Taco Toast

The Goo made a personal request that I post this story for others to enjoy. Enjoy my, um, well, it's just my stupidity.

About two weeks ago I woke up on a Thursday and got ready as usual for school. In between the shower and drying my hair I always eat breakfast. This particular Thursday was no different than any other.

That morning I decided I wanted cinnamon toast along with my coffee and daily banana. I placed the bread into the toaster oven, as I usually do, poured the coffee out of my french press into my mugs (one for home and a travel one for school) and got out the sugar and cinnamon from the cabinet in which I keep them and butter from the fridge. Quick side note: This was when I could have coffee in the morning. About a day later, my coffee carafe broke and since then I've been without any coffee. Sigh. Thank goodness friends and the Goo are coming soon with a new one. Coffee withdrawl is rough. RIP coffee carafe. We had a nice ride and I hope that you are making coffee for somebody else in carafe heaven because I'm sure missing you making it for me.

About this time, I heard the friendly ding of my toast oven. I, as usual, used my wonderful bamboo tongs to grab the toast. Then I spread butter on the two slices of toast. Next, as always I sprinkled sugar on the slices and topped them with cinnamon. As I did this, my nose suddenly caught the scent of tacos. One of my neighbors must have made tacos for dinner. This was rather unusual since Mexican food in Brasilia is hard to find and definitely not a commonly made item. I was impressed by said neighbor but also surprised that I was smelling this strong taco scent at 6:00 a.m.

As I picked up my cup of coffee and took my cinnamon toast into my living room, I again was hit by the strong taco smell. So strange, I thought to myself. I even placed my coffee and toast down on the table and leaned out the window to see which neighbor had made tacos. The smell was suddenly gone.

It returned again as I sat down to eat my toast. I noticed, as I took my first bite, that it didn't have it's usual cinnamon deliciousness. It just tasted like sugar and butter. I was disappointed and smelled tacos again but figured that this smell, my neighbor's dinner, had somehow infused my apartment with its odor.

A couple of bites and a sneeze later, I realized that my toast did not possess its usual flavor and when I sniffed it, it smelled like tacos and pepper. What? How could this happen? My maid comes on Wednesdays so somehow she must have combined the cinnamon with the pepper. Why would she do that?

I quickly jumped up from the couch and BBC Global News to check my cinnamon shaker. What had my maid done to my bottle? When I picked up the shaker from the counter, the color did look a little different but not greatly. The label read just as most of the other ones I did, from Target's spice section but the name didn't read cinnamon. It said cumin.

Yes, I'd made myself some cumin toast, taco toast, for breakfast.

I opened the cabinet where keep all of my spices and cooking things and found that my maid, wonderful Davina, had reorganized the pantry. Everything had a new place including the cinnamon. No tampering, just my stupidity and my assuming that things were in the same places. And you know what they say about assuming things...

Lesson learned, even at 6:00 a.m., it's important to check spice labels the day after your maid comes. Unless you want to try taco toast for yourself. Have to say, I wouldn't recommend it.

The Ants Go Marching...

On my way home this evening from school, I'm not sure why, but I had my head down most of the way. Perhaps it's because I left at 6:15 p.m. Tired and hungry so I guess I was focused on my walk. Not the usual. Anyway...

During my head down commute I noticed five different types of ants. Yes five. Five different species in my 10 minute commute. (Sidenote, I just had a random flash to those Subway commercials for the $5 footlong and was going to make a joke but I don't even know if that's on tv in the U.S. anymore. Laura would be so disappointed in my pop culture knowledge).

I saw a herd little black ones, not living too far away from a red dirt mountain of little red ants

Then I saw one lone big black ant that looks similar to ants back in Illinois.

Next I saw a trail of carpenter ants carrying a variety of leaves and bugs on their way home.

Finally I saw the scary ones that attacked me way back earlier last fall.

They've dug up my usual route home so I had to take a little different path but this new route and having my head down gave me an appreciation for the variety around me. Especially after staying late at school and I have a mountain of papers to grade, some blog procrastination and enjoying the little things in life probably isn't a bad idea at all.

Hope all my IL friends and family will see some ants soon.

Cloudy with a Chance of Beauty

The clouds in Brasilia are just magnificent. Truly. They are one of my favorite small things about living here.

From brillant white in December...
to peaceful speckled sunsets...

to last night's powerful storm clouds.They are just breathtaking.

When this is your view, these amazing clouds, how can you not take a moment to forget everything that's bothering you and just enjoy what's around you. It helps to put things in perspective. Maybe I need to do more of that...

Apartment Beautification Plan

I'm sure you all have had this feeling before. You have guests coming from out of town to visit and suddenly all of those little "projects" or updates you've wanted to complete for months around the house have a much greater sense of urgency. Well, that's exactly that's happening to me.

In less than 30 days, my sister, Gwen, Maz and Jez will be coming to BSB and staying with me. So hard to believe since we've planned things for such a long time.

One of the little projects I've wanted to do for a long time was rearrange my living room. Today I went to the Hippie Fair and bought the tv stand.

By doing this, I was able to flip the entire room so I could take full advantage of my view from the comfort of a couch.
Another "project" that's been on my list was to move my laptop into my spare bedroom. This took a little while as a hole had to be drilled between the two rooms.
With all of the other changes today, I was able to move it. Next step will be to use add wi-fi so I can sit from the comfy couch while enjoying the view and some coffee but we're moving in the right direction.

