It's all coming together...

My apartment is looking pretty spiffy these days!  After living here for a year, the school will paint your walls if you want, and boy did I want!  I picked some bright colors (for accent walls only), and hung up the lantern I bought in Liberdade.  After a weekend trip to Embu with the gang, I also invested in a lovely hammock chair (which I will enjoy much more when the weather is warm again).  The school installed the hook, and also hung up a few pieces of art I had bought last year, and here are the results: 

Main Living Area - now with a green wall!

Main Living Area - see the lantern by the door?

New hammock chair

Dining Area

Main bedroom - now with a blue wall!

brazil is random #4

why is brazil so obsessed with plastic bags?  for a country that hasn't yet figured out how to put the metal teeth on saran wrap boxes, they sure do love giving you way more plastic grocery sacks than is ever necessary.  fortunately, i use my green reuseable sack as much as possible.  and sure, i use the plastic ones in my little wastebaskets in bathrooms and such, but i have so many built up in 8 months of living here.  they don't give you the choice of paper or plastic in the stores here - paper bags are nowhere to be found.  i could go to the store and buy 12 items and they might use 8 different bags.  i kid you not. 

kids say the darndest things

Each week, my class learns four new vocabulary words.  They have a quiz on Fridays.  Last week, "independent" was one of the words they were tested on.  The question read, "When you become completely independent, what do you want to do?  Use independent in your sentence."  I have to share some of my favorite sentences with you...

"When I become independent, I will take a nap and listen to music."

"When I become independent, I will have a car and I will go everyday to my friend's house with my car."

"When I become independent, I will do a sky dive."

"When I am independent, I want to make some cupcakes."

"When I become completely independent, I will be a soccer and electric guitar player."

"When I become completely independent, I want to wash my clothes but I can't do it now."

"When I become independent, I will have my own life by choosing my own job, my own husband, my own kids, and house." (I added the underline, cause I laughed out loud at that one.)

The boys before the Halloween celebration

The girls before the Halloween celebration

brazil is random #3

On Sunday, I attended my first Brazilian soccer game:  São Paulo v Corinthians.  These are huge rivals (on par with Auburn v Alabama, I think) so we were hoping for a good (and safe!) game.  Corinthians ended up winning, but that's not the random part.  The game was sponsored by Kaiser and Brahma, two inexpensive Brazilian beers.  There were Kaiser signs, inflatables, and Kaiser people walking around holding Kaiser flags.  However, NO BEER WAS SOLD IN THE STADIUM.  Because the soccer fans here are so aggressive, the powers that be have decided not to fuel the fire by adding alcohol into the mix.  Soccer is not really my favorite sport, and that giant inflatable bottle of ice cold Kaiser (condensation drops painted on) was taunting me throughout the entire game.  Stupid hooligans ruining things for everyone. 

another apartment tour

so after complaints of the last video being too dark and a bit creepy, i decided to shoot another video tour of my apartment.  ;-)  hope this one is to everyone's liking.  

 

brazil is random #2

brooklin is a neighborhood next to moema that has a street party every october called "brooklinfest".  it's like a tiny oktoberfest.  while there yesterday, we came upon a pipe band.  full on kilts, sporans, etc and playing classic celtic music on the bagpipes.  who would've thought that at a german celebration in brazil, i would hear bagpipes??! 

OKTOBERFEST

a couple of weekends ago, some friends and i traveled to blumenau for its annual oktoberfest celebration.  blumenau was founded by german immigrants, and is the only place in brazil where you will see blond hair, blue-eyed brazilians (or so i'm told).  the city has the largest oktoberfest celebration outside of munich.  not wanting to miss this special event, maggie, sarah, jeff, josh, and i signed up for a tour package that included bus ride, hotel accomodation, tickets to the fest at night, a free t-shirt, etc.  

THE BUS

getting from sao paulo to blumenau was going to take nine or ten hours.  fortunately, the bus was an overnight ride, so we weren't going to miss much time in the city.  it was supposed to take off at 10pm.  also, we were hoping to pop some advil PM and get some shut-eye.  every bus ride i've ever been on (even shorter trips) - people sleep.  we were ready to get some rest after a long work week, and thought it was going to be like every other long bus/plane trip, where people mostly sleep.  BOY WERE WE WRONG.  apparently brazilians (even when on their way to a three day long nonstop party) want to start partying immediately.  so there we were, the gringoes in the front of the giant tour bus, trying to sleep (thank goodness for ipods) while brazilians march up and down the aisle with a tamborine and singing, drinking beer, and passing around a fifth of vodka while a terrible brazilian pop band concert dvds play on the bus tv.  i thought just this group of people must be really rowdy until we pull into a rest stop at 2am and get off the bus bleary eyed to see about 25 other tour buses spewing loud, drunk brazilians, laughing and yelling and BUYING MORE BEER.  in the bathroom, women were reapplying and touching up their makeup like it was a party.  josh said he didn't know whether to high-five these people because of their spirit, or punch them in the face for being obnoxious.  either way, i knew the weekend was going to be an interesting one.  

