accompaniment

A playlist for the plane ride.

life lessons

T-minus 4 days. Because I'm sure the next couple days will be quite hectic, I decided to go after school special on you right now as long as I have a lazy Sunday to do some blogging.

Obviously, I've learned so much during my time here. I've been making an attempt at organizing my thoughts into a list (story of my life) and I've got a decent start, but I don't think I'll ever feel like it's finished. Alas, here are some of my disorganized thoughts organized into a little list.

Some Things I Know Now
(in no particular order)

live carioca
I stress to much. About everything. Am I going to go home and be a totally carefree individual? No. Am I going to let myself spend a few hours in bed watching a movie from time to time without beating myself up about wasting time? Absolutely. Most people actually refer to that as relaxing.

be bilingual
After being here and experiencing the great number of people who know two or more languages, I feel ashamed to admit that I only know one. Rosetta Stone, here I come.

humanity ain't so bad
We received so much assistance from kind strangers. People don't have to play charades with us to help us communicate, but they did. And for that I am very grateful.

kids are kids are kids
Students are going to be different everywhere, but deep down they're all kids. Rich kids, poor kids, flourishing kids, struggling kids. They all love candy, hugs and a good game of tag.

international relations
I hate to do it, but I have to do it. I'm going to talk about relationships. I promise it will be short.
Not to sound conceited, but I think I'm a pretty cool cat for coming here. I am also a brave cat. A kind of weird cat, but I think I'm a funny cat too. Anyway, if someone cannot appreciate all of the above with the addition that I'm pretty good at baking, then you can get out.

there are more important things than things
I spent 3 months living out of one suitcase and a carry on. Was I thinking about that one cardigan that I decided to leave at home the morning of my flight? No, I was too busy soaking in everything this experience had to offer. So one of my new me resolutions is to stop spending so much money on clothes and shoes and throw that money in a savings account for future adventures.

teachers wear many hats
As I was teaching I realized that my job description was so much more than just educating. I am a hairdresser, mom, art critic, professional pencil sharpener, therapist, storyteller, doctor, actress, among so many others.
Am I ready to wear all these hats?
I'm not sure. It's a lot of responsibility and I take that responsibility very seriously. Potentially too seriously. To the point where I cause myself great distress about my performance and whether or not I'm reaching every student. No, I'm not going to be perfect but these kids deserve perfect. Some additional post-trip soul-searching is in order.

who i'm with is just as meaningful as where i go 
Being here has been an incredible experience and I wouldn't change it for the world. I was blessed enough to share this experience with two wonderful ladies that I've grown to love and I will miss very much. But I couldn't shake the feeling that it would be so great to share this with everyone at home. Thus, my future travels will be spent in the company of family and friends. As an added bonus, this plan will save money on souvenirs.

love where you are, wherever you are
I have severely under appreciated the beauty in my own back yard and the lovely bunch of people that I get to share it with. I had a moment almost every day here in which I stopped and just appreciated everything about this fantastic city. Why don't I do that at home? Ohio is beautiful too. Oh, what, you don't believe me? Spend a few months somewhere else and get back to me.

i did it
Maybe I shouldn't speak too soon, there are still a few days. But I'm in the home stretch. I did it. I also did it without a breakdown or crippling homesickness.
I lived in Rio de Janeiro for three months.
It still sounds too good to be true.

vacation in a vacation

Where do you go on vacation when you're living in one of the most beautiful cities on Earth?

Buzios.

This teeny peninsula is 3 hours north of Brazil. It's home to about 20 beaches with some of the most clean, clear water I've ever seen. The streets were paved in stone, the houses were painted colorfully and the entire peninsula seemed to be whispering "relax." The town was a perfect quiet getaway from the bustle of life in Rio de Janeiro.  The entire time we were there I couldn't shake the thought "This is paradise."

Rather than creating a gigantic blog post with a ton of pictures, I found this new story feature on Photobucket. To view the photos larger, click on the "view full story" button.

weekend away

Last weekend started with a showing of Hamlet in Portuguese. I went with the roomies, our teacher friend John and a couple of his students. The play was a little bit difficult to follow but manageable. The direction was so impressive that I didn't find myself disinterested at any time.

The play ended way past my bedtime, but after John's wife picked us up everyone decided they were hungry so we stopped to get something to eat. Upon arriving at John's house at 4 in the morning, I promptly passed out.

When I woke up and could get a better sense of my surroundings, I could see we were in a little oasis surrounded 3 sides by jungle. The view from his house was gorgeous. There were mountains and large hills nearby with teeny houses creeping up the side of them. There's something very different about the lifestyle in Brazilian countryside. Despite being slightly secluded, there were a number of small bars and eateries scattered around the area. It was common to see people walking along the side of the road and we even saw a few people riding horses. I almost felt like I was stepping back in time.

The weekend was spent exploring the area, shopping at some local quirky shops and doing a lot of talking. John and his wife are both fantastic at making conversation and we ended up talking for hours on quite a few occasions. Their hospitality blew me away. They allowed us to stay in their beautiful house, fed us delicious food and drove us around to see everything in the area. So grateful.

And now, here are some pictures of their house, also known as my dream house. Enjoy.

birthday

I'm 21 now, so that's pretty weird.

I'm not real big on grand birthday extravaganzas, so here's a how I celebrated:

My student and her mom baked me a cake and my teacher surprised me with it at the end of the day. Of course, decorated with an N for Miss Nar. So cute.

My teacher and I! 

School was really wonderful. A great deal of the teachers found it was my birthday and wished me happy birthday. I also got even more drawings than usual from my students which was fabulous.

