Cutthroats Swim South

Today was another incredible day in Brazil. In the morning, I woke up at 7:15 and had another delicious breakfast of bread, cheese, and fruits.

Then, at 8:00, the Americans drove into the City of Rio de Janeiro with many other Brazilians including those that we hosted during the year and went to a motion art museum. Shortly before that, while the Brazilians were getting a snack, Tom, Ginge and I went for a walk on the beach where we watched some Volleyball, Footvolley, and Beach Soccer while drinking coconut water.

By 1:30 pm, we were back at the school. Sadly, it was our second to last lunch at the school; the second to last time that we will be sharing the meal of salad, rice, beans, and meat with the Brazilians. This was the first "sad" experience that turned a "sweet" day into a "sweet but sad" day. Although the lunch was fun, the realization of the second to last lunch was depressing.

After lunch, the Americans all went to a school where the SESC students help entertain/teach the kids, who range from four years old to ten years old. Every kid had a constant smile, including the Americans, and when it was time to go, all of the children ran after our vans, waving and laughing.

When we arrived at school, Tom and I quickly scurried over the the gym where we played Footvolley for a couple of hours. First, we warmed up by juggling a ball between the two of us, but shortly after we began, we were called onto the court where we practiced the amazing sport by going through drills and ending with some points. (For those who don't know what Footvolley is) Footvolley is very similar to Volleyball. In Footvolley and Volleyball, the players must hit the ball over the net and can only touch the balls three times. But, in Footvolley, the players are not allowed to use their hands, but can hit the ball over the net with any part of their choosing. Surprisingly, Tom and I, who were the top two players of the American All Star Team... and happened to be only Americans playing, were able to hold our own against the formidable Brazilian forces. In fact, we were even on the victor side a couple of times.

After the Footvolley session, we walked over to the cafeteria with some of our Brazilian brothers and enjoyed our dinner.

After dinner, we all went back to our rooms, took some showers and went back to the cafeteria. Outside of the cafeteria was a stage where a talent show/ awesome concert took place. Many people, the teachers and students, played various instruments and tons of American songs that ranged from "Like A Virgin" by Madonna to Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". All in all, the music was entertaining, the dancing was great, and the atmosphere was fun.

When we were all walking back to our rooms, Luiz Rates organized a quick meeting with all of the Brazilians who were graduating that year (the 3rd graders) and the Americans (Morgan, Reta, Hannes, Tom, Ginge, and myself) to thank us for the great experiences that we have all shared. Not only was I on the verge of tears (I'm not good with goodbyes or goodbye situations by the way), when all said was done, every Brazilian in the area walked up and gave us hugs while they shared their feelings about us leaving.

In sum, the day was excellent because of the activities and the heart warming feelings that it produced, but sad because of the various realizations of the conclusion of this astounding trip.

Until next time

-Tim K

Tomorrow we have to leave Brazil and return home, and I am leaving here with so many great memories and friends. Over the past two weeks I have experienced new things such as: exploring the Pantanal and Rio, going to classes in Portuguese, and living with amazing people.
On Thursday we all attended classes with our Brazilian hosts and the overall experience was slightly confusing. The first class I had, History, the teacher tried to teach his class in English for me, but we didn't get a lot done because he ended up having to re-explain everything to some of the students who didn't understand English in Portuguese. After History we had Biology and the teacher didn't want to teach in English so I ended up learning about the reproductive system in Portuguese. The rest of the day was pretty much more of the same with me attending classes in Portuguese and being unable to understand anything. Luckily the last class of the day was Brunna's English class so I was able to participate. Overall, it was a pretty interesting experience, going to a school that was in a language I didn't understand.
Today we toured around Rio and visited the soccer stadium and a museum. Tonight the students are having a talent show type performance and now I am going to go watch that.
See you all soon! Tchau,
Morgan

