Brasília-- the wedding

The whole point of our trip was to go for the wedding of our friend, Luís. It was pretty interesting. I was surprised at how... normal it seemed. :) I just thought maybe weddings would be a lot different here. Probably Catholic weddings are, but for us Evangelicals, it´s not too different.

The major different I guess to me was that they don´t have wedding parties like we have in the States. Instead of groom´s men for the groom and bride´s maids for the bride, each couple has a designated number of couples. And traditionally they´re real couples (dating, engaged, married), but not always. And everyone wears their own clothes that they choose. They actually try NOT to match! :) Cool! There was a bit of talk at this wedding when one of the madrinhas (little mothers literally, but bride´s maids) wore a white pants suit. She looked hot though! :)

So here are some pictures. Yes, there´s a lot of me, but it´s my blog and I can be vain if I want to. ;)



The beautiful bride and handsome groom-- Dora e Luís.



My beautiful, beloved friends.



Me and Antenor


Antenor and Phyllis

If you don´t know Antenor and Phyllis, you´re missing out. They are some of the greatest folks ever.



Marúsia and I lookin´ hot... I think perhaps I look a little too hot. Try to ignore the bright pink sunburn. :)



Guto and I-- we were apparently the unofficial photographers for the wedding, with 5 cameras between us. :)



Jorge´s tie getting cut. Apparently it´s a tradition to cut off pieces of the groom´s tie and "sell them" at the reception to help fund the honeymoon for the couple. But our group was occupied with pictures, so they got his brother to stand in instead.

There are lots more great photos in my online webshots photo album, for which the link can be found at the right. In fact I just got all of my friend Aníbal´s photos and put them in an album today. In a few days I will meld them together into my original Brasília album, but for now they´re separate so you die hard Sojochick Blog fans won´t need to look through all the repeats to see the new ones. Aníbal is a pretty cool photographer, so check it out. :)

This is the penultimate post on Brasília. I plan to do just one more "what I learned from this trip" and random photo blog. Thanks for sticking with me through this!

Sorry my pictures are screwy. I am having a dang hard time finding a good way to put pictures on my blog. Any advice?

Brasília-- Government Stuff

Brasília is the capitol of Brazil, and it´s actually an interesting story. The city was designed in the 50s and 60s by civil engineers for the purpose of being a very modern, organized, capitol city for Brasil. The original shape of the city was a cross, but as it´s grown it´s become more of an airplane. And the city is much different from any other Brazilian city I´ve been to-- so organized!

So we did some sightseeing and took the opportunity to see some government stuff. Honestly, this didn´t interest me much because I don´t know that much about these buildings and monuments and such. But it was cool and we did have some fun. :)

My favorite place was the Congressional Palace, which I guess is like our senate place thing. I am really ignorant about this stuff. :) I liked it because it was inside and air conditioned. Ha, no it was very cool, no pun intended.





As you can see it´s a very modern building, with the cereal bowl and upside down bowl things. I´m sure it´s all very symbolic, I just don´t know what it means. And then behind it is the building with the towers. Very beautiful!

I won´t bore you with a civics lesson, so here is some of the fun we had there. We were, ahem, a little irreverent at times I think. :)



This is Aníbal arm wrestling a statue.



Me sticking my head through a piece of national art.



Ivan pretending to be a senator



This was an interesting man. He saw me reading the famous quotes from the inaguration of Brasília inscribed on the wall, and came up to me and said, "I´ve been reading this for 50 years, and it is more beautiful every time." I´m not exactly sure what his political connection is, but he was apparently at the inagural mass for the city of Brasília. (yes, the inagural mass-- Catholic countries can do that!) Very nice guy, 78 years old.

This night we also took a late night tour of Brasília with one of our friends (the same ones who took us to the airport in the earlier post).



This is Jandira and I in front of Lula´s house. He´s the president.


And this it the JK Bridge. Very beautiful. JK stands for Juscelino Kubitschek, the President of Brazil who directed the building of Brasília. Pretty much half the city is monuments to this guy. :)

That´s all the photos I´ll put here, but you can see more at my webshots page.

Karma, Chocolate Chips, and Big News!

In case you were ever wondering what the karma would be for a person who records her friends running across a street for their lives while laughing hysterically, then posting it to the internet for everyone to laugh at, here it is.

Yesterday I was going home by bus after doing some heavy duty grocery shopping, so my backpack was full of stuff and I was carrying 4 loaded sacks. The bus drops me off outside my neighborhood, and to get into it I have to cross a freeway type thing. It´s not super busy, but busy enough. So as I, loaded down like a donkey, tried to cross the street yesterday, I tripped over a reflector and fell sprawled out in the middle of the highway with all my four sacks sprawled in various places near me. There was a group of about 10 people watching me from the other side, but no one offered to help. Jerks.

So my mind´s going 100 miles a minute trying to decide what to do. First and foremost I haul my butt up and do a quick check of where traffic is. Then I notice where my sacks are amongst the highway and decide if I have time to get them or should abandon them. I decided to go for them. And by the grace of God I got all of my stuff and didn´t get smashed like an American pancake. :)

I knew I fell on my hand yesterday but it didn´t hurt, but today my right hand, wrist, arm, and shoulder are all pretty sore. That´s what I get for laughing at my friends! :)

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I found a place in Itu to buy chocolate chips yesterday!!!!!!! You really truly have no idea how happy this made me.

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Now the BIG NEWS!!!!!!!!

This has actually been planned for quite some time, but only became official today.

No, I´m not getting married. :)

But I am staying in Brazil until November! YAAAAAAAAAY!

Today I went to the Federal Police in the next city and applied to renew my tourist visa, which by the grace of God they did!

I have a lot of people to thank for this, especially Phyllis for finding out all the information for me to do it, my parents for helping with the last minute (seriously!) paperwork of things, and my dear friend Leandro who gave me a ride and helped me out with the Federal Police. And all of you my wonderful friends who have supported me throughout everything.



Ann and Leandro with my visa extention
Originally uploaded by sojochick1.

Here´s a picture of me and Leandro in Sorocaba with my visa. :) :) :) YAY! Please excuse the mess of my hair. I forgot to use product today. :)

Brasília-- the volleyball game

One of our number of happy travelers realized a few weeks back that we were going to be in Brasília during a game of the world men´s volleyball championship-- Brasil vs. Finlandía. So he arranged for/insisted that we all go watch.

Now I´m just a little Texan girl, so I didn´t even really know there was such a thing as men´s volleyball. But apparently it is HUGE in Brazil.

So we went and got our tickets Friday after arriving in Brasilía, and as we were walking back to the center of the city my sharp friend Marúsia noticed that there was a bus parked in front of a hotel that had a sign saying "World League Volleyball-- Delegação do Brasil (delegation from Brazil)". There were some official looking people standing there so we went over to check it out. Turns out that was the hotel where they were staying, and although they weren´t there then, they would be there at 5pm (this was about noon). We hung out there for a little while talking with the security and bus drivers, and as we did guess who arrived at the hotel! The national team of Finland!!! So we all cheered for them as they arrived.


Yay Finland!
Originally uploaded by sojochick1.

The Finnish team arriving


Má, Ann, Security with bus
Originally uploaded by sojochick1.

