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Education works, and there is a reason why. The base is highly appreciated; elementary schools and High Schools look like great universities. In fact, sometimes you don’t’ know how to differentiate a school from a university when you are in the United States.

The thought are always the same: respect beliefs and teach goodvalues since childhood.

I met a teacher at Powell and asked her a few questions to compare with Brazil. It is amazing the value difference passed on to children from a young age, teach them to take responsibility, to follow schedules and commit, of course as much as a childcan be, but in any case they trust the country's future in their youth.

The colleges have a huge structure; the classrooms always have projectors and computers for all students.

In Brazil, few colleges have agood library and those who have computers are really expensive. In fact, any college in Brazil that has a good education will certainly not bepublic and we will have to pay dearly for them; unlike the United States thathas strong investment in high school and always with huge structures in sports and study. There is a hugedifference from a country developed to an emerging one.

Visiting a high school in Powell I was impressed how they manage to have such a great structure even in a small city. Regardless of where it is inthe United States the investment in studies is really big and ends up becoming cheap because the family has the whole school period to save the money for their children, and this makes it much easier to pay for in a good college.

In most high schools theystimulate sports, so a lot of Americans get scholarships at their colleges and save the money that goes to college for their own use, and that's very productive for both family and student.

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I always observe this on my travels to the United States. And now I can start see how parents relate to their children in everyday time in Powell. They seem to be very attentive and helpful. We set up camp for high school here at college and parents always come and support their kids. My teammates and I set up camp with very small children and it was really cool to see at the end the kids telling their parents everything they did with us, and many parents thanking us for our attention with their children. I love being with children and love to see this respect from father and son coming since very young. They always seem to be interacting with each other and I never see parents speaking loudly with their children in public places. This is very cool, because even when children are surely wrong, the parents respect and teach with love, which is the most important thing! I met some families during the pre-season, when we visited some houses and had dinner with them, and it was clear that children always helped their parents with domestic tasks and love to have dinner with them. Everyone is polite and helpful. It's hard to compare the difference with Brazil, because we know many different kinds of parent-child relationships there, so it turns out to be a bit difficult to talk in a general way. Education comes from home, and in the United States this seems to be more valued than in Brazil, but my family has always cherished this in my home. Although at the same time I know many others who abandon their children and don’t give them the right education. Sometimes I saw parents and children having fun together. I believe that in a small city this relationship is easier; parents have more time for their children and not just for the rush of work. In Rio de Janeiro, it seems that we are always running with no time for anything, this ends up becoming a very bad heritage as a child, but unfortunately people really do not have the time, they are always in traffic, delayed, traveling but here in Powel it seems that there is more time with all the organization of the city.

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​Here in the United States, to study is visibly valued and taken seriously by all students. The teachers are much respected, and the classes are always practical and well explained, we do not spend much time in each class and this ends up making your thoughts and learning more dynamic.Homework becomes a great incentive, a form of attachment to the learned content and always very direct to the theme learned in class.We do not usually see tardy students, and they usually arrive earlier in the classrooms and wait for teachers to pick up their phones, since during class the use is forbidden.The participation of everyone is fundamental, but in the early days some seem a little shy because they don’t know their classmates, but I believe that as the time passes by, the classes will be more talkative and even a little tumultuous.In Brazil few classes are respected, we have many problems with education, for example: private colleges are very expensive and public colleges are usually abandoned, some public students are on strike for months and this takes off most of interest in their course.The willingness of teachers here to help is amazing; they always help you and want to make sure that you understood the subject. This is fantastic! I am not accustomed to this in Brazil. In my country we have to be literally everyone for themselves and few are the teachers who understand the difficulty of the students.One thing that caught my attention was the value of the books, I imagined they were cheaper, I had no idea how much each one cost... It shocked me a little! But to invest in your studies is worth it, everyone always takes the complete material for the lessons, normally the girls have many colored pens and drawn notebooks, they are very beautiful!But the main difference between Brazil and the United States is certainly the importance that Americans give to the study, and the support that the university gives to the students. The teachers seem dreamy; it's amazing how they lead with the students' difficulty.

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​My first choice to talk about in United States is: Them. They are my favorite and special family when I am far from home. In my first day here, I was lost and they helped me like I as was their daughter. I can see in their eyes love and compassion to others. This make me feel so confused, because I have always heard that in United States people will not help you and this family did the opposite of all I heard before. In Brazil, we help people but some times we are not so conffortable doing that, because Brazil is a dangerous country , so we can’t always trust everybody, and they trusted me since my first day here. It was amazing, because they do not expect that the new person is going to do someting wrong with one another, and they do not judge us because we are not americans, and they respect other people’s faith and values. They always leave the house open, sometimes we do laundry and food there. But most of the time we just return for their affection. And I really appreciate this in Powell. What you have to understand is that in my country, is not that common to receive foreign people with that much openess that I felt here. It was wonderful, but different from everything I ever seen. The difference between United State and Brazil it's the respect and trust. They believe in police, government and the most important thing, in people. I love to visit them, their house is always full, and there's always room for more. Their house is beautiful and has huge rooms to house people like me and my teammates. And in the beginning of our season, almost the whole team was there. They have three children and some animals. This family is very affectionate. Whenever I go there I practice my English, they ask me questions about Brazil and they help me to speak everything, improve myself and make me feel home. They always ask me about my little sister, my mother and Bruno, who is my stepfather and brought me to the United States when I came. They also love to know more about Rio de Janeiro, which is a big and beautiful city in Brazil, despite its lot of problems.