I had some great times on tuesday. On that day was Brazil´s first game which was against North Korea. Now, I did expect Brazil to win the match wihout many scrapes and bruzes, however, the North Korean team did seem deadly to me for a few reasons. The biggest reason is because all the players and staff from the North Korean team had been isolated by the rest of the world. No one was allowed to view their practices. The players always had to be together and they all go directly from the practice field to their recovery areas without seeing anyone or anything. Because of this, nobody had any asumption about the skill level of the North Korean team, though most people belived, as I did, that Brazil would win this game. The unexpected skill of this team was quickly apparent, though Brazil still seemed dominant. Neither team, however, showed any brilliance in the first half, resulting in a nil-nil score at half time. Now, I forgot to mention that I was in the massive school theatre, completly packed with cheering Brazilians, with paint on my face and some crazy glasses. At the begining of the match, everyone was yelling and screeming with joy. Now, at half time, there were angry voices in the air. People were complaining how Brazil were plaing horribly. Everyone`s spirits, though, were lifted when we came outside to bags of popcorn and cups of soda. I didn`t stay for long because I wanted to be back inside and see the highlites of the first half and analize what Brazil could do better in the second half. I`m happy to say that the second half was much, much better. Brazil was emedietly dominant and it wasn`t long before the first goal was scored. The theatre erupted with screams and yells and people blowing into horns to make loud, slightly annoying, yet fun sounds. The crowd was now alive again, and every thirty seconds people would scream, as if every chance Brazil had was sure to be a goal. And they were right again when Brazil scored their second of the match. Another eruption of yelling, screaming and jumping followed. I was particularly happy because I had guessed before the game, on camera, that Brazil would win the game 2-0. It seemed to be true as the time was neering the end. However, the game switched in the last five minutes. North Korea came out of nowhere and started fighting desperatly. For these few minutes, the game was theirs. In the 89` minute, North Korea scored. Not only was I sad, but i was scared as North Korea seemed sure to score again in the last few minutes. But, it was not to be. The final whistle blew and the theatre, once again, erupted in joy. It was a great experience for me and I hope to see Brazil`s second game on Sunday before we leave to come back home.


Colin W.

Yesterday morning we took a drive through part of the city and up through a hillside town, eventually leaving us at a trail head that lead us through bamboo trees and some kind of palm tree with giant black spikes. Of course Tom got punctured. The hike seemed way too short for the amazing view that awaited at the top. Both left and right, we could see miles down the beach and thousands of buildings and skyscrapers. Right in front of us was another mountain with a giant rock that had a face with quite a large forhead. We could even see SESC school way off to the right. After we took a couple group photos, the boys attempted to make a TCS sign in front of the view, and randomly encountering a stray dog, we took a trek down to watch some hang gliders take off. The hang gliders took off above us and soared over the city, eventually landing on the beach.

Later in the afternoon we drove a ways across Rio and took two trams to see the incredible view from Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açùcar). We could see far more than we did from the top of our little hike, for we say the entire bay, harboring a bunch of sail boats. There was not a cloud in the sky that day and we could clearly see the Redemption Christ figure off in the distance. Three of four little brown and white striped monkeys ran around under tables and benches, in search of food from the tourists. They were about the size of kittens, but wayyy cuter. Tom acttracted a huge crowd
when two of them climed up on his leg to eat his cheesy bread, but soon enough some lady told him that feeding the monkeys was prohibited. Hannes led us on an expedition through a secret path in a bamboo thicket, but we turned around after a minuite or two because we were going nowhere. We caught a glimpse of a glorious dark red sunset right before we took the trams down.

Morgan being magestic on our hike


Redemption Christ


Tom feeding the monkeys (Hannes already posted one similar to this)


Looking down on the first tram to Sugar Loaf


The sunset from Sugar Loaf

---Reta

-Morgan

The gang at the top of Pão de Açúcar

Reta, Morgan, and Tom working on their bronze yesterday morning.

Brazilian fans really really really like it when Brazilian "futball" players score goals in Copa Del Monde games.

Reta and Tom were feeding this monkey cheesy bread. Feeding of the animals, it turns out, is not allowed on top of Pão de Açúcar. There was a bit of a to-do about this infraction of the rules. But the monkey was so cute that I am glad we did it.

Escola SESC at night.

Cheers!

-Hannes

Hello all.

