Enchanted

1. Making the thanksgiving noodles.
2. Playing with Uncle Tommy.
3. Being cute.
4. Dress up Princess.
5. Bouncy house fun.












Enchanted is great! We liked it so much we bought the soundtrack. Although Shelley and I liked it a ton, Ella really only liked the soundtrack, and the movie was a little scary/boring for her, except when there were songs. And she was a bit hesitant about the 'Enchanted Experience,' what she called the Princess Party. As we left the theatre, Ella was really excited about seeing the Princesses, but when we walked in we saw Bell, Aurora and Cinderella on a stage, and she freaked out and wouldn't go near them. At first she wouldn't do any of the activities, even though they had a makeup station, which she plays with all the time at home, a bouncy house and a bunch of other stuff. The first thing she did was dress up, and she got really excited because they had a blue dress, like Cinderella. She wanted to go show Cinderella the dress but we couldn't take it out of the area. So she wanted to show her a picture, but when we went over there with the camera she flipped out again. Eventually she did talk to Snow White, and was her best friend. She didn't want to talk to any of the other characters, and just wouldn't leave Snow White alone until another girl was waiting to talk to her. She eventually went in the bouncy house, and started to play with the other things they had, and now she just keeps asking us to go back and we of course have to tell her 'tough noogies.'
We had story time at the library that same night, so it was quite a full day. She met her friend Sierra from school there and they goofed around together the almost the whole time, being mostly quiet for the stories. They do a bunch of songs and moving around too, so they weren't completely disruptive.
Other than that we're just trying to get our Christmas shopping done, and survive the house being redone. The work is starting on the upstairs, so it's going to be interesting how that goes, but at least we have two working bathrooms and the kitchen done, so we don't have to eat out all the dang time and can start cooking again. But one of the good parts of eating out is that we found a chinese place that has cream cheese wontons which are delicious, and cookies and cream wontons with chocolate drizzled on them that are great.

Thanksgiving, etc.

These pictures were all taken by Nick at the Huntington Gardens, and are some of my favorite all time pictures, along with the last one, which probably is my all time favorite. Once we find our cord for our camera, we'll put up new pictures.

So we had a completely new Thanksgiving experience this year, which was quite exciting. We spent our first Thanksgiving, third holiday total, at Tom and Cici’s house. Nick and Paul were there as were Cici’s Dad and Step mom, and her second cousins. We got there early to do some cooking, because Shelley could not have Thanksgiving without Greenbean Casserole, her Home-made noodles, and Party potatoes. So we finished cooking up all of that, and helped Cici with her other dishes as well. There was quite a lot of food, and it was all delicious. Ella had a great time hanging out with everyone, and Tom had to assume the role of Cat hunter for the evening. He managed to produce Chessie once, which made Ella quite happy, and he also showed her the Chessie talking things on his computer, which she liked a lot http://www.reallivetalkingcat.com/

Other than that we’ve both been working hard, and that was kind of our fun thing for the last few weeks. The other night we were going to go bowling with Troy and Christie, and so we had Ella stay home with Grandma. She went berserk when we left, because we haven’t done that in a while, and by the time we finally made it to the bowling alley and were ready to go, Christie got a call from her Mom saying that Cody was burning up, so they had to leave, ending the whole bowling thing. But Shelley and I had some good pizza at a little place that had an arcade machine, and we played Pac-man and Space Invaders and Frogger, which was excellent.

I've been watching Scrubs a ton, both because Shelley got me season 2 on dvd and because it's on from 7 to 9 here every day, 4 shows straight, so I can normally catch one if we have nothing else going on. I also got an excellent new christmas music CD that I've been listening too all the time, and found the radio station out here that has just christmas music. I love christmas music. It's probably the best thing about the time leading up to christmas, or maybe it's the christmas movies, hard to say. Tell you what, we'll do the first Traveling Pyles survey, what's better Christmas music or Movies, and what's your favorite. At the moment I say music, and my favorite is Jack Johnson doing Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer, with an extra verse at the end where Rudolph totally sticks it to the other reindeer for making fun of him. I've also found that I kinda miss that snow, but I'll hopefully get a bit of that when we go back to Illinois. This last tuesday we were all sick, so we didn't go to the library, and I watched a bunch of tv, but the week before last we went to their story time, which was really fun. The children's librarian read a few books, and they sang songs and played games, and then made a mobile at the end. She really liked it and we're going to go to it this coming tuesday again. We're also planning on going to see Enchanted at the El Capitan theatre in Hollywood, because besides looking like an excellent movie, they built a 24000 square foot Disney Princess land just for the movie, and we know Ella will love it.

Cali update

1. Ella being crazy in her birthday dress.

2. our carved pumpkins.

3. Ella, Cody and Camille getting ready to go trick or treating.

4. Ella with Nick and Paul in a little garden house.

It’s been a bit crazy here for the past few weeks. We’ve been doing lots of demo stuff and everything is a mess. Halloween was fun, we carved pumpkins for the 1^st time with Ella and she liked it a lot. I asked her if she wanted to scoop out the pumpkin guts, and she said “no, but maybe next time I will want to.” So we made one that was a cat, one a mouse with candy corn, and another that was a traditional face. She like seeing them lit up a lot. She dressed up as Uniqua from the Backyardigans, and had fun trick-or-treating with her cousin Cody, and his cousin’s Camille and Connor.

We’ve got a new thing where we go to the library every Tuesday morning. Ella absolutely loves it, and gets a6 books and a couple movies every time. And this last Tuesday we went to Huntington Gardens with Nick and Paul. It was a really good time. They have a huge conservatory with all sorts of interactive things to look at, and then they had a huge children’s garden with all sorts of fountains and things to play with. After we walked through the Jungle and Desert gardens we stopped at the gift shop. We wanted to get Ella something, and she decided on a flower pressing kit, not quite understanding when we told her it would take a long time. We pressed some flowers today, and they'll be ready in a couple weeks, but a few hours after we put them in, she flipped because we couldn't look at them. Maybe not the best thing to have gotten, but she liked putting the flowers in, and I'm sure she'll like getting them out. We went to Panda Inn in Pasadena for dinner after the gardens. Nick and Paul got Sweet and Pungent Shrimp, which for some reason Ella wanted to try. It turned out she liked it, as long as Shelley scraped off the flavoring. She ate about 6 of them, I tried one and it was disgusting. But at least she tried something new and liked it.

New pictures are up on our google page

Ella's Birthday

1. Ella with her new Doll house.

2. Ella and Mamoo making cupcakes for school.

3. Ella and Caitlyn waiting for cake.

4. Ella, her new baby, and our new car.

Ok, so we have been really bad about blogging, we are sorry about that. If you don’t know Gabriella Jarrett Pyle is no longer 2, the day I birthed her was 3 years ago but I can still remember it like yesterday. It is crazy how time flies and where we have been in the past 3 years, we have lived in 4 different houses, traveled to 3 countries, visited 12 states, and had 12 jobs between the 3 of us.

