Tomorrow= day of ReSt!

Our class from this week.
Today everything finished with the course, it was good. The people that were there for the most part were people that want to get the perpetual education fund so they were really all that intereseted in getting a job. But for people to get their PEF loans, it is manditory to do the course we teach, hence why they were there.Me teaching about an activity where people have to make their own coat of arms, like the coat of arms I used as an example? It's the symbol of brazil's national soccer team hehehe...
At the beginning I left the chapel to go in search of some chocolate candies to give to our students that voulnteered for things during the week. If I was in Curitiba this would have been a piece of cake for me but since I'm in a city I dont know very well I just walked around until I found a store of some sort. It was getting dark so I was walking fast, and I finally came to a gas station that had a convinence store....without air conditioning. Every single piece of chocolate in that little store was completely melted in its wrapper. So I bought cookies for them instead and a liter of guarana...this little story was just to show how incredibly hot things are here, all day from sun up to sun down. I dont know how people sleep at night in this heat, it amazes me!This is what happens when the stake president loans us the projector to use for the course. We hook it up to our computers and make a little "home theater" in our hotel room...last nights showing, "Pride and Prejudice" That person in the background in their PJ's is me:)
Tomorrow we dont have anything to do for our internship, so hopefully I will get in another hour on the beloved treadmill, and do some homework. I HavE to be better about it, that is the last thing in the world I want to be doing during christmas break, so I will be good about it and do some tomorrow. I also have to replace my luggage that ripped open in the second city we were in...hopefully I can find some for cheap. I hope everyone has a good night and a great friday!

Bichos, Bichos, Bichos

So we woke up this morning to little ants all over our hotel room, tiny tiny ones that get into everything like our suitcases, makeup bags, everything. That was not the greatest thing, but oh well....could have been worse huh?

Today I studied the whole day, just my latin american history class. I only got through 3 chapters of material because the teacher is asking random questions like "what is the author's opinion about peruvian agrarian reform?" The thing is that he never explicitly says, "I think this...or I feel" so I have to really read into his language, his word usage etc. On that quiz i got i think an 80 percent..but i got a D- on one too...hahaha, guess my A I've been keeping thus far wont be there for long! But its okay, only a 3.0 class out of lots so, oh well....I can take another A- I guess.
The class that we are teaching here is good, there are a few non-members with us here so its nice to explain about the church and what exactly I came down here for. I am having fun with them, but learning the art of staying distant from the guys in the class, every time we teach there is always one that is interested in me, haha...that reminds me. So the blind guy from last week is a new convert, and asked if he could look me up on Orkut, which is like a brazilian facebook, so I said yeah...lots of people ask me that. So he did and writes me a comment, "I think you are so beautiful"....I couldnt help but laugh, he is blind! How does he even know? It was funny. But anyway, I've decided to just be like a sister missionary towards the guys because I'm sick of dealing with not giving out my number, not wanting to hang out with them, or giving excuses etc...so maybe I wont have that problem for the next 2 weeks...I hope. I dont think I'm super atractive or anything, its just that I'm american and therefore something new and different.
Tomorrow we have nothing to do during the day, which means....more homework. I think I'm going to read some more for my paper and maybe do some of my portuguese homework....I have no idea what grade I have in that class...he never sends me feedback but I'm sure its fine. I hope we can get over to the gym for a bit, i havent been running since we were in londrina, and since it is raining here all day I dont want to do it outside. But Campo Grande is a cool little city with nice people, good good beef...and ants.

I rode the bus with porteiro Ze

Heeellloooo Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul! We arrived in the city about 2 hours ago and it is not a huge city, but defenetly bigger than aracatuba. The bus ride was about 7 1/2 hours through the state of Sao Paulo and the one we're in now of course. We had fun on the bus, I took a little nap, read a lot of one of my primary resources for my internship paper, and listened to my iPod the whole time. Okay so lemme tell you about porteiro Ze. We had it arranged by our boss that in all of our busrides and plane trips we ride in seats 13 and 14, always. So today was no different, except for the man that was sitting behind me. He was SUPER caipeira, straight out of the northeast..he talked incredebly loud and i could bearly understand a word that he said as he was talking to the guy sitting next to him. I thought it was hullarious, so i took a video of the scenery outside and caught him talking on tape...Quent, dont worry I'll be sure to email it to ya so you can have memories of Fortaleza! Then go to www.porteiroze.com and watch one of the cartoons, its a dead ringer of that guy hahaha.Since everyone on the bus also had what Camila called "Caipeira face" we decided to be caipeira too...for those that dont speak portuguese that would be the equivalent of the word hick or redneck. We took this picture of us being "amazed" at my iPod. One time when we were on study abroad this old man was on the bus with us and we kept saying, alguem viu o meu iPod (mais eh pronuciado i-pode neh..) a gente perguntou acho 4 ou 5 vezes e alquele homem velho disse "essas coisas de pode e nao pode" he had no clue what we were talking about, I almost burst out laughing. Its not funny in english so i wont try to explain it.
This picture is when I was studying from my book Opertunity Forgone: Education in Brazil. It has good information about how the school system is set up in Brazil, but it is really dated, and I dont know how much I can use from it. But its a good way to see the history of education in Brazil, and it explains from the point of view of Brazilian authors from the top universities in Brazil as to why the system is very flawed and needs major reform to start competing on an international scale. I still havent figured out what exactly my thesis is going to be but i need to figure that out soon!Camila looking at the lady across from us...she was asleep within the first 10 minutes, but at least she didnt snore!
Right now we are just chilling out watching a cartoon movie, its really funny and you dont have to think about anything to watch it which is always a bonus! Tomorrow we are going to be teaching another workshop until friday for 3 hours a day. That means we will have time to go explore things in the city and maybe replace my busted suit case, sounds exciting huh? Well I'm going to get back to watching this movie, but to all those that went back to school today, the semesters almost done now, so just hang in there!

