3 months...

Hello everybody!

It´s Angela again, you know the girl who left home a bit over 3 months ago???

So quite a bit has happened in the past few weeks, as it always seems to. But the first thing I want to talk about today is a movie I watched with my sister last night. As lame as this is it was “Meet the Robinsons” a new Disney animation they put out. There is a main saying in that Movie and it´s “ Keep moving forward” and honestly it just strunk me like a baseball on the head. We are always moving forward. I knew it before and I tried to live by it..but by day in day i would forget my revolations...But this thime I think it will stick. It being in a different country ‘millions’ of miles from home, its nessicary. Even if it´s for small things. Sometimes I get upset when people make fun of me here... it gets old after awhile, people laughing at the things you say or do. But you just have to keep moving, keep trying to do things right. Like when you first start riding a bike, they say somthing like “ If you fall down,try try again” which for me, as of this moment...is quite simmilar things. When I am upset about somthing that happened, or somthing someone did that wasent right. I´m not just going to sit around and let things fester in side me. I´m going to go back and do the right thing. (though choose your battels is also a smart rule to live by following this!) I want to make a difference. I don´t want to jsut melt away into the painting. Sometimes I find myself cast off, quite...lost in thoughts...allmost feeling to tired to put up na effort to go and talk to other people. But I´m jsut not going to do that anymore. I want to fix things, or start new things that help others...I jsut want to do good for other people.

Now after that small rant of sorts I will get to the things you want to hear more about!

Brassil!

So last time I ended with saying I was going to bike to the farm with my family and friends. I´ll start off with telling you about that.

My little sister Lara said that she was going to bike there along with John Travolta, Andre-luiz, Daniel and I...so we all hoped on our bikes in the morning...and everyone else hoped into the car and we all started off on our journy...only within the first hill leadding up the the school...Lara was way tuckered out...and in a long story short it ended up us waiting for 20 minutes to bring her bike back to the house, place her in the car with John T´s wife and friend...then start on our way again. I have to admit the bike ride was pretty easy...te majority of the 22km was down hill, but there were some parts that got my legs about to die! Along the way we saw 2 dead cows (died from starvation!) lots of beautiful vast landscape....some BBq´s huts that Daniel had me coninced were tribel huts. (I was super excited and and awe´d out untill he told me he was joking that they were small mud huts for making jerky!) We also ran into a group of cattel drinking at a water hole and Andre-luiz and Daniel snuck into the fence and sent them all running in a hurry...while making weird belting noises as they ran. It was a blast. When we arrived at the farm we started up the curasca (BBQ) and went into converse mode...though we also took some sugar carne...sent it through a crank...and make some juice! (thought it was a bit too sweet for me!) we hung out for while, I met all the animals at ym new farm. My dad Lazado has 700 cows...2pigs, lots chickens...lots of horses, weird quail like animals, a Peacock, dogs, cats, parrots, and lots fo other animals!

Although....My First sister Marcela told me that they kill a pig almsot everytime they go to the farm (the keep 2 in stock usually) and when iw as there they were going to...but ended up we ran out of time...thank GOODNESS! But Lara wants me to help clean the guts with her afterwards! I tried to explain that I would probably cry..but she jsut kept telling me it would be interesting! So who knows what will hsppen there...I´m pretty sure I wont be abel to make myself do it. But who knows. So the friends when home and we stayed the night. It was nice and relaxing. The next day I rode in the car home cause it was rainning cats and dogs!

I also had said that i was going to a birthday party of my Friend Paula...which was pretty fun! There went tooo many people there...probably like 15 (which is small for here!) and we all sat around, talked, listened to music, danced. Thats the cool thing about here and parties...there is ALWAYS a dance! All in all it was a bundel of fun there!

Next event was going to Belo Horizonte for a weekend. My family and I took of Thursday of one week to head for Belo Horizonte for a weekend, for a wedding of one of my mothers cousins. We stayed at the house of friends that I had stayed at the first time I was there, which is actualy na apartment....but anyways..its really nice and the people are nice. While I was there I got to play on a.....PIANO! god it was so cool...but unforunatly I was major sick on the throat area and couldnt sing while I played...which was kind of a bummer. But we also went to a small house of a friend the day of the wedding, where we lazed about and such. While on the car ride there...we passed through the part of town with prostitutes and so forth. I think I was the only person in the car who thought it was some what funny and interesting. One of them was a transvestite who was happily walking down the street with no underwear on and a VERY VERY short skirt...I wont say anymore.An interesting fact is that here in Brasil its Legal to hire prositutes if your over 18. So everynight in the car we could pass a certain cornere where most of the would hang out....it was almsot like living a moment youonly see in the Movies... cars pulling up, the girls talking to them, getting in...then driving off.

ANYWAY! One night we went to the shopping center...looked around...I had some Japenese for dinner...it was cool to see the whole mall decked out in Christmas supplies. It reminded me of home..and how much I´m going to miss cureling up infront of the fire and drinking tea! But I guess 100 degree x-mass will be one to remmember!

Now...the wedding. They are set up slightly different here. You have to shcedual the wedding 2 years in advance at the church..and there are usually 4 weddings a night at the same church...you have 1 hour for each one...so when we arrived...there was one weddign in action...and we where all starting to gather out front for wait for the other people to move along so we could enter and start our wedding! The time came and we entered. This church was by far the most beautiful one I had been in sicne I have been here...it was similar to the ones in Europe...only the paintings on the ceilings were not nearly as good at the ones in europe....but over all it was pretty. The Preacher was a gringo....for Siryia or somthing...everyone could tell cause he talked differently...but I had no idea. (after words we went to talkt o him cause i wanted to know if he was American! Hahah) after the weddign we all moved to a new building where the party started...but only it didnt have enough seats for everyone...and they dont have a talking cerimone llike we do in the states..where everyone talks..and makes toasts. Lara and I got tired around 1 am and went to the car to sleep. I had one drink with leite condensar....which is condenced milk...which is really good by the way...but I thre up afterwards in the bathroom cause thats some strong milk...and when your allergic to it...welll things are bound not to end well! But everyone else in my family made ther way to the car around 2am....the party usually lasts until 5am....yikes!

Then the next morning we went to a market in the streets on Belo horizonte where all the hippies colect to sell things. I bought 2 shirts, a dress, sandals, 2 pais of sunglasses, and lots and lots of jewlry! I was so happy to see things cheap! Hahah, my City is so over priced! So now I have some beautiful hand made clothing hippie style!

We finally made our way home after we left the market.

The next adventure was to Calvas Novas with Dr. Rui (a fellow Rotarian) with his Family, all his friends from medical school...and Zaca (the other exchange student! I know I remind you alot!) The car ride was abouuuut 5 hours...and Zaca and I talked about alot of things in english so the driver adn Dr. Rui wouldnt understand...it wasent anything bad...jsut disscussing what we had noticed about our city and such. Then we listened to alot of music.

The City Calvas Novas is Famos for its Hot water. There is a valcano right beside the city that heats the water in a river near by to about 56 degrees celceus..and the people of the city use this to attract tourists by making all their pools have ‘Aqua Quencie’ (cant spell that... >.< )

So Zaca and I bisicaly hung out all weekend laying int he sun by the pool drinking fresh juice and eating fruit popsicles...We also spent one day walking around the City (it is a COMPLETE tourist city!!! The whole thing is hotels and so forth... the shops where all just trinkets!!) That Night Zaca and I went to a movie “SUPER BAD! In english with Portugês legendas...which is a rare treat for me...seeing a movie in english! Then afterwards we walked around and walked through a market on teh street...then went out to Chinese food. Which we actualy ate Japanese there...yakisoba. IT WAS SO GOOD! And nice to eat somthing other than comeida brasileira! Then we went back...hung out for 5 minutes at the hotle then went up to the resurant 500m from the hotel...where we ran into a girl we had met by the pool...we we sat with her family. Mid way through I went and sat up with a daughter of Dr. Rui and listened to a man sing and play the gitaur for everyone in the resturant....he is SUPER good. We hung out there untill the resturant started to die down...Zaca went to bed early and I hung out with Moena and the singer...then when we where the only ones left at the resurante we sat down at a tabel and talked. The singer gave me one of his CD´s for free and i listen to it about every day! His voice is so pretty! The when he had to leave...moena and i went down to the pool...where Dr. Rui´s friend where...and some other singers...this time 3 old men with a guitar, tambarine, and na acordiane. Just before I went to bed the oldest one (73 years) sliped me one of their CDs telling me it was a present...while the other one had been trying to sell it to me about 10 minutes before hand....I refused at first...but gave in when he kept slipping it to me! So I won 2 CD´s in one night! It was awesome..the weird thing is...my favorite song on each CD is track 3 on both!

The next Day we started off home again...Zaca and i bought some comics for the ride home..and I bought one Manga (as for you who dont know thats like my number one geeky obsession...reading Mangas! A type of Japenese art comic book. Oh man, I´m such a geek...but its all good.) Anyway...I understood almost all of it! So I was super happy about that! I arrived home at 9 pm Sunday night...then woke up at 5:50 am like normal for school the next day!

So one night we had here was a very important Rotary meeting. The govanor of Minas Gerais (the state I am living in) came to our small town of João Pinheiro! So Zaca and I both wrote speeches about what we had been experienceing these past months. Zaca wrote one small page of words, and being the type of girl I am wrote 2 pages of fun. (While I wrote it I thought it was cool that in almsot 3 months in a country i could write 2 pages of things, while studying 3 years of French gave me the ability to say, “J´mappell Angela. J´voudrais uma croque monsure....” hAHhah!! Anyway, Zaca went first, he struggeled in the beginning with some words, but made his way along his speach. I was next, I was slightly sick because I have a cold right now...so my and my sniffels made it to the stage. I went on tlking, got some cheers along the way in my speech. Now at one point I was talking about how I had so much luck because I had been abel to travel to other cities. And I was listing the cities, and what i did there!!! Well when I got to talking about my Trip to Brasilia, I said...

