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.

46 Days

I'm so incredibly sorry that we haven't kept the blog up very well. Finishing out the school year made things REALLY busy, but I promise to post more often now that we are 46 DAYS away from getting on a plane to Brazil.

A lot of things have happened since the last post. So, in my typical fashion, I give you a list...

1. Our apartment in Campinas is all set. We have the address (if you're interested, I'll send it to you...you can play around on Google Street View!) and a few pictures of the place. The nice girl who is living there now has given us lots of information and pictures! It sounds like a fantastic neighborhood, with lots of great stuff within walking distance. Also, Brian's family went down and took lots of pictures of the neighborhood. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure...

Our building (we are actually on the back side)

The beautiful park right in front of our building! 

 One of the 2.5 bathrooms

 Living room--these pics are from when the current resident just moved in, so we will definitely have a little more furniture and decorations eventually. And we are totally replacing that couch right away! :)

 Not really sure what's up with the fence over the balcony

 Beautiful kitchen. Please note the dish drying rack. We are going to have some seriously pruny hands! :)

 Washer and dryer off to the side by the kitchen. Very normal setup.

Master bedroom (there are 3 bedrooms total). We should also hopefully have more furniture in there...

 

2. Wait, I forgot I was doing a list. Okay, number 2! I am completely done teaching at Peachtree Elementary, and I just moved out of my classroom on Wednesday. Very very weird. I'm mostly just going to miss my 2nd grade coworkers. If my new coworkers are half as supportive and (most importantly) hilarious as these ladies, I'll be okay. And besides, they're going to skype me and also hang out with me every summer...right? right???

 

3. I have finally gotten all of my paperwork in order to be legal in Brazil! I have my CPF (like a social security card/taxpayer card) and my work visa was just approved!!! I pick it up on June 21st. Someday, maybe I'll pursue the crazy path to a permanent visa. Hmm.

 

4. We are packing and organizing and packing and organizing, and it's never going to get done, oh my goodness!! Okay, thanks for letting me freak out. As you can see, I can't really talk about packing and getting organized without having a conniption. So please don't bring it up.

 

5. We had dinner this week with the new instrumental music teacher at EAC (our school in Brazil). He is starting a faculty band, and I am super psyched to be a dork and play my flute again.

6. We are taking a couple big trips in the next 46 days. Before the big one to Brazil, of course. Next week, we are going on a cruise to Alaska with my mom, her boyfriend, my brother, and sister-in-law. Oh yeah, and Brian too. They are making me go on an 8 mile hike to a glacier. Then, I heard talk about going on a glacier. I might die. I will miss you all.

Also, we are going to Wisconsin with my dad and his girlfriend at the end of June. I haven't seen my grandma since our wedding, so I can't wait for this. Also, I am going to get to show Brian Milwaukee for the first time. And we might get to go to Summerfest!

 

Well, I think that's it for now. If you don't hear from us for awhile, it's because we are buried in boxes. Or, I am stuck on a glacier. Either way, please rescue me!