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.