Brazil Week 2005

Brazil Week turned out to be a spectacular event, thanks to the hard work of my dear friend and collegue, Erica Delgado, and the support and enthusiasm of many faculty. Special thanks to the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies, the Center for the Americas, the College of Arts and Science, the Division of Student life, Vanderbilt Association of Hispanic Students and all the Brazilians and "Brazilians" that made this all possible.

We successfully founded the Brazilian Student Organization (BRASO - an acronym that also means "arm") meant to serve as a support network for Brazilians studying at Vanderbilt and to carry on what we hope will be an annual Brazil Week.

I have been meaning to update this blog since last april, when the vision for Brazil Week was conceived. Fortunately, we can skip through all the adventures, obstacles, and many nights of reconvening and I present to you here a brief overview of our week. All i can say is that Erica and I are bonded...for life. hehe ;o).

Monday, we had Prof. Bryan McCann from Georgetown University - his talk, titled: "Birth of the Brazilian Cool: Bossa Nova in the 1950s and 60," compared the birth of Bossa Nova to what was going on in the political scheme of Brazil at the time - very interesting. After the lecture, we had a small reception and then Erica and I went to dinner with Prof. McCann and two other professors. It was so funny to hear these three guys talk outside of the class room. Erica and I grilled them on student-teacher situations (what would you do if a student did this...) and they complained about how they never get to go out anymore now that they have kids, hehe.

Tuesday, we sat out on the wall outside of Rand and handed out candy and flyers about our events. Then we had another lecture by Prof. James Walvin from York University. He gave a really interesting talk on "The Importance of the Abolition of Slave Trade" Then we had a reception afterwards.

Wednesday, Jefferson, one of the FIPSE-CAPSE students from Sao Paulo, gave a presentation during lunch time about "Brazilian Hip-Hop". I stayed at the front of the classroom with him to manage the power point presentation and translate if he needed. It was funny because every time he asked me to translate something, i didn't know how to say it in english.

Then we had a panel discussion involving Prof. Jane Landers, Prof. Fitz, and a graduate student, James Krause, talking about "Why Brazil is always the country of tomorrow and never the country of today?" - that was also great. Jane Landers spoke about her research project and gave a historical perspective, in terms of slavery, etc. Prof. Fitz gave a perspective on Literature, and James talked about the topic in terms of culture/Brazilian popular music.

About 40 people showed up for samba lessons that night! Gilmara and I prepared a short powerpoint presentation about the origins of samba and the diffrent kinds that exist across Brazil. Then we gave lessons for about an hour. It was so fun. (and good exercise).

Thursday, we sat out on the wall again during lunch time and passed out flyers and candy. The Brazilian grad students also came out to help.

Friday, the FIPSE-CAPSE students that went to Howard flew down to Nashville and stayed with us for the Weekend.

We had capoeira lessons in the late afternoon which were well attended.

Finally, the big celebration was on Saturday...it was incredible. We spent the entire day decorating and preparing McTyeire. Imagine this: the fireside lounge, with table cloths on the mini tables, candles, and yellow and green decorations. We set up the food in there: feijoada, feijao tropeiro, bobo de camarao, cocada, and arroz branco. The food was delicious - cooked by one of the Brazilian caterers in Nashville.

Then, in the dining hall, we moved out all the tables and chairs and that's where the samba band set up their equipment. There was the band, the nashville samba school that played bateria for an hour, and the capoeira presentation. we had beautiful lighted signs, a power point presentation showing images of Brazil, and we collected money to donate to the Natal Sem Fome campaigne.

The event started at 6PM, and people were already arriving and waiting in a line at 5:30. we had an attendence of over 250 people!!! (that is no exageration). We had Brazilians from the nashville community, Vanderbilt, as well as from other universities nearby. Professors came with their families, grad students came, the Chancellor came, etc. It was AMAZING.

I couldn't have imagined a better turn out. Now that everyone knows what a success Brazil Week was, they are mobilized and ready for next year.

Thanks again to all those who were invovled and participated. Erica - I couldn't have done this without you!

To view all photos from the event, please visit http://photos.yahoo.com/chaya221 and click on the "Brazil Week" album.

Brazil Week

Here is my next project. The vision: establish a Brazil Week here at Vanderbilt. There was one 3 years ago, but it hasn't been repeated. For a school that calls itself the center of the Luso-Brazilian Studies universe, there could definitely be more activities going on to celebrate this.

