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.

It's Raining, It's Pouring, I'm Drenched

Right now, it's raining, it's pouring and I'm still a little chilly from being drenched. About 10 minutes today of solid laughing as I was bombarded with rain twice today.

First time - Lunch
I went out to eat with Hayes, as I usually do on Tuesdays. We went first to get some pants altered since we both are loosing some weight and it looks like I stole a fat lady's pants. Oh yeah, I was that fat lady, still not skinny but not as fat and much more economical to have things altered. Also, heading home to Chicago in December. Not quite Brasilia type clothing available then.

After we met our new friend the seamstress, we walked to the local fast food Brazilian Mexican, Tacolino. As we sat eating, I heard a few fat raindrops. Plunk. Plop. Then the heavens opened over the 205-605 superquadras. I mean it began to pour. Not rain, pour.

We finished our lunches and then pulled out umbrellas for the trek back to EAB. This walk takes about 7 minutes from Tacolino. Today though, it felt like about 20.

The sidewalks became fast moving rivers. The trees which usually provide protection seemed to make funnels of water instead. We had rain hitting us it seemed through our umbrellas. They were pointless. It was Forest Gump-like rain. It was raining down and also up.
Raining sideways and even diagonal.

We then got to the edge of the sidewalk. By this time, my shirt and capris, up to my knees, we soaked. At the edge of the sidewalk, next to the curb, I saw that the river that I had been wading through on the sidewalk suddenly had grown into the size of the Amazon. We stepped on a convinently located speed bump (the first time I was actually glad for one) as it served as an island in the Amazon.

We began to cross a parking lot and that's where the laughing began. Our umbrellas served more for psychological and physiologial purposes as we waded through two more Amazon-like, flooded areas.

Then we reached the main street, the L2, that we had to cross. There usually is never lunchtime traffic but today because the heavens had opened and each and every single drop of rain was being squeezed out, there was tons of traffic. Hayes warned me to push the crossing light and step back. I did as about 30 cars and 4 buses passed us. Water went spraying everywhere. The whole time, I was still laughing.

Eventually we made it across, soaked, cold but we survived in flipflops in a flood back to EAB. As I returned to find my students in our classroom many asked, "why are you wet?" and "what happened?" Only to find myself laughing again. It's always an adventure.

But the best part is, it happened all over again tonight. I went to the local dollar store to buy some things for dinner club on Thursday and guess what? I think I must be a target. The sponge is full and somebody's having fun watching me wade across the streets of Brasilia. Only this time, I was carrying 4 bags, my purse and an umbrella down the street and across a field. I'm sure I was great entertainment for all of the people outside. A gringa. Weighed down by lotsa bags. With crazy curly hair from the humidity, trying to shuffle her way home. Hope somebody took my picture.

Routines

It's funny how no matter how old you are, we all love routines. I kinda laugh as I say that because it's my way of telling myself, my Type "A"ness is okay to need this.

Anyway, and as you know, I'm a routine craving kind of girl. Since moving South, new routines have been established...

• Each weekday I'm greeted with a "Bom dia" by one of our friendly guards at EAB's front gate.


• I have two standing weekly lunch dates that I love. Tuesdays with Hayes and Thursdays with Vanessa. Being able to walk to lunch off-campus is a little pleasure.


• Most Sunday evenings, I have dinner at the same Italian restaurant with Sam and then come home to chat on Skype with my parents. My mom, usually, I can see very clearly and my dad, well, I definitely know what the left side of his face looks like. They know what I mean.


• Thursday evenings a group of teachers take turns hosting "Dinner Club" where a couple of people cook something wonderfully delicious and the rest of us all eat ourselves into a Thanksgiving'esk coma, share our feelings of appreciation and head home to sleep well with a homecooked meal in our bellies.


• When I enter my apartment building, I call "Good morning," "Good afternoon" or "Good evening" to my doorman as he buzzes me into the building as well as throwing in a "Tudo bom?" as well.


• Each morning when Miguel arrives to our classroom, we hug and kiss on the cheek.

• There will always be a tv show from home on. Be it Law and Order, Big Bang Theory, Friends, House or Felicity, there's always something familiar on the tube.
  

These new routines definitely help to make each week, especially when it's a tough one, a whole lot better. But then there are some routines which aren't quite as predictable as I wish they could be:

• I carry an umbrella in my purse everytime I leave my apartment because I know it's going to rain at somepoint. Could me morning, could be afternoon, could be evening. Today no showers. What's that?


