29 September, 2008

Rainy Day Fun

Paul has decided he's lost his blogging mojo. Perhaps it is because he's been suffering from this for the last two weeks and hasn't had the strength to eat, drink, or move-let alone blog. Either way, until he reconsiders, I've taken over the blogging reigns. So, as I said, Paul's been very, very sick for the last two weeks or so. Horribly ill. He braved the ER and Albert Einstein Hospital (a.k.a. Hotel Einstein) and spent the last week stooped over, shuffling between school, home, and bed. Thankfully, none of the rest of us caught the bug-though to be honest I've definitely been tempted to lick his toothbrush. A week in bed and 15 pounds vanishing doesn't sound too bad.

The weather has remained crummy by Brazilian standards. It's been gray and cool (mid 60s) and without the pool all of us were beginning to get a bit of cabin fever. So yesterday, day 10 of Paul's illness, things were really getting ugly around here. The kids were bickering, Paul was holed up in bed, and I was staring at the walls trying to think of interesting and creative things to do. In the end, I told the kids to stay in the playroom and went to work.

Their room looked like this at 10 am:

By 10:15 I'd used my super human strength to transform their room into this:




The kids were thrilled! Noah firmly declared that when Sophie is 17 and he is 19 THEN she can sleep on the top bunk. For the first time in several hours they were smiling for at least 5 minutes straight. And no one was whining! They spent a good 20 minutes climbing up and down, checking out all the possibilities. I think Paul was a little surprised by the whole thing, but he smiled nonetheless, fully aware that desperate times call for desperate measures.

Despite the craziness of the last few weeks the simple things still bring us the most pleasure:



Fresh flowers I picked up at the market. Just this arrangement in a simple mason jar makes me smile. Alot.










Knitting! I have finally learned how to knit. I'm working on a hat for Sophie and then hopefully some Halloween goodies.









And of course this.

15 September, 2008

It's good to be home...

A funny thing about the place we call "home". Our apartment here is still quite bare. We have white floors and walls in most spaces, and hardly a thing hanging on the white walls. We have beds, dressers, tables, chairs, couches and a variety of other items that we didn't choose and don't actually belong to us. We've lived here for less than two full months. Yet after being away from the apartment for 4 days, it actually feels good to be "home". I guess this is something I can thank my parents for... we always had a new "home" every couple of years growing up, for the most part, so maybe my adjustments are a bit easier.
Anyway, this talk about home is, in no way, a commentary on the quality of our trip to Paraty. In fact, it was pretty much as great as expected. We arrived on Thursday night, although after a full day of work and then almost seven hours on a bus (quite the Rolls-Royce of buses though it was), there wasn't a whole lot of action going on that night. So the fun began on Friday morning when we woke up at the Estalagem Colonial - a little bed-and-breakfast pousada - to this little pervert standing on our balcony, checking us out through our open door:
There was a whole family of these little lemurs that hung out in a giant tree that covered the expanse of the courtyard outside our room. They spent a little time every morning on our balcony, looking in at us. Abby was scared shitless by these harmless little tree-dwellers. The kids and I thought they were pretty cool companions though.
So Paraty is a designated historic site; a preserved colonial town in Rio de Janeiro state, south of the city of Rio. The cobbled streets are lined with rocks that were apparently hauled over as ballast for cargo ships that came to Brazil from Lisbon in the 1600s. They really account for a good deal of the downtown charm, along with the local shops and the boat-lined docks.

We spent Friday on a 35' chartered sail boat that flew a Pirate flag - Noah was extremely happy with that little detail. We sailed around and stopped every hour or so for a dip in the ocean, and ate lunch a couple of hundred feet up on the side of an island at a really nice restaurant with an amazing view.
Saturday was spent mostly shopping and napping (guess who-did-what?)... it was a little overcast, but around 80, so it was pleasant. Since I was with the kids all day (napping, playing in the streets and taking pictures) while Abby shopped, I got a pass to go experience a little Paraty nightlife.... it was a cool town to hang out in. I ended up at the "Margarida Cafe" (I didn't misspell - that's what the place is called) with a few other teachers who went with us, and listed to local music and chatted in broken Portuguese with some Braziledos and various other tourists.
So overall, a great time. Although our rustic little hotel little to offer other than a nice breakfast each morning and (I'm pretty sure) a flea-infested bed or two, we'll definitely be going back to Paraty....but probably not to the Estalagem Colonial.

