Activities 2006

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In addition to academics, the students in the Portuguese School have the oppurtunity to participate in a wide variety of co-curricular activites, ranging from parties and cultural events to athletics. These activities give the students a chance to interact with others in a more relaxed atmosphere. The fourth summer, 2006, continues this tradition with many of the popular activites from previous years.

We kicked off the summer with our Language Pledge-signing on Sunday, July 2. Here the director is introducing the faculty and explaining what the next seven weeks will hold for our students.

After the ceremony, the students participated in a getting-to-know-you game, asking each other questions and practicing their Portuguese.

On Friday, July 7, we had our first palestra (lecture), given by Middlebury professor Darién Davis. His talk, "Três filmes em procura de um país" (three movies in search of a country), discussed Brazilian cinema.

We had our first party, our Festa Junina, on Saturday, July 8. Here are some shots of our students dancing the Quadrilha, a traditional dance similar to square dancing, and enjoying the various games and foods that are part of this festival.

The day after the Festa Junina, we had our first athletic event. On Sunday, July 9, we played volleyball against the Italian school. We always play in our school t-shirts (this year a nice green), and bring our flag tree, which holds the flags for the various countries around the world that have Portuguese as an official language.

On Monday, July 10 and Tuesday, July 11, we had the pleasure of hearing from two returning speakers, Russell and Cherie Hamilton. Russell Hamilton gave a lecture on Luso-African literature, particularly that of Cape Verdian author Germano de Almeida. Cherie Hamilton, a cookbook writer, gave a cooking demonstration, making two African recipes - Chamuças, from Mozambique, and Binholas, from São Tomé e Príncipe.

After two intense weeks, our students and faculty were able to unwind with another party - this time we celebrated Carnaval. The best part about this party is that we have a costume contest, and the students (who did not know prior to arriving in Middlebury that they would be needing costumes) have a lot of fun coming up with ideas for what they will be come dressed as.
Here are some shots from that night:

On Sunday we played our second volleyball game, this time against the French School. It was a beautiful day, and our team played better than ever, defeating the French school.

This summer, the Portuguese School is pleased to welcome this year's writer-in-residence, Álvaro Cardoso Gomes, and his wife, Eliane de Alcântara Teixeira. Sr Gomes is a writer of novels, and is well known for his works for children and young adults. He and his wife will be spending a few weeks with us, interacting with the students and giving talks about their interests.

On Monday, July 17, Álvaro Cardoso Gomes spoke to our students about his life and how he came to be interested in writing.

Wednesday, July 19, saw us playing our second game of soccer of the season, this time against the Chinese school. In spite of being drastically outnumbered in terms of players used for substitutions, our team played admirably.

On Thursday, July 20, Álvaro Cardoso Gomes signed copies of his books for our students. Here is a picture of him and his wife, some of the students, and their books.

On Satuday, July 22, roughly halfway through the summer, we left campus for the day to go to Lake Dunmore for a picnic. There the students and faculty were able to unwind, go swimming, and just relax away from school. Everyone had a wonderful time, in spite of the rain that started not long after we arrived.

On Monday, July 24, we heard a lecture from a returning guest speaker, Flávio Steiner. He spoke about the trends in newspaper propaganda over the last few years, focusing on the media in Brazil.

Our next speaker was the wife of our writer-in-residence, Eliane de Alcântara Teixeira. She spoke about the reknowned Portguese author José Saramago, the only writer of the Portguese language to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

On Wednesday, our school celebrated an important achievement - we won our soccer game against the Arabic School. This is only the second time in the school's history that we have won a soccer game.

Middlebury professor Jeff Cason, who recently returned from a year in Florianópolis, Brazil, came to speak to our students on Thursday, July 27 about the current political situation in Brazil.

On Saturday, July 29, our students and faculty got a special treat - a specially prepared Brazilian dinner, featuring the national dish of Brazil, feijoada.

Sunday, July 30, saw us playing volleyball against the Japanese School. We had a beautiful day, made even sweeter by our victory.

On Friday, August 4, we had our annual school Talent Show. Our students got to show off their dancing, singing, and acting abilities in front of an appreciative audience.

Sunday, August 6 was our last volleyball game, this time against the Chinese School. We won this game, making our volleyball record for the season 3 wins and only 1 loss. Valeu time e torcida!!

Our next lecture was on Monday, August 7, given by Victor Mendes, a professor from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. He spoke to our students about Camões, one of the most famous writers in Portuguese literature.

We played our last soccer game on Tuesday, August 8, a "friendly" against the German School. Our regular student players were aided by three teenagers visiting from Portugal, two of whom are sons of Victor Mendes. Our team won the game 3-1, making our season record 2 wins and 2 losses. Valeu!!

That same Tuesday, Anna Klobucka, also from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, gave a presentation to our faculty, discussing the new Portuguese textbook that she and others in the field are developing.

On Thursday, August 10, Onéssimo Almeida, an Azorean professor from Brown University, gave a talk on the position of the Azores during the time of Portuguese Imperialist Expansion.

Thursday night was our school banquet. We had a specially prepared meal, champagne (for those able to drink), and watched a slide show of photos from the entire year.

At the end of the program, all students in the Portuguese School have an oral proficiency interview as part of their evaluation.

Lyris Wiedemann and Toni Cowles are currently participating in the NEH project and they conducted the interviews.

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