Marúsia, Ann, and the security in front of the Brazil bus


So we ended up returning to the hotel at 5pm to welcome the team. Security asked us to be pretty cool about the whole deal, but it was pretty exciting! Here is some video of them arriving and my friends rushing for pictures. It ends abruptly because I was taking pictures with other peoples´ cameras.



In case you don´t feel like watching the video (I won´t take offense), here are a few pictures. They´re not very good because they´re actually taken out of the video I shot.


Dude and Guto
Originally uploaded by sojochick1.

Má, Aníbal, Dude, Jandira
Originally uploaded by sojochick1.

?, Jandira, Dude, Ivan
Originally uploaded by sojochick1.

Then Saturday was the actual game. It was SO FUN! I have never been to a Brazilian sporting event before, and to be at one for a national team was awesome! They had an MC who kept the crowd cheering and dancing through the whole game. And we won! Here are some of my favorite pictures. More are in my webshots album.

Volleyball game
Originally uploaded by sojochick1.

My peeps!
Originally uploaded by sojochick1.

My friends at the game

Being suffocated by the flag
Originally uploaded by sojochick1.

This might require some explanation. I don´t know if you can really see it, but they unfurled a huge Brazilian flag thing that I happened to be sitting on the edge of. It was my duty as a spectator and fan to get under the flag and wave it. You can see here that I almost fell down. :) It was so funny!

This is a video of the crowd singing the national antem.

All in all, it was a blast and I´m so happy I got to go. And by the way, Brasil won!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, I also want to mention that on our flight back to São Paulo, 2 of the volleyball players were on the plane with us! We stopped one and got our picture with him, at which point one of our friends told him that we were there at the hotel the other day and saw them, and at the game. Yeah, he probably thinks we´re stalkers by now. :) Ha! What a blast!

Crazy People Running

I have gotten techno savvy enough to add video to my blog, I hope.

Maybe no one else will find this funny, but last night as I watched it (over and over) I was laughing HYSTERICALLY.

So let me tell you exactly what it is. My friends and I were on foot for most of the day we toured Brasília, which made for some fun crossing the street moments. This was the funniest. There were 7 of us trying to cross 6 lanes of one of the busiest streets in down town Brasília. We made several attempts but only got across a lane or two before screaming and running back to the side we started on.

One one trip I thought we were clear so we all started running and everyone elese turned around halfway except me, the American who kept running for her life. My friends were screaming at me (I think gringos crossing streets here make them nervous-- for good reason if you know Brazilian traffic!), but I made it just fine. :) So I was in perfect position to record their run across the street.

The reason this is so darn funny to me is that there´s something different to laugh at every time. Whether you watch a different person running each time, or you notice that in the beginning they´re running for their lives, but with each of them there´s a moment where they realize I´m recording them and they start laughing, or whatever, it is freaking hilarious to me and I cried laughing last night watching it. :)

I don´t think this is super high quality (youtube is free, so what can we expect), but I hope you can see enough to think it´s funny.

By the way, it´s only 5 seconds so I think even dialup people won´t have a lot of trouble downloading it.

Brasília-- Traveling-- Part 1

I just flew in from Brasília and, and boy... are my arms tired! :) Oh yes, I just felt like I had to open with that.

But most of that is true. I did just get in from Brasília and I am TIRED. A good tired though. :) It´s been a crazy 4 days and I have lots to tell you about! I have decided to tell about this trip in installments because one blog would be way overpowering. So today I will start with just the travel aspect of the trip.

As I mentioned before, I flew there with 3 of my good friends -- Ivan, and Aníbal and Jandira (you can call them Janibal... they´re engaged ;) ). These folks are great, I adore them and I am so glad we got to experience this together! Before I tell some of these stories, let me reinforce that I LOVE these guys and any difference of opinions we have had are within the confines of good friendship. :)

I think I also mentioned that I was the only one who´d flown before, so that made me the resident expert. I think most of the world knows about "Latin American time." This just means that Latin American cultures tend to view time in a more... relaxed fashion than us North Americans. :) So I had tried to mentally prepare myself for this as we embarked on our journey.

Getting to the airport on Thursday went quite smoothly, really! I was pleasantly shocked. Yes we left late, but only about 15 minutes and here that qualifies as early I think. :) So we made it there with plenty of time. Here are some pictures from the flight Thursday:

Aníbal and Jandira
Originally uploaded by sojochick1.

Aníbal and Jandira

Ivan and Ann
Originally uploaded by sojochick1.

Ivan and Ann

Sunset from the plane
Originally uploaded by sojochick1.

Sunset from the plane

So Thursday was I believe truly the ideal Brazilian traveling situation.

Then there was today on the return trip.... side note-- let me remind you again that I truly love all the people mentioned here with all of my heart. :)

There were 11 Ituanos (people from Itu) who went to this wedding in Brasília. 4 of us flew and the rest with by car. So the car folks left early this morning to start driving back, leaving us flyers to find a ride to the airport. Luckily, God blessed us richly by putting one of the most wonderful families in our lives in Brasília. Their names are Enidilson, Luana, and their son Enrique, and they are PRECIOUS. Enidilson offered to give us a ride to the airport today. Yay!

So... keeping in mind "Brazil time," I had suggested we leave the house at 1pm to arrive at the airport at 1:30 for our 3:15 flight. Yes, it´s more time than necessary, but I knew there was no way we´d actually leave at 1. Jandira and Aníbal definitely work on Brazil time, and I knew this, but lucklily Ivan is punctually minded, so I told him my thoughts on the issue and he agreed and I thought we were cool.

I knew we were going to have problems first when Enidilson and family invited us for lunch. There are no quick lunches here. :) So at 10 minutes til 1 when we sat down to eat, I was pretty nervous. Then at 1:30 when we finally got in the car I started feeling better. But then as we started to pull out and Luana and Enrique had to go change clothes I had another knot in my stomach. Then as we pulled out at 1:45 and the bride and groom from Saturday pulled up I got 5 more knots in my stomach. But by miracle of God we only said bye and flew off to the airport.

Then as we were going (which, by the way, there were 6 adults and 1 child riding in a car meant for 4 adults), Enidilson kept slowing down to show us things, in particular anything that had anything to do with America. At this point I can see Ivan going into nuclear meltdown and all I can do is laugh.

So we finally arrive at the airport at about 2:15 and sweet Enidilson parks about as far away from the terminal as possible, so Ivan and I grab our bags and start hauling butt across the parking lot. We reach the ticket counter at about 2:30 I guess, and of course there´s a big line. So we jump in line then the rest of the gang catches up to us, and they want us to leave the line and go look at the airplanes from the observation deck. In a pretty big afront to Brazilian culture, I was like, "I´m sorry, but we absolutely can´t. We have to check in!!!"

I know that I was being reeeeeally American today in my treatment of our departure, but I felt it was my duty. Enidilson was giving me and Ivan a hard time about being anal about our rush, but oh well. After we checked in they insisted we go see the planes, so we did. And after about 1 minute Ivan was like, "We´ve got to go NOW." So we said hurried goodbyes and again, Ivan and I sprinted to security. At this point it was about 20 minutes til our flight left. But by the grace of God, we made it in time.

I have never cut it that close for a flight and hope I never do again! It´s just that I believe in the theory of better safe than sorry and better to walk through the airport than sprint through it.

