Taking off

So tomorrow I'm heading off to Rio de Janeiro!!! I'm super excited to go, but will miss our little family here in Maceio! Luiza is going to Joao Pessoa for her class tomorrow, as well, so old man Toby is going to be one sad little poodle. Anyway, I don't know when I'll have internet access, so for all you hard core followers out there [aka, Ma and Pa ;)], don't lose hope! I will post as soon as I can! And fear not, I will be safe: I promise to wear a helmet when I hang glide if it is required. ;) Ate logo!!

Amigos, Gaubi Vaz

Kelson's childhood friend, Gaubi, is officially one of the most accomplished people I know. And one of the funniest. Dinner with him, his wife, and their friend was fun and lively with lots of talk, food, and laughter. We showed them pictures of this summer, and played online with google earth, the blog, and skyped with Murilo.

One of the things Gaubi showed us was a video of him on youtube (oh, did I tell you he wrote and released a CD? because he did...). You've got to check it out - he wrote the music (I think... I know he wrote all the songs on his CD, Amigos), that's him singing, and it is filmed in Maceio right along the area where Kelson had his jet ski accident, so you'll get a little sound and sight of Alagoas! Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVKtMRHyXrY

Here's also a link to a blog that talks a little about him and his music: http://musicadoceara.blogspot.com/2008/09/gaubi-vaz-amigos.html

According to Muri, he's also phenomenal on the guitar... maybe by talking with him I'll get better... or maybe I should practice...

What IS life without condensed milk?!?

Today was a busy day! In the morning I went to the gym, Toby and I went for a walk (and then he took a bath and now he is all fluffy... hahaha), I went to a couple more english classes, and tonight I get to meet the famous Goubi (Kelson's best friend). I'm trying to look really nice for this dinner with him and his wife because the last time the wife saw me I was dying in the hospital and toting a blue sheet around, not unlike like Linus.

A couple days ago I asked Zaira and Luiza what they vendor on the corner makes with sugar cane, so on the walk with Toby today I went and bought a cup of sugarcane juice (caldo de cana). It tasted pretty much like what you would expect the water and sugar squeezed from the sugarcane to taste like - delicious!! I'm glad I discovered that the third to last day I was here... I think agua de coco is a better habit to have...

I love going to the english classes. Turns out I'm one of those people who is energized by spending time and connecting with other people - anyone surprised? Anyone... I'm a little saddened, however by the most common question I get. They talk about the movies about high school that they see and ask me if it is really like this, meaning, are there such divisions among groups, and are the football players all cool and dumb, and are the cheerleaders all hot and promiscuous, and are there nerds who are smart and losers. On one hand it makes me sad that this is how the world perceives us, as anyone would if these movies were the only time they saw into the United States and our culture. On the other hand, I'm glad to be here and to have a chance to talk about our culture and show people here a "different" sort of American. I like to be able to subvert the rumors, and I love most of all to talk to students about myths about sex before marriage that our media passes out like candy. I think I was born to work with this age group, if only the crazy parents would relax about grades a little bit, and I think a dream of mine is to foster a small group of girls in the high school that talks about these things, that can learn from my mistakes and triumphs, and who can encounter God and bring him to their (our) culture!

My favorite conversation from today was a student who asked if we had brigadero in the U.S. Half of them were utterly shocked that my answer was no (I think the other half already knew this). The girl who asked me, still astounded, then asked this question: But what, then, do you eat at parties?!?! They weren't consoled with any of my answers, however, because none of it involved condensed milk, however they were a little relieved to hear that we at least had condensed milk in the U.S.

Alright, I'm out folks. I'm going to go help prepare for tonight a little bit more... with any luck they'll ask me to "help" make the brigadero!!! I need to go practice my innocent face...

The fruit club

Goiaba take 2 happened today - instead of eating the pretty green goiaba, I ate the yellow one, and low and behold, it was amazing! There was no pucker effect, the seeds were still hard, but the entire fruit is edible and it's tasty! To compare the ripe and unripe fruit, I took a picture. When it comes to goiaba, green does not mean go.