“Eu foi para Brasilia, onde eu já veiw Casa de Lula, Trabalha de Lula, e uma grande bandaid do Brasil!!!!” Everyone erupted in Cheers!!!!

“I went to Brasilia, where I saw the Lula´s house, Lula´s House, and one BIG FLAG of Brasil!!!” Well thats what I had wanted to say....buuuuttt....

Apparently the word Bandeira-flag also sounds alot like Bandaid-Bandit, or Robbery.

So when I was wrighting my speech, and I remmemberd that someone said the bandeira de Brasil....I wrote it down wrong at Bandaid....

So while presenting...I said that I saw a huge robberying in Brasilia...or that their President was a theif!!!!! I didnt find out until after word about my mistake, and ooohhh did Zaca and I have a big laugh.

I went up after words, laughing and said... “oooowa, Desculpa..mais eu pressico aprende mais portugês...porque algume coisa eu falou e não correcta....Quando eu disse ‘“Eu foi para Brasilia, onde eu já veiw Casa de Lula, Trabalha de Lula, e uma grande Bandeira do Brasil!!!!”’

“ooowa, Sorry! I need to learn more portugues, because one of the things I said wasent true! When I said, “I went to Brasilia, where I saw the Lula´s house, Lula´s House, and one BIG FLAG of Brasil!!!””

Oh everyone got a kick out of it!!!! I dont think I will every hear then end of it! But thats okay...its a good thing I can deal with emberresment!

I had said to my Zaca, that I knew my emberresing exchange moment...but I jsut didnt know when. Then he said he knew his was going to happen tonight as well...he just didnt know when.

Not soon after, when one of the speakers introdunced the govanor of Brasil...Zaca Started claping really hard, and let out a loud “WHOOO!!!” only he was the only one clapping, and making a sound....everyone truned around to look at him, and he stopped and kind of made a smaller ‘whooo’ then hung his head. Oh GOD it was so funny!!!!!I think I laughed my ass off for 15 minutes after that. I have a 6 pack now to prove it! ( just kidding... ;D )

One of the last things I´m going to talk baout is my new love for the sport Capoeira. The other night the Cheif of Revolução (my group in the city) came to one nights lesson. The spent the whole time talking about how Capoeira is very pimportant in a persons life because for those of us who are poor, it opens doors to be a teacher...travel and share brasilian culture with the world...it helps you with everything in life from becoming better at other sports...to jsut having somthing to take your mind off of things...or achive goals in. It was a really amazing speech adn inspired me to try my best, so when i get home I can sure it with other people.

Then this weekend Friday night I went to class at 7 pm. Things started out as normal...we did warm ups...practiced a few drills...then my teacher pulled out a drum and this type of violin thing that is the symbol of Capoeira, we started the music and everything and all were singing..we started a small ‘brawl’ in the center. Then the Cheif arrived...and things picked up. The older students and teachers started the fighting dances...and there was this one where they did everything in slow motion. It was amazing....when they do it in slow motion they do all these hand stands and twists and turns that are so amazingly difficult to do...and also there is deffinitly a story behind their motions...I was trying to pick out the peices....there are times when they are fighting then move in and their motion turn more lovign and close...but all of a sudden one will turn on the other and they will be fighting again. It was so awesoem to watch...then we all got to join in (only 2 people fight at once...but you can inturupt the fight, and replace another person.) I got to fight in one of the slow motiion fights...I obviously wasent that good..but ti was still fun...then thigns picked up to fast motion...and the elders did all these crazy flips and gymnastic turns and such..I got fight fast motion with 2 of my proffesors and one with the cheif!!! It was AWESOME! I was so honnered!

I finally arrived at my house at 9.20pm when I was suposed to be home at 8!!! Becuase you can´t jsut leave whent he cheif is there....it´s not polite.

Then that night I went to a friends house where we played and say on the guitar, and played super nintendo. Good night. Got home around 12am.

Finally the school year is coming to na end here...and the third years are graduating! So we had a gratuation Dance this weekend! We all dressed up like we were from the 60´s and had a blast there...I cant belive its almost summer break here!!! I´m going on the Nortdeste trip druing the summer...so i wont miss anyschool when it picks back up again in Febuary! School ends 17 de dezembro! Yaahooo!!!!

So thats the basic of what had been going on. Oh yeah, I dyed my hair yesterday! Its REALLLY dark...but everyone likes it! So it´s all good.



LOVE TO YOU ALL!



Beijos,
Angela

3 months...

Hello everybody!!!!

how is everyone?

I´m pretty sure this is going to be the shortest update of Angela History, seeing nooot to much has happened.



Like I said last update, Summer break was nearing...and now it´s happening! Which is really nice, I just kind of chill out all day, go for walks, runs, bike rides, classes (Capoeira, Aero Jump, Guitar)

Oh that´s right! I can´t remmember if I told you guys or not, but I started Guitar lessons...which are fun, and I´m just happy to so have music in my life...although my voice has gotten a bit rusty due to the fact that there arnt many oppertunities to sing here...

This past weekend I went to my families farm again. We went horse back riding for a good 2 hours, maybe 3. Thus I recived a nice little sun burn, but nothing to make me peel or anything like that. While on that lovely little ride, at one point there was a Big black stallion that wasent sattled up riding along with us. Only at one point he was running infront of us, and my horse got all excited and took off after him! Now when I say took off, I mean like full on sprinting!!! My father and Sister were screaming at me to make him stop, all the while I´m yanking on his reins hissing at him (Here to get your horse to stop, you make a hissing sound...a bit different) Finally after about 100 or 200 meters I got him to stop. But oh man what a rush! I told my mom thats what paid for her to send me to horse back riding lessons when I was younger, I didnt fall off. :D

Then came Christmas.

That was a bit different. Christmas here was in the 100´s, and I didnt even hear one christmas song anywhere!!!

Christmas eve I spent the evening at my mothers mothers house, (so My Grandma here) We gave gifts, and played a gift exchange....only here you draw someones name, and then you buy a present formt hem...and when the time comes you stand up and talk about the traits of the person, then Finally say their name and give it to them... I dont know about anyone else, but my family always played it where you could steal the gifts away a few times before it all ended...here they dont do that.

Anyway I recived some some earings, a shirt that says Brasil on it, a cute flowery dress, a pair of shorts, and a butterfly tank top.

Then Christmas day I spent at my first families house (Seeing how my Father now and my First father are brothers...) Lots of family gathered there for a celebration! It started with breakfast and ended with Dinner.

I arrived there before my family, seeing how I woke up before everyone...and João called the house and asked where we were because they were waiting for us...I went and woke up my family...only to have them go back to sleep again....so i called João and told them they wouldnt get up....then about 5 mins later João called again and told me one of my friends and Exchange helpers was going to stop by to pick me up....So that happened and my family arrived about an hour and a half later. We all hung out, Exchangerd more gifts...talked and so forth, ate...(though I have to addmit I didnt eat anything other than fruit, coconut cake, and rice that day...The rest just wasent really in my favor...) That day I recived 4 more shirts, a pair of shorts, 2 pairs fo earings, and one necklas!!!

It was so sweet of everyone to get my gifts! (Dont worry, I gave my fair share of them as well!)

The evening ended with us eating Dinner while watching a short film my family had put together of photos, and people talking about family and so forth (they had a short clip of me in there!!) Then we also watched a small slide show of photos my Sister on exchange in Colorado sent over. After that we came home and I called my dad, only to find out they had gone to a movie. Then After wards called Shannon!!!! I was SO happy to talk to one of my best friends on the phone, that might have been the best present of all!

This will be my last update for quite a while...seeing how on the 8th I leave for the NORDESTE!!! I´ll be struting the white sandy beaches of brasil for 35 days...I CANT WAIT!

I wish you all a WONDERFUL winter break, and hope all gose well for you!!!

Missing you all like crazy,
Beijos,
Angela

Happy Holidays

Hello everybody!!!!

how is everyone?

I´m pretty sure this is going to be the shortest update of Angela History, seeing nooot to much has happened.



Like I said last update, Summer break was nearing...and now it´s happening! Which is really nice, I just kind of chill out all day, go for walks, runs, bike rides, classes (Capoeira, Aero Jump, Guitar)

Oh that´s right! I can´t remmember if I told you guys or not, but I started Guitar lessons...which are fun, and I´m just happy to so have music in my life...although my voice has gotten a bit rusty due to the fact that there arnt many oppertunities to sing here...

This past weekend I went to my families farm again. We went horse back riding for a good 2 hours, maybe 3. Thus I recived a nice little sun burn, but nothing to make me peel or anything like that. While on that lovely little ride, at one point there was a Big black stallion that wasent sattled up riding along with us. Only at one point he was running infront of us, and my horse got all excited and took off after him! Now when I say took off, I mean like full on sprinting!!! My father and Sister were screaming at me to make him stop, all the while I´m yanking on his reins hissing at him (Here to get your horse to stop, you make a hissing sound...a bit different) Finally after about 100 or 200 meters I got him to stop. But oh man what a rush! I told my mom thats what paid for her to send me to horse back riding lessons when I was younger, I didnt fall off. :D

Then came Christmas.

That was a bit different. Christmas here was in the 100´s, and I didnt even hear one christmas song anywhere!!!

