Tuesday, May 29, 2012
On the internet again
Saying that reminds me of the Johnny Cash song "Oh the Road Again." That is what having the internet here feels like to me. Here in Brazil there is not a person I know that does not have problems with one utility or another. I am very forunate. Without internt my life is not as comfortable, but some of my friends have problems with water or eletricity. Compared to them, not having internet for the last 5 days is nothing.
In a way it is nice. From the internt we get contact with the rest of our family through skype (I do miss that alot). On the other hand we get our knowledge of the happenings in Syria, or the child thrown from the back of truck in Oklahoma while the driver talked on the phone. I don't miss that. We also get our TV and netflix from the internet. I do love TV, but without it basically the last 5 months has been fun in my family.
Without TV we have Skipbo or UNO tournaments. Gareth is reading tons, and his reading level has gone up 3 grades. We play in the pool as a family. There is just more time for us together. We are making memories. Don't get me wrong, the minute we can get netflix Gareth and I will be catching up on our favorite shows together. (John does not appreciate our choices of Disney teen shows).
Let's see how long we have it this time. Longest stretch is 10 days. Shortest is 4 hours.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The sun is back
A week ago Monday the rainy season started. It was really like one day it was sunny and the next day the rain started. IT started with a vengance. The first day I got to see how bad the streets flood. In the US you always hear don't drive through water you can not see the bottom of. Well I can tell you I am now an expert of driving in water that is well higher than my knees. When the 5 lane road floods, and if you do not drive through you will not get home, and everyone else is doing it, you drive through it too.
I have also learned that clothes just do not dry during raining season even when they are under a covered area. The air is just too damp. Gareth wears a uniform to school. We own 3 sets. There are 5 days in a week. Thus I have gotten very creative at draping clothes on our handrails of our stair cases. Our house during the rainy days looks like hill billy haven with clothes draper over the railing and towels at all the doors to keeps the wet out.
The biggest glitch in rainy season is our hot water. We have a cool huge set of solar panels that heat our water and help with the lights. The lights were just fine as the eletricity just kicked. The hot water did not go so well. The day rainy season start my hot water temp read 59.9C on the gauge. This morning is read 29.4C That is cold. Needless to say bare minimum shower for me.
In all honesty so far rainy season has not been bad for me. OK everything was wet for 10 days. My legs have not been shaved in 5 days. I hair has looked like a wet dog for 10 days. The rainy days made me appreciate today which has been all sun soo much more. Oh and the hot water is up to 39.6C. I might sun tea tomorrow.
I have also learned that clothes just do not dry during raining season even when they are under a covered area. The air is just too damp. Gareth wears a uniform to school. We own 3 sets. There are 5 days in a week. Thus I have gotten very creative at draping clothes on our handrails of our stair cases. Our house during the rainy days looks like hill billy haven with clothes draper over the railing and towels at all the doors to keeps the wet out.
The biggest glitch in rainy season is our hot water. We have a cool huge set of solar panels that heat our water and help with the lights. The lights were just fine as the eletricity just kicked. The hot water did not go so well. The day rainy season start my hot water temp read 59.9C on the gauge. This morning is read 29.4C That is cold. Needless to say bare minimum shower for me.
In all honesty so far rainy season has not been bad for me. OK everything was wet for 10 days. My legs have not been shaved in 5 days. I hair has looked like a wet dog for 10 days. The rainy days made me appreciate today which has been all sun soo much more. Oh and the hot water is up to 39.6C. I might sun tea tomorrow.
A very good week-end
This is a blog entry that I wrote at the end of March, but I forgot to post.
As I am watching the sun set over the ocean, I was just thinking that this is one of those just good week-ends. Gareth actually went to school a full week last week. This is the first full week since school began in January.
He was invited to his first Birthday party down here for Friday. At first he did not want to go, as the party was for a girl. After a little nudging he decided he would go as long as I took him. I do have to say that Brazil parties are definetely different than parties in the US. To begin with the party was right after schoool, so the family rented vans to take kids from the school to their apartment where the party was held. I drove Gareth. When we arrived we were told that the party was a very simple American style party. They had reneted an inflatable soccer pitch that was filled with soap and water for the kids to slide and play in. The kids also had a real soccer field and an Olympic size pool to swim in. They also has hired a vendor style cart to serve hot dogs and crepes on sticks filled with cheese and ham. There was a bar set up serving all type of soft drinks and juices. There was a huge tables full of large bowls of all type of candies. The birthday cake was bigger than my husband's grooms cake and was decorated with all types of sugared fruit and and bite sized chocolates. There was also a hired DJ and a dance floored layed. All for 20 ten year old kids. I planned on dropping thr kids of, but once I met the parents, I decided to stay and socialze also. As we were leaving Gareth said he was glad he went as he made more new friends. I was glad I got to go too.
Saturday was Field Day at school. Just as the party was over the top, Field day was also. Hired bands, great food for sale including cotten candy and also lots of soft drink as it was very hot. All during the day there were exhibitions from the policeK9 units, to martial arts, a semi professional soccer team. Plus our own soccer teamplayed on our soccer field. John was able to join us, so he got to meet many of the wives I talk about. Plus he got to meet some of the guys whihc he has not be able to do as of yet.
As I am watching the sun set over the ocean, I was just thinking that this is one of those just good week-ends. Gareth actually went to school a full week last week. This is the first full week since school began in January.
He was invited to his first Birthday party down here for Friday. At first he did not want to go, as the party was for a girl. After a little nudging he decided he would go as long as I took him. I do have to say that Brazil parties are definetely different than parties in the US. To begin with the party was right after schoool, so the family rented vans to take kids from the school to their apartment where the party was held. I drove Gareth. When we arrived we were told that the party was a very simple American style party. They had reneted an inflatable soccer pitch that was filled with soap and water for the kids to slide and play in. The kids also had a real soccer field and an Olympic size pool to swim in. They also has hired a vendor style cart to serve hot dogs and crepes on sticks filled with cheese and ham. There was a bar set up serving all type of soft drinks and juices. There was a huge tables full of large bowls of all type of candies. The birthday cake was bigger than my husband's grooms cake and was decorated with all types of sugared fruit and and bite sized chocolates. There was also a hired DJ and a dance floored layed. All for 20 ten year old kids. I planned on dropping thr kids of, but once I met the parents, I decided to stay and socialze also. As we were leaving Gareth said he was glad he went as he made more new friends. I was glad I got to go too.
Saturday was Field Day at school. Just as the party was over the top, Field day was also. Hired bands, great food for sale including cotten candy and also lots of soft drink as it was very hot. All during the day there were exhibitions from the policeK9 units, to martial arts, a semi professional soccer team. Plus our own soccer teamplayed on our soccer field. John was able to join us, so he got to meet many of the wives I talk about. Plus he got to meet some of the guys whihc he has not be able to do as of yet.
Sorry for the Break in Writing
I need to apologize for the last several weeks of not writing on my blog. I really had not realized how long it had been since I had written. I guess I have just gotten adjusted to the Brazilian way of life. Down here life just moves sooo much slower and eveything takes sooo much longer. In the beginning of living here I tried to live my life like I did in the US, always attached to my cell phone and the computer. Down here I had to take a really big breath, slow down, expect things to just take longer , and just learn to slow down. There are now days I don't check my e-mail all day. I am going to get better about blogging. We shall see how it goes.
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