protestando

I have had several questions surrounding the protests in Brazil, so I figured a quick post for those that are interested is in order.

Here is everything I know: there was a new tax put on busses, something like 9 cents. There is a perception that the World Cup is bad for the country and the tourist financial gains will only benefit the rich, and they are neglecting the poor. With this being the Confederations Cup weeks and lots of media attention already focused on Brazil, it seems like the right time to "speak up", I guess.

Today, I left work early because a protest was scheduled in Brasilia for 5pm and it is much easier and probably safer to just avoid it. Much of the major protests and riots have been happening outside of Brasilia. There were some demonstrations during the opening game last Saturday, but we weren't there so we can't speak to it. From what I gather Rio, Sao Paulo, and Belo Horizonte have been the major sites so far. Today maybe Brasilia will make the news.

As I left work I did see a young guy with a Guy Fawkes mask and a sign, I didn't have time to stop and read it, but lets be honest I couldn't even if I did. Other than that, it does not seem like the people have changed anything in their day to day lives so I remain unconcerned.

From a safety standpoint, neither Natalie or myself have felt in any danger during our stay thus far. I don't think this will change. Once the Confederations Cup has ended and the world media has exited, I believe things will quiet down. I might be wrong about that though, but I can certainly see this being true.

Some quick notes about us:

Natalie has officially enrolled for Portuguese lessons at the University of Brasilia, it starts in early July. She's excited to get started and has been working on her own to get ahead.

My project has resumed, some small snags here and there, but overall, we are finally moving forward. They have extended the timelines all the way through April of next year. I'm not sure what my involvement will be for all of the different phases but I think I can get done much sooner than that.

Healthwise, we haven't had any issues. Dogwise, they love it, Desmond has taken to a daily routine of a morning swim to get his exercise. Penny swims occasionally as well. She's a natural while he has had to work at it, but he's pretty much gotten the hang of it now.

The latest thing we miss from the USA: syrup.

We'd love to hear from any of you, drop us a note in the comments with questions, or updates that you think we should know about!

morpho menelaus

Saw this guy today. He wouldn't open his wings for me, so I've included the wikipedia article so you can read about him. He/she was as big as a small bird! 

I skimmed through the wikis on this particular species, and from what I can tell I think this is the one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpho_menelaus

vizinhos macaco

I just got back from running a few errands with Betto and spending way too much on dog food. Ah, language barriers. Betto was able to talk to the shop workers and get us a discount. That’s what we get for not wanting to feed our dogs the McDonald’s equivalent of pet food. We also had to pick up some fly-preventative collars. Supposedly there is an insect-borne illness here that can be transmitted to dogs. We could get them a vaccine, but Betto doesn’t seem to be too worried about it. He says the collars are fine.

I just put Penny’s on and she’s moping about it.

We spent the weekend mostly just hanging out. On Saturday we went to an open air market by the TV Tower in the city center. There was an interesting mix of tourist-y knick-knacks and things that local people buy. We didn’t buy anything. It definitely reminded us of the Muslim bazaar in Xi’an, China, though. After that we headed over to Grenat, a café downtown. It opened at 1 pm, so we had lunch there (really good steak sandwiches on baguettes) and coffees. Yes- Brett had a mocha!

Later we came home and wanted to swim, but it wasn’t as hot up here as it was down in the center. The dogs did though (well, Penny). We also found out about a farmer’s market that is open on Saturdays just up the road from us. We will definitely be hitting that up! The next day our neighbors invited us to eat breakfast with them. They had a fruit strudel, some small strawberry cakes from the bakery, coffee, juice, green tea, pao de queijo, and some breads. We hung around eating for maybe three hours.

love these goofs.

After we left, it seemed like we’d only been gone for an hour when they invited us back down for lunch!  They had leftover meat from a prior barbeque so we had that, along with some corn and potatoes, squash and bread. A couple of their friends came over to play War (Risk, essentially) but that didn’t happen until way later. Brett played for a little while, but we had plans to go see Star Trek. After the movie we very nearly got locked into the Carrefour parking lot, but we heard a guard signaling to us the exit, thankfully.