Christmas eve I spent the evening at my mothers mothers house, (so My Grandma here) We gave gifts, and played a gift exchange....only here you draw someones name, and then you buy a present formt hem...and when the time comes you stand up and talk about the traits of the person, then Finally say their name and give it to them... I dont know about anyone else, but my family always played it where you could steal the gifts away a few times before it all ended...here they dont do that.

Anyway I recived some some earings, a shirt that says Brasil on it, a cute flowery dress, a pair of shorts, and a butterfly tank top.

Then Christmas day I spent at my first families house (Seeing how my Father now and my First father are brothers...) Lots of family gathered there for a celebration! It started with breakfast and ended with Dinner.

I arrived there before my family, seeing how I woke up before everyone...and João called the house and asked where we were because they were waiting for us...I went and woke up my family...only to have them go back to sleep again....so i called João and told them they wouldnt get up....then about 5 mins later João called again and told me one of my friends and Exchange helpers was going to stop by to pick me up....So that happened and my family arrived about an hour and a half later. We all hung out, Exchangerd more gifts...talked and so forth, ate...(though I have to addmit I didnt eat anything other than fruit, coconut cake, and rice that day...The rest just wasent really in my favor...) That day I recived 4 more shirts, a pair of shorts, 2 pairs fo earings, and one necklas!!!

It was so sweet of everyone to get my gifts! (Dont worry, I gave my fair share of them as well!)

The evening ended with us eating Dinner while watching a short film my family had put together of photos, and people talking about family and so forth (they had a short clip of me in there!!) Then we also watched a small slide show of photos my Sister on exchange in Colorado sent over. After that we came home and I called my dad, only to find out they had gone to a movie. Then After wards called Shannon!!!! I was SO happy to talk to one of my best friends on the phone, that might have been the best present of all!

This will be my last update for quite a while...seeing how on the 8th I leave for the NORDESTE!!! I´ll be struting the white sandy beaches of brasil for 35 days...I CANT WAIT!

I wish you all a WONDERFUL winter break, and hope all gose well for you!!!

Missing you all like crazy,
Beijos,
Angela

Allllmost 3 months!

Novermber 08, 2007,
So...
I guess it´s about time I write you guys again. I´m sure its been over two weeks since I last wrote you, and my sister has notified me of everyones curiousity of what happens next in the life of Angela in Brasil!
In all seriousness, I have no idea where to start. I mean, people always say that. But all time here models into one big blob, I´m not sure if the order in which I write things is correct...but in the end The exact date of these events don´t matter. For the msot part I will be overing the past two or three weeks, for I think thats where most the action lies.
About two weeks ago the other intercambista of my city took off for the Pantanal of Brasil, one of the 4 trips Rotary offers us down here. I´ll be going on the “SUPER DREAM NORTH EAST” in january! I´m super stoked! Anyway, with him gone, there was absolutely no one to speak english to, and I had a nice whole two weeks without speaking a lick of it with anyone down here. (On the Record Zaca and I don´t talk that much. He and I are friends, but both very content on learning the lanuage!)
Anyway, On the weekend before halloween, my sister´s (now cousin, as you will read on later...) english school threw a festa fanstasia for everyone who wanted to experience the American Halloween!So I decided to go as a black cat, seeing in all how it´s one of the most basic symbols of Halloween back home! Plesently to my suprize, Dressing as a kitty cat is almost as equivilent as dressing as a playboy bunny!!! (Not quite....but almost!) As to my Sister who Dressed up as a bunny...Looked exactly like the idea of Playboy bunny...and no one made any comments. Haha, but that was a fun experience! The party was kind of a bore, LOTS of young kids, most the music was awful...though inbetween dancing hippie and house...someone kicked in one song of hevay metal, and I headbanged with the Kids dressed up as goths. Oh, one was pretty intense about his gothic get up, and he was acting all ture drama and sulky. Had to discribe...but in sort...just really intense. Its was a blast to watch. All in all it was fun to see what kind of costumes people came up with. And it was deffinitaly not a night wasted!
The next night was the 15th birthday party of (my new sister) Camila, and a girl names Natalia! First stop was Camila´s house, it was also her mothers birthday. We hung out for awhile, ate food, talked. I met this Man named Andre and his wife. (Who´s name has escaped me for the moment! Oops!) They were amazingly awesome! They talked with me for about an hour, and invited me to come to their house some other day for Pão de queijo and suco (juice). Of course I accepted! Oh, So Andre is basicaly the Brasilian Johnny Travolta! He looks JUST like him! Its crazy! Hahah. With of Kisses and hugs Goodbye, Marcela and I were moving onto the second party of the night. This one had a tiny bit bigger budget, and more of my friends there. The rest of the night was spent talking, eating tons of Brasilian candy, and dancing Forro, techno, and hippie. It was a night to remmember!
One night of some week I went to Course of Model with Marcela. In shorts, it was pretty much a waste of time...and i don´t think they are learning that much...but the photos schould still come out really cool. So I will look forward to seeing those. After that My friends and i decided to have a photoshoot of our own with my small olympic digital. We all gathered at my Ballet prof´s house (one of her daughters is one of my friends) and did our make up, and everyone one poles peices of cloathing in the bed. We Dug threw and picked out some outfits. (which werent exactly high fashion...but hey...I don´t think these photo´s are going into vouge!!!) We got some good shots in and had a blast doing it all. One other reason we did the shoot was some one of my fiends who is going to College for Moda, could have some photos for her to learn photoshop with. (and I´d be her teacher!) She has Adobe photoshop 7.0 (which apperently is new down here...haha If you are art or computer geeks...then you know that now theya re coming out with CS3 photoshop...) And their computers are the type that we had back in 1995...so it was a bit harder to teacher than I would have liked. (plus all of photoshop was in portuguese!) but i got a few good tricks in with her.
So, here I have found a HUGE passion for riding my bike. Everyday I ride it to and from school...and sometimes ont he weekends I will ride it around the city a few times for some exersice. Well one day I was out on a ride...and I had made the trek to the school 4 times in a row to get my heart pumping. (its basicaly just this looong uphill strech) Now, as I was making my way back to the house I saw John Travolta and his wife standing outside their house (as a discovered in that moment was their house) washing some motercycels...some pretty spiffy looking ones might I add. They spotted me and gave me a friendly wave, and not thinking, in return I lifted up one of my hands from the handels and gave them na enthusiastic wave. Wrong move on my part! Seeing how I was going up hill, my balance was off, and I went plumeting down to the pavment. Hahah, Along with me squeeling some awkward angela aounds. It wasent that back of a fall, I think I was more emberresed than hurt. But they came running over to make sure I was okay. I popped back up to my feet, and reassured them that the only igury was a scrapped palm, and some dirty grease smudged legs. We talked for a bit more, then they told me to go home and shower...then after wards come over to their hosue again and soem some Pão de queijo and souco! So I hurried on home and gave myself a wash! About na hour later I dragged my sister Marcela with me back to their house to hang out. We sat around for awhile, talked...I looked at some photos of J.T and his wife on some road trips with their old Harly davidson, and watched their fish swim around in their tinny pond inside. We cooked up some PdQ and mixxed some juice. Just as we were sitting down to snack, Johnny (or read name Andre) and his two sons, Danial, and Andre Juiz walked in. We all had a blast talking some more( man...we do ALOT of chilling and talking here...like alot.) Then Johnny asked me if i wanted to go for a ride with him on his Motorcycle!!! So first I thought of all those times my dear mother asked me never to step onto a moto cycel...cause of all the people she takes care of in the Emergency room who have fallen off. But the adventure needed to be fullfilled, so I said yes! So we Hopped on his red Suzuki and took off. We first went through the city...everyone´s heads turned to see us (Thats how nice the bike is compred to everyone elses...oh yeah, everyone here has a motorcycle) I was giveing my littel handel a death grip as we left the city to the main highway. He took off so FAST! It was crazy, I kept thinking I was some how going to fly off...and that if we crashed I was done for. All I had on was Jeans, flipslops, and a black tank top! Talk about scary!
Anyway, we made it back safely, and he took out my two sisters next. Thought he didnt take them to the big road, they had a blast as well!Soon more people showed up, we fired up the grill and had a curasca! (BBQ!) Then Johnny asked me if I wanted to go on a bike ride with him that weekend and his 2 sons. There was a Casoiera (waterfall) near by the city, and I said i was totally up for it! He let me know that it was a long ride, but toattly worth it.
So on Friday morning at 6 we started our trek for the waterfall! My littel sister said she wanted to go as well, but every time I told her she was to young the threw a fit, and insisted that she could do it. Luckily I woke up late the day of the ride and was in such a hurry that I forgot her. Because man, it was hard. The whole trek consisted of 34KM...I think that is somewhere around 15miles, but I could be very very wrong!
I had SUCH a good time hanging out with the Boys. I mean, I love hanging out with girls, doing girly things. But here doing somthing with the girls almost always has somthing to do with church, it kind of gets tiring after awhile when its not somthing that is in your intrests. But this was just pure Chill time, roughin it in the country with some friends. When we got there we went for a swim in the water. Johnny and his son Andre Juiz cause some fish that we stuck in a old soda bottel and brought back home with us. On the way home it started to rain a bit. Which was a nice refresher. We we lucky it wasent to hot that day. The rain had just started to move in. We arrived back home around 10:50, and all headed home for some showers! That afternoon My family and I headed to his house again for a birthday party of a friends sister. We talked, ate, and I slept about na hour. I was tuckered out from the ride that morning! I woke up to the sound of Johnny´s Moto...and I quickly hurried back out to get another ride. This time we went further, and he showed me his ´Saint´a church dedicated to a saint near by. It was pretty cool. Oh, by the way they say ‘saint’ like ‘santa’...so i was pretty confused at first when people where talking about Santa! (in fact the first time i heard it I burst into singing a christmas song...oops!)
As everything came to a slow end, we found our way back to the house, and that night I slept like a log.
As I said, the rain has moved in. Long awaited...and long deserved. My city is a Dry, and hot place. I guess you can say it all first started when I was spending the night at a friends house. As we were walking over to her grandmothers house, a long bright violet bolt light up the sky. A few seconds later a small rummbel echoed through the city. The Wind picked up and started throwing all the dirt in the streets into our eyes. My heart started to beat a littel quicker as the number of lots increased as we walked along. By the time we reached her Grandma´s house, the wind was slamming doors and another other things left open. The sky was black, but constantly light up with lighting...and the thunder was stedily growing louder.(And my heart was stedily speeding up!) Then the Rain started.
When it rains here, it rains hard. Within the first few seconds of you standing in it, your soked to the bone! My Friend Mariana, her cousin, and I ran to the movie store to pick up some films for the night, and then ordered some pizza! All the while I was increesingly growing more freaked out by the fact that The lighting was directly above us, and we where walking in the streets! Mariana and I finally went back in the house after one bolt struck Right above us, and I freak out and hit the ground. She chouldnt stop laughing for like 10 minutes. I felt pretty stupid...hahah.
This past Weekend I switched families. Normally you spend 3 months with each family...but seeing as how i will spend a month in january traveling the north, my first father wanted me to have na equal amount of time with each family...so he said I could go to my next family. So Friday night I packed all my things and moved into my new families house. New new parents names are Faboila and Lazadro. They work at a constuction suply store that they own in the City. I have 3 sisters, but one is currently on exchange in Colorado..so I wont be seeing her! My two sisters here names are Camilia (15 years) and Lara (11 years) They are both Amazing, and super nice! I couldnt have more luck. The next day (Saturday) we headed off to the farm of a friend of theirs named Andre. It was right next to the River, had tons of green trees, and LOTS of animals. The first thing we did when we got there was go and swim in the river. Which is a moment i will remmember for the rest of my life. (a good one!) My younger sister and I picked some mango´s before we headed down..and we waidded them out to the center of the river with us (the center was the shallowest!) We stat there swimming, relaxing, and eating mangos! What a cool moment! I also saw some monkeys playing in the trees next to us. (not to menchion all the parrots and other birds!) Then that night we had a BBQ, and the owner of the house arrived. I found out he had done na exchange in Candada for 2 months when he was younger. He was a pretty cool guy. He lives on the farm, and in Belo Horizonte...a city 4 hours away. (he told a story how once he was house robbed while he was in the house, and they tied everyone up, and pointed us at them and everything!!!) He Looves animals, has a nillion of them, and knows alot about them! That night we sat out and watched some owls eat all the bugs, I saw a Huge frog..and we picked a huge bug for it them fed it to it. It was so cool!
That night I slept pretty well.
The next mornign went by pretty quickly...by the time we were jsut about to leave a storm had rolled in and it started to Thunder and lighting pretty hard. The bolts where jsut a few miles out...and you could tell they were touching the ground. The rain was nailing the ground hard. After about 15 minutes of waiting, we all loaded in the car and took off...The rain proceeded to get thicker, and the lighting closer. I began peering the horizen, intent on seeing a bolt touch the ground...then one flash was so bright it blinded all of us, and the thunder shook the car. I was flipping out with excitment. Not to menchion my father was driving the car like indiana jones...He reminds me of my real dad driving the car at home...more focued on talking with other people then the road. ( ;D )
Anyway, by the time we reached the real raod, the water was pooling up major time...and there were several cars stopped because the rain was to heavy for them. It was about another 15 minutes before we reached to city. Where the coolest thing was happening...FLASH FLOODS! There were places where we drove where the water came up to the bottom of the car door! Barely anyone was in the streets, because the streets where turned into rivers! I can´even dicribe how excited I was. Once we reached the house, I bounded into my room, picked up my camera, grabbed my sisters, and hit the streets. Where I snaped several shots of us dancing in the rain, and a few vedios of the rushing waters! What a fun event to experience...and apperently it happens ALOT here! Whoohooo!!! (on a side note..I taught people how to say Whoohoo here...they use it all the time now! Hahah)

