Marco? Polo?

Tomorrow, is a national holiday in Brazil. It's Dia de Cons. Negra which is something similar to Black Awareness Day. There isn't a lot of information out there on the web and the information I found is really vague or is in Portuguese and also it's late on a Thursday night and I'm tired so I'm not adding that info for you all. Sorry!

With the 3-day weekend, I'm off to a fazenda or farm. The website's in Portuguese so for my upcoming visitors, consider this practice. I love the name of this fazenda...Marco Polo. How can you not just love that?

I'm headed away for a girls weekend with Andrea, Kathy, Erica and her daughters, Savanna and Ellie. Should be a wonderful weekend because here are just a few of the things the fazenda offers (straight from the website - I left off the translation as the cheeziness level is high):

• fishing,
• horseback riding,
• watching soccer matches on a large screen outside,
• playing tennis,
• playing other games like chess, video games, etc
• spa-ing (massage, pedi, mani, etc),
• 4-wheeling,
• sauna-ing, and
• swimming.

With temps in the 90s during the day and the sun being so intense, couldn't be a better way to relax. And then we come back to a shortened week. 3 days and then I'm off again but this time to Rio de Janeiro. Then 3 more weeks (2 of which are shortened although report cards are squeezed in) before I fly home to Chicago for a month. It's going to be a rough few weeks.

Being 5 Rocks

This morning just before 7 my cell phone rang. I knew it must be either Andrea or Erica. It was Erica calling to say that she'd woken up with pink eye and one of her daughers (and one of my students) Savanna had a high fever so she nor Savanna would be going to school. Of course it was a morning when their computer also wasn't working and her husband, Jamey is out of town with the hs basketball team at a week long tournament in Sao Paulo.

So at 7:15 I walked over to her apartment to pick up not just handwritten sub plans for the day but also her youngest, Ellie. We said our goodbyes, rode the elevator downstairs and I began my best commute ever. I got to remember what it's like to be 5 years old and walk to school.

See, when you're 5, you notice things like the VW van sitting in the parking lot waiting to wash people's cars during the day and you think something like "i want to have school in a car because we could drive all around and have school in different places." And you do think about the crowded state of said car would be with 22 Kindergarteners inside of it, but you focus more on what's important, like the color of the van. Pink of course. Then you make plans of how you'll build your teacher that car out of paper and "recycyled materials from around home."

Then you notice a dog going by and point out that a van wouldn't be a good school for a dog because dogs would eat the paper car. Then you notice the colors of the buildings, which actually have quite the variety here, are some of your favorites including pink and purple and green. Plans are made then for when you grow up and take care of your baby. Your house will obviously be painted in the above colors because they're your favorites.

You hold hands with the adult you're walking with and while you hold hands you swing your arms.

You notice all the little hills where some digging is occuring nearby a building and note that the buildings are under remodeling cuz they really should get cleaner.

The Bloco or apartment building names, which are letters, plead with you to call out their names randomly, "R," "E" and "V."

And as you get closer to school, instead of walking down the steps, you grab the adult's hand and you hop
down
each
step
until you reach the bottom.

Tonight Andrea and I dropped off Ellie after some fun after school (aka keep her out of the germ infested house). While there, I found out that I won't have my wonderful teaching partner or Savanna at school tomorrow. And as disappointed as I am because I truly will miss them both, I am looking forward to my commute again. Commute from the 5 year old perspective just rocks.

Shower Shock!

I'd mentioned earlier this week that during a couple of showers I'd received a mild shock when trying to turn the water on and off. The actual knob/faucet was generating this. I have an electric shower so I know not to touch the showerhead at all (even though it's plastic...better safe than sorry) but this new surprise wasn't such a good one.

On Friday I turned in a maintenance request at school because they are the ones who come and fix apartment issues. When I came home on Friday, maintenance from school had been here ( I knew this because the toilet seat was up and also there was some grout on the floor of the bathroom) and I found that a new shower head had been installed. This worried me at first since that wasn't the area having the shocking problem. I thought though, what do I know about this? Nothing. So, yesterday morning as I finished up my shower, I took a deep breath as I reached for the knob, prepared for a sizzle. And guess what? No more shocking shower surprises! The problem's been solved. New shower head = no shock.