two cities down one to go

So everything here is finally over. We did our traning meeting with the stake leadership here this evening, and it was really good. My part was pretty funny....since I hadnt ever talked about the material that I was given to speak about, it was me doing a lot of reading, and not knowing some words, but I think I got my message across, if not I gave them a nice oppertunity to enjoy some weird portuguese hahaha.

This morning we went to the stake conference in aracatuba. It was really nice, there was this super cute toddler sitting in front of me, she was probably like 3 and was just so adorable...she talked through the whole meeting....I'm amazed at how children that age can just talk forever. Two guys bore their testimonies, one was just retuning from their mission in porto alegre, and the other was leaving to go to the same mission. They were really good at speaking to the young men of the stake and encouraging them to serve full time missions. After that a member of the quorm of the 70 got up to give his talk. He gave a really good talk on the book of life, and it was nice to see things from a new perspective on that topic. Afterwards we went and introuduced ourselves to the stake president and asked who the stake employment specialist was. Turns out it was the stake young mens president, who also happens to be a high councelor and the stake employment specialist...talk about no free time there. Then the quorm of the 70 member overheard us say we're interns for the church and came over and introduced himself and told us that he is in curitiba alot because that is the area he takes care of. So maybe we'll see him in the future.

It was sad to say goodbye to the people here in birigui and aracatuba, they really were such nice people. President nelli and his family were so hospitable to us, it was nice to recieve such a warm welcome. And that man is so kind and smart in the gospel, he is only in his mid-thirties already and in the stake presidency, I seriously wouldnt be surprised if I saw him speaking in general conference 40 years from now. We talked with him about taking some steps to open a volunteer center in birigui, and he was really excited about the prospect, so we are going to put him in touch with the people in Londrina so they can help him out with organizing the paperwork and such before asking for a center. I hope it works out for that little stake.

For dinner that was an adventure hahaha....we have a daily limit of food money of about 25 reais, which i normally dont even spend in a day in curitiba, but since we are at a hotel with no place around to eat at, we decided to order out. So we called habibs, and they told us to call an 800 number, so we did. then the 800 number said that there was no habibs nearby eventhough there is one in the city center, and we explained that, they said to call directly to them to order, so we did. So i called back to the habibs here explained that they cant find the hotel, and asked if we could order from there directly. She said thats against the rules and that i have to call back to the 800 number....needless to say, i gave up hahaha. Finally we ordered grilled chicken with a corn-chowder sauce and rice. After dinner we watched Pride and Prejudice, an all time favorite here for me and Camila, and then watched extreme home makeover....i love that show.

So basically that was the day today, tomorrow we are going to be traveling to campo grande which i was told is about a 7 hour bus ride...cross your fingers for me that the AC on the bus works!

vc pode abrir a porRrta?

Okay so we finished teaching our class in Birigui today, and the councelor of the stake president and his wife brought us back to our hotel. They are such a nice family, sometimes when people are in leadership postitions here I have found that they can put up a wall between themselves and the people they are leading. This is not the case of this man, he is so kind and willing to do everything he can for the people he is over, even for 2 women in their 20's....he was defenetly a good example of christlike leadership. And his wife is as sweet as ever, such a patient mom with her kids, and she even gave us some dolce de leite e dolce de chocolate.....basically homemade carmel and fudge.Our students practicing how to present themselves with the "30 secong comercial activity"

After we got home we chilled and ate stroganoff for dinner, its sooo good...one of the many recepies i want to take with me back to the US. Then we went in search of the gym here at the hotel....the only thing is that it was POURING rain, I mean really really pouring and there was thunder and lightning....we found the gym, but it was closed. So we walked back to the hotel laughing at the fact that we were absolutely soaked. When we got back to the lobby there were all these guests here for a wedding and here we are comming in looking like drowned rats, a total juxtaposition. Then we got into our pj's and now I am writing here.