Well, i'm excited....REALLY excited - perhaps enough for the whole school, hehe. And i'm also determined to see this happen. With the help of student organizations on campus and all the big shots that work over in Kirkland Hall (and some of their money to make all this possible), Semana do Brasil has the potential to be a smashing hit.

The idea is to have a designated week (hopefully in coordination with International Education Week in November) celebrating not only the richness of Brazilian culture, but also the ties that Vanderbilt has developed over the years with the country. Events include, but are not limited to: an opening reception in the Sarrat art gallery (which will be displaying Brazilian art or photography) catered by Rand - with Brazilian cuizine (the executive chef has already agreed to cater!), a display in the library, a couple of Brazilian films throughout the week, lectures, panel discussion, etc.

This is all still in the planning stages. Next week I have a meeting with Judith Pennywell, the director of International Student and Scholar Services, to discuss possible dates.

There are several faculty members with research interests in Brazil, the portuguese department is hitting off the ground, we bring 3-4 students from Brazil to study here each semester through the FIPSE-CAPES exchange program, not to mention the many Brazilian students pursuing graduate studies here at Vanderbilt in various departments, and opportunites for study abroad, especially for grad students interested in research and language immersion. It's time to emphasize the awesome resources our school has to offer by having a week where we recognize one of it's impressive feats: the creation of the first Center for Brazilian Studies (now known as the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies) in the United States.

Check out the following articles that explore Vanderbilt's historical and current ties to Brazil.

minha inspiração:



(ainda to com saudades de voces!)

Stay tuned for more "Brazil Week" updates! I will be needing help with organization, planning, manpower for the actual events, funding, advertising, etc. So there are many ways you can get involved. I would like to see about starting a student organization focusing on Brazil - the primary goal of which will be to organize Brazil week each year. I want this to be an annual event that everyone looks forward to in the fall.

If you can't be directly involved, your verbal encouragement means just as much. please offer comments, questions, concerns, suggestions, etc. If you CAN be involved, let's talk! email me: leah.c.lewis@vanderbilt.edu and put "Brazil Week" in the subject.

até a próxima, meu povo!

Day 8 - ASB 2005

Saturday
March 12, 2005

Driving, driving, driving.
I was able to get some shut-eye during the night. By morning time, everyone was pretty anxious to reach Cashville again.



We stopped in Little Rock at Nader’s house. I got two words: Albaloo polo. Bah bah! It was so nice to be in a Persian home again. Upon reaching there, only 5 and ½ hours left in our journey.

By that time I was a little grumpy due to: lack of sleep, food, end of a dank week, school starting, watching a sappy love story, and being in a cramped van.

30 minutes away from Nashville, the girls turned up the music in the car so we’d all be awake for our ride into town. As we pulled into the driving circle of Towers, we blasted Madonna’s “Like a prayer”….what had been the wake-up song all week. And the guys had Alabama’s “Dixie landilie” bumpin in their van. haha, what a homecoming.

I was back in my dorm by 1am.

Here’s to: “Madonna, Jack Johnson, Fluff, Gracie, Loco (the mayor of the dump), Morgan the Duck, awesomeness in the morning, the advil incident, diaphram raviolis, laughing until it hurts, 24 hour van drive insanity, beach and sunny days.....but most of all missing the most DANK week ever!! Bring me back to Bville!!!!" - Kelly

couldnt've said it better myself. yeah for the dankest ASB group!


Fluff! (don't hate me for putting up this pic, haha)


Now it’s back into the swing of school. Trying to ride the spring break high as long as it will last. Have much to think about and an awesome group to keep in touch with.
B-ville ASBers, be sure you post comments! Got anything to add? Let me know.

more pictures can be found at http://photos.yahoo.com/chaya221

Keep it real, palabra! Para verdad. ;o)

Day 7 - ASB 2005

Friday
March 11, 2005


Another day in Mexico today. David picked us up around 9am. We worked around the orphanage. Grace assigned each of us tasks to do: painting the porch, taking out the trash (to the big trash pit which would then be burned), watering the plants, organizing all the stuff upstairs, and cleaning the bathrooms. Heather and I were in the bathrooms. It wasn’t so bad, but then I had to overcome my extreme fear of spiders in order to get rid of a big daddy (no, not a daddy long legs…we’re talking a large, big as your thumb, green and hair creature). Ekh! It was gross.



Then we visited the local school not too far from the orphanage and handed out pencils and candy to each classroom. David had all the people that represented different countries introduce themselves. Sumeet – India, Nader – Iran, Lisa – China, Julie – Mexico, Dave – Boston, USA, and me – Chile.



