dois dias de bagunca!

The fireworks that the city set off last night to mark the beginning of the Christmas season.
It is already 7 pm, and we have done nothing but homework and write talks today. I wrote I think about 4 papers today and sent them to my portuguese teacher, and I still have two more to write tonight. Then maybe I'll start on the two history papers i need to do. Good thing its only 8:15 pm!
Tomorrow evening we are giving our fireside to the stake here about the employment services centers and the welfare department of the church. We have 1 hour between the two of us, which means....we are going to speak for about 10 minutes each, and then do an activity from the employment workshop with them. Before this we are going to be giving a vocational test for the youth and anyone else who wants to take it. Can I just say that getting up if front of an entire stake and giving a talk in portuguese is not my idea of fun? But oh well, they asked us to so I don't really get a choice in the matter. I'll just be glad when its done. I have nothing against giving talks except for the fact that it freaks me out and makes me really nervous. I think I'm going to take a public speaking class when I get back to BYU.

Yesterday we just went and bought my new luggage at the expensive french store, there was no choice. But at least it will last awhile so it was a good investment. Then we dropped of the luggage and went to eat lunch at this place that has amazing cake. Good thing we are leaving on monday otherwise I would soon gain back all the weight i've lost here! Today I was going to order mc donalds to eat for the first time in like 5 months, but the number didnt work, maybe that was a good thing:) Then we watched batman begins on my computer, well camila did...I fell asleep in the first 20 minutes.
We took these from our hotel room window. Mom, thats what you were hearing while I was talking to you!
Tomorrow is the fireside and the vocational test, we still dont know where we are going to go for church, but we'll figure it out this evening. Then on monday we travel from here to sao paulo for a layover, and then from there back to curitiba. It is crazy to think that I am going back to the US in less than two weeks, that means I have lots to do between now and the 14th. I have about 8 papers to write, finish my research for my internship paper, teach the last workshop, find one more christmas present, transfer my field journal into word, and do three things for me. thing one: get my hair done. What I am doing is going to be a surprise...curious right? 2. buy the jeans i wanted 2 months ago but didnt fit. 3. buy the perfume that I wanted and saved up money to buy. I would be using this money to buy some winter clothes seeing as how I will be arriving in rainy northern california with summer clothes and 2 sweatshirts, but obviously winter clothes arent for sale here right now. Oh well...I'll figure out something!

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.