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Go, Go Brazil!
I'm a native to San Diego who grew up in the Point Loma/Ocean Beach area and I've definitely noticed the presence of Brazilian students in the Point Loma/Ocean Beach area for several years now. My experience with them has not been positive. Large numbers of Brazilian students have lived in the two apartment complexes I've lived in over the past several years, and every time they have been noisy, inconsiderate, and disrespectful of the rights of everyone around them. Whether its been eating in restaurants or residing in apartments close to mine, these Brazilian students are very loud vocally, they're usually in groups, they smoke this sweet-smelling type of cigarette (could be marijuana) that permeates the apartment complex, and act as though the world centers around them. They routinely violate the apartment complexes' quiet-time policy, having parties late into the night that are loud and disrupting to the tenants around them. There was one incident when a large group of them came on to the apartment complex premises and used the barbecue facilities, turning their radio on real loud, smoking those stinking sweet-smelling cigarettes, and talking loud (and sometimes yelling). Some tenant called the manager who came down and confronted them, and it turned out that none of them were residents of the complex. The manager told them to leave and a few drunk ones were belligerent with her as they left. I confronted some as they were leaving in their car and they told me they weren't on the premises at the barbecue facility. I told them they were lying because I saw them there (which I did - they were active participants in the loud behavior). I don't know how they were raised, but I've known since I was an elementary-school kid that you don't trespass on someone else's property, let alone use their facilities. The age of these students appears to vary from around 18 to 24 years old, but they act like junior high kids aged 13 or 14 - very immature, spoiled, inconsiderate brats. I always see them in groups when they act this way (I suppose being in groups gives them a feeling of security while they're acting like noisy adolescent children). As far as I'm concerned, when you're in someone else's country you should show respect and regard for the local culture. If you don't want to do that, then you should leave and go back home. These spoiled Brazilians students need to change their behavior and show respect while they reside in my home town and in my neighborhood, or they need to go back home to their parents. I feel I've earned the right to say this because I'm the local native here and they're the visitor, and the visitor needs to show respect (and they are the visitor). They need to either grow up or go home. Elvis Point Loma/Ocean Beach resident/native— January 17, 2010 12:25 a.m.