DAY ONE - SATURDAY

we finally arrive in blumenau and watch our driver do some fantastic maneuvering as we pull into our hotel.  the hotel was great - more like a quaint european hotel than anything else.  we get our rooms and change clothes and go grab a bite to eat.  the boys go back to their room to take naps while us girls decide to shop for some supplies.  we get our metal beer steins and straps to wear them around us like purses, and also a funny hat or two.  at 4pm, there's the opening weekend parade, which was grand.  children dancing, men in lederhosen, beer wagons, people pouring beer into cups as they walk by, crazy floats, polka music..the whole shebang.  that night, we head down the road a bit to the oktoberfest area.  think german-style disneyland for adults.  sausages, beer, potatoes, more lederhosen all set against a german village background.  we danced to german music, we toasted with our steins, we had a blast.  

DAY TWO - SUNDAY

we slept in quite a bit and had a great lunch.  then we spent the day exploring blumenau.  we went into a tiny beer museum, we wandered the streets, we got frozen yogurt.  back to oktoberfest that night for dinner and a photo scavenger hunt of epic proportions.  we were looking for things like "biggest beer belly", "youngest child out past 10pm", etc.  we also rode the bumper cars and started many conga-type lines of dancing to the accordion polka music.  another top night.

DAY THREE - MONDAY

today our bus was taking us out of blumenau to a beach town a couple hours away called balneario camboriu.  we arrived at the hotel in the afternoon and immediately changed into our swimsuits and headed for the beach.  it was a lovely day, but the wind was a little chilly.  we spent the afternoon on the beach, and then got a snack at a restaurant right on the street parallel to the beach.  we decided to have dinner and then go to a small local festival celebrating portugal.  unfortunately, dinner was not good, and the festival was pretty disappointing.  it was more like a country fair, and paled in comparison to oktoberfest.  the hotel was also a disappointment, as they did nothing to calm down another tour group that was staying there, being really loud and obnoxious into the wee hours of the morning.  i was ready to be back in my own bed at this point.

DAY FOUR - TUESDAY

back on the bus.  we left early and actually played movies (with english subtitles for us!) instead of terrible brazilian pop concert dvds on the way home.  however, as soon as our tour director guy fell asleep, the next movies didn't have english subtitles, so it was back to ipod mode and sleeping.  fortunately the brazilians slept a lot too, so there were no tambourines.  we got back into sao paulo around 7:30 and took a cab to moema so i was home around 8:15!  felt great to be home, especially because my maid came on monday, so i came home to a nice clean apartment.  

all in all, it was a great weekend.  crazy, but also amazing.  i am glad i got to experience the brazilian oktoberfest. 

a day in the life...

my days are BUSY!  there are so many things going on all the time, and most of the time, it's so much fun.  here's what a typical workday looks like for me:

6:05am - hit the snooze alarm once or twice before getting up and getting ready for work.  
7:03am - catch the bus that takes us teachers to school every morning from the little corner cafe.
7:30am - arrive at work, prepare for the day
7:55am - in come the students, and there's no stopping until...
3:15pm - dismiss the students to their families/drivers/etc
3:30pm - this varies depending on what day it is:

Monday - faculty meeting then exercise

Tuesday - work in my classroom

Wednesday - Portuguese Lesson then exercise

Thursday - Portuguese Lesson

Friday - Math Club (i'm in charge of 8 third graders who need extra help with math)

4:40pm - take the teacher bus back to moema (unless it's monday or wednesday, then maggie and i work out and take a taxi home)

so i usually get in about 5:15pm (later on the days i work out).  then, depending on how everyone feels/weather, we may go out for a few beers and dinner, or just eat in at our apartments.  then i'm grading papers and/or relaxing on the couch until bedtime.  

thank goodness for the weekends when we get to slow down a bit.  

who am i kidding?  the only day we slow down is sundays.  ;)  

brazil is random #1

we go out to karaoke/videoke friday night in the asian neighborhood and a random couple sings "most beautiful girl in the room" by the flight of the conchords.  would've never thought a japanese karaoke bar in brazil would have that in their songbook!  my two friends who know fotc and i pretty much went nuts. 

party in paraty!

Paraty

so because of brazilian independence day, we had a four day weekend at the beginning of september.  eight of us took off for paraty, a small city on the coast in rio de janeiro (the state, not the city).  we took a cab to the subway, then the subway to the bus station, then a bus to paraty (and the green grass grows all around, all around...)!  we arrived at the hostel in the wee hours of the morning, only to make up our beds and get some sleep.  

our boat

we woke up early enough on saturday to hire a boat for the day, captained by ricardo.  the boat was a crazy pink and red love theme, only adding to the hilarity of the trip.  we sailed (our own private cruise) from cove to cove, beach to beach, swimming, listening to music, and having a few beers.  we swam onto a beach for lunch at a restaurant right on the water.  got some sun, had some great conversations, and generally felt like the luckiest people in the world.  

Trinidade

 

the rest of the weekend consisted of nighttime concerts, good restaurants, beginning to film a movie, playing cards, eating churros, and dancing.  on monday we went to trinidade, a hippie beach village about 30 minutes away.  we spent almost all of tuesday on the bus in the rain slowly inching our way back into são paulo.   what an excellent weekend away! 

grand tour

here's a tour of my apartment!  sorry it's not the highest quality and a bit dark.  

my apartment

My living room

I'm settling into my new apartment here, and slowly adding things that make it feel more like home. Putting away all the suitcases a few weeks ago was the first step in that direction, and the obtaining of cable and internet was another! It's funny how little touches, like a hamper or a bit of tupperware for leftovers make one feel so much better. 

My kitchen the first day (see the gift basket?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My kitchen now

Other side of my little kitchen

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! 

My "office" in the spare room

Main bathroom (shower is to the left)

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!   

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!