• My hair's going to go crazy from the humidity depending on the rain at some point during the day. Although one day last week it didn't. Maybe that's adjusting too? Wrong!


• Packages and letters come sporadically. Sometimes they take 1 week. Other times they take 3.
  

Routines when being so far away, make life a little easier. And the unpredictable ones, aren't so unpredictable anymore. It's funny how those regular parts of our day make me smile and usually are some of the best moments in it.

Package Gone AWOL

My great friend Jez at home told me weeks ago she sent me a package. On about a weekly basis since early October, I get a facebook message with something like, "Has it arrived?" or "Is it there yet?" I could tell each time her tone was getting a little more frustrated that it hadn't arrived yet.

Well, the wonderful news is that it arrived today!

As you can see, it took a little beating during it's travels.

And I found out why it took a little longer then originally planned.

It went AWOL to the Caymen Islands! Check out the sticker in the middle of the box. Guess it wanted a little beach time before coming to the cerrado.
Thanks Jez! You truly found the best things to send...Oreos, Reese's, nailpolish (how did you know that I needed it so badly), deoderant (it's all roll-on here) and a sweet note. Couldn't have come on a better day. Thank you!

P.S. For my BSB buddies, I'm willing to share some of my treats. Stop by tomorrow if you wanna Reese's. I can only promise they'll be around for then. Past the weekend, no guarantees.

China in Box

Since it's Wednesday and with my students we celebrate Wednesday in our writers' notebooks by drawing instead that day to share our ideas, I'm rolling with that theme. So here's my Wordless Wednesday, well fewer words anyway.

My idea today comes from my recent encounter with crazy mad hives. I'd mentioned to my family that I'd had dinner from a Chinese fast food place called China in Box and think something in the food be it MSG, some other seasoning or veggie may have caused my allergic reaction. After seeing the tv commerical, maybe I should better understand the cause.

Hope you enjoy the commercial from Chinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa in Box!

Good news: Little itchy but hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiives mostly gone. Yea!

This Is Halloween

I just had to borrow the line from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas movie. Why you may ask? Well, in the days that followed up to Halloween, two of my students, one American, the other Israeli, both sang this song. They, along with my 20 other students were incredibly excited for Halloween.

Okay, that's a total understatement. They were crazy, wild, running round the room excited for Halloween.

Halloween is not celebrated in Brazil but since I teach at an American School, we definitely celebrated it in the most festive of ways. I don't think I've ever, in my entire life, celebrated Halloween as much as I did here, in a country that doesn't even celebrate the holiday.

There are a couple of disclaimers that I should put out there.

1. Due to the abudance of Halloween celebrated at school, I did not particpate in any adult celebrations. There were offers but knowing how I felt after Halloween at home in the U.S., I thought I would need a break. One party I was invited to was hosted by our school librarian. This week the local paper ran an articlea bout it in the society pages and compared to Barack and Michelle hosting a Halloween party at the White House. Can't find a link to the article but you get the idea about how big a deal it is here. I suppose though it's just like people celebrating Cinco de Mayo or another holiday, it's just about the fun, right?

2. For those teachers who ever feel Halloween is an insane day, read on and have your pumpkin stickers ready for me.

My day began bright and early at 7:45 as the vampires, Star Wars characters, Laura Ingalls Wilders, bats, jaguars and more began to enter my classroom.

We quickly had our morning meeting and around 8:10 walked out to the front volleball/basketball courts where parents and other classes were waiting for us to begin the parade.

After we took photos outside, we moved into the auditorium where we took our usual seats. Each class had a turn parading across the stage showing off their costumes to all of the K3 (that's age 3) to 5th graders. 2 classes per grade level x 8 + adults in costume groups = 1 hour of Halloween parading.

My class led by Dr. Miguel, our mad scientist (you can check out his photo on EAB's homepage) to a 70s disco song.

Sidenote: We were both mad scientists but I have now realized that I don't have a picture of me! I know some friends who have them so I'll try to get one soon. I went as Dr. Looney, Brain Surgeon. My class calls me Miss Megan so a lot of them don't even know my last name and it was great when finally one of my students "got" the Dr. Looney part.

As each class walked around the stage there was spooky or dance music playing. One of the kids' favorites and I have to admit mine too, was one of the 5th graders who dressed up as Michael Jackson. He took right to the front of the stage and put his gloved hand into the air. It was hilarious! He was perfect for it.