After school, a bunch of the kids came over to “la casa grande” to hang out, play soccer, climb on top of Jon, Nader and Dave, etc. It was a pretty laid back afternoon.



We left for an open market/bartering experience later in the afternoon. Places like that are awesome for taking pictures. Bright colors and people selling all types of creative things...one can capture aspects of Mexican life that you won’t see elsewhere.



We treated David and Kyle to dinner at Garcia’s – a restaurant in Mexico, near the open market. It was soo good.

We then drove back to home base, gave food and Spanish bibles to David for the service he does, did highs & lows, and presented the last of the life maps.

The first people who opened one of the vans to clean it out were greeted by a foul rotting fishy smell. They turned the whole van inside out and couldn’t figure out where the smell was coming from…then Sumeet checked the trunk. It was none other than Morgan the duck – the wooden souvenir Dave had picked up out of the ocean while we were at South Padre. Lovely…a 24 hour trip with that, haha.

Luckily for everyone, the smell aired out quickly and nobody suffered - except for Morgan who was left behind in the dumpster.

We packed up shop and left for Nashville by 1am.

Quotes of the day:

Dave: When you call my name…
Kelly: What’s it like?
Dave: It’s like a little prayer
Sumeet: uh huh, where you at?
Dave: I’m down on my knees
Sumeet: Where you wanna go?
Dave: I wanna take you there
Kelly: What time is it?
Dave: In the midnight hour
Kelly: What can you feel?
Dave: the POWER!

“me llamo es…” – Nader ;o)

“Why do we have so much left over money?!” - Dave
“it’s for emergencies” – Kelly
“guys, we still have time to have an emergency” – Jenna

“Okay, that’s it! Dave has first shift in that van. He must have one hand on the wheel and one hand on Morgan at all times!” - Sumeet

Day 6 - ASB 2005

Thursday
March 10, 2005



Mexico!!
Today we crossed the border.
We got picked up around 8:30am by David Garza – the guy who was coordinating our travel between Brownsville and Mexico, basically letting us tag along and participate in what he does everyday. He had with him his sidekick, Kyle – a guy our age who had recently joined the mission project – “Jesus Is The Only Way Ministries” (a.k.a JITOW).



I think I can speak for all when I say that it was not what we expected. David was mad cool – dude really knew how to relate to us and make us laugh. Another Joe-like character that made the atmosphere a fun one. But we arrived at the “orphanage” only to find that there were no kids there. We were all disappointed because we were under the impression that we’d be tutoring and working with orphans.



Well…what ensued was a learning experience nonetheless.



We arrived at the “orphan house”/JITOW “headquarters” (that’s just what I’m calling it) which was located away from the developed part of Mexico. It was about an hour drive from the border. We drove through dirt roads, farms, and “wild” chickens, goats, dogs (kangaroos?? haha) roamed around. We got the grand tour of the place and a low down of what goes on there, the kind of service they do, etc. The tour was given by a lady named Grace – recently moved to Mexico to leave at the “headquarters” – who also felt it necessary to tell us about all the miracles that have occurred with people “witnessing” and being “saved”. The religious spin was a little strong and rubbed a lot of us the wrong way. It was a little bit over the edge. Despite her constant preaching and sometimes condescending tone, she had a good heart and had put a lot of time, effort, and money into service for this community. No one can deny that what they were doing was good.



We then grabbed some tools from the shed and packed back into David’s 15 person van. He took us to a colonia built on a landfill. Imagine. A colonia is basically a neighborhood that doesn’t have any of the basic things you might think are necessary for a community to function. No electricity, no running water, few of the people have jobs, no sewage, nothing really…it’s a wonder how these people survive. (a colonia "fact sheet" – click to read more about colonias on the Texas/Mexico border). In this particular colonia, JITOW had built a church and we brought with us bags of rice, clothing, and shoes to distribute among the members of the community.



Few people had cars – the rest either used their legs or donkeys for transportation. People dug through the trash trying to find anything that they could possibly resell and water tanks drove around the land fill with dirty over-priced canal water.

We met a guy named “Loco” - the “mayor of the neighborhood,” according to Grace. He spoke some English which he had supposedly learned from tourists. David eventually told some of us on the side that it was all bologna…but Grace sincerely believed it! haha.