Since I´ve been here a couple of my friends have mentioned that they don´t appreciate it when foreigners talk about Brazilian time and how it´s not true and such. And I will readily grant that it´s not true for all Brazilians. But a lot of the time, it is a very real thing, and a very hard thing to adjust to if you´re not used to that.

But as they say, all´s well that end´s well! And remember folks, this is just the beginning of a FUN trip!

I´ve already put all of my pictures on my webshots page, which is in the link column on the right there. I will be adding more as I get more pictures from my friends too.

Brasília Bound!

As I mentioned yesterday, this is looking to be a big week! On Thursday I am going with these people:



Aníbal, Jandira, me, Ivan...

to Brasília (the capitol of Brazil)!

This is very cool in several ways. First of all, we're going for the wedding of a young man from Itu named Luis. I met Luis when I was here two years ago, and he is so sweet and precious. So I'm excited about going to my first Brazilian wedding!

Secondly, my dear friends Bob and Donna Carpenter (and their lovely filhas) lived and worked in Brasília for 10 years as missionaries, so I am happy to get to see where they were for so long.

Brasília is an interesting city because it was created 50 years ago with the purpose of making it a modern city and the country's capitol. So it's very planned out and modern. And as I look up information about the city it looks like it has some interesting things to see. AND there is a lot of talk about us going to see a volleyball game of Brazil's national team, which would be very cool. And did I mention of the 4 of us going together, I am the only one who has flown? :) This will be fun!!!!!!

I am so so thankful to be going with these guys because they are some of the coolest, sweetest, and funniest people I know, and I'm sure we're going to have a lot of fun, laugh a lot, and make some good memories during this little adventure. :) So next week you can keep your eyes open for hopefully some good pictures and good stories.

Benefit of the Doubt

Last week I dealt with a nasty cold, so I was pretty much housebound for 4 days. I´m pretty well back to 100% now, just shaking off the last hangings on of a cough.

That said, last week I had ample time to blog surf. During my surfing, I ran across a blog... I honestly don´t remember which one or where now, but the topic has stayed with me. The post was about practicing the "benefit of the doubt" ideology in relationships. I think that´s pretty self explanatory, but in case it´s not, it simply states that when you feel wronged, instead of jumping to conclusions ("it´s a JUMP to conclusions mat..." haha, gold star for the reference), you start with the assumption that no malice was intended. Of course upon further inspection and questioning of the person you may come to find that indeed malice was intended, but it is dangerous to start from that perspective.

I think this is especially important when dealing with cross-cultural relationships. At times when I´m with my friends here they will do something or say something and I think to myself, "What the heck is wrong with you?" Haha... I´m sure I´ve inspired the same thoughts in many people here. :) But I have been trying very hard, upon feeling wronged, to step back from the situation and my emotions and give my friends-- who have demonstrated time and again how much they love me-- the benefit of the doubt. Those momentary flashes of anger that happen to us all when we feel violated are just those-- momentary flashes, and need to be treated as such. That´s why it´s so important not to act out of those feelings of frustration and hurt.

Yes, benefit of the doubt. Good plan indeed. A demonstration of grace, I think.

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This is Jonathan, Guto, Paul, and Ivan. Friday night I had the distinct privledge of hanging out with them all night and into the wee hours of the morning. I got to sit in on a very intersting conversation between these guys about the church in Brazil, where they feel it´s going and where they would like it to go. It was a real honor because I know these guys are the future leaders of the church in Brazil, and it gave me great joy and hope to hear their thoughts. But before we got to all that deep, touching stuff I did sit through my share of fart jokes and other bodily functions. Let me just say for the record that I´m pretty sure boys are boys no matter where in the world they are. :)

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Has anyone else in the world ever secretly wondered if their email was broken because you never seem to get stuff? Yeah...

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More to say, this is actually going to be quite a big week for me! But I´ll save it for another blog. I pride myself on my prolificness (is that a word?), don´t ya know... ;)

Wayfaring stranger...

Last night I got to chat online with an old, dear friend of mine who asked me when I was going to stop fraternizing with Brazilians and come home.

Our short conversation gave me a pang of actually thinking about going "home" and what that would mean. The primary question for that would be, "well, where exactly is home?" I was born in Arkansas, although I never actually lived there beyond a couple of years old. I grew up in Stephenville, but haven´t lived there in 8 years, so that´s not really home to me anymore. My family is in Texarkana, but I only lived there for a couple of years. Went to school in Oklahoma and loved it, but many of the friends that made that place home for me are now scattered across the world. Clearly Japan´s not home, and although I love it, Brazil is not home either (yet).

So where is home? Home is where the heart is, right? Problem is my little heart is scattered all across the world.

But I hold onto the idea that when I am with my loved ones, I am home, no matter where that might be. This week I have been hit with the idea on several fronts that nothing in this world is perfect, but all points to perfection in God and makes us long for Home with Him. (With thanks here to Jonathan Reding´s Sunday school class and the book Longing for a Homeland by Lynn Anderson). No matter where I end up in this world, and because I define home as being with my loved ones, I realize I´ll never find a complete, perfect home on this earth. All I can do is try to make home in this world by building relationships with those I am with and continuing to love those whom God has placed in my path thusfar.

I haven´t been a great emailer since I´ve been here, but I do want to say to all my friends across the world who I am separated from by miles that I love you, and I do miss you. I am having a great time here, I have no regrets about being here, and although my separation from you hurts, it is also serving to bring me closer to God through a deeper longing for His final kingdom.

Don´cha!

I forgot to tell one more funny story that happened during the choral performance on Saturday night. After we sang I went and sat with some of my friends near the back, and a brass ensemble was performing. Inbetween their songs, suddenly this other music filled the church... no, not exactly the heavenly choirs, but the Pussycat Dolls singing "Don´t Ya." I don´t suggest to the blog readership that you go out and listen to this song-- it is the epitome of skank trash-- but if you know the song you can understand why my friends and I died laughing. What was funnier was that it went on for about half the song as the car was apparently parked outside the church, and the brass ensemble just waited for it to finish before starting their next song. I´d have to say that of all the performances that night, that was definitely my favorite. :) Thank goodness most of the people there don´t really understand what that song is saying... there would have been lots of Hail Marys said if they had, I think.

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In other news, I have been putting a lot of new pictures on my webshots photo album. You can find the link in the column on your right. :)

Festival de Artes

As I think I mentioned on the blog, the last two weeks have been a festival of arts here in Itu. I took part in a community choir and had a blast! We had a few performances last weekend and I get to show you some pictures now.

On Saturday night we performed in probably the most beautiful church in Itu (Catholic, of course, because we know that Churches of Christ aren´t exactly world renowned for their aesthetic beauty). We sang several fun songs, two in Latin... I don´t know the technical word for them, but they´re churchy, and two traditional Brazilian songs, and one South African song.



This is us singing Dona Nobis, one of the Latin songs.

This is us dancing to the South African song, called "Tambores de Minas." KO KOM BA!
Please note the colored blouse mentioned in an earlier post. :) Yay for not looking like a street walker in the church!

Sunday night we sang with an orchestra, and it was SO AMAZING. I loved it! We sang Va Penseiro, part of an Italian opera, and the Hallelujah chorus in Portuguese, which here is the Alelulia chorus. :) I have no pictures of that performance, though. :( Maybe I´ll procure one sometime. We dressed all in black and let me tell you, we were hot.

Here´s a picture of me and my friends Leandro and Ivan.

Also, on a personal note of saudades, yesterday I said "tchau for now" to my beloved friend Pamela, aka the Canadian. She is precious to me and was a lifesaver and will be sorely missed, but I´m sure our paths will cross again. LOVE YOU SWEETIE!

I´m Lovin´ It...

Awwwwwwh........ :) :) :) A picture´s worth a thousand words, huh?

Trying to Shop

I love it here. I am having a great time and a lot of fun and learning a lot every day. I think you´ve gotten that impression via the blog. But because this blog practices honesty in writing, you should also know that it´s not always easy and that there are almost daily cultural things that frustrate me. Here´s one example.

For the choral concerts this weekend our uniform will be black pants/skirt and a colorful top. A solid colorful top. Problem is I didn´t bring one of those with me! So I had to go shopping this morning.

On the one hand, shopping isn´t too bad here because things are generally really cheap. And it´s not impossible to find my size without going to a store for the morbidly obsese (cough cough, Japan, cough cough).

On the other hand... Brazilian women don´t wear clothes like American women. I have to buy clothes two sizes too big just so they fit the way I want them to. I know this is a generalization, but women here usually wear clothes really tight and really revealing. And after a few experiences shopping here, I can understand why.

Because that type of clothing is pretty much the only type available to buy! I went to about 5 stores today trying to find a simple blouse that wouldn´t make me look like a prostitute (pretty much all of them were super low cut or super tight fitting or designed to accent certain parts of a woman´s anatomy) and wouldn´t cost a fortune.

Isn´t that a great irony? Only the wealthy can afford to dress non-suggestively? To a degree this is true in the states, too. If you are a young woman who has tried to shop in the juniors´ sections you know it´s a nightmare.

I´ll admit that I was pretty tempted to just buy one of the plentiful suggestive blouses and blame any inflamed lusts on overstimulated males. But the higher sense of good won out, and I finally found a really nice blouse for not a fortune.

That was just today´s experience. Lord have mercy, I still laugh when I think about the first time I tried on a pair of jeans here. I found a really cute pair of pink jeans that I thought looked like they´d work, but when I tried them on I was mortified at the thought of going into public with half of my butt hanging out of the back of my pants. They fit, but Lord, they didn´t fit. At that point I pretty well decided that Brazilian women are anatomically different than American women. I guess we have all the same parts, but they´re definitely arranged differently. :)

So there you go. Shopping in Brazil.

Bus Spirituality

So as I was fuming this morning, waiting entirely too long for my bus, I started thinking about how public transportation buses are a nice metaphor for life or spirituality or something. Bear with me, I´m still working this out.

First there is the waiting. Sometimes in life you have to wait. And (at least in Brazil), you never really know how long you´re going to wait. But you wait, because you have no choice. If you don´t wait, you´ll never go anywhere.

Related to this waiting is that you´ve got to know what you´re waiting for. Buses will come and go, and they´re all going somewhere. But you´ve got to know the one you need to get where you´re going.

So you get on the bus, and maybe you´re in a hurry to get where you´re going. But the bus reminds you that you´re not the only person in the world, because there are other folks who want to get on and off the bus to get where they´re going, too. So you´ve got to learn to work with others through the process. You´re not the only one going somewhere.

What other metaphors can I draw... There are only X number of seats on a bus, and sometimes other people who get on the bus need them more than you do. Sometimes you´ve got to sacrifice your privledge in an act of mercy to others.

On the bus you have to trust the driver. Period. Even though that´s scary at times.

Mistakes on the bus aren´t the end of the world. They´re annoying and inconvienent, but recoverable. (see earlier post about being lost on the bus)

I don´t really know what I can say about getting off the bus. Seems like it´s kind of morbid. Hmm...

Well that´s all. Clearly I spend way too much time waiting on the bus, on the bus, and thinking about buses. :)

On Respecting Each Other´s Insanities and Hobby #2

Last night I guess I started my second hobby of the week after the baking thing. Side note-- I tried to make brownies this morning but something went horribly wrong. Oh well! Anyhoo, this week and next week is an arts festival in Itu, and part of that has been having this superstar singer come in and give vocal technique classes and another singer teaching a choral that will perform at the end of the festival. Since some of my good friends are singing people, they invited me to go along.

I was scared to death as I went, because a) I don´t sing that well, b) I don´t speak Portuguese that well and c) these folks are serious singers. Oh, and did I mention we were walking in a half hour late? So... I was scared.

It went fine. It was actually really really fun, although it´s scary to have a world class singer standing in front of you while you sing scales. It was really good and I think I could learn a lot, but I´m not sure that I want to go back to the vocal technique class because learning the technical aspects of singing is hard enough, but when you don´t understand a lot of what you´re hearing, then it´s even harder. So we´ll see

But the REAL fun was with the choral class. I get to sing alto, praise the Lord, and I´m kind of a novelty because I can actually read music, so even though I don´t know the songs, I can sing along. It´s nice. Plus I get to meet cool new people. So that´s going to take up my nights for the next week and my extra time as I try to memorize these songs in Portuguese, Italian and Latin.

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Since being involved in the church choral and now these classes, some of my friends have said things to the effect of that they like singing, but they don´t like it when people are crazy about it-- you know, perfectionists and such. Point taken. I have felt like that at times (cough cough, campaign 2004, cough cough).

But I would like to suggest that we´re all crazy about something. I dare say that even the most laid back people have one thing that they really care is done well. I have friends who love to sing and sing well. I respect their "insanity" on this issue because it´s their passion, and if I´m involving myself with them in this issue then I´m not going to say a word. I would identify my own insanities as probably political correctness and proper grammar. It´s my deal, yo. I know you´re crazy, too. It´s just a matter of admitting it and figuring out what your own insanity is. :)

Pode casar!

I baked pretty often in college. I liked to bake and take things to my friends-- my specialites being chocolate chip cookies and brownies. Yum!

Anyhoo, in Japan I had no oven, and most of my time after Japan in America I was in no shape to cook, so I haven´t really baked in a long time. Until yesterday!

I hung out with my friend Pamela and she made some banana bread (hence the previous post). That inspired me! So yesterday I made a couple of batches of my own version of banana bread. Although I am allergic to bananas, I am able to eat cooked banana (thanks for that tip, Traci!). I don´t think my version tasted very banana-bready, because it had a lot of cinnamon and chocolate, too. But the people seem to like it!

When someone... I guess especially a girl... can cook well, they say "pode casar", which means roughly "now you can get married." Two people said that after they tasted it, so we´ll see. :) Haha...

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Also, please be praying for my friend Stephen and his family. His grandfather passed away last week, and this week it was discovered that his dad has a life threatening bacterial infection.

Overheard

Sometimes we all hear strange things. Especially when you´re in a different country. I just had to share two moments I had on Monday that totally cracked me up. Maybe they´ll give you a chuckle, too.

Scene 1-- trying to explain banana bread to my friend

Ann-- It´s banana bread. It´s like a cake.
Confused friend-- Is it like a pie?
Ann-- No, it´s like a cake.
CF-- Is it like... a pudding?
Ann-- No, it´s like a cake.
CF-- Is it like... a mousse?
Ann-- No, it´s like a cake.

At this point we both cracked up because we were clearly missing each other. Please realize that he speaks English well and there are definite differences in all these things. And he was seriously confused, I think! Oh Lord. :)

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Scene 2-- This is a solitary quote that my Brazilian friend said to my Canadian friend who he is going to visit in Canada this Christmas. They had been making a list of things he wants to do while there.

Funny funny friend-- Oh! While we´re in Canada can we go milk the penguins?????

Holy freaking cow. I laughed for HOURS at this as the scene from "Meet the Parents" flashed through my head and I envisioned Ben Stiller imitating the milking motion of a cat. "You can milk anything with nipples..." Holy mackrel. DIED laughing. For the record, he knows full well there aren´t penguins in Canada, and they can´t be milked. :)

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Attempt at posting at least one more picture!

This is funny because I don´t even know how to describe it. My second day in Brazil I went to the street fair in Campinas and this ugly guy was doing some kind of modern art type presentation, I guess. At first I thought he was a statue, but then he moved. Turns out it was an old guy covered in mud. If you left him a tip he would give you a Bible verse, so my friend Otavio (at the left) did that. Then the ugly man saw me and beckoned me to him and indicated he wanted a picture with me. I look nervous here because I didn´t want to get muddy-- he was dripping!

MERCIFUL DESTROYERS! This is my small group from camp. We named ourselves the Merciful Destroyers because the theme of our camp was Mercy. We were also known as the "old people group" because we were the old people group. :) It was great and I love them all dearly.

Well folks, blogger´s only allowing two pictures today! Thanks for tuning in! :)

Cidade Nova part II

...So as I look out the window and see the city of Itu behind us, I think to myself, "myself, you are in a situation now, aren´t you?" Then I started laughing. The problem was that I wasn´t going to get off the bus at that point because the bus stops were in the middle of nowhere! Only grassy fields to be seen! Don´t ask me where the people who got off at those stops went, because I have no idea.

So, I´m thinking that I´m probably headed to the next town and praying that we´ll stop at a bus station. 45 minutes later we do and I jump off the bus and look for a phone. I called my friend Marúsia and our conversation went something like this:
Lost Gringa- Hey! Where are you?
Má- I´m at XYZ, where are you?
LG-- I DON´T KNOW! I got on the wrong bus and went to a different town!!!!!
Má-- What?!?! What bus did you get on???
LG-- 47.
Má-- Just get back on bus 47 and come back to Itu.

So that´s what I did. Turns out I went past a little town thing called "Cidade Nova," which is quite ironic since it literally means "New City." I got back on the bus for another hour and ended up downtown, then RAN to the church building and got there at 5:45pm. And it was deserted. I was so sad. So I sat on the doorstep to the church and pouted. But then I called my friends and they came and rescued me and we all got a good laugh out of the whole thing. :) Ya live, you learn, hey? A lot of living in a new culture is not so much learning what to do, but learning what not to do. :)

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MORE PICTURES!

This is one of my favorite pictures-- all people I adore! Marúsia, Leandro, Ivan, me, and Guto at the movies. Leandro is so precious; he and Marúsia met at university and he´s been really involved in all of our church activities since. He starts a Bible study tonight with Marúsia so please be praying for him!

Well, I wanted to post more pictures but Blogger is being buttheaded. Story of my life, huh?!

Beijos pra todos!

Cidade Nova part I

Yay for more pictures! Today I´d like to thank Pamela, the local Canadian, for her contribution to my picture pool. :)

This is Thiago, one of my favorite people here. I say that about a lot of people, but he really is. :) And he´s a blog reader! Oi Thiago!!!! Saudades. :)

Miriam, me, Marúsia, Bruninha and Ivan at camp. What a good lookin´group. Owww.....

This is Pamela, who I love dearly, because she understands me and helps preserve my sanity on a weekly basis.

As you´ll notice in the photos, my hair continues to grow into an Afro-like state. I don´t know what to do with this mane anymore! Thank God for mousse!

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Yesterday I had an adventure. In my family, at least, when we say "adventure" we mean "I got lost."

It started rather innocently. I was going from my house to the church building yesterday afternoon for choral practice, which requires a bus. I´ve gone by bus to church plenty of times, so it shouldn´t have been any kind of problem. But all the sudden when I got there I could not remember which number bus went to church-- 6 or 8. Well an 8 came and went with me being indicisive and time was drawing near for practice to start, so I thought I´d just get on the next bus that I thought would go in that direction. Try to understand here that the bus is pretty close to downtown, so any bus going downtown would have been okay for me to take.

So the next bus I see is number 47, and it´s little descripter says it´s going to "Terminal." I always just assumed that "Terminal" was the same as the rodovidaria, or bus station. That makes sense, doesn´t it? Well the bus station´s downtown so I got on that bus.

It seemed like I´d made a good decision, because we started heading downtown, but suddenly I realized I had a problem when the bus veered and the next thing I know we´re leaving Itu...

~to be continued~

Good or bad?

Time for another good idea, bad idea:

First up:

A cocktail made with fresh pineapple juice, wine, and condensed milk.

I think it´s either going to be really good or really bad. What do you think?

Second:

Apparently US passports are going high tech.

Good idea or bad idea?

Pictures from Camp

To further prove that I went to camp and had fun, I have for you some pictures! None of these are actually pictures I took, so many thanks to Vitinho for sharing his. :)

This is me (sporting the OC shirt, sunglasses and do-rag) and my boss/adopted sister/dear friend Marúsia (on the left in lime) competing in one of those three-legged races. I´m not sure who I am trying not to get killed by, but just so you know, I was running backwards at this time.

This is me choreographing during one of our many, multi-hour choreography parties we had at camp. Yeah. :)

This is Reid, Soraya, and me. Reid was great because he was another gringo willing to butcher Portuguese to try to communicate with folks, like me! Soraya is 1000 times cool, and one of many reasons for that is because she can sing the entire soundtrack to "The Sound of Music" (which she, Pamela, and I did the first night of camp-- we´ll be starting our worldwide tour this fall-- haha!)

I love this picture because I think it captures a glimpse of how much fun my small group had. We had the best group ever! YAY MERCIFUL DESTROYERS!!!!!!!!! What a name, huh? ;) This is me, Jefferson, Fernando, and Jandira.

(group picture will go here when Blogger decides to behave)

This is the obligatory group picture. Lots of fun. Many thanks to everyone who poured blood, sweat, and tears into it.

There ya have it! As I procure more pictures from other sources I will probably add more later.

In Other Weirdness...

So today as I attempted to type in my blog address I ended up at a strange place. Apparently I typed http://sojochick.blogpsot.com/, and if you click the link you´ll see where it goes. I tried to read it and find out if I know who this person is, but I couldn´t figure it out. So if that person reads this blog, I would like to ask you to please leave me a comment and explain why you are trying to snare people from my blog. Thank you.

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FRANCE!?!?! Seriously!?!?!? Last Saturday was a sad day, because as some of you know my beloved Brasil´s hopes at a 6 time Copa championship were dashed by France. FRANCE?!?!?! Yeah... it was pathetic. I don´t know what team was playing against France, but I know Brazil didn´t show up. Oh well. Misty asked if Brazilians were as dispondent as the media is claiming. I doubt it, although I am sure some folks were crying into their Guaranas on Saturday. I was sitting next to a friend of mine from church, and I saw him quietly wiping away tears when the timer ran out. It wasn´t that he was dying over it, but it´s a big disappointment. I can relate with how I felt when my beloved Elliott was eliminated from American Idol. It´s just disappointment. But we´re moving on. Ready for 2010 in South Africa! :) Oh yeah, by the way, the finalists in the Cup are France and Italy. Uh, yeah, we´re cheering for Italy. My friends and I have voted them the "hottest" team in the Cup. :)

Church Camp

Sorry I´ve been blog and email absent for a while, but I have been at church camp for the past week. Ben Thompson, if you´re reading this I can hear you laughing. Yes, people, I went to church camp. I went to church camp 2 years in high school, and let´s just say I was underwhelmed by the whole thing, and my general opinion of church camp has not been terribly favorable over the years (anybody up for a re-baptism?! haha...).

Anyway, I could say a lot about camp and perhaps I will over the next few days, but let me summarize it for you. Highland Church in Abilene (home of the blog-famous Mike Cope) sends a group of about 50+ Americans down here to run a camp for Americans and Brazilians (and a Canadian, haha). It´s completely bi-lingual. I was a little wary before camp began due to the aforementioned opinions on church camps, but this was really a great experience.

Just one thing I want to talk about now, because I have LOTS to do today. There was a praise band at camp that played every night, and they played two songs that I already loved but meant something so special to me this time. The first was "Blessed be your Name". This has been an anthem of sorts for me over the past couple of years, but seeing as how the past couple of years have been kind of crappy, I always focused on the parts about blessing the Lord when times are hard. But this week I was able to praise the name of the Lord "when the sun is shining down on me, and the world´s all as it should be." The second song was "This is How We Overcome", and I could say with all my heart that God has "turned my mourning into dancing, and turned my sorrow into joy." To sing that song with my beloved friends, at a beautiful camp, in the country I love, with a healthy body was truly a moment where I felt the Grace of God.

I´ll write more about camp later. There are some funny stories to tell, and you American CoC people are going to get a kick out of some of the things we did. Hahaha... ;)

The Wheels of the Bus

Today in an effort to broaden our culture horizons and compare the cultures with which I have had the most experience, I will talk about public bus system.

Both Brazilians and Japanese rely on the bus system much more than we do in America. That´s an understatement. But for my daily life in both countries I have become a patron of the bus system. Generally I really like this, because I don´t like driving, and I really don´t have a desire to drive in either country (Japan because it´s backwards, Brazil because it´s kind of crazy).

In Japan, the bus stops are clearly marked and there are schedules telling you the exact minute that your bus will arrive. In Brazil you´ve got to have an inside source to help you figure out where the stops are and as for schedules... well you just stand and wait. :) My experience with buses in Itu has been much better than it was in Campinas. We could wait like, 45 minutes there for a bus whereas here the most has been about 15 minutes.

In Japan the bus is freaking expensive. For me to go to my school each was about $5. And they charge by the number of stops you stay on the bus. In Brazil it´s about $.80 and you can stay on as long as you want.

One superficial, random fact is that in Brazil you board the front of the bus and exit out the back, and in Japan you board the back and exit out of the front.

That´s all I can think of now. Yay for public transportation!

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In strange news, why is the top CNN and MSN headline that Bush and Koizumi are going to Graceland together? Am I in bizarro world?

More pictures

Well here we go with part 2 of the picture post, if Blogger will cooperate today.

This is a picture of the church choir. I love it! We performed Saturday and Sunday at the inaguration of a new church plant from the Itu church in the neighboring town of Salto. Our fearless leader is in black on the left.

Since it´s my blog and my pictures, here´s another photo of the soprano section.

Speaking of work in Salto, this is the minister, Joncilei, his wife Karina (I think), and their son Joab with the LST team from San Angelo-- Josh, Kristen, Cindy, and Jared. They were fun and we all enjoyed them!

Then on Sunday I was honored to see the ceremony of Antenor Gonçalves being made an elder at the church here. To know Antenor (or any of the Gonçalveses) is to love them. Antenor is second to the right. The other three men ar the current elders.

This is my precious friend, Jandira. She is a lifesaver. Last week I was stressed out, so she kidnapped me away to the farm thing where her mom lives. This is us in front of a waterfall you can´t really see.

Maybe I´m the only one greatly amused by this church, but I am. Translation: Second Baptist Church.

Finally!

Finally, my people, I am able to bring you what I have been promising for weeks. Pictures! So without further ado, here are some of the faces I´ve been seeing a lot lately. Haha... :)

This is Jonathan, who for the record is not my husband-- haha. :) It was lots of fun to have him here for the first week I was here! Saudades, querido!

This is Yesky, the English school I work at that my friends own. Yay for orange and green! :)

This is just a pretty picture of me at a place called Monte Sião.

It´s Copa time! These are three sweet guys-- Rafael, Guto, and Jonathan-- at the first game.

My cool peeps in São João da Boa Vista-- Elaine, Oseias, and Thiago.

I have more pictures to post, which I will soon. But Blogger is being onery. Blah! Love you all lots!

Your Side of the World

The other day I was listening to my Steven Curtis Chapman, "All About Love" CD (which is fabulous by the way), and suddenly this song started. It´s about cross-gender communication, but this time I heard it in a different way-- in the context of cross-cultural communication. So today I dedicate this song to my beloved Brazilians who I am trying so hard to understand. :) Maybe some of you folks can relate.

Your Side of the World by SCC

So here we are we're standing face to face
And yet we seem to be a million miles apart
This world can feel like such a lonely place
It all depends on what you see from where you are
So please, please tell me what you can
'Cause I want to understand

How does it look from your side?
How does it look from where you are?
How does it look from your side,
From your side of the world?

So tell me the color of your sky above
Paint me a picture of the things that make you smile
Show me your fears and what you're dreaming of
Take me to where my heart can see across the miles
And please, please tell me what you can
'Cause I want to understand

How does it look from your side?
How does it look from where you are?
How does it look from your side
From your side of the world?

Don't be surprised to find I'm not too far away
'Cause what we are both in search of is one and the same
So please, please tell me what you see
'Cause I really want to be the one who understands

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By the way, unless you´re living under a rock or in America, you know it´s world cup time! Yesterday was interesting because it was the Brazil vs. Japan game. Everyone picked on me, asking who I was rooting for. :) I liked it because I could cheer for everyone! And, as I think everyone kind of expected, Brazil whooped Japan soundly, 4-1. Brazil´s in the playoffs! Hexa!!!