After our parade we played a game of good old fashioned Hangman and then took our morning break. This is usually a 10 minute recess/snack for the kids. Since my special was cancelled that day (sigh and grrrr) we decided to give the kids 30 minutes instead. By this time, the temps outside were in the mid 80s. The kids played soccer, ran around and sat and talked.

While they were having a great time outside, I was scrambling inside to get things ready for their return. I quickly borrowed and burned a copy of a Halloween cd so we could play "Hot Eyeball." My version of Hot Potato but with an eyeball beanbag. We played this a few times, they really loved it and then we began our party.

Here is SOME of the food that was brought for the party.

Parties here are a really big deal. Erica and I had the kids brainstorm ideas for what they would like. Each brought something to contribute. For our Halloween party my class ate: pizza, cake, pancakes, chips (Cheetos, Doritos, etc), candy (gummy and chocolate), pastels (deep fried goodness - like an empanada but deep fried) and more. Yummy but oh my. My class LOVES to eat so I knew they would be excited.

After they finished eating, Erica and I opened our doors for games. The kids could move freely between classrooms making mad scientist glasses, playing eyeball toss, Bozo buckets, coloring Halloween pictures and throwing velcro balls at a target. They had a great time.

At 11:30, the went home. I was wiped. Sweaty and tired. But just wait, the day was only beginning! Now that the kids were gone, we had to prepare for the annual Halloween Carnival. Yea! (I hope you can hear the sarcasm in my voice).

The Halloween Carnival was started, well, a long, long time ago. Each elementary grade level has a booth and a game. The HS seniors put on a haunted house and sell refreshments. All the profits go to the group who sponsors the booth. It ends up being a pretty amazing fundraiser but it just falls on the most tiring teaching day of an elementary teacher. Good idea, bad timing.

Before decorating I decided I needed a break so I ate lunch. The canteen was serving Mexican food. It was so hot, I wasn't even really hungry which is a bummer because it's actually a pretty decent lunch and a nice change of pace. Anyway...

Fom 12:30 - 3:30, I decorated the 3rd grade Halloween Carnival booth in the gym with Miguel and Erica's substitute assistant Shaila. The temps in the afternoon were in the 90s. Gym, no air con. Decorating. Sorry, I just want to paint a clear picture.

Our booth was going to have 2 games. Bozo buckets (again with the eyeball beanbags) and then Pin the Eyeball on the Mad Scientist. We spent 3 hours getting the booth ready. All the hard work was worth it in the end. However, as my dad taught me long ago, from the experience, next year I will work smarter not harder. 3 hours will be decreased to 1 at the most. EAB, be ready to see similar games next year!For our booth we asked our students and their families to work for 30 minute shifts throughout the evening. That was wonderful because they had a good time, I got a little break from the action and could actually socialize a bit.
This photo was taken early in the evening. The Carnival runs from 7-9:00 p.m. Families come, buy tickets and enjoy the great time. It was packed by 8:00, literally wall-to-wall people. At 9:00, we quickly cleaned up, put things into our classroom and headed home. Whew! What a long, long day.

My most favorite costume in Brazil came from my good friend Vanessa. While we walked home from school the day before Halloween, we were inspired. Can you guess what she was?

She even downloaded cicadas to her ipod which she cleverly put into her purse and had playing. Her 4th grade booth was right next to our 3rd grade one and the sound caught me off guard. Love it!

My most favorite costume of this Halloween season actually didn't even happen in Brazil. Jez, who ironically I wrote about yesterday, sent me the following email that arrived to my inbox at 4:30 in the afternoon after I arrived home sweaty, exhausted and taking a short break before the carnival.

Guess who I am today?

I have big earrings.
I have leapard shoes.
I am wearing layers with a cardigan.
I have a fun scarf around my neck.
I carry around books with me.

Who I am?

Right away I knew who she was! She was me!

You did a great job Jez. Totally looks like me from head-to-toe. And after one of the longest days in my entire teaching career I couldn't have asked for a better surprise.

It's wonderful to be loved, missed and teased. Just wait till next year when everyone here will have met you so I can dress up as you next time!

3 Monthaversay

To celebrate our 3 Monthaversay, Sam organized a Friday night trip to Bier House since it was October gotta celebrate our German love. He even made an official invitation written in Portuguese.

