Today I wanted to let you get to know a few of the people that I am out here with. They are a bunch of hooligans that are probably up to no good, so together we are taking Brazil by storm! I will try to do a few every once in awhile as I really get to know them out here.
First off though I wanted to talk about my new best friends! They are all between the ages of 16 and 18 and are in an English immersion program out here. Yesterday we got to meet them and teach them how to play some American sports like Basketball, American Football and Baseball and we had such a good time together. I met some really cool people, three of them are actually LDS and one of those three is coming to BYU in the fall, yea!
This is us making our ´sexy faces´as my friends here liked to call them! Dang we had a lot of fun! The tall one behind me, Laio, he is a troublemaker and I knew it from day 1! Of course, he thought I was a trouble maker as well. He said that I hid it pretty well behind my angel face, but he could tell that I was a trouble maker too. Of course, I didn´t deny it! The other guy to my left is the one that is going to be coming to BYU this fall, Marcílio is his name and he is super cool, we are going to go to the football games together!
They loved being in photos with me...well just any photo! I just stuck my arm with the camera in front of me, said that I was taking a picture and anyone that wanted to be in it could, and they all flocked. They really did love me though, and I am not being conceited, it made me feel really good. Like I said we played sports with them yesterday, I was helping out with baseball. Well today I went into the party, a 4th of July party, a little bit late because I was waiting for a friend to go to the bathroom, as soon as I walked in and saw them they were so excited and started greeting me and saying they had been looking for me everywhere and that I was the best yesterday! It was very nice of them and made me feel super good about myself, cause I had a blast with them as well!
Here are some shots of us practicing baseball. Unfortunately we didn´t have a field to play on or enough mitts for everyone but we took turns and just practiced throwing the ball to each other and doing grounders and pop-flies, and then of course batting.
At one point we only had about 10 minutes left, they had called everyone over to tell us that and so I was excitedly hurrying my people back so that we could practice batting, then they told us that they wanted a group photo, and of course everyone was just standing around. Well I couldn´t very well let them waste all of our batting time so I told them that they needed to get together and quick because we wanted to play baseball! It was fun and it worked and helped prove to Laio that I am a troublemaker when I want to be.
This is the awesome group that we had today at the 4th of July party. This group played a lot of games with me. It took me back to my EFY days because I was putting out so much energy and it was awesome and they were just eating it up! We played a few different games which they loved and ended up playing Big Booty and we were all so into it, it was fantastic! When the party was over and we had to go my director Vanessa kept looking at me and asking me who I was because she has not seen this side of me yet! She kept saying that I was such a quiet girl, bahahaha! Now the problem is getting me back in the box since I have escaped ;)
Okay, so now I am going to give you an introduction to some of my new buddies that are actually in my study abroad group. We will start with...drum roll please-drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...Berkley Kershisnik!
This is the lovely Berkley, it is really funny to here Brazilians say
her name, cause they kind of make the R a gutteral sound and it sounds
awesome. Some can´t even pronounce her name so she calls herself Julia
sometimes-which has nothing to do with her first, middle or last name at
all, but they can pronounce it!
Berkley is super good at playing the guitar and has an awesome singing voice. She actually performs with her sister at local places in Provo and Salt Lake and has a band. She learned how to play from her dad and is really good. She performed at the party we had with CCJ last week. Side note about CCJ, no matter how many times we tell them that we study at a University in Utah and we are from all different parts of the states, they know us as their friends from New York-though none of us are actually from there! On the poster that they made for the party they had Berkley on there as one of the performers, but she was on there as Julia from New York, Ha! Now she has no way to prove that it was actually her! Berkley is doing her Masters at BYU in Portuguese and she served her in Brazil in a place that has a hard name that I cannot remember let alone spell. We´ve become really good friends and I am looking forward to continuing that friendship when we come home. To cement our friendship is the fact that she has seen ´What´s up Doc´, ´Oscar`and ´Some Like it Hot´, three of the movies that I find super hillarious but that hardly anyone has ever seen, it was fate that we met!
Next on the list we have Matt Leary. Matt is the quiet type. Last week one of the kids wanted to play M-cubed, which stands for Marry, Make out with, or Murder. Basically in the game they name three people from the group (of the opposite gender of whoever they are questioning) and the person has to pick which of those people they would marry, which one they would make out with, and which one they would murder. Well Matt commented that he would be the easy out. Since he doesn´t talk much and no one really knew him he figured he would get murdered every time!
Matt wants to get into Med school and become a pediatric surgeon. He also served his mission in Brazil and has only been home about 6 months or so. If he doesn´t get into med school he wants to do physical therapy. He is a super nice guy and has actually started talking to people, so I don´t know if we could quite justify murdering him every time now!
Next on the list is Michele Rivera. Michele is our basketball guru, and actually knows a ton about most other sports too. She is from Miami and is a HUGE Miami Heats fan, which leads to some rather entertaining arguments between her and all of the guys in our group. Michele has a younger brother and a younger sister and absolutely loves going to concerts of any kind. She is such a frequent visitor at the Velour in Provo that they girl at the front desk greets her by name and is able to tell her whether or not she will like any of the performers that evening.
Last week Michele decided to go swimming with her glasses on, since she is practically blind without them and doesn´t want to use contacts. Problem is, the ocean was a little bit hungry that day and ate her glasses, so she is now sporting a beautiful pair of Brazilian glasses that she is not to fond of, but she looks fantastic no matter what so it doesn´t really matter.
