Cafe de Manha

Breakfast, like many Americans, is my favorite meal. In brazil we normally have a bread roll, Paozinho, which is basically a french Beget. Some people eat it plain or toasted but we normally have it with cheese and cold cuts. It is also common for us to have a fried egg with it. We also normally have coffee, Juice, Yogurt and fresh fruit.

Since Toni saw Tera eating pancakes on True Blood he has wanted me to make them for him. Since I also enjoy traditional American breakfast I agreed. They have bacon here so that was not a problem. I got a Pancake recipe from online and making them was relatively early. Finding Maple syrup was a little more difficult. They normally use Honey as a sweet topping. They also have Strawberry and Choc late syrup for Ice Cream. I am a traditionalist so I had to find Maple. After a couple weeks I found a small bottle in a Import section of a liquor store. It was Imported from Canada and $30 reais for a tiny bottle but I bought it. A few days later I woke up early and made it. It was a complete success and I am looking forward to making it again ( but next time I will try with fruit...blueberry pancakes are my favorite.

I am also missing macaroni and cheese. I have a recipe and have finally found a place that sells Cheddar cheese in Ipanema. It is $20 for a small piece but I think it will be worth it. They like Cheddar here because they have cheese slice and spread ...just not a block of the cheese itself.

Tomorrow I have class. I have tried to study today. It is coming, not as quick as I would like, but I think I am getting better. Even so I think my first job is still a ways off.

Spring....Goodbye to a friend.

It is now Spring. It is also almost a year that I have been here. I moved here on October 11th. I was back in New York for 3 months during the summer but we will just call that a very long vacation. I am still taking classes with my Professor. She is nice but it is still a little strange. She says " Tranquilo" to me a lot. I don't know if she thinks I am nervous. The fact that she keeps saying "Tranquilo" to me is starting to make me nervous. I am getting the language but I still have a lot of work to do. Especially with pronunciation. I am still practising rolling my Rs. It took me three years of Spanish to remember to pronounce J as a soft guttural sound but now I have to remember in Portuguese to go back to a hard J. Hopefully eventually it will all come together and I will find work. Toni has been speaking more English so hopefully he is finally getting it.

Today was Helena's funeral. Her stomach cancer ended up being to much for her. She was not in very good health to begin with so it was not a complete surprise but still very sad. I put on my Etro suit for the viewing and was the best dressed there. Brazilians also dress casual for funeral. Most people were in Jeans and sneakers...including her family. The funeral home was large and modern. It was in the middle of a cemetery. When you entered there was a coffee shop on the left and them 7 or 8 chapels. Helena was in Chapel 5. Most of the people were in the common hall that had a lot of seats. The room with the coffin was small. The coffin was covered with flowers with just a small window to look in and see her face. I did not look in. Since I have no idea what to say to her friends and family I kept quite and just followed Toni around. Some men came and took her coffin at the end of the viewing time. We all got into cars and went to a little building in the back of the cemetery. This was the crematorium. We all waited in the lobby as they took her in. After half and hour more time it was over and we all just left. Me and Toni came home with Marcelo. We had a churrasco last night and we still had meat here so we had lunch. Toni is sad but he is dealing with it. We both know how short life is. We will miss our evenings drinking wine with Helena. As spring is here we say goodbye to our friend.

Winter

Winter is almost over. Winter ends here on September the 22ND. It has been warm still ...only cool on occasion. Saturday was Gay pride again in Mesquita so Toni wanted to go. We took a taxi there with the dogs on Saturday. A taxi ride there costs 50 reais. We went to Marcelo and Marcos house. There friend Janene was singing in the Plaza in the afternoon. She was at Marcelos house practising with her band which was a girl on keyboards and a guy doing drums. We had Churrasco and drank beers. Later in the night Toni made Caiparinhas. Somehow after the band stopped practising the speaker and microphone were there so the night turned into Karaoke.

The next day we got up, hungover, with more friends in the house. We all showered and had breakfast...and then an hour later started drinking again. We went to the town plaza and listened to a band and drank beer. In the late afternoon there was a parade and then a show that was only a block away from Marcelos' house. At 9pm the taxi came and got us and we all ( us and the dogs ) went back to Rio.

The next day Toni and Marcelo worked in the house. Afterwords we went into Copacabana to visit Helena who is really sick. They have stopped chemotherapy and her health has not improved. Her birthday is this week and the doctors think it will be her last. Afterwords we walked along the beach and then had dinner at a new restaurant along Lagoa that serve food from the northeast of Brasil.

Wednesday I had my second class with a professor in Copacabana. I also have my third class tomorrow. They seem to be pretty good. I had to translate a two page history article that was a challenge. I am glad I am making some progress towards speaking Portuguese and one day finding a job.

time goes by...

