The Church, Gas Station, and Taxi Stand

So I often walk to work, in fact I always walk to work. (check me out with my adverbs of frequency) Anyhow... I always walk to work, and I walk past a lot of things. The church for one. It's this big church, and everytime anyone walks or drives by it they cross their chest. You know what I mean, they reach their hand to their head and shoulders to make the shape of a cross.

Next I walk by the Taxi stand, and I love the taxi stand. I love the taxi stand cause nobody takes taxis here. So, all the drivers get to hang out. They hang out and talk, but mostly watch tv. Haha... Theres a big tv nailed to a tree at the taxi stand. Its hilarious! So all the taxi drivers just sit around watching this big box tv thats nailed to a tree. Then, if they are lucky, and they do get a customer, they have to move their taxi's up. But why turn your car on, when you can just push the damn thing, lol. So they push their cars up. Its funny to watch.

Lastly, the gas station. They are fairly big here... sometimes they fill up their cars not at the gas tank, like the rest of the world, but under the hood somewhere. That was something to see the first time. All the hoods of the cars lifted up, with these little strange nozzles pumping gas into the car, somehow. I just don't get it! But theres an even better thing about the gas stations. They are the cool place to go... drinking! Hahha, I thought my bosses daughter was kidding when she said we were going to the gas station to hang out. Seriously. But drinking outside is legal, and drinking at the gas station is cool. Sweet eh!

Don't you just love the smell of fumes and beer?

Why I might eventually get kicked out of Brazil

It all started when when I moved into my bosses house. Well we all had heavy suitcases, and bags and such. It was a lot of stuff! And we got off the elevator and into the front door of the house... Well, there was this dog, the tiniest dog ever! Her name is Tequila, and she is a toy poodle. So... as I'm stepping in the front door, she is barking and barking and jumping and jumping. Then..she sorta got a little hit by my foot. I seriously tapped the dog, barely even touched her... but she starts crying! And wouldn't stop. She was now barking and crying and running and limping.

I'm like.. "Oh god, I dislocated the dogs leg within 20 seconds of being in my bosses house"

I was worried, I'll admit. But the dog was fine. Seriously though, I only tapped her!!!!

So this dog is small, and she has a small problem. She doesn't have a litter box, and nobody takes her outside. So, this means there is a continuous threat of stepping in dog pooh or pee. We first figured this out when we put our backpacks under the bed. I thought this was a good place to keep my pack out of the way. I was wrong. Eventually one day, I came home and my room smelled like shit... literally. UGH! The dog had pooped on my bag.

Next, you might be able to guess what happened. I was getting ready to go out for a night of fun with my bosses daughter and her friends. I was in the bathroom checking my face, brushing my teeth and such. Then I went back to my room to put some stuff in my closet... then I walked back to the bathroom, where I noticed... Poop.. everywhere. ARG, I had stepped in dog poop! and tracked it all over the house!!! Crazy... Oh, and I forgot to mention, in my new sandals!

Lastly, we were sitting around the table one night, having a cup of tea and just talking. My bosses wife comes in with the dog in one hand, and a chewed up razor head in the other. Seriously, I'm going to kill this dog! The dog somehow found my old razor head and was CHEWING IT... Seriously? yeah...

Now this dog is their pride and joy, they friggin love it! And they let it poop anywhere. If you see that I'm back in Canada before I should be.... its cause I somehow managed to kill the dog and they kicked me out of the country. Wish me luck!

The Three Big Questions

Every time we meet a Brazilian or talk to a Brazilian, they tend to ask the same things. In fact, its getting ridiculous.

Cissero's (our boss) daughter Monique arrived the other day from 2 weeks in Argentina. Shes 21. She brought her friend with her, Marianna, who is amazing. We went out to the beach on one of the few sunny days we've had and last night we went out for drinks with some of their friends. These were some well spoken Brazillian guys, young, going to school to be drs and lawyers, lol. Pretty interesting! Anyhow, we had some great discussions, on politics, world issues, and Brazil.

The night before we went out with some of the secretaries and teachers from school. They were all great, and all brought their boyfriends or husbands of 3 years or so. One girl, Nayare, is 20, she has an adorable daughter, and a husband. We drove to the bar on motorcycles...(I have never wanted to learn to drive one more than I do now)

So, these are the questions all brazillians ask us.

1) How old are you?
2) What did you think of Brazil before you came here? / What do most people think of Brazil?
3) Do you have a boyfriend?