First I would like to apologize for not putting up another blog in the last couple of days.I have been very busy and have been having an amazing time.Either way, as many of you may know, the Americans are back in Rio De Janeiro at the Brazilians' school.Everyday, we have been waking up around 7 O'clock, go to breakfast with some of the Brazilians, and then go our own ways.Today, the Americans, while the Brazilian students were at school, went to the beach for a couple of hours.At the beach, we all, except for Crosby, swam in the ocean and watched a man practice his karate on the waves and in the sand.

At 11 O'clock, we went back to the school to grab some lunch.The next major event today was when all of the Americans, during lunch, met the president of the SESC School.It was an honor to have the opportunity to meet such an important man/piece of the SESC School Puzzle.

After we met the president, we all finished our lunch and then went back to our rooms.At 3 O'clock, we all sent to the school's theater where the technicians had set up a huge screen.There, as a school, we watched the Brazil vs. North Korea World Cup soccer game.This was one of the craziest experiences that I have ever had the good fortune to witness.Not only did all of the girls scream at the top of their lungs when the camera focused on Kaká, I felt the room shaking when the Brazilian team scored because of the deafening roar created by the students; dancing, screaming, crying, and laughing were all done when Brazil scored.

After the match, which ended in a 2-1 victory over North Korea, the enthusiastic-no, exhilarated Brazilians all went outside and slowly dispersed until there were only 25 left.At this moment, Hannes had found a Brazilian noise maker and decided that he should add to the loud noises that the Brazilian students were making by blowing a lung full of air into it.This may have been a big mistake.The moment that Hannes blew the whistle thing, everybody stopped their conversations, turned, and quietly stared at him.Hannes's face immediately turned bright red and Tom and I almost fell over laughing.This was one of the many hilarious moments that we have had on this trip.

Tonight, we had another delicious dinner together and after, socialized for hours.

This was just another amazing day in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

-Tim K

The last few days in the Pantanal have been amazing. Unfortunately, I have had to many good experiences that I wouldn't be able to write about all of them if I had a few years to do so. So, I will write about my best memories of the trip. Day 1 in the Pantanal was one of the best. To start the day off, the Americans (Timothy, Thomas, Emilly, Morgan, Reta, Pilar, Hannes and I) went for a boat trip to see an amazing abundance of wild life. Among these aligators were crocodiles, birds (many, many, many birds), and fish. The aligators were impressive and plentiful. Apparently, there are eight million crocodiles in the Pantanal. Quite impressive, I think. This trip was onlly the begining of a fantastic day. I must pause here to point out that the food is incredibal. Everything looks good and by the time I get to the end of the buffet, I have a large plate full of rice, beans, chicken and pork in one hand and a glass of fresh juice in the other. Now back to the day. The night of day 1 was very fun. The hotel alowed the school to have a school dance. The result was Crosby, Tim and I attempting to learn how to move our hips like a Brazillian. Though there were a lot of embarising moments, I ended up having a great time. After a good six hours of sleep, I woke to a cramed day of a multitude of activities. My group and I, after a great breakfast, started our first activity by walking around the SESC Hotel area and learning about was SESC does. They help communities by offering education, better health and, most of all, a greener environement. After this interesting ordeal, we went out of the hotel area to another SESC owned property where we were able to ride horses. I have many great pictures from this. At night, my group and I went out onto the river again to serch for aligators in the water. They are easy to find at night, as long as you have a search light, because, when the light is on their faces, their eyes shine a very big, bright red color. Our guide on the boat was then able to catch a baby aligator which I was able to hold. It was really neat. We then came back to the hotel to an amusing night of kereoke. Students and drunk tourists alike took to the microphone and started to sing. Some were good, many were bad, but all in all it was a good time. After this I had a nice four hours of sleep before I woke to go an yet another boat trip where my group and I watched a beautiful sunrise. When I came back a few hours later, it was seven in the morning and I was welcomend to the hotel with a great breakfast. Afterwards, a few of my mates (Crosby, Hannes, Reta, Emilly and Martin, the Englsih guy who is an English teacher at the SESC School), some tourists and I went on a escipade through the worlderness. We saw many things, but the best thing we saw was a cute, intelligent monkey who was hungry for some bananas. Though we tried to trick the monkey by putting the bananas in places we thought he would never get too, the monkey was craft enough to get to all the bananas whithin just a few minutes. The rest of the day was nice and relaxing as my group had no activities left to do. So the rest of my day went like this: soccer, pool, soccer, pool, watch soccer (World Cup match between USA and England which ended up as a 1-1 tie after an aweful goal by the U.S.), pool and food. Either due to the lack of sleep or humidity or the combination of both, I became a litle sick and now have a sore throat which is also horse, and a head ache. All is well though because tomorrow, Brazil will play their first World Cup match against North Korea! It should be a great game and the whole school will be watching it in the theater. Should be exciting!! But, now I must get ready because the americans are going into downtown Rio today. It should be fun! Tchau.

