Keely from Pryor OK to Brazil

 How is everyone? well i am having a great time. the  other day i was on my way to belo horizonte and i was thinking about everything and i realized >how incredibly happy i was. despite missibng my family, friends, home, and >everything else, i am so  happy. i have changed so much these past 7 months i cant even believe it. not personality or anything, but inner stuff. like i am so much more self confident and feeling independent. i love this feeling i have inside of me, like i can do anything. paul was right, i was shy. but this exchange was so incredibly good for me. like they thought i was too shy to do my exchange this year and that i should wait another year in order for me to become ore outward and independent, but in all actuallity, this is what has made me be like that and i cant think of anything that would have made me other than this. i  feel so good, i mean so good. before i left, whenever i had a problem with something or if i had to email paul or my principle or anything, i just didnt want to do it, i felt very apprehensive about it, but now, its like, whats the big deal keely? just do it! and so i do. i guess once you have to deal with these problems in another country and in another language, its absolutely nothing to do it in your own.
 

 well besides that, this weekend was the exchange weekend in Caraça, a city about an hour away from mine. its known for beauty and waterfalls. also for being pretty cold at night. we left on saturday morning and got there around midday (we left from BH, further than from my city). we had a couple of meetingsw, lunch, then some more meetings. all just talking about how our exchange was/is going, school, home, city, any problems, and that sort. then it was dinner time, then free time for us all to socialize. after dinner i walked downstairs to ge t some of my allergy medicine and i moved my suitcase a little bit and this HUGE spider ran up the wall. i have only seen like 3 spiders my entire time in brasil, so when i thought about spiders, i thought i wasnt afraid of them anymore. boy, was i wrong. i was  SO freaked out about this spider i fell over onto the floor. then i went and got one of the guys to come kill it. the room was infested with spiders, ugly gross disgusting spiders *shivers* so  all the inbounds, outbouds, and rebounds socialized forever and it was so cool because everybody there spoke english and portuguese, so whatever come out fastest worked because we all understood anyways. it was so funny and fun. then on sunday we walked to a waterfall about 2km away. i didnt wear my swimming suit but when i got there i rolled my pants up and walked in the water. then me and my friend  olga decided to climb to the top of the waterfall. so up we wnt without any problems. then we decided to go up to the very top, a considerable amount higher than where we were. so up we went. this was a little more difficult because it was a lot higher and had lots more rocks to climb. then when we were almost at the top we ran into this huge termite/ant/something or another house that was bigger than us with no way but about a foot wide path beside it to get by by. after deciding there was no way around it, olga said she would go first. so there she went. she said it was alright, and i could come on over. so as i inched my way closer shew says to forget it, because the trail ends, there are only trees over there. as im listening to her, i hear a loud hiss, on response, i freak, trip, and fall down like 3 feet of rocks. meanwhile, olga is still on the other side of
the termite mound. now we cant even see each other. shes like, ¨what was that keely, are you okay?¨ ¨well, i am but i think i just >heard a snake...¨ so shes freaking because now she not only has to get past this termite mound, again, now she has to get past what we believe to be a snake. she she makes a run for it and we got down that mountain and back to safety asap. then on the walk back i got really really  sunburnt and yeah, ouch. then after the waterfall there was lunch.
 

 now i wasnt a witness to this, but apperently in the cafeteria there was a man that heard some of the exchange students, including my friend jesse, a jewish american, started talking about his suppost of  hitler and his dislike of the jews, which, logically, jesse, wouldnt like too much. now im not sure about what happened there and what the details are, except for that of which i already told. now later, all the exchange students are in a room getting their stuff together, when a man walks in. this room was long and narrow, with the entrance  and the exits on opposite sides. so when he is walking through, everyone just glared and gave the slow irony clap. and that was my closest encounter with discrimination so far. now thats only a jist of the story, when i know anything else, ill let you all know.

now  today in school was english class. my class was going through the lyrics of, ¨imagine¨ by john lennon, then they listened to the song. while listening and thinking about all these words, i got very emotional, considering we hardly ever actually imagine all the people.. i became teary eyed and thought it was a good time to say  something to the entire class. now this was my first time ever saying something to the entire class in portuguese, especially something of  importance. i just told them how important it was the actually understand the words to that song, and so many others like it because  the point of me doing this exchange was and is to learn about another
country and the views of another country. i shared with them about the man this weekend and what he said and stressed the importance of  knowing how others feel about the things you said. during all this i was crying, everyone else started crying, and then when i was  finished, i sat down and everyone clapped, told me congratulations  and that was well said. i apologized for my horrible portuguese, and they just told me, the point was crystal clear, and thats what  mattered. i felt a lot better and now i feel a lot closer to my class.

MSN