I wanted to go to the beach after school or something, but it was raining. Some teachers invited us to a bar after school so we stopped by. I had no intention of staying for more than 10 minutes but it was so much fun we ended up staying for a few hours.

 My roommate Kyleigh made me take a shot with her. Which I whined, complained and panicked about for about 20 minutes before I decided to do it. It wasn't that bad.

On the way to the bar I stopped at Kopenhagen and got a cappuccino. This is no normal cappuccino. They put about an inch of crushed chocolate in the bottom before they pour espresso over it. The end result is essentially a shot of melted chocolate. Needless to say, I preferred that shot.

Then we went to an Arabian restaurant, which was delicious. Middle Eastern food is one of my favorite things. There was also a belly dancer so that was pretty interesting.

Finally we went out for ice cream (I got banana, cinnamon and cheese flavor) and then I made a friend with this statue.

Overall, great birthday. How could you have a bad birthday in Brazil? I'm still looking forward to celebrating with my family and friends when I get home though :)

sucos and such

Check out the food I've been eating/loving.

Matte and Lemonade

Matte can be bought anywhere, but the best place to get it here is on the beach mixed with lemonade.

Guava and Cheese Ice Cream

Don't knock it 'til you try it.

Empada

Kind of like a pot pie, filled with some kind of meat and cheese and delicious spices.

Guarana

If you don't pronounce it gwa-da-na no one will understand. It's soda sweetened with guarana which is some kind of berry. It's about half as sweet as Coke which is perfect for me.

Cassava

Deep fried manioc root. Tastes a like an extra flavorful french fry.

Esfiha

Arabian food is very popular here. This was filled with cheese and baked perfectly. 

Whole Wheat Banana Pie

It looks like a pile of mush. It is a pile of mush. But it's a delicious one. There's no crust just some sort of whole wheat mixture sweetened with honey and topped with bananas.

Watermelon Juice

This is my favorite juice so far. You know when you eat watermelon and all the juice goes to the bottom of the bowl and when you're finished you can drink it? Maybe that's just me, I really love watermelon. 

The food was some sort of croissant filled with cheese. Don't look at that, focus on the juice.

Mango Juice

Brazil mangoes are in an entirely different league from United States mangoes. They're consistently sweet and they're not as fibrous  They make a thick juice but it's also naturally sweet. It tastes just like eating a perfectly ripened mango.

Orange and Berry Juice

Tart berries, sweet orange juice, great combination.

Caqui Juice

Caqui is my new favorite fruit. They're called persimmons in the United States but it would be a disgrace to call this wonderful fruit by that name. They are so much sweeter and and the texture is less mushy and grainy. When made into a juice it was blended with ice which made it similar to a smoothie.

Cupuacu Juice and Sugar Cane Juice

Cupuacu juice was sour and a little bitter. I just tried it again yesterday sweetened and it was to die for. I could drink 30 glasses of it. I guess sugar isn't always as bad as I make it out to be.

The sugar cane juice was very sweet but such an interestingly pure flavor. It tasted like raw organic sugar and a little bit like wood. I loved it but my roommates thought it was too sweet.

 

Caja Juice

Caja is another fruit here that is a new favorite of mine. It's about twice as large as a grape, and the inside is around 50% pit. The fruit part is sweet, tart and juicy. It tastes similar to an orange with a very different consistency. 

It would appear that I have just been eating for the past 2 and half months, but that's only partially true. More about some adventures very soon.

easter

It's Thursday already? What happened to this week?

Here's how we celebrated Easter on Sunday.

Breakfast. American breakfast.

Breakfast here is more like our lunch. There is always bread, but not toast, it's French bread. This bread is paired with some combination of butter, cheese, jam or deli meat. Sometimes there's cake and there is usually fruit. It's tasty in it's own way but we had been missing American style french toast, hash browns and bacon. So we made some. And it was delicious.

This isn't a celebration it's more of a documentation. This is a picture of one of probably 150 Lojas Americanas stores in Rio. It translates directly to "American store" but much to our dismay upon entering it for the first time a few months ago, it contains little to no American products. What it does have is one of the largest selections of Brazilian Easter eggs. Instead of Easter baskets, Easter is celebrated by buying these large, hollow chocolate eggs that are filled with toys for children or more chocolate for adults. We noticed these displays entering area stores about a month ago and were quite confused at first. They are like giant lattices hung over the aisles of stores that these eggs hang from. It's strange because the displays block the light fixtures so the aisles become very dark and cave-like.

So after breakfast we went to Ipanema. This marked the first time I have ever been to a beach on Easter. We soaked up some sun and then walked along this section of road which is usually quite busy and free-way like but was closed off for the day for long-boarders and the like. 

Then, thanks to the wonder of technology, I was able to FaceTime during my family's Easter gathering and say hello to everyone. Seriously, I don't know what people did before the internet. It makes being away ten thousand times easier.

This week I've been full time teaching, which has been exhausting but very enjoyable. I taught a really fun lesson on Tuesday about taste that tied in Green Eggs and Ham. I read the book then asked students about how they thought Green Eggs and Ham might taste. I then explained that Sam I Am had left me a new green concoction that he wanted everyone to try. It was green-colored pudding, but boy did it look disgusting. Kudos to me for making the pudding too thick. I even brought green-colored orange juice for my lactose intolerant fella, which looked equally gross. The kids totally bought it. The majority of the class predicted that it would taste bad. They were all very surprised after trying it. We talked about what it tasted like (sweet, creamy, good) then predicted what it was that they ate. It was one of those lessons that I had a lot of fun doing.

My birthday is tomorrow and I still have no idea how I want to celebrate. Maybe something will come to me? It's so beautiful here, I think I could go anywhere and call it a celebration.