Me + Portuguese = Love. And Hate.

Wow, it looks like these blog posts are going to be monthly. I'm sorry. I will try to do better...

Anyway. I've been wanting to write a post about my complicated relationship with the portuguese language.

I love learning Portuguese. Seriously. Learning a new language is a great challenge, and I just really enjoy it. I have the best teacher possible (the owner of the language school I go to), and I sometimes feel like I'm progressing really well.

Then, there is reality. I don't speak a word of portuguese most days. I have to speak English all day at school. Then, I go home and speak/read/write English with Brian and with family members online. Then, I have American friends who I speak English with. I really and truly appreciate all these opportunities to function in English and to feel like a real person here. However, I am NOT progressing in Portuguese as much as I need to be. I have been here for 3 months, so I should at least be able to order myself a damn sandwich with no problems. Right? No. The reality is that you will not become fluent in a foreign language unless and until you are immersed in it. I hope I will at least have that experience over the vacations.

It is really frustrating that I can mostly understand the conversations when we go out with friends/family, but I just can't participate the way I'd like to. I hate that they don't know me very well yet because of the language barriers. I know we have only been here 3 months, so I should cut myself a break...but I just don't want to be in this same position at the end of the school year! I must gain my independence here. Brian has been a huge lifesaver, but I need to be able to do stuff independently, or I won't be happy in the long-term.

Alright, on to what's new:

• We finally took that trip to Sao Paulo, and it was super fun. In just one weekend, we saw quite a lot. We're planning to visit more regularly, because there is an endless supply of stuff to do there.
• Both my mom and dad booked their trips for Christmas break. So excited to show them where we live! And maybe do a little beach/touristy time. Okay, and I'm not gonna lie...I'm a little excited that they can bring me some more stuff from home. I'm finding all kinds of great clearances on summer clothes online there, and it's about to be summer here. Works out nicely. But really, I'm most excited just to see them.
• 4th graders are still good. Still getting used to the age, but it's been fun.
• Finally going on our first real trip since we've been here next week! It's now officially holiday season, and we are headed to the beach (Florianopolis) next Friday night for a 4-day weekend!
• Going crazy trying to find a reasonable place for Carnaval in Rio in February. We hope to have this resolved in the next day or two.
• We got to celebrate Halloween here last week, even though it's typically not celebrated here. The school has an annual Halloween Festival, so I got to see lots of kids and parents in costumes, and they even got to go trick or treating. I was so glad to not miss my favorite holiday.

I have the best intentions of writing again soon, so let's see how it goes. Let me know it there is anything you'd like to hear more about from Brazil, and maybe it can become the subject of the next blog post.

Torn

Well, here goes another apology. It's OCTOBER! I haven't blogged since August. That's pretty disappointing, because I really wanted to document things well. There goes that.

In all honesty, I kind of avoided the blog due to an extremely busy schedule and the homesickness wall. I can return to the old blog now, because I think I'm really getting past it. My last post was all about being homesick. And I was. I truly didn't expect it to be like this, but I was downright weepy and sad for awhile. I had some days where I just felt crushed by it.

But, I can honestly say that I've gone nearly a month without tears or much sadness. Now I'm just torn. I'm getting to that place where I am becoming truly happy here. Yet I miss my family and friends a lot. I'll probably feel torn forever now. I'm truly loving Brazil and everything going on here. We have had so much fun making new friends and spending time with family. I'm enjoying learning portuguese, even though it's coming slowly. I'm finding a lot that I love here. I'm guessing I'll never be 100% happy anywhere now, because I have one foot in the U.S. (my family and friends and familiarity) and another in Brazil. Despite frustrations, I really like my new school, my coworkers, my apartment, and my life here. I have a long way to go before I feel totally comfortable, but things are going in the right direction.

Alright, enough philosophy. Let's do a quick update on what's been new in the past month and a half. Then, I promise to regularly update the blog so that I can get into more detail.

Here goes:

• It's springtime. Weirds me out that it's only getting warmer from here!
• We have tickets to the parade in Rio for carnaval. Now if we only had a place to stay! 

We will totally be in the stands! YAY. Okay, let's not talk about how expensive this is going to be. It'll be FUN.

• We also have tickets to Florianopolis (southern Brazil) for our mid-November break. Can't WAIT for this beach town!

• My parents are both planning to visit over the Christmas break (which lasts until January 16th). Very exciting.
• We are hoping to get out of Campinas in the next weekend or two to visit Sao Paulo. I went there a couple times in 2004, but really...it's so big that you could go 27 times and not see the same places. 