I also tried caju this week. The caju fruit is an accessory fruit that grows attached to the true caju fruit, also known as castanha de caju, or the cashew nut. The fruit is delicate and juicy, very sweet and tender with a slightly chalky aftertaste. And apparently I am slightly allergic to this fruit (or maybe to the potent skin irritant found in between the double shell encasing the cashew nut, which is also a toxin found in poison ivy?...

nah... ) because both times I ate the fruit my throat got all itchy and my hands got what looks like sunburn or hives... without the burn and itch. The goiaba I ate today was sitting next to the caju for the last couple days, and when I ate it I got the hand-sunburn reaction again... for the love... What a curse to be allergic to something that is so good! In heaven I'm going to have a caju tree.

A teacher of another sort

I've been volunteering at a local english school these past 2 weeks and today I talked to three classes. I appreciate being a volunteer more now that I'm a teacher - what a great lesson plan: bring in a native speaker, let the kids ask questions... I need to utilize guest speakers more... The kids are so much fun to talk with - especially the girls because they are so animated (lots of exclamations, giggling, gasping). It's helping me to get more excited to return to my own classroom!

Low Tide

It's the middle of the week, so of course the day is perfect. There are only enough clouds in the sky to be decorative and the ocean peeking between buildings is sparkly, so Toby and I scratched our usual around the block plans and headed for the beach. We hit waterfront when the tide was low and the bay was scattered with boats sitting too high in the water. We walked past one that was planted completely out of the water, but it didn't matter - there was someone still working on the boat and another working around it. In fact, most of the boats that were beached had people working on or around them.

As Toby and I walked I started to notice all the incredible beauty around me. The color of the water looked photoshopped, and the way the water had run across the sand left patterns that made the ground look like marble. As blue swirled below, the canopy of green above seemed to blossom out even more than usual. God's creation is so perfect - even as I walked down the beach I noticed that when I started to get to warm I would pass under the shadow of the palms into delicious cool air.

Toby was loving his time at the beach - he almost seemed to prance in and out of the scattered seaweed. He thought the seaweed flowing with the current was alive, so I sat, entertained for a while, watching him tentitavely reach out his neck as far as it would go in order to smell it and then a wave would catch the seaweed and more it a little, so Toby would jump back! Then he'd paw at it and leap sideways! I'm pretty sure he would have stayed there with that clump all day.

A giant sandbar was uncovered because it was low tide, and it stretched out nearly half way across the narrow part of the bay. It was packed with people, and we wove our way around them in order to walk out to the end. I walked in the warm, shallow water while Toby was a little more hesitant, but he started to prance in and out of the little waves and soon was wading across the little channels all by himself. When he came out of the water he looked hilarious - since just his legs were wet, they looked really tiny and spindly and his fat little fluffy body sat on top. He looked so out of proportion that I couldn't help but see him as a cartoon character - he would have been pompous royalty prancing around with his nose in the air, a white ruffly collar on, being tailed by a butler carrying a silver platter of doggy kibble. He is just so happy at the beach.

As we walked back, the beached boats seemed to be collecting people. The one stuck completely out of the water now had 3 people sitting on it, drinking and talking, another one was being rolled out to the water on logs by 2 people, and as the sun got hotter the fishermen seemed to be doing more socializing and less fishing.

Oh how I will miss Maceio!! I love it here, and I know that my dreams during the rainy, grey winter in OR will be of walking along this beach.

Erin was right: 3rd grade is hard!

I've been looking for that magic bean, the one method of learning portuguese that is going to make it click for me. I'm starting to think that there is no such thing as magic or clicking... On the down side, portuguese is difficult and I have days where I am so frustrated about my lack of understanding and progress. On the positive side, there are moments of glory when I realize that I actually am learning - when I understand a whole sentence said on a TV show, or when the check out lady at the grocery store asks me if I have a number, and I can give her an answer without receiving that scrunched-eyebrow look that is so very familiar (and often followed a few seconds later with an ... ohhh... )

I'm starting to think that there is no one method that will get me to learn, but rather the more methods I employ, the more fully I will learn. I'm trying everything I can think of: I took a class, study from a text book, listen to an audio lesson, watch TV/movies in portuguese, read/translate children's comic and story books, play games on line, and I recently bought a book of cross-word puzzles and word searches. I tried watching children's shows, but most of them on the Barney level, which is what I need these days, make me want to stab myself with a fork... or stab the TV, or maybe Barney. Anyone else have suggestions? (stalkers out there?)