The group took a lunch break at a gas station and then we headed to another neighborhood. It was in a little better shape than the colonia, but not by much. It least it was not built in a landfill, more of the people had jobs, and there was some running water. We cleared the driveway of one of the houses that was full of huge rocks.



At the corner of the street, we saw some kids standing around with puppies and so we all took turns going over and talking to them. I was happy to hear that they were going to school. There, school is only 4 hours a day. They wanted toys, but we had none to offer them. Their situation seemed much more hopeful than what we saw at the colonia.



It doesn't feel like we accomplished so much today. One of the things Grace said that probably had much truth to it, was that we can’t expect to make a huge change on the community in the short time that we’re here, but it is almost sure that we’ll walk away from the experience with more than what we were able to give. That’s kind of disheartening…but I guess the fact that it’s disheartening means that it made an impact on me. It made me so sad to see this part of the world in such dire need of so many necessities. I’m so apart from that world and as much as I have lived in poor financial conditions, never have I faced anything like this. The main/only goal of those people living in the colonia was survival. It wasn’t about improving their conditions – just survival. It was heartbreaking because there wasn’t really anything we could to do improve the situation for them. We can pick up trash, but it’s just gonna be there again the next day. The bags of rice are gonna run out and the clothes and shoes are gonna get worn. What then?



So today brought me into an awkward mood – it was really a humbling experience above all else.

We went back to the orphanage, hung out a bit and then David took us to a market to look around and buy souvenirs. That’s a bit weird – buying souvenirs when we’ve just left such a poverty stricken place. But in reality, I don’t think it’s healthy to feel bad about every single injustice that goes on in the world. I don’t know what the right thing to do is, but I don’t think giving up all material things is necessarily it either.

I remember one time at a fireside, someone shared a dream they had: there was some kind of reservoir and lots of people were drowning in it. People ran to the side of the water and attempted to pull out individuals one by one. Sometimes they were successful, sometimes they themselves fell in. And this lady noticed Abdu’l-Baha sitting on a hill nearby overlooking all this. She got angry because she didn’t understand why He wasn’t doing anything about it. People were dying and He was just sitting there. She approached Him and saw He had paper and pen in hand. And upon questioning, He told her that He was figuring out a way to drain the reservoir. Can you imagine how many more people will be saved? Though individual efforts are noble and courageous and will save precious lives, they will not ultimately solve the problem of people drowning in the reservoir. So what is the solution when it comes to poverty? What is the method to draining this reservoir?

Anyway, now we’re back…time for dinner, highs & lows, group games, and then bed.


Quotes of the Day:

“Is that a KANGAROO?!?!”
“yes Kelly, while you were napping in the car, we crossed into kangaroo inhabited land”
(it was a donkey)

“that’s bull taco!” – Nader

Day 5 - ASB 2005

Wednesday
March 9, 2005

Of the days we've been here so far, today has been my favorite. We left in the morning for La Esperanza Home for Boys (a Southwest Key program) - a juvenile home for youth who've crossed the border illegally, caught by authorities, and sent to this institution while the government decides whether to let them stay or deport them.

(Harsh Welcome to Children Seeking Asylum - click to read an article about a boy who made it to La Esperanza home and through the process, plus: key findings from Amnesty International about unacompanied immigrant children).

They divided us to work among different groups. Julie, Dave, Lori, and I were in the level with zero english. We worked with the boys on mathematics (improper & mixed fractions). I felt in my element with these kids.

Much to my delight, there were 5 Brazilians at the home. I was immediately drawn to them and had the opportunity to practice portuguese. They knew no english and spoke little spanish...but then they can always understand a great deal of spanish since the two languages are pretty similar. The high of my day was being with them. Josefino didn't quite fit in with the rest, even within the group of Brazilians. For some reason he had gotten a bad reputation among them. He's the one I talked to the most. We talked about Brazil, music, sports, how he got to the US and where he hoped to go - it's crazy what he had to go through. Not only the travel from Brazil to Mexico, but then having to raise enough money to pay for a cyote to get across the border (that alone was about $5,000...about 15,000 reis - brazilian currency)...it's probably the first/longest real conversation i've had in Portuguese. Leonardo was the only one from São Paulo - the rest were from Minas. Dave worked one on one with him for a good while. It was a kodak moment. Renat, Fabio and Luis were more loud and outgoing.



During the lunch break, I sat on one of the couches in the classroom and a bunch of the boys gathered around to talk. They asked loads of questions and told me about how they got to where they are and family that they had hopes of connecting with in the states. These boys ranged anywhere between 13 and 24 and I was impressed with their maturity and ability to talk about certain issues. Of course, they were quite successful at acting as young boys too, hehe - poking fun of each other and flirting with the girls.

