here's a tour of my apartment! sorry it's not the highest quality and a bit dark.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
my apartment
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| My living room |
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| My kitchen the first day (see the gift basket?) |
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| My kitchen now |
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| Other side of my little kitchen |
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| Dining area |
Having a maid is a wonderful luxury of living in Brazil! Sandra comes once a week for a very reasonable fee and cleans my entire apartment from top to bottom. Washing dishes, doing laundry...it's amazing!
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| My "office" in the spare room |
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| Main bathroom (shower is to the left) |
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| My room! |
I'll post more pictures of the entire place (and my balcony!) soon. Speaking of settling in, there are so many shops and restaurants that look interesting in our neighborhood, and we only know our way to and from specific places so far. So this weekend, we plan on getting lost in Moema!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
hanging on by a bare mayonaisse
Once Cindy and Jeff found out it was my birthday last Tuesday, they promised we would celebrate during the weekend after the first few days of school. And celebrate we did!
It started on Friday evening as we got off the bus from school and walked to a local watering hole that both Cindy and Jeff knew called Frederico's. Joining us were Richard and Bridie, and our collective thirsts for cold beer. We ordered a round, a little food, and began a nice conversation. As the night closes in, I notice that as the waiters bring more rounds, they keep a running tally on a small yellow pad. The math teacher in me sees that it's a 10 x 5 array! I point out that we've had 26 beers so far, and I wonder if any table has ever filled that array of 50 beers. Seeing as how we'd already gone more than halfway, why not go for the whole enchilada? That was the opinion of the others at the table, and the challenge was on! The waiters must have eventually figured out what we were doing, because they stopped asking if we wanted more, and just took away our empty glasses and plunked down new ones before we could blink. We also played some cards, betting packets of condiments (and small amounts of money) to make it more interesting. We filled that card up, and were even given some complimentary beers by the waiters for our bravado. Of course, I was credited the idea for the challenge, and blamed for any decisions thereafter.
Richard and Bridie went home, but we picked up Maggie and headed to Rhino, a pub just down the street from my apartment. Great atmosphere, and a live band, though everyone insisted that the bands are usually better. These guys were a bit hit-or-miss, and I remember thinking at one point, "how are we supposed to dance to a Creed song?!" All in all, a great night.
Saturday was supposed to be a day where a few of us were going to go to school to get some work done, but when we went to pick up Jeff and Josh from the restaurant where they had lunch, they ordered two more glasses for us to help them drink the giant bottle of beer they'd ordered. The weather was lovely, and the invitation too good to pass up, so we put off our work and had a great afternoon sitting in the sun while chatting.
Later that night, we meet up at Jeff's for some darts and cards before going out to a club. Flavia has put our names on the list for a place called The History, where the music changes to a new decade every half hour, and the floor lights up like Studio 54 (or what I imagine Studio 54 was). After the craziest entrance into a bar I've ever experienced (men dressed in all black, people handing you cards, taking your cards, opening doors, closing doors...I felt like a celebrity), we checked our coats and proceeded to dance for three hours straight. No stopping (there was a bar right on the dance floor), no sitting, no resting. The music was really fun, and team America definitely showed the Brazilians a thing or two about dancing (people were looking at us like they'd never seen The Sprinkler before! Imagine that!). I got home around 3:30am, and we left a few of us there to continue on the night!
What an awesome (two day) birthday celebration and introduction into Brazilian nightlife!
It started on Friday evening as we got off the bus from school and walked to a local watering hole that both Cindy and Jeff knew called Frederico's. Joining us were Richard and Bridie, and our collective thirsts for cold beer. We ordered a round, a little food, and began a nice conversation. As the night closes in, I notice that as the waiters bring more rounds, they keep a running tally on a small yellow pad. The math teacher in me sees that it's a 10 x 5 array! I point out that we've had 26 beers so far, and I wonder if any table has ever filled that array of 50 beers. Seeing as how we'd already gone more than halfway, why not go for the whole enchilada? That was the opinion of the others at the table, and the challenge was on! The waiters must have eventually figured out what we were doing, because they stopped asking if we wanted more, and just took away our empty glasses and plunked down new ones before we could blink. We also played some cards, betting packets of condiments (and small amounts of money) to make it more interesting. We filled that card up, and were even given some complimentary beers by the waiters for our bravado. Of course, I was credited the idea for the challenge, and blamed for any decisions thereafter.
Richard and Bridie went home, but we picked up Maggie and headed to Rhino, a pub just down the street from my apartment. Great atmosphere, and a live band, though everyone insisted that the bands are usually better. These guys were a bit hit-or-miss, and I remember thinking at one point, "how are we supposed to dance to a Creed song?!" All in all, a great night.
