Vacation Adventures: Part I

So since it's been so long since I've blogged, I decided to split my story into two parts.

Part I: New Year's and Brazil

I sent an email with all the details of my Christmas celebrations, so I won't rehash them all here.

Laura, me, Virginia, Kristy, and Dovanna at Virginia's house Christmas morning

New Year's Eve was fairly uneventful...I got several movies for us to watch, since that's my family's tradition, so all of us watched movies until 11:45, when we went outside and toasted in the new year with sparkling cider and fireworks (supplied by Andre - he even had a couple huge ones that exploded in the sky, just like the 4th of July! Fortunately we avoided burning down the house).

Kristy and me, looking oh so festive (keep in mind this picture was taken at midnight, hence the tired eyes)

New Year's day we slept in (obviously) and just lounged around. I was savoring my last calm day of vacation, since after that my busyness really began! That night I packed for Brazil. As an afterthought I threw in a hooded sweatshirt, just in case the meeting rooms were cold with a/c. Boy am I glad I did!

We flew out the morning of the 2nd from the Santa Cruz airport on AeroSur, a new Bolivian airline. They we giving really good rates, and when we booked our flight several months ago they had a special deal, and first class seats weren't that much more than coach. What a nice perk...we got to bypass the long lines at check in, and were seated first with complimentary peach juice as all the other passengers filed on...so fun to see how "the other side" lives. =)

When we landed in Sao Paulo we got our first taste of culture shock when we went through customs and realized that none of us spoke even a word of Portuguese! I've never been on a trip where not even one person in our group spoke the language - but there we were, nine teachers, most fluent Spanish speakers, but no Portuguese whatsoever! Fortunately we found that if you speak very slowly in Spanish, then might be able to understand a little of what you're saying. On the other hand, we rejoiced to find that Sao Paulo is definitely more Westernized than Santa Cruz. There was even a Pizza Hut in the airport!! (Bolivian pizza is definitely not my favorite). As we drove from the airport to our hotel we spotted several more American stores and restaurants - Outback Steakhouse, a Cinemark movie theater, even a Sam's Club! For a little while it almost felt like we were back in the States...which cause a bit of a blunder when we got to our hotel.

Let me give you some background information. In Bolivia, as with most developing countries, the sewage system is...hmm, how about I just say that it is never a good idea to flush your toilet paper. Therefore, there is always a trashcan sitting right by the toilet. However, when we got to our room there was no trashcan in sight - just an ice bucket with a lid and a liner sitting near the sink. Well, we thought maybe we really are in civilization! Just to be sure though, we checked with the first missionary we met. He gave us a funny look as we described the ice bucket, and then said "that's not an ice bucket, that's the trashcan." It was so funny...we were just glad we hadn't filled it up with ice! It really did look like an ice bucket...but then, they definitely don't have ice machines anywhere in Bolivia - I don't know why we expected Brazil to be any different.

This was just the first of many stories that led me call Brazil Almost America. There were so many things that were similar to what we'd find in the States - McDonalds, for instance (also non-exsistant in Bolivia). However, they used Brazilian beef, so the hamburgers were almost like the real thing, but not quite (of course, in America McDonalds' hamburgers are also "almost beef", so the Brazilian ones were probably much better!)

We were so excited when we found out there was a Walmart in Sao Paulo! A group of us skipped out on one of the morning sessions (I know, what bad teachers we were) to go.

here I am in front...looks just like the real thing, right?

However, once again we were a bit disappointed. Though laid out exactly like a US Walmart, complete with the blue department signs, it was filled with Brazilian, not American, products. We did find a few things...I got a really cute bag there (I'm sorry to say that my purse addiction has not lessened since leaving the States, I think it's actually gotten worse).

The Brazilian mall was also quite an experience...it was "almost" like a US mall, only it had six floors! We wandered around for half an hour looking for the food court, which we had been told was on the ground floor (nope, it was on the top). We actually lost Laura for a little while when we got separated at the elevators. She was supposed to meet us just one floor up, but when we got on we found out the the floors weren't numbered, they had Portuguese names instead! We rode the elevator forever, stopping at every floor to look for Laura, much to the amusement of the elevator operator, who finally asked us in English what stores were on the floor we wanted. When the doors opened and Laura was standing there, we got so excited we all cheered! Talk about the stereotypical tourists!! It was hilarious.

I guess maybe I should say something about the conference, since that was the reason I was in Brazil after all. I know from the previous stories it sounds like I didn't spend any time at all at the conference, but actually that's about all we did. The schedule was extremely full - our first session started at 8:15 every morning and the evening session didn't end until close to 9:00 every night. It was a great time of instruction and encouragement. I especially loved visiting with the other teachers from Christian schools all over South America. They were such a wonderful resource. We had a couple job-alike workshops where I met with other early childhood teachers - this was definitely the best part for me!! I got some great ideas and a clearer picture of what I should be doing.

The last afternoon we were bused over to Pan American Christian Academy, which was the Brazilian MK school that hosted the conference. It was really fun to tour their school see similarities and differences between it and SCCLC. Their school is bigger than ours, and I think has been around longer too, but it was so similar too...an open campus with nice classrooms and beautiful landscaping, classrooms that opened onto centeral courtyards. I don't have any pictures because I was just going to get them from Virginia (who took enough for all of us) but she hasn't gotten them to me yet and I didn't want to wait. For dinner they had catered a regular Brazilian feast with different kinds of meat that you chose as much as you want of, rice, salads, cheese...it was delicious. The evening ended with a concert by a string orchestra made up of young people from some of the Brazilian orphanages. They were so amazing...super talented. It was a great time.

Saturday morning we managed to squeeze in a shopping trip to a little tourist spot on the outskirts of the city. It was a neat spot...very picturesque. I got several keepsakes, including a Brazilian shirt that I absolutely love! (Pictures coming)

Fellow SCCLC teachers Liz, Debbie, and me on a bridge in the tourist village. Notice my very stylish new bag! (Thank you Brazilian Walmart) Also notice my gray hoodie...which I wore every single day since it was cold and rainy our the whole time! So much for trying to make it to the beach! Oh well...maybe next time

The Amazon! Okay no, it's just the river flowing by the village. But it looks kind of like the Amazon doesn't it?

We made it back to the airport in plenty of time, although our flight had been moved up an hour (when do flights ever leave earlier than planned?) It was actually a relief to step off the plane and hear Spanish again...at least I can understand a little of it!

That's definitely enough rambling for now...bless you that actually stuck with me and read it all. Part II of My Adventures will include a description of the SAM field conference...I'll try not to be so long winded. Thanks for reading!