At one point, the Brazilians were seated at my right and some of the Central Americans at my left. I was speaking back and forth between Spanish and Portuguese. Haha, the immediate constant switch was a bit challenging! It's easier to switch from Spanish to Portuguese than it is to switch from Portuguese to Spanish, if that makes sense. When I turned to my left, I kept slipping up with "eu, eles, vou, posso, etc...instead of yo, ellos, voy, puedo, etc." But it worked out. Being in that environment made me feel much more confident about speaking both languages.

A sad part of the day was when I was in the middle of talking with Fabio, and he got pulled away to go to court. He stalled as much as he could, but he had to go. I was disappointed at his sudden departure.

I really hope that things work out best for these kids. I hated getting to spend part of the day with them, getting to know their individual stories, only to have to leave and never see them again, and never know what will become of them. That's why leaving that place made me so sad...because being around those kids made me so happy. I wasn't thinking about being hungry and I wasn't worried about whether my Spanish or Portugese was "good enough" for them - it's all the same...we were on the same plane. We shared language and an uncertain future...perhaps theirs more uncertain than mine.

My heart goes out to them because they have gone through so much to get to where they are, and I wonder about the conditions that they lived in and the circumstances that brought them to try to enter the United States. They stay at La Esperanza Home for anywhere between 72 hours to 9 months, alone - w/o family - waiting to find out whether they'll get political asylum and/or permission to stay. The future is so uncertain for them.
So, that was that. I wish we could've spent more time with those kids - at least a few more hours.

It's a strange double standard that I encounter in other environments. The moment someone sees me struggle with Spanish, they say "it's okay, I know English..." And I tend to resent that because I want to become fluent and that won't happen if people keep allowing me to speak English just because it's "easier." Let me struggle, let me make mistakes - then correct me. But at the same time, there have definitely been times when I have said to people, "está bien, hablo español..." - because it might be easier or be more comfortable for some people to speak that way...and many times, that has been the case.



After that, we headed to South Padre Island. Kind of like Ocean City...except not at all. We got there around 4pm and stayed for about an hour. It was nice to hit a beach during break. It was pretty chilly/windy, but the sun was out. Definitely some relaxation/reflection time



On the way back, we ended up going the wrong way on Boca Chica. We went the wrong way for about 30-40 minutes, so we probably had been driving in Mexico for some time. Nothing but cacti, flores de pita and grass for miles and miles. What I initially imagined when I thought of driving through Texas. No sign of civilization anywhere...except some dirt roads and a shady looking farm shack. Dave had a strong desire to get a piece of the flor de pita that Maurizio had told us about a couple days earlier. It's really prevalent in south Texas and apparently edible. A couple obstacles: They're at the top of a palm tree type trunk, the leaves around the flower are really sharp, in the area we were driving, they were surrounded by cacti on all sides, snake holes, and the fact that it was probably illegal to cut them down. On the turn around, we found one that was close enough to the ground and the road so Dave could reach it with his knife. Just our luck - while he poses for a picture with his new found prize, border patrol pulls up. Of all the times for them to be driving by, haha. Luckily the guy didn't ask too many questions and we went on our way.



It was pretty dark by the time we reached homebase. On top of that, we were locked out because the other van went grocery shopping after we had led them in the wrong direction and as we embarked on our "flor de pita" adventure.

After that, we all reunited, cooked pizza, played ping-pong, cards, etc, and did our routine of highs and lows for the day. 3 more life maps were shared and we slowly went to the bed after that.



Quotes of the day:

“have you guys heard of blue grass?” – Nader
“I’ve heard of Green Day” – kid from La Esperanza Home

“Dude! There might be mushrooms on the farm!!” – Jon

“La migra, la migra!!” – Nader…trying to warn us of the approaching border patrol

“we could wake up and be like…whoa” – Jon

Day 4 - ASB 2005

Tuesday
March 8, 2005

Today was long, but not so much “make you dirty and sweat” kind of work.

When driving to our next project, Sumeet definitely drove on the wrong side of the road for a few seconds. This time we were working with YouthBuild USA– which is an amazing program that takes low income youth who haven’t finished highschool, gets them ready to get their GED and trains them for future job opportunities. It was a group of about 20 and in the mornings they all meet at their center, have announcements, appreciations, and boosts. They alternate days of work and study. Half of them stay and study and half of them go to the construction site. They’re building homes for low income families.

