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