I'm really glad that I have been down here, giving service to people. I'm not trying to pat myself on the back, far from it actually but I feel like I have had the oppertunity to grow so much here and face fears, like speaking in public, speaking in portuguese, meeting massive numbers of new people at once, living in a foreign country and realizing that most of the time no one understands me or my culture, where im coming from. It has been really good for me to get out of my little place in life and see more of the world, become a more well rounded person, and gain some more life experince.

I feel kind of like Sabrina, you know that movie from the early nintees with harrison ford....she goes away to paris and finds out who she really is while she is away. I feel like I have done the same thing here. I have seen miracles happen here, people get jobs when they thought it wasnt possible, and listened at times to my own mouth speaking portuguese in front of lots of people so well they couldnt believe I was an american. Granted not everyone gets a job here, and i defenetly have my share of mistakes with the language still, but its been nice to truly see that the Lord helps us in big and small ways in our lives, and gives us all what we need when we need it.Our class in a "funny" photo...I decided to give thumbs up, and as you can see it was a popular choice.

I am excited to be home in California in a couple weeks, and to see my friends and family and get back to life in provo. I have enjoyed my time here but I glad to be going back to being near my brother and sisters, going to Sonic on thursdays for "happy hour", going to the movies in scrubs with Tisha, having Hillary randomly come over to my apartment,Sunday dinners with Quent and Kimberlee, laughing with the lambs about lots of things, going to the temple early in the morning when its all quiet with new snow on the ground, going to BYU games, playing the piano, having a decent kitchen to cook in,and brown sugar that tastes like brown sugar hahaha, and so many other things. I'm excited to turn 21 in less than a month and see what the next year of life holds for me.

For sure I will enjoy the week to come in Campo Grande and the week after that in curitiba teaching my last workshop...but I'm pretty much ready to come home. Well thats enough contemplation for now, I'm going to try and scrounge up a movie to watch with Camila, and maybe order a hot fudge sunday from room service...MmMmMm. I hope everyone had a nice saturday and have a great sunday tomorrow!

Terra do boi gordo

O famoso "boi gordo"
Hello to all from Aracatuba, Sao Paulo! Getting here was a funny little story. Our bus left the station at around 6 am, so we were sitting there waiting for it for a bit, but I didnt mind, you know why? Because I got to watch the sunrise over the little city of londrina and watched as it came up over the feilds of grass and trees that lay beyond the city. It was the most beautiful thing I had seen in a long time, a really vivid color of pink and purple. Maybe I should get up to see that more often. When our bus left I fell asleep almost immediately and slept for about an hour. Then I woke up to it being like 90 degrees inside my bus. Turns out the air conditioning had broken and the air it was blowing through the vents was the hot air from outside turned even hotter by running past the engine. The bus ride was another 5 hours after that happened. I was so happy to get into our hotel room and turn on the air conditioning!You can see aracatuba on this map, its in the western part of the state kinda near some water...i think its a river

The class that we started teaching today is a group of 20 people, most of them are unemployed, but some are already working and came just to see what the class is all about. They are a good group of people, and I was surprised how i wasnt as tired as i should have been while i was teaching, it was a little miracle for me today. After we finished teaching one of the councelors in the stake presidency and his wife took us back to our hotel. They have 2 adorable little kids, and I was holding one in my arms as he was sleeping while i listened to their four year old tell me lots of stories about random things...she was so cute. They are just a cute family and it was nice to see such kindess between the mom and her kids, the president and his wife, and also with him and his children.The flag of the city. Is it just me or does it look backwards?

The city that we are staying in is relatively small, but it is nice. Most of it is farming around here, especially cows...that is where i got the name for my blog, it means land of the fat bull, and it is the towns slogan here. The hotel we are in is really nice, it reminds me of one i stayed at in ubatuba over the summer...just laid back, the resturant is open late, has chill people at the front desk, and everyone is super nice. I hope we get a chance tomorrow to take a look around here, it looks pretty chic, it even has its own hair salon here.

Well tomorrow we are teaching until 1 pm, and then after that i am going to be doing homework and reading for my internship paper. I hope that everyone has a good night and a great weekend.

One City down, two more to go!

Camila made me this to wish me a happy thanksgiving, it was such a great thing to wake up to! She even drew me a turkey and a pumkin on there!

So our class ended today, and it was hard to say goodbye to them as I thought it would be. They were all such nice people, and I hope that they are able to use the things they learned in their lives after we leave. This will be short since we have to be at the bus station tomorrow at 5:30 am. but here are some photos from today I wanted to post.This is me eating moroccan/nordestino stlye, we had no forks last night for our dinner hehehe. So Camila and I brainstormed and came up with this McGuyver solution to re-heating our lasana and rice for lunch...use the iron in the hotel room...and it totally worked, who needs a microwave anyway:)This is the whole class that we taught today after the end of the workshop. After this we had a little party to celebrate them finishing the course. It was good to talk with the members more.The guy sitting down that is being handed the guttar is anderson, the blind guy that I wrote about yesterday, he even plays the guttar and is really good at it. Defenetly was a good example of determination and hard work!

