Adventures of Living Abroad

I just about lost my mind today. It was Friday night and it had been a long week of work. I just wanted to relax a little bit and decided to try to find a good deal on plane tickets to Iguazu Falls. My mom and I are going there in January. Should be easy right? WRONG...not in Brazil. After spending some time searching on the internet I found a great deal on the Brazilian airline TAM. The site was obviously in Portuguese but with some common sense and concentration I figured it out. Sweet, I thought! And then I reached the payment page.... Paying with my debit card in the US is simple. You just type in your card information or bank account and BAM it's done. Not so easy here. It would not accept my debit card without having to do some extra steps. So next up: my US credit card. NOPE. It didn't want that card either. Then I decided, well I guess I will need to activate the credit card I received months ago. I called the number and luckily I was able to speak to someone ...

So I received the my interesting and unique gift from a student the other day...an ostrich egg....He brought it from his farm...yes, a real ostrich egg. My first question was: Do your parents know you brought me this egg? 2nd question: Is this thing going to hatch on me? Yes, his parents knew he was going to give it to me and no it was going to hatch. Apparently, you can tell by the color of the shell if it is a good egg to hatch or not. Who knew? haha. Anyway, the student then preceded to tell me how to get the insides out of the egg by poking a hole in both ends and blowing it out, but he kept reminding me to make sure I do not breathe in! haha This present came a day after I told the class it was my brother's birthday. I told my students in the morning during calendar and during their recess time some of them made cards and one student created a cake in art class. We then sang to him and sent it through What's App. What a sweet group of students! The ostrich e...

So I had my first dance performance in about 5 years last Sunday. It was so exhilarating to be on stage again! I felt at home there. It was a fun but long and exhausting day. We had rehearsal in the morning and then Lin, the co-owner helped to do my makeup because of course I didn't bring my bright blue eye shadow with me! I threw out all my stage makeup before I moved here. We had two shows that evening and it was so much fun to try and communicate with the other dancers. I started to learn that a few others speak English but they are shy about it because they don't speak well. I learned some new phrases and really enjoyed my time. I know I have said this before but they have been so welcoming and have tried so hard to communicate with me and make sure I'm doing okay.   My very funny and talented hip hop teacher and I at the dance show   Some of the hip hop crew

So today I had the dance rehearsal for the upcoming show next Sunday. What a great day it turned out to be even though at first I was a little bummed to cut my tanning time  short at the pool on this beautiful Sunday. So the afternoon began with a stage makeup session. Now I have worn stage makeup before, but I wasn't sure if these Brazilians did it differently so I showed up at the class. I explained to the Lin, the head dance teacher who also speaks some English, that I don't have any makeup "stage worthy" here in Brazil. I through all that stuff out before moving here...I mean, come on, I didn't plan on wearing my bright blue eye shadow again anytime soon. haha. So Lin, being the smart and friendly person she is, decided to use me as the model for the day to show everyone how to apply their makeup. It made the most sense because I wouldn't be able to understand what she was explaining or be able to talk to the other women about it...

Last weekend we had a 3 1/2 day weekend for Brazil's independence day. I went with a new group of friends this time. I've decided I really need to live AT the beach. I absolutely love the feeling of walking on the sand and basking in the sun while listening to the sound of the ocean. It is so relaxing. Unfortunately, the trip TO the beach was NOT so relaxing. The 4 1/2 hour drive took us 10 hours! There is only one main highway to get there and there are spots where it goes down to one lane due to construction. I became excited thinking soon the construction will be done and there will be more lanes! But I quickly learned that this project has been going on for over 5 years now...soooo no hope for an extra lane anytime soon. All I have to say is God Bless America and it's highway systems. :) It was quite entertaining watching people walk up and down the highway, as the car sat as if they were in parking lot, selling things..water, snacks, tea towels, cell phone car char...

