Halloween

So we're kind of still waiting to see what happens here on Halloween tomorrow, but we've made plans nonetheless. We're doing kind of a progressive party with the other Graded families with younger kids here at the Portal. We'll do drinks and snacks one place (with candy for the kids), then dinner at our place (with candy for the kids), then dessert at another place (with candy for the kids), then any makeshift trick-or-treating that might exist here (???).

So if I'd decided to take the coaching position this year, next week is the week I'd be out of the city in some other part of Brazil coaching in a 4-day tournament. It's been a long semester though, and I don't think we'd have made it to this point having as much fun and sanity if I'd been coaching all along. So no regrets. Maybe next year though....or maybe not. Time will tell. This is also the week that our school is beginning to advertise teaching positions for next year, as teachers who are moving on after this year have made their plans known. The first step in the process is to allow Graded teachers to move to new positions within the school. Although I'm more than happy in my position now, Abby has an opportunity to consider a different position. It's similar to the Reading Specialist position she had a few years ago, in that she wouldn't have a class of her own. She'd be providing academic assistance and supplementation to students who need it. So she's grappling with that decision. She does like her 3rd grade position, but she's never taught the same thing for more than two consecutive years in her career....perhaps she's starting to start a trend of switching EVERY year? Time will tell on that one too.

In the meantime, all is well with the kiddos for the most part. Noah did miss his first day of school today because he's had a little fever, but nothing major. More of a defensive move against him being sick for Halloween tomorrow. And Sophie just got back from swimming lessons, so it's time for me to run.

Hope all is well with everyone at home. Love to all.

Back in the Saddle

Hi again. It's been a while. It'd be one thing if I could say that I've been so busy, but not really. Status quo in that arena for the most part. Although we did just have an amazing, warm weekend with some serious pool time and lunches on the patio at the club. All the other couples and families were there, so everybody was happy. Last night before bed, Noah was crying about about the fact that the weekend was over because it was so "special". This is a kid who generally loves going to school as much as anything else in the world, so it's saying something that he was so upset. Kind of a relief though...I don't want the kid to grow up loving school THAT much.

So we've bought our Brazilian freedom...wheels. I got a Citroen Xsera - a nice family station wagon. After driving a minivan for the last two years in Virginia, I feel downright cool driving a station wagon. I looked at cars about two weeks ago, and had it delivered a couple of days later. So needless to say, we spent some time each day of the (three day) weekend driving around the city. My sense of direction in this utterly unnavigable city it terrible though, so we spent a good two hours completely lost in Sao Paulo on Saturday. I ended up stopping at a roadside information booth (kind of a rest-stop I guess) and asked an Italian couple in broken Portuguese if they knew how I might find Morumbi. They spoke Portuguese better than me, but they clearly weren't fluent either. So communication was pretty tough....that said, the woman had no regard for how ridiculous she looked as she motioned everything she said - charades style. It helped though.

Ultimately, the guy told us to follow them, and off we went. 30 minutes later, we stopped at a gas station and they pulled up next to us. She gave us a note telling us that "our home is your home" and their address and phone number. She gave us hugs and kisses and told us that they have lots of neighbors who speak English, so we should call any time and set up a visit. We made it home another 30 minutes later. So I can now safely say that Italian-Brazilians who speak limited Portuguese and no English are some of the most generous and kind people I've ever met. I'm not sure how that knowledge might benefit me in the future, but it sure did help last weekend.

In other news, I went out with the "boys" on Saturday night too. That was a good time. I went with four colleagues and we ended up in a kind of sketchy part of the city. Although I wouldn't go back to that particular area, I do find that going out on the weekends shows me what the city is all about and gives me a true sense of the culture here.

By the way, the photo at the top of this post was taken from the livingroom. Sao Paulo really isn't a beautiful city, but when the sun sets, you'd never know it. Come next weekend, we'll be 3 hours later than all of you east-coasters. Tchau for now.

Happy Half Birthday Noah!

Noah celebrated his half birthday earlier this week. He's officially 4.5 now! I happen to love birthdays and what better reason to celebrate on a Wednesday night?
He enjoyed (okay we ALL enjoyed) a couple brigadeiros and chocolate raspberry brownies. Noah insisted we turn out the lights, close all the doors, and sing "Happy Birthday" to him. Birthdays are HUGE in Brasil. Consequently, it is no surprise that the kids already know all the words to "Parabens Pra Voce". Sophie is usually the most excited to sing the song...except when I have the camera...then Noah's obedience shines through. Parabens Noah!