I'm also starting to think that there's no "click." I keep waiting for the moment where I'll all of a sudden be able to understand what people say and be able to respond (in more than 2 year old speech...) But I'm starting to think the learning process is less like stair, or a series of times when you just get it, and more like climbing a hill - it's a gradual accruing of knowledge and understanding.

If you're praying for me out there, pray for patience. I have more empathy for kindergardeners and other early learners these days; as a famous teacher once said: 3rd grade is hard! Excuse me while I go read "A Princesa e o Sapo."

BOPE facility

It is said that BOPE training is the most hard-core prepared in the world: above the Israel police, if you can believe it, due to the nature of urban warfare that they have to survive. If you haven't already, check out the movie Tropa de Elite, or Elite Squad, which tells a story through training and operation of BOPE. For one reason or another, Maceio has a BOPE facility, and proudly our Boxing instructor at our gym is ex-BOPE. I took these pictures of the front of the training facility as we drove by (thus the quality...) Note their seal, Faca na Caveira, or Knife in the Skull, (nice, right?) and the mural painted on the words BOPE. CRAZY!

A little too ironic...

We pulled up to a restaurant before deciding to go to Bar do Bahia yesterday. As we were sitting in the car waiting for Kelson to see what it was about, I noticed all the chickens in the yard. One mama hen had ten or more baby chicks running around her. Luiza and I watched them, talked about how cute they were for a while, and she told me the word for chick was pintinho, which I thought was nothing like the word for chicken, galinha. As I was reminiscing about the good times with Peeper (our pet chicken we had when were little), and the good ol' barbie doll car days, Kelson returned to tell us the specialty of the restaurant: chicken.

Dinner and a Show

Yesterday we went sight-seeing around a small town and one of Maceio's famous beaches. One of our stops along the way was a restaurant called Bar do Bahia. As soon as we pulled up I noticed squirrels in the trees?? I couldn't believe it, so it was the first place I went - around the restaurant to the chicken and cat-infested "yard" in between the restaurant and the river it overlooked. Chickens and cats, who would have thought that was a good combination... Anyway, sure enough, there they were - little fuzzy things scampering around the trees... although the more I watched the more I thought the tail was too long, and the head was the wrong size, and sometimes they sat rather than stood on all 4's... so I asked my tour guide,Ms. Luiza, and low and behold, they were MONKEYS!!! I'm not kidding - they were these cute, squirrel-sized monkeysscampering around the branches in the trees!! I was ecstatic, think Nolan in the aviation museum, mouth open, eyes bright, I might have been shaking a little bit. Luiza looked at me for a little bit and then said, "Yah, but they bite," and walked on into the restaurant. I tried to get pictures, but turns out they are not paparazzi-friendly little guys. They started yelling, or squeaking, and ranfrom tree to tree until I was too far for a descent picture. The rest of the meal I think I spent looking in thetree-tops rather than enjoying the view of the river.

The restaurant's owner was around and he would move from table to table and hang out with the patrons. He was this charismatic guy who would chat it up with us and when we needed something he would shout, "Menino! Colher!" (boy! spoon!), or "Menino! Coco!" (boy! coconut!). It reminded me of the movie "Behind the sun" where you never hear the boy's name,

only not as sad. Turns out the owner's nickname was "Bahia," and he seemed to think the name of the restaurant (Bar do Bahia) was pretty funny, and it was pretty funny that he thought it was pretty funny... When he found out I was american, a sparkle showed up in his eye, and as he gestured towards the wall he told me that I had to tell his cousin hello for him when I got back. See the pictures below.

I'm compiling a "Things you'd never see in the US" list, and this Bar has made the cut: In the US you'll never see the owner of a restaurant go catch the food (in this case, "Cidi," a type of

crab), prepare it and then serve it to you!! It's like dinner and a show!

Caught in the act... again...

Like I said earlier, I bought some unknown, interesting-looking fruit the other day from the store, and I decided on Thursday that today was the day to engage with the maracujá (aka Passion Fruit). I love the picture of the maracujá cut in half, looking at the inside... it just screams passion, right?