I've really been slacking with my blog lately. I just realized it has been a month since I last wrote. I have been keeping very busy with work and dance that I have not had the energy to write. I'm going to try to give a quick update on what has been going on during the last month. I'm loving my dance classes! On Mondays and Wednesdays I have ballet and hip hop and Tuesday is samba night! (5 1/2 hrs. each week) I really haven't been home much during the weekend except to eat dinner, check emails, and sleep. But I do enjoy being busy and doing what I love. It's also very nice to be around Portuguese speakers. I love my coworkers, but it is so liberating to get out on my own. :) I need to get the courage to start to practice speaking in front of them now! The people at dance have been very friendly and supportive. There was a Halloween Party at our school. It was unbelievable...Halloween is not a big holiday here in Brazil and only in the last few years has it gr...

I know I'm in my 8th year of teaching but I was still feeling nervous about the parent teacher conferences. I think it was mostly because I am new and the format of the conferences are different. They have 3-way conferences in which the students attend the conferences and share pieces of their work with their parents. It's nice because it takes the pressure off of me, because the students talk and share what they are doing well and what they can improve upon. The language barrier was a little difficult at times because although my assistant and even the students themselves helped to translate, it felt more distant since I wasn't communicating directly with the parents. Conferences went very well today! We had conferences from 1-6pm today and then from 8am-12pm tomorrow. Yes, on a Saturday...yuck! The kids did a great job sharing their 4 pieces of work the chose yesterday and the parents were very pleased with how things were going so far! One of the conferences brought ...

So although I'm really tired, I feel I need to blog about this small moment before it passes me by. It happened in samba class tonight. I was busy practicing my samba steps, listening to the instructor speak in Portuguese and watch her steps to figure out what to do...then suddenly a small table was brought into the room with many delicious treats...candles were lit....it was time to celebrate a birthday! (These Brazilians love to celebrate birthdays!) So we stopped dancing, turned the music on and sang happy birthday to her. We all clapped and cheered as she blew out the candles. Then the music changed and one of the dance instructors led her to the middle of the room. We all made a circle around them and they began to samba....each guy in the room then took a turn dancing with her....I looked around the room thinking...wow...that's right...I LIVE in BRAZIL! I couldn't stop smiling and thinking I love this place and all these friendly people. :) I wanted to be a complete g...

So each new teacher at my school was given an adoptive family to make you feel more at home here in Brazil. They are families of students at the school. My adoptive family actually lived in Philadelphia for a year while studying dentistry from 2003-2004! It is amazing to have that connection with them! They truly understand me when I say I miss a Philly cheesesteak and I love how they compare parts of Porto Alegre to Philly, like the Reading Terminal Market and Penns Landing. Today they took me out on their boat onto the Guaíba Lake. The weather was perfect for boating...a hot spring day! It took us about 15 to drive from my apartment to the area of the shore where the boat is stored. They pay to keep their boat in a storage area where people clean the boat and cover it for winter. They even have people use a tractor to pull the boat from the stall and puts it into the river for you. So convenient! After cruising down the river for awhile, we stopped for lunch and as a typical Braz...

Since I arrived here, I've been trying to figure out where to go to exercise. I'm not much of a gym person so I was looking for a pilates place. There are tons of pilates places around but I was just never motivated to go and inquire. Two weeks ago I had decided enough is enough and that walking around the city and working out a little in my apartment was just not cutting it. So I decided to find a dance studio where I could learn to samba which is the popular style of dance here in Brazil. A co-worker helped me find a studio near my apartment and off I went! Luckily one of the instructors spoke some English so she could help me get started, but when I entered the class it was almost all Portuguese. Last week I took the beginner class, but this week I tried the intermediate class because the beginner class was really really slow. I loved it! I was learning how to samba while everyone was speaking Portuguese around me! They tried to translate some things, but I told th...

