Wired to the 21st Century

Stop for a moment to think about all the technology in your life.

Phones, tv, internet, more phones, ipods, dvd players and so on.

Now, imagine you move to another country and it's all gone. All of those creature comforts gone. Some are doable for long periods of time while others are hard to live without.

I think we've all said at one time or another that living without them is easy and at times even desired. And I'm here to say, yes it is, but at the same time, when you're over 7,000 miles from home, it's those very technological gadgets that you crave. When you come home at night and you see the glow from your neighbors tvs and computers, you want that flickering in the darkness of your own apartment.

Our HR hero, Dival, helped to arrange acquiring all of them for me. My internet and landline took a little bit longer than most other teachers to get. Throughout the whole thing, I'll admit I was a little jealous of my newbie colleagues. While they were connected to families, friends, uncles and their grocery store clerks' daughters, I was well, without that connection. Thanks again to Dival. But once I got it, it's amazing how fast you can get sucked back into the 21st century's technological pull.

And let me tell you about the pull, it's strong. Really strong.

I went over a week without anything except my ipod to 3 weeks later I now have a landline, internet, tv, dvd player and most recently a new cell phone. So, I caved, I've fallen back into the habits of having all of the technology around me but you know what, it's those little things when you're far from home that make life a little easier.

Like turning on the tv this morning and watching BBC World News. And last night, although I forgot my cell phone at home, when I got home I had messages from friends who were trying to find me so I wouldn't stay late at school.

Even though at times we all curse it, especially when it's not working properly, when it is, ahhhh, what joy it brings.

The Newbie Bunch

3 weeks ago I met eleven strangers. Eleven people who now have become some of my great friends in Brazil. Most of us met in Atlanta. When I arrived to the gate at the airport, I started looking around to find who else seemed familiar, which of those people with their ipods or books or tired stares was going to join me on this new journey. Also a few teachers sent pictures out so I'd hoped to find a familiar face. Eventually I overhead two people talking and heard one say "EAB," the name of our school. I introduced myself and from that moment, everyone poured out of their hiding places. We were bonded from then on.

Photo by Vanessa

For whatever reason I'm suddenly reminded of the theme song to the Brady Bunch. Come on, you all know it, right? "It's a story..." Only we're the "Newbie Bunch." Maybe I should have picked the Partridge Family since they tour on a bus and as you'll read we do more of our touring in a van. I don't know that tv program as well though, so the Brady Bunch metaphor will have to do.
Our newbie group ranges in age from 7 to well, a little, uh, more mature is what I'd like to say. Age is only about how you feel anyway.

I want to capture a few of our times together. Since we've been together for more hours in the past 2 weeks than I think I was combined with my family over the entire summer I felt I should do so now.

We've had lots of great times together. From double decker bus tours...

To a day at a Cat Refuge where we saw rescued jaguars and went a swim in a waterfall fed lagoon...

To lunches and dinners at wonderful restaurants. Seriously, I never knew how delicious crepes could be. This could be a dangerous addiction I gain here. Please someone make sure that next time we go, I don't order the all-you-can-eat.

To comparing cell phone package and plan options. Can't believe we'll have them on Monday night!

To hanging out at NET (pronounced net-chi) the Brazilian internet provider to transfer our names and choose which internet/cable options we desired. Do you see the love of togetherness on our faces? This was on Tuesday afternoon of this week.

To traveling in "The Komvey" all across Brasilia. "The Komvey" is a VW van that EAB owns. It looks exactly like one of the Darhma vans on the tv show LOST.

We've riden in the van from Extra (Brazilian version of Target) to the Labor Department to get our Brazilian Work Passports with squealing tires around the scissor exits of the Exio (a main roadway in Brasilia) to so many places inbetween.

I also owe a lot of the photos even on this post to them. Thanks for sharing with me!

We've all had a busy but wonderful first 3 weeks in Brazil. It's definitely reason to celebrate. And I'm glad that we are all taking the time to do that.

Boat Cruise on the Lake photo by Vanessa

Abrao and the Girls photo by Vanessa

Thanks for making my transition to Brasilia and EAB all I could hope for. Looking forward to lots more adventures together.

7,000 Miles - Trying to Transcend the Distance

This past week I was reminded twice why living over 7,000 miles from home can be difficult. My Great Uncle Jack and a good friend's mother both passed away.

I debated about whether I should write about this on my blog but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I needed to share my thoughts from here.

