Ethan's Second Report
This is my report for August/September 1999.
Reference Ethan R. L. Quant's Daily Diary!
Wow! I cant believe that a month has passed already. So much has happened since I wrote my last report. My social life for one, it has taken off. I have been to parties on top of parties. Its like every weekend there is a reason for a party and there is someone who is having it. I went to my first rodeo too. It was funny because I looked around and it did not take me very long to she that I was the only, well you know, non-cowboy there. It was fun though, I did the line dance and everything. I personally don't like country music, and thats all they play here. I couldn't get in the grove on the dance floor, but being the great dancer that I am I found out the secret to dancing to country music. It is the same way you dance to hip hop but it with a faster tempo. Man, when I found this out I was butterflying and bouncing all over the place. Then the weekend after that some dj's from Curitiba came to my town and they were playing all techno all night, like dancing to country, there is a trick to this one too. I was trying to get in the grove and then I thought hey this is aerobic music. So I started doing aerobic to the music and then everyone was doing what I did. It was so cool, I even got a prize for a dance contest. Thanks to my Auntie Alice I am now known as of the best dancers in the town.
The other weekend we went to this club like thing, the were playing samba music, I accepted the fact that there was no secret to doing the samba so I had to learn it. I made a complete idiot of myself on the floor, when I did my version of the samba. My sister, out of pity for me I guess, decided to teach me the dance of Brazil. After quite a bit of crash courses (literally) I got the hang of it, well sort of. It was now time to show off my newly learnt samba. I went to another club and got in samba mode, I found my partner and at first she was leading. I quickly took the lead and showed her who was the man! Our insurance companies are debating now to see who will pay bill for the surgery that she had to get on her feet. I told her that I was sorry, I can't help it if her feet kept getting in the way.
I, for the first time in my life, uttered the words "I'm not going out tonight man, I'm too tired." isn't that frightening. This came as a result of one party to many. This was a holiday weekend and a huge party call "Festa de Amigos" The whole town and then some was going to be there. I was too tried to go, my host brother was disappointed at the fact that I didn't go, but this didn't stop him from having a good time. He and everyone else didn't come home until 9:00am the next morning.
I have a lot of time on my hands during the day since I come home from school at 11:45 am. So after lunch I normally go to sleep. This was beginning to bother me because I started getting fat, and I found that I was thinking about home too much. Most of you should know this because I sent out a letter about how homesick I was. To remedy this problem I decided to take up some extracurricular activities. Now, I play basketball on the weekends with some guys that I found. They play on my town's team. I am also taking tennis lessons three times a week. I have Portuguese classes for two hours everyday and go to the gym every night. My schedule here is beginning to look like how it did when I was in the Bahamas, this is a good
thing. I think that the best way to avoid getting homesick is to keep your self busy. So that is what I am trying to do.
I got registered this month also. If you have been in the country for a month and did not register with the federal police you have to pay a $800 fine. I came to Brazil on the seventh of August. I went to Curitiba (which is about a four hour drive from where I live) to get registered it was one week before is was here for one month. They police said that I could not
get registered because of lack of documentation. He gave me a list of things that I needed to complete the registration, and told me to come back in one week. So I'm thinking that this guy is crazy in one week I will have to pay $800. I got everything in order and went back to Curitiba to get registered. They could not find proof of something. I was getting nervous
now, I got everything on the list so I didn't know what he was talking about. This was like about 9:00 in the morning we left and I was confused. I realized that I left my keys on the desk so I ran back inside the office and found the copy of the statement I got from the bank on the floor. I show it to the guy and he said this is what I needed. So I got registered,
with a whole 2hrs to spare.
I went to Londrina for my first orientation with all of the other exchange students in my district. There are about 25 students in this district. However I am the only exchange student in my town. There are 6 boys (including my self) and 17 girls, two students were absent from the orientation. I was asked to do the whole introduction thing in the middle of the meeting because I was late. It is a 2 1/2 hour drive from my town to Londrina. I was not penalized for this. During the meeting the Chairman basically went over what was said in all of the past orientations in South Florida. I spent most of the day after the meeting talking to one girls from South Africa, and two from the USA and several others from countries I can't
remember. I was mostly explaining to them that in the Bahamas we do not walk around on all fours, in loin cloths and live in huts. Also for some strange reason they were surprised at the fact that I can speak English so well. I had my self a little fun with this one. I told them that the only reason that I speak English so well is because my mother in the Royal Adviser to the king of the Bahamas, and that we live in the Castle, and everyone who lives in the castle can speak English. They were all amazed by this and they actually believed me. After laughing to my self I informed them that English is the national language of the Bahamas, but we have a
very strong dialect and when we speak to each other it sometimes sound as though we are speaking another language. I was surprised to see that I was the only black person in this group of exchange students. There was one girl from Oregon USA, who told me that she had never seen a black person up close and asked me if I would mind her touching my skin. When she came into touch me I said BOO, and she jumped for Heaven.
They also went over the trips and cost. The first trip is in October it is for 1 week and I think it is to the Pantanal. The cost is $340.00 the Northeast trip is in January and that one is for almost a month. That is the one that everyone goes on. They said that it will cost about 1,300.00 know they did not say whether it was dollars or Reias. There are two more trips but I think that these two are the one that I really want to go the most.
I celebrated my birthday this month too. I went to school and when I came inside of the class everyone started singing happy birthday in Portuguese to me. Then they gave me this card which all of them signed. Some of it was in Portuguese and some in English. Then as I was leaving school one of the teachers asked me why everyone was telling me congratulations. I told her that it was my birthday and she got in the grove too. Then she asked if I heard from my family in the Bahamas yet. As I thought about that I became saddened because I felt so useless. There was nothing that I could to help the situation directly, over there. I told her that I did talk to my brother Monday and he told me that everything was fine. When I got home my host sister told me that the phone was for me. I thought that it was one of my friends wanting to know if I was going to play basket ball. Imagine my surprise when I said hello and it was my mother's voice on the other end. She said that she called to wish me a happy birthday and that she hoped that I was enjoying my day. We talked about the hurricane. She told me not to be worried, and that Freeport was okay. This conversation with my mother did put my mind at ease, it was like a breath of fresh air.
I also had my first visit to my host family's farm. Man it is huge, and beautiful. My host brother said whenever I want to I can invite the exchange students up there for a weekend or something.
This is my monthly report for the month of August/September you can expect another report from me one month from today.
Tchau!
Ethan R. L. Quant
OUTBOUND
ROATRY YOUTH EXCHANGE STUDENT
1999-2000
ARAPOTI, PARANA, BR.