The search for Portuguese are still continuing. I was thinking about going to Puc ( which is a famous Catholic university here ) but it is really expensive. It is $800 to enroll and then 4 payments of $600. That is just for one term of classes. We then were thinking of wizard language school which is cheaper but we found out that you only meet with a teacher for 15 minutes and the rest of the class is listening to tapes. Toni is talking to a lady who says she will teach me for $45 an hour...but she will discount it if we take 30 hours worth of classes. Until then I purchase a workbook and have been doing exercises at home.

Monday we went to centro. We walked around and I took Toni to Catadral Moderno...which has never been in. We took the ferry to Niteroi and went shopping. Niteroi is across the bay and is famous for its Museum of Modern Art. Tuesday we woke up late and went to the supermarket. Toni argued for about 3 hours on the phone with our cable company NET because the bill was wrong again. The last time he argued with them we got HBO and Cinemax for free. This time I don't think we will get anything. In the evening we studied.

Today it is hot. Toni has had two clients in the apartment and tonight is going to Copacabana to do Jinatas hair. We were looking at apartments to move to a different neighborhood but Copacabana and Ipanema are at least double then what we are paying now. It looks like we are here for awhile.

Winter in Brasil.

Winter in brasil has been pretty warm. It has been in the 80s most of the time. Once in awhile it is in the high 70s and people go crazy. My husband is wearing the leather jackets and scarves like the north pole. I miss the beach though. The beach does bring me a certain amount of peace. I have gone a couple times to walk on Atlantica avenue...but I haven't been in the water since my friend Den was here. I thought there might be some rain here...but the rain is actually more in the summer.

It has been pretty slow here. Toni worked during the week and I spent two days playing Bioshock on Playstation 3. I am becoming a little addicted which probably is not a good thing. I went through the game infamous in a week and a half...but in my defense they are both great games. Today we went to Copacabana. Toni worked with his client Apracida. I walked around for an hour. Afterwords we paid bills and went shopping.We just got new sheets and a blanket for our bed. we also went to visit a new language school which I probably will go to. Before I said I wanted a tutor. But in normal Brazilian fashion that was not happening how I had imagined. Toni knew of some teacher he had worked with a few years ago. He did not have a number for this guy so we went to his corner and asked the guy that works at the newspaper Kiosk where he lives. We found his building and went up to talk to him. He seemed nice but a little dubious. His house was a little studio cluttered with things. He had some strange American lying on his couch. He was old, bald and fat. He was in shorts and a tank. I quickly got my mental image of a sophisticated professor blown apart. I could see Toni not wanting me to study with a hot brazilian stud...but how about a nice educated woman? I think a school with books and computers will be better for me. That and the school is only one block from the beach so it will not ruin my beach time ( if it does come again next summer ). The classes start in August and will last for 18 months if I do the whole program. Everything ( books included would cost 5000 reais ( That is only if I do the whole Program ). I definitely need to get started learning.

Rainy saturday....

It has been raining all day today. It seems like the rainy season has come at last. Toni worked in Barra de Tijuca all day. His sister-in -law cleaned that house and left this morning. I spent the day bonding with the dogs and playing Playstation 3....I am obsessed with Infamous....it is a great game. We called a teacher for me and he is suppose to call us back soon. We are going to a party tonight in Lapa. As I write this me and Toni are drinking our first whiskey and Red bull.

another week....

This week has kind of been slow. Since the paperwork in the visa is done, I don't have that to worry about. This week I wanted to find a language teacher. Toni is suppose to call an old teacher of his that teaches Portuguese as well as English. Toni has worked the past two days in the favellas. He doesn't like to..because he is terrified of favellas...but i guess work is work. For those who don't know the favellas are the slums. In Rio they are usually on the mountain side but he is going to one by the airport today. I went to the grocery store and then made lasagna for tonight. It has been cool today and lightly raining. We are maybe going to the beach tomorrow but it depends on the weather.

I have been playing a lot of video games. I finished the game SAW and am now playing Infamous. Both games have been a lot of fun. Toni's sister in law has been coming on Saturdays to clean our house for us ( for a charge of course ). She sometimes brings her son Peo and spends the night. Toni is happy that the house is clean but it usually only last a few days with our two dogs. I would rather we didn't because we aren't exactly rich right now. I can't complain though since I am such a bad house keeper myself.

The other night we saw Eclipse at the theater. I liked it but it isn't for everyone. It is more of a teen romance...so if you go into thinking it is a horror or action film you will be disappointed. I read all four books in Spanish when I was studing that language. I think we are going to Knight and day...the new Tom Cruise and Cameron Diez film....here it is called Encontro Explosivo ( explosive date ). It is weird to find out what movies and shows are named here...Tru Blood is called Gosto por Sangue ( Taste for blood ).

I talked to Toni today and I think we might go to Sao Paulo soon. That should be a fun trip.