My final story of this update is About Sapo the Frog. (Sapo is the word for From in Português...but I think it´s a cute name to!) This week at school Started out like any other, the days draged on...yddah yaddah yaddha. Then Tuesday during break, when everyone was just chilling out and eating food, all of a sudden na eruption of girlish screams broke out, and a few boys laughters. After a few seconds of the scream increasing i stood up to see that a Rather large frog (to us a toad) had found its way into the main court thing. A few of the Boys where kicking it at some of the girls. After 2 kicks I raced over to them screaming “PARE, PARE!!!!” (Stop stop!) I mean, they were flinning this thing through the air with each kick! One of the boys tried to kick it again, but I bent down and picked it up. This droved everyone nuts! Hahha, All the girls where gasping, and screaming how gross it was...and i quickly waddeled away with it in hands to find it a safe little place for him to hopp off free and safe from farms way. As I was walking off with him, the whole school burst into cheer and was clapping and so forth. Now...after I returned from placing him in this new littel place one of the instructors of the school came runing up to me, talking in a hurry...then my younger sister came up to me me and said (in portugês...but I´ll write it for you in engliash) “Do you remmember at Andreps farm? The frog we saw? Do you remmember what he said about the frog?” I gave her a responce by shaking me head no...”Reammember he said when these frogs are scared the squirt milk???” I laughed and nodded my head. I had tottaly forgotten that the Frogs here have a defense mechanish, where the squirt venon when they are in danger. And I had just gone and picked that thing right up and waddeled off with him! I was super lucky he did decided to give me a taste of his poison! Haha, The rest of the day, and week I have had people comming up to me asking me if I really picked up a frog, If I have fear of Frogs, and if i think they are ugly. Haha, ohhh my.
Well today is Thursday night...and i just got back from Ballet and Jump class. Tomarrow I have a birthday party to go to...and the next day i will ride my bike another 20 KM to my families Farm...which I will spend the weekend horse back riding! What fun!!

Hope home life is going well for you guys!
I love reading updated...so don´t be afraid to send me some!!!

Around 2 months...

LETTER
Hello Everyone!
Sorry it’s been so long since my last update. Honestly I have just been lasy. I can´t remember the last time I wrote in my journal as well.
In truth not to much has happened here. Life is just cruising on day by day.
I guess the last event that I left off with was Zaca´s birthday. (the other Exchange student in my City) He turned 18 in Brasil! What a fun experience to have! We all went to a curascaria (a meat BBQ place….Portland has one down town called the Brasilian Grill…really expensive ‘so I think’ but if you are craving a small taste of Brasilian culture…check it out! Anyway, it was pretty fun…we all talked, and so forth. Not as many people showed up as they said they would. Zaca wasn’t really accustomed to thins, and was slightly set to the side from it. But nothing to bad. I guess to me it was normal…seeing for all my parties I had out invites to who wants them(the more people the merrier!!!! Although I´m never quite sure who to give them to! Haha..so in the future if you hear I´m having a Halloween party and you didn’t get an invite…just ask me!!!) Anyway, my point is I´m used to never knowing how many people come…so I could understand where he was coming from..but I don´t know…it´s not that important.
Then the week pst that was kinda just a bluur….days move slowlys yet quickly here….The one of these past weekends I headed out for Brasilia with my Father, Mother, Brother, and one of my sisters. It was the weekend of a HUGE festival of my city…and my family didn´t like it, cause some people drink and smoke…I wanted to go to see what it was like (not the drinking and smoking part) but I didn´t fight back when my dad said no…I mean hey…Brasilia is still an event to attend to! So we headed out 12pm Friday…and made the 7 hour car drive there. We stayed with some friends and chilled out. The first night we went to a shopping mall…but we got there so late all the shops were closing. Which was a bummer…cause I don´t like buying cloathing in JP…way to expensive. But I ate Japenese food…stir fry and MISO SOUP! I was really happy! The second day we went to someone´s grandparents house and talked and ate food all day, I watched a movie called Troup elite’ with my new friends…(her name is Barbara (pronounced: Bah-bah-uhh) it´s a Brasilian film about the trafficking of drugs and policia, and corrupt policia in brasil. It has to now be my favorite film of all time. Afterwards my Friend and I decided we wanted to go see the second one in the cinema (it just came out 2 days before) so we went…but when we got to the front of the huge line…all the tickets were sold out…so instead we watched Resident Evil 3, no subs…but a lot of mpvies here don´t have English subs. It was an Okay movie..not to much really actually happened. But it was fun none the less. Although, I´m bummed I didn´t get to see the other movie…cause my city dosent have a movie theater…so I have NO idea when I will get to see the other Troup elite.
Oh also I started taking Capoeira Class..it´s a brasilian dance fight thing…it´s a BUNCH of fun! I love it. So now every ngiht of the week I have excersice…so I´m super happy!
Lets see….The school week kind of just rolled on after that. It´s day lights siaving times here now. We are currently about 5 hours ahead of you guys…and ITS ALMOST SUMMER! My GOD it´s unbearabliy hot here! One day this week I slept every class I had that day,c ause the heat knocked me out so hard…I couldn´t even lift my head up off the desk!!! So now that my body is adjusting again, it´s really tired all the time (like when I first got here!) I actually just spent all of today sleeping as well!
So last night I went to a friends house, which is more so at the end of town…in the country. So We spent the night looking at my photo´s (which by the Way Stephie, my mom sent the photo album you made me the night before I left…and forgot. Hahah) Everyone loved looking at the photo´s, and had fun laughing at all the different hair colors and styels I had through the time! Anyway, after that we danced the night away, and slept. But unfortunately to my dismay..the country hold WAY more insectos! I WOKE UP WITH OVER 50 BITES ON MY LEGS! HAHHA! My GOD, they itch so badly! Atleast I know when I come home…I will be like immune to American weak misquetos! Then that morning I woke up before most every kid…but my Friends mom was awake (she is my Ballet teacher) and we chatted away, then I hear a parrot. So I got up to look for it, and saw they they had 2. I made friends with one by doing my weird bird rattle thing in my throat…and fed him some crackers….he tried to jump onto my shoulder twice…but I freaked out and sprung away. I guess I watched that film ‘the birds’ to many times when I was young….I didn´t feel like having my eyes pecked at. GHaha. The we walked arounf there yard, looked at their cows, dogs, and picked some Mangas. OH also they have this fruit here…where it loks like a peper…but it´s actually really good. So I picked some of those, and ate them. Then Simone (the mother) told me you can use the juice of the stem to draw on yourself…it burns your skin kind of like the ´BIG RED´ gum wrappers…so she wrote an A on me, a heart on her, and My other friend (who had woken up as well) wrote something on herself…but in wasent the write type so it dident work…but My friend said her farm had the big kind, that you could write with…so next time we will have fun with that. Haha. I come home with Marcela, and went to sleep again…woke up at 4:30…ate lunch and snack with my mom…then got on the computer to read the updates of other district 5100 intercambistas!