-Colin W.

Two days ago, there were too many fun events to write about.As a result, I am forced to write about the best of the best.

Two days ago, in the morning, my group went on "a hike".The reason for the quotation mark is because we did not go on a hike.Although it was called a hike, the hiking that I am used to going on does not involve an elevated wooden path the entire way."But I digress" as Phil would say.The point of the story is what we experienced on the hike.About 45 minutes into the hike, while thinking about how, during the flood season, the river will flood all the way up to the bridge, I noticed that there were 3 small, fury creatures running down the railing towards us.After further examination, I realized that they were little monkeys!In my opinion, the events that followed this realization happened to be one of my favorite moments of the trip so far.Our guide quickly whipped out a bag of cut bananas to give to the monkeys.The moment we all had our bananas, we began to give them to the monkeys.To me, these creatures were like little, pouting children.We held out our hands with the bananas and one of the monkeys would run over, literally snatch the banana from our hands, take the banana peel off and drop it on the ground, and then run away as if they were still angry with us for something we had done earlier and might take the "gift away".For the record, I know that this was not the case.After 15 minutes, which seemed like seconds, of "hangin' with the monkeys", we had to continue the walk through the jungle.For the rest of the hike, I experienced many amazing, interesting things- experiences that consisted of new insects, birds, plants, and other forms of natural life.

The next very fun moments of the day was when we played soccer and volleyball.Once again, Tom, Gingy, Hanness and myself were not among the stronger players on the field, but we still had an amazing time.Now, for volleyball.Team Kanellitsas/Crosby are not bad volleyball players.Well, let me rephrase that.We are bad at volleyball, but the difference between us and the other Brazilians is not as great as the difference in soccer.Either way, we all had a lot of fun doing both.

The next moment worth mentioning, which happens to be among my favorite moments of the trip is when we (all of the Americans) were walking back to our rooms.As we rounded the final corner before entering the building, we encountered possibly the biggest frog I have ever seen.Immediately, I started to run after the frog in a similar to the way a dog runs after a car; I knew I wanted to look at it up close, but once I caught it, I wouldn't have known what to do with it.Also, there was a part of me that did not want to touch the gigantic creature.Either way, as I was running after the frog, after swiping at it five times and missing 5 times, another frog appeared.On my fifth attempt to grab the frog, I had accidentally put my hand next to a frog that was even bigger than the previous frog.I hadn't seen the frog until my hand was inches away and I immediately jumped back and yelled.Seconds later, the frog jumped into a ditch and sat there motionless.Tom and Hanness, who were watching the whole thing and laughing hysterically, ran over to where I was and proposed a game of Rock, Paper, and Scissors to decide who had to touch it.Unfortunately, by the time the game was over, the frog was gone.As we were walking off the lawn and onto the walkway, we all noticed another large frog sitting on the edge of the walkway.Tom and I started to chase after this frog while Hanness was running back and forth while making a noise that he describes as the laugh when he gets extremely excited.Then, the frog jumped onto Tom's shoe.Tom quickly pulled back and sent the frog flying.The frog ran cross the walkway with a quick Tim Kanellitsas in a hot pursuit.While Morgan, Tom, and Emily were bent over in pain because they were in so much pain from laughing, Hanness was jogging across the walkway, laughing uncontrollably as well. In the end of this event, I found myself on the ground, tears streaming from my eyes, rolling around because of the pathetic hunt and Hanness's high pitched laugh.Then, I look around, and everybody was in a similar condition.

-Tim K

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