10 September, 2008

Three day weekend...

It's kind of hard to believe, but we've been here for almost two months now...I guess it's been seven weeks? Anyway, aside from a couple of one or two day excursions, we really haven't been out of the city at all.

Until now.

Tomorrow after school, we pile onto a bus and head to Paraty...an old colonial town on the coast a little south of Rio de Janeiro. We're going with the other new teachers and a few vets as well - about 17 or 18 of us total I think. My undestanding is that we'll be doing some sailboating on Friday and some hiking on Saturday. In between, we'll be on the beach and exploring what the town has to offer. If only we could bring Katty with us, Abby and I would be able to see what the nightlife is like there too....maybe next time.

Needless to say, I'll be updating with some photos in a few days. In the meantime, hope all is well with all of you. Tchau.

08 September, 2008

Chinese in Portuguese and other odd tales

So I'm a pretty poor blogger. I've had the intention of updating this thing every week, but I've failed. The last post....that paltry one about the kids and playdates and such....was Abby. So I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks. I'll try to be better.

In any case, things are pretty good here. The pollution has definitely gotten worse the past week to 10 days. So weird....when we got here, it hadn't rained for about 30 days. According to the locals, that was the cause of very bad pollution - much worse than normal, they said. But I didn't notice ANY pollution those first few weeks. You'd think it would have been unmistakable to a newbie coming from clean-aired Culpeper, Virginia, but not so. I've noticed it increasingly the past couple of weeks, and all the while, the locals haven't. Whatever. We're getting air purifiers for the bedrooms this week anyway. That should stave-off the need to wear surgical masks and carry around oxygen for a while.

We just fired our third faxeneira (maid). Our first one, Luzinete, came two times and then quit for a full-time job. She was only coming once-a-week for us, so that was understandable. The second one, Nazare, came once last week and did a nice job, but was a bit more expensive, so we were thinking we'd let her go. In the meantime, we had a new one come for a testdrive. So Rosana came today. That was a mistake. She did a great job, but she works.....sooo....slowly. It took her EIGHT hours to iron our clothes. I think I've mentioned before that we don't have a dryer...quite a luxury item here. So it's necessary to iron clothes. But the previous two faxeneiras ironed all of our clothes for the week in about half that. Four hours. Then the had time to do all kinds of other cleaning. So this woman came today and did a great job cleaning and ironing, but she was here until 7 o'clock. Unacceptable slowness. I came home at 4:30 and was forced to endure her presence here for far too long. So she's fired. We're going back to Nazare. I think she's worth the extra 10 reals per day. Another factor (not to be overlooked) is that the kids' Baba, Katty, prefers Nazare. She told me privately after I got home that "Nazare esta muinta boa"....much better. So that sealed the deal.

Speaking of...well....speaking in Portuguese, the language is getting a bit easier for me. My academic background in Spanish has definitely helped, particularly in knowing the verbs and sentence construction. I get the two confused from time-to-time, and the pronunciation is quite different. But overall, I'm better off with the Spanish background. So I'm generally able to communicate what I need. Understanding others, particularly those who speak fast, has been difficult. But it's getting better. In fact, last Friday I ordered Chinese food over the phone. Some English-speakers here consider telephone conversations in Portuguese the sign that you've "arrived" as a Portuguese speaker, but I don't feel like I've arrived anywhere yet. I'll update you on that again in a couple of more months.

Ok, so here's the latest installment of photos that Abby has uploaded from the camera. It's kind of a chronicle of last weekend....swimming in the indoor pool... after all, it was only 82 this last weekend, and the unheated outdoor pool was a bit chilly yet ;-) .... also a bit of patio life at the clube. Hope all is well with each of you!



Noah showing off his swimming skills under my watchful goggle-eyes.....












....he loves the water.

In the meantime....











...Sophie loves to dress up like this....













....and like this (what is that? Flashdance or something?)













Sophie at the Clube.














Noah at the Clube - just below.












....hence the need for ironing every week.