snow was not that bad and I liked it, too, but could not enjoy it because it was on Sunday night and by Monday there was not anything left. After the third storm, I started like snow a little less. This was my first snow storm that I learned to not like snow. Shoveling is the worst thing.

With four kids at home, I had to play outside and do games such as who stayed longer with their face stuck in the snow. Of course, sometimes I could not feel my face anymore. I never saw my face like that and I never did it again, either. I thank God that we have hot cocoa.

But the funniest part of my snow adventures was when the ground was frozen and I could not stand. Falling down was inevitable (yes, it hurt so much).

I live in the southern part of Brazil. The name of my state is “Santa Catarina.” There it can be cold in the winter but is really hot in the summer. When it’s cold there, we do not have snow, but we have frost that melts by noon. But that only happens when it is really cold. The best thing, we do not need to shovel.

Unlike here, the weather in Brazil is very dry in the summer and winter. In spring and fall, it is humid because of the rains.

The southern region in Brazil is located below the Tropic of Capricorn, in a temperate zone. It is influenced by the south circulation systems, responsible for the rains, especially in summer, and the west circulation system, which brings rains and thunderstorms, sometimes hail with winds gusting very strong.

We usually say that in Brazil we have only two seasons: Winter and summer. Of course, we have spring and fall, but it is too hard to observe because if it is hot, it is very hot or if it is cold, it is very cold. We almost do not have the middle temperatures like we have here. The only thing we can notice are changes such as flowers in spring or leaves coming down in the fall.

The summer starts in December and ends in March. The fall starts in March and ends in June. Winter starts in June and ends in September and the spring starts in September and ends in December.

In Brazil, the schools finish in December for summer vacation and start again in March. The April vacation here is in June or July in Brazil. These differences confused me in the beginning, but now what confuses me are the vacations in Brazil.

That is a little bit about the seasons in my region of Brazil. It is very different from here and hard to familiarize yourself with in the beginning, but day by day I am learning a little bit more.

I hope you had learned a little bit more about my country. If you have some suggestions about subjects you would like to know about Brazil, feel free to write me.

Tchau, tchau (bye, bye).

Editot's note: Caroline occasionally shares with us her experiences adjusting to life in Portland as an au pair.