julho!

Hi friends and family! Brett and I haven’t been up to a whole lot lately, but here are some updates on our life here in Brazil. We are slowly adjusting (although I’m already convinced it’s freezing when it’s 55 degrees).

I completed my first class at the University of Brasilia (UnB). On the days that I had class, I would wake up at 6:30 with Brett and leave the house by 7:30. Brett would drive to his office and then I would drop him off and drive to school. Driving in Brasilia is not that bad! The blocks are a little confusing, but thankfully I didn’t have to deal with those too much.

they were towing cars one day with... a forklift 

The class was a two-week long winter interim course and was really intense. Three hours a day (9am-12:30p), five days a week. I can speak some and form very basic sentences, but it was mostly vocabulary, grammar, and listening skills. I just enrolled in the next section- that begins August 5^th. I was able to make some friends in the class as well. A girl from Russia named Tatiana and I became close while discussing Russian literature and our love of eating all the time. She may not be in my next class though, which is unfortunate. An Italian mother and her two daughters asked me if I wanted to teacher her daughters art, so that may be an opportunity in the future that could be fun!

some of my course material

After the last day of class, we all got together and ate dinner at what appeared to be a Brazilian chain-type fast food restaurant. We paid R$18 each and could order as much food as we wanted. The restaurant served "tapiocas" and even though I've been there and had them, I still have no idea what they are. I took a lot of pictures to document this strange new type of food, so you can make your own conclusions. There were two types, a sandwich version (tapiocas) and pizza version (pizzoca- a play on words, obviously). 

my first 'tapioca'. it had some kind of meat inside. 

the second one. it had coconut and sweetened condensed milk. it was good!

same, but the inside. i was really trying to figure these things out.

Brett's 'pizzoca'

We have been spending some time with our neighbors as well, Estrella and Lucas. They had a party a couple of weekends ago to celebrate their furniture and belongings arriving from France. We met a Russian couple there that we are pretty sure are spies. They “work for the embassy” and brought traditional Russian pancakes to share with everyone.

from the house warming party

Estrella and Lucas took us out to breakfast one Sunday to a French themed restaurant. This is a huge deal because Estrella is French and she claims the croissants they serve are almost as good as French croissants.  

Things are still pretty uneventful though. Dessy swims every day, even just by himself. He’ll run in, take a quick lap, run out. He loves it. He’ll stand in the water and just stare at me if I try to get him out.

Desmond running off to swim.

"Not ready to come out yet, mom!"

Also, Brett got a tentative end date for the project, so it looks like we will be home by Christmas! We also may get a trip home at some point, but not so sure on the details for that just yet. Hopefully we will be able to time it in time to meet our new nephew!

Miss you all!