My Great Uncle Jack

When I was little, Great Uncle Jack and Great Aunt Dorothy lived right down the street from my Great Aunt Dort (GAD) and Great Uncle Emory (GUE) in Lincoln. Each year they hosted Christmas. From my perspective as a child their home had an enormous great room with 2 story ceilings and a huge stone fireplace. As I ran around with my cousins I heard the clicking of my black patten leather shoes on the tile floor. In this same room was a large piano and steps which lead upstairs to bedrooms. Along the rail of these steps, hung our Christmas stockings. Each embroidered with our names (mine says Meg). I have no idea how accurate my memories are, everything seems so big when you are so little.

Each Christmas all of our relatives would go to there. To spend time together, to celebrate and catch up with one another. The room was always filled to capacity and every chair, bench and sofa arm had someone sitting on it. The house had such a warmth and you felt good just being in the space. Yes because of everyone together, but mostly in part due to Uncle Jack and Aunt Dorothy. These special holidays are contain some of my favorite memories.

As I grew older I learned more about Uncle Jack. He was kind and funny, opinionated and supportive. A wonderful grandfather and great grandfather. Every time I saw him, he always asked where my next adventure was taking me. He particularly was interested when I lived overseas in Korea for a year. I remember talking with him about his friends who had been stationed there and what their lives were like while living in Korea. Times had changed greatly since I was there due to the years passing, but this long talk really gave me a better understanding of Korea and some of the struggles that both U.S. military and Koreans had during the war.

As I was writing this post, I began to look through some family photos I have on my computer. What I noticed about each one that Uncle Jack is in, he's smiling. No matter if the picture was posed or candid. And that's how I remember him, always smiling, always there, always supportive of everyone. I'm going to miss seeing his smile and sharing about Brazil with him this Christmas but I know he'll be with us in spirit.

And to my good friend - Know that I'm thinking of you here.

Mickey D's

Alright, I admit it. I visited Mickey D's today. This morning, I caved, not really by choice but hunger. At the end of my commericial (street with all the stores), there's a McDonald's. Now, don't get me wrong, I must admit that on certain days, for whatever reason, the golden arches does something for me, but here the food's amazing and I really had hoped to avoid it, at least food-wise.

I was walking to school this morning hoping to find another restaurant, a bakery, something open along the way to grab some breakfast. I hadn't done this before on a Sunday. In Brasilia most shops and restaurants are closed on Sundays, hence the trip to school. Well, I looked side to side and found nothing open except a small convient kinda store.

So, what other choice did I have? I crossed the street and ventured inside.

Here were my choices for breakfast this morning...
And what did I chose?
I went with the croissant and cafe with sugar. The lovely counter clerk who took my order also brought to my table when it was ready. I was thinking I'd ordered a croissant with melted cheese and ham like in the photo. No melted cheese; instead nacho cheese. Like Cheese Whiz. As soon as I took a bite I remembered a conversation in which someone here had mentioned that sometimes the cheese is nacho and not melted but of course too late. It was a surprise but I was starved and still ate it. The coffee was great and just what I needed before a long day of school work.

I've definitely got a new task for this week at school...ask coworkers what places are open for quick bite to eat on Sunday when you're going to school, your fridge is empty and you're starved. And for those of you who are planning a trip to visit, know that you'll not have to worry about having a slice of Americana, just a Brazilian version of it.

Thanks AP

One of the huge draws for me to move to Brazil, was that one of my best friends lives here. Yep, this is gonna be a post all about Andrea, also known as AP, Roomie, Principal and down here Andrea (said like Ann-dray-uh).

She's the one who sparked to idea of moving to Brazil in my head over ice cream at Oberweis one chilly winter day months ago.

Since I've arrived, we've both been swamped and uber busy. She's busy being an amazing Lower School Principal, organizing lots of school renovations (some complete, some almost complete), catching up with her old friends, getting to know new ones, assisting all the teachers, assessing students, balancing class lists and on and on. I've been busy with all the new teacher, new life, new everything. Both of our to do's have been exorbinate.

Yesterday we happened to bump into each other by chance while both of us were out to lunch with different friends. We made plans to hang out for last night. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend it.

We both were in a low key kinda mood and she planned perfectly. We went to a wonderful area called Pontao (I need to learn how to make the breve over the a). It's right next to the lake in Brasilia. I'd heard all about it from Miguel, my teaching assistant, and so I was thrilled to be able to check it out.There's a surf shop, German beer garden/restaurant, other restaurants and it's just a nice place to walk around.