Of course you need a knitted hat in Brasil...

I finished Sophie's hat last night! I knitted it in under a week and it really only has one tiny mistake that I think I can fix with a needle (when I get one!). Sophie loves it! She thinks it is absolutely perfect for eating breakfast and drinking the milk from her cereal bowl...

Truthfully, in late spring in a tropical climate that IS about all it is good for. Nevertheless, I already began Noah's hat. I need to diversify my skills. Certainly, you don't need more than one knitted hat here!

Tuesday Morning

Sunrise from our bedroom window...









I'd like to think my day starts with a nice, large cup of coffee, but for some unknown reason all the coffee mugs in Brasil are THIS big. The bananas are there to give you some perspective on just how small the mug really is. After three months here I kind of get it-Brasilians drink coffee ALL day so smaller is probably better. Even without a microwave, a cup that size guarantees your coffee stays piping hot in the two seconds it takes you to drink it. An added bonus is that it is easy to keep your calories down-in a cup that size there's no room for anything other than a dash of sugar. I'll probably go into some sort of shock when we return to the States and I attempt to drink a Venti Non Fat No Whip Mocha...

Sophie goes to bed early in the evening and doesn't head to preschool until noon, so most mornings she is full of energy and can be found doing this:



while Noah is busy doing this:









Notice the makeshift Halloween decorations...sort of hard to get into the fall spirit here!

Katty arrives around 7:30 and we (Paul, Noah, and I) head downstairs to catch our buses to school.
Noah heads off to school and Paul and I wait another 10 minutes for our bus to arrive and take us here.














wish I could say our evenings are as peaceful, but with tired kids and tired parents the most peaceful part of our evening comes when we get to this:



I've got the caipirinha and Paul's got the knitting :)

We have sun!

After weeks of daily rain we awoke to a bright and sunny day today! It was cool this morning, but the sky was blue and we were happy! Paul headed out early to look at cars (more on that later) and the kids and I ate, dressed, and headed out to the grounds of the Portal. This place is so great for kids-on Saturdays they block off the top of the street for kids to ride their scooters and bikes, roller skate, and run free. We visited watched the kids ride for awhile and then visited the aviary before heading to the playground.

Despite the fact we've been here for over two months now, I still stumble upon cultural differences daily-today I realized it was the playgrounds. We have 3 playgrounds here in Portal-one large one and two smaller ones. When we first arrived it was quite a shock to see these playgrounds filled with steep slides, metal climbing structures, and somewhat old fashioned looking equipment. It definitely was nothing like what we were used to back in the States. The swings don't even have buckles for the babies. Sometimes you see the babas bring cloth diapers to tie the babies into the swing, but mostly you just tell your child to hold on tight and hope for the best! So far we've only had a few minor bumps and bruises and everyone's done just fine. You just sort of get used to seeing the kids climbing high, jumping from rocks, and scaling trees. In fact, after reading this article and this book I feel really good about the whole thing. For being in the middle of a huge city, it is really amazing how much authentic play experience the kids get without even leaving the confines of Portal.

Sophie and her good friend Anais on our extraordinarily dangerous playground!

TV free....and loving it!

When we first found out we'd be moving to Sao Paulo we knew for sure there would be some big changes. We knew we'd be trading our 2,600 square foot home for a 1,000 square foot apartment, selling and donating lots of our belongings, selling our cars, giving up heat and air conditioning, line drying our clothing, and generally simplifying our lives, but there have definitely been some unpredicted transformations as well.
One of the biggest decisions we've made so far is to live TV-free. Paul attempted to buy a TV pretty quickly after we arrived (quick! football is starting on Sunday!) but we had some complications ordering it online, and rather than sort those out he put the purchase on the back burner. Over the last two months we haven't gone back to order the television.
In some ways, living TV-free has been a dream of mine for a while. I quickly realized the television is a mixed blessing with children. I loved the "free" time it gave me to start dinner, check email, or take a shower, but I hated the constant whine for "one more show" and the way their play turned more into a reinactment of the latest episode of Dora or Diego and less about the kids' imagination. Moving to Sao Paulo totally eliminated that issue. We have a small portable DVD player the kids have watched a handful of times, and otherwise it is kept in the closet. It really is out of sight out of mind for Noah and Sophie, and I've noticed a definite change. We definitely have more time together as a family. Games, imaginary play, and art projects are almost always going on in one way or another. This site has been really helpful. After the kids go to bed Paul and I have time to talk (and not just in between commercials!), read, knit, play Yahtzee, or listen to podcasts. Things are just slower, calmer, and generally more enjoyable.
To be honest, we've had 3 weeks of straight rain so there have been times I've been tempted but so far I've held fast to the idea that TV-free is best for our family right now. I see it in this proof:











Noah's first "published" book: The Knight Who Was Afraid to Fight












An impromptu stove we created when Sophie wanted to cook dinner for us. It worked well and kept her occupied for a LONG time (by 2 year old standards). It was much more interesting than TV!

Besides, who needs a TV when you have this?













Edited to add: Don't think we've totally lost our minds...Paul still travels to school most Sundays to watch the NFL feed via his computer with some friends!

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.

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.

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.

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.

You know it is a Brazilian playdate when...

you're asked oh so casually, "Can my driver bring Noah home around five tomorrow afternoon?"

Um, sure.
That'll work just fine...

Traffic? What traffic?

Now, I didn't take this video myself. But I might-as-well have. This is pretty typical Sao Paulo driving. Cars force their way into lanes while the "motoboys" (mostly couriers-for-hire) use the dotted lines AS their lanes. Pretty interesting. When the cars are moving slowly and the motos are driving along quickly, they honk their puny little horns as if to warn the cars and trucks: "Don't change lanes please, I'm coming!" I've been told that on average, more than a motorcylist per day dies in Sao Paulo, and that there are almost 20 accidents per day involving them. Pretty low number in my opinion, given the sheer number of motorcyclists and the seeming recklessness with with they drive.

I've yet to drive in Sao Paulo at all. I ride a bus to my school every day, which is a 5 minute drive. But the several times I've ridden into the city center, the scene below is a common one. I've driven in New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, Seattle, Boston.... none of them come close to the seeming recklessness and chaos on the roads of Sao Paulo.

Of course, once you're out of the city, the traffic isn't much of an issue. My school took the middle school teachers on an overnight retreat last weekend - Friday into Saturday. We went west from the city into the mountains a little bit, to a town called Sao Roque. We stayed at a resort hotel and did some "team building" and a handful of meetings. We drank wine at our meetings (a first for me), and ended the first day there by listening to live music in the lounge and, by the early hours of the morning, dancing (I don't know if it was the music or the caipirinhas that got everybody on the dance floor). Nonetheless, this professional group of dedicated teachers were up bright and early for 9am breakfast and 10am meetings the next day. Then our principal mercifully cut the day's agenda short and we came home.

I've gotta say, it's nice to be treated like a valuable employee. Granted, there is a lot more money in the budget for trips, drinks and hotels here compared to public schools. But there is more to it than the money. There is a sense of collegiality and respect here that comes from the top-down. It's cultivated and reinforced time-after-time, day-after-day. The administration doesn't see itself as a necessary evil that dictates to the masses. Instead, they place the teacher on a level that is equal, or even greater than, themselves. They value our time. They respect our expertise. They show their appreciation, and people here are happy. Of course, the money helps. Here are a couple of pics of our retreat at Sao Roque:

The scene: Hotel Alpino in Sao Roque, SP, Brazil

Did I mention the WINE in the meetings?

Practicing Caipoera - a Brazilian Judo-like dance ... most of us weren't very good at it though.

Dancing in the lounge...

In the end, I work with some good people. Peter (in the middle) is my fellow Humanities teacher. Jeff (far right) is my Assistant Principal.

Good weather and loud nights

There are many realities of living in Sao Paulo. The weather is good, for one thing...really good. We just spent last weekend literally hanging out at the pool and the club all weekend(that's the Portal club, the da club). We swam, watched the kids play in the kiddie pool, ate, drank, and were generally merry. It's literally like being on vacation all weekend when the weather is so great....and this is wintertime! Can't beat that in my experience. We've been fortunate to make fast friends, and good ones too. I get to play poker, talk sports (I have my fantasy football draft in a week) and hang out. All the while, Abby gets to shop, have manicures and hang out with the girls. As mentioned before, the kids have their baba, friends in the Portal, and pools and playgrounds and soccer pitches, and ..... the list goes on and on.