Ella was super cute the day before and the day of her birthday, she would get really excited and jump up and down and scream randomly because it was her birthday. She’s already planning out her 4^th birthday. We celebrated her life a few different time over the past week, first we took cupcakes to preschool on Oct. 12^th (her actual birthday) and Mamoo and Grandpa went to school with her and they celebrated there. They each brought in a book to read in class, Grampa brought a book from New York, where he’s working, and Mamoo brought in a book from Chicago. That night we took her to Chuck E Cheese, with Mamoo (Chris Pyle all the way in from Chicago), Grandpa (Rich Copley, all the way in from New York), Troy, Christie, and Cody Copley, and Grandma (Nancy Copley).

The next day we had a little party at the park down the street from where we live with one of her friends and the extended family we have here. It was a lot of fun and Ella got some great gifts. A birthday at the park is such a wonderful idea because then you really don’t have to plan too much because the kids play at the park the whole time. The only bad part was that we had to bring all the food and beverages and other ramdom stuff over to the park, which took about 50 trips. It was a lot of fun though and we rounded out the weekend with a trip to Moorpark, we first went for lunch at the grill Nate works at and then we all went to a really fun pumpkin patch in out there. We saw a pig race, got to pet some goats, rabbits and chickens, took a ride around the farm pulled by a tractor and then picked out our pumpkins.

We have had a hard time getting Ella out of the house since her birthday she wants to stay home and play with all her toys, Nate and I got her this amazing doll house (my favorite new toy company is called Plan Toys, it is the coolest stuff). She loves it but really loves her new baby who she named “Einstein” and the pack’n’play, high chair and swing for her babies.

Besides the business the birthday threw our way, my mom is renovating her whole house, so we have had to move out of our closets, live like ET with plastic everywhere, are getting ready to empty out our kitchen so we have been a little busy and it is only going to get worse.

Oh yeah we also managed to buy a car on Tuesday. We found out our car was going to cost us $500 to repair and we needed to get a car by the end of the year, so we just went out to look and came back with a new car. I will never wish the upon anyone, buying a car from a dealership, it is crazy, we walked in telling them we were not going to buy a car that day and walked out with a 2001 Toyota Prius (it is hybrid and really awesome) Nate did 81 miles the other day to a from work and little more around town and got 44 miles per gallon (he used to put $50 in gas in our mini-van every 4 days). So hopefully the money we save in gas can go toward our monthly car payments.

Last but not least we were really bad about pictures from Ella’s birthday weekend, so we will put up what we have, but we will put up more on our picture web site when we get them e-mailed to us from all the other family that was there.

Cooking up some eats

1. Ella showing off the pretzels she helped make.

2. The family making Brigadeiro.

3. Just a really cute picture.

4. Getting ready for bedtime.

Okay, so everybody needs to go out and have Indian food right now. It is the greatest stuff ever. Shelley and I thought we would have a date night, and were driving around looking for a Thai place, and we pulled into this little strip mall to look around, and it had an Indian place, so we went in. It was so amazingly good, everything we had was great. We had thought we would be having nice conversation about stuff, but instead we spent most of the time talking about how great the food was. They also had a really good beer called Golden Eagle, that even Shelley liked. After dinner we went to Blockbuster and bought Nacho Libre, A Prairie Home Companion, and rented the Ex, which was hilarious. It’s got Jason Bateman, Zach Braff and Amanda Peet. We would totally recommend it to everybody.

Nancy is getting her house redone so we’ve been doing lots of cleaning and moving stuff around. We spent most of today getting ready for them to scrape the ceilings, which have a stucco-like thing on them. It’s a big project and everything but the furniture has to be put away because the stuff gets everywhere. As we we’re cleaning up Nancy found an old teachers book about cooking with kids, and it had a recipe for making pretzels. So Ella and I mixed up all the stuff and made us up some pretzels. We made shapes and letters and spelled out Ella. They turned out really good, and Ella had a blast making them and eating them. And then after dinner we made Brigadeiro, the delicious Brazil treat of butter, sweetened condensed milk, and chocolate power, cooked up together, and then rolled into little balls and covered with chocolate sprinkles. So boo for the Bears stinking, but woohoo for the Cubs making the playoffs!

Ella's interpretive Dance

So yesterday at work was awesome, because I was in the back of the kitchen, doing some stuff and our little bell rang, so I went up front, and it was totally Andy Richter waiting to get some food! It was so cool. He was there with his brother and a friend, and he got a Turkey sandwich, and some Chili! His friend asked him how they Chili was and he said 'Pretty good,' so his friend got some too. It was great. They were all super nice and relaxed. I thought about saying something, but decided it would be better not to. Also exciting, I had my first Capoeira class for kids this past Tuesday. It went really well. The kids enjoyed it, and even kind of payed attention to me, which I thought was pretty good. It was a lot of fun, we did a little bit of the moves, then worked them into some games, and did some music too, good times.
Shelley and Ella are doing quite well. Ella has been going to the center with Shelley when I have to go to work, and she hangs out there for most of the day. It has caused a little bit of problem for when she has to go to actual preschool, but nothing terrible. She's been really into helping us make dinner lately, which is great. She helped us make lasagna, a frittata, taquitos and tostada pizzas. She gets really excited and pulls a chair into the kitchen and washes vegetables, and if we grate cheese, she keeps asking if she can try the cheese, no matter how much she's already eaten.

The Finger

So Nate and I have been busy, busy bees. We have both worked a ton this past week and to be honest I am starting to forget what he looks like. Nate gets up to go to work at 4 in the morning on weekends and Ella and I sleep in for a bit and then hang out. Normally Nate would get off at around 2:30 and be home for the evening but one of the guys who works there hasn't been coming in lately so he has been working quite a few shifts 10 to 12 hour shifts. On the week days he goes into work at 10:30 and doesn't get off till 8, because he closes the grill.

This weekend has been crazy, I worked on Friday until seven which is normal, but then offered to stay late, as family not an employee, helping get ready for kids day in the park. We stayed at work till 1 in the morning. When I got home Nate was asleep and then he woke up late at 5:15 to be at work at 5:45 and ran out the door, at some point he told me he cut his finger but I was pretty much still asleep so I didn't even realize it. Saturday I had to work at the park all day telling people about our center and that was crazy I worked outside from 10-5:30 and was supposed to work at night from 5:45-10, but got someone to cover for me. Nate ended up working 5:50am to 7:30pm and on the way home called to tell me he need to go to urgent care when he got home because his finger had not stopped bleeding. We waited a bit after he got home and ate some dinner and then headed over. He ended up needing stitches but he had waited too long, they typically need to do stitches within six hours, and it had been over 24 so the irrigated it, numbed it and used some fancy vaseline gauze and wrapped it up well. We have to go back tonight so they can look at it again and then they will teach him how to wrap it and we will have to go back in a week so they can check on the progress of the healing. He is also taking an antibiotic to prevent infection. Nate is back at work today so it didn't slow him down at all.