Firstly, I don't think anyone here is our age. Its either 18 year olds, or 40 year olds.
Secondly, Brazillians are very concerned with how the world views them. The figure that the world thinks they don't have technology, or that they live in a jungle.
Lastly, yet again, I am not a person unless I have a boyfriend. And even tho I am traveling alone, and have only been in Brazil for 2 weeks, I'm expected to still not be single. Arg!!!

Anyhow, thats life south of the boarder. Life is still peachy tho!

Oh, and we are planning our trip to Sao Paulo for Carnival. I don~t know all the details yet, but the next entry should be something along those lines. Woop Woop!!

Lynds

Oh, and here are some pics from a boat ride we took over to santos, I stole them from Mariannik!

Brazillian Football Boy

For those of you who are keeping track of this blog, you are so spoiled... three posts in two days! Wow. I have a feeling I didnt tell people about this blog, so maybe I~ll try to do that after I write this entry... but I have some things I must discuss.

So like I said we were living in a hotel for two nights and then moved into Cessoros house. Yesterday afternoon we went walking on the beach and it was great... the beach is huge! But I guess the best times to go are like 7 in the morning, cause the sun isn~t too strong. By the end of the day theres garbage everywhere. As we walked, people somehow knew we were foreigners. Some teenage boys said hello to us, and a lifeguard stopped us to talk. He didn~t speak any english mind you, so he said the only thing he knew how to say "I love you" lol. He really like Mariannik, he wanted to know her name and didn~t even ask mine! lol.. I think its cause of the blonde hair... shes a true blonde with fair skin, and they know thats not brazillian.

After our walk we went back to the hotel and decided to go swimming in the pool. The pool was really just a big bathtub... but what the heck eh! We got there and just got our feet in when these 4 kids came running in with their family and started doing belly flops in the pool... so, we got out. There was a younger looking guy in the family, probably the best looking guy we had seen all day (all the guys at the beach werent that good looking). Anyhow, we left back to our room but decided to come back later. The guy was still there, with his uncle, and came over to talk to us. So my big news is, we met our FIRST brazillian soccer player! Lol. He played for the city of Sao Paulo and seemed like a good guy. He didn~t speak very well, but could get by. He said his job was only to play soccer, and he lived in a sorta dorm/gym thingy with the rest of his team, yet he was on holiday now.

So we chatted a bit, dake a few beers, but overall just a fun experience. And no, he didn~t come back to our room or anything like that. I forgot to mention how small our rooms were! Ill post a video on facebook some day. We were too tired anyhow, we fell asleep by 11:20 im sure. The hot weather, and always waking up early for breakfast was hard!!

OH! and breakfast here is halarious. Fruit (good) strong coffee (good) ham and cheese (ok...) biskets and bread rolls (strange but tasty) chocolate cake (what the..?!?) They serve an assortment of cakes. Its so weird. But the coffe is really great... its so strong, but Im starting to love it. Its not like canadian or Korean either.. so much better. I put way too much sugar in mine, and Im probably going to be addicted.

So thats all for today. Its sunday and raining, so theres not much to do, but paying for a computer cafe (or as they say lan house) isn~t my favorite thing! TTYL

Lynds

Going to the Beach... aka my new Home!

After a while, Mariannik, (the french girl I was to be placed with) arrived in the city of Belo Horizonte. Also, Peter, who was being placed north of Sao Paulo arrived as well. Together, we were team fun! I love them both! Peter is really funny, and I could laugh at Mariannik's accent all day, lol, shes a true qubecer! We got to hang out alot before we left Belo. I miss peter, it brought a sorta je ne sais quoi to the group.

We ended up switching out of Ville Emma (a hotel that our company put us up in) for a cheaper hostel that was close. The hostel O sorroso was great! Wellington owned it, he was this big black dude who was way too friendly. One night we got pizza to share and cook, but the oven didn~t work, so he let us into our house to use his! Then Mariannik droped the pizza on the floor, lol, but only half, so we ate the other! Oh, and when we had to go to the police station to get our country cards, and visa extentions, Wellington drove us, waited for us, and when we didn~t have enough money, he lent us money! How nice eh??

All the brazillians we~ve met have been so nice! We have had nothing but amazing friendly people, and I love them all. Its funny tho, waitress's and people who walk around teh street sometime seem stuckup, but then you get a laugh out of them and they are so friendly. Nobody speaks english. They just keep talking longer and longer in Portuguese, and its sooo difficult. Im susprised at how little English they have here!