Where are here is you want to read about other countires!

My Blog:
http://brazilliandays.blogspot.com

Molly's Blog: INDIA
http://currypotpie.blogspot.com

Richies Blog: MEXICO
http://richielg.blogspot.com

Erica's Blog: ITALY
http://www.italiareports.blogspot.com/

Jonathan's Blog: AUSTRIA
jonathaninaustria.awardspace.com

Emily's blog: FRANCE
http://emsinfrance.blogspot.com

Audrey's Blog: GUATAMALA
http://guatemala-loves-audrey.blogspot.com

Brendan's Blog: TIAWANN
ostlundsintaipei.blogspot.com

So that isent everyone…but it´s the address I gathered before I left.



So now I guess it´s time for me to talk about myself, and what´s going to happen from now on?
Through these past months I guess youc an say that I´ve grown a lot. I was reading Audrey´s journal, and what she says is PERFECT.
The days before I came here, every day was rushed. Every day I had to do something perfect, and immidetly before I could move on with my life…and School was my life. I remember thinking at the end of freshman year. ´That´s it…I´m just going to give into the system and work with the flow until I´m done with school…I can be myself after I finish with school.´and I guess that’s where some of you saw me change from hyper annoying sparky to calmer, and more blind Angela. I remember sophomore year I watched myself change into a more school oriented person. Unfortunetly I also became more agitated with some of the people I loved. My temper started to come back into the picture..and I think I wasent a kind person and I could have been. Don´t get be wrong..I wasent like one fo those girls off of Mean Girls…but I deffinitaly could have had more patience with some people. I just kept on thinking..I have to get thing done, I have to get this grade….my exchange counts on this..i have to do this. I just got so tired…and like a machine. But here I have had so much time to myself…so much free space to be who I want to be. I have grown. I realize that not everything should be as taken seriously. Of course take things seriously..but when something dosent go my way…it´s not the end of the world. A lot of things go the opposite way of what I want with whatever happens. I learned to be happy with whatever I am given with. To simply appritiate the few quite moments I have.
Sure I have some missing for my family, friends and home. But the other day I realized..(finally) that I´m not there. I´m not in Oregon. I´m not in the states. I´m not GOING to be there for a year. So Stop thinking about how I miss the rain, how I miss the people, style, rain, tea. Because as of now…my home is Brasil. My city is João Pinheiro. My language is Portuguese.
It´s time for me to let for of everything I have had before this. Because today is the first day of the rest of my life. What comes after it I´m not sure quite what.


I´m going to start logging on only once a week. I am tired of thinking in English, I´m tired of Dreaming In English. I just don´t really want to see the language anymore. I´m ready to become a Brasilian. :D

Love and Peace for all of you.

And for all my lovely student friends in the States. Take it easy. I know you have A LOT of your plate. Don´t give in. Always question why you are doing something…and if you can´t find a just reason behind it…question it, object it…find out WHY it is that you need to do it. Take every day as an adventures. When you get over loded…take a weekend vacation with some friends…maybe head out to the beach…take the moments you have an enjoy them.
Loving you all.

Week Sixish

Hello Everybody!!!!
How are you all doing?
I´m alive, I swear! I know I haven’t written I awhile…but I´ve been up to quite a few things…and my internet has gone down at home…yiikes.
Myyy oh myyyy….Looking back over my Journal…I have Nine pages I need to Cover!!! So this will be a fun email to write, neh?

Where to start….
So a few weekends go my family and I headed out to their farm, Which is about 1hour and 30 minutes out….the important thing to remember here, the instant you step out of the city here your in no-man´s land. So belive me….One hour and thirty minutes out…your in a different world. The land out here consist of Dust, shrubs, some really really dry tree´s…and lots ´n lots of cows. My Father owns over 500 cows!!!!!! It´s crazy. Along with that he owns two different farms, his brother owns 1, and his diseast mother owns another one. )Her´s was the one we spent the night at!)
Her house had 5 bedrooms, and it was one level.Some of the ceilings had big holes through them, and most the walls had huge cracks running through them, making you think at anymoment the house would come falling down on you. But it diddent…so they were just cool effects. ;)
They own 7 horses, but we could only find one, so we took turns riding it around…poor thing must have been so tired!!! Along the way I saw some prretty cool Animals. Here they have LOTS of little green parrots, kinda like love birds…but while at the Farm I saw 2 big African parrots! (the blue and yellow kinda…or in other words…a pirates parrot.) I saw a pitch black shinny humming bird. It was so weird, I freaked out(in excitement) and tried to tell my sister about it…but he just kind of stared at me funny. I get excited over a lot of small things here…things they see ever day so it doesn’t really make a difference to them! I also saw these weird big birds, with long legs. At first I thought they were Peacocks…but then I realized they had no tail…and long legs. Anyway, they ran super fast and looked really cool. And last I saw a small Owl! Soooo cute!
Anyway, The next day João, Natalia, and I went for a small walk down to the river, along the way Natalia and I decided it would be fun to take a dip, so cloths and all we dove into the brown water and played around for awhile. Now later that day, Bruno and Marcela came down two…and we all played around. Lots of bug.
Funny story about that, as I read back over my Journal I found a funny little thing I said, “During the shower I looked down at my Belly Button and realized the skin slightly discolored around it, and I had a red dot in the center that looked like blood….I have to keep an eye on that…” Now at the time I was worried some how I had skin cancer, and I was like..´my goodness I´ll probably be the first person to get skin cancer in their belly button´…but no….oh no it was far from skin cancer. One of those Blasted Misquotes decided to have a little nibble there…and let me tell you…it hurt for days! My belly button got all red and Puffy…it was like I had a bug living in it, cause it formed the weirdest bubble! But as days past it heal itself…now the skin is just a little flaky. I know, too much information. Huaha.
So the next main event was that my family and I headed down to Belo Horizonte for the weekend for 2 reasons:


Reason Number 1: Federal Policia.
All foreigners here have to go to the Federal policia within 30 days of arrival to show them your documents, and get a small slip of paper saying it´s okay for you to life here. So First thing was first my family and I headed there. Now before I left the United States, My mother and I took the list of things they asked for and went out and got them…so when I went to the policia I could just hand every thing over, and everything would be A.OK! They also told us that we could pay in American Dollars as well!!! Guess Again. I had to buy new photo´s, be cause mine were apparently to big. Then when it came time to paying, they wouldn´t accept American dollars…and also…before I left..and on my documents…it said it was about 60 Dollars….or 160Reais….no. I spent 200 reais on it! Blargh!
Although, after that whole Fiasco things got a little better. My Family and I went to this Huge lake in the center of the City (or atleast the part of the City I was in….3mil people live in Belo Horizonte….there is no Centro.) It was sooo beautiful, everything in Belo Horizonte is SO green cause it rains lot, and the houses around the lake were absolutely BEAUTIFUL! (it reminded me of LO…huaha…all the Huge fancy houses around the lake.) I saw a crocodile in the water, and this HUGE rat like thing called a Capirada (pronounced: Cah-pea-va-da)
After circling the lake, we drove off to a University the size of my City. Huaha. It was HUGE!) We stayed at the House of their Cousin (You hardly ever stay in a Hotel here…some one always have Family somewhere.) We all went shopping at a Mall, (A real mall…the one In Patos Minas was small compared to this one.) I bought a pair of Jeans and a Tee-shirt. Then that night we all went out to eat at a restaurant.
Reason Number 2: ROTARY OREANATAION!
Whooohooo!!! So it started about 8am, and man I have to say…it was a blast! I walked in the room to find a bunch of kids dressed in Funky Rotary Blazers, and walking amongst each other. I dove right in and connected with the Latin kids. Mostly that day I hung out with 2 girls from Mexico, and 1 boy from Ecuador. One of the girls names was Sofia, she was a sweetheart and we hung out the whole day. It was awesome, because they spoke Spanish, and I speak English…so we had to talk in Portuguese…For that time I started picking it up really quickly(then as soon as I got home I was tired from thinking so much, and My family spoke some English to me, and my ón a roll´ faded away.) Anyway, Rotary Presented us the 10 Golden Rules…(I´m not going to write cause it would take me awhile…but they are things like Obey your Host family…lah lha lha.) They also talked about insurance, and the 4 D´s.
No Drinking.
No Dating.
No Driving.
And No Drugs.
(My Rotary in the USA has one more…and its No Disfigurement! A.k.a tattoos or piercing)
Then Belo Brasil (a travel company) Presented the 4 Rotary Trips of the year.
*Super Dream North Trip.
*South Trip.
* Amnizonia
*and the Pantanal.

