P/1 – Jan first of all we would like to thank you for coming here for this interview and to start I would like you to tell us your name, your date and place of birth.
R - I'm Jan Muysoms, I'm from Belgium, Deinze, quite a small city for people from Brazil and I was born on February 28th, 1997.
P/1 – Can you tell us a little bit about your grandparents?
R - My grandparents live close to me, I think 1km. I live with my mum and das in a house together with my brother and sister. My mother was a nurse, but she doesn't work anymore, she stopped working a few years ago to take care of the children, and my dad is a surgeon.
P/1 - And what about your grandparents, what do they do?
R – Now they are retired, the grandparents from my mother’s side live close, but from my dad’s side live far away and I don’t see them a lot.
P/1 - Do you know how did your parents meet?
R - I don't, I think they told me a few years ago, but I don’t remember.
P/2 - And do you know about the history of your family and how did they ended up in Belgium?
R - I think we were all born in Belgium, we didn't come from another country, but I don't really know much about the history of my family.
P/1 - And you told us you have siblings, tell us about them.
R - I have a sister, Marica, she is 14 years old now, she likes music and is a nice social girl and I also have a brother Tim, he plays instruments now, he likes football, TV series like Game of Thrones and I think he is going to do an exchange next year.
P/1 - How old is he?
R - Now he is 17.
P/1 - Tell us about your house.
R - For a house in Belgium I have quite a big house, its a little bit different from here because all the houses have a wall and good security, but in Belgium we don't need that, it’s like open garden from the street, its also much more quiet than here, less people.
P/1 - When you were a child what did you like to play or do?
R – I think I always liked to play football; I was a little bit an active kid, like running around to do lots of things.
P/2 - Tell us a little bit about your childhood, the neighbourhood, what kids used to play around.
R - I used and still play a lot with my cousin and friends from the neighbourhood, we use to play football on the field close to our houses, or build like a tree house.
P/1 - What do you remember from your first day at school?
R – Nothing, [I was too young].
P/1 - What is your first memory of going to school?
R - I liked to play in this huge sand garden thing, but I don’t have too many memories I remember since I was that young.
P/1 – Does your family celebrate Christmas, New Years? Can you tell us a little bit about your traditions?
R - For Christmas the full family comes and celebrate together and most of the time is at our house, and also friends come over and we have also to buy surprises for each other but it is not like "amigo secreto como aqui", it is not like you only buy one thing for one person, you buy a few things for people.
P/1 - What about something that is only a tradition in Belgium, is there a special party you celebrate with your family or with the community?
R - I don’t think that we have a special party that you only have in (Belgium).
P/1 - Is there any school subject that you liked more?
R - I like biology more and physical education, but I don't have a subject that a really like.
P/2 - Do you remember the teachers that caught your attention, that were more special to you?
R - I don't remember many of them but I remember the first teacher that helped me to write, because I had a difficulty with writing and reading and she helped me a lot.
P/1 - And did you know what do you wanted to do for living?
R - When I grow up first, like lots of boys football, maybe a doctor as my father, but I don't want to do it anymore because it is a lot of studying, I also wanted to become a architect and archaeologist now I don't know what I'm going to study for next year yet.
P/1 - Jan as a child, you told us you liked to play football, but as a teenager could you tell us about the things you liked to listen to it and the places you go in Belgium?
R - As a child I listened to popular songs that were on the radio not like alternative music. Rock, old music I didn't really listened to it, but I remember that we played a lot of ACDC because my dad liked them we used to like dance them with my family. When I was younger we always went to the swimming poll.
P/1 - What do you do with your family when you are on vacation?
R - In Belgium we have a little bit more... Not more vacation, but its like spread, because here is like a few months with no vacation and 2 months [of study] with vacation and Belgium is like one or two months and then a week of vacation. In the summer vacation we go to another country, this year we went to New York, it was the first time we went off Europe for a vacation and also in the winter vacation we go skiing almost every year.
P/1 - Which country do you like the most?
R - I like Spain the most.
P2 - Why?
R - Because they have beautiful. Buildings and a nice temperature, and also people there are warmer than people in Belgium and the food, I like the tapas.
P/1 - What did you feel when you started high school?
R - When I started it I was really looking forward to it to make new friends, but also I thought that I would keep in contact with my old friends, but it didn’t really happen. But I was really looking forward to it and that is because I was a little disappointed in the beginning, I thought that it would be more fun. But I liked the beginning.