Oh... so anyhow, we took the bus from Belo to Sao Paulo, and from Sao Paulo we took another bus to Gauruja (the beach city we are living in now) It was a long trip, and we were really tired when we got here. Cessoro is our Boss. He picked us up from the bus station, and I didn~t even realise it was him, because he was wearing very ordanary clothes. Its funny here, this is the only country where everyone wants to look poor, because then they won~t get robbed. If you wear jewerly, then theres more of a chance.

Anyhow, he brought us to our school, and its really great! Alot like Yes Youngdo, nice classrooms, big, clean. I liked it alot. They have a set cirrculum, and our other boss Patricia is very helpful and she wants to make everything easy for us. Brazillians are wonderful people.


Heres a picture of me and a student. Shes not my student, but shes very sweet and tries hard. Oh, and thats Mariannik, shes adorable, isn't she?


My time is almost up on my computer, so I should get going. We are living in a hotel right now, and will be going to live in Cessoro's apartment tomorrow morning. I will tell you guys more about it once we get more settled.

Love and miss you all!

Lynds

BRAZIL!

Ok! So I made it! Im in brazil and I survived! The flights were all great, they were on time and not much turbulance. I got some good sleep and met up with nichole in toronto. Our hotel is pretty good, clean and simple and we also met up with heather and william, so we have a little group down here to travel with which is really nice.


The weather is.. great! Not too hot, but warm. We are all wearing flipflops, and apparently blend in, since everyone seems to think im from here and comes up to me and speaks in portuguese. I cant say anything. I wish I had learned more!! But the food is great, the people are really friendly too! Im excited to get to the beach and tan a little.

We've been spending alot of time at this little bookstore that is also a resturant. We met some brazilians who speak english and work there, Vinny and Gustavo. They are wonderful, they brought us to a beautiful man-made lake next to a soccer statium in Belo Horazonte, which we loved. We went to dinner with them almost every night, and ate too much good food. They were so helpful. One night we ended up drinking too much beer and had way too much fun! We are in a great part of the city as well, so everything is fairly upscale and there are that many poor people.

The poor people live in places called favalas, which are basically slums... they are usually just outside or around the city and we have been told various times never to go there. The city is really beautiful, and they have huge trees that look like jungle trees. They have tons of flowers, and vegetation. The shops are really nice as well, but its so strange. At night the shops close up, but they close and bring these garage like doors down, so everything looks poor and crappy at night. They dont have windows to show whats inside the store, cause people would break them and steal everything... they just pull metal doors down instead.

Oh, and Aline is the STI coordinator for my trip. She basically found my job for me and placed me. anyhow, shes amazing! I love her to death. Shes so funny and nice, she has such a wonderful sense of humor!!! We went to lunch with her, had this really great meal. She called a resturant and said she had 5 canadians with her, so they gave her a free meal and girls paid half. It was really fancy. We had meat, but they cooked it on swords. Lol... so these waiters would walk around the resturant, and if you wanted them to cut you off a piece you put a piece of paper green side up and the would come over. It it was red side up they woudlnt. I had lamb, and ostrich, beef, sausage, chicken.. pork, everything! It was such a memorable meal.


Anyhow, I just thought Id msg you guys, I miss you guys but Brazil is very exciting! Its nothing like Korea, they have everything I could ever want, and I didn't need to pack all the bathroom stuff that i did!!


XOXO

Lynds

My Last Day in Canada!

Today is the day. I'm flying out! I'm finally a little nervous.. usually I have nerves of steal, but right before any adventure I start to feel butterflies. It's no biggie. It's kinda nice actually... well after feeling very confident for so long, I was wondering if I was starting to get cocky! Lol.

So last night I had my so called 'going away party' which was named "Lyndsay's going to Brazil tomorrow/Lets eat wings!". I invited a bunch of people out to wings, and we chowed down at oasis. There were so many of my friends and ppl I knew, I was really happy with the turnout! I had a great time! I love hanging out with my friends. (Jenn, Court, Graham, Ryan B, John, Ashley B., Emily, Gab, and Nick and his roomates), I even was brave enough to venture downtown, which I don't normally do! We went to cheers and had delicious drinks, like purple haze, and aqua..something. I've never had them before, but it was def good and worth it!

So now I'm just finishing up getting packed and ready. I got a lot of emails from my family, mom nan and danielle, and was happy to know everyone was thinking of me! Anyhow... I guess I'm off. Let's hope everything goes well! Wish me luck!