Blogs from Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, South America - page 4

It is cold. Extremely cold. We have colds. All of our school friends have colds. People are carrying their dogs around in blankets so they don't freeze to death. We have risked burning the house down by putting our blankets on a space heater because we are so cold. It is a constant state of mind. Once the cold draws you in you can't escape. It is like living in a dream...only your dream is a nightmare. A cold, cold nightmare from which you will never escape. A nightmare from which wearing two pairs of socks will not save you. A nightmare in which three comfortors and countless cups of coffee are not enough. A nightmare where it is so cold that even though the window is wide open and causing you to freeze to ... read more

Yesterday we woke up pretty late and went to a brunch for lunch (rhyme!). They had pretty good bread pudding. After we came home we walked to The Gruta (the grotto) which is the prettiest place in existence. We have a few photos but you really have to see it in person...to bad you didn´t, haha suckers! We watched The Queen and Forty Year Old Virgin (what? so innapropriate!) and both were really good. Then we went to sleep. Today we got our various schedules after waking up in time for breakfast for the first time. We are taking Portguese classes as well as gym classes. We went to one gym class today (combat). It was pretty intense. Tomorrow we´re going to start all the classes and we´ll register at Maua (Moo-ah, muah) and maybe ... read more

url='/Videos/2836.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2836.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Gremio vs Caxias What a busy week! I think my new found addiction to Brazilian coffee didn't make me realize how tired I was thus I slept about 15 hours on Saturday. Anyways to begin with I have moved apartments. I am now living with two sisters, Aline (23) and Fabiana (27). My room is pretty much a small box with a mattress, which I guess is a good thing because it means I never want to be there except for sleeping. On the up side, it is a perfect location with only a 10 minute walk from work and the girls are very nice with again an unbelievable amount of patience with my portuguese. Things at work this week really picked up because both of my bosses arrived from Germany and Rio but ... read more

we are back into the heat wave here.... plus 36 or so today, its been much cooler the last week and a half or so. work on the house continues to move along well, herman told us that when a team is here working they usually puts them ahead of schedule by approx. 3 months. this is our last week here, we are going to be sad to leave, but we are missing our friends, family, animals and our privacy!! its funny what you take for granted until you are rooming with at least 15 others for 5 weeks. we went out again tonite to the pizzaria, and we are pizzaria-ed out! we are looking forward to canadian pizza again. (other things we are looking forward to are: our own bed, english television, tim hortons, ... read more

The new team is here, and we have had a pretty productive week. They arrived on wednesday afternoon and were ready to work first thing thursday morning. Work at the new house is coming along nicely. Aside from some odds and ends to finish up the top floor is completed. Power and the water still need to be brought into the house, but the well was put in this week so that was great. It was neat to see that process, as its such an ingenius system they have for it. The highlight of the week for us was a birthday party we were invited to, by one of our sponsor kids, Taciane. She turned 9 and made sure to give us a homemade invitation. Although we couldnt read it, we made sure to have ... read more