Matthew Tribute

Because I miss the little buggy guy. I emailed him and complained about the dog eating my computer cord (did I write about that on here?) and here was his suggestion:

"sorry about the dog, but maybe you shouldnt kick him. if you were closer to the jungle, you might be able to feed him to something, like an eagle or an anaconda, but i guess that is too far away."

Yes, unfortunately the jungle is too far away to feed Suzie to an anaconda. But it's a good and matthewesque suggestion.

...and the next day

After writing Saturday's blog post, I fell asleep for an hour and a half and then got up for church. They made me the pianist for sacrament meeting, so not only did I have to go, I had to go early. I was terrified of falling asleep on the keyboard or something, but actually I didn't sleep even once in the three hours! How righteous am I? And the playing went OK, although someone chose "Let Us All Press On" for the last hymn, which is hard, even though I told them in my best Portuguese that I'm not very good.

After church we went to Iruã's vó's (grandma's) house. She made us feijoada, a traditional Brazilian dish with beans and pork:

They eat it with some sort of crushed cracker flower stuff (in the white dishes on the left). I'm glad I finally ate some--everyone's been talking about it since I got here. Plus, I met some of Iruã's family. His grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin were there. His 9 year old cousin, João, takes English classes at CCBEU. His English was really good, and I was impressed that he stuck around and talked to us. Over the course of the day, João and I discussed comic books, favorite animals, favorite foods, soccer, and dogs.

I also, thank goodness, fell asleep after lunch and probably drooled all over the couch.

After my nap, we drove to Iruã's family's farm. It's a sugar cane farm, and his aunt and uncle have an "orchid house" there. It's really cool: they have a sort of open-sided tent with hanging baskets of orchids underneath.

The rest of the farm was beautiful, too. It's mango season, and there are mangoes littering the ground--so many that we were slipping on rotting mango corpses and feeding them to the pigs:

and the cow:

To get fresh mangoes for ourselves, we threw rotten mangoes at the tree.

Now, I love mangoes, but they're always kind of a pain to eat. Who knew you could peel them with your teeth?

We wandered around and enjoyed the view:

A Long Night (and day)

I think the best way to tell this story is backwards.

Not least because that's how I'm thinking right now. It's 5:30 am, and Diane and I just got back from a good 45 minutes of being completely and totally lost while trying to walk home. Luckily, the churches in Lins decorate with crazy neon crosses, so eventually we found our way back, just as the dawn was breaking.

Walk home from where? From our friend and co-worker's house. Remember when I made a big deal about riding in a Slug Bug for the first time? Well, big fat deal, August-Rachel: today I drove my first VW Bug. Diane and I went clubbing with two of our friends from work, both of whom drank. A lot. There was no way we could let them drive. Especially the one who drove to the club, whose Beetle needed to get home. Diane never learned stick shift, and so I--and this is one of the bravest things I have ever done, Follower--I, whose stick shift knowledge comes from a 30 minute lesson 6 years ago with Uncle Erik and an hour of driving Aurora's car 1 1/2 years ago--I drove us all home. Being re-coached by a wasted guy is not easy (although it's admittedly hilarious), and I stalled the poor love bug several times, ran countless "Pare" signs, and insisted on remaining in first gear for the majority of the journey. Sorry about that, passengers. When I finally got up the nerve to try for second, I stalled in the middle of the freeway. But I got it eventually. I also improved my starts and stops when I let people out to pee.

So, before we realized we were in a fix with the car situation, the club was really fun. It's almost as scary to dance with a drunk Brazilian as it is to drive his car, but I have to say, even the Brazilians who insist that they can't dance are actually good. It's just ingrained in the culture, I think. Sertanejo plays at every party and club, and everyone actually grabs a partner and dances. I love it. I also love when they play Maroon 5 and Diane and I know all the words and what they mean.