I Heart Food

I think I´ve mentioned in every email I´ve written to people that I am eating very very well here. And it is true, people! I keep saying that I have yet to have a bad meal here or even a mediocre one. I LOVE BRAZILIAN FOOD. You know those verses in the Bible where it talks about receiving back 10 times as much that you give up for Christ? It´s as though with every meal I have here, God is saying, "I´m so sorry for all that crappy food you ate in Japan." (except the cooking of my amazingly talented friends there!) :)

Some of you may be wondering what exactly Brazilian food is. Well, the basic staples are beans and rice. That may sound boring, but it is seasoned to perfection with onion and garlic. Beans and rice are usually eaten at least once a day with a meal. I love it. Also, of course, Brazilians eat a wide variety of fresh fruit, especially apples, tangerines, bananas, mango, papaya, pinepple and passion fruit. They also often drink fresh juices from these fruits. Grilled chicken and beef are also served a lot.

Some Brazilian foods you may not know about (but will wish you did) are things like churros (maybe these are available at some places in the states, I don´t know), brigadeiros, and pasteis. Churros are possibly the most sinfully delicious food in the world. It´s a pastery about the size and shape of a paper towel roll, fried like a donut, rolled in cinnamon and sugar, and then filled with a cream called "doce de leite". Doce de leite (literally sweetness of milk) is a lot like caramel, only smoother and creamier I think. Yes, this is a sinful dessert. I can only handle maybe one a week. Then there is the brigadeiro, which is also a marvelous Brazilian invention. It´s like a little chocolate-caramel ball that is rolled in chocolate sprinkles. Yuuuuummy. Finally is the pastel (plural is pasteis), which is hard to describe in a way that makes it sound as good as it is. It´s like a fried pie with meat and cheese and onions and good things like that. Very yummy. And cheap. I love how cheap stuff is here.

And on top of all these wonderful things, everyday I have the joy and pleasure of eating lunch at the house of my boss/friend/brother in Christ, Jorge. Jorge´s mom, Isabel, is an amazing cook. She makes everything from scratch and it is so amazing. Even foods I normally despise are amazing. For example, the other week she made spinach. Gross, right? Well it was amazing. Yesterday we had cauliflour (I have no idea hwo to spell that, and spell check disappeared from my blogger thing). I normally hate it. But it was so delicious I had a second helping. Then today we had kale. I think it´s called kale, at least. I don´t know the English name for it, because typically we´re not crazy enough to eat the stuff. It´s kind of like seaweed. And normally I hate it. But as you guessed, today it was delicious. Isabel is precious for many reasons, including her cooking (as well as her bubbly personality and incontrolable urge to pamper anyone who walks in her door).

Ya know what else I have become addicted to? I don´t think we have this exact product in America, but here they have something called a Hersey Cookie and Strawberry bar. I know we have the cookies and cream bar in America, with the little bits of cookie in it, but here it´s a milk chocolate bar and the little cookie bits are flavored with strawberry! Lord have mercy. I love it.

Yes. I love food. It´s a good thing I´m walking so much, because if not I am sure I would be morbidly obsese by the end of August.

I´m sure there will be more food blogs in the future. :)

There´s a Stirring

Sorry I´ve been blog-absent lately. I´ve been busy, and last week when I tried to write a very big blog, the internet ate it. I was not amused. But consider it a hidden blessing, because it was kind of long-winded and a little too detailed to be interesting. I´m trying not to make this a day by day account of my time here, so I am going to try to write on different interesting (I think, at least) topics I encounter here.

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Despite the vows I made after my campaign in 2004, I am in a choir again. The main difference is that this time it seems that most of the people actually don´t want to throw their songbooks at the director or each other, which is nice. Anyhoo, so I´m in this choir. And it´s lots and lots of fun. Our first performance is going to be at the inaguration of a new church plant the Itu church is supporting in the neighboring town of Salto. I´ll write more about this after it happens, because I think it´s so exciting and wonderful, but this really isn´t the subject of this blog.

In case you don´t know, a popular method of procuring religious hymns and praise songs throughout the world is translations from the English versions, much like we English speakers derived many of our older hymns from Latin, German, or Italian. Sometimes the translations go well and sometimes they´re awkward.

My friend who is the choir director had written me a few months ago and mentioned that they were learning the Portuguese version of "There´s a Stirring." I think everyone who knows the song would agree that it´s musically beautiful, but I have always found the words kind of... weird. So I wondered how the Portuguese version would turn out.

Well to my pleasant surprise, it is WONDERFUL! Much better than the English version, (click to see the lyrics) in my opinion. So I present to you the Portuguese version with my translation into English. Please forgive any bad translation for those of you who know-- my translation is awkward and doesn´t do justice to the beauty of the language. I´d love to give credit to the translator, but I don´t know who did it.

Uma voz vem sussurando no profundo do meu ser
A voice comes whispering in the depth of my being
Insistente está chamando, é preciso responder
This calling is insistant, and I need to respond
Deus agita minha alma, tenho que obedecer.
God stirs my soul, I have to obey
Manda, "Venha mim."
It says, "Come to me."
"Vou, Senhor, vou sim!"
"I´m coming Lord, I´m coming!"

Eu me prostro, me prostro
I bow down, bow down
Quero me dedicar a Te glorificar
I want to dedicate myself to glorify you
Vou sempre Te servir e honrar.
I´m always going to serve and honor You.
Uma voz vem sussurando.
A voice comes whispering

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Big thanks to Dan Lovejoy for fixing my silly false quasi-cognate. :)

My Father´s Daughter

Tomorrow´s father´s day, and like many years in recent times I will once again be a continent or so away from my dad. So in honor of the occasion, I will do what any child of the modern age would-- write a blog. Haha!

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I know I´m my father´s daughter when I--

• would swear on all things holy that "green box spaghetti" is simply the best
• actually argue for the validity of the sports of hunting or Nascar
• can truly appreciate a good recliner
• am responsible
• am fairly positive that there´s no way I could be wrong about something. ;)
• check the oil in my car (back when I had one)

Happy father´s day, dad! And all other dads, grandads, and father figures out there!

Nossa Senhora!

Well I finally did it. I read the DaVinci Code. I actually wrote a blog on the DaVinci code about a month ago after my parents´church had a special class on "Decoding the DaVinci Code". I was mostly critiquing the Christian community´s overreaction to this whole phenomenon. But I pulled that blog off a few hours after I wrote it because I thought it was probably not a good idea to speak as an expert on something that I hadn´t even read. So I read it!

This might not make sense if you haven´t read the book or seen the movie, so forgive me if you aren´t in the know.

First of all, Dan Brown wrote a great story. Great as in... entertaining. Very suspenseful and such. Good book candy. But now I can better understand why everyone is in a tizzy over this (although I still don´t think it deserves the hoopla it´s getting). If I were Catholic, I´d be pretty POed about this book. While I´m all for freedom of speech and art and everything (in fact I fall quite heavily on the side of such things), I do believe that this was written with some malice against the Catholic church and Christian tradition in general, whether overt or covert. Anytime you write a "fictional work" about an actual institution or actual people (especially in the world of religion) that paints them in a pretty bad light, you´ve got to expect some anger. It would be like if I wrote a "fictional" book about my beloved alma mater, Oklahoma Christian, and said that it was a lying, murdering, manipulative, oppressive institution seeking to gain only power and glory for itself. I can call it fiction all day long, but people would be rightfully pissed off.