Saturday was supposed to be a day where a few of us were going to go to school to get some work done, but when we went to pick up Jeff and Josh from the restaurant where they had lunch, they ordered two more glasses for us to help them drink the giant bottle of beer they'd ordered. The weather was lovely, and the invitation too good to pass up, so we put off our work and had a great afternoon sitting in the sun while chatting.
Later that night, we meet up at Jeff's for some darts and cards before going out to a club. Flavia has put our names on the list for a place called The History, where the music changes to a new decade every half hour, and the floor lights up like Studio 54 (or what I imagine Studio 54 was). After the craziest entrance into a bar I've ever experienced (men dressed in all black, people handing you cards, taking your cards, opening doors, closing doors...I felt like a celebrity), we checked our coats and proceeded to dance for three hours straight. No stopping (there was a bar right on the dance floor), no sitting, no resting. The music was really fun, and team America definitely showed the Brazilians a thing or two about dancing (people were looking at us like they'd never seen The Sprinkler before! Imagine that!). I got home around 3:30am, and we left a few of us there to continue on the night!
What an awesome (two day) birthday celebration and introduction into Brazilian nightlife!
boa noite!
I don't know exactly how to describe the last two weeks, but I'm going to try. Life in São Paulo has been incredible. I arrived at my new apartment around midday on Saturday, July 31 and haven't stopped going since. The building is lovely, and the space even better once I was able to unpack everything and put away the suitcases a week later. I'll post pictures soon!
On Sunday (August 1), the expats got on a bus with our principals and superintendent for a trip out of the city to a village called Embu, where there is a market every Sunday selling everything you can imagine. We were looking for things for our apartments. Most of the other teachers had been in the city for four or five days, so they knew of some things they wanted. I'd only been in town for about 24 hours, so I was not prepared to purchase anyfurniture ! I did buy a lamp for my bedside, however, along with a colorful rug and a couple pictures from a local artist. Maggie and I were even able to negotiate the price on the pictures - pretty good for the second day!
One of the best things about my new life is the people I've met. Getting to know the other foreign teachers has been wonderful, and a few of us have already formed a fairly close bond. There's some Aussies, a Brit, and several Americans, though this isn't the first international teaching job for many of them. It made me feel fairly intimidated in the beginning, but not at all now. And Cindy and Jeff have been here for a year already, so they've been great taking us newbies under their wing.
I find I am really enjoying life in a big city. It really helps that I'm in such a great neighborhood with shops and restaurants on every corner. And the restaurants are fantastic. I haven't been disappointed yet. When the weather is nice, you can sit outside for hours, on the sidewalk, just enjoying the company you're with.
I like taking an elevator down to the lobby, waving at the doorman, and walking down the street. It feels like I'm in a movie! The sounds are totally different, of course. Not only are there cars honking, occasional sirens, and airplanes flying overhead, but loud fireworks after a soccer match. I find it all really exciting. Only ever having visited big cities before, staying in them for maybe a couple weeks at most, I have no frame of reference to how life here in São Paulo compares to life in another large city. But I can compare it to the life in suburbia, and I find the change very refreshing.
Now that I have internet and cable tv, I find myself feeling much more settled and at home. I hope to post more specific events and happenings now that I'm connected to the world again, but wanted to give a general update of my mindset after two weeks. tchau!
On Sunday (August 1), the expats got on a bus with our principals and superintendent for a trip out of the city to a village called Embu, where there is a market every Sunday selling everything you can imagine. We were looking for things for our apartments. Most of the other teachers had been in the city for four or five days, so they knew of some things they wanted. I'd only been in town for about 24 hours, so I was not prepared to purchase any
One of the best things about my new life is the people I've met. Getting to know the other foreign teachers has been wonderful, and a few of us have already formed a fairly close bond. There's some Aussies, a Brit, and several Americans, though this isn't the first international teaching job for many of them. It made me feel fairly intimidated in the beginning, but not at all now. And Cindy and Jeff have been here for a year already, so they've been great taking us newbies under their wing.I find I am really enjoying life in a big city. It really helps that I'm in such a great neighborhood with shops and restaurants on every corner. And the restaurants are fantastic. I haven't been disappointed yet. When the weather is nice, you can sit outside for hours, on the sidewalk, just enjoying the company you're with.
I like taking an elevator down to the lobby, waving at the doorman, and walking down the street. It feels like I'm in a movie! The sounds are totally different, of course. Not only are there cars honking, occasional sirens, and airplanes flying overhead, but loud fireworks after a soccer match. I find it all really exciting. Only ever having visited big cities before, staying in them for maybe a couple weeks at most, I have no frame of reference to how life here in São Paulo compares to life in another large city. But I can compare it to the life in suburbia, and I find the change very refreshing.
Now that I have internet and cable tv, I find myself feeling much more settled and at home. I hope to post more specific events and happenings now that I'm connected to the world again, but wanted to give a general update of my mindset after two weeks. tchau!
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