Hello, 3rd biggest city in the world!

I'll leave it here for now and promise to come back really soon. Just wanted to update and say that things are good. Very busy, but good. Things get easier every day.

Month 1= roller coaster

So I guess it's probably obvious by the lack of blog posts that we've been busy. We just started the 3rd full week of school, and we've been here a month as of Saturday. I can't believe that it's only been a month when I think of all the people we've met and the things we've done since we got here. At the same time, it doesn't seem like it can have possibly been a whole month since we last saw all of our friends and family in the US. Probably because we see them on Skype and FaceTime regularly! Which is so amazing and lucky. I thank God for technology every day, haha. But seriously, it makes the transition so much easier when I can download the newest issue of a favorite magazine or see my dogs playing in the backyard via FaceTime.

I feel like I've experienced every emotion possible in the first month. We have met some amazing people who have made the transition a billion times smoother than we could have hoped for. The other EAC teachers have been so welcoming, helpful, and fun. And then there's Brian's family. A blog post really can't do them justice. They are beyond amazing. Even though I can't effectively communicate (yet) with many of them, I instantly feel home when we're with them. They have helped us do so much, and I truly feel like there are people here who really care about me. I love them!

At the same time, I've felt a little more homesick in this first month than I thought I would. I don't know why I didn't anticipate it...maybe because I really felt good about the decision to come here when we made it. I felt really good about it until a few days before we left. Then, it really started to sink in. I really miss familiarity. I miss being able to hang out with my family and friends whenever I want to. I miss the dogs. I miss my car and being able to communicate with everyone. This is normal, right? I just don't want the homesickness to effect my time here. I want to enjoy everything here, because hey...I'm here for at least 2 years, so I might as well have an awesome time. It's a waste of time to mope about what I miss, because it's not like anything is going to change. I'm committed to being here. Besides, if I sit here and whine about what I miss, I'm truly missing what's actually going on around me.

Besides the people (which is big), there is really nothing sad about leaving the work and life situation I was in in the US. Things are dismal there. I'm just romanticizing it in my mind because I miss familiarity. It turns out that changing countries, languages, apartments, and jobs all at the same time could be mildly stressful. Even if it's all good stuff. I feel like I'm starting to break through the homesickness though, and I'm starting to see the experience for what it is. I really like the job. Of course there are things to complain about, and I still feel like an idiot teaching 4th grade, but my kids are awesome!!! I have never had such nice, calm, and hard-working students ever. It's kind of amazing. Of course, it's only week 3, haha.

I'm also getting really excited about the traveling. We haven't made any firm plans yet, but we are going to try to travel throughout Brazil and maybe into Argentina throughout the course of this school year. We're definitely going to Rio for Carnaval (though I can't wait all the way until February to get to Rio!), and we'd also like to visit the South of Brazil. Also on the wish list (some may be trips for future year(s): Bahia, Manaus, Belem (both cities in or near the Amazon rainforest), Recife (northern Brazil), and, um, every other country in South America! Okay, yeah, that's pretty unrealistic. I just can't wait to get this silly teaching stuff out of the way so we can go visit places!

Well, this post has gotten quite long enough. I guess it's time to face reality: to-do lists and papers to grade!

Here we go!

Okay, so school starts tomorrow! All of us new teachers have been stressed beyond belief trying to get ready and digest everything. Somehow, I thought it would be easier in my 5th year of teaching, but being new kinda does away with that. Oh well. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually. Right? Yeah.

So, we haven't done anything too interesting other than work. We did go to one nice park, where Brian practiced his pull-ups...

And here is my classroom, all ready for the first day. Look, I got a whiteboard! :) 

Wish us luck...we are gonna need it!

School is almost here...

Well, we've had another fun week here in Campinas. We spent all week doing new teacher orientation and working in our classrooms. We had our first grocery shopping experience (that could be a whole post in and of itself), went out with Brazilian friends, had dinner with a fellow 4th grade teacher, and finally got cell phones! Today, we did a little sightseeing and attended a churrasco (bar-b-que) at our director's house. Everyone is so warm and friendly.

During the days, I spent most of my time doing this (it's not finished, but it's a start...):

My desk. I totally took my Peachtree sign and hot glued it to the wall, haha.

The bulletin board and big black box are going to move out. I'm eventually going to have a carpet here. Whenever it comes in. Story of my life! :)

Rainbow colored desks! Several of these sliding doors will be open during the day, because my classroom library and students' bookbags are all going to be inside the cabinets.