We are excited that he is going to be home in a bit and we will get to finally bake the lasanga Ella and I made two days ago. And get to take care of some much needed business.

So about this guy I've been working late because he has called out. His name is Thi, and he's a nice enough guy, 25 and has a five month old son. But if I close and he opens, he gives me a list of things I did wrong, which is good in a way because I haven't even been there that long and need to know what I can do better. But it also seems like he is just looking for things I've done wrong, which sucks. And he has written that I haven't 'stoked' some things enough. I feel this is unfair because I give the soda cups and lids one hell of a pep talk before I leave for the night, and they all seem pretty stoked to me. But perhaps he meant to write stocked. Other than that it's a really fun job, and I've been making wicked awesome tips. We just bought Ella a super fancy Eddie Bauer car seat that can last until she's old enough to be out of a car seat. There are some really stupid car seat designs out there by the way. I also got the fist season of Scrubs on DVD, and we bought stuff to make a scrap book of our Brazil trip. Oh, and the finger checked out alright at the doctors tonight.

job news

1. Shelley's new do from the front.

2 Shelley's new do from the side.

3. the Mission in San Luis Obispo.

This weekend we all went out to the coast to go to the beach. We all are Troy, Christie, Cody, Nancy and the three of us. We stayed the night in a town called Carpinteria, and spent a ton of time at the beach. Shelley got super sunburned, and I got a little burned, but Ella was fine. We spent the night at a nice Best Western, and then went to the Santa Barbara Zoo in the morning. We had a good time, and Ella started a collection of smushed pennies with designs on them. She got one with a Meerkat from the zoo. She calls it Skat the Cat, and loves it. After the zoo, the three of us went to San Luis Obispo. Shelley really wants to move there, so we went to check it out. It was a really nice town, smallish, but with a cool downtown, and a university, Cal Poly SLO. There is also a old mission, from the Spanish colonial times. We ate at a Thai restaurant for lunch and had excellent Pahd Thai, and Ella got fried rice. For those of you who know Champaign, it felt kind of like Champaign, but with Mountains, and near the ocean. And they even had a good pizza place, which is severely lacking here in Santa Clarita.

When we got back I had to go to a meeting for the Lucas Club where I’ll be teaching Capoeira. If you go to www.lucasclub.com, then click on the Adult button, then click on the Meet the Meastros link, and then look for Capoeira Club, Espiga, and it’s Me! I’ll be teaching 5 classes; two at a grade school for 1^st-6^th graders, two at a Boy’s and Girl’s club for Homeschool Kids, and 1 for 9 year olds and up at the Park District.

For my full time job, Panera didn’t work out, because they pay less then Target, don’t have benefits, and didn’t have full time hours available when I wanted to work. Target said they wanted me back, which was cool, but I’m not going to work there either. I’m going to be a short-order cook at a golf course! I worked all day today, almost 11 hours. They’ve had some staff upheaval at their grill, and really needed someone to start. The reason I got it is because the head pro there is Shelley’s sister in law’s Dad. So now we both owe our jobs to Christie’s family. The course is called Rustic Canyon, and it’s ranked the number 4 public access course in California. It was a lot of fun working there, even though I was on my own from 3 o’clock until 8. I was told vaguely how to close things up and clean up, and I think I got everything done alright. I’ll be working 40 hours a week there, benefits, making more than at Target, and getting tips as well.

Pictures

1. Ella in Sao Paulo

2. Ella and Jhenifer

3.Visiting Mickey Mouse

4. Hiking in Topanga Canyon







The last of our pictures from Brazil are up, as well as a bunch from here in California.

Stuff

Things have been going pretty well here in Santa Clarita so far. We got to see Matt a bunch before he left to go back to Libertyville, and even went hiking with him and Tom and Cici, which was a lot of fun. Shelley has been working for almost 2 weeks now, and is liking the job. Ella has been doing really well at preschool, although she cries a bit when we drop her off, but she never wants to leave. The only problem is she's not quite old enough to do with out naps, so we've been trying to figure out is she should nap after school, at 4 or before, at around 11. Still haven't quite figured it out. I won't start teaching capoeira until the 11th of September, but I've already got another class, and they raised my pay from $15 an hour to $20 an hour, without having even done one class! But it's only 3 hours a week right now for six weeks, so it's not all that much. I have an interview at Panera Bread on Thursday, because Target has not been acting very fast at all, so I might do that instead. I haven't been going for anything much grander than that because I really want to teach Capoeira, and need some place flexible to work full time, like Panera or Target. In the meanwhile, I've been enjoying our super cool digital cable and super fast internet, and taking care of Ella.
Shelley's mom asked Shelley to act as cleaning lady, and so he has been cleaning up, with some help from me. Yesterday, she was going to clean the outside of some windows, sprayed them down, and then when she put her hand on one, it shattered, sending glass all over the dining room. It was pretty hilarious, once we made sure she wasn't hurt, and the glass was cleaned up. Ella and I had to go out to Lowes and get plywood to cover up the hole. And this was about a hour before Nick and Paul were supposed to come over. We had an excellent BBQ with them, and then went on a walk around the neighborhood. Oh, and just so you all know, I've been a vegetarian since we got back from Brazil. I was only eating meat about once or twice a week anyway, so it's not been a big change, and the Boca Italian sausages are actually spicier and better than a lot of meat sausages that I've had.

Carol!!!

So, this is a story that will make you sides hurt.

I was trying to think of a girls name I know, so Nate and I were talking and thinking about it. Nate was rattling off names he thought of and all of a sudden it came to me, so I said it out loud "Carol." I then headed back to an e-mail so I could fill in the name and Ella(that is what she wants to be called now) followed me. She said to me, with the cutest little face "I don't want to be Carol, I just want to be called Ella." I was laughing so hard, Nate had to explain to her that I was not calling her Carol I just thought of a name I had forgotten. She continuted to say "I just want to be Ella," so I think therapy might be in her near future but for now, it was pretty cute.

Oh yeah one more cute Ella story.