Okay, our last contestant...er, hooligan of the day is Natalia Ortolano
Natalia is the daughter of our director, Vanessa, and she is just amazing. She just got back from her mission a few months ago and also served in Brazil-maybe Brasilia? I should really write down that information somewhere! Natalia is a super outgoing, fun loving person who just enjoys life to the fullest. She is always trying to pull off some crazy stunt or another. She actually creates mosaics and is going to teach Berkley and me how to do them when we get home. Her, Berkley and I compared our favorite movies and are going to have a movie night once a week to hang out and just have fun together and educate each other on the best classic movies out there! Natalia is just learning to play the guitar, like me she just barely took guitar 101 at BYU. She was one of the few that was actually able to sing most of the BYU fight song yesterday to our Brazilian friends trying to learn English.
Natalia is super creative both with drawing, painting and also she really likes to write papers, essay-ish things. Kind of like a travel journal about the cultures that she meets and the things around her. We get along famously and I am excited for you all to meet her and all of the others. One last thing, Natalia is the kind of person who just jumps in and does what needs to be done. It doesn´t matter if it is a job no one else wants to do, she is there and she gets it done. She is always one of the first to volunteer and doesn´t complain. Her birthday was this past Sunday, July 1st and she is now 23 and afraid that no one will like her because there is a song out there somewhere that says that. Pish posh, like that would ever happen! Oh, and she loves to read, so we really are getting along famously!
Well that is it for now my little family, I will talk to some more people and get the scoop on them for another day, I think that this novel is already long enough as it is. Do any of you actually read it all the way through? Well if you do then I think you are just the cat´s meow...that or you don´t have anything better to do! Just remember that goblins are real-they steal your socks, but only the left ones, and that frying pans are the way to go : P
Oh, and Mitchell Mender wanted me to send all this information about him: (I told him I was getting info on everyone to send to my mom, you can pick and choose what you choose to believe from his humble description of himself!) ´Ah in that case tell your mom I'm an RM, I have my eagle scout, I'm Pre-law that's why I'm a philosophy major, I'm president of the Pre law association at BYU. I was captain of my football, national track athlete, vice president of my choir, I have an internship at a law firm this fall, and was first counselor in my elders qiurum presidency. ´
Mitch likes the AC up super high, he freezes everyone out during class and people have actually started stealing the remote for the AC and hiding it from him. It is true that he is a philosophy major and that he is an RM, he served in Salvador Brazil. He is a lot of fun and adds a certain spice to our group-again, take that how you will!
First off though I wanted to talk about my new best friends! They are all between the ages of 16 and 18 and are in an English immersion program out here. Yesterday we got to meet them and teach them how to play some American sports like Basketball, American Football and Baseball and we had such a good time together. I met some really cool people, three of them are actually LDS and one of those three is coming to BYU in the fall, yea!
They loved being in photos with me...well just any photo! I just stuck my arm with the camera in front of me, said that I was taking a picture and anyone that wanted to be in it could, and they all flocked. They really did love me though, and I am not being conceited, it made me feel really good. Like I said we played sports with them yesterday, I was helping out with baseball. Well today I went into the party, a 4th of July party, a little bit late because I was waiting for a friend to go to the bathroom, as soon as I walked in and saw them they were so excited and started greeting me and saying they had been looking for me everywhere and that I was the best yesterday! It was very nice of them and made me feel super good about myself, cause I had a blast with them as well!
Here are some shots of us practicing baseball. Unfortunately we didn´t have a field to play on or enough mitts for everyone but we took turns and just practiced throwing the ball to each other and doing grounders and pop-flies, and then of course batting.
Okay, so now I am going to give you an introduction to some of my new buddies that are actually in my study abroad group. We will start with...drum roll please-drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...Berkley Kershisnik!
Matt wants to get into Med school and become a pediatric surgeon. He also served his mission in Brazil and has only been home about 6 months or so. If he doesn´t get into med school he wants to do physical therapy. He is a super nice guy and has actually started talking to people, so I don´t know if we could quite justify murdering him every time now!
Last week Michele decided to go swimming with her glasses on, since she is practically blind without them and doesn´t want to use contacts. Problem is, the ocean was a little bit hungry that day and ate her glasses, so she is now sporting a beautiful pair of Brazilian glasses that she is not to fond of, but she looks fantastic no matter what so it doesn´t really matter.
Okay, our last contestant...er, hooligan of the day is Natalia Ortolano
Well that is it for now my little family, I will talk to some more people and get the scoop on them for another day, I think that this novel is already long enough as it is. Do any of you actually read it all the way through? Well if you do then I think you are just the cat´s meow...that or you don´t have anything better to do! Just remember that goblins are real-they steal your socks, but only the left ones, and that frying pans are the way to go : P
Oh, and Mitchell Mender wanted me to send all this information about him: (I told him I was getting info on everyone to send to my mom, you can pick and choose what you choose to believe from his humble description of himself!) ´Ah in that case tell your mom I'm an RM, I have my eagle scout, I'm Pre-law that's why I'm a philosophy major, I'm president of the Pre law association at BYU. I was captain of my football, national track athlete, vice president of my choir, I have an internship at a law firm this fall, and was first counselor in my elders qiurum presidency. ´
Mitch likes the AC up super high, he freezes everyone out during class and people have actually started stealing the remote for the AC and hiding it from him. It is true that he is a philosophy major and that he is an RM, he served in Salvador Brazil. He is a lot of fun and adds a certain spice to our group-again, take that how you will!
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