Front of the classroom. The big blank space is where the whiteboard and projector will be.  Whenever they come in. Being in a brand new classroom is really nice (no old teacher's junk to inherit), but it takes time to get everything in.

View from the door

So, there you have it. I'm really excited to meet my other coworkers on Monday, and I'm all ready to start my Portuguese classes. I feel like I'm understanding really well, but my speaking abilities are way too basic. I'm eager to learn and get better. In the meantime, I'm trying to catch up on my Brazilian soap opera:

My favorite actor in the soap :)

Picture Update

We have gotten just a tad busier this week. It's been almost exactly a week since we arrived, but it really feels like much longer. I can't speak for Brian, but I've definitely hit the "overwhelming wall" at least once by now, but I'm bouncing back. You start off all excited, and then it sinks in a little...new job, new language, new country, new home all at the same time! But I can't complain. I am surrounded by an amazing support system between the school and the family. And everyone really cares a lot about making sure we're successful. So, I'm trying to adopt the Brazilian "don't worry" attitude about things.

Okay, no more talking! Here are some pictures, mostly of the school. I haven't taken too many around town yet, but I'll definitely be taking more pictures soon. I can't wait to share the hippie fair and fruit market pictures with you!

All the cousins and their significant others. Love these guys!

Living room...will post the rest of the apartment when it's organized!

Brazilians are pretty accommodating...this is a parking spot for old people. We saw a special seat for obese people on the bus. The sign for that is pretty hilarious.

Cathedral in downtown Campinas

more downtown

EAC (our school) campus. This is the playground and gym in the background.

Looking up to some of the school buildings

Squirrel-sized monkeys in the trees :)

Brian's HS English classroom

View out of Brian's window

His classroom door

The view when you walk out of Brian's classroom. Nice.

My classroom. Very empty. Let's hope we have more stuff by next Thursday for the 1st day of school! :)

Cabinets in my classroom. These are sliding doors that all have shelving inside. I would have loved this much storage at Peachtree when I had lots of stuff. Several of these will have to store the kids bookbags and the classroom library, etc.

One of my classroom windows

My classroom door

And then...

Pastel. Delicious goodness.

Hopefully I can catch up to the present in this post. Then, I can start posting more interesting stuff rather than what we teachers like to call "and then" stories.

So, after a nice long night of sleep, we got picked up to go to our school on Thursday morning. We did some paperwork to get reimbursed for all our expenses, took pictures for IDs, and we got our passports legalized so that we don't have to carry around the real thing as an ID. We got a tour of the school, and I saw my classroom. It was previously the computer lab, so there is nothing in there right now. No whiteboard, bulletin board, desks, chairs, or anything. I am kind of nervous about it being ready in time for the kids on August 4th. But, I found out that my class size will be capped at 16 since my room is smaller than the others. But, it's seriously not smaller than my old classroom. Whatever, I'll take it!!

Then, we had our first lunch at the school. I had it before when we visited in 2004, but it was so much better than I remembered. Folks, my new school lunch is about a jillion times tastier and healthier than what I was eating back home. Everyday, we have rice, beans, a choice of meat, and lots of fresh veggies and fruits. Plus fresh juice and coffee. Wow.

In the afternoon, my principal drove us to Carrefour (the big box, Target-ish store around here) and Tok & Stok (like an upscale Ikea) to go shopping. This was really overwhelming. We knew Brazil was more expensive, but these places were WAY more expensive than we imagined. We spent way too much money, and got very little stuff, haha. We got a tiny coffee maker for about $70, 20 wooden hangers for about $15. Yikes. But, we also got a very cool lamp, couch pillows, a new trash can, and lots of other decorative stuff. At Carrefour, we got cleaning supplies, a dish drying rack (very important here), and things like soap and shampoo.

In the evening, we finally got together with all the family when we went out for pastel (delicious, deep fried goodness, like a sophisticated Hot Pocket). I discovered that I'm not so great at Portuguese when I'm in a large group (AKA the family). It's a little difficult to jump in with my limited speaking skills, but I could follow most of the conversations.

On Friday, we got a ride to the school, where we learned about the school's curriculum mapping software. So far (and this may change!), things at school aren't nearly as overwhelming as they were in Gwinnett. I think it was great training for intensity. But seriously, I'm sure I'll be overwhelmed once we really dive into it tomorrow. We had lunch at the school again, and then we spent our afternoon with Pierre. He's a teacher at EAC (our school) who also owns the Portuguese language school where I'll be taking lessons. The school has him helping the new teachers adjust to our new life in Brazil. He gave us maps of the city, detailed info about Brazil, important phone numbers, and all kinds of other great information. Then, he rode the bus with us to our neighborhood, so we can learn to get to and from school that way. It's only about a 5 minute bus ride for us, and about 10 mins for the other teachers (we are closer to the school, for some reason).