Ella had her first day of preschool on Monday and she cried at first but eventually was fine. The crying was just because she wanted Nate and I to stay, but she got over it really quick. Just so everyone knows, her aunt(my sister inlaw) is the director of the preschool and I work at the front desk, so although is may seem a little early for preschool we decided it would be fun for her. But anyways, we droped her off and when we walked out he door she was having fun cutting with scissors. Come to find out she didn't leave the scissor table for the first hour and wouldn't even join community time because she wanted to keep cutting. Although she didn't join community time they still included her and asked her what she wanted to be called at school, she looked at them and said "Gabi" then after a minutes thought she said "no, Ella," I am a little worried if they ask her today she might just say "Carol."

We will update you on all that after school.

Cali again

So when we got back, we had a IHOP lunch with Matt, on account of cause Shelley really wanted pancakes, and then got home to a house full of People from Naperville. Shelley's family from Illinois came to visit, and so we hung out with them. Later that day I had an interview with a company called the Lucas Club, whose mission is to spread Latin American culture. I ended up getting 3 different jobs, two after school programs teaching Capoeira, and one for the Park District. Christie offered a job to Shelley at the preschool/dance studio she runs, and so Shelley will be working there full-time. The job at the school wasn't guaranteed, and we would have had to find day care, where as with Shelley at Shooting Stars, Ella can go there when I'm at work. And, we decided that Ella should go to preschool as well, so she's going there on Monday's Wednesday's and Friday's, from 1 to 4. I'm talking to Target about working there during the day, so we can make some more money and have benefits. Oh, and the class I was going to take would have been way to expensive because I wouldn't be In State, so we decided to wait until next year for classes, at least if we decide to stay in California. So that's the story for now.

photos

There are more photos and movies up on the picasa site, under the Parque Nacional Iguazu aug 8 folder. More to follow

California

Hey, We're finally set up with internet here in California, so we can do more blogs and what not. We'll put something substantial up soon, with all our new info.

Last Brazilian Post!!!

So this is our last blog from Brazil, how sad. We’ve had a good time since we arrived back in Sao Paulo from Foz de Iguacu. We didn’t have a great time getting here, or leaving Foz, though. Before we even left, Shelley got a special bonus piece of ham on her egg and cheese sandwich, and ate a couple bites before she even noticed. And then there was the bus ride itself. Let’s just say we are glad that was our last long bus ride, 16.5 hours, that included, two times being peed on, and riding in very uncomfortable seats, while sitting in pee. Oh yeah and the bus stopped pretty much at every large city from Foz to Sao Paulo. But we made it, and were rewarded with an excellent stay with Andre. We met him at the Academy, where Gabi played with two other little girls and had a blast, and I played music at the Roda. Then we went with Andre as he got a drawing for his new Tattoo, and then hung out at his house for a little while.
Andre’s mom made a delicious dinner of Coxinhas, a traditional little fried snack, and then we headed out to Dre’s uncle’s weekend house. It is a huge place about a hour outside of Sao Paulo, and it has a pool, and a soccer field, and a ping pong table and a pool table and a huge TV and all sorts of other stuff. In the morning we had a delicious breakfast of this amazing Salame I got in Argentina, and crackers, and then we went out to the field for some soccer and capoeira, which Gabi loved. Shelley even tried some capoeira, and Gabi was quite good at it. We put Gabi down for a nap after that, and then the rest of the family showed up. Dre’s dad cooked some amazing meat, it was as good, or better than anything I’ve had in a restaurant, and he served it just like they do at a Brazilian steakhouse too, bringing the spit of meat around to the table and cutting off a piece right on your plate. It was amazingly delicious. After lunch we all lazed around by the pool, and it was just warm enough for me and Gabi and Gu and Gu’s dad to go in the pool. The water was freezing, but the two kids loved it.
That night Dre drove us to Jundiai, and we all hung out with Jhenifer and her mom and dad. On Monday, yesterday, we spent the morning packing, and then after family nap time we walked around for a few last minute gifts and bought food for dinner. We wanted to make a meal from the US, and after nixing Pizza, Hamburgers, and Pasta, all of which are huge here, we decided to make baked potatoes(the make tons of types of potatoes just not baked) and chili. We made the chili with textured soy protien, and it turned out really well. They absolutely loved the chili, and were nuts about the potatoes. Jhenifer’s dad was talking about them all night, and today as well. They want to start making them for their restaurant. We’re almost all packed right now, and our flight leaves at 9:00 tonight. We’ve got to take a taxi, then either two trains, and another bus or taxi, or a taxi, then two busses to get to the airport. And we need to find some acai, pao de queijo, and Bob’s milkshakes before we leave.

GABRISTELLA

Parque Nacional Iguacu

1. Gabi and Nate at the little Zoo here in Foz, pointing at the Jaguar.
2. Family photo with Rainbow.
3. Garganta de Diablo.
4. Gabi's Kauti shirt, that she really really likes, and had to wear for pajamas, and then all day the next day.

We went to the Brazilian National Park on Wednesday, and it was really fun. We ate lunch right away, and the tables we ate at had a view of the big falls, Garganta de Diablo. Then we went on the paths, and saw amazing views of the falls. Almost all of the waterfalls are on the Argentine side, but the Brazil side has great views of all the falls. We walked along the river and looked at lots of cool stuff. Some paths were closed because of filming, and we got all steamed at that, but it turns out it was only a small section, and we could still see tons of stuff, so we forgot about it. We didn't stay for too long, because the paths by the river are pretty small, and there were a few trails through the Jungle, but we think they were guided and you had to pay extra so we didn't do that. We caught the bus back to the hotel, and had our delicious dinner.
Today the whole thing of going to Paraguay was scrapped, because we didn't have a visa, and didn't feel like dealing with going without one, which while not that hard apparently, didn't seem worth it. People mainly go to Cuidad del Este to shop for electronics and other stuff that is cheap there. It would have been like going to Tiauana, basically, and as Shelley wasn't feeling all that good, we didn't go. We did put up the pictures from the Argentine side of the falls, and hung out watching tv and surfing the net. We've missed having the internet easily accessible, and have been neurotically checking our blog, Katie's and Eva's blogs, and our emails, it's been kind of ridiculous.
So after being in Brazil again, after Argentina, it's amazing how much more developed it is here. Everybody here takes credit cards, where as no one did in Argentina. There is much better infrastructure as well. Culturally it's not all that different, but the economic difference is amazing. Unfortunately Brazil doesn't have a license to brew Stella for themselves, though, so that's a bummer. One thing I noticed today about Brazil is that even though their hipermercados are amazingly nice and big and have everything you could need, basically like a super target, they are way behind on Bagging technology. They just have a stack of plastic bags at the end of the checkouts, which are also really small, and then most of the time you end up bagging your stuff yourself. But other than that, the stores are just as good as those in the states.
We bought tickets back to Sao Paulo today, and will be leaving tomorrow evening. We'll be going to Andre's family's country house, which has a pool and a soccer field as well. It should be a lot of fun to hang out with his family, Gabi loves them all a lot, and has been excited about seeing them again. She is also super excited about going back to Gramma's house, and can hardly wait the 5 more days of we have left in Brazil.

