“Brazil has a lot of culture, unique people, and beautiful places to go.”

This is what Maria Fernanda Karbage said when asked if she could tell Americans one thing about her culture. Karbage is the new foreign exchange student at Travelers Rest High School, and as of August 8th is spending her junior year here. She is from Fortaleza, Brazil, a beautiful city on the Brazilian coast, popular for the handmade work of some of their craftsmen.

This is Karbage’s first time away from her hometown. She applied to the foreign exchange student program because she wanted to improve her English and live in another country. Her native language is Portuguese, the official language of Brazil, and her English doesn’t need too much improvement, considering she has been learning it since she was seven years old, making her better at English than some of the students at TR. She can thank her parents for this, both of whom speak English and think it is very important for her to know another language. Since she was in Elementary school, Karbage has been studying English.
When asked about her home school, Farias Brito, she said that the one thing she loved about it was the education level and structure of the school.

In Brazil, classes usually start at 7:20 a.m. and end at 1 p.m., so every day they can have lunch at home. Also, the students are separated by levels and the teachers are the ones to change the classrooms, not the students, meaning they stay with the same classmates all day long. They have many subjects per semester: grammar, writing, literature, algebra, geometry, history, geography, philosophy, sociology, English, chemistry, physics, and biology. We can barely handle 4 classes here, and they’re taking on 13.

While the easier course load is definitely a perk, Karbage would like to bring back a few things from Brazil, one of them being her family. She also said the warmer weather, though most Devildogs would say that it can’t get much warmer than it is here. But despite the homesickness and lack of familiarity, Karbage looks forward to learning more about our culture and having a wonderful time here. “It’s a beautiful place. I love the food and places outdoors here,” Karbage commented on TR. She loves it, and TR will love her right back.