Well that just about wraps up my blog for today, when I write here next I will be back in the state of Sao Paulo, but not the city thank goodness! Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and enjoyed the Macy*s parade....and maybe some football too! Have a good night and a great friday!

Quem inventou a distância não sabia o que era a saudade..

Camila in the Taxi on the way to teach the workshop....we we're excited as you can tell!
Hahaha, I liked my title of my blog today, I'm not homesick at the moment mas acontece de vez em quando. Okay I wont be the annoying person that speaks two languages in the same sentence, so thats the end of that. Today was a good day, we got up at like 9 and had breakfast, then we studied for a bit and went and got lunch around noon. What I thought would be a harmless purchase turned into me buying some new sandals, a jacket, a pair of earings and a new necklace. All this cost me only 30 bucks, I love shopping for things in Brazil, when there are sales anyway.
Camila teaching our group of about 40 people.
After that we came back to the hotel and took naps, then got ready to go teach our workshop. Today was a good day with them too, the people here are really funny and friendly, so its nice teaching people so excited about things, not as much work for me and Camila. We have a guy in our class that is blind, so I've been trying to think of ways to help him feel like he is participating more. Since we work out of a workbook and write things on the board mostly he isnt able to see the things we are talking about. But today I tried to explain how to do things step by step and give examples so he could understand what we are doing. Then someone writes things down for him and helps him to memorize it. Lots of the people are new members that we are teaching, and he is one of them. What an example of dedication he has, he could have easily said "oh well they arent catering to my needs, this is a waste of my time." but no, he stayed.Me getting in some exercise today, by jumping on the bed..."three little monkeys jumping on the bed....one fell off and bumped his head..."

Tomorrow is the last day of the class, and I'll be sad to leave the people here. They really are so nice and fun. But that is life huh, people come and go...but it was great to meet them all! Well I am going to go now, its almost midnight and we are still waiting on our dinner, hopefully it will get here soon! I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow, I will be spending it doing who knows what for dinner...maybe I'll get a turkey sandwich at subway hahaha. Goodnight to all!Look how heavenly I look hahaha, eyes closed and all. My attempt at a toe-touch after 5 years, not too shabby!

cheguei em Londrina!

This is Londrina, its in the northern state of Parana. Like how I took the map from google? hehe.
So early early Tuesday morning we arrived in Londrina by bus. We left Curitiba about 11 pm and got on our cool bus. It was a leito bus, so that meant that everyone had seats that reclined into beds and fluffy comforters and pillows too. The coolest thing was that it was a double decker bus like the ones they always show in movies. And I can now say I rode on one haha.This is a man made lake in the city, the sky scrapers in the background are apartment buildings, not businesses.

After we checked into our hotel at like 5 am we went up stairs and went back to sleep until 10am and woke up. We went and worked out for a bit and then went across the street to the mall to get some food. Since we are traveling on the church's expenses we have to be very good with our money. Everything is paid for by the church, but that means we need every recipt of anything we buy and yeah, thats a new thing for me. But good practice for anytime I might need to travel for a buisness or something. After that we went back to the hotel and I studied some and then took a nap lol. The same lake, its a pretty city huh?
We got all our stuff together and headed to the chapel about an hour and a half early to set everything up. Then, they started to arrive. We set up places for thrity people thinking that would be enough. It sure wasnt! We had 42 people come to our class yesterday, and we held it in the cultural hall. We had to use a microphone for everyone to hear us, but it was awesome. Everyone there was so excited and followed directions really well. It was so nice to have such a great group, it could have been chaotic with that size of a class, but it worked out really well. There was a lady participating in the group with a one year old so I watched him for a bit so she could do her work. He was really fasinated by a little rubber eraser, proably played with it for like a half hour. He was the cutest little guy, until he started throwing up his yogurt, then I gave him back to his mom haha.

After everything was over we got a ride back to our hotel and read some books for a while and Camila and I chatted before going to bed. It is so nice having her here as a companion, she has good insight into things, and is really good at helping me understand things here culturally speaking. I dunno what I would do without her!

Today we are pretty much doing the same thing, but maybe we will go catch some rays out by the pool for a while, it is really hot here though in Londrina like 90 degrees hot (with humidity) or for you celsius people, that would be 32 degrees with like 75% humidity. Good thing the chapels have air conditioning! Oh, I forgot to write a bit about the city. It is the second largest city in this state, and the name comes from the word "Londres" which means London. The city was originally founded by the british hailing from London, so that explains the name. It is a really nice city, defenetly on the small side, but it is growing really fast. There are 2 stakes here and like 13 chapels. Not bad for a small city huh?