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​Talking about American food is very easy each is more delicious than the other. And I honestly do not know what is more pleasurable, go to the restaurants to taste the food or be served, most often, by young people so nice.It is not so common to find students who also work at the same time in Brazil, working on fast food restaurants for example. Most people working at fast foods in Brazil did not ingress in college or even had a full development in school. This is very worrying for Brazilians people, we do not have many opportunities and social inequality is a great deal. We do not see this so often in the United States, most young people work and are able reconcile it with study, or at least work on summer jobs.Some details are quite different from one country to another, for example: the water that should be free in Brazil by law is often charged, and here in the United States, first thing they offer you is a glass of water and maybe even some appetizers', out of kindness.It is admirable how people speak in lower tones when they talk with each other and how much patience waiters have with their customers.Although we can also consider that restaurants here in United States aren’t the best places to have a conversation: the bill always arrives too fast and often you haven’t even asked for it. They usually bring it along with the dessert. And that can be intimidating for the Brazilian customer, because we are accustomed to spending hours in a restaurant with our family and friends.How people dress to go to restaurants is very different from Brazil. In Brazil we get a lot of thinking, it seems to be always a very important occasion, here in the United States I've noticed that not so much, some people are tidy and some are not, it depends a lot on the purpose of each other and not about the restaurant be sophisticated or not.When I was in New York, I saw a lot of people tidied up, but they looked a lot more like tourists than Americans.

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​SAFETY! Brazilians would never imagine what it is to have their houses open, or even the cars, with the key inside, parked on the street. Here in the United States the whole neighborhood known each other and each house is more incredible than the next, the houses are practically connected, the walls are low and there is no fence in most of them. You can easily see everything that goes in house and there is no danger at all. What Brazilian would imagine about that?In Brazil we live in a great lack of security, houses usually have security systems, the condominiums are all closed with security enhanced and it is very difficult to see a house on the street or an open condominium. Even inside condominiums the walls are tall with protection and some houses prefer to put dogs to scare any kind of stranger.Most families here in Powell have lots of kids and some animals, kids toys are eventually scattered across the lawn, and most of the time there is something for their little critters too.Having everything outside of a house without any kind of concern should be awesome; here you can live literally in peace. You hardly see people walking down the street, they are usually all in their cars, but the facility to buy a car here is enormous compared to Brazil, so people have it.In Brazil, cars are expensive, but we need to save money and terms for our safety, even when it comes to neighborhood, you can’t trust everybody. There are many good people who are willing to help, but fear always speaks louder in big cities.Here in Powel the garages are really big, and the cars are very beautiful. Surely this would call a lot of attention in Brazil, after all, we can’t hope for the best, but for what they will not want to steal. Here the garages are always open and the neighbors can see all the cars. The mailboxes are mostly unlocked, and there is no danger in that either, everything in there will be safe and no one will mess with what aren’t theirs.

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​Learn to drive seems very easy in the United States; people do the right things and comply with the rules of easy transit for everyone. Therefore, the age bracket to guide automobile is lower than Brazil.Each state has its rule, but if we have an average, in most of them you can start driving at age 16, what is impossible in Brazil. There, for you to enter driving courses you must have at least 18 years, most people only finish their courses at age 19, because it takes time and it is expensive.The organization in the transit practically doesn’t exist in big cities of my country. Rare are the people who respect the signage or even the speed limit. The blame falls on the lack of government organization and security. It is dangerous to stand still at a signal, or even drive slowly on later hours. The solution that the Brazilian finds is to circumvent the rules for his own security, but unfortunately ends up not helping much. The number of traffic accidents triples, and control becomes increasingly difficult.Differently from here, traffic signs, speed limits, and monitoring by the bandstand is rigid. Everything works! The government and the citizens do their part, contributing to a better country, and if you dodge some kind of rule, the punishment is severe.Respect for the pedestrian is sensational, you can cross the road safely and without fear, all vehicles will stop and await your passage.What unfortunately does not change in any country is the addiction of being on the phone all the time, wherever you go in the world. People keep driving and picking up the phone, the excuse of ''it will be fast'' is always the same. Even with the prohibition being clear and no one should do it just because everyone does.The coolest thing here is that everybody listens to loud music in cars and most of the teenagers go with open glass and sing for everyone to hear, they compress strangers and even play trumpets with whoever is on the street, I confess that at the beginning I was a bit scared by all this turmoil, but it's a very different and cool culture to live.

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​Commitment and dedication are the keywords for sports in the United States. I hadn’t the opportunity to watch many games yet. I went to ice hockey once and was impressed with the organization in the stadiums, the respect among the fans and the safety inside the stadium. I will confess that I am not used to this, in Brazil it is all a big mess, during the annual calendar of professional games, many fights happen, no security and a lot of disrespect between fans and the professionals who are competing.It's amazing how college games are full, and the fans are very loyal to their universities. People are always characterized and energetic to support their university. In Brazil, we do not have a university championship like here. This was one of the reasons that made me opt for the United States, so I could practice volleyball and study at the same time.I followed some games of the Summer Olympics in Brazil, it was the first time I saw peace in the stadiums and organization, many doubted the capacity of the Brazilian to host an event of this size and importance, and we proved that we can, also do it beautifully. Meanwhile, millions were invested and today most of the buildings are abandoned. Unlike in the United States, all the money invested in the sport yields some kind of benefit for the young and for the country, it is incredible investment in the sport, see the United States always be fighting for the highest place of the podium in all sports.I admire Powell and the American culture towards sport, in a city of approximately 7 thousand inhabitants there is investment in sports both in school and college, and it is incredible how the city follows and attends games, it is very pleasant to play for a team that believes in you, invest in your sport and study. All the sports of the college attract great crowd. In Brazil, colleges do not support sports, if you want to do some you have to look for a club and do not agree the schedule of study with sports schedule.