Today has been a good day.

I got to sleep in.…the sun is out…..there’s a cool breeze….and the girls are at their other grandmothers house. I spent the morning doing a few things around the house, but it seems that ever since I’ve gotten it in my head that my time here is limited, nothing really seems to bother me. After one more month here, I’ll be traveling. And in three/four months, I’ll be back with my family!..........Home, probably traveling around to visit some friends….and of course, looking for a job. That part isn’t too enticing, and makes me wish I could stay longer actually. But, maybe I’ll be onto that next 6 month adventure interval. Who knows where that will be. But for now, I have a lot of planning to do for the weeks starting Sept. 21st…when I’m off to Rio de Janeiro with Allison!

So, an update on the situation with Helena…..She is apparently done hating me and has decided to be infatuated with me. I think the first nice thing she said to me was if I wanted to share her McDonald’s McFlurry with her. Wide eyed, but in hopes of this being her finally reaching out to me…. I hesitantly took a bite. I gave into my NO McDonalds rule for a yummy bite of delicious chocolate-ly cookie crumble. I know……I’m so easy. Yeah………I’m not sure if kids can be bipolar, but she’s got me thinking.


Today, I taught Laura how to ride a bike! She was pretty good at it too! I held the seat from behind and occasionally grabbed her arm a time or two to balance her out a little bit, but otherwise she was moving! It reminded me a little of how ski lessons went actually. : ) I love seeing a kids’ proud little smile when they do something new for the first time. And I felt lucky enough to be the person to teach her too. It was an experience for us both: Laura riding a bike for the first time without training wheels (sem rodinhas) and then me teaching a four year old how to ride a bike in Portuguese. : ) Haha.

I bargained a few hours off today to go ‘passear’ in this small international hip and happening market not too far away. They have little stores of nearly everything: clothes, zuco (juices), chopp (beer), Japanese condiments, Mexican condiments!!!, sushi….and all sorts of nuts and dried fruits too. They play live traditional brasilian music daily from 2-7. So, I wandered around tonight, picked up various liquor filled chocolate balls and a California roll (made with mango…I might add) and enjoyed the show for a bit. I was torn between a coffee and a kiwi caiparinha for my beverage. To sleep or not to sleep. I chose sleep. : ) Let me add, cachaça soaked kiwis are oh so tasty. 




So….a good day it was….but it seems it may be the first of many in the weeks to come. I think the girls are going to miss me, as I will miss them too.

the organized part...

14-8-09

Alright, so I intended on making this blog more of a recount of my adventures, but I thought I’d let you in on my thoughts for this one. . .

We’ve reached new levels of ridiculousness here at the Martin’s house. I’m at the point where I literally just ignore Helena when she treats me like she has been. She catches on quick though…and tries even harder to get under my skin. Ha. At first, it was working. Now, I’ve got the upper hand in that she doesn’t win any attention from me for it…….or help, or candy, or fun.

I struggle sometimes with whether or not I should stick it out here or to go home. Part of me wants to take advantage of the fact that I’m able to travel and see the world right now because I’m young, single, jobless. The other part of me is ready to settle into a place, get a dog….be closer to home again. I wonder if that part is there because I’m missing everyone…or just missing my independence. I know it’s both but, no offense to anyone…however I’m pretty sure it’s more of the latter that is really getting to me.

I used to think that I would be giving up on something if I moved on from it earlier than I expected. But, I’m starting to see that learning to move on from something is an important lesson in life. There will be times when I’ll need to move on from places, jobs (ah…hem), institutions (St. Francis), and even people. I have a hard time with all of them. I hate feeling like a quitter. And when it comes to moving on from people, that element of loss runs a lot deeper. But I think there comes a point when it’s more about following your gut feelings about something, and of course taking care of your whole self: body, heart and mind.

My days here have been so up and down. Should I do just three months? Or more? This decision consequently affects how my travels will play out after too. And although I still don’t know the way all this will play out, I’ve decided on something finally. I think what will suit me best is to work here for the initially agreed upon 3 months, then travel up north after. I will need to extend my visa now…which pains me to say that I’ll have to give up going to Carnival this upcoming year. I guess I am ok with having that be the thing I come back for.

I’m feeling good about this decision and now I have steps to take to get it all in order. I’m going to first plan a trip to Rio, then get an appointment made for my visa renewal (I will need to coincide these two) and then pack it up and go north at the beginning of October. Next, I’ll have to set a date for my trip home from Buenos Aires, and of course set out the route for getting down there.