I am posting this because I realized I forgot to share this news with my parents who I just chatted with a few minutes ago and want them to sleep well knowing their daughter, who's 5,000 miles away, will not be electrocuted tomorrow morning. Sweet dreams. everyone.

PS While they were here they also fixed my wiggly, jiggly toilet as well. It was a great Friday for my bathroom.

My Commute

This year, my school commute is an 8 minute walk. I've captured it in photos for you.

As I leave my apartment building, I cross one of the neighborhood lanes and cross a parking lot where everyday the same VW bug sits. I've never seen it out of the parking spot it's in, so my theory is it's just a decoration or waiting for somebody to repair it back to its glory days.

Then I walk under the apartment building and down the sidewalk.
I cross the street and walk next to the gas station.
Then I take an old broken-up sidewalk between two apartment buildings.

It's a little rough so wearing flipflops to school is a must. I change shoes when I get there.
After crossing over anthills and keeping an eye out for dog poop, I'm back onto a regular sidewalk. Ahhhh.
Next I have a hill to descend. May not seem so big, but with the rain and red dirt it can be treacherous. Also to add to the danger level, at the bottom of the sidewalk are 4 posts. These are in place so motorcycles don't use this sidewalk. When I wear a dress or long skirt I have to be careful to pick it up or I can get stuck.
Then through the parking lot...
where everyday pigeons are eating some type of fruit that's fallen from the trees.

Next I look both ways since my ipod's usually in to make sure it's safe to cross the roundabout.
As I walk down the next parking lot, I stay to the sidewalk and watch the middle school age Brazilian students headed to their school at 7:00 in the morning. They like to hang out at the park that's fenced in on the left side.

There's a bit more sidewalk to cross before...
reaching the street. I'm shocked how dead it was when I took this shot.
Most times I have to press the cross walk button.

There are 6 lanes of traffic to cross and with the bus stop just up the street it can be a little challenging.
Then down the steps and...

I've arrived.

Just a little bit different than last year's 15 minute car commute past Woodman's, Target, Starbucks and several subdivisions. Have to say though, even with the rain, I'd take this commute any day over last year's.

Dinner Club

Thursday evening I hosted one of our weekly dinner clubs. I look forward to this Thursday evening routine where we all take a turn preparing a meal with lots of TLC and a high yumminess factor.

How'd this get started? A few years ago, the newbie group started getting together several nights a week, each taking a turn to cook. Over time it evolved into once a week. When my newbie group arrived, we were invited into the mix. The group originally only included singles and now includes couples as well. Our group is so large now in fact that we've broken into two smaller groups so it's possible to have a conversation with someone rather than just feeling like a meet-and-greet where you shove the food in, say a few hellos and head home with a full belly.

Due to several people having other plans, we merged the groups and I had 9 people + me for dinner. I decided to make a couple of breakfast casseroles thinking who doesn't love breakfast for dinner.
Here's my kitchen pretty close to ready for guests. There was water boiling on the stove for coffee. I use a french press here. Yum! You can also see the size of my oven so the earlier post from Thursday related to locksmithing may be more understandable.
I made two casseroles: an egg, bacon and cheese and french toast. The french toast was LOVED by all. I need to send a shout out to the Torrence family. They are one of my American families who thoughtfully brought me a HUGE bottle of maple syrup from the embassy commissary. Maple syrup is not found in Brasilia so this is a delicious treat to share. The other casserole I made was good, a little well-done and also the cheese was okay. Cheese in Brazil is a bit difficult to come by. I mean, there is lots of cheese but not the variety I'm accustomed to having. So options like cheddar, Swiss, etc don't exist. So the casserole was fine but some cheddar would have made it even better.

Here are some of the girls enjoying some coffee after chowing down. I wasn't quick enough or sitting long enough to snap a photo while we ate. It was such a great meal and a nice chance to catch up with everyone.

I really look forward to dinner club because words can't describe what having a home cooked meal tastes like when you are so far away from home. I swear the food is always better because of the extra love that's added. Looking forward to next week!

Adventures in Baking and Locksmithing

I have 9 people coming over to my house for dinner in about 20 minutes.