P/1 - Have you changed school?
R - No, I haven’t, I stayed at the same school.
P/1 - How did you get in touch with AFS?
R - It was one year ago, more or less I think, the first time it was my mum out of nowhere asked me if I wanted to go somewhere after the high school, and I was "ah ok, why not", and she didn't expected me to say “yes” to this question and than we started searching for organizations our neighbour that had an exchange told us about AFS that it was really good. We went to information weekend and I liked it.
P/1 - So you did you join every step of the way to come here?
R - Yes, there are few info weekends we have to go through.
P/2 - Tell us about how is the preparation process, did you have to go to all of the meetings?
R - In the beginning it was more a general info weekend, I wasn’t sure, it is going just to show that you are interested than maybe think of going, and it was a aware experience because they started to speaking in different languages against you and them they said "this is how it is going to be when you are on a exchange” and the situations and they explained why we did that activity. There was a card game for tables, different card tables, but you couldn’t talk to each other and didn't know that there were other rules, and it was a little confusing, it was like putting someone from another country in other country with its own rules.
P/1 - And why did you choose Brazil?
R – I went to the first weekend and I wanted to go to Spain because I really liked it and my mum wanted me to stay in Europe, but during the weekend there were info about countries, cultures, and the volunteers they have photo books of their experience, and there was one from Brazil and I saw the pictures and read them all and it interested me, not only Brazil but the Latin American countries, so then we had to choose three countries, our favourite countries and my three ones where Brazil, Argentina and Dominic Republic, and a computer randomly chose one of those three.
P/1 - How was the process of ending up in São Paulo? How does that work?
R - I couldn't choose my city, not even the country, I could have ended anywhere in Brazil, so I didn't choose São Paulo.
P/1 - How was the moment you started packing with your mum and your family in Belgium?
R - Pack my bags was a little bit hard because you are only allowed to bring 20kg, that it is not a lot for all clothes for one year, but at the end you have to like selected this t-shirt and not that one.
P/1 - How was the feeling when your parents said goodbye and left you alone at the airport?
R - It is weird, because you know you are not going to see them for a long time but you don't realize it yet, it is like when you leave after a few days you think oh I won’t see them for a long time, but I think a year is a long period, but if you see it in a whole life time it is not that long, I will see them next year again and I will be happy.
P/2 - How was when you found out about your family here in São Paulo? Did you get news from them? Did you get in touch with them?
R - When AFS selects your host family you receive a whole folder with information of what they normally eat, where they live, if they have dogs or pets and also photos, from the beginning I already thought they were a really nice family, and they sent me some e-mails and I answered them.
P/1 - How was arriving here?
R- In the beginning was a little confusing because you are with 200 students from all over the world and some have to take another flights to other cities, but I was happy because I could stay in São Paulo and didn’t have to take another flight, and they said that my family could pick me up there and I waited there, and I saw them and I went to them.
P/1 - How was this first contact with the family, getting to know them?
R - It is interesting because they have other habits. In the beginning you don’t know what do you have to do when you wake up, when do you eat breakfast, and if you have to do the dishes, wash things, make your bed, but after a while you get used to the rules of the house and people, in the beginning it was a little more difficulty because my parents here don’t really speak very good English, so the communication wasn’t very easy I had to talk to the daughters in English they translated a little bit to the parents so we could talk a little bit, but now I can already speak in Portuguese with them.
P/1 - How was the process learning Portuguese here?
R - I think Portuguese is quite a difficult language to learn, in the beginning I thought it wouldn’t be that hard to get used to the language, but it was harder than I expected and the people I tried to understand also talked really fast, then I started learning a Little bit from a book I put some name on post-its on things like door, house, things that I understand. They also they spoke Portuguese slowly with me so I could ask what does that word mean, they explained to me, so I got to know more words and got to talk to them better and better.
P/1 - How was the school?
R - I liked the school here, it is different from my school in Belgium, less people and my school in Belgium is a public school, we don't really have private schools, almost are public, I also like the school because it looks nice with more plants and trees and also have to small football fields, I like that the teacher and the students have a much better relationships than in Belgium, because sometimes in Belgium they even hate each other, they don’t really talk like here, they are really like friends and I think it is really nice.
P/1 - Which school do you go?
R - Escola da Vila.
P/1 - In your house what was really difficult to get used to and what was really easy, something you really enjoyed of the family?