Well I'm going to go put on some headphones, plug into my iPod, and read primary sources for my research paper. I know you're all really jellous. Hope everyone is having a good day, and enjoying break from BYU....and have a happy thanksgiving tomorrow!

Thunderstorms+Sunday=Day of reading

So as you can probably tell from the title of my blog, today it was still all rainy with thunderstorms. Today it was a pretty crazy storm, it blew over some trees and cut power in some metropolitan areas of the city....ainda bem que a gente mora no centro! (good thing we live downtown!)

Church today was good, I talked to Jody today some and she seems like she is struggling here with fitting in. (She is the american that married a brazilian and is here while he does his masters with two kids i wrote about when i first got here). She is learning portuguese and has a calling now in the primary, so thats good but she still feels kinda alone here, i wish i could do something for her, but im going out of town for two weeks. Maybe when I get back I'll figure out something that I can do. She is so nice, and it would be so hard to be living here and not know the language, I admire her courage! I gave the closing prayer in Relief society, and it wasnt perfect, but i think it was understandable...well i hope haha.

After church I came home and made the broccli soup that I bought yesterday at the store and made some toast. That was so good to me, it reminded me of home, so it was nice. After that I got out my "pregar meu evangelho" and read about the 6 attributes of christ that missionaries should work on. Eventhough I'm not a missionary, it is still really useful and I learned a lot from it. What an inspired manual the missionaries are working with! The nicest thing is when I got that in june it was so hard for me to read through, but now it is no problem at all. I understand everything....I was so happy. If only my speaking abilities can get better! I also read some really good talks online at the church website about the holy ghost and patience. Sometimes those two gospel topics seem so simple, but in actuality when you stop and think about the two subjects they really are quite amazing and help us in literally everything we do. I also read an interview between president and sister hinckley from like 2003 i think and they had such a cute marriage and respect for eachother. They are a great example of how to have a good relationship with anyone....it is based on respect and looking past your own needs. Things I can use with my family, friends, co-workers, etc. I would look it up if you get the time.

After taking a nap for a bit we went to Camilas parents house to eat dinner with them and also her aunt and grandma, they are such a fun family. It is so nice of her parents to take time from their schedules to have us over for dinner and things like that. What nice people!

Well, tomorrow is our big traveling day, we are going to be out and about for a bit and our cell phone number is changing tomorrow. We are getting a nicer phone to take with us so when I find out what it is I'll email the people that might want/need it. We will have internet access at the hotels, so still feel free to email! I am going to go finish, or I guess start my scripture reading for today, haha...but I hope you all had a good Sunday and that a great week lies ahead for us all!

The Longest day

This is the Museum that the concert was held in,O museu Oscar Neimyer, its the coolest one in Curitiba!
Wow....today was super long for me. I was so tired when we were teaching today, even sleeping on the floor of the office seemed appealing to me at the time. I feel sorta burned out at the moment. Thank goodness tomorrow is sunday and I can have a day of rest. Literally. The group "Brasileirão" with "quarteto em Cy" they were so good!
We taught from 9 am until 5 pm today because it was an intensive course, just last night and today. That was stressful for both camila and me. We came home in a cab after the class left because it was literally pouring buckets of rain, the drops were so big they looked like snowflakes. There was thunder and lightning and it was great.Our little class of this week, man did they give us some good stories to share when I get back lol.
We watched what not to wear and just chilled out for a while until 8 pm, then we left with Camila's parents to go see an MPB concert that was being held at a nearby museum. It was really cool, I enjoyed the two groups that were performing, and it also counted as some of my homework too which is a plus! Before going in we ate some esfiha and kibe...that is brazilianized arabic food and it is something i will deeply miss when i go back to the united states, maybe I'll figure out how to make those too hehehe....
Me by a wall I thought was cool looking at the museum, like my little model pose hehe..
Afterwards we went and did some grocery shopping and i bought some american food to "matar a saudade" or as in english, remedy my homesickness. I bought some minute maid juice, cream of broccli soup, apple pie, and one brazilian thing....guarana light. I couldnt help it! I already ate the tiny apple pie, i guess it was like the size of a tart, but it did the trick:) Tomorrow we are getting our things together for the trip, going to church of course, and having dinner at Camila's parents house....spaghetti brazilian style=soo good. Well I am tired and still have some scripture reading to do before bed time but everyone enjoy your sundays and have a great up comming week!And after the concert, yay for going to my first brazilian concert, hope its not the last!

P.S. I took a little video of the grouip that performed tonight, if you're curious to know what MPB sounds like...I'm putting it on google video and you can find out! I'll put the link once i have it all set up:)

I'm shrinking!

