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.