We opted to share a delicious opened face mozarella, sundried tomato and argula sandwhich. Yum! Part of the reason for sharing was so we could share some acai. Oh my goodness! Hadn't had any frozen acai yet. In the U.S., there's a huge rage with acai and healthy living. It this is healthy living, bring it on! This frozen dessert which was topped with bananas was so yummy.

Over dinner we just caught up. That's it. With as hectic as life has been since we arrived, it couldn't have been better. Just a chance to talk and talk.

Andrea's been one of my closest friends since we became roommates about 10 years ago. There are so many things that I love about Andrea, but last night reminded me of one of my favorites. She's a friend who no matter how much time or life goes by, we just pick up where we left off. It's effortless.

And one of the reasons why last night was so nice was that with everything for me being new, it was nice just to relax and spend time with a dear friend. And a dear friend who now only lives across a field from me, a 5 minute walk door-to-door. Doesn't get much better than that.

Now that I think about it, the past few days there would have been great chances to take photos together, but I missed those so instead I'll share one that Andrea and I took on the first day of school this year.

Thanks AP for last night. It was perfect!

Pothole Pep Talk

This past Wednesday, the day before school started, I had an all-day math training scheduled as well as a Q & A lunch with the other "newbie" teachers and administrators. For those of you who are educators, you know how busy that day feels and just is. I went into the day knowing that I was going to have to roll with it and figured it would just be a late night. Well, it was but the whole day unwound into something so much better than I expected.

The Q & A luncheon had been scheduled the previous week but been cancelled due to some changes in our schedules. As I walked to the canteen to get my lunch, I again was going through the self-talk..."you'll get everything completed," "be patient," "relax and just enjoy things." I got my lunch and walked down to our new student center. I arrived to a beautifully decorated table just for the newbies and administrators. As I sat down, Craig shared that the jars on the table were filled with mango chutney that Lisa, our co-HR director and Craig's wife, had made (it's delicious by the way). I started feeling guilty right away but was reminded this is probably what I need amongst all the chaos.

We began by just catching up on how the day was going, newbie life, etc and once all arrived, Craig asked us for our questions. Now, I had already generated a question for our original lunch but waited to see what everyone else was going to ask. Lots of great questions related to our EAB, daily life, apartments all which were answered by our administrators.

Then Craig looked down toward my end of the table. He asked a couple people near me for questions and then we made eye contact. My question was much more uh, well, about the bigger picture and it felt out of place but I decided to "suck it up" as my dad likes to say and ask it anyway.

"I need to preface this question with saying that I'm from the Midwest, so please bear with me. So, most of us here are new to international teaching and all of us are new to EAB and I'm wondering what are the potholes that you can help us to avoid? What potholes have you seen newbies fall into?"

Each of the administrators spoke, shared stories and gave us a great list of the potholes we need to be weary of at EAB and in Brazil. Here's their pothole list:

• Think before you speak. - With languages and cultures being different, be aware of what you say. Avoid sarcasm. What you say and what you wanted your message to convey may not be interpreted in that way.
• Listen - Spend some time to really listen to your new colleagues, families and students. You'll learn much more about your new home from them and have a deeper understanding by doing so.
• Reserve Judgement - Instead of complaining about how a line was incredibly long, ask someone to explain the system to you. You can ask, "Could you please tell me a little more about how the federal police system works?"
• Communicate - Craig's says you can never have too much communication with a family. Be honest, open and do it early and often.

I've been using their advice everyday since then...at school and out socially with my new friends and colleagues. There have honstly been several situations where I've thought back to this conversation and it's saved me. Their advice can apply to any person, at any time in any location. But when everything is new, sometimes our common sense is one of the things that gets lost.

So, this luncheon that I went into thinking would be just a time together when I could be working, was one of the most beneficial parts of our new teacher orientation. And not only for the pothole advice but also because I needed to slow down on Wednesday and gain some perspective. Sometimes, those bigger questions are what we need and we don't always realize it at the time.

A final note about potholes... On Wednesday afternoon at 3:45, all of the staff met in our auditorium to have a final pep talk before school began. We learned all about H1N1 (a big deal here since our kids travel so much) and about our first all-staff TGIF -a boat cruise on the lake (I'll make a post of that one too once I get pics from friends here ). Craig opened this by sharing a few stories from the past few days. One of the stories he shared was from our lunch together. He said, "Today I had lunch with all of the new teachers. It was a Q & A session where they could ask whatever they wanted. I want to share what one teacher asked." Guess whose question he shared? Mine. He shared the pothole advice with everyone. He reminded us that we all, no matter our position, should be taking these into account.