So I got all prepared - did my research on line (wait until it's wrinkly, cut in half and eat seeds... check check check), got the plate, found the right knife, found just the right mouth-sized spoon, cut the sucker in half, (pause for the picture), scooped up a not so brave spoonful, looked closely, smelled the seeds, opened my mouth... and then this voice behind me interrupted, "você vai comer isso???" (or something to that effect... all I really needed to hear were the three question marks...) Busted - Zairinha has such great timing. I explained (successfully, I

think!!!) that I read online that this was how you ate it, and she gave me that classic "dear, sweet child" smile, took the fruit from me, and told me she doesn't think it's good to eat that way and she'll show me how to make juice. As she was scooping one half out into the blender I pretended to examine the fruit and again not-so-slyly ate a couple seeds. They had flavor and were fairly sour - I had to think about a parallel for a while, but think it's close to a pomegranate experience (flavor with a little pucker... mostly pucker for my maracujá.)

So Zairinha made me juice (maracujá, sugar, water, blender), and it was AMAZING. She wins food points on this one, for sure.

I'm learning (slowly, but nonetheless) that half, and possibly more than half, the battle with the enjoying the fruit here (other than knowing how to eat it) is knowing how to pick it out, and

knowing when to eat it. At the store I usually just wait until someone else goes to buy the fruit, and they try to pick out fruit that looks like the fruit they picked out, aka fruit stalking. Sometimes it works... the knowing when is another story, we're currently employing the trial by fire method there... I killed a couple papayas I tried to buy the other day - apparently you shouldn't put them at the bottom of the grocery bag, even if they are currently harder than all other fruit. I've never seen bruised fruit grow mold that fast...

I think Zairinha's inspired, though - she has put together a mental list of fruit and is on a mission to find them so I can try, and I think I'm going to like this game.

My greatest discovery

This week, I discovered The Hammock. There are two hooks in the bedroom I'm staying with, in perfectly opposite corners of the room. The hammock stretches diagonally across the room when strung up, and can be rolled up to hang in a tidy ball when not in use, which is where it's been since I've been there. One day this week I was looking for interesting things to do while I waited for the family to get home from work, and I decided to unroll the ball. As I did light streamed into the room and the birds started singing, I tenuously sat down, testing the strength of the hooks in the wall, sank down, and then didn't get out for a couple of hours. I've decided it's my new vice. :)

For the last couple days I've been thinking about trying to sleep in it... other than the naps I sneak in... daily... so last night I gathered my courage and sheets, and rocked myself into a deep sleep. Usually I wake up once or twice during the night, and last night: nothing. I woke up rested and so very comfortable - it was hard to get myself to get out of the hammock. I guess it actually is fairly difficult to get out of, but it's also hard because the hammock is like a giant cuddle blanket that holds you. mmmmm... hammock.

View from our balcony

This is what I get to wake up to in the morning!! So beautiful, the ocean can be seen 3-4 blocks away in both the north and west views, even though it's a little hard to see in the pictures. Also, note the tree on someone's veranda like 10 floors up in the west view. The last picture is looking west at sunset.

North

Northwest

West

West at sunset

A few of my favorite things...

... include the vendors here. Where else can you walk down the street and buy fresh boiled corn, coconut water straight from the coconut (which is straight from the tree), assortments of nuts, popcorn and carmel corn, popsicles, aracaju or tapioca, a meringue-like candy, a very light tube-shaped pastry, fruit, lobsters, beans, and I'm sure there's more I haven't discovered yet. You just have to find the right person walking down the street!

Experiment and see...

The realization hit this weekend that I only have two more weeks in Maceio and one week in Rio until I head back to the states, so I have re-found motivation to be productive and get the most out of this time in Brazil. Yesterday I was certainly productive: morning walk with Toby, breakfast, Bible study, work out class, Pimsleur portuguese lesson, trip to the natural foods store (for my beloved flax), prep for chemistry, trip to the supermarket, work-out class #2, watch some TV with Luiza, attempted work-out class #3 (but the prof was sick), went to talk to 3 english schools about volunteering, watched the novela with Luiza and Zaira, talked with Muri, bed! AND it was raining!

I also noticed that I'm getting more comfortable here. I went to the grocery store yesterday and decided that today was the day that I was going to try the things I've been wanting to. So I bought a couple essentials and then bought some stuff like some fruit that looked interesting, pão de queijo, dulce de leite in a can, stuff to make brigadeiros (aka condensed milk), and grape/pineapple mentos. There is a reason they don't sell grape or pineapple mentos in the

united states, and now I know. It made me think of another experience I've had...