We spent the rest of Friday night unpacking and organizing. We are SO not finished yet, but I will post pictures as soon as we are. On Saturday, Pierre picked us up again and took us to breakfast at a bakery. Amazing fresh smoothies and fabulous breakfast food. Then we walked to the fresh fruit market and "hippie fair" that are in our neighborhood every Saturday. I am going to devote a whole post with pictures to the wonders of the fruit market and the fair. Let's just say I love them.

Last night (Saturday),  we spent the evening with Brian's wonderful cousins and their significant others. We hung out at Vanessa and Fabio's house (Brian's cousin and her husband), where we had delicious food and great amounts of fruity mixed drinks with tropical fruits I didn't know existed. I did a decent job of following all the conversations, but I REALLY wish I could speak more Portuguese at this point. I want to be able to talk to everyone so badly. Right now, I can follow the conversation and give mostly appropriate responses, but I want to be able to add more and initiate new conversations. Good motivation to learn, I guess. Perhaps I shouldn't be putting so much pressure on myself on day 5, huh?

Well, this ended up WAY longer than I thought. Today, Brian's aunt is going to take us to do more shopping, since we really haven't grocery shopped. Plus, we need a few more things for the apartment. I hope we get lots more unpacking and organizing done today. When it's complete, I'll post some pictures up.

Love and miss you all.

Day 1 in Campinas

The outside of our building (previously posted, but...isn't it beautiful?)

It's hard to believe that we have only been here for a little less than 3 days. We have barely had time to breathe, which I think is actually making the transition easier for me. When I last left off with my play by play, we were driving from the airport in Sao Paulo to Campinas...

When we got to our apartment, the director of our school and his secretary (who are both fantastic and super helpful) met us to help unload our bags and give us the keys and a little tour of the building. You may have seen the pictures I put up of the apartment a few months ago, but I have to take new pictures and post them for you to see. There is totally new, very nice furniture in here. Brand new pretty much everything. We feel incredibly lucky and spoiled. By American standards, our apartment is very small. It's 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, but they are all tiny. However, by Brazilian standards, our apartment is huge and ridiculously nice.

To our surprise and delight, the school had already set up our wireless internet, land line, and cable. There are lots of American channels that can be un-dubbed, so that helps. But, we've been watching a lot of local TV too. I think it helps a lot with the Portuguese. Okay, back to the day. The school stocked our apartment with flowers, fresh fruit, a basket of snacks, and even beer in the fridge! Amazing!

We got settled for awhile, and then the stream of family began arriving. Brian has 3 aunts, 2 uncles, several cousins, and friends here, so we all had to see each other as soon as possible! His Aunt Katia took us out to lunch and then we took a good 2 hour nap. After that, Brian's good friend Thiago came over for awhile. Pretty soon after, the director of our school picked us up for dinner and ice cream. We got to meet the other new teacher as well. She's fantastic. After all this, we gave many many skype tours of our apartment, haha.

Alright, I'll leave it there. I need to work on getting less long winded! Will continue updating soon...miss everyone!

We are here!

So many things have happened in the last few days, so I am going to break the stories up into several different posts. There is so much to write, but I'll attempt to describe our departure and arrival to Brazil.

The days leading up to our departure were crazy. We were trying to get our apartment ready at the last minute and pack our last bags. On Friday, we threw Brian's parents a surprise 30th anniversary party, which we have been planning for 6 months. But I couldn't say anything about it online! Brian's sister, Sam, and her beautiful family made a surprise appearance, so that was wonderful. The next few days were a blur of errands, packing, and wonderful going away parties. It was so nice to spend time with everyone, and it made me seriously sad. I was an emotional wreck the last few days. I'm pretty sure I lost a pound of tears. The good news is that I haven't cried at all since we got here, so that's good, right? Story for another time.

The airport goodbye on Tuesday was Crymageddon 2011, so it was kind of a relief when we got on the plane to Miami. On our flight to Sao Paulo, I was the only American on the entire Boeing 777 (a HUGE plane), unless you count Brian. There was some serious drama over seat assignments before takeoff, which involved American Airlines staff threatening to kick passengers off the plane. Ugh, it was bad. Eventually, everyone settled down, and we had a quiet, uneventful night flight to Sao Paulo. 