I felt pretty humbled that he chose to share my question with the entire staff but I now that I think about it, since we've arrived at EAB, Craig's been giving this same advice all along. Maybe I just hadn't connected to something I could hang onto and potholes were my hook. Regardless, I'm glad I know how to avoid them here.

And in case you were wondering the word potholes doesn't quite translate to Portuguese because someone asked but they do have potholes here so the message was still understood.

And the white boards were hung by the maintenance crew with care...

School starts tomorrow! I'm so excited. I feel like a kid. The first day of school's something I've always looked forward to but this year it's extra special. Special because I have my own classroom again, it's a new group of students and I'm in a very new place. Lots of newness.

The newness continues with my classroom. Last year it housed the elementary computer lab. Due to the large size of our classes this year* , the two third grade classrooms were moved to two rooms with larger space. The other room was previously the elementary school science lab*.

I was thrilled when I heard that EAB made this decision. It demonstrated to me that they put students' needs first and they thought out of the box by reorganizing some of the classroom spaces.

So, when I arrived 2 weeks ago, the journey of creating my new space began. Here's what I walked into on Day 1.

To say it was a bit overwhelming was an understatement. As you know, I'm a girl who thrives on organization. I may have a lot of stuff but what I have I need and want.

There were many LARGE boxes to sort through. Previous teachers' materials, maps that included the Soviet Union, duplos, faded posters and so on. I worked a bit each day on things and after about 2 days it looked like this.

Then I came to school for most of Saturday afternoon. The room finally felt like it was coming together. The tables actually were in groups, the boxes were mostly gone. Ahhhh. I was living the good life!
EAB has completed over $1million in renovations and updates this summer. New gym, new classroom spaces, all new computers (school-wide), a renovated Early Childhood playground which will have sprinklers to beat the heat and so much more. As metioned earlier, my room was one of the renovations made. And I also mentioned my classroom used to be the elementary school's computer lab. This meant my room housed the school's server (see in corner of picture).

Originally the server was going to remain in my room until Winter Break then it would be moved to a nearby storage room. Well, the timeline was pushed forward and Monday (2 days ago) several men spent the entire day moving the server. I was so thrilled to have the server moved but it was a huge undertaking. After the server was moved, the wall where it was located needed to be plastered and painted. Due to all the painting and plastering and drilling there was dust everywhere.

When you're in a new place, your home and for me my classroom are 2 things I can control...well, a bit. Now my room was in total disaray and I felt it looked like I took about 2 giant leaps backwards. Ahhhhhhh! Monday night, after a nap, chats with friends, the Goo and my parents, I knew everything would be fine.

And today by 6:00 it was. My room has been swarmed by all of EAB's amazing maintenance workers in the past 72 hours. The electrician, the painter, "general" maintenance who hung my dry erase and bulletin boards. And a lot of their help was managed by my wonderful classroom assistant Miguel. So with all of their help and my blood, sweat and just a few tears...here's my room...

It's a blank canvas ready to share all of the learning my students and I have together this year. For those of you in the states who are teachers, it's a little perspective. In your final few weeks when you're worried about it all coming together, know that it'll be fine. And I can say that honestly from a girl who had an entire server ripped from her walls, was covered in dust and wound up with a beautiful and simple space.
All teachers can relate to that feeling when your room is ready and you're just so thrilled to meet your students. But something that I don't think I've ever experienced is 2 additional highs that add to your feelings. The first for me was the note below.

Craig is my school's headmaster. The closest U.S. comparision I could give is a school district's superintendent. I was planning with my teammate when Craig stopped he left me the note. On the day before school begins, he's just as busy as I am, but he took time out to visit each of the new teachers. How wonderful is that? It's truly the little things that make your day.

Speaking of little things, while I was finalizing my lesson plans I looked up from my desk and saw this...the moon. It's just about full rising above our playground. Doesn't get much better than that.

* Teacher Side Note: Large class size at EAB is 22. Due to the large size of the 3rd grade classes I also have my own classroom assistant, Miguel. He's wonderful and I'm thrilled to have the extra help. Not trying to rub it in, just the facts.