So I decided it was finally time to act like a Brazilian and get my legs waxed. The first time I got this done back in August, a few weeks after arriving here, my friend informed me that "it wasn't bad" Ha...liar...that f***ing hurt! So this time around I tried to play it smart. I took motrin about an hour began going. They do not use strips but rather this gooey brownish hot stuff that they lather on your legs, wait a few seconds for it to harden and then pull it off. This was all very interesting to me as I have never had anything waxed prior to moving to Brazil. I got my legs and bikini area waxed and I'm not sure that motrin did anything to dull the pain. But after a few tears and about $20 later, the hair was gone and I felt like a new woman! This beats shaving hands down! :)

Soooo I am finally getting motivated to blog again. Things have been quite busy the past few weeks and any down time I had, I felt tired and unmotivated to write. I finally have a relaxing night to myself so here goes... I'm learning that everything in Brazil truly takes much longer and is more complicated than life back home. Paying your cell phone bill is simple and easy, right? Wrong! It took me about two weeks to finally figure it out...the language barrier was definitely NOT helping things. More than a month after we arrived in Brazil I finally got my cell phone activated with a plan from a company down here. About 3 weeks after that I started thinking...hmmm it's been almost a month, shouldn't I have to pay my bill soon? Being adventurous, I create an account online and attempted to translate the webpage myself...when that failed I used the fabulous translate button on google! I could see my bill and knew when it was due but I wasn't able to pay it online. I a...

So I felt the need to blog tonight as I'm relaxing in bed feeling very tired as I felt I had a productive day: Got to work early, around 7:15  Taught all day using every free minute to get some grading done!  Stayed at work being productive til about 4:30 Walked home (30 minute walk) Did laundry...yeah I don't get this washer, but it takes about 1 1/2 hours to wash a load of laundry! Then I hang it on the drying rack because there are no dryers here, and turn on the ceiling fan to speed up the drying process! Cooked dinner...YES I was hungry at 5:30 and NO I could not wait for Brazilian time to eat dinner. Even after eating two pastels for snack today and then a large lunch consisting of: rice and beans, meatballs, more meat (beef I think), a pasta thing with cheese and ham, a medium sized salad and pineapple, I was STILL hungry. Definitely gained back those few pounds I lost due to stress before my big move here! :) (Gotta love the free lunch at school!) Wat...

I spent my first 3 day week on a small island a few hours north of Porto Alegre called Florianopolis in the state of Santa Catarina. Our hostel was in the small village of Barra da Lagoa on a high overlooking the ocean. What a relaxing feeling to wake up to the sound and view of the ocean.   We checked out some of the shops in the town on Friday and met a friendly shop owner who served us a variety of flavors of Cachaça (Brazilian rum) from the behind his counter. Cachaça is a liquor made from fermented sugarcane juice. I'm not a fan of liquor and so I only had a small sip! We probably stayed there for an hour talking (our friend was translating) and drinking while people shopped around his store. We were lucky that it stopped raining on Saturday and the sun actually came out. We took a boat ride around the small lake and had lunch at a restaurant. The restaurants and homes around this lake are only accessible by boat. We ate outside in a small glass room. ...

On Friday I participated in the MASSA CRITICA (critical mass) bike ride. I learned it began in San Francisco and now there are cities all over the world who do this monthly bike ride. The large group takes to the streets to protest/bring awareness and help promote bike safety. It's typically about a 2 hour ride around the city. The streets are blocked off and cars are not able to pass as the group rides through the streets. Porto Alegre is not a bicycle friendly city. There are few bike lanes and the cars are very aggressive and tend to "push the limit" by getting as close as they can. Although I had not been on a bike in 2 years, I was excited to participate and get to see the city. As we began to ride someone would shout "Bicicleta" and the group would shout back "um carro a menos" (one car less). There were people cheering us on in in streets. I was loving it! After about an hour I thought, wow I am getting tired. I really should have eaten more...

So I became very excited when I saw peanut butter at the grocery store since they do not sell it very often here. Then I looked at the price! R$14 which is about US $ 7 for the Walmart brand peanut butter...No thank you! I'll pass!