New Pics

So today we haven't done too much, but the rest of our days here seem pretty full to the brim. Today we slept in and ate a yummy free breakfast, it included eggs and sausage tons of types of bread and so much stuff we have been missing about breakfast. Most Brazilian breakfast are just bread, ham, cheese and some type of cake. We are so glad we made such a good hotel choice because not only are the breakfast great but the free dinner has tuned out to be pretty darn good also. After breakfast we decided to take advantage of the free work out room and did our first work out in like four months, if not longer. We made it to a free zoo that was kind of weak, but Gabi liked it all the same although she made a point to say there were not tigers or lions.
Gabi took a nap in her stroller while we walked around the main street here and then we came back for an amazing dinner. Tomorrow we are heading to the Brazilian side of the falls and then on Thursday we are going to cross over into Paraguay for a little day trip. It's super close, and we'll only hang out there for the day, so it should be fun.
One thing we did do was put up and organize lots of pictures from our trip, as well as some more pictures from our road trip to California, and our trips to Toronto, Niagara and Hawaii. So check them out, and make sure to look for the ones that are videos, if you run them as a slide show they will play automatically.

Foz de Iguacu

Apparently I should write more blogs while slightly drunk, or more blogs about beer, because that was the most responses we've ever gotten. Comments are the best, and you guys are the best. Nice work Auntie. Oh, and we put a ton of pictures from our trip on the Picasa web site, and put a link to it on the blog too. So check them out.
We are back in Brazil, took a bus over the border today and decided for our last four nights staying in a hotel we would splurge a little. We are staying at a three star hotel that has cable TV, in room internet access, air conditioning in the room(that we don't really need), a pool, a sauna, a kids playground, phone in the room, mini bar, a workout room/game room(treadmill, stationary bike, weight bench, and weight machine, all in the same room as the pool table, foosball table and poker table; kind of funny but great all the same), breakfast and dinner included. That said we will probably be posting everyday and checking everything accesable by internet all the time, so anyone with good sites to check out let us know. Oh yeah and we will keep posting our pictures to the picasa website until they are all up so keep checking over the next few days.

Only 7 more day and counting, sad but glad we have has so much fun!!!!

Cataratas(waterfalls)

1,2&3. Waterfalls, lots and lots of waterfalls

4. Nate sipping mate from my gourd

5. The amazing stella next to our Nalgene bottle so you can get an idea of the size, the Nalgene is a one liter bottle. (sorry we could not get it turned)

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Brazil. It’s an awesome country, and they have some great beer. Xingu is amazing, and even Shelley will drink their versions of Bud or Miller, Antartica and Brahma, and she never drinks beer in the States. But since we’ve been in Argentina, my allegiance has been swayed a bit. They sell, all over the place, giant bottles, 985cm3, as big as a bottle of wine, cold, crispy Stellas. And these giant, delicious Stellas cost, and here’s the really amazing part, $1.00 U.S. money. I was absolutely blown away.
Shelley will tell you, however, that the most amazing, mind blowing thing in Argentina is Iguazu Falls, and I would grudgingly agree. There are two hundred and seventy five waterfalls all together, and they are all amazingly beautiful. There are tiny ones, and incredibly huge ones. It’s like 8 Niagara Falls put together, only better. They are so immense and huge and loud, it’s impossible to describe. One of the best things about it is that, unlike Niagara, both sides of the falls, the Brazilian and the Argentine, are inside National Parks. Only two hotels in sight of the falls, no casinos, and not even a hint of a Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Just amazing forest all around, and the falls. Everyone should go to Iguazu and see them. We spent the whole day walking around and looking at all the different falls.
I do have to say that although I am happy that my husband can have all the beer he wants for really cheap the falls by far, rival $1.00 Stellas. We will put up some pictures of the falls and beers and you can decide for your self. After spending all day at the falls we came home and slept well that night. The next day, Friday, we just laid around and rested, we went out for brunch and got some really good food, and it was not pizza. Gabi had a ham omelet, Nate had a tortilla Espanola, and I had a tortilla de papas. The tortilla’s here are like omelets but cooked more and hold the form of the pan they are cooked in, they are really good, they are the same as Spanish tortillas. For dinner we had yeah you guessed it pizza, but Gabi has found a new favorite food here. She has been on a hamburger only phase, so in the past three days I think she has had like four burgers. As for today we have kind of run out of things to do here, it is a really small town and we have hit up most of the good restaurants, done all the shopping we intend to do and see all the sights there are to see. Today we saw the last of the sights the port and huge murals that are carved in wood. We actually didn’t look at one set of murals so that tomorrow we have something else to do; we walked right by them but turned out heads. You may be asking why we don’t leave, but we got a good deal on a place to stay and it revolved around us staying 6 nights for the price of only 5 nights. So we have two more nights and one full day, before we head back to Brazil. Tomorrow are only plans are to see the other murals, wish us luck in finding something more to do.
A little side note; if you don’t know Argentina is famous for it’s Yerba Mate(pronounced Mah-tay) a type of tea. Everyone here walks around with a hallowed out gourd, metal straw with filter and thermos to drink mate all day long. We really wanted to try mate so we ordered it at dinner one night but it came in a tea bag not the normal loose leaves in a gourd but a woman at the store next door let Nate and I try some of hers. We really liked it so we went out and bought two gourds, two straws, Yerba Mate and a thermos. Now we walk around looking like mate drinking fools. But before we were successful at drinking Mate we had to have a horrible trial where we made it way to strong and it was soooo bitter I almost vomited. We also discovered that the first type of mate we purchased was not a really good type. Well are getting good at it and we even know where all the hot spots are to buy to hot water to fill up our thermos. Well we hope everyone is well and love hearing from everyone so keep on posting!!
Some new Gabi things are saying she is sick so she can take medicine, her favorite is pepto bismo for children, she even knows to tell us her belly hurts so she needs it. At bed time we tell her to close her eyes and she comes back with, “If I close my eyes I won’t probably be able to see.” She also will just mouth words and then look at us and say, “You can’t hear me?,” or “You don’t know what I said?,” with a huge smile on her face.