They all sounded absolutely AMAZING…I really wanted to go to Amizonia…but I only get to go on one trip..and i´m choosing the Super Dream North trip because it´s 35 days..and I go ALL over North Brasil with it. It looks ABSOLUTELY amazing. (plus we get to spend Carnival in some big City…but they won´t tell us which one…I think it´s Salvador!)
After the meeting, Zach (the other Intercambista of my town) and I went out for SORBET!!! WHOOHOOOO!!!!! This whole time I have been eating Popsicels when other people eat ice crème..but B.H (or as they say Beh-Agah) has Sorbet!!! So I could actually eat it! It was SO damn good. Yum yum.
After that we went shopping ad I bought a super cute dress for 30 reais…which here is like the best deal you can get. Its like buying something at goodwill price…which is awesome. That night we went out for….MEXICAN FOOOD! YEEEHAW! I was sooo sooo soooo Happy! I ordered A burrito with Guac, and Sour crème…But I didn´t touch the sour crème…it looked like it had been sittin in the freezer for 30 years..then the thawed it out and gave it to me without beating it into a crème first. The Cheese of the Burrito was Plastic..and they didn´t have rice…but none the less I was still happy to be eating Mexican!
So after that we went to a bar, they ate some more…then we went home and Slept.
Oh and Also that day, while I was at Rotary my mother went out and bought me my Point slippers for Ballet. That´s right folks...Angela Ratto has taken Up Ballet. Now I can just see Shannon D. Reading this right now and being like, What??!! And Also wondering why I´m starting out on Point, and not normal slippers….well because here they don´t start out with regular…they jump straight to the point and start with point! Huaha. But MAN OH MAN!!! I have some Nasty Blisters. But it´s all good. I really really like it, and I have class every Tuesday and Thursday before Jump Class!
Ahh, and Finally down to the last event I´m going to write about before I run out of things to talk about.
This weekend I went on a trip with my Sisters English school in the town to São Paulo, to go to Hopi Hari ( and Amusment park) and Wet n´Wild!
So the voyage started out with 15 kids for João Pinheiro in the Car, and smushed in together in someone´s uncles van. The first part was 4 or 5 hours to Belo Horizonte… where before we met up with the rest of the caravan, we went to Mcky D´s for Dinner…I had bought some Pão de Qeuijo at a different place before so I ate that…but I had a appel pie thing there. I´m not sure which one it was..but my Acid Reflux got going…and Marcela (for the first time) got a small taste of my stomach abnormalities. Anyway, afterwards we went and met up with all the other English school´s in B.H….which was about 5 doubel decker tourist busses full. We all loaded on, I talked to some other Kids from Belo, and made some new friends. We watched Ice Age, and slept a lot. Then at 2 thirty in the morning stopped for some food at a resturaunt. I ate some coconut cake thing and Tea. The went back to the Bus and Slept. I think it was a totally of 10 hours of Driving to São Paulo. Which is A lot.
The First place we went was Hopi Hari…Kind of like Disney land…but not and fancy. They have one of the 5 biggest roller coasters in the world there…but I couldn´t go on it cause the line was 5 HOURS long!!!!! It was awful…after the first hour of waiting we gave up and went on 4 other rides. The lines were terribly long..and the Rides wernt that amazing…but I still had a blast!
The Second day we went to Wet n´Wild. Not as big as the one in Washigton, but we still had a blast on the few slides they had (I went on three I think…) Then I slept in the Sun….alot. and when I say a lot, I mean most the day.
Now an important lesson to learn is that Brasil Sun is different from the Sun in the United States…because it´s more closer to the Equador.
Let´s just say I one of hell of a fried Chicken right now. It hurts just sitting here!!! Then after that we took a shower, hopped on the bus, and came home. Which actually I arrived here this morning…took a nap…then got up and started writing this.
Then afterwards I think I´m going to get dressed (which is a scarry thought when I hurt this much! Hauhaa) Go and buy a Blank CD….copy all my Photo´s and this letter onto it…go to a Lan house…uplode all my Photo´s and spend this letter out!!!!!

Whooo….a lode full, neh???

Oh and oooone more paragraph.
My Mother wrote to me asking to Explain what school is like to you all in this update…so I´ll do Just that.
ESCOLA:
My general school day goes something like this.
Wake up @ 6, eat breakfast…walk to the buss stop and go to school.
Class starts at 7 or 7 20…I don´t know.
We have 6 classes a day, 3 before break, and 3 after. School ends at 12:20…we go home and eat lunch.
Every Tuesday and Wensday I have to go back after Lunch for more classes. It´s a pain!
I´m taking a grand Total of 13 classes right now…
Some are: Quimica, Fisica, Biologia. Lingüística, Math, Filosofia, Arte, Geographe, Espanhol, Inglais, Grammar...and some others I can´t really remember right now.
For the main part I just sit there and stare at the teacher all day…whishing I understood what they were saying.
I take notes when they write things down,a nd I take their tests. Ever 2 weeks they have a whole week of testing.Last week was it…and man oh man…I sucked. Huaha. Although I did Ace the English test. ;P
The Class room is Crazy. The kids are SOOOOO LOUD! And don´t respect the teach that much, a lot of them sleep all class. So Teacher of Riverdale…Please appreciate the calamity you have in your class, Its unbelievable how much more Organized School in the States is compared to here. I have no idea how the teaches put up with the kids here… I miss the quite. I miss writing Essays, I miss having serious conversations, contemplating Life, and everything like that.
I can´t wait until I understand What´s going on.
My Mom´s sending me a math book so I can just start teaching myself in the meantime…It kind of hard to understand how to do an equation when you have no idea what they are saying to explain it.
None the less I an still learning. Slowly, and quietly…but I´m still learning.

Aye aye aye…Well I think that´s all I have for now.
I miss you all, and hope your having a wonderful time…because I know I am!
Send me updates of Home!!!
Love you all.
Angie.

Three Weeks...

Good Evening Everbody!!
How is life in the mother land??

So I didn’t send out an update last week, because I figured if I waited another week I would have more to write!
As of today, I have been here a mere 3 weeks of my 10 month exchange…but it already feels like time is flying by! To all the teachers I have to apologize in advance for my English, it´s fading fast…and this letters bound to be full of grammatical errors!
So Last email I sent a few people asked about the food and fashion down here…so let me go into some sort of detail about things…
FOOD:
The food down here consist of...Meat, fried meat, fried fruit, fried veggies, beans, rice, fresh fruit, cooked veggies, coca-cola, fruit juice, and assortment of breads.

On the Average day my meals go something along the lines of this

Breakfast: Juice or aqua, Some sort of wheat’s you put in your milk that make it a cold pourage (I FOUND SOY MILK DOWN HERE!!!! :D ) Bannana, weird hard beagle things, or little mini hotdog buns things….
Snack Time at School: Coconut popsicle.
Lunch: Beans and Rice…sometimes with some veggies, or Pasta. Lots of fruit juice.
Dinner: Beans and Rice…some sort of baked potato, or veggie.

Most people probably would be sick of eating beans and rice every day, twice a day, for 3 weeks….but man oh man….I can´t get enough of them! (like I said before) I eat so much every meal, I have to take a nap after so I can skip to pain of being Really really really full.

As for the fashion…

MODA:
Now…before I left I heard a lot about the fashion being ahead of us down here, that things would be cheaper and all that Jazz…well let me tell you something different. :D
I don´t have a problem with the Moda down here….it´s just…different. The shirts look like somewome has taken succors to them, and cut out all the places that don´t reaaalllyy need to be covered. I think one of the funniest moments for me was when I was at church and one of the girls was wearing a belly shirt, which was see threw and you could see her bra. I silently laughed at the fact, that if you even wore that to school in the states you´d be booted out in a heart beat…let alone in the house of god. Huahhaa. I´m still not used to showing my belly, and I tend to pull my shirts down to the best of my ability. Which isn’t that hard considering I´m so short, and my torso is short also.
On another note…It´s not cheap down here, at least not for clothing. I´m so used to picking up a shirt in the states for 5 bucks, or a pair of jeans on a bargan for 10 bucks!!! But ohhh no, not here. Huahah. The average jeans price is 75 american dollars…shirts about 30 to 50 bucks…I´m also in a small City though…things work alittel differently.
Oh and one more thing about the Fashion, a small side note. It´s all the rage to wear one big earing, and one small. Not sure why…but it is.

Onward with my Update!!!

So I´m going to start where my journal leaves off…We´ll start with Sept. 6th.

