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).