Argentina

Denis’ family has been so nice to us while we’ve been here, so we decided to make dinner for them. They happen to like Yakisoba a lot, and we happen to know how to make yakisoba, so we ended up making that for them, and Brigadeiro, the treats that Gabi loves so much. We had a good meal talking with Denis’ Dad and Jenifer, and then we started packing up, because we were leaving to go to Iguazu the next day. We got into Tiete, the bus station, on Friday afternoon, and found out that we couldn’t get a ticket to Iguazu until Sunday. So we went to the capoeira academy and left our stuff there and walked around Sao Paulo for a while looking for a hotel. We walked all over the place, and it was getting pretty cold, so we stopped in a book store for a coffee and a hot chocolate. This one lady there absolutely loved Gabi. The books there were all shrink wrapped, and she kept opening up new books to show to Gabi. She spent at least half an hour with her, and gave her a polar bear key chain. We told Gabi she could chose one book, and this lady kept showing her new books with sounds and lights and pop ups and all sorts of stuff so that Gabi couldn’t decide what to get. She finally wanted a touch and feel book about animals and colors (in Portuguese) after we got that, the lady still wanted to show her more books, and finally gave her another book, Snow White in Portuguese. We decided to stay in a hotel right next to the bookstore, and went back to get our stuff from the Academy.
The hotel was really nice, with the best breakfast we have had so far, all pizza!! Just kidding, it was the usual stuff, with eggs and pao de queijo as well. After breakfast we met with Andre and went to his house for the night. He made us some delicious pasta and sauce and we watched movies, and Shelley tried to fix our poor dying computer. Then next day we ate at McDonalds, watched Ratatouille, and then made dinner for Dre’s family. Dre drove us to the bus station and then we got on for the 16 hour bus ride to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina.
We arrived in Argetina the next day on Monday around 3 in the afternoon, it was really not that bad of a bus ride at all. We decided that the longer bus rides give you more time to recuperate because we arrived with the most energy after any of our bus rides. We have just spent the past few days(1 and a 1/2 walking around the town Puerto Iguazu) we decided tomorrow is the big day we will go see the big falls. We think it might take two days so we will just have to see, they say you only pay half the second day so if we can not do it all in one day we will extend it for sure. Today we went the point where you can stand and see all three countries from the river(Argentina(where we are), Brazil and Paraguay. It was neat they have little obelisk painted in the colors of the respective country. It was neat, but we are a little sad because we are not sure if we are going to be able to enter Paraguay because they say we need a visa and we are not sure if we are going to spend the money to go for just one day. Well we will update more after we have seen the falls.
Gabi has a few new odd habits. First, she has been saying to us, when we do something she doesn’t like “you can’t do that until Barnyard Dance,” which, along with being a book by Sandra Boyton, is apparently a time of day. This has replace her old thing she did when, for instance we were kissing her, she would say “You can’t kiss me, by Sandra Boyton.” She will also, at pousadas, lay with her head on one bed, and her feet on the other, and when she is face up she’ll say “SpiderMan,” and when she’s face down “SuperMan.” And now she will tell us “I have on question, than I have 3 questions, and then I have 4 questions.” And then she’ll just tell us things, and not ask any questions.
Good luck Katie we are way excited for you and I think tucked in with a belt is the best way to go!

Sorry no pictures the internet here is really slow.

Jundiaí

1. Shelley and Gabi at the Casa da Baile, a Neimeyer building.
2. Igreja São Francis de Assisi, another Neimeyer
3. Eating Açai with Andre. 4. Talking to Mammu and Grandad on the internet.







After having some breakfast here in Jundiaí, we took the train back into São Paulo to see Andre and to try to go to the bank. Unfortunately, banks are not open here on Saturday, so we met up with Dre downtown and went to the Mercado Municipal, a huge market, like the Mercado Central in Belo. This place is famous for Pastels, fried dough filled with delicious things like palm hearts, mozzarella and sun dried tomatoes, and other stuff. We got a couple with Andre, and some acai as well. Then we went from there to Ave. 25 de Marco, which is filled with street vendors and you can buy just about anything.
Andre invited us to spend the night at his place, and since the train is two hours back to Jundiai we decided to take him up on the offer. We had brought a few change of clothes for Gabi but Nate and I were S.O.L. but we did just fine. Acutally when we woke up in the morning we took showers and Nate got outfitted by Dre’s family, he had on an Illinois shirt from Dre but Dre’s mom thought it looked to small. She went and got a nice shirt from Dre’s father. It is a soccer polo from the Corinthians team which is one of the Sao Paulo teams that a lot of Dre’s family works for. He was quite happy about that. The night at Dre’s house we discovered that because Dre and Chris both have Mac computers we could talk online for free see each other. We talked that night for a bit and then realized we might be able to do a three way video chat with Katie too because she has a Mac also. We set up a time in the morning we could chat and all headed to bed. In the morning we tried the three way chat but Dre’s computer was too old so we first talked to Katie and then Nate’s parents again. After getting ready and having a yummy lunch we went to see Gu because Gabi kept asking about him. When we got there they didn’t even really play together but Gabi had a blast with Gu’s mothers family. We are is search for a certain type of Havaiana sandal so Dre took up to a big store with tons of Havaiana’s but we were unsuccessful, so he dropped us off at the train station and we headed off back to Jundiai.
The past few days in Jundiai have been quite dreay, lots of rain and crummy weather. It has kind of kept us inside and we’re getting a little antsy to get moving again. We did make it out to the shopping(mall that is) on our three year anniversary in hopes of seeing Ratatouille but the movie theater here only has it dubed not with subtitles, so we decided against it. We did get some delicious ice cream, and walked around the mall with Denis’ sister. Denis’ family has been incredibly nice too us while we’ve been here, feeding us all the time, and helping us get places. Denis mom doesn’t eat meat much, and cooks a lot with soy, so she has made Shelley some delicious vegetarian things, like soup and meatballs, along with rice and beans. We also read the last Harry Potter book, which was unbelievable. Now we want to read them all from the beginning when we get back.
Gabi has been really good, and she’s been eating so much all the time, that her face is getting a bit chunky. She’s been having a blast with Jenifer though, so that’s good. A new thing she has is that all tennis shoes are called Madeline shoes, because the first pair that she can remember were given to her from my cousin Eva and her daughter Maddy. Also, I had been telling her not to walk on her inflatable bed all morning, and finally I said “how many times do I have to tell you not to walk on your bed?” and she looked at me sweetly and said “Two.”
We’ve only got 3 weeks left of our trip. We’re going to go to Iguacu falls in a couple days, stay there for about two weeks, and then head back to São Paulo before going back home. It’s kind of sad that it’s almost over, but we’ve been making the best of it, and it has been a great trip. I’ve decided that I’m going to start taking classes when we get back, because I want to get a degree in Environmental Science. It’s just going to be at a community college to start off with, but we’ve been looking at other schools in places we want to live for later on. Shelley has a full time job with benefits lined up at the school district where we worked before coming here to Brasil, so she will most likely take that up. We don´t quite know what Gabriella will do, she will most likely go to preschool at Christies for a few hours during the day, and I´ll watch her the rest of the time. I don´t quite know what I´ll be doing for work yet, but we have some ideas.