There was this time, walking through a soap store, I saw a pale purple bar labeled "lavender." My memory rushed back to a magnificent experience where I ran my hand over the rough, semi-dry head of the flower. With a little pressure the flower popped of and I rolled the little disk flowers off of the composite head in order to release the fragrance. I closed my eyes and tilted my face towards the sun, felt the breeze playing around my legs, and inhaled God's perfect combination of scents contained in that pale purple flower. So in that soap store I closed my eyes, leaned down to the bar, and inhaled deeply only, to my surprise, to be attacked by a smell burning a path through my sinuses, constricting my lungs as I reel back, eyes wide, trying to wheeze the offensive impostor's scent out of my system! I should carry a sharpy for times like these so I can write "NOT" on the label. NOT lavender soap, NOT grape mentos!

The brigadero's, however, were a much better experience. Luiza showed me how she makes them: condensed milk, nescau - BAM: brigaderos. So much easier than the recipe I found online... Murilo will be happy I discovered this so I can make/eat them ALL THE TIME, NOW!! AHHH! Right honey? So excited for me, right? ;)

I also tried to eat one of the fruits I bought yesterday. It's called goiaba. I don't think they eat it much in raw form around here, because the whole family was polled when I asked if it was ready to eat/ how you eat it. My favorite answer was from Kelson who said "Experiment and see what part you like to eat." So I did, and found out that 1) I should have waited a couple days to eat it, 2) the green part is NOT tasty 3) the seeds are really hard and should not be attempted to be chewed before swallowing. I plan on buying a couple more, waiting a couple days, and trying again. The pink part in the middle was very pleasantly, mildly sweet. I think it has promise.

I think the other one I bought was called Maracuja, but I haven't tried to eat this one yet. Luiza said something about "with water," so I think I have to cook it first? Maybe I should google it...

Today it rained quite a bit again, so I stayed inside and played with my food. I cooked the pão de queijo (slash-took them out of the bag in the freezer and put them into the oven). They turned out great - maybe I should have been the baker in our family... although Murilo made a pretty mean honey wheat. (Love, what was that special ingredient in the honey?) I also made whole wheat pasta with alfredo sauce, peas, broccoli, and roasted garlic. So good! Although in the left-overs the pasta soaked all the sauce up... doit! And it needed a little salt... either that or I've been permanently affected by the amount of salt in all the food here.

Toby and I also went for a perfectly timed walk during the only 20 minutes of sun today. I tried to count the number of poles and trees he peed on, but lost count around 60... he only willingly bypassed 4. After a while he just goes through the motions, but there's nothing left to contribute. I also noticed today that we make a great booby-trap: he's little and blends in with the foliage, the leash line is black and looks like a crack in the sidewalk... kid running at full speed - CLOTHES LINED! I try to walk directly behind him to avoid this from happening, but I'm pretty sure I look a little crazy walking from one side to the other: tree, pole, tree, pole...

Alright, an hour and a half until my next work-out class... I better go eat a brigadero now so I can burn it off!! (how's that for exercise logic...)

A much sunnier Sunday

This morning we walked down to the waterfront in order to hear the band for this weekend, the state police band.

Our favorite lady was there and I took a video... she was not as creative as usual, but her ending is still pretty solid.

All kinds of people were up and dancing today - couples, solos, people with kids, people with dogs... one woman was dancing with the fluffiest dog I've ever seen... I took a picture of that, too ;)

It seemed like there were more people than usual today, and the activities and vendors were busy today. All the usual vendors were out and selling: cotten candy and balloons, toys and balls,

nuts, popcorn, drinks, coconuts, tapioca, churros, and other various treats. Usual activities were present, too: bikes, two person bikes, blow-up gyms, trampolines, etc. After the band, Kelson and I took Toby into the ocean for a little swim. The water was a little cold, but after sucking it up and plunging, the water was marvelous! I can't tell if Toby likes it or feelstortured, but it's so funny to pick him out of the water and watch his legs keep paddling! He got a shower after swimming today, and he is no longer following me around, so I think our little pouter may be slightly put-off. I'm sure it won't last long - he has no self-control when it comes to licking legs walking by.