As soon as we got off the plane, I had to leave Brian to get in the foreigners line. After 2 hours of sleep, I had to get my portuguese going to speak to the federal police, so that was fun. The whole trip went smoothly except for the baggage claim experience. There were so many people at the baggage claim, that Brian described it as "getting your bags in the middle of a rock concert." We had TWELVE bags to find (5 each, plus they made us check our carry-ons)!! Poor Brian had to get each 70 pound bag one by one and wade through the masses to get to where I was waiting with luggage carts. It was nuts. I seriously don't know what I would do without that husband of mine. Not only did he hulk all our bags, but he was able to talk our way to the front of the customs line, and his special paper from the Brazilian consulate got us through customs with no questions asked. Then, we had a driver for the 1.5 hour trip to Campinas.

Sorry this is a play by play, but I'm attempting to record everything that's happened so far before the details get fuzzy. I'm going to leave it there, because it's getting long. A ton has happened since we got here, and I'll post again soon with pictures.

Suffice it to say: I have seriously enjoyed my first 36 hours here. The school staff is amazing. Brian is the best thing since sliced bread. We love our apartment. We are so lucky to have the most wonderful and supportive family here. I am feeling somewhat confident with my Portuguese, but I still have a LOOOOOOOONG way to go. I am happy and really, really excited. 

Well, I miss you all, and I'll continue to update tomorrow. Right after I start unpacking!

We survived Alaska!

Among all the business of moving this summer, we are definitely carving out some vacation time. I'm totally not stressed unless I start to think about the fact that I'm COMPLETELY unprepared for my new job, but oh well...that's how first years at new jobs are. Right? This is the beauty of being a 5th year teacher...I'm inexplicably less nervous than usual. I figure I'll make it work somehow. I'm sure I'll be kicking myself once we get there for being so relaxed about it, but oh well.

Wow, off topic already! This post is supposed to be dedicated to our recent cruise to Alaska and Canada. None of us had ever been on a cruise, and we all decided that we aren't too sure we ever want to cruise again. However, the Alaska part was fantastic! We had lots of fun, and got to be very cold in the summer. It was all great until Wednesday when Brian got sick, but here was the fun part of the trip (warning, lots of pictures):

We flew to Seattle and spent the morning checking out the famous Fish Market and the Space Needle. We knew we would fall in love with this city, because we love to sit around and drink coffee and read all day. We were right. Love at first sight. Brian almost didn't get on the boat.

Space Needle, from our hotel window

Fish Market...awesome food and gooooorgeous flowers! 

At the top of the Space Needle, after our 5 mile walk around town

On the boat, pulling away from Seattle. Noooo!

First formal night at sea...we got a little antsy during at sea days. Ready to get to Alaska! But we loved our waiters, Hambali and Asep. 

Ketchikan, Alaska. Site of the bridge to nowhere that never happened. Wow, it's cold and rainy!

Sorry this is sideways. Saxman native totem village. This one was begging to have  his finger pulled. Classy.

Rainforest hike in Ketchikan. We saw a bear cub!

Petting and feeding Rudolph

We found Sarah in the gift shop!

Tracy Arm Fjord cruising. Unbelievably beautiful.

It's a glacier!

Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska

More Mendenhall Glacier. We were captivated by the floating chunks of blue ice.

Our boat, obscuring the view of Juneau

Drinking Alaskan beer at a Mexican restaurant in Juneau. What??

The day I'm sure you all heard me worry about in advance. It actually turned out to be the best day of the trip. 8 mile glacier hike in Skagway, Alaska. This is when the train was pulling away, and I wanted to run after it as soon as our guides said "shoe chains will be necessary for walking on the glacier."

Oh, here are the shoe chains! Little did I know that we were walking straight up a STEEP hill of ice on the glacier. Covered in loose rocks and boulders. I didn't even fall once!

Us at the top of Laughton Glacier, where we had lunch. Yes, we actually are standing on the glacier. It's covered by a thin layer of dirt and lots of loose rocks, so it doesn't look like it.

Our awesome guides who made it a fantastic trip

It gets fuzzy here, because Brian was sick at this point. But, we took a quick trip into Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and it was GORGEOUS. We now have Canadian stamps in our passports.

Waterfront in Victoria. It was very, very English-y.

Parliament Building lit up at night

Hope you enjoyed the quick tour of our trip! We are going to put the rest of the pictures on Flickr, so let me know if you're interested in more. We have amazing desktop background pictures for the rest of our lives.