The weather was not as hot as it was yesterday. 70’s as opposed to the 80’s of yesterday.



So we helped build a house. But it seems we might’ve been more in the way than we were any help. We put up the frames of the house – what was left to put up and removed the wooden mold of the cement base of the neighboring house. The work was a lot harder than I imagined – I mean, just trying to remove a nail from a piece of wood – it took me 20 minutes to get my first one out. Even then I kept having to ask Riley (!!!) and Steve for help.



It was nice to work along side youth our age. They were so willing to work with us.



Joe – now he was a character! He definitely made the atmosphere we worked in a fun one. He gave us all jobs to do, but never left with just telling us what to do – he wanted us to learn it and understand. So he would explain things to us – even things we didn’t need to know for our particular task. He was funny and whitty and made us feel very comfortable.



After some of us finished building a door frame (there were about 5 of us girls and Sumeet) – built the whole frame by scratch) then Dave, Nader, and Jon come along and attach it to the wall and claim it as “their door”. Hah! Men! That’s okay, their masculinity was questioned when it took them a long frustrating hour to get some nails into some pieces of wood, haha). Joe came to us and was like “is this the way you guys work? Or are you trying to piss me off?” haha…he was kidding (I hope!) – but that’s the kind of humor that made it so fun to work with him – plus, his sincerity and genuine interest in seeing us learn.



When we were packing up for the day, he asked one of us (Jenna) how many roles we have in life. There are many: daughter, friend, student, future mother, etc…the point was, that there were many roles and so you can never say that if you do drugs that it only affects you. it affects a lot more than that. Something to think about…



We had “appreciations” at the end of the day and the youth expressed lots of gratitude for us having been there. We thanked them for everything – especially opening up to us and sharing their lives and their big dreams with us. I wish I had gotten to talk to some of the youth during the day.

I found out later that many of them have kids of their own and are trying to raise enough money to leave "B-ville" for a better life.



They presented us with a hard hat, Youth Build hammer, and a certificate – above and beyond our expectations. They didn’t have to do that.

We got back here around 4pm. A bunch of us crashed only to be woken up a couple hours later by Sumeet. It was time to work on “Life maps”. That was fun. Basically the idea was to make a map of things in your life that contribute to making you the person you are today. Then we made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner. Sooo good! Of course, all our dinners will taste exceptionally good to me.

Then we all piled into the vans and went bowling. Let me just say that riding in the van with Sumeet is a “special” experience, haha. He kind of reminds me of me…at least things that I’d likely do (which is probably not such a hopeful prospect for those who have to share the road with me in the future). We went the wrong way on the high way and in about 5 minutes had reached the border of Mexico. There was no where to turn around, so we had to approach the border. Nader freaked out: “we are two middle eastern drives, in 2 white vans, around the border. What are you doin??!!!...we gotta cross the border…don’t be sketch!” Dave: “is the bowling alley in Mexico??”

The guys at the border were cooperative – we were able to back up and were then guided out by security. Another “Sumeet” moment: Sumeet pulled into a parking lot to turn around…except when he got to the exit of the lot, he realized it was a one way road we had pulled off of, haha.

We finally reached the bowling alley after the 3rd try. It was fun.
On our way out, Sumeet drove through a mall lot to cut through to the high way and drove 50 mph over a speed bump (“uh, guys…I think we hit something”)…yeah, haha, it’s the opposite of my 5 mph “sorry guys, I was going too fast” incident back in high school (oh so long ago, right?). Then, Kelly pointed out our exit we were supposed to take and Sumeet swerved “off the exit” into the grass…a little too early before the ramp…Kelly was only pointing out the “exit Boca Chia Blvd. 1 Mile” sign. We all screamed and he swerved back onto the road. We died of laughter, and some were just scared to death.

We made it back in one piece and then had 3 life map presentations. We talked about our highs and lows of the day and then hit the sack.

Good things, good things.

Quotes of the day:

“uh, Sumeet? WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!”

Kelly: “I have some throat drops”
Dave: “haha”
Kelly: “What’s funny?”
Dave: “haha, nothing – it’s just that Nader’s been complaining of a sore throat for the past 3 days now.”

“Why aren’t they following us?!” – Sumeet
“Uh, why would they?! You just led them to the border!” – Kelly

“It was fun tonight!”
“yeah, except for the time Sumeet almost killed us”
“you mean the 10 times Sumeet almost killed us?”