|
|
Three years ago January, I got offered 2 ESL teaching jobs. One in Poland and one in Brazil. I came to Brazil {Canoa Quebrada, Ceará , one state North of where I am now, to be exact} I had no idea what I was in for. I didn’t speak a word of Portuguese, not even Obrigada, thank you. {on a side note: I am proud to report I am fluent now} I arrived at the end of January, settled into my new home with the owner of the school, started classes, and meeting my students. I was already in love with Brazil, from the moment I arrived. Soon after I started teaching, Carnaval started and my Birthday was nearing. I decided to take advantage of the 2 weeks I had off and travel a bit. I hopped on a bus to Praia da Pipa to spend my two week holiday there. I then met my husband Max, upon arriving the first day. I spent a blissful 2 weeks in Pipa and then returned to Ceará . A month later Max came to visit me and it continued like this, back and forth, until my teaching contract was up a few months later. It was a very temporary job, due to the fact I wanted to travel as well as work. Well let’s just say I didn’t get much traveling in. In April I moved to Praia da Pipa with Max and the rest is history. I will make a brief timeline below of major events that took place over the course of the next 3 years.
Up until now I have kept my blog quite light, avoiding exposure of my personal life. In light of some recent changes that have taken place and me feeling the need to write about these events, I have changed my mind and decided to write away. So… the recent changes that have played a part in this….. well, Max got his Visa {greencard} to the USA in December! After a looong two year journey we thought we would never see the day. But it has arrived and we were informed we must go to the USA within 6 months of the issuing of the visa, which was December. What does this mean for our family… yes, we are moving to the USA!! In April we will go to Rio to spend two weeks with Max’s family and then May 8th we are flying to NYC. It is our hope to find jobs, settle in with my family and then see where we would like to live. If we have troubles finding jobs, settling in, etc .. we have already said we will return to Brazil. As my husband has a good job here, and is leaving on an open-ended agreement, shall we decide to return. Where does this leave my blog and writing? Well I have decided to back track a bit, since I just started this blog 6 months ago,after two and half years of already living here. I have been through a lot of ups and downs and huge experiences here. I am really feeling the need to write about some of them in hopes of helping another. And others for the pure, selfish reason of getting them off my chest, kinda like closure in a way. I also plan to still write about Brazil current events, and all things Brazil related. I wish to continue Food Friday as well, although I haven’t posted about that in a while, I will continue.
So what is to come? Take a look at my brief timeline of events here ..take note, these are only the major events and I will cover various other things.
- January 2007: Arrive in Brazil
- Feb. 2007: Met Max
- April 2007: Move to Praia da Pipa with Max
- April 2007: Trip to Bahia
- May 2007: My first trip to Rio
- June 2007: A friend arrives from NYC
- June 2007: I get stabbed in my neck twice and stomach once, nearly die
- July 2007: The judicial process starts for my case
- July 2007: Max and I get married
- August 2007: I apply for my Brazilian Visa
- September 2007: I go to NYC for 3 months
- October 2007: We apply for Max’s Visa to the USA
- December 2007: I arrive back in Pipa from the USA
- March 2008: My daughter, Malu is concieved
- September 2008: My sister and best friend come for a visit
- September 2008: Max and I go to Rio for a visit
- November 2008: We drop the attempted murder case/s we have in the courts {civil and criminal}
- December 2008: Malu is born
- April 2009: Malu and I go to the USA for 2 months
- June 2009: Malu and I return to Pipa
- July 2009: The Federal Police make a visit to our house to see if our marriage is legit, for my Brazilian Visa
- September 2009: Max and I go to Rio to baptize Malu
- November 2009: We go to Rio for Max’s visa interview at the US Consulate
- December 2009: Malu turns 1
- December 2009: Max gets his visa in the mail
- Feb. 2010: Max and I 3 year Anniversary
- Soon to come … April 2010: To Rio for 2 weeks, May 2010: To the USA
So these are a just a few stories I will cover. Please, I would love to hear your input and/or if you are really interested in hearing about something.. comment away. I want to know what you would like to read about and/or find more interesting.
We have another visitor folks… look who dropped by our backyard to visit us the other day ….
We gave him a bit of bread to capture a few photos .. had no fruit on hand!!! He seemed to enjoy it 
So I had a Birthday last month. Yeah I know, I never blogged about it, but it wasn’t a huge deal. But I was gifted {from my wonderful girlfriends} a beautiful bikini, from my favorite bikini shop, Maracuja, here in Pipa. I had had my eyes on it for a while and apparently one of my friends caught on. Thoughtful friends I have, I must say!!