Pizza Diaries

We had some really great Pizza the other night, I mean, Man was it good. All sorts of stuff on it, cheese and what not, man, Pizza is the best.




This is really a pizza that Shelley ate. It was a ton of arugula and sundried tomatoes on top of a mozzeral pizza! Pizza like this is really popular, and Shelley was so amazed, she took a picture.











ACTUAL BLOG




1. Gabi in front of an old church in Ouro Preto.

2. The show we saw, Jabu´s sister is on the stairs, and Boca is on the stage at the right of the picture.
3. A picture of 2 big churches, taken from beside a 3rd big church










Actually, on Sunday, Boca Rica invited us to go to Ouro Preto with him and a performance group that he helps out. His girlfriend Jabu is part of it, and they do all kinds of shows. They are officially called a circus group, and the two main people do clown stuff. The show they were doing in Ouro Preto was an interactive drum show. They had five people on stage playing drums, and then they had 150 drums in the audience for people to play along with them. Gabi had a really good time playing the drums, and the show was really fun. Before the show we helped them set up, and then had a chance to wander around Ouro Preto, which is also a Unesco World Heritage Site. It used to be the capital of Minas Gerais, and it has lots of cool churches and historic buildings. The city is pretty much preserved as it was in the late 1800’s which is when they moved the capital to Belo Horizonte. After the show we hung out with Boca and the people from the group, and we had a really great time.
On Monday we did a lot more laundry, some of which we have been carrying around dirty since Parati, and then decided to go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, which was great. We had dinner with Boca, and a friend of his, and then decided to walk home. But first we walked around for a while looking for an Internet café, and a place to trade in some of our books. We eventually found a place with Internet, but no luck on the book front. By the time we got home, after a stop at a supermarket, we were exhausted from walking around the city.
The next day we met up with Boca again, and went to the Mercado Central, a huge collection of shops selling just about everything. They had all different sorts of restaurants, produce, meats, cheeses, souvenirs, pets, clothes, everything. We got all the stuff we needed to make dinner there, and then went back to Boca’s house. Shelley and I (mostly Shelley) made Yakisoba (stir fried noodles) and stirfried vegetables, with chicken on the side, and Boca made rice. Jabu came over, and we all ate a ton, and watched some of the Pan American Games. After dinner we made popcorn for Gabi, and then she sat there and made Jabu feed it to her one piece at a time by moving Jabu’s arm from the bowl to her mouth and back. It was pretty hilarious to watch. Boca also showed us some movies of the kids he works with with Capoeira. He has about 70 kids that he works with that have CP, Downs Syndrome, Autism or other handicaps. They all love capoeira, and it was great to see them playing with Boca, and how much fun they were having. He also works with about 100 kids from ages 3 to 7 in a regular school and they were all really cute doing capoeira.
On Wednesday we decided to go to Pampulha, an area of Belo Horizonte that was designed by Oscar Neimeyer, a famous architect, and landscaped by Burle Marx, a famous landscape guy. It was really pretty, set around an artificial lake, with some cool buildings. There is also a zoo at one end of the lake, which Gabi really wanted to go to. Unfortunately it was at the opposite end of the lake from where we started, so after at least 4 or 5 miles of walking, we got there. Shelley and I were completely exhausted when we arrived, but Gabriella, who had slept in the sling the whole time, was rarin’ to see some animals. She got to see Giraffes, which she kept saying were ”the biggest and tallest ever all the time just like me,” and Maned Wolves, which she was really excited about, because they are in Deigo, one of her favorite shows. We only had an hour there, and when we got ready to leave, we told her the zoo was closing. She got really sad and said “I want them to open it back up, because I have to see more animals.” But she got over it because we got to take a bus trip back to the center of the city, and she loves her bus trips. She got to eat Club Social crackers, so it was all good. As we walked back to the Pousada, we got a churro that was filled with Doce de Leite, which is pretty much the best thing ever.


Our last day in Belo, we hung out at Boca´s house after saying goodbye at the pousada. They were quite sad to see us go, and had gotten used to hearing Gabriella´s talking all morining long at breakfast. We got some more churros, and watched the Pan American Games. That night we were really excited, because our guide book said there was a mexican restaurant not far from us, and I have been jonesing for Mexican food. Unfortunately our guide book is 3 years old, and it had closed. So we had, you guessed it, Pizza. Really, and some fries, and sausage for Gabi. Then we said goodbye to Boca, and hopped on a bus to São Paulo. 10 hours, a bus, three trains and a taxi later, we were at my Capoeira Mestre´s family´s house in Jundiaí. We´ve been hanging out with his 14 year old sister, who is really fun, and great with Gabi. We also made a really good book trade, 3 books that we had read for 5 new ones, so that was quite exciting. We are hopeful these books will take us to the end of our trip!! Only three and a half weeks left we can´t believe how it is flying.