On the other hand, when it's hot at night, there is a rather uncomfortable trade-off that seems destined to occur: we have to either close the window and hope a little fan can save the day, or open the window to the neverending sound of cars, trucks, and the occasional helicopter. Either way, we're going to have to become more sounds sleepers...well, Abby is anyway. I can acually handle the noise relatively well. Fortunately, the kids don't face the same dilemma, as their room is on the non-road side and they are used to sleeping with their little white noise machine.

Another reality is pollution. While it's not actually that bad here in Morumbi, where there are many more trees and less industry, we still have some days where you can see and smell it. It's not terrible, but stinging eyes and throats can follow a bad day.

But then you can balance it all out with a professional life that is rewarding and generally pleasant in all aspects so far. The setting is pretty similar to that of the Portal where we live: an oasis in the middle of the city. Until next time, here's a couple of pics of the school and the kids. Tchau.



Our school - this is a courtyard in front of Abby's classroom - her room is on the left side of the photo.
















A typical hallway at the school.
















Noah at the playground.













Sophie's modeling debut.

Embu and dancing

Oi, friends.
So after more than two weeks here, some things are getting easier. I no longer stress too much about going to stores, or calling a cab, or generally communicating with Brazilians. By and large, the people here are very kind and are willing to laugh with (ok, maybe at) me when I try to speak Portuguese. Then again, my confidence and competence with the language has improved quite a bit in the short time we’ve been here. That’s not necessarily saying much, but it helps.

Yesterday was a great day for the family and me though. We got OUT of the city for the first time – to an outlying town called Embu. It’s an artsy and artisan-y town with tons of little shops on cobbled foot-traffic-only streets. Really nice little place. We bought a hodge-podge of things while we were there: a couple of rugs, some pillows, a plant, etc. Our goal was to get some things to add a little color to our blank-slate white apartment, and we accomplished that a bit.

Random digression: so there are little waste-baskets next to the toilets in every public restroom that I’ve come across in Brazil. After a few days, I was pretty sure I’d figured out what they’re for, but really didn’t want to know for sure. But it came up in a conversation with a Brazilian the other day, and it’s been confirmed that they are, in fact, shitty toilet paper bins. I should defend the country a bit and point out that apparently in the major cities, they’re really not necessary, as the pipes and sewage system have been upgraded. But outside of the major cities, it’s pretty much a necessity. I plan to flush mine anyway.

Ok, so we got back from Embu yesterday, and then I went out to experience the real Sao Paulo nightlife for the first time. In Sao Paulo, Saturday is a legitimate workday for most residents. So since Sunday is the only morning that people can wake up late and hung over, Saturday night is a total throw-down night here. Anyway, I went to the downtown neighborhood of Vila Madelena with a bunch of coworkers, all of whom have spent less than three weeks in Sao Paulo as well. The Vila is a change from where I live in Morumbi, a Sao Paulo neighborhood that is known more for its swanky apartment buildings and actual green space. Indeed, Morumbi is apparently known by some Paulistanos as BORumbi….not very cool. In Vila Madelena, we spent the first few hours of the evening (using the term “evening” loosely here – it was about 11 when we got out of the cab) at a live music joint where we sat and drank local beverages. ***side note: the caipirinha is the national drink of Brazil, and it’s pretty amazing – they use a sugar-cane based liquor called caxasa, sugar, lime and rum. People drink them everywhere here, at all times of the day.*** So the first bar was nice, and not terribly different than any of a number of downtown bars in the states. Our next stop, however, was quite a bit different. It was a dance club where the dance of choice was (I think) the samba. There were probably 500 people in this place, but only about 20 of them were actually on the dance floor at any given time. It was a full Brazilian band playing, and everyone in the place seemed to know the words to their music. It was cool, because I feel like it was one of the first real tastes I’ve had of the culture here since I’ve been somewhat insulated by the American school where I’ve spent most of my time when I’m not at home. Of course, I an do a little Brazilian dancing of my own. Check it out - that's me on the right...I mean left:



Did I mention that I actually taught last week too? Last Tuesday was the first day of school, so Abby and I have both been teaching for four days now. Most of my students are Brazilian, actually. Probably 50% or so. Then about 25% or so are American, 15% or so are Korean, and the others are random. Of course, my percentages might be a bit skewed by the fact that I have a total of 37 students. THIRTY SEVEN! I have 38 in one CLASS at Marsteller one year, so I think I can handle this. I teach two 80-minute blocks of 8th Grade Humanities every day. That’s it. 160 minutes in the classroom. I have one planning period, an hour for lunch, and the other 80ish minutes are planning/team-teaching time. Occasionally I may be team-teaching with the other 8th Grade Humanities teacher, but generally it’s another planning time. The students are generally very nice and respectful, relatively speaking. So work life here is SO much better than it’s been. I had no idea that this type of world existed. As far as elementary teacher’s schedules go, Abby’s is great too. Not as good as middle school teachers but definitely an improvement for her too. Abby's also got the superintendent's wife as a ESL teacher in her class every day, so she's getting us in good with the boss. The kids are doing great with school so far as well. Noah is made for school, so he loves it, his teachers love him, and he’s making lots of new friends (his best friends here so far are kids named Achilles – who is the son of another teacher – and Lukie). And Sophie loves her class too. Probably for different reasons though. I think the chance to challenge another authority figure for 3 hours-a-day is probably what makes her clock tick, but it’s definitely a positive thing for her too.

So that pretty much catches you up on life here. I’ve really got to start taking my camera out with me so I can share some of the sights and sounds of the city here too. I’ll try. By the way, today is Father’s Day here in Brazil, so yahoo for me. Tchau.

Picture Post...

Ok, I'm posting some pics I've taken so far. The past week has been hectic, a bit stressful, but enjoyable at the same time. I took two trips downtown this week to deal with Brazilian documentation stuff. Once to the Federal Police station to get our protocolo, then another yesterday to sign documentation for my official Brazilian work book. Employees in Brazil have to have one of these things to work legally, I guess. The rest of the week has been filled with work days for us and play days for the kids. Lots of late nights, eating out at restaurants and at homes of colleagues and new friends.

Last night, we had Happy Hour at the playground. All the other school employee families that live in the Portal with us came down to the big playground and we all brought our kids, our snacks, and our drinks. I wonder where else in the world this happens. At least where it's both legal and socially accepted...expected even.





Here's a photo of the kids in front of the Portal's "waterfall".

Here they are walking in Portal's "rainforest".

A view of our pools from above.

The kids having breakfast in the apartment (the only meal we seem to eat at home these days).

The view from our livingroom at night.

Here we are!

Day 4 in Sao Paulo, and the first time I've had a chance to write a bit about what's going on here... on a hijacked wireless network in the apartment building, no less. The basic outline of our time here so far goes a bit like this:



Wednesday night - flight left Dulles, DC about 1 hour late. Not too bad.

Thursday morning - arrived at Sao Paulo Guaralhos Airport with pretty much no sleep.

Thursday - off to work! Not too much, but plenty on an empty tank. Noah and Sophie had to tag along, which was pretty rough.

Thursday night - Dinner party at Superintendent's house. Beautiful apartment, but Abby stayed home with sleeping kids.

Friday - work all day while kids got their first taste of their life with their baba, Catiuscia. She speaks no English, so communcation is a bit rough. The kids LOVE her already though.

Saturday - tour of downtown Sao Paulo. WAY too much to see in this gigantic city, so we settled for a tour of..... the Immigration Museum. Bummer.

Saturday night - close your eyes, my vegetarian friends. We ate meat, meat, and more meat at a local churrascaria. Crazy atmosphere, but tons of fun and good food.

Today - Finally a day to recoup a bit. Learned more about our surroundings and neighbors. And all I can say is that we're hooked UP! More on that to follow.



Cool things so far:



-Good class of new teachers joining us. Cool people that are easy to get along with. Fun people who are generally unassuming and genuine. Abby and I are the only couple, and Noah and Sophie are the only kids among the 15 or so new hires this year. So that sets us apart a bit, but neither in a good nor bad way. It means that none of the other new hires live in our apartment complex. It also means that we have less free time to hang out, since our free time is obviously spent with the family. It's all good.

-I blew up the stovetop this morning. Literally. I'll explain later when I have less on my mind.

-The other teacher-families here in our apartment complex, Portal do Morumbi (hereforto referred to as "the Portal") are kind and gracious people who are willing to do anything to help. This includes my new principal, several colleagues and their children who have become fast-friends with Noah and Sophie.



It's hard to ever say that things are perfect. Of course we miss our friends and most of all family. But thre really isn't very much else to complain about yet.