Well today I was on my way to throw away the cutsey little bag it came in, when I noticed they had their web address printed on the bag. SOooo .. I thought I would share it with my lovely ladies that read this blog, or those really good boyfriends that are looking for something nice to get their special someone. Although a bikini is a hard thing to shop for for a lady. Their bikinis are made from a lovely soft material, and they fit the best I have ever tried in Brazil. They are a bit pricey, running around R$ 120,00 for top and bottom, but in my opinion totally worth it. They sell the tops and bottoms separately {as is the norm here, which I love cause my size differs from top and bottom} so each piece is priced differently.
Their bikinis really are top quality. And they also have a children’s line.. I picked up Malu the cutest star bikini the other day
Go check them out, they have stores all over Brazil and an online shop coming soon to their website so you can buy online. I promise you won’t be disappointed. If you are on the hunt for a bikini {as it seems I always am, hence the fact I have nearly 20 of them} go visit.
Psssttttt… And no I am not getting paid to advertise for them, although it may sound like it and I wish I was. But no, I just really *LOVE* their bikinis.
As you may or may not know Carnaval {Carnival for all you English folks} just finished last week. Well here in Pipa we have a big celebration the day after the last day of Carnaval on Weds. Parades, dress-up {it is typical that men dress as women and women dress as men. But you see any and all costumes} Starting mid-day we got all dressed up {well I got dressed up as a man, channeling Elvis with the short doo and well yeah Max went half and half *boring*.. . opting out for surf shorts with one of my bikini tops stuffed with socks for boobies. And well my sweet dear Malu, we tried to make her a man too, but only made half of a beard on that sweet face, before she got annoyed} Then we headed to the street for festivities. We marched with the band for about an hour with Malu before she got tired and cranky. SO that was our cue she had had enough. We then swooped her over to her little friend Luisa’s for the rest of the afternoon with the baba {babysitter} while Mamae and Papai had a bit of Carnaval fun “sans” baby!!
Here is Mamae Elvis with sweet baby
Tsk Tsk .. and just so you can get an idea of the people of Carnaval .. the one below us is the star of Pipa Carnaval {obviously a man dressed as a woman .. but I must say he or ahheemmm …should I say she, makes a darn good woman!!!}
And notice my chest hair .. teheheheeeee :)
 Malu and I
 The "star" of Pipa Carnaval
Yeah I know, I missed Food Friday. So I am a day late. Whatever. Life happens. So I am making it up on Saturday. Today I was eating a burger {mind you a Brazilian burger, already made as a patty in the meat factory, very thin and processed. *gag* ok, I know what you are thinking, but it was great cause I had a few beers and I was starving and there was no other food around. My husband had no clue what I was doing the first time I made burgers from “real ground meat” .. as they typically do NOT do this in Brazil  }
Anyhow, after watching for a few years how people dress their burgers here, I thought I HAD to write about it tonight.
The typical way a Brazilian eats their burger is with the ketchup, and mayo bottles VERY close by. Usually they do not use mustard, but I have seen it on various occasions.
The step by step “burger eating” process in Brazil …
1.) Take a bite
2.) Squeeze a line of ketchup and mayo on your previous nicely bitten line, soon to be your next bite.
3.) Eat said line with mayo and ketchup {side note: next 2 to 3 bites, eaten in a nice vertical line across burger}
4.) Repeat previous step, more ketchup, more mayo, for next bites.
5.) Continue this until said burger is finished.
{does this process make sense to you? Or shall I take photos?}
Now… The “burger eating” process in America….
1.) Get the burger and lift up top part of bun/bread
2.) Squeeze or slather a generous amount of ketchup/mayo/mustard {depending on person} on to the inside top of said bread/bun or burger.
3.) Put bun/bread back on burger
4.) Eat entire burger as is !
Now I don’t know about you, but this seems like the much more logical way to eat a burger. Logical and easier. No hassle of keeping the bottles close by, sharing and waiting for bottles and continuously applying new dressings! Not to mention, it must make the restaurant owners much happier that you don’t use half of the f***kin bottle on ONE burger!
So how do you dress you burger ? If you live in Brazil, have you seen different? Or can you tell me about some other wacky thing you have seen? {don’t get me started on putting mayo on pizza! If you don’t know, I’ll save that for another post.}
.. or as we could say in “blog world” .. one blog always leads to another. Today I wanted to note a few blogs worth checking out.
First, a few weeks back the lovely Jessica, over at Cascalheira Brazil, left me a comment on my blog which then lead me to hers. Her and her husband are doing a very inspiring project. They are helping out people who desperately need it in a small community in Bahia, Brazil. If you want to feel inspired to do something nice today or just want a nice smile on your face, go check out her blog. It’s lovely. It’s people like Jessica that make us all want to be better.