Before that, we had a really great time at Choppão, a bar, with a tableful of other English teachers. We discussed, among other things, various kinds of alcohol, jackets, and pick-up lines. I really like hanging out with the other teachers, and I hope we do it more often.

Wait! That's still not the beginning. Before Choppão, Diane and I went with Iruã from and to the Linense soccer game, which was so fun to see. I asked lots of dumb questions but enjoyed myself immensely, and Linense won 5x0. It poured on the way there, but luckily it stopped, and instead there was a beautiful double rainbow. The perfect, promising beginning.

Quero-Quero Bird

So, today I went running at this little park close to my house. While sweating profusely, I like looking at the flowers, birds, and giant Ford dealership. Today, when I rounded the corner, I saw these long-legged birds that I've noticed before. They're really graceful and pretty:

So I saw two of these birds, and then three little birds with them, and I thought, maybe those are babies! How cute! And I kept running, and pretty soon I heard this, "Wwwaaaaaack! Wwwaaaack!" And I looked again, and one of the birds was crouched down over, presumably, her chicks, and the other adult was spreading his wings out, and all at once he was flying at my head!

Quero-Quero in attack mode:

He flew right over me and brushed me with his wings, and then continued screeching and turned around, and smashed himself into my back! I was so scared, running with my head under my arms, but also sort of laughing nervously. I peeked out from under my elbows to see if anyone else saw, but I was alone. Of course I thought of Hitchcock's The Birds. I was a little jumpy for the rest of my run.

And then, I told two of my classes about it (by "told," I mean "acted out with flailing arms and screeching noises"), and they nodded sagely and said, "Yes, Teacher. That's the Want-Want bird. It doesn't like when you are close to the babies."

I'll say.

The Third Sunday in October

I was so confused yesterday. I set my phone alarm for 8:00, but it went off when it was still dark outside, and my watch said only 7 am. First I thought my phone was off, but the clock in the hall said 8:00, too. At heart, I'm a conspiracy theorist, because my next conjecture was, who snuck in here and changed my watch? I couldn't think of anyone who would do that, though, except maybe my Catholic hostess who maybe fiendishly wanted me to miss church or something. And of course I considered that it could be Daylight Saving Time, but I carefully recited "Spring forward, fall back" and knew we should gain an hour, not lose one. Also, nobody mentioned Daylight Saving at all last week.

Of course, Follower, if you're a little quicker than I am at 7:00/8:00 am, you've figured out that [duh] October IS spring for these crazy Brazilians. So, yeah. I'm 5 hours later than you now, California. At least until November, when it will be 6 hours. Change those clocks, and get the extra hour of sleep that I missed!

Saint What's-Her-Bucket's Day

Today was the day of Saint Someoneorother, so it was a holiday. I'm pretty sure it was St. Mary, and today celebrates her Appearance, but no one can tell me when, where, why, how, or to whom she appeared. What's important is that everyone had a day off, and Donna Catarina had a lunch with her whole family. Everyone was really nice, although they largely ignored me (no one can talk to me, so I don't blame them), and I had a chance to enjoy the food and people-watch.

For lunch we had beef and sausage, accompanied by rice cooked with meat. Trying to be somewhat healthy, I took only a little meat and rice, and filled up my plate with the weird-looking, good-smelling, minty side dish. I guessed it was some sort of salad, but I didn't know what grain or vegetable it was--and then, when I tasted it, I couldn't place it. So I asked what it was made of, and after some gestures and a few key cognates, they explained it was raw ground beef and spices.

Allow me to re-cap lunch for you: meat and meat over rice and meat, with a side of meat.

Not to complain, though; it was tasty, and there was flan for dessert. Plus, it was really fun to be part of a family get together. I miss you, Family! Here are some pictures.

Filho (son, with guitar) and filha (daughter):

Son-in-law:

Daughter-in-law and granddaughter, doing nails:

Grandkids:

Dona Catarina and...granddaughter? Great-granddaughter? Gabrielle: