Amazon 2014

    When we arrived in Manous we had to wait for about five hours for all the others. I passed the time by throwing a bouncy ball at the wall. When everybody arrived we went to Presidente Figueiredo.
   At that first city we visited something called cachoeira which is like a natural pool. There was one with a diving dock which everyone doing flips off it. There is a video of me trying to do a flip but failing. There was another which was pretty fast moving so we were able to slide for about 10 - 20 meters. The other one was kind of deep into the forest so we had to hike there, and we also passed through a cave made of sand. The cave had some big ass spiders and bats to. At the pool there was a waterfall were you could shower but it was falling very heavly. The hotel had a pool table just like all hotels, but it was missing a ball and you had to pay 50 cents to play.
  After Presidente Figueiredo we went to Manaus. In Manaus  we stayed in a 5 star hotel,  but it didn't have all the formal people there because it is the Amazon. This hotel had pool tables that were about $5000 each and it was free to play. In Manaus we went to a couple zoos and saw a jaguar. We saw a show about the mythical story of the bull, and there was some very pretty dancers there. The zoos had a lot of animals we didn't see in the forest because there were people screaming everytime they saw a spider. Our hotel also had a zoo and a nice pool.
   We then spent 4 nights on a boat, and it was the best part of the trip. We slept in hammocks which was awesome because I sleep better in a hammock than in a bed. On the first day we walked on a bridge thing and saw a couple monkeys and birds. Underneith the bridge the water was pretty deep but in dry season our guides said that is just  dirt there. We visited a indian village and participated in a ritual with them. We did a hike in the forest one day which was fun. There was two guys had stayed 3 days in the forest and they said they were going to stay another 3 days. On this hike we walked with water up to our chest and and some sort of insect. The insect was delicious. We also tried to climb a tree, but everybody in our group failed. The guys who staying in the forest did it easily. We also swam with wild dolphins which was awesome. We went fishing for piranha, but my boat only  cought 4. Later that night we went looking for  gators and found two little guys to take pictures with. We visited two other communities and played soccer with one of them. On the last night we had a party/bbq (the two are about the same thing), and then went home.
  I would like to say thank you to all of our guides and Terra Brasil.

Last Two Weeks

   I went to a wedding, and it was the first time I wore a dress shirt here. There was a cerimony just like in Canada. After the cerimony the was a party and super. I walked around talking to all the people I knew and then I had some super. After eating my host brother and I went to the birthday party of our friend Ana. It was a good party and the was lots of people. I left somewhat early because I was almost collapsed with exhaustion.
   The next day we returned to the same place as the wedding party for lunch. There was a lot of people there too. After lunch everybody came to watch the big championship game between Ituano and Santos. Most of the people there cheered for Ituano just to make the Santos fans mad (Ituano has very few fans here).
   During the Easter holidays we spent most of the time at the cabin of our friend Adriano. We watched São Paulo win 3-0 with Boto Fogo. On Sunday the pub had a great show of rock which I went to. It was nice to find out more about brazilian rock. My cellphone now has a lot of brazilian music.
  On Saturday we had a capoeira practice with people from other cities, because a lot of people came to Guaracai to visit family during the holidays. It was nice to see all the people there, and the capoeira with all the different people was high  quality.

Extra Stuff in the South

    On Aprils Fools day our main guide, one of the monitors, two of my friends, and I pulled a prank. Since we are not allowed to drink on Rotary trips we decided to make it look like my friend and I was drunk, on drugs and smoking. They bought one beer and poured it all over my hair and clothes, and then I layed down on the bathroom floor with my pilsner blanket pretending to be passed out. I also had the beer bottle on the side and a smoke in my fingers.
   We then waited for the other monitor and the rotary champerone. When they came my friend was on the top of the bed dancing a famous dance in Brazil called leppo leppo. My other friend was curled up with a blanket looking scared and saying that he told us not to drink. The rotary person then found me and stomped on my foot while calling us all idiots  and saying we were all going to miss the best part of the trip. Later when she found out it was a prank she called us sons of bitches.
  I also forgot they left me behind in a museum in Curitiba.
    At the talent show Kevin (Tawain and Canada), Martin (Mexico), Jesse (USA), and I did capoeira. Jesse and I were the only ones who train regularly in our cities. Jessie trains 5 days a week, which is a lot more than me.

South American Adventure

   It was a great trip and I met a lot of great exchange students. I am going to put this in bullet points because it was a long trip.

• Foz
• Went to both the Argentian side and the Brazilian side
• The Brazilian side had better veiws because it was closer to the falls
• Visited the Itaipu hydro-electric dam
• It was very interesting to learn about how it was built and how it works
• Went to Paraguay one day
•  It was just for shopping so I thought it was boring
• Curitiba
• Other exchange students who live in Curitiba visited us
• They showed us some things in the main street when we had free time
• We saw a lot of parks in this city
• Ate at the largest restaurant in Brazil
• We actually entered the kitchen and it was huge
• Toured the Oscar Niemeyer museum
• Gramado
• We went to some chocolate factories
• I bought roughly $35 of chocolate
• We saw the worlds largest chocolate bunny
• Toured there chocolate museum
• Steam World
• This was a museum filled with cool systems that use steam engines
• It has a replica of a train crash in Paris at the front
• Hollywood Dream Cars
• Had a bunch of antique cars and motorcycles
• I had my picture taken in one of them
• The motorcyles were in the middle so that everyone could take a picture with them
• Santa Park
• It was a big park that they said santa spends his summer holidays
• Florianopolis
• Went to the beach
• I swam the entire time
• Punta del Este
• Saw the big hand on the beach
• Toured a museum filled with art from South America 
• The hotel we stayed at was close to a walking path that had a great view
• Some of us walked along it in the morning
• Montevideu
• City Tour
• We went to a market 
• At the ATM they only allowed me to take out a minium of $300 which I very stupid
• We also saw alot of cool things and the central square 
• The central square had the canadian embassy
• I have a photo of me in front of the embassy on Facebook
• This city was my favorite of the trip
• Beunos Aires
• We went to a Tango show
• The steak I had there was great
• We took a boat from Montevideu to Beunos Aires
• They did not let me up to First Class
• In the central square the was lots of protestors and our guide said they are there everyday
• We toured the government building
• It is open to the public
• It had a lot of paintings and stuff of important people
• Return 
• It was 3 days
• We stayed at the same hotel at the Foz
• I went swimming but only one mexican went swimming too
• They said it was cold
• We also at pizza at the hotel
• The rest of the return was just sleeping in the bus

  Well that is about all we did. I think I am forgetting some things but I will add them in later

Lots of Stuff

   I haven't written for awhile so there is going to be a lot of stuff that I am going to forget.
  There was a going away party for Antonio and Bruna, and it doubled as a birthday party for Maykon. Lots of interact went, and there was lots of meat on the BBQ so it was a good time.
  Interact club of Valparariso had a party of ice cream. I ate 10 cups, but my friend said I should have ate 15. I agree with him, but my performance level was down. There was also a lot of dancing at this party.
  During carnaval my friend Andre had his birthday party. It was a great party with a lot of brigadeiro and a cake. There was also a lot of interact at this party too. Later we all walked to the town square to participate in carnaval. There was a lot of people at carnaval, but my friends all said that carnaval Guaracai is weak.
  I went to the town square every night that weekend. There was a lot of dancing and loud music. There was always some people from Interact or Rotaract. One night the mexican who lives in Mirandopolis was there too.
  There was a couple other birthdays, but they were for young kids. Thier kid birthday parties are about 10 times bigger than our kid parties, and they have more adults than kids. The entire family goes to the party, and there is usually a big buffet line. I would estimate about 100 or 150 people are at these parties.
   My host dad and I watched the team Canada win the gold medal, and we cheered by wearing our Montreal Canadian jerseys.
   I got my foriegn identification card last week. It only took about 5 months to be proccessed.
  On March 19 I will be going on the South American Adventure and after that I will be going on the Amazon tour. It should a good month.

Acamparact

    Acamparact is a 3 day Interact event where we all sleep in tents.
    On the first day we took a bus to the event and then set up the tents. The first night we had a party where I and a lot of other people danced. I spent a lot of time at the water dispenser because of the heat.
   The next day we all woke up a 7 and ate breakfast. Everybody was shocked when I drank a full cup, but it wasn't that good because it had sugar in it. Later we all swam in the river till lunch. That afternoon a lot of people had a nap. The freshies were freshied later that afternoon. I danced on the bottle and everybody thought that was funny. A lot of people went swimming during this time too probably because of the extreme heat. At night there was a show and later awards were giving out.
   The awards were funny  and not serious. Leonardo won his own ass. Maricio won shampoo, because he doesn't shower at events. I won a toad, because of the phrase uhul sapão(uhul toad).
   The next day we woke up at 7 again and ate breakfast. This time there was coffee without sugar, so I had about 2 or 3 cups. Later we had another award show. People from Guaracai won 3 awards.
   Leonardo won most animated person at the event.
   Guaraçai's only freshie won best freshie.
   I won the spotlight interactiano.
   After all this we all said goodbye packed up the tents  and left. This was a great event as are all interact events I have been too.

Before Acamparact

   On a Saturday I went to a party on a farm. The mexican exchange student living in Mirandopolis was there, so I got to talk to her a bit. The was also a lot of Rotaract, and they are always a fun group.
  I went to another party at one of the bigger farms (80 workers). It was a birthday for a Rotarian so there was lots of rotarians which is always nice. It was a bbq so I ate a lot of meat, and by the way I have not been to a bbq I didn't like here.
   There was another birthday party I went to at the Rotary building. The was lots of good food there too, so I ate quite a bit. Later that night I went to the town  square and talked with my friends.
   School has started too and here you get a big box of pencils, pens, and paper when you start. I told them are government gives us a list of things to buy.
   At capoeira I tried a new move and fell at least 5 times. I still haven't done it right, but I will be able to do  it when I get back to Canada.
   I gave a speech  last week in portuguese at Rotary.
   Also all the farms here have workers, and the biggest one has around 100. I find it a lot different than the farms in  Saskatchewan, because they usally don't have workers.