R - In Belgium during the dinner we talk but not that much and the dinner is not very long, but here they keep talking and talking after the dinner and that was difficult for me because it was like very long that they talk, they also discuss more things about politics sometimes and in Belgium I didn't discuss a lot of subjects with my family. What also is different is that we have two people working in the house and Belgium almost no one has it.
P/2 - Did you get spoiled why not having to do the tours?
R - In Belgium I don't really have to do the dishes because my mom does it.
P/2 - What about the food?
R - I like the Brazilian food, here we eat almost every day rice and beans which we don’t do in Belgium, I almost never eat beans but I am happy that I like rice and beans otherwise it would be a little bit sad, the churrascos I also really like, but most doces I don’t like because they contain a lot of sugar, but I like brigadeiro.
P/1 - What about the weekend, what do you do on the weekend here?
R - In the weekend, almost every weekend there is a sort of festa from someone at school that invites people to like a small house party, this is like almost every weekend and I like that, or with the family I go to the shopping mall or see something in the city, or go to the cinema.
P/1 - What have you known about Brazil before coming here?
R - Before I didn’t really know a lot about Brazil, more like stereotypes, things like the hot temperature, the beautiful beaches and the Carnaval, and Rio de Janeiro things, and futebol, but I also didn’t search a lot about Brazil before because I think if you search about people, places, you have like thoughts that you think it is going to be this way or another, you think people are like that but otherwise you have to judge for yourself and not by other people or the internet.
P/1 - Have you been to other cities?
R - I haven’t travelled a lot but I went to São Sebastião and Tiradentes in Minas Gerais, but next month I’m going to travel more to João Pessoa.
P/1 – Does the family have something planned to the holidays?
R - For Christmas we are staying at the house, but the family is coming over,
P/1 - What about the AFS support here?
R - I have one… There is like comitê de São Paulo it is called alpha and I have a counseler it is like a person that I can talk to if I have problems and ask questions to if I want to know something. I haven’t seen him really much but it is nice to know that if you have a problem you can talk to someone.
P/1 - Did you need to talk to him many times during your stay here?
R - No, I didn’t have any problems but I sometimes like to chat with him just about how it is going with me.
P/1 - How was the experience of living in a city like São Paulo?
R - It is a little different from my city in Belgium because it has only 25.000 people, it is much less I think São Paulo has as many people of my whole country, so it is like a big difference going to school is long because there is a lot of traffic and you have to wait a lot and I don’t really like that there is so many people, because in Belgium I like to go to places with my bike because it is much easier, I also go to school by bike, it is like 9 km, it is a street calm Street with not many people.
P/1 - What is the thing that you like the most here?
R - I think it is maybe the people in Brazil that are warmer, give more hugs talk more to each other I like that because in Belgium people give hugs and things like that sometimes but not a lot, and they talk but not as much as here in Brazil.
P/1 - And how is the relationship with your family from Belgium?
R - I chat sometimes in Facebook almost every week, and every month I Skype with them for like an hour with my mum and other people from the family but I try to not contact them that much because I am here now and I have to focus on my life in Brazil and not that much about my family in Belgium.
P/2 - Did you make good friends at school?
R - Yes I think I already have some good friends. I will have contact with them after the Exchange.
P/1 – Tell us something that you are sure that you are going to get from this experience on the exchange?
R - I think I am going to be more open to other cultures in other countries because when I went to travel with my family before I wasn’t that interested about the typical dishes and the typical buildings but now I think if I travel I will be more excited to try new things and new places and I also I think at the end of the exchange I will be a little bit more social than I was before I may be also more open minded than I was before.
P/1 - What you are going to tell your brother when you arrive to help him and to give him tips?
R - I think one tip [I would give] is to do as many things as you can, if, like, someone invites you to do something, just do it, even if you are really tired, do it because you are only here for one year and than you get to know new people, new places and stuff.
P/2 - What was really different about the subjects and the school structure.
R - The school in Belgium starts one hour later, at 8h30 am it starts but it ends at 16:00, it is much later than here because here it already ends at 13h15, but the subjects are more or less the same I think, in Belgium I didn’t have Filosofia, but In Belgium we can also choose what you want to study a little bit in high school already, if you like more maths you could choose in the third year you could choose like I will do a direction with more mathematics or economy or we also with more languages or more sciences I think that it is better in Belgium because you can choose what you are interested more that you will study more, because here it is the same for everybody.
P/1 - How is to be in a class learning math without really knowing the language?