Marcela and I were invited to a country party, where everyone dressed up like they were from the boondocks, and danced the Fo-Ho(a dance where you take two steps to the right and two to the left ´with a partner´) I also got a little salsa in! Parties function a bit differently down here…You have to pay to get in(along with bringing food for the hosts), pay for the food, and they have this little prison they take you two, and make your friends pay to get you out!
So that night we played some games. One consisted of all the girls linning up on one side, and all the guys on the other. You hold hands with the person across from you and it makes the type of tunnel. So one girl with left without anyone hand to hold, and she runs through and steals a guy from another girl, then that girl runs through and steals a guy form another girl! So the pattern repeats, and eventually like 5 people are going through at once. Well while I had my guy stolen from me I started down the line, while at the same time my friend Anna started down the line also…and we made a head to head collision! Man it hurt like none other, ahuaha…she and I both took a minute break then headed back into the game. :D
The next day, Marcela and I made our way out into the country with a group of kids and a photographer…He took some beeeautiful photo´s of everyone, I didn´t model because…well i´m not quite so sure why I didn´t, I think I thought it was more hoity toity than it actually was. But anyway..the photos were for some propaganda for a modeling crew that are coimg through town in a few weeks to scout, and teach kids how to model. The photo´s are now hanging all over town, it´s awesome!
Then the next day I went out to the João Pinheiro Airport with my Father and brother!!! They are both students in learning how to fly small airplanes! Their instructor offered to take me up, and of course I agreed!!! I have to admit, at first I thought we were going to crash. The aeroplane was SOOO light in the sky, that the small wind gusts tossed us around a bit! (I had watched the people before us come in, the lady steped out a little freaked out..and I understood here say it was really bumpy up there…ahauha) So we flew out over the city, and I caught a few fotos of my house…then we made our way out to the Rio…beautiful Beeeaufil. Then we turned around and made our way back. When looking out at the Dry glassy field below I kept imagining I was in Africa, and I kept expecting to see antelope bounding below me…but I never did see any.
In other news, I went to my Rotary club and was introduced. I sang for them my song ´Dust´ and everything went well!
One morning we had no school so that everyone could go to the school Olympic basket ball games. Marcela and I headed up there in the morning, but left after the first few games. Then later that day Natalia (my younger sister) came home telling me that My exchange student friend Zach had fallen down and broken his ankle!!! I was so worried all night for him, thinking he would get sent home…until I talked with him over Orkut the next day…and he told me it was only a light sprain…Infact I went with him yesterday to get to cast off!! And we walked home today. :D )
This past weekend, Macerla, Natalia, Mãe .C. , and I headed out on a two day vacation to the City Patos Minias. The City where all of Mãe C. sisters and brothers live! (4 sisters, and 1 brother.) We went to the mall(yes, they actually had a mall in that city!!! There are 200,000 people) Marcela bought a darling pair of jeans, and her mother 4 pairs of shoes. That night we went out for Chinese food…because I was really craving for some. But to my Dismay, it´s nothing like the Chinese food at home, or real Chinese food. The place had a Sushi bar (which is Japenese) and some Thai things on the menu. I couldn’t find anything I recognize, and they only had Jasmine tea!! Huaha….Ayyye aye aye…oh well!
The next day…Natalia, Marcela, a aunt, and 3 other little girls and I headed out to see Rattatui (or however you spell that!) It was all in Portuguese, and had no subtitles…but I get the basic plot of the movie! IT WAS SO DARN CUTE!
Right before we left to come back home, the grandmother cooked up like 10 bags full of Bakery sweets. It was so awesome.
It was an eventful weekend.
The last small event I have to add in is a funny little story.
So one of my friends Paula is Dating this Boy named Tales (he was an exchange student to South Dakoda last year) well the broke up the other day…and from the looks of it, Paula was really upset. So I asked Marcela if we could head to the super market after school so I could buy her some chocolate! Macela agreed and we went and did so. That night I wraped it up in some magazine pages and since my family didn´t have time I used some ´Sew no more´ glue my grandmother gave me in an emergency kit before I left! I wrote her a little note in Portuguese explaing that whenever one of my friends in the US had a bad day, we would all get together and have a junk food fest to make the person feel better! So At break time I gave her the Chocolate and the note and she was super happy and thanked me a lot. Then About 15 minutes later I heard news that her and tales were back together!!!!!
Huahaha, funny how things work out like that. Well she will just have to eat to chocolate next time she is sad!!
So that´s the quickest recap of my past two weeks for you all!
So I heard school has started again down there, and I want to hear from all you Students and teachers how everything is going! Are classes hard yet? Who are the new teachers? Is everything going smoothly?
Wishing you all the best of health and life!!!
Lovin you all
Angie.

The first of many...

Hello everybody!!
How are you all doing?
It´s been a week since I´ve been here in sunny Brasil, and I´m loving it.
Where to start…
Friday last week, I left my home city of Portland to begin the adventure of my life time. I had made some of my best friends all stay the night before hand, so they could all accompany me to the airport, and say their final goodbyes.
What a sight it must have been, a Caravan of girls (and a few boys to) all huddled at the security line, crying and waving goodbye to a sobbing me. Huaha!!! Everyone in line was staring at me.
The first flight I took by myself. I sat next to a very nice father and daughter who were headed to Florida for the girl´s volleyball tournament! We talk for part of the flight…and I listened to music for the rest. When we were about to land, the pilot announced that we would have to hang I the air for awhile, because a storm was rolling in, and it wasn’t safe to land. After gliding for about 20 minutes, we finally landed, I met a man while walking down the terminal that was headed in my direction, so I tagged along with him. If it wasn’t for him I would have missed my flight. The Atlanta airport in HUGE!!! We took a shuttle/train to my Section, where he and I parted…and I raced to my gate. It was a good thing I ran, because they were closing the gates!!! Another Rotary student had the same problem as me, and we both dragged onto the plane. Luckily enough, we were able to sit next to each other. Her name was Dena, and she was from Idaho or something. We talked for about 4 hours, and I found out that she knew NOTHING in Portuguese…not even Hi!! So I taught her a few lines. Then we took some sleeping pills, and woke up 20 minutes before landing!
Now here is where the fun begins. Since the storm had rolled in, it delayed our plane about an hour on the runway. So I missed my flight in Sao Paulo. No worries though, after a bit of struggle with the language, I had myself a new plane flight….but it was at a different airport! So I hoped on a bus (that was headed directly to the new airport) and cruzed through Sao Paulo for an hour….When I arrived at the new airport, I quickly hurried myself in. I was in no rush to miss another flight! I managed a few words to a security guard, and he pointed to the elevator…where I got on. I~m so Happy I had been there, at that Moment, because I met the kindest man ever! He knew little English, but enough to understand that I was going on exchange for a year! When he asked where, I told him my next flight was to Belo Horizonte…and he said he was going there too!!! So again I followed some random person around the airport…he helped me with checking in, then he bought me some suco (juice) and we headed off for our gate!! Again, I was SO lucky to have met him…because as we were sitting at the gate, they announced in Portuguese that the gate had changed! I never would have known if he hadn’t told me. I definitely had all the luck that everyone wished me!
When I arrived in Belo H. Marcela and her cousins were waiting at the entrance for me! (and their cute cuwawa Bobby!) And so the 4 hour long car ride to Joao Pinheiro began. Let me tell you, I am sooo much more appreciative of American driving now! The roads here and unkept, and they pass each other so much, to the point the oncoming traffic is 15 feet away. I had to sleep most the car ride so I would stop gasping whenever we entered the other lane of traffic!!! Huahahah!!!!
That night of my Arrival, my family invited some cousins, and friends over to welcome me. I wasn’t as tired as everyone said I would be…but I was just confused, and understood nothing. They had put up wonderful signs for me in welcome, and telling me I was their new daughter. I couldn~t have been given a better first host family!
The next day I woke up when the sun rose, at about 6am. I have never seen such a beautiful sunrise. The sky had no clouds in it, but still shone a gallant orange, and the sun hung a bright red. It filled my room with color, and it was a wonderful way to wake up! My breakfast consisted of coffee(The Best damn coffee I have ever had in my life!!!) and some weird bread things…that looked like mini bagels…but were hard. Never the less…they tasted GREAT!
Later in the day, Marcela (my host sister) took me around town, introducing me to all her cousins and such (She has 30 first cousins... all of which live in this city! AYE!) I met Zaca (or in English Zach) He is the other exchange student from Canada. Later some of Marcela´s friends met up with us..and we all went out for Ice creme…but Since I´m allergic… Marcela and I got a weird frozen fruit thing…with this new Fruit called Açia…They have it at Booster juice in the US..so go try it!! ITS AWESOME!
That night I went to a birthday party for a boy named Lucas (he´s in my class) Everyone was laughing, dancing, singing…it was amazing! Everyone was trying to talk to me…but I couldn’t really understand…hauhah. No worries though…I got a few words in with everyone!
The Marcela´s Mother picked us up, and we went out to dinner with some family friends…I kinda zone out when I don~t understand things…(things that don´t really concern me) so Basicaly that whole dinner I just kind of sat there and zoned out.
The next Day started out with Natalia and I (my younger Host sister) washing the dogs, Bobby (a different one then that was in the car when I arrived) and Hika. The the family had a BBQ and I had Beans and rice. Man, I can’t tell you how much I love beans and rice. I look forward to eating them every meal. I swear I’ll way 200 pounds when I get back! Hahahah. Oi-vay.
I met some more cousins (actually my second host family) and we danced to some music, and made Videos…I~c show them to you…but the internet is to slow to upload them here. The funniest moment bout that was when my younger sister Natalia turned on Fergie (my Humps) and had a whole dance to it! I asked her if she understood, and she said kind of!!1 huaha, ohh my goodness.
I showed then The Video’s tess burned for me…man, they must thing I’m sooo crazy!
That night we went to church….All I’m going to say about that is that I won’t convert anytime soon. But I will continue to go every time, because it’s important to marcela!!
As for school…I have so many classes…Physics, Chemisty, Biology, Portuguese(or English for us) History, Art, Math, Inglais, Spanish, and A few more I cant remember. Í don’t understand anything that’s going on in them…but today I took a test…hahauha, I can’t wait to see the grade I get!
That’s basically the main thing’s that happened so far in my exchange. I can´t tell you all how much I love this town, the people, the culture. It´s all to much to ask for. I love this place so much. I´m so glad I decided to go on exchange!

Frustration...

So today I received an Email from my Travel company saying that they haven't received my paperwork in the mail, one we sent to them almost a month ago. Thus meaning that They haven't even sent out for my Visa yet. MEANING my departure is set back quite a way.
I'm so angry right now, we were under the impression that I would be leaving in a week or two...now what?
The mailing system have lost the Original of my document, so I will most likely have to send down to brasil for a new one, which means another 2 weeks of wait...then i will have to send it to the travel company, so they can send out for my visa...meaning another 3 weeks.

