Odds & Ends

Here are a few more pics from my amazonas trip. I´m having my birthday party Saturday (my birthday=Friday; I´ll be 19 on the 30th-woohoo!), so be on the lookout!
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More

There are 2 more from the Artesanato with Lianna and me with a cool artpiece, the cool artpiece by itself, Paty and me with sunscreen everywhere (once the bottle explodes it´s difficult to not have a sunscreen fight), and the outside of my school-INEC.

Artesanato

The Other Jesus´ Birthday

These were all at Jesus´ birthday party. In the first pic is Omar (Mexico), Jesus (Mexico), me, Tine (Denmark), and Heather (NY, U.S.). The next is Heather, me, Tine, Jesus, Omar. And the last one is Jose, me, Heather, Samuel :) :) :)

Caranguejo

So today I ate caranguejo. What is caranguejo you ask? Maybe I should have asked that before I went, hahaha. Anyways, it was crab. Not already freshly prepared on a plate, but crawling around in a giant bucket then unceremoniously thrown in a boiling pot by a 7 year old. I admit, I was really scared to eat it. They were freaking staring at me as I crushed the leg with a special stick on a cutting bored and peeled off its exoskeleton. I just had to remember my number one rule about food here--don´t think about it. Just eat it! And all of a sudden it was delicious.
Sorry, no pics for this one...I don´t think you´d want to see them anyways, it was a mess. Caranguejo rocks :)

Amazonia II

Here are more photos I promised! The building (ish thing) was on the beach, but it´s very makeshift. They have to rebuild it every year because the tide comes in and destroys it. The pic with me and all the girls is at a huge festa that lasts 10 days in Colinas, which is basically a state fair turned into an all night-every night party. Then there´s Paty´s farm and a pic of cows. OMG there were so many cows, and they´re so different from our cute black and white ones--check ém out. They have a hump like a camel and a neck like a turkey. Anyways, the boat pic is of our little journey to the island with the mexican exchangers Jesus and Omar, Paty´s dad and driver, and Paty. Oh yeah, here´s my actual address (the other one is wrong):

Maggie Ainsworth
Av. Mal Castelo Branco 611/801
Cabral
Teresina-Pi
Brasil
64.000.810

Amazonia

I have so many more photos then this, but my computer will only let me post so many at a time! Anyways, here are pictures of my awesome trip to Amazonia. I traveled for 2 days in a car with 2 mexican exchange students, my friend Paty, her dad, and their driver. Yeah, 6 of us in 1 truck! It was so worth it though! Every night we stopped in a different city to stay the night with family, enjoying their company and going to parties. Here I have pictures of the roadtrip, us on a boat (we crossed a lot of rivers, and we had to park the car on a boat and go across that way), Paty and I eating coconut straight from the tree, her farm, and me eating pirana. That´s right-pirana! We caught it ourselves in the river which we also swam in, and I have to say that it was quite tasty. You should try it! I´ll try to post the rest of them, but here ya go until then!

Our Special Parade

On September 1st, my entire school (preschoolers through highschoolers) got together in the courtyard to raise the flag, sing the national anthem, and then do a walk to the government building in protest of the corruption of Brazil. Harmless really-lots of little kids (the highschoolers didn´t have permission to do it per se) walking a few blocks with a car up front, blaring music like the national anthem and Brazilian pride songs. Everyone had painted faces, flags, signs, etc. People were watching from windows, came out into the streets, and we stopped in front of the government building for a short speech. If you didn´t know, a senator just came public that many senators were stealing money from the government. This is the main reason for the protest-the principle wanted to show them that we have to reform it for the future of the kids. Paty told me "This is why we are doing it--we want to show the government that even little kids hate the way they´re doing things. " Don´t get ahead of yourselves--Brazil is a really safe place to be right now. The protest was peaceful--My host mom said if it were up to her, every school should do this when I told her about it. Anyways, here are some photos. The one with me and the little girls with yellow headbands--that´s part of my fan club, lol. They come sit by me wherever I am when I hang out in the courtyard after school.

Friends at School

These are all photos of my friends at school. In the biggest picture, there´s [left to right back row] Helio, Felipe, Jorje, Monise, Me, Paty, Airton, Amanda, Renato, and in the front Anchieta and João. In the next picture there´s Airton and Paty. The third has Helio, Thyago, Monise, me, Paty, Airton, Amanda, and Renato. In the last, Henato, Felipe (sitting), Jorge, Monise (sitting), me, Renato, Amanda, and Paty. The last one´s another picture of my school--Instututo Educacional, or INEC. Gotta love it!

Photos of Brazil!