Things I am excited about!

Alright, so sorry that we haven't posted in awhile. Let's face it, life is not quite interesting enough to blog about yet, but maybe it will be in the near future! Also, Brian promises me that he will post sometime soon. Hmmmm, we'll see if that happens.

Before I get to the subject of this post, let's have a little status update about what's new with the impending move. My work visa paperwork has been sent to Brasilia, so now we wait. I can't even imagine how complicated it will be to get a permanent visa (which I intend to pursue while we're there...I've heard it will be quite the headache). Next week, is my spring break (HURRAY!), so I have to get a bunch of documentation in order to get my CPF (tax card).

I also got some pretty big news on the work front last week. My position at EAC has changed from ELL teacher to 4th grade classroom teacher. I was excited about ELL, but I'm getting pretty excited about 4th grade too. I think I'm going to love working with kids who are a little bit older and more independent. The only difficult thing about this new position is that I am now going to have to bring a lot more classroom stuff with me. I'm going to skype with my principal next week, so hopefully I can get a better idea of what I should bring and what I can leave behind. We are planning on spending most of our spring break organizing, throwing away, and packing things up in our apartment. I want to do the same thing to my classroom in the next couple of weeks.

Okay, now to the point. My last post was a whiny "what I'm desperately going to miss!" post about what I'll miss from home. I think I could probably add quite a few more things to that list. However, I want to counter that negative post by listing what I'm looking forward to in Brazil! I'm sure there are tons of things that I don't even know about yet that I'll love, but here's what I know so far:

• Family: I will miss my family and friends from home terribly. But I am so fortunate to have an amazing family in Campinas too. Most of Brian's Brazilian family lives there, and we are so excited to get to spend time with them and be near them. They are the warmest, kindest people. When we visited in 2004, I couldn't really speak a word of Portuguese, but they treated me like family anyway.
• EAC: Our new school seems awesome. The administrators seem fabulous, and everyone has been really welcoming so far. I know it will be a lot of work, but I figure nothing can be more intense than teaching in Gwinnett.
• Friendly and fun people: Yes, this is a stereotype. But seriously, Brazilians are generally kind people. They work hard, and they know how to relax and have serious fun. I love that everyone greets each other with a kiss on the cheek. I think I'm going to learn a lot about balance down there.
• Portuguese: This is super exciting to me and terrifying at the same time. I am going to miss English so so badly. But, I love the portuguese language. I hope it loves me back. I have been studying it with Rosetta Stone and watching our novela (soap opera) every night. I can understand basic conversations pretty well. Speaking is a WHOLE lot harder, and my accent is pretty obnoxious. I am a perfectionist, so I'm trying to get past a fear of making mistakes. Luckily, my job will be in English, but I am convinced that learning Portuguese will be the key to my happiness there. It will allow me to be independent, which is huge. That being said, I don't expect this to happen overnight. I'm preparing myself to be patient and progress gradually. Luckily, I have Brian to help me out until I can function well in public by myself! :)
• FRESH SQUEEZED JUICE! Seriously, I miss this so badly from when we were there. You can get fresh squeezed juice of almost any kind (strawberry, pineapple, grape, mango, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!) with or without sugar. You can even get it at McDonalds. It's so good.
• Food in general is less processed and better for you. Of course, there are plenty of things that are bad for you, but there is an abundance of fresh fruit, veggies, rice, beans....yum. Oh, and pastel. So delicious.  Most people get fresh bread from a bakery (usually within walking distance).
• Transportation:  This might be a pain, but we're not going to have a car. At least at first. Public transportation is pretty good though, so we should have no problems getting to work and most other places we need to go.
• Weather: I've been told (please don't let it be a lie!) that the weather rarely dips below 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the dead of winter, and it doesn't usually get above 90 in the summer. Of course, most people don't have AC or heaters, so it can be a little uncomfortable if it hits those "extremes." Also, no hurricanes, earthquakes, and almost no tornadoes. I would like to never see ice again.
• Traveling: I'm just so excited to get to see more of Brazil and South America in general. When we went before, we visited Rio (twice), Sao Paulo, and Minas Gerais (Ouro Preto mostly). It is easy and relatively inexpensive to hop on a nice coach bus to major cities in Brazil, so we will definitely be seeing some more beautiful places.
• Help around the house: It is really normal for middle-class Brazilians to have a maid come a couple times a week to help clean and cook. It seems really strange for Americans, since only pretty rich people have cleaning help here. But, I think we're going to go with it. Because living with a boy is messy and gross (that's my excuse).

Well, I could keep going on and on. I'm going to stop and continue another time since this post is getting pretty long. I also would love to write sometime soon about the crazy questions people have asked me since they found out we're moving to Brazil. I know it's just genuine curiosity, but I have realized that even the most educated Americans don't seem to know almost anything about other countries in the world. I can't blame them I guess...I didn't know anything about Brazil before meeting Brian. But seriously...if I hear, "Do you speak Spanish?" one more time...ah well.

If you got this far, I'm impressed. Thanks for reading!