I just got off the phone with Hayes, who's one of the nine and also bringing pineapple. Thanks by the way (and thanks to Andrea and Sam too!).

But the adventure comes not from my phone call but the reason for it.

At lunch today (a PTSO Thanksgiving feast) I brought up what would be the best way to bake the two breakfast casseroles I made. I was thinking about a rotation of sorts. One in, cook it all the way through. Then the next and through the first back in to warm it up.

You may be thinking, why would you do this? Well, our ovens are about half the size of American ovens and they also have one rack in them.

Part of the reason I brought up the process at lunch is Hayes is a fab cook. I knew she'd have a suggestion. She suggested for me to use a cookie sheet and layer then. I don't own a cookie sheet yet so she offered me hers. How perfect! Another suggestion was to borrow her baking rack from her oven.

After school I went to her apartment with her keys as she was staying after school to do some school work. I got into the building and apartment. Easily found the cookie sheet and took the rack out of the oven. Walked out the door, put the key in the lock and was stuck.

The key literally was stuck in the lock. Sigh. I tried a variety of manuevers...open the door and twist. Close the door and wiggle. Wiggle and twist simutaneously. Nothing was working. I called Erin to see if her lock was tricky and explained what was happening. She said she hadn't had problems with it but to seek out help from the portero.

I took a deep breath and headed downstairs to the portero for help. Luckily now I speak enough Portuguese to work through the play-by-play with him. He told me he thought I'd stuck it in upside down. Erin's key has the same style teeth but a different handle (no clue about key lingo). At this point I called Hayes again to let her know what I'd done. She was a good sport but had to be thinking, "how hard is it to lock a door?" He gave me a smile and we took the elevator back up to Erin's apartment.

As soon as we got there, I realized I'd done just what he thought. Stuck it upside down. Sigh. He did a little wiggle and then asked if I had another key. I for the third time called Hayes. No luck. No second key.

At this point our only option was to call a locksmith. Also at this time, I'm feeling a crunch because I'm supposed to be getting ready for dinner club. We took the walk down to the elevator. The portero was great. Very friendly, made me feel as though I wasn't a complete idiot (even if he was thinking it). He told me he thought it should cost about R$50 (about $25 USD).

Once we were back downstairs, he found the number of a locksmith, called and got a price quote. Unfortunately the cost was R$50. Sigh. And this is not even my lock and my friend was doing me this huge favor. I'm an idiot. I called Hayes a fourth time to update her on the happs. She as usual was gracious and understanding but I'm sure thinking, never again will I loan my keys to Megan for anything.

So, I left the R$50 with my new friend and told him Erin would be back in about an hour. The good news is that they were easily able to fix it. Erin arrived home about 6:15 and she was handed her keys and a receipt. All is well.

And in case you're wondering, the baking rack worked so at least something good came out of all this stupidity. Bon appetite!

Blackout

I've heard that Brazil hit the news today in the U.S. There was a HUGE blackout that hit several states and huge cities like Rio and Sao Paolo. Here's a link to another blog that I read daily written by a woman who moved back to NYC after living in Rio for several years with all the details.

Colleen emailed and asked me if we were affected in Brasilia. Well, yes in a couple of ways.

Last night the lights flickered throughout the evening, however, there also was a heavy rainstorm. To be honest I thought it was the storm as I didn't hear about the blackout until this morning and really don't know if the power surges were from the weather or the power problem.

While taking a shower today, as I went to adjust the water temp, I felt a little sizzle, little shock, little jolt. I have an electrically heated shower and apparently, the power grid was surging in interesting ways and my water knob had become a conductor. Not such a pleasant way to start the day. Gonna wear sneakers tomorrow.

Today at school, at about 8:20 or so, the lights went out. First three completely random, unrelated fluorescent bulbs went off around the room. Then the whole room, computer, etc. The kids of course were over the moon and all had stories to tell about starting with something like "at my house, the power went out, for 30 hours and..." You get the idea. It was back on in about 20.

Here's another article with more information for those of you who want more news. I'm home and in the midst of getting ready to host 9 people tomorrow night for dinner and so thrilled that the power's back on. Well, maybe I'm not getting ready right now, more taking a break from it and happy to have the power on so I can procrastinate a little with a post.