The title of my blog is because I am finally seeing the weight I gained from study abroad and the famous "Pega mais Kris!!" that i always heard during the summer go away! Hooray, thanks to subway, the fact that I have to walk an hour at least everyday to get to our office, and going running in the mornings, I am looking thinner. Hopefully it will stay that way hehehe.

Today we went into the office at like 9 am to fill in teaching one of the classes. I was so tired and just didnt have energy so as soon as that finished at 1 pm I made the walk back to my apartment and took a nap. I woke up at 5:30 to the sound of thunder and got back into my dress clothes to walk back to the office to give the intensive class that went from 7-10 pm tonight and tomorrow from 9am-4pm tomorrow. Camila and I talked about it and decided to stay here for the weekend, since we have to start traveling on monday for 2 weeks straight and it would be good to pack things and get ready. So who knows what we will do tomorrow after our class finishes, maybe go see a movie.

While I was at the apartment sleeping Camila was at the office trying to figure out her visa stuff....and this one guy was following her around for most of the time asking her random personal questions. He is the kind of guy that is like "i bet you are so glad that out of all the people i could have been talking to, i chose you. Really you should be honored." So sorry camila that you had to endure that today.

That reminds me, today when I was comming into the office I came in alone because Camila left a bit earlier, and there were some crazy men out on rua XV today...lol the crazy things people do here while im walking past them, one guy even ran his hand through my hair, they never cease to amaze me. Defenetly something I havent gotten used to, and something I wont miss when I get back to provo!

I realized last night that I have less than a month left here in Brazil, and my first thought was wow, this time has gone by SO fast, and my second thought was when is the next time I'll be back here? I hadnt thought of that before, because when I left Sao Paulo I knew i was comming back, but now...I dont know. I defenetly know that I want to come back, and I know that I will miss people from here, I guess I'll just wait and see when the next oppertunity arises.

Well it is midnight and I'm going to finish watching "legalmente loira" or as we know it in english "legally blonde"...its on tv dubed into portuguese and its still funny to me. Well everyone have a good night and a great weekend!

Feeling like a 1950's housewife

Yesterday was a good day. It was a holiday for the declaration of the brazilian republic, and I really did celebrate it by writing papers. I know, nerdy...but I am diligently trying to finish my two 3 credit classes so I can start my 30 pg. paper. That is like a tiny rain cloud of worry that follows me around all day everyday, and when I think about the paper...I freak out. So the nerdiness a good thing.

Today Camila and I both did not want to get up lol...I think that was like the hardest time I had getting up in a long time. I must have hit the snooze like 10 times, but we finally got up and went into the office. Today this company called softmarketing was recruting new telemarketers from the emploment center so that meant that we had 40 people to interview this morning. I mostly took peoples resumes and helped people fill out and print resumes if they didnt already have them. We did that for about 2 hours and then headed back home because Camila had to justify her vote. For those who aren't aware voting in Brazil is manditory, if you dont vote you dont get the equivalent of our social security number, which links you to all the social programs like health care etc. here. If you don't vote (you can miss up to 3 times without loosing your CPF) you have to go justify your vote, tell them "I was sick that day in the hospital" or in Camila's case "I was out of the country" then you pay a small fee and get your CPF back...some returned missionaries like to make this seem like if you dont vote your life is going to end, but thats not the case; you just need to take care of it.

After eating some soup I cleaned the apartment. This is where the title of my blog comes from. I know I'm not a house wife nor from the 1950's...but today I sure felt like it! I put on some michael buble, which all by itself sounds like its from the 50's and also put on my little apron and put my hair up and started scrubbing...I didnt mind cleaning at all, and i used a squigee (dunno how to spell that one) to clean the floor. Every place that has tile in our apartment has a little drain in the floor, and this is the greatest idea. You put the floor cleaner down on the floor and after spash lots of water on the floor and use the squigee to sweep the water into the drain. Isnt that great? I enjoyed cleaning like a brazilian today :)

I also stopped on Rua XV on the way home from work today and finished christmas shopping for everyone in the family and close friends. I got everyone random things, so as always this christmas people can wonder, "what is Kristin going to get me this year?". I'm glad to have gotten that done with!

This evening I dunno what I'm going to do, I was thinking of ordering some pizza or something, I love the pizza here...its great. I think there are few things here that I dont love, well...I guess I can think of a few but what I'm saying is that I like it here. And before I forget, Kimmy the wedding dress is amazing, I know I already told you but I can't get over it....thanks for sending the photos! Well I hope that everyone had a good Thursday, and an awesome friday, tomorrow we are back to teaching once again.

On the road again

So right now I'm listening to christmas music....since there will be no Thanksgiving this year for me, I skipped right to my favorite holiday! Besides there are already christmas ad's here and christmas trees and santa hats in the stores, so I thought I would join in on the fun.

