Adventures of Living Abroad

I recently finished watching the 3 seasons of Modern Family on Netflix and was browsing in search of my next series to watch. I stumbled upon Ted Talks and was pleasantly surprised when the first video was one I had watched, and forgotten about, a few years ago while taking a graduate class at SJU. Her message in this video is so powerful that I wanted to share it on here. Enjoy :)  Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story

Last Saturday, my fellow American and Canadian coworkers and I gathered for our annual Thanksgiving dinner. Last year I was unable to attend due to a dance performance, but this year I was free! It is still so weird to me that it is November and I am sweating in the heat!  Everyone brought a dish to share and we even were able to find a frozen turkey here!  The food was delicious and it reminded us all of home. After dinner, while trying to digest our food before we attacked the dessert table, we all gathered around the pool to share what we were thankful for. Apparently it is a tradition that has been in place for the past few years. It was so touching to hear everyone share what they were thankful for and what their wishes were for the year to come.  As I sat there soaking up the warm sunshine and enjoying the cool water on my feet, I couldn't help but feel thankful for so much. Of course I didn't share all of these things out loud, but I was definitely t...

I can't believe it has been over a month since my last blog post. I have often thought of posting, but just couldn't seem to find the time or energy to do so. I have been doing a lot of thinking in the past few weeks about my life and what my future goals should be. It has taken a lot of thought, but I finally feel like I am making the decision that will make me the happiest.  When I arrived back to Brazil in July I was sure that I would stay for another year. I was set on giving myself a year of "calm" and a year of no major life changes, but I soon felt very unhappy. It took weeks of talking to friends and reflecting to come to the conclusion that this is not a place I want to stay. Although I love Brazil, I am not happy at school for many reasons that I will not get into right now. So much for a year of just calmness...It's time to get ready for another big life change...new country...new continent....here I come. This was definitely not an easy decision for...

Last weekend was an unexpected adventure. I decided to do something new and push myself out of my comfort zone. I traveled to a city called Santa Cruz about 2 hours northwest of Porto Alegre to attend a hip hop and dance workshop with my hip hop teacher, Aluisio, his girlfriend, Marla,  and another dancer, Cassio. I took the bus with Cassio in the morning to meet Aluisio and Marla who were already there. We had some lunch and then took a few workshops in hip hop, experimental, and jazz. It felt so good to get out of Porto Alegre and see something new. It was also nice to spend some time with just Brazilians. Aluisio knows a little English just from listening to lots of American music. So between my little Portuguese, his little English, and acting things out we had quite a fun time of trying to communicate with each other.  After classes during the day and watching a show of various dance performances we grabbed some dinner at the typical Brazilian hour of 11 pm. We then w...

Last night, I decided to stay in and have a relaxing night since I spent all day outside enjoy the sunny and warm weather. I was hungry and didn't have much in my apartment to eat and I was feeling too lazy to get off the couch, get dressed and go out for dinner. I decided I would order in. Now, you are thinking....ok, ordering in that's easy...go pick up the phone, make the order and wait for it to be delivered...brainless work right? Well, not so easy if you have to do it in Portuguese. Over the phone I would not be able to use any hand gestures or write something down to show them if they didn't understand my pronunciation. I rehearsed everything I wanted to say and then finally had the guts to call and place my order. I understood all her questions, was able to order the right food, give the correct address, and say I was paying in cash and would need change.  It was a proud moment when 30 minutes later the guard at the front gate called my apartment saying "ent...

Life has been quite busy and stressful the last few weeks here. We have been in school for over a month already and the kids are finally into a good routine. Although I feel more confident with it being my second year in the same grade as far as the curriculum goes, we have a new principal, we are having an Advanced Ed Accreditation visit soon, and I have a very challenging little boy in my classroom that has made for a stressful start to the year. For the past few weeks I have let him consume me and it has been exhausting. He needs more love and support than I am physically able to give him in the time we have together in school. But, I did not come on here to complain about school.  A few days ago, my friend and I were talking about how we wanted to have a little more adventure in our lives and decided to explore a new section of the city. We were feeling trapped into the daily grind of life. And didn't we move to Brazil to explore new things?  So after my typical Saturd...

After taking a bus from Lençóis Maranhenses back to Sao Luis, I head straight to the airport to catch a flight to Fortaleza. From Fortaleza I hopped into a taxi and head out to Cumbuco, which is a small beach town about 40 minutes outside of Fortaleza.  I was looking forward to spending my next few days relaxing on a beach before heading back to the States to visit family and friends. Unfortunately, I didn't make a very important connection...Cumbuco is famous for kite surfing. What do you need for kite surfing? WIND. Windy beaches are NOT good for lying out and getting a tan which is exactly what I was hoping I would do.  I did give it my best shot though. I wrapped up my face and stayed as close to the water as possible because the sand was wet and less likely to blow around. I was one of the only people actually lying out on the beach. I stayed as long as I could before the constant wind and sand drove me crazy.  I spent a lot of time in the hammock at the hostel...

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park This area is very unique because although it is composed of large, white dunes, it is not a desert. Since it's location is just outside of the Amazon Basin this region gets a rainy season and causes a phenomenon of fresh water collecting in the valleys between the sand dunes.I learned that these lagoons even have a large number of fish that arrive after July when the water is at its fullest.  I stayed in the small town of Barreirinhas at a pousada run by an older woman who spoke only Portuguese. She was so sweet and patient with me as I tried to speak in Portuguese. She made sure I was picked up from the bus by a taxi and taken to the pousada since I arrived so late at night. She helped to arrange the excursion I went on and even woke up early to make sure the taxi would come on time to take me back to the bus.  The first day I was picked up in a 4-wheel drive truck that looked like this: We drove to the river and onto a flat barge th...

After the Amazon, I flew from Manaus to Sao Luis. I arrived there on Saturday and left Sunday evening. I stayed in the historical district in centro at a beautiful hostel. Unfortunately though, I quickly learned that the hostel should have invested more money into a new ceiling fan and air conditioning unit to help keep the mosquitoes from attacking me rather than a refrigerator in my room or a beautiful lobby area. After being in the Amazon for 5 days, I had no tolerance for those pesky bugs!  After settling into my room, the first thing on my agenda was to do some laundry. I really needed to wash the jungle and bug spray smell off my clothes, but when I walked around I realized most of the shops were closing. Of course they were closing, it was Saturday afternoon. Why would you want to work on a Saturday. haha. I returned to the hostel and explained my problem. I was leaving tomorrow evening and really needed my clothes washed. I had 15 pieces of clothes and the hoste...

Day 5 Part 2 and Day 6 – Manaus – Back to Civilization What a great feeling to be back to the world of air conditioning and hot showers! It felt like such a luxury! And it was compared to what we had for the last 5 days… We showered and took ourselves out to a nice restaurant to try some fish called tambaqui for dinner. Delicious!!! The next day was July 4 and we celebrated the US’s Independence Day by watching the Brazil play a game in the world cup and enjoy some delicious freshly squeezed juices.