Here are the variables of my plan: Depending on how things go up north, I may try to stay and find side jobs to make friends….and somewhere really cheap to live. I’m going to take in as much as I can…learn as much of the language, the people and the culture. I’ll even try researching a potential career path in tourism, economic development or micro-financing. Or, I’ll make my goals a little simpler, like learning to dance the samba or practice capoeira. For now, I’m going to make my last month and half here with this family productive and enjoyable. I actually just made some friends tonight at a running shop who invited me to a samba show tomorrow night! Maybe I'll end up even missing this place.....?

As rough as it is with Helena these past few days, things have been going great with the other two. Laura is super sweet and helps out all the time. Her infectious and very loud laugh is definitely something I’m going to miss. That and her crazy little ideas she has. She’s very thorough with the things she does. At first, it seemed like she took forever to do everthing. But, life’s simple as a four year old. What does how fast she does something matter really? Nothing, except that she’s going to be in bed five minutes earlier, or have more time playing in the sand. Ha. I like to call her my little monkey (macaco) girl. She climbs on everything! . A typical scenario on our way home from the park is with Laura on my shoulders and Olivia in my arms. : ) She actually has pretty good body control for a four year old…….but it’s insane how clumsy she is too. I’m always dodging a flying elbow or knee. My shins will show that I don’t always get out of the way. I think she just likes falling to be honest, because every time she hits the floor, she breaks out with this cackle. Haha. She could entertain herself for hours. Olivia is even running up to me and burying her head in my legs now too. She’s not crying when I take her from her mom or grandma as much and even Laura said that she thinks she likes me now too. It just took some getting used to me I think. It’s unfortunate Helena is so volatile.

Michelle was right, I am learning a lot here (aka parenting techniques, portuguese) and a lot about myself. For one, I know that I’ve become a person who always tries to see the positive in things. Granted, I’m not excessively positive I don’t think…or unrealistic……just optimistic about things not being all that bad. Plus, for everything there’s a reason right? Because where we are or who we’re with or what we’re doing will end up teaching us something. So, we shouldn’t regret, resent or think negatively about any decision we’ve made or some rough time we’ve been through in the past. Positive or negative. Everything we go through makes us who we are. And how can we be negative about who we are today? That’s no way to be.

As great of a quality this may sound like it could be, it can be one of my greatest faults too. As I was saying before, I’ve got to learn when to walk away: when to acknowledge those negative feelings I can’t seem to suppress in my day to day. And then…..figure out their source. Yeah, sometimes, it’s a mental thing…and I need to look at myself first before I blame the outside factors. Looking back, life has been hinting at this lesson for a while now…but I think I may be getting better at deciphering between the two.

I knew this time in Brasil was going to be a ‘quiet’ time for me. The last year has been a whirlwind of socially packed, great new experiences. This time to get back to me...and look at where I’m at and where I’m going....has been just what I needed.

Here’s a little funny for ya….. ; )…..which I read the morning after writing this entry.

Capricorn Horiscope for 8-15-09

You aren't one to let your feelings get in the way of what you are doing, but blind optimism can lead you down a dead-end street now if you're not careful. Fortunately, you can negate unrealistic expectations by digging in and applying yourself diligently to your chores. Not only will you be able to accomplish a good deal, but you'll also be left with a more positive outlook on your life.

day to go explore the city!

So, about a week ago I was given the day off to go do whatever I wanted to. Super exciting. : ) I hadn’t really done much exploring in Ribeirão Preto yet, so I really had no idea what I was getting into. So, it was going to be interesting. I got around to going on a run around 11 (bad idea by the way- way too hot) and just headed towards the tall buildings. The Martins live just outside the city so I was in it for a long run…you know the type of run that you generally run one way, make a few turns and head back in the general direction you came from. A blonde’s nightmare. But, I made my way back, familiarized myself a little with the general surrounding area and made it home for lunch.

Next stop, o centro. Now, I had no idea how to get there, what bus to take…what was there or anything. I knew my little circle between then mall, the gym and the house. : ) It was a good chance to make my way around by asking people around me, practice some Portuguese and have no real time frame for any of it. : )

I checked out a few stores on the streets near the ‘shopping’ and met these really nice store owners who gave me some good advice on what to see downtown. They had a little artisan store filled with wooden sculptures, calabaça painted dolls, and other artsy stuff typical to Brasil. I hadn’t really gotten any positive responses from people so far about going downtown, so it was nice to meet some people that thought it ‘vale a pena’ to go check it out.