The next blog I stumbled upon was found on Danielle’s blog {which is also a very fun blog about the adventures of a fellow American expat. But beware .. don’t leave her snotty comments .. or look out … ;-) } Danielle listed a blog of a fellow English teacher who made a nice blog teaching expressions in English to his Portuguese speaking students. But this is also quite nice if you are an English speaker learning or already know Portuguese, because the translations are there. He has come up with some funny ones .. I really love the blog.
That’s it for today folks! Fun Reading!
Psssttt … You can also find these blogs on my Brazil blog roll for the future.
Time for another photo … or two.
Look who showed up in our yard the other day. How beautiful is he? After taking these photos .. I tried to shoo him away, cause our cats have been known to hunt these guys
  
Oooooopppss .. it’s like I forgot I had a blog. I know I have been neglecting my site, but well with the Holidays and all our family craziness, I just have not had time. As in family craziness, I mean we have been traveling {to Rio for Max’s US Immigrant Visa, which I am happy to report he got it. Finally after 2 years!! I hope to post a whole page about that process in the near future}
I wanted to write about this awhile back and instead it just sat in my archives head waiting to be posted.
Let me introduce you to our new pet “Bicho de Pe” pronounced {bee shoe jee pay.} The exact translation would be foot thang {is how I like to say it, but better known as thing}. Bicho is one of those words in Portuguese that is hard to translate. It is one of my favorite words. I guess you could translate it as pet, animal, thing, creature .. all in one, it can be living or sometimes not. It’s just one of those words that isn’t really translate-able (if that’s a word) Anyhoo.. I digress. A few weeks back after Max came home from the beach with Malu I noticed a little thing on her toe. It looked like a callous with a big black center, but very swollen. I told Max to take a look at it and upon examination he told me it was a bicho de pe. Now I have heard about them before. And known many friends who have gotten them, but me myself have never gotten one or saw one on a friend.
SO what is a ‘foot thang’ anyhow? It is basically a little female sand flea/bug/worm that lives in the shaded areas of the beach. It boroughs into your skin {usually under your nails in the feet or hands, hence the name ‘foot thang’, but can enter in any part of your body} And it lays it’s eggs, digging in further under you skin laying eggs the whole entire time. It looks like a callous with a little black dot in the center. I think the whole thing is disgusting. But more disgusting in thought, than actual appearance.
SO …here is my one year old daughter with a little flea under her skin laying eggs *gags* I-just-couldn’t-get-the-thought-out-of-my-head. I have been here 3 years and on the beach daily and never once run in with the dreaded ‘foot thang’ but my one year old daughter picks it up in the first year of life.
The only treatment of the ‘foot thang’ is to remove it , usually done yourself…… {the locals then put Vicks vapor rub on the huge crater that is left behind. They say it closes the hole quicker and suffocates the flea if you didn’t remove the whole thing. Kinda like a tick, you must be careful to remove the whole thing or she/he will grow back}
….BUT I brought little Malu to the local hospital in hopes that they could rub a numbing cream over it before removal. NO SUCH thing at the village hospital. Upon which the very hesitant doctor then replied “por isso” {for this, I don’t want to remove this from your young daughter.} But after some gentle convincing, yeah I actually had to convince him a bit, he finally did it. I was very nervous, because normally my daughter is very *intense* but on this day, she just stared while the doctor cut her toe open and didn’t cry a drop. AMAZING! And then which the doctor replied “ela e boazinha” ”She is a good little one”. And which I replied .. “yes she is”, with a big proud, mamae smile. After it was all said and done she had a *HUGE* crater on this little, tiny, toe of hers. It took about 2 weeks to heal. And yes I did put the Vicks on it .. I didn’t want to take a chance with the “pet” returning.
I took some pictures of the actual bicho de pe {see below} but forgot to take after photos of the crater left in her toe. :-/
 Bicho de pe 
Psstt .. you wanna prevent yourself from getting a Bicho de Pe? Then you should always wear your shoes whilst on the beach in Pipa, otherwise sooner or later you will have a little ‘pet’ pay you a visit!
…. I wanted to share it with all my readers. Eric and Emily, an expat couple in Belo Horizonte, Brasil are raising money for a very special family, and I wanted to help get the word out. If you have a few moments please go read this touching story. And if you can donate a few dollars .. it would go a long way and be for a great cause !
***{I mean in the big picture what is $5.00 or $ 10.00.. that’s most people’s coffee run for the day!}***
The view from my balcony just after sunset … breathtaking .. look at the rays of sun still shooting up.
 Beauty
|
|