Thus I will end up leaving in friggin' September!!!!!!
GAH!!!

And so it begins...

I'm late.
I mean not that late...but late in posting this update.
For months I suffered, dieing to find out where in the world I was going. Once I finally found that out, The next stage began.
2.] Sitting and waiting.
Again, for months I have sat, and waited to find out just where in Brasil I would be going...It felt like I'd never find out.
Portuguese classes dragged on, Bruna left and went back to Brasil...district conference passed.
Which by the way was fun, and horribly boring at the same time. I celebrated my 16th birthday on the night of the talent show. So I spent my whole day celebrating by sitting...and waiting...ha-ha-ha.
But in all truths...it wasnt the worst birthday I ever had. In fact it was just fine. I was able to sing the song I wrote "Dust" In front of all the rotarians...and not fale horribly due to the fact I could hardly breath because of my blasted allergies...
later that night, it was amazing...everyone signed a card and gave it to me...and sang happy birthday to me.
My mother showed up with flowers that my sister had bought for me...(the pervious day my mom showed up to the picnique with my favorite pumpkin pie..and cake for everyone else.)
The next evening Juliana, my friend from Brasil, decided to share one of her countries birthday traditions by smashing a few eggs over my head...I made an A line for the shower...
It was lots of fun...

ANYWAY!
back to my main story here...
A few weeks ago I recived a email from my host family!!! I was so excited that I started shaking and yeah! My host-sister told me her name was Marcela...and she had a sister and a brother, and a mother and a father!!!
She then proceeded to inform me that I would be Living in Joao Peinero...a small town of 40,000.
Now, so you see I thought that Iw ould be going to Belo horizonte...a city of 3.4 million...I was ready for an upgrade!!! figures I'm downsizing about 400,000 people...haha!!! no worries...it will be amazing.

As the school year draws to an end, I realize how much I have grown over these past few months...and how much I will over the next year. I'll miss my friends, but I can acept that. I can't wait to make new friends!!! And explore.
I just can't wait.


It's like a dream right now...it dosent even seem like I'm leaving anymore...It's been so long since I found out I had been accepted into Rotary Youth Exchange...

Test Book Blues...

I was lucky enough to miss the droning sound of my alarm clock this morning...My mother came in to wake me up at 5:50am.
The previous day my math teacher Mr. Preacher had told me that taking a nice 30 minute run on the morning of finals would calm my nerves a bit. I figured I'd try anything. So there I was, roling out of the comfort of my new sheets to go and send my tired body into a ragged pace. I lazily slipped on my spandex pants and sweat shirt and headed out the door.
It was cold outisde, and for once i didn't mind the bipolar weather of Portland...it seemed just right today. I cranked up my Ipod and and ran for a good 30 minutes, returning home sweaty and red.
I gluped down a few sips of the protein shake mr. Whecter had given me...a bit to sweet for my taste, but I figured my brain needed some food for tought.
Gery my step dad was sitting at the island in the kitchen when I got home, we exchanged a few simple words then i went to go study some math equations...whoop-dee-doo.
I knew that I had them down for now, but as soon as I get into that classroom...POOF! like magic. all of the knowledge I ever held will magicaly disapere.
What wonderful luck I have.

Anyway...Last night on the ride home from my rothers graduation it hit me. Right smack in the face laughing at me, like the does the rest of our poor souls. I'm getting older. I mean, it's not to the point that I need to start planning my Will or anything...but all my dreams and everything...I mean...50 years from now I'm not going to be capapble of doing what I love...I won't be able to just pick up and travel, leave everything behind...or sleep on a cement floor.
I don't take risks...well not risky risks...I want to live life for every damn momment that I have...Enjoys the summers soft breezes.
I'm determined of seeing the world.
Mark my words, I will.


*Sigh*

3...2...1...

[This was posted on Friday, March 23, 2007...belive me.]
I can Honestly say that if I had the chance,
I would step on that plane tomorrow.

For those of you who are late on hearing the news,
I will be leaving this summer for a year abroad in Brasil.
I'll be gone for about 360 days.

Last summer I had the privilege to travel through the Mediterranean with people to people student ambassadors.
I discovered my passion for travel and foreign cultures. By the time I had reached Italy, My heart was telling that I should never return to America. I promised myself that i would return to the country as soon as I could.
Later that summer when i arrived home, I was in desperate need of more travel, or at least to return to the amazing culture of Italy. I moped around for awhile until my father mentioned a word about looking into studying abroad.
little did he know that that small comment would result in his 15 (to be 16) year old daughter leaving his nest a few years to early to leave the modern life of an American behind.
I began looking at programs, searching the internet and doing research on programs. My father strongly insisted that I apply to Rotary. I nagged at him due to the fact that i had just missed their dead line. I sat down are wrote them an essay email telling them about how much I wanted to return to italy, and see what the world has to offer.
I had no response....
not right away, to say the least....
I began applying to on online Youth exchange program called Intrax...It was a long process that I had to write several essay's for and be on the tip-top of everything. About half way through filling out that program, The Rotary emailed me telling me that they had an open interview time if I could get my application turned in before then. Being my silly little self...I thought to my self, "ha! well that sucks..I'm already half way through this other one....I don't need to apply to another one..." and with once click...I deleted the email.
VERY VERY VERY luckily for me...my mother had also received the email...and had set up the interview.
I was their last interviewee, and was very nevourse for the outcome.
I waited for a few weeks to hear back from the Rotary...it was very similar when i was waiting to hear back from People to people if i was accepted into their program or not. After a few weeks of me waiting for a phone call, My Step dad Gery got an email saying that i was accepted...he called me up and read me the email...
In the moment I found out I was accepted my life took on a new course.
I started to get Familiar with the Rotary club... the first event where i met the whole bunch was at a silent auction...I met Molly who was the one other kid who was accepted into our Rotary club.
She will be going to India next year.
We became quick friends, and then later that evening met Juliana...The one who convinced me to go to Brasil.
So I'm sure your all thinking, "Wait...where is Italy in all this?"
Well the fact is...You don't EXACTLY get to choose your country in Rotary.
It's like a business meeting...you meet all the adults and The country Officers...now, Your main objection is to present yourself the best you can in front of the county officers, and get to know them so that they remember your name. All of them are the keepers of your fate.
In the end they ultimately choose which country you will be going to.
Through the process I slowly began to realize that Italy just didn't seem as my main focus anymore.
I just wanted to get out an see the world, see some where that would throw me for a loop...Teach me the wrongs in all the stereotype's out there in the world.
The more Juliana talked about Brasil, the more and more I wanted to go there. Now only was she the sweetest thing in the world, but Bruna another Brasilian I met along my way with Rotary was just as amazing as Juliana!!!
By the time the Ski trip rolled around I was all excited and worried at the same time.
The weekend dragged on forever, and all any of us really wanted was to find out which country we would be going to for the coming year. The evening of the announcement I remember getting into the car with my host dad and mom of the weekend with the 3 other girls i was staying with...Wen-wen, Erica, and Audrey. We where all laughing and saying how we all wanted each-other to get the countries that were out first choices...Except for Wen-wen...she was in from Taiwan. We bust into sinning "I can go the distance" from the Disney move Hercules...because we had watched a disney move each night that weekend...due to the fact our host parents had like every Disney movie ever made...
but anyway...
as the night dwindled down, all of us...the Inbound and Outbound students were sent to the Bowling ally and were set loose.
Let me tell you,
about 90 kids with only three adults to look over them isn't the smartest idea...
When the time came...all the Country officers came to the building as slowly got us ready for the announcement of the countries.
You could have cut the air with a knife.
They started reverse alphabetically...
Brasil was second to last.
I remember at one point they where calling up a body named Andrew to come up because he was going to Taiwan or something...and for some reason the beginning of Andrew makes my mind think they are saying Angela...and i just about died.
It got down to the two last counties...
Argentina and Brasil...
A whole puddle of us were sitting on the bowling ally floor looking up at all the kids who's names had already been read...knowing that in just a few short seconds that ours would be read two.
Slowly our group dwindled down two the last to people...
Audrey and myself.
Latched arm in arm we sat there shaking in anxiety looking up at the Brasilian's and the Argentinean's.
Now, Audrey wanted to go to Argentina..and I wanted to go to brasil...
Yes it was evident that we where going to get the counties we wanted...but still...they could have been awfully cruel and switched it up on us...
Either way...
Latin America is fine with me!
The moment they read our names We flipped Sh*t and sprinted to our new group.
I couldn't believe I was going to go to Brasil!!!
I had a huge amount of doubt within me...due to the fact that
Lori...y country officer is in my Rotary club...Lori is in Charge of India and Brasil.
Molly...the one other person accepted into o my Rotary group was going to India.
Now how bad to you think it would seem if she sent both her kids to her countries?
pretty bad right?
Well luckily it wasn't a problem...and we both got our Wishes!

Also...Everyone in my host family that weekend got their first choice in Country.
Erica is going to Italy.
Audrey is going to Argentina.
I'm going to Brasil,
and Wen-wen is still here from Taiwan!

Over the past few month's Rotary has started to pick up, and soon enough I will be finding out which part of Brasil I will be going to! I'm so excited, it's all that is ever on my mind now day's.
I know it will be a lot allot allot of work getting up to that point, with Visa's and ll that stuff...but I'll do it and accomplish it!



Thanks for reading everybody!

Sincerely,

Angela.

[NOTE: this section is copied from a blog I created erlier...but I lost the password and email to...so here is my new account. :D]