Our monkey neighbors came to visit the other day as well. Desmond didn’t like them, but Penny really wanted to know why they wouldn’t come down and play. One of them sat around for a long time just throwing sticks down to Penny. I was sitting outside while they climbed around in the trees.. it was actually quite frightening because I’ve been told they will come down and take food if you have it out. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear them making their monkey noises above me. I don’t think they’ll come down with the dogs around though.

Tonight I’m going to go with Estella to the University of Brasilia and attempt to register for a Portuguese class. So we will see about that.. it’s essentially a 48 hour intensive course, over a certain amount of days or weeks. I haven’t figured out how long it is. I will hopefully be able to teach Brett some :)

sweet zion

looking for macacos

he came down pretty close! Penny loved it.

nova casa

Well, here we are. We moved into our permanent (hopefully) home on Saturday. The move itself was relatively painless. The new place is about 30 minutes from our old apartment, and is, essentially, its own residence. Our house is on a lot with three other houses, all owned by the same guy (Betto). The house we are in is definitely bigger than our apartment. That being said, it has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, mudroom/laundry room, living area, and a lot of outdoor space.

We also have a pool (lake/pond)! It’s not a natural pond, but it supposedly has its water treated every week. When we arrived with the dogs on Saturday night on our second and final trip to the place, Desmond immediately fell in. Er, ran in. I think he thought it was solid ground. To his credit, it was dark. Penny immediately followed- she loves it. Having been here for a few days, Dessy still isn’t too sure about it. He wants to get in but doesn’t really know how, so he stands on the edge and paddles his front paws in the water. Betto has a dog, Zion- a Rhodesian Ridgeback- and Dessy has already made her his friend. Penny is still working on it, but she’s big and Zion is pretty afraid (of everything).

Sweet Zion

Betto lives in one of the houses and another couple (around our age) lives in the house that is still being built. They don’t seem very worried that the house isn’t complete.. I suppose that’s a cultural difference though. Estella and Lucas are from France and Germany, respectively. Estella is Brazilian (her mom is French) and speaks Portuguese, French, and English, among others. Lucas speaks those languages as well as English. I can’t speak for Brett but I definitely feel like an uneducated American.

The weather here has been surprisingly bad for the past week or so. We are definitely not in the rainy season right now, but for the last five days it’s been nothing but cloudy with sporadic showers. Which is a bummer because our new place is beautiful and I want to take some nice pictures for you all! The sun poked out yesterday and it’s trying to do the same today- not sure how long it will last though.

"Mom, help"

Dessy in his element 

Estella joined Lucas last night (he arrived Monday) and they hosted a barbeque (not what you’re imagining if you’re from KC). Betto and his girlfriend Dany were there, along with a friend of Lucas and Estella. Our neighbor to the right joined us later on, his name is Tiago. The barbeque consisted of steak, chicken, and some sausages (they were amazing). We had one person doing the majority of the cooking, and we would each eat from the plate as the food was brought out in batches.

Betto explained to us that the people in the south don’t eat this way. In Rio and Sao Paulo, they eat more like we do in the US (all at once, each from their own plate, the meal is done in 2 hours or less). But here in the ‘north’, he said their dinners can start at 2 pm and go until 10 pm. It was a pretty cool experience, I liked the focus on relationships with your friends being the reason for literally ‘sharing a meal’ together. We also had potatoes, corn, and grilled pineapple. Not a drop of barbeque sauce was to be found.

We promised we’d show them a Kansas City barbeque sometime, but I’m not sure if it will compare to a traditional Brazilian churrascaria. It’s not like we’re Oklahoma Joe’s or anything. Although that reminds me- we should make some beans. Mom- add another bottle of sauce to our package list.

That’s all for now! Pray for sun so I can take some pictures of our place! I will leave you all with a video of the dogs in the pool (this happened at 7:30 am on the first morning we were here).