New Year's Resolutions

Last year I made and kept several resolutions, and some I failed at miserably.

One of the failures was quitting caffeine. I quit for a few weeks in January, then had a cup of coffee. A few weeks later I started drinking coffee regularly and threw in caffeinated sodas here and there. I even made iced tea a few times. Yum.

The problem is, I have an occasional skipped heart beat and caffeine aggravates that. Sometimes I would be lying in the hammock and the skipped beat would wake me up. At times like that I would think "I really should quit caffeine again." The flu in early January 2013 handled quitting for me. I was so ill I couldn't even drink water, then slept for 23 out of 24 hours waking only to use the restroom and drink water. And one year later I am caffeine-free. It seems like my body misunderstood my mind and got quitting a year off.

I feel great. the achy joints are gone, I haven't had a skipped beat yet this year, and I'm sleeping better.

This year my resolutions were very simple: lose 5 kilos by March and 5 more kilos by June. I'm taking an aqua aerobics class 3 times a week and sometimes running with the dogs. I feel like I'm finally shedding the cloud that was over me from writing my thesis and the stress of the first year here without an adequate way to communicate.

school is back in session

Living south of the equator, summer is in December, January and February. That means nothing to us here in Buritis- it's summer all year round because we are a hop skip and a jump from the equator- but school is still out for summer.

It seems to me that Brazilians think of their summer as ending with Carnaval, like Americans think of Summer ending with Labor Day. Since the Carnaval holiday is February 12 and 13 this year, our classes are filling up. We now have 2 levels- the students who studied with us last year are on Level 2, and the incoming students who begin, well, from the beginning!

I tend to think a lot about the schools I worked in all over the world, and especially remember some wonderful times I had at Fremont Adult School. The Fremont Adult School is closed now- Adult Education has been financially gutted in California and ESL education has been turned over to the Community Colleges.

In preparation for classes resuming in earnest, I've completed several writing projects that I have enjoyed tremendously. I am going to slow down on agreeing any new writing gigs aside until I see how much I'm teaching, but writing- and in particular travel writing- has made for an interesting Summer break.

I hope to do more translation work throughout the year as I also am really satisfied with that work and it benefits me tremendously with language acquisition.

I'm excited about the school year starting and I am especially shocked to find people can understand what I'm saying this year. What a difference a year makes!

a sweet little ESL/EFL moment

We went to his sister's 15th
birthday bash- here he is all dressed up!

Had a super adorable moment with a 5-year old student this morning.

We were naming his favorite foods in English, and when we go to the end he said "Now, in Portuguese?" in the exact same voice and tone I use to coach him to use English.

Of course I had to comply.

gunslinger

It rained and cooled off here, and since it was still overcast I had the rare and joyful opportunity to walk the dogs in the afternoon. Sacha's walk was  uneventful- she barked at a horse and whined in the direction of a cat.

On Bob's walk, we got to about the last half of the walk, when I hear some dogs we know from walking by going nuts. Like too much. We used to walk in front of this house and gate (it has some sort of wood business, too), but right now there's too much mud to walk there. But back to the barking and whining- so I look over, maneuver to get a better view, and see 2 guys on a motorcycle and 1 guy walking toward them WITH A HANDGUN OUT, POINTED AT THE 2 GUYS AND WALKING TOWARDS THEM.

I immediately start memorizing descriptions, when the guy with the gun starts walking the dude down the road. I'm flabbergasted. It's only 100 yards away. The guy being 'walked' keeps taking his hands off his head, which Gunslinger doesn't like and knocks him one on the noggin. This doesn't make Victim keeps his hands there, though.  I'm far enough way that I'm not worried, but I do feel incredibly urged to do soemthing. "Why didn't I bring my cell phone? If I were that guy I'd keep my hands on my head" are some fleeting thoughts.

But I am getting agitated. Thank gawd they are walking away from us.

Bob starts picking up on my agitation and begins to get a little wiley. I decide to walk to the police station- pretty close by- and before I even take 50 steps, the police round the corner. I point and they give me the thumbs up.

Life in the wild-wild west!

New Year's Eve in Our Little Cowboy Town

And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that never were.
― Rainer Maria Rilke

Our dogs are 1.5 years old- they were born in August and September 2011 respectively- and even though we have loud thunder and fireworks year-round here, they get freaked out if it is super close.

On NYE, the neighbors were letting off some real booming-fireworks directly over the houses, and Sacha was coming unglued. Bob also was getting upset and becoming very submissive to us- licking us, trying to climb into our laps, ears back terrified. We decided not to let her run around and get herself all worked up, but rather keep her close and redirect her attention to us. And we also hoped to help Bob see there was nothing to be scared of. One way we did it was by cutting up a hot dog into 100 pieces and giving them each a treat just before they got wild-eyed, thereby hoping to create a connection between this loud noise and something yummy!

Carlos and Gusthavo turned in early, and I stayed up waiting for the close-by fireworks to end- which they did at just after midnight. The central plaza fireworks went on for a while, but the dogs are used to them.

Over breakfast Carlos, Gu, and I toasted with our sparkling apple cider (unopened from the previous night), and Gusthavo ceremoniously pulled out 3  jabuticaba berries (they remind me of wine grapes) for a special toast. 

the magic berries

Normally, you swallow the small seed hole, while sucking out all the juice and discarding the skin. But this morning, Carlos and Gusthavo made a big show of these being magic berries, and that whoever ate the whole thing- bitter skins and all- would get all they wanted and needed in the new year.

Happy New Year!

a little trouble with IBAMA

We are buying 2 lots in the center of our Little Cowboy Town in order to build a house and a small school. The neighbor frantically called Carlos and said a family was planning on building a house on our lots as squatters. So we decided to do a little clearing & cleaning to help stake our claim.

Carlos decided we should burn a pile of the yard waste. Oh lord. I hate it when anyone does that, but he had that look on his face....so we burned.

And IBAMA- like Code Enforcement for the whole darned Amazon- pulled up and helped us put it out, chastised us for starting it, and explained they could give us a ticket or put us in jail. (This is IBAMA, not OBAMA)

Then they wanted to know where I was from, why I was in Buritis, and explained that they don't need to speak other languages because they can hit criminals and put them in handcuffs, and everyone seems to understand that. Wow.

Now let me pause here to say that there is burning every day, almost every night, here in town. IBAMA has never hassled anyone. What happenned? We have no idea.

But the silver lining- one officer was smoking hot hot hot- he looked EXACTLY like Benjamin Bratt. A double really. It was amazing (and I speak from experience- I met him and his brother in SF at a film screening!)

Hello, how are you?

3 little students...how lucky they are to learn a foreign language so young. And if they keep studying, they'll have almost no accent.
Can't help but admit I'm a tiny bit jealous!