Brazilian Lyfe

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I've been settling into Brazilian life pretty well...I technically have 3 jobs but one hasn't started yet so pretty busy!

Wednesday and Friday I leave at 7am for Campinas. In the morning I hang out at this organization called Vovo Nestor and they do things like arts and crafts and dance classes for the poor people that live in that area. Then at 1pm I go to pick up dogs from a local vet and bring them to the hospital. Wednesday is a children's hospital and Friday is a big hospital with everything. This is my favorite part of the day. While most of the people we see are different every week, some people are really ill and live in the hospital. These people (mostly kids with really bad disabilities) are hooked up to a machine and usually can't talk, but they are SO happy when they see the dogs. We visit and talk to them, which is hard for me with the language, and it makes them smile really big, and that makes my day.

Even big men who are only in the hospital with a broken leg or something hate to say "tchau" to the Yorkie with bows in her hair!

The vet has 3 yorkies and a border collie, and other volunteers bring their own poodles, goldens, and a bernese. So there are all kinds of big and small dogs. And we put bows and stickers in their hair it's really cute.

The only thing that wasn't so good was when we were in the Mental Health ward last week and this guy (my age) started hitting on me and even gave me the doctors number so I could call him. It was so embarrassing. So now I don't go to that department anymore and apparently he always asks for me...

Anyway, afterwords, I get a ride back to Angela's mom Marli's house, where Angela picks me and Alicia up and we go home around 7. Long days!

Marli is a crack up. We have the most hilarious interactions because she doesn't speak English, and shes 73 and a HUGE Ponte Preta (local soccer team) fan and still goes out to bars. I was at her house last week and she gave me a teacup of something called pinga and she told me to sip it. Well, it's like vodka. But it doesn't taste as bad.

So a couple nights later, I'm out with some friends (Yes! I have friends now!) and they're drinking pinga, and I was sipping it like I thought you were supposed to. But apparently they take shots of it, and thought I was absolutely insane for sipping it. But they forgave my insanity when I showed them how to play beerpong, which is everybody's new favorite game! Haha we even make things a little more interesting by playing with the front cup full of pinga.

I went to Sao Paulo (the BIG city) for Brazilian Independence Day which is not as exciting as it sounds because its like Labor Day, but even less exciting because it's on a Wednesday. Anyway, I went around for a few hours with Angela's nephew Diego, who doesn't speak English but we could communicate with my masterful (broken) Portuguese! We checked out the bank district and the park, which was like Central Park and PACKED with people. Then, we passed a cemetery, and he said it was really big and it looked really cool so I made him stop so we could walk around. AND IT WAS SO COOL. The pictures seriously don't do it justice I felt like I was in the middle of a horror movie in daylight.

Anyway the family is good, Douglas is in Mexico on a business trip so Angela is by herself which has been really hard so I've been trying to be extra helpful. Marina is a really, really, really difficult 4. E.g.: She wanted to watch a movie and was yelling at Angela to put it on and Angela was like "you have to wait, I'm cooking" so I went over to turn it on and Marina goes "I said 'mom'" and this was when she was in a "good" mood! She can be a sweet girl, but is really manipulative and REALLY demanding of Angela. I don't know if this is just what a 4 year old is like, but I basically just ignore her because she won't let anybody but Angela do anything for her anyway.

On my off days I teach English to some neighbors to make some pocket money, go to the pool, or run around the lake. I'm also spending a lot of time planning a grand trip through Argentina, Chile, and Peru to climb Machu Picchu! If it all works out, I'll leave in October or the end of September.

Sending extra love and best wishes to everybody this week!

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Photos

Safira and Peach
my favorite therapy dogs!