I caught a bus to the city center and stopped in front of the cathedral. We passed a few major streets that had some cute stores and lots of interesting looking people. Surrounding the cathedral was an artisan fair that circled it, so I made my way around…..and a little sign caught my eye, reading ‘piercing’. It’s about time I got my nose pierced, I thought. I’m in another country, I’m out on my own roaming the city….hell why not. : )

So, I bought a tiny little post and found my way to a legit piercing place around the corner. Honestly, I think I would have done it right there at the both if they offered the service though. I first went up this ally looking for this place the lady told me about, but all I found was a row of little hole-in-the-wall shops for butcher shops, hair braiding and tattoos apparently aimed at the African descendants in the city. I was out of place, and not in the right place. The shop I was looking for was actually up these stairs above all the rest of the shops with an address of 722 and half or something weird. The place was legit though and they had all new and sterilized gear and what not…so no worries mom. ; ) The guy was some Rastafarian dude who pierced my left side for me….quite nice actually. It hurt while he was doing it, but not after…or since.

All together, it cost US$10…Perfect, I thought: cheap, foreign and a much wanted experience…just like the one I got on my upper part of my ear in Spain by that Chinese man…..who owned a watch shop, not a piercing parlor. He simulated the ‘shot gun’ technique in my face first just to show me its safe…but nearly made me jump out of the damn chair in the meantime.

Smiling and satisfied, I left the shop to go check out some more of downtown. I checked out myself in anything and everything that reflected for the rest of the afternoon…..haha. So, I had a vain couple of hours after piercing my nose, so what? I roamed the streets, rubbed shoulders with some street vendors, ate some corn on the cob for 2 rais (US$1) and sat in this park with a decent fountain I kind of enjoyed. It wasn’t quite the pensive and solitary moment I was thinking it was going to be however, as I was approached by this homeless crazy man who found me interesting. He invited me to go have a drink with him and told me I was good-lookin’.: / Yeah he’s a little off his rocker, but not that much apparently huh? ; ) But I quickly moved on…….and made my way to Pinguim, the internationally known bar that started here in Ribeirão Preto. I ordered a choppe claro (light choppe) and the Pinguim sanduíche. Great beer, awful food.

I made it home after an hour or so figuring out my way home….but made it safetly…for the second time that day without any real complications. : ) I swear my sense of direction turns on when I’m not home….and especially when I’m somewhere that speaks another language. Here's a pic of how it looks...and I'm tan, not burnt Mom.....seriously.

...sorry dad. oh and happy Brasilian father's day : ) <9.8.09>

weekend in São Paulo

8-9-10

I left this past Saturday to go have my first experience in the famous São Paulo….no expectations, and ready to take in as much as I could in just a little over 24 hours. I visited my friend Mônica, who I met in Breckenridge this winter. She’s super sweet, and as I found out, so is her family. : ) They spoiled me this weekend and took me around to see many landmarks around the city.

Mônica, me and her sister Pati

My first stop was actually with Roberto’s family at a very famous ‘club’ (club-ay) right in the center of the city as I awaited Mônica’s pick up. So, these club’s are essentially huge sport-leisure-rec centers that only those than can afford it spend most of their time. Schools in Brasil don’t have sports teams, so this is where a kid would join a team, be sponsored for a specific sport or just take classes for fun. I guess during the week, it’s empty and a haven for kids to run around with their friends after school. On the weekend’s it’s like an amusement park filled with people in bikinis and speedos, waterpolo games, kids playing in the parks, and people eating at the many restaurants. A few weeks ago, Phelps’ world record was out swam by a Brasilian swimmer that actually trained here. By the way, this guy is a national hero for having done that. Success is highly revered in this culture. I think I’ve seen this guy on every newspaper headline and magazine cover since it happened.

'o clube'

To tell you a little about the city: São Paulo’s population is well over 30 million people, and one of the fastest growing metropolitan cities in the world. I believe it’s more of a city of commerce than tourism, like Rio de Janeiro. The poor and the rich neighborhoods are intermixed throughout the city with no real dividing lines.

And the 'favelas', or slums, of the city actually sit up on the hills, while the government regulated homes are in the valleys. These favelas are created by people finding a spot and building a squarelot 'home' made of wood if they're poor and brick if they have a little extra to spare. Sewage, trash and water systems don't exist in these little unregulated neighborhoods and are actually home to gangs that are constantly creating problems in the city. As they sit up high on the hills, they actually shoot across from one side to the other during gang wars, which has unfortunately caused a number of innocent deaths of people in the middle. They call these deaths balas perdidas I think, which means lost bullets.