Today at the office I entered in every student that we have taught into a program for Salt Lake, defenetly took me forever to do, and I learned lots about the differences in handwriting between americans and Brazilians. And there are a lot of differences lol, I had to ask "qual letra é essa aqui?" like 10 times. But I got us all caught up and so far I have taught about 80 people. This week we are teaching an intensive course on friday/saturday of another 20, so the 100 mark will be hit this week. Horray! Then Saturday Camila and I are going to travel with two of our friends to Joinville to go to a dance there, watch movies, and spend the night at their friends house there. It should be fun, Joinville was a cool place when I visited it oh so long ago (3 months ago) so I'm sure I'll like it!

After work we indulged in buying a few things on Rua XV on the way home, it was raining a bit, so we didnt stay out too long. Then I came home and made potatoes for dinner...oh that sounds irish lol. Camila's mom makes these awesome potatoes and I learned how to make them and now I'm hooked. Then I sat down and filled out a job profile for BYU's employment website. I am rolling around the idea of having a job in the winter, we'll see if it actually happens or not hehe.

The title of my blog comes from the fact that we got our bus and plane tickets today and we will be leaving next monday to teach abroad until the first week of December. I am really excited to get out there and teach in other places and set up teachers there as well. My good friend the charter bus will be my companion once again, after spending about 60 hours on one during the summer, I'm glad we will be back together to travel to Sao Paulo, Northern Parana, and Mato Grosso do Sul....well maybe not really, but I can pretend!

Well tomorrow is, guess what......A HOLIDAY!! I love all the holidays here in brazil, they are great. I didnt know we had one until Kellen told me today at the office and i responded with "adoro esse país! Sempre tem feriados aqui no brasil e como um presente pra mim cada mês!" (Translation: I love this country! There are always holidays here in Brazil, its like a present for me every month!) Guess how we're going to spend it....no really just guess....homework. I just think of it as less to do during christmas break and while traveling lol. So tomorrow I will be productive, prometo:)

Since once again is it is past midnight, I am going to end it all here, but everyone have a good night and a great, uh wednesday!

Contemplative Day...

So today was a day of thinking, lots and lots of thinking. Thinking about where I will be a year from now, thinking about where I am in life at the moment. Thinking about how much my life has changed since I have come to college and all the little things that make me who I am today. I guess what brought this on was talking to Liesel today, and how much her life has changed for her, and that it is just what she needed to grow in ways she didnt see possible a year ago. I was thinking about the things in my life that stress me out, that make me worry, that panic me at times because I dont know what is lying ahead for me. I was thinking after I talked with someone else that everytime I think things are going the way they should everything gets turned upside-down and that nothing is ever going to work out.

Then I thought to myself, I have no explination to any one of those questions. There is no way to know where I will be in life in November of 2007. There is nothing I can do about the things and decisions people are making around me. People have their agency and can choose to do what they want. But I wish sometimes people would realize that consequences of their actions have effect on lots of people, not just themselves. And as for the things that stress me out, that make me sad, that dissapoint me, it is my choice to let them affect me that way; and I decided that I'm not going to let things affect me like that. I am doing the best I can and thats all that matters. Eventually I will understand why I have the trials I have in life; they are here to help me learn something, so I shouldnt focus on why I have them, but what I can take from them. To spare you all of listening to my petty worries, I wont list them...

Besides my thinking I went running today at the Jardim Botanico here in Curitiba with Camila, it was good or us both to get out and exercise. We both woke up not feeling so great so we didnt go into the office today, but by 3 pm we felt up to going for a run. I have a goal to come home skinner and tanner...lol, lets see how that goes. But it was a good time, I enjoyed my iPod for an hour. After that I did a bit of reading and then Camilas parents brought us dinner. It was so good, we had panquecas...not like american pancakes, but still super good...I wanna get the recipe from her mom before I go back to the states. Then we watched LOST...I love that show..it is my little break from the world every Monday night:)

So basically that was my day. I just finished drinking some diet Guarana, and so maybe i should finish this blog too. Thanks for all the time people took to talk to me today; I really needed it! I will let you know how things go tomorrow, everone have a good night!

Happy Day

Camila keeps teaching me cool things I can do with my camera, hence I took this sweet photo!

Today was a good sunday, we accidentally slept in too late to go to our ward, so we went to the 11 am one. Church was good and afterward we walked home in the slight rain that was falling. I read some talks online from past conferences, and I really enjoyed gaining new insight on the topic I picked out, which was perseverance. I had never considered that persevering means not simply waiting until something from our lives is no longer a struggle for us, but active pateince and faith is what true perseverance entails. I really enjoyed being able to read talks from the general athorities today, I feel kinda out of the loop without the liahona or ensign here so Im glad there is the internet!This is my shout-out in the sand to my parents! Love you guys!

This evening I listened to the CES fireside on-line while I cooked and cleaned, I didnt feel like watching it dubbed into portuguese. The biscuts I made tasted weird to me, so tomorrow I will take them to the ducks at the park where we run...lol. But anyway the fireside was really good, I enjoyed the topic and the fact that we need to act on things in faith, from school to friendships, marriage to our scripture reading...we need to have faith be a part of it all. I also liked that the speaker stressed that we are living at a very unique time in the history of the world and that our actions in life really count for something, sometimes I forget that. I had a renewed desire to have faith in my actions after that talk, I'm glad I sat down to listen to it, if you havent read it or listened to it I would reccomend it!Um, the tiny wagon again...just cant get over the tinyness

I am also really happy because I was able to talk to some friends and family today. A wise person suggested I get skype to talk to them because it is cheaper, and that was defenetly a good idea:) I felt for the first time today actually in contact with people and I was able to call people without it costing an arm and a leg for the first time ever! It was great.Yesterday with the little waterfall in the back

Well, now it is really late and I should go to bed, but I hope that each and everyone of you has a good week and that you can accomplish all your goals be what they may. Okay writing that last sentence reminds me to ask pardon for my english, it is getting weirder and so is my spelling, I write weird things because i cant remember how else to say it! So dont mind it please!

ps. here are the links for the videos, hope they work and enjoy! (and no, i dont really dance like that :)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8094968846893863833&q=the+dance+of+drunken

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1866866408494610317&q=bichos+engracados

"I'll let all my fears fall away"-Josh Groban

Today we went to a park, not the muesum to have lunch and spend some time out in NaTuRe!! Gooouleeaaahhh (for the family). Anyway here are some pictures, we had some fun...

me as a model from the 80's on some train tracks...
Silly donkey, futibol is for people
me in front of the house where camila used to stay with her fam for the holidays
the tiniest wagon, i swear people used to be midgets a century ago
these trees are super famous and the symbol of Curitiba, they are the weirdest pine tree i have ever seen!
this is me doing a sweet "crouching tiger hidden dragon" flying though the air move.
me with the cool araucarias in the background (the pine trees)
OoOoOoh sweet shoes! (they're atually camilas)
the water of a tiny waterfall at the park we went to.

all in all it was a fun day, it was so nice to get out of the city and relax a bit for the weekend. Tomorrow we are going to church, and then i think maybe moving to camilas aunts for the next week. We'll see how that goes over! I put two videos of our adventures up on google video, so as soon as i figure out the right link i will post it here. everyone have a good night and a good sunday!

The Mrs. Fields of Brazil

More pictures from our trip, me striking a pose, gostou?
Today was the graduation of mine and Camila's favorite class. They were such a smart group of people! I hope every single one of them finds what they are looking for. We had a little grauation party for them after the class got out, and I made some sugar cookies and drizzled milk chocolate over them...very simple, but people liked them. Cookies here are like a big deal, so I was glad to share something from my country. I composed this photo and Camila took it, I think it is interesting....
I didnt go running today, oops. Camila tried to wake me up but I didnt even budge....lol. My sad moment for today was that I downloaded an episode of LOST to watch, and it wasnt working right...it was all slow when i tried to watch it. Oh well, nothing i can do about that huh? At least i know not to buy more shows off iTunes now. I took this in Guaratuba right before it started to rain...those are some of the boats they use to go fishing...
My friday night was spent teaching the workshop at the employment center, from 7-10 pm today. We dont really get a chance to go out with people our age here but thats okay. It seems like i cant make friends here, with the guys anyways. They always get the wrong idea that im interested in them, im just being nice you know, and then i have to avoid them, tell them i cant go out, not give out my cell number, its too much work lol. Seems like no one here wants to be just a friend with me, but thats okay...its flattering but i miss just having a guy friend around, one that isnt checking me out, using a pick up line, or anything else like that. Camila and I both miss it...but worse things could happen right?
The cemetary in Morretes, it was such a cool contrast, the blue trim of the mosoleum (dunno how to spell that!) with the dark grey sky.
Tomorrow I dunno what we are gonna do, there is a cool museum exhibit on the riches of ancient japan...nerdy i know, but i like going to see art in museums, learn new things...never hurts; plus it counts as homework for me.
A random road that had the flad of brazil painted on it like every 10 feet...
I hope that all is well back in the states, mom enjoy your time up in utah! I saw that BYU won against Wyoming, glad to see football is doing so well this year! Wish I was there to see it, next year right? Hope all is well in California too, dad thanks for talking with me earlier in the week, I always enjoy our conversations and your insight into things. Lamb it was good to chat with you today hope you enjoyed your lunch date with your husband! (bet hearing that never gets old hehe...) And to everyone else i have talked to or gotten emails from thanks, i will respond i promise! Have a good night! ps...im trying to see if it works to put video on my blog, so im using an SNL skit as a test, so if it shows up enjoy! if not, oh well :)