As for the conspiracy theories that the book proposes, I agree that Christian tradition and really the world in general has a rich history of misogyny, and that is an issue that needs to be dealt with. I don´t think it is beyond possibility that there were evil leaders who could have distorted the story of Christ to benefit themselves. I wrote about the book "Captivating" a couple of months ago, and one of the ideas that the book proposes is that the prevalence of oppression of women throughout the history of the world is evidence that there is a greater evil seeking to destroy femininity. I am a firm believer that the traditional Christian idea of God as an exclusively male entity is a destructive lie. At the creation of the world both Adam and Eve were created to embody the fullness of God. Adam alone was not sufficient. So... all that rambling to say that I do think there is some creedance to the idea that Christian history has been destructively oppressive to femininity.

But I also think the DaVinci code takes it way too far into the realm of goddess worship. It´s that darn pendulum I keep referencing. It swung from misogyny to goddess worship! Geez louise people, let´s find the happy medium. :)

I think it´s safe to say that I don´t know if Jesus was married to Mary Magdelene or if he had kids. Perhaps it´s so deeply ingrained in my psyche from years of teaching and assumptions, but I tend to think he probably wasn´t. One of the arguments the book makes is that Jesus would have been an anomoly to be a middle aged, Jewish, umarried man. Maybe I guess, but, Paul wasn´t married. He was kind of a woman hater himself, though. Haha, no hate mail please, that was a joke. :)

The bottom line is that above all, I have faith in God. I have faith in his grace towards me in my ignorance, and his concern for my soul.

Alright, I´ve talked enough about this. In my effort to get Dan Brown more money, I suggest you read it. And I plan on seeing the movie ASAP, too. But my final word on this is that I think Dan Brown and his publishers are marketing geniuses. Get the Christian community in an uproar and you´re guaranteed at least double the publicity and profits. In an effort to cash in on this phenomom, I think I will write a book on the life of Paul called "The He-Man-Woman-Haters Club". Ha! Any other good names for books you can think of?

Thoughts on Learning a Language

Oi do Brasil! Things are still going great. I was hoping to blog a picture post today but I am afraid that isn´t going to be as simple as I hoped, so for now I will talk about a subject that has consumed my life the past week-- language acquisition! I think I am fairly safe in talking on such a nerdy subject because I know my blog readership has experience with these types of things.

Coming to Brazil this time I felt more confident than times before because I have actually been studying Portuguese for the past few months. Thanks to the Spanish classes I´ve taken, Portuguese has never been completely foreign to me (unlike a certain Nihon-go). And since I´ve been reading a lot of Portuguese over the past few months I was feeling a little better about coming and being able to have a slight head start.

But as I´ve discovered (re-discovered) since I´ve been here, learning language via immersion isn´t that easy. My current frustration is that it almost seems like people don´t want me to learn Portuguese. Of course I know that´s not true. I´m pretty sure everyone would be tickled pink if I knew Portuguese. But not many people seem to be wanting to help me much. Maybe some of you can understand some of the situations I´m about to describe.

I am a visual learner, which means I learn best by reading and studying rather than hearing. So, because of this and because I have been far removed from being able to hear and speak a lot of Portuguese for a few years, most of my practice has been reading and writing. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are the four components of language learning, and they´re kind of like muscles. You going to be a lot stronger in the areas you exercise than the ones you don´t. And my speaking and listening muscles have atrophied. :) So that´s obviously a problem. I think my poor friends who I have been writing to in Portuguese are so confused because they obviously have gotten the impression I can speak Portuguese as well as I can write, but that´s just not true right now.

Also, maybe I´m just a little sensitive because I´m an English teacher and have had a lot of experience talking with people who speak English as a second language, but it seems like a lot of people are not wanting to help me learn. Some people speak so fast that I can´t possibly understand. Some people don´t speak clearly or mumble. Some people use strange words. And it´s not that those are insurmountable problems, but the moment I ask them to slow down, repeat themselves, or tell them I don´t know a certain word they either give up on me or switch to English.

Ha, of all ironies, you know what I need? I need Let´s Start Talking in Portuguese! Someone to practice with me and speak on my level. I´m going to talk to the minister here to see if there is someone in the church who maybe would study the Bible with me in Portuguese like that.

I really do understand most of what I hear, but I´m just so darn shy in Portuguese. In case you are a person who has never been out of your element, let me tell you how it feel at first. It´s humiliating (not like in the dream where you´re naked at school, but in that you are severely humbled)! You´re reduced to the level of a child because you really need help with almost everything. It really helps me see my own problems with pride, because I just want to hand my resumé or my college transcript to everyone and say, "Look! I really am an intelligent human being!" But right now I feel like a lot of people can´t see that because I am.

Another issue is that in language acquisition there is almost always a time called the "silent period." It even happens when children learn their first languge-- there is a time when the child is physiologically able to speak, but they have a time when they just need to absorb for a while. I am absorbing now. I am a sponge. :) Ha, but to try to explain that to the people here is not simple.

So here are my tips for you, the readership, if you are in a situation in which you come in contact with a person who is trying to learn your language--

1. Speak slowly and clearly, please. That doesn´t mean you have to speak to them as though they were stupid, but be clear. Don´t go 100 miles an hour.
2. Use basic vocabulary. This may take some training of the mind. It also may require that you yourself actually study a foreign language so that you can better understand which words are commonly learned by beginners.
3. Synonyms! I am the self proclaimed queen of synonyms. Whenever I´m teaching or talking with a person trying to practice English, if I use a word that may be new or difficult I follow it up with 2 or 3 synonyms. This helps because maybe if you keeping using similar words, maybe you´ll hit on a congnate or a word that they have learned. Get a thesaurus. ;)
4. Animation! Use your body language and facial gestures to help convey what you mean.
5. If you think they´re not understanding you, be patient and whatever you do, don´t start talking about them in front of them. They may not be as dense as you think.

That´s all from Professora Ann Sensei. Have a great day!

Day 4

I promise that all of my blogs won´t be titled the number of days I´ve been here, but right now I am completely at a loss for a creative title.

I have some free time and internet access so I thought I´d fill you in a little on what I´ve been doing. Friday and Saturday were great times of catching up with the Graves and the Duttons. I love them so much!

Sunday was such an emotional day. I was so happy to be back at the Guanabara church and see all my beloved friends, but at the same time it was the Graves´ last day and that was very sad. Then we had a traditional lunch of McDonalds with the Duttons (hip hip hooray for Tyler...) and just played around the rest of the afternoon.

Then last night Jonathan and I came to Itu! My stomach was turning backflips the whole way here I was so excited to see everyone. And luckily they were having a choir practice when we arrived at the church building, so I got to see most of my good friends here! I wish I could tell you how happy it made me. I´m still kind of floating in a happy daze.

We went to a festa juninha last night and then hung out at my friend´s English school. I haven´t laughed this much in a long time!

My Portuguese is coming along alright. I draw some satisfaction from the fact that I know a lot more Portuguese than most gringos that come here. Of course Jonathan is putting me to shame, though, even though he speaks like a Carioca. ;)

Like I said before, my heart is overflowing from all these happy reunions and my stomach is full from a LOT of good food! That´s about it! I´m going to try to put some pictures on here sooner or later. Thanks for all your messages! Love you lots and lots!

Chega de saudade!

I made it here early early this morning. It´s been a fun day of happy reunions and great food. I´ve probably already gained a pound. :) Now I am exhausted... so BOA NOITE meus queridos! Love you all!