It's within walking distance from our apartments. Although neither the beer or food were German but I supposed it was more about getting together for some nice freezing cold choppes (beer) after a long week. Sorry for the picture quality on some of these. Playing with settings and others using the camera but regardless you get the idea.

Gallagher giving Sam some love

Monica, me, Hirsch and Gallagher
First grade Erins. Erin Hayes and Erin Hirsch

Most of the newbies and even a few oldies came to celebrate with us. We always had a full table. It was definitely a great time to just catch up, relax and enjoy time with new friends. Happy 3 Monthaversary newbies!

Hives, Hives, Everywhere There's Hives

I woke up on Monday morning thinking some new insect had invaded my bed during the night because my ankles were itchy. Came out to the couch and then it was my knees that became itchy. Wondered what in the world could do this when suddenly after looking more closely at both my knees and ankles saw that I had hives not bug bites. Figured I must have been having a reaction to something in the Chinese food or wine I had the night before so went on with my day thinking 'they'll go away' and 'if you drink lots of water you'll help get rid of them.


Throughout the day I had little boughts where the itch returned. In late afternoon I took a Benadryl and an Ibuprofen hoping they'd go away. As soon as I laid down in bed, they attacked at full force. I laid there for close to 2 hours trying not to scratch and knew that most likely I wouldn't be in school today.

At 4:30 this morning I woke up to major itchiness. Looked in the mirror and saw a swollen face, a beard of hives and the rest of my body looked ragged. I took more Benadryl and Ibuprofen, drank some water and wrote my sub plans for the day.

Fast forward to 3:00 this afternoon when I made my way to the dr. Erica gave me the number of a dermatologist she liked so I hopped in a taxi (that I ordered all by myself) and was off to Brasilia Shopping. Brasilia Shopping is a semicircular shaped building. There are lots of medical offices in the two outer towers so was dropped off by the taxi and more adventures began.

1. To go up in the elevator you have to check in at a main desk. You tell them the office you're visiting, your name, show photo id and they enter all this "stuff" into the computer. Once they're satisified, they give you a little visitor's tag and off you go.

2. The door to the dr's office was a little small to see so it took me a moment. Then I had to ring the doorbell to enter.

3. The receptionist spoke little English and I speak little medical Portuguese so we worked as a team to fill out all the necessary info. She was entering it onto her computer. Had it been a form to complete, I would have been just fine but we were able to gather all the necessary info. Celebration.

4. Met Dr. Campbell who has the best office view in the city...the lake, the monumental, just beautiful office space. He's very nice and speaks English. We went over my history the past few days of what I'd been eating and any medicines. Then he did the exam and pretty much told me I have a type of allergic reaction hives. That's what I thought as well but he thought they were not attributed to food as I had originally. He told me that doctors can only find the cause for 50% of all hive cases. Interesting. He wrote me 3 perscriptions...one for a steroid shot, Allegra and a cream to get rid of them. Nice guy and would recommend to others who may need a dermatologist in Brasilia.

5. In Brazil, when you get a shot, it's not done at the dr's office. Instead you take your Rx to the pharmacy. So I went to have my first perscription filled. Went down into the actual mall, presented one of the 12 clerks in a tiny pharmacy my order. She filled it, told me to go and pay and bring my little basket of drugs back to her. I did as I was told and she sought out the next tier of employee to actually give me my shot.

6. New fancy assistant (her title was _____ assistant - you can fill in the blank with whatever word you want) took me to a little room labeled Injection Room. She prepped by washing her hands very thoroughly, taking everything out of the package and then said something in Portuguese I didn't quite catch. I told her I only speak a little Portuguese where she then pointed to her butt. Ahhh. It was going to be one of those types of shots. So I dropped trow and got stuck. Didn't hurt too much. Only at the end when she was trying to get all of the gooey type medicine out of the syringe. She slapped a bandaid on me and I was done.

Hopefully all of this hardwork and my sore butt pays off and tomorrow, like Dr. Campbell told me, I should wake up feeling some relief. He actually told me to wait on the getting the other perscriptions but since everything's an adventure here, thought just better to have it now so I could start using if need be tomorrow. I'm just going to keep thinking of bees in hives and hope that the focus on other types of hives helps my body mentally to improve as well. Bees live in hives. Bees live in hives. Bees live in hives and not on me. Bees or hives.