Belo Horizonte

We had a couple days left in Salvador, so before heading to the Mercado Modelo we went to a book store and got some more books. I got the 3rd Harry Potter, we got Gabriella a kids book in Portuguese and we got 3 English books for Shelley. She read one the first night, the Beach House by James Patterson. She’s now reading Windy City Blues by Sara Paretsky. At the Mercado we ran into a lady we had met while Gabi was getting her hair braided, and talked to her for a little bit and traded email addresses. While out I also tried Acaraje, which is dried shrimp and spices in a batter fried in palm oil, and I didn’t like it. Gabriella tried it too, which was surprising, but did not like it. We all also tried Coconut water, which is huge here, people sell it everywhere and you can get it in all the stores. The vendors all have huge piles of coconuts, and they just chop them open, poor out the water into cup, or sometimes just put a straw right into the coconut, and then you drink it. Neither Shelley nor I liked it, but Gabi said she did.
Tuesday we went to a pool at a big apartment building. Sergio knows the people that work the door, and he had them let us in. It was really nice, it had a huge adult pool and a pretty big kid pool too, that Gabi could walk around all by herself in. We hung out there and swam laps and played around with Gabi for a while, then went back to Sergio’s to start packing up to leave on Wednesday. We also made fried rice for dinner, which was really good.
It was sad saying good by to Sergio, because Gabi liked him sooo much. She would always run and hug him in the morning, and play with him all the time. We made it too the airport Wednesday with about an hour to spare, so we grabbed some quick food and rushed over to our gate. We needn’t have worried though, because our flight was delayed two hours. Eventually we got on the Fokkerprop 50, and took off for Belo Horizonte. It was a 3 hour flight, and it wasn’t too bad at all. It was cool too, because it was such a small plane, we got on and off on the ground, instead of in a tunnel right into the airport. We got into Confins airport, which is about 45 minutes away from Belo Horizonte. We took a big bus in, and then we were picked up by Boca Rica, a Contra-Mestre in Cordão de Ouro, my Capoeira group. He took us to a pousada near his house, and we conked out.
After a quick breakfast we went walking around the city. I really really like it here. It reminds me a ton of Chicago, and the weather, a little cool, but really sunny, made me miss Chicago. We went to a huge park, Parque Municipal and walked around for a bit. Gabi really wanted to go on a "Merry Round" that they had, so we bought her a ticket and plopped her on an Elephant. She was okay for about half a turn, than she just burst out crying. Shelley even walked around the thing with her, but she wouldn’t stop crying, so the guy stopped the ride and then she got off. Afterward she kept saying that "something happened on the Merry Round, and then I wanted to get off" What that something was is a mystery, because I was watching her as she came around and went from kinda happy to crying for absolutely no reason. We think it was just the ride itself that scared her. We went to Boca Rica’s house later that day and hung out with a Capoeirista from Israel, Gavião. who was staying with Boca. We hung out and watched Capoeira videos and talked for a while, and then had some food when Boca got back, before heading out to a rehearsal for a Samba Bloco, a drum group that does Samba. They were really cool and fun to watch.
The people at this pousada, Pousada Piauí, are super nice and helpful. They let us use their washing machine, and we spent all morning Friday doing laundry. Some of the people that work here were talking to us while we did it, and Shelley had a conversation about taxes and poverty and stuff with the people who didn’t speak English, and everybody understood what everyone else was saying. I was quite proud of her. We talked to the owner of the Pousada that evening, who is really nice, and her son ended up driving us to an area of the city, Savassi, with lots of restaurants and shops. On the way into Belo, Shelley had said how she really wanted to go to a Pizza Hut for their pizza buffet. We laughed because neither of us had done that since grade school. We had told the pousada owner and her son that we felt like pizza for dinner, and they said that there were a bunch in Savassi, including a Pizza Hut. We walked around Savassi for a little while and then finally saw the Pizza Hut. Brazil was for Pizza Hut what going to a new school is for a dorky kid, a chance to reinvent themselves. If this Pizza Hut we saw was in the US, people would say "Pizza Hut, who the heck do you think you are, acting all fancy and stuff?" It looked like a fancy Michigan Ave. restaurant, but with the same logo. And the pizzas were ridiculously expensive. You can get a really, really good large pizza for around R$20 most places, and Pizza Hut was charging at least R$30, for the smallest size, so we ended up going somewhere else and getting a really really good pizza for about R$20, and watching the opening Ceremony for the Pan American Games, which are here in Brazil.
Saturday we met up with Boca, his girlfriend Jabu and Gavião around noon, and then going for lunch to an Arab place, another thing that made me miss Chicago. But the food was really good, and then Boca took us to Parque das Mangibeiras, a huge nature park, that also had a lot of cool playground stuff that Gabi loved. And we saw some cool animals Kuati, which look kind of like Raccoons, but were way used to people and came right up to us when they saw that Gabi had popcorn. We played around at a playground for a while, and saw some really great views of Belo Horizonte.

The weather here in Salvador has been less than optimal. It’s been cloudy and rainy just about everyday, so we haven’t been doing too much. Thursday we had to go to the bank to get money, which was a long trip, but we got to go in one of the cool elevators that they have here. The city is divided into the Cidade Alta, the older part built up on bluffs overlooking the bay, and the Cidade Baixa, the newer part down at sea level. There are a bunch of really steep roads that connect the two, but there are also a couple elevators that go straight up and down between the two. After the bank we were a little hungry so we went to the Mercado Modelo, a cool indoor market that used to be where slaves coming into Brazil were kept, and then auctioned off. Now it is a tourist market, with lots of souvenirs and handicrafts and stuff. But we only stayed for a little bit to get lunch, which ended up taking forever. We ordered two drinks and a plate of french fries. We got the drinks right away, but the french fries took about half an hour to come out, and then it took a long time to get the bill too. For Dinner we went to a kinda goofy little Pizza place/Internet café, which was okay, but not as good as the place in Arraial.
Friday was an in day. We tried something new though, and it was really exciting. One of Gabi’s favorite foods here in Brazil has been Pipoca (popcorn) which they sell on the street all over the place. When I was at the grocery store I saw a bag of Kernels and grabbed it to try and make it at home. Having grown up in the microwave era, neither Shelley nor I had ever made popcorn on the stove. It’s really super easy, and Gabi loves it, because she gets to help with everything, putting the oil in, measuring the popcorn and then she gets to listen for all the pops. We also made pasta that night for us, Sergio, his neighbor Lucas and two girls from Capoiera class that Nate went to and managed to hurt his back again. The girls were from France and Switzerland, and Gabi took well to them.
We were going to make lasagna but we couldn’t find ricotta cheese or spinach, so we made pasta instead. The plan was that we all were going to go to an island in the bay where Sergio has a house early Saturday morning, but when we woke up the island was gone, it was so cloudy we couldn’t even see it, so we didn’t end up going. Instead Nate and I decided it would be a good day to go to Shopping Barra, which was huge. We shopped a bit and got Gabi and new bikini and a few postcards and ate some lunch and they headed back to our place. On the way out of the mall, I saw a really big grocery store so we went looking for lasagna makings again, but were still unsuccessful. The store was called Bom Preco and we found out it is a divison of Walmart. We can’t go anywhere without Walmart following us. We hung out with the everybody again that night, and Gabi entertained everyone with her dancing and goofing around.
Sunday was another rainy day in the morning so we just hung out and around noon it cleared up a bit so we headed to the beach, with the European girls. We all had a good day at the beach and Gabi had lots of fun, she really likes the water now. She also did a good job playing in the sand by herself. At the beach Nate and I trade off going in the water so someone is always with our stuff and with Gabi too. I was in the water and I keep hearing someone yell “Amiga, Amiga” and I just ignored it then I turned around to find out why no one was answering and the guy was calling to me, he asked me “Quer compania”, which means, if you can’t tell, do you want company. I said no and ran back to Nate as fast as I could, but all in all it was pretty hilarious. I mean who ask someone if they want company??
Today is Monday and the day is crummy yet again, I am starting to get sad because this is the last place we will be with a beach and none of the days have been good beach going days. We have stayed in again today and are going to head to the Mercado Model again so we can actually look around after we use the internet. We leave Salvador on Wednesday and are flying to Belo Horizonte, from there we are going back to Sao Paulo, but are going to stay in a little town outside the city called Jundiai. This is where Denis’s mother and sister live. Denis is Nate’s capoeira teacher. From there we are going to head to Foz de Iguazu and then back to Sao Paulo before we head back to the states.