R - Maths isn’t that difficulty because the numbers are the same and formulas but Filosofia and Portuguese classes are very difficult and I don’t understand that much but Física, Matemática and things like that, Biologia também it is a little bit the same because the parts of the body are the same.
P/2 - Do you have a support at school, someone helping you to understand things a little bit better?
R - I don’t really have only one person, most of the time someone just sitting next to me.
P/1 - Do the people at school are friendly and helpful to you?
R - Yes they are very friendly.
P/1 - How was the impact to receive an exchange student?
R - I didn’t ask them yet but there was already an exchange student on the school from Australia but he is already leaving in January.
P/1 - Did you become friends with him?
R - Yes he is nice, but he is already here for 11 months so he speaks very good Portuguese already.
P/1 - How was the feeling of learning Portuguese, if you compare the first day that you arrived in the family that your parents here couldn’t talk to you because they don’t know very much English and you knew nothing about Portuguese but now that you can communicate, how do you feel about this, can you feel your improvement?
R - I think I am very happy that I started to speak and understand more Portuguese because they have like discussions and they talked a lot in table before I wanted to sit there and try to understand things but it is like very difficulty but now I can already participate in the conversation and talk about things that is very nice.
P/2 - Do you have any fun or peculiar about your time over here, something that happened to you that wasn’t usual.
R - I didn’t have misunderstandings because I just ask “what did you say” and they and say it talk again until I understand everything, but sometimes I say that I understand and I didn’t because I already asked like three times and I don’t want to ask it again. There was one time there was a little bit of misunderstanding because my host dad asked if I wanted to go with them to their cousin and I said “yes, I will come with you” but I didn’t understand everything that he said so we went to the car and drove like one hour and a half just to drop off some food and go back home I thought he would stay there but it was just three hours of tripping for almost nothing, I was a little bit disappointed because I thought we would like stay there with the family.
P/2 - What do you like the most about São Paulo, maybe some places that you have visited?
R - I haven’t visited that many places but here, Vila Madalena, is nice, I think also the big park [Ibirapuera], I don’t remember the name, and the market with all kinds of foods and fruits [Mercadp Central], I also don’t remember the name.
P/1 - Where are you living over here?
R - In Alphaville it is quite far from everything here in São Paulo, I don’t really like that but it is a nice neighbourhood.
P/1 - So do you commute every day from Alphaville to Escola da Vila?
R - Isso, it is a lot, I think it is 40 minutes, first with the car goes to the school to drop the younger childreen and them they take me.
P/2 - Does your host father take you?
R - No, the family has like two people that live in the house, the man drives me to school and my sister also, I am happy I don’t have to take public transportation because that would take a lot of time and I probably would get lost a few times.
P/1 - What is your dream, what do you expect from the future?
R - I hope if I go back to Belgium I will still have my friends and that they haven’t like forgot about me, a year is a long time if you don’t like talk to them, and also I would finish high school in Belgium and I will try to keep contact with those people, but some of them are going to that school or to that university I won’t see them a lot, but I think I will stay in contact with them.
P/2 - Could you tell us maybe in Portuguese what were the most learning full experiences, what have you learned?
R - Agora eu já falar um pouco português que é muito diferente e também eu conheço agora o cultura do Brasil e um pouco da América do Sul que também muito diferente da Bélgica e também bom experiência mora na casa de outras pessoas que você não conheceu antes e conhece regra da casa, é isso.
P/1 - What about a message, if you can leave a message to the other students to come to Brasil, to do an exchange program here in Portuguese if you can.
R - Acho que o Brasil é muito bonito, também é muito grande e tem praias muito bonito e também as pessoas são mais quente, falam mais com outras pessoas que gosto isso também e os comidas também muito boa e bebidas também por exemplo guaraná não tem isso na Bélgica, eu gosto e os doces são também.
P/1 - Who was the most special person, the person that touched your heart during this experience?
R - I have like a few friends in school that I connected with, mas não tem uma pessoa que eu gosto muito muito mesmo.
P/1 - Do you get along with your host sister?
R - Sim, gosto dela.
P/2 - How is living in Alphaville do you make friends over there, where do you spend your afternoons?
R - Eu não tenho muito amigos na Alphaville eles não muito falam como pessoas que moram lá, não fazem atividades juntos, mas às vezes eu vou jogar futebol com pessoas do condomínio, às vezes vou à ginastica também.
P/1 - Thank you for your time and tell us a little bit of your story, your experience here in Brasil.
Recolher