The city has a lot to offer, of course, outside of its flaws. : ) As I learned, it is very diverse and and is home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan. They say that it is less Americanized, thus has preserved more the Japanese culture than Tokyo itself. Over 1.5 million Japanese people live there. Mônica’s family is Japanese, and although they are a couple generations away from their relatives that still live in Japan, I think I’d say I had more of a Japanese experience than a Brasilian one! We frequented Japan town, had sushi both days and wandered the street fairs around the major locales in the city. I can say that I was the only non-Japanese person that I spoke to this weekend. Haha.

I met a bunch of Mônica’s friends from high school Saturday night and had a chance to go meet her parents at a barzinho (little bar) for some choppe (beer) and some apérativos (appetizers). One of them was made with raw cow meat, which I found out after. : / Sunday we went to the Sushi Company for all you can eat sushi, which was awesome. I had a batido (pronounced batchido) of caiparinha made with kiwi…which was super strong.

For such a short trip, it’s incredible how much I saw and did. Oh and I spoke Portuguese most of the trip too. What patience they have huh? I’m really glad I met her family and really liked all of them. I hope that I’ll get a chance to see them again before I leave…or perhaps switch roles and show them a good Mexican-American experience. ; )

my lovely hosts : ) - missing the dad! -

farm days recap

6/9/09

The rest of the week at the Fazenda da Santa Maria was pretty relaxing. In the mornings I would go play outside with Laura on the playground, have some breakfast and then go swimming sometime in the middle of the heat of the day. Afternoons, we’d head out to the large pond to feed the fish, go for a walk or bike ride. I’d usually get a run in a little before sunset and then we’d head off to bed after showers and a little dinner.

A few highlights of the week were checking out the baby bunnies that were born a few days ago (so cute!!) and then being run out of the yard by two crazy geese (…not cool). They were hissing at me like snakes! The kids, after that, started planning on how to get them back so we could have goose for dinner. : ) One of the nights, a dozen or so men from the nearby town came and played and organized game of ‘bol’ –short for futebol- on their lit soccer field in front of the house. It made me realize how long it had been since seeing males around my age….cute, athletic, diverse ones at that. ; ) My runs in the evenings were nice too, which were just inside the walls of the property. The smell of sugar cane is quite distinct. The best way I can describe it is that smell in the kitchen when you’re in the first stages of making cookies….that melted butter and brown sugar smell. Mmmmm. It’s a nice smell, but sometimes upsets my stomach on my runs.

Oh! Feeding the fish was much more entertaining than I expected. We threw huge chucks of French bread off the dock and then stepped back to wait. Literally, these fish would jump up to grab these pieces of bread and swallow them whole. The water looked like we were cannon balling rocks in the water and making huge splashes….but you never once saw more than a tail of these fish either. Kinda crazy. All in all, nice relaxing week, and good bonding time for me and Laura. Still tan, covered in bug bites, and managed to sit on a bee : / this weekend...but still smiling.

Below is a picture of a jabuchicaba tree that is native to and only found in Brasil. The fruit grows on the branch itself and you eat it by biting down on the whole thing (size of a gumball) and sucking off the white juicy inside off the pit. They love this stuff down here, but to be honest I am reminded of that gel inside a wet diaper from it's consistency....so I don't dig it all that much.

Oh, and here's a strange tree I saw....but it made me laugh, because now I have proof that
beads do grow on trees!!!

fazenda Santa Maria

4-8-09

Today, I'm feeling like things are looking up with this whole experience. First of all, Laura was cracking me up. She was repeating a whole bunch of stuff that I’ve taught her up until now and she won two points for our reward-for-good-English game we’ve started. As soon as she gets ten points, we are going to take a trip to the mall-just the two of us. : ) She’s been singing the ‘push ‘em back, push ‘em back….WAY back!’ song in the shower, the ‘everybody clean up song’ and absolutely loves the ‘this little piggy’ bed time ritual we do. She’s saying ‘my name is Laura. I am 4 (finally!)’. Olivia was really good with me today too. I don’t know if it's because I’m becoming more familiar to them now that I’ve been around for well over a few weeks, or if it was that I was given a little more one-on-one time with them, I don’t know.