The next "project" will be to hang up artwork. I've bought some here and as so many of you know wherever I live I add my photographs to the walls. I've got them already in frames waiting to be hung. This week I'm hoping to do that as well as having some shelves I bought hung.

I bought a mandala at the Hippie Fair too. Mandalas are circles, can be found in nature, and are used in lots of different ways. Mine was bought more for the aesthetic quality and the message's good too, especially while I'm sleeping. Thought it was cute, the price was great and I got a good bargain so went for it. I finally have something on my walls.

A final "project" was to find a door stop. Living in my apartment I have great cross breezes but this causes doors to slam. Such a Brazilian no-no. I receive this first door stop from Kathyas a Christmas present.

And today I found the perfect one for my front door. It's both strong and cute. Definitely stood up to the wind challenge today.

I'll post more apartment beautification plan updates as they occur in the next few weeks.

Quick Carnaval News!

As I sit here at Starbucks in Rio. Yes, that's right friends. Starbucks. Waiting patiently to sip away my java chip frap, I wanted to take a quick moment to let you know how AMAZING our time has been here. There will definitely be more detailed posts later but while I've got a moment wanted to share just a few bites for your reading pleasure. So far on my wonderfully amesome (lame adjective but so appropriate here) Carnaval week I have:

• Dressed like a fruit vendor on a subway,
• Got hit on while dressed like a fruit vendor on the subway,
• Danced my heart out at the Sambadromo with Imperano Serrano,
• Got horrible blisters (yes, there's always something with me) from dancing my heart out,
• Made friends with some of the other dancers in our wing,
• Eaten/ing lots of deliciously wonderful food (goat cheese with walnuts, thai basil chicken, cinnamon and clove ice cream)
• Been gaining a nice tan after months of pale gringa-ness,
• Taken naps everyday,
• Spent 4 wonderful days hanging out with my great friend,
• Seen less than 10 clouds total in the skies since arriving on Saturday and
• Slept in till 9 am each day.

And the best part is that it's only Tuesday. Sigh. More soon. Wish you were here.

Hooray for Brazilian Drugs!

Today, after several weeks of procrastination, I finally visited one of the pharmacies on my commercial. I was just about to the bottom of my medication and needed a refill. I'd put it off long enough.

While I was home over break, I stocked up on a few over-the-counter and some perscription drugs. When you're sick and you open your medicine cabinet, it's just nice to know that what you have works for you. No trying out something new after stumbing through a poorly translated conversation with the pharmacist.

Also, I'd found while home that the medication I needed was not covered by my new insurance plan. The pharmacist at home had tried to see if there were substitutes but alas none. When I asked how much the cost, thinking, I'll just suck it up and pay for what I want. The reply. USD$200. What!??! I asked him to repeat. Unfortunately the reply was the same. Grrrr. That left me with the Brazil option. Try and see what they can do for me. The reason being...

Here a lot of the perscription drugs we have in the U.S. are over-the-counter. Included in those range from birth control to allergy medicines to lots I probably don't even realize are. Well, as I geared up (really psyched myself for my trip - it was truly about the Portuguese) I went to the pharmacy on my commericial today. I was hopeful the medication I needed would be on that list of easily available drugs. The cost of drugs on that list also seems to be signifcantly less expensive.

Prior to my visit, I'd been chatting with a friend who had found the same medication in Brazil, brought her along and hoped we'd get lucky. If she could do it, I'm sure I could.

I brought my medication with me to the pharmacy and after saying a brief good afternoon, the pharmacist instantly asked if generic was ok. Definitely. I LOVE generic. The cost was R$35 for about half the size of what I got at home.

Had I paid the full crazy inflated drug price in the US, I would have been out $200. In Brazil, I got the same perscription drug. If I match quantities, I would have paid R$70 which is approximately USD$35.

So people, do the math. That's a $165 difference. I could go into the whys and frustrations of perscription drugs in the U.S. but I think for now I'll just say "Hooray for Brazilian drugs and pharmacies!" I definitely need to get over my language failure fears and just appreciate the money you save me daily.

Samba-ing com uma Cinta de Tornozelo

So, t-minus 48 hours and I'll be dancing. Dancing in a samba school parade with Andrea in Rio. And yes we'll be wearing our lovely fruit vendor costumes (can't help but laugh out loud for several reasons with that one) but I'll have an additional accessory. I'll be wearing my ankle brace. Hope that doesn't detract points from Imperio Serrano.

The way that I just wrote that it sounds like a bad thing. It's not. It's actually a good thing because it means I'm healing. I just wanna be all healed-up and things take time and I have to be a bit patient.

Look at all of the exciting things I can do now that I couldn't do 2 months ago:

• wear two shoes,
• walk around Brasilia,
• wear my stylish ankle brace with Birks,
• wear skirts and actually look normal rather than wearing sneakers and not cute ones like the real ones,
• get a crazy hot pink pedicure,
• do physical therapy with some (not major) pain (stupid arch and achille's tendon),
• walk for ice cream and yummy food.

So see, life is good. I'll let you know how samba-ing with a cinta de tornozelo goes. Promise! Now I just gotta go and practice my song. Sou Imperio!