Diogo Diniz

2003-04 Inbound from Brazil

Date of Birth: August 30, 1986
Hometown: Curvelo, Brazil
Sponsor: Curvelo-Norte Rotary Club, District 4760, Brazil

Host: Deerwood Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida USA
School: Bishop Kenny High School

Diogo's Bio

 Hi. I'm from Brazil. I'm 16 years old right now, but on August 30 I'll be 17. I'm going to school at Bishop Kenny. I like soccer, and I'm training to surf. I have one sister. She is named Gabriela, and is 15 years old.

See, I don't like to write, and so I'm finishing here. If you want to know more, ask me! 

Arrival in Jacksonville

November 23 Journal

OK! I know. I'm late for writing my journal, but now it's going fine. Well, I'll start to write and I'll tell what happened with me in four months.

My host father is Bob Triglia. He's a great and funny guy. He helps me a lot. He plays drums and is very cool. My host mother is Cissy Triglia. She's funny and helps me a lot too. I talk to her a lot. She's a very nice person, but she hurt her foot and is now on crutches. Her new kitchen is almost finished and now we eat in the kitchen when she cooks.

I have two brothers, Bobby is 15 and Mikey is 14. My two sisters are Catherine, 16, and Caroline, who is 12. Caroline is a very good soccer player.

First month in here was great - everything is new, new language, new place, and new people. And this month I start in school. I am sorry to say this, but it is not a good school, and my host mom thinks it is dangerous, so my host parents helped to change me to a school that is much better. I have to say thanks for my host family, because they are great people and I like them very much.

So after this comes my second month and my third month here. I started having a problem with friends, because I'm missing my friends at home, and here I didn't find friends yet, so I feel bad. But one more time my family helped me, and now I have friends in school (but it's hard to hang out with them, because the city is so big).

Other things are cool here. Everybody helps me learn football - it's very cool and funny, but isn't better than the "real" football. 

Oh, I forgot. When Thanksgiving is here, I will travel with my host family to another place that appears very cool. I hope it goes great. When I come back I will tell everybody what happens.

Well, now I will tell about my school. It is true that I am not doing too good in school. I didn't study, and because of this I can't play soccer and other sports. I know, I have to study, and I am starting now. I hope to better my grades.

But I have one thing that is very cool. I started learning lacrosse. It's very fun, and I like to play. Lacrosse is very violent, but it's fine. Ah! About lacrosse, it isn't in school, it's a club, so I can practice and play the season. It starts in the spring. 

OK, but now nothing else is new. Just that I need to find a girlfriend for me. But everything else is fine! OK! See you later!

January 3 Journal

My Thanksgiving was very nice. Me and my host family went to Crystal River. This place is beautiful. And quiet, where you can swim with manatees, a big marine animal.

By the way, during Thanksgiving I got to meet my host mother's part of the family. The whole family is nice, and I had a good time over there. And I forgot that I went fishing, but I didn't catch any fish, the only bad thing that happened.

After Thanksgiving, I went to Georgia to some farm named Black Diamond, where I was feeling like a redneck. People went hunting, and killed some animal. I saw a real gun, and yelled to some to shoot, and played a lot of football. And met more people of the family.

The Disney World weekend was the best. For this trip, I have to say thank you to my Rotary Club, to Ken Weiss for giving me a ride, and Al Kalter for organizing it. The first day there was for meeting people from the other districts, and this was fun. The second day we went to the park. I don't need to tell you that this was very nice and fun, with everybody together. But everybody looked tired, because we had to wake up at 6:30. Imagine how it was for people who went to sleep at 4:00 in the morning. And tonight, people are going to Downtown Disney, and are going by bus, and of course I stayed over there with them. The other thing was meeting over Brazilian people, and I can talk Portuguese with them.

Now it is Christmas. Happy Christmas for everybody. My Christmas was one hundred percent. I can't believe it but I got lots of presents, and I have to say to my family thank you so much - they are really, really nice with me. For Christmas we stayed at home, and my host uncle came with his family, and my host grandmother (Nana) came to the house too. These people all came for lunch and stayed for dinner - very nice, I like this. And I forgot, my host brother and sister woke me up at 6:30 to open presents! But this was OK. Thank you, my host family, and Happy Christmas.

After Christmas, my host family is going to travel. We are going to Boston, and after Boston to New Hampshire. In Boston, we are meeting my host dad's cousins, and they are going with us. This is very wonderful, because it is the first time I see snow. It is very pretty. Everything is white and cold, but this is all right.

I decide to go snowboarding. It's very difficult. I fell so much, my back hurt so much, but it doesn't matter about my hurt. Just learning to snowboard. And then it was nice because I could go to the top of the mountain and I came to a course marked "difficult", but I came down it. And the host cousin is nice, very funny. And one more time I say thank you for my family. And Happy New Year for everybody.

Today I went to a hockey game. It was very nice. The Barracudas vs. Miami. A good game, went to overtime and then to penalty shots. Hockey is a good game to watch, but don't have fight any players, get glove and start punching, see this missing, but another game I hope will have fights.

One other thing - where are the girls in Jax? Every girl has a boyfriend, so I didn't find a girlfriend yet!