Helena is still at the farm and Laura didn’t have any friends over today, so she was all mine. We typed on the computer, practiced our abc’s, spoke with Allison on skype (and she showed us Pikes Peak!), and we practiced her name on the keyboard. It was fun. We even danced a little to MTV jams and she played with my hair. If it was like this all the time, I would love it here. Laura won two points today. One for saying she would ‘like some water, please’. (side note: she says please after almost everything in English, which is hilarious and which works better than the puppy dog look on me…haha) The other point she earned was for her blurting out, “that was me!” after she farted in the shower. Haha…I taught her that. It’s way too easy to have fun with this. (by the way, she’s quite a gaseous little girl, so I’m glad she’s got that one down).

I’m drinking some sort of Smirnoff Ice drink knockoff at the moment and its just delicious. I’m drinking alone, yes, but it completed my meal I made myself that I'm eating under the stars an jabuchicaba trees. We’re only a short half hour drive outside the city at this other farm, and it’s actually quite pretty out here. Sugar cane crops for miles. I’m planning on watching O Rei Leão (Lion King) tonight in portuguese, and I’m pretty excited.

Fast forward 2 hrs: That monkey cracks me up….and I love that movie.

weekend at the farm house estate

This weekend we went to another farm of a family friend which is only about an hour away. Let me just say...this place is BeAuTiFuL. They call it a fazenda (farm), but it is more like an estate. I guess this is a really old one at that, built sometime in the early 1900's. Insides it's ornately decorated, and outside...well, of course the house was built so that people spent their time outside. I like that about central and so. America homes. Of course, the weather is conducive to this lifestyle, but also mandates it at times. The house is surrounded by a porch with ample seating at every corner. Dining of course is outside as well. The patio is lined with vines that grow these beautifully bright pink, purple and peach flowers. It kind of adds to this place's antique feel.

On the first day we arrive around noon and then spent the rest of the afternoon finding things to do. Me and the kids had lunch then took a horse-drawn carriage ride to go watch them milk the cows. We brought out lonche (snack) which was bolo (pound like cake) and banana so that we could later have a piquinique (picnic) down by the tree with a tire swing. The we rode over to the lake to go fishing in the pond. The whole weekend went like that, just me and the girls doing all that farm-like stuff.
Most days we went swimming and at night, I'd get a chance to go in their sauna in the center courtyard and star-gaze for a bit. (not anything compared to Motto Grosso though). The sauna was crazy hot and humid. I think the temp was somewhere around 48 (celcius) and I only lasted 9 minutes. Haha. It had a shower in it, and I actually showered there instead of my bathroom both days because it was kinda fun to take a cold shower while breathing in hot air. Backwards, yet fun.

I went on a few runs out here through their sugar cane and latex crops. The soil is pretty sandy and is this really dark red. The crops are really green and hilly. It makes for a great view. So, there I was running...alongside latex trees and barbed wire fence...arms swinging....hoping not to snag one of those wires. These sandy hills are pretty, yes, but are also adding a lot my run too. I was advised to run out of the property and onto the road for a flatter run, but forget that!

As much as I rely on others opinions sometimes on things in new places (especially places they know)...I'm starting to be that girl that does exactly the opposite of what I'm told or suggested. (with some due diligence of course). Haha....'you don't need to go downtown, there's nothing there to see...it's boring.' >So I go, and have an awesome day (I need to post something about that soon btw)....or.....'you wouldn't like that trip to that waterfall...too much walking up and down these hills, no pathway....' >yeah, right, I'd probably love it. (I unfortunately couldn't control that one though). Actually, Roberto's family was a pretty good fit for me...miss that bunch actually. But for now, I'm rolling' solo on my adventures...which can add some different elements to an experience as well.

Actually, speaking of adventures. On both of my runs at this farm this weekend, I ended up running part way home in the dark. (Don't worry Mom, it was all on their property...safe...promise). I actually ended up seeing my shadow from the moon. Even though it was pretty bright, it still was hard to see out. The only scare I had was when I was listening to reggaeton and I heard these dogs barking. Half thinking it was in the song, these two mangely looking muts were fastly approaching me. They freakin' scared me! I screamed and everything...haha. But they were essentially harmless and not that big, so I just ignored them and they left me alone. Actually, quite honestly, the tall stalks of sugar cane were looking kind of creepy as it got darker out there. I thought, this is exactly why I don't watch scary movies. I'd prefer to have any shiver of fear come on because of having an real instinct than just a runaway imagination...thank you very much.

We'e on our way to another farm today actually and I'm hoping this weekend I'll be visiting a friend I met in Breckenridge in Sao Paulo.

*beijinhos* aka *besitos* aka *smooches* ; )