Wednesday's logic puzzles

I love the look on this guy's face - very apt for me today
Guess who forgot to reset the alarm last night... so I woke up at 4:30am instead of 6am. For the uninitiated, I wake up at a different time every day, depending on my schedule. Well, if nothing else, by the time I headed out, I was quite awake and could take my poor beleaguered limbs on a somewhat less frantic walk today - stop for a photo or two, then later to wish on a dandelion clock before ambling, nay, make that limping into the metro station.

I am sore... so very sore. Monday, I walked to the metro station, a 1.8km (1.1 mile) walk, then back again after the earlier students. I now do that walk at least twice a day, sometimes 4 times. It's not arduous. Because the bus route to my evening student is 100% ghastly, I decided to walk to his offices - an easy (or so I thought) 4.5km (2.8 mile) walk away. I figured it was no less than my workout walk. Ha! I was wearing fairly comfortable shoes that are just a smidgeon too big for me. I walked briskly, not wanting to chance being late and the sooner I could get there, the more time I could give myself to cool down and look less like I've just run a marathon before meeting the client. By the last mile, I felt as though both legs had full-on cramps and my left heel was one big open blister. Nasty. Otherwise, it was good. There was a nice breeze blowing that made it bearable - as long as I ignored my lower limbs.

I felt those lower limbs for the rest of the week... I won't even talk about the blister.

Back to Wednesday morning...
Ugh, the temperature is at a 'fresh' 24ºC (75ºF) and is now deemed too 'cold' for the fans and aircons to be on. Why on earth do Brazilians always look cool as cucumbers, while I look like a roasted pig with sweat tapping off in a highly unladylike manner?? The metro is packed. They really should open it earlier. I was off to a meeting with a new student. It went well. I'm still trying really hard to convince her to have her classes via Skype. I'm not pushy or anything, just hell-bent and determined *laugh*



Juggling three heads... yep, that's me!
I have spent the past two days frantically trying to squeeze 3 more classes into my morning and another two into my afternoon. You know those logic puzzles? The ones where Mary likes apples, but doesn't like bananas, Joe likes peaches, but is allergic to mangoes, Jack hates apples, but loves papaya, etc... and you have to figure out who gets to eat what in the end? I sucked at doing those, so I avoid them. Right now, my schedule is like a logic puzzle, except without the logic and too many 'Janes' like 'peaches'. Everyone wants the 8am slot. Mary wants any day of the week, except Mondays. Janet wants any day except Friday. Thursday is taken by John. And so it goes on.

I ended up dropping one student and convincing another that she can only have one class per week, instead of two. She may just decide on another teacher with that kind of condition *sigh*

I'm itching! I'm sooo over mosquitoes!! Most things in nature, I can figure out why they were created, but mosquitoes.... ?? Can anyone tell me??

C'est la weekend

Have I mentioned lately that it's hot? Well, if I haven't... it's hot. If bits of the north are having an early spring, can I please, please ask for an early autumn? Preferably winter. Winter would be nice. Thank you.

Last week was a mess of frantic running around and lying on my back. It was nice in some ways though. I got myself a couple of new students and rested up somewhat.


Early morning (4am) full moon, broken by clouds. Not a good photo at all.
It was far more impressive to the eye.

Thursday was one of my early starts with a student I like. Heck, I know I have it good when I can tell a joke in class and have the student 'get' it right away and find it funny. I'm not the world's greatest joke teller. In fact, my jokes usually fizzle to a "... and the punchline is...?" Then, at the end of class, he introduced me to a colleague who wanted classes. Nice! I love that guy... really! Ok, the new student is pretty basic and I don't usually take basic students, but I think she has more English than she gives herself credit for. We'll do just fine. Thursday evenings brought storms again.

Friday was 'one of those days'. Thursday's rain continued. Friday morning, about 11am, our internet died... completely. The nice new modem was stone dead. We tried everything, then Jurgis went over to a friend to call in support. They would only get someone over here on Tuesday afternoon. Gah! I immediately freaked, as I have Skype students before then. When I stopped cursing, I entertained myself by reducing my mailbox from 1084 emails to 550 emails. Yes, I'm an email packrat =Þ And yes, I'm quite sure I'm going to be looking for some of those emails that someone is bound to refer to... just because I deleted them.

Shortly afterwards, the heavens really opened. Many parts of the city had hail. Flooding, of course, is pretty much the norm now. Right after 2pm, the power died. We amused ourselves by standing at the door, watching the rain fall.


That water was about an inch deep. We're very lucky where we are. Our house is higher than the surrounding houses, so we get off lightly when it rains. We just can't go anywhere.

The power returned after about two hours. About another hour or so after that, our modem burped and lit up. I think it just needed shock treatment... defibrillation... Stat! Usually, the modem dies after a storm. Ours resuscitated. Ok, we're special ;)

So tomorrow will be a long day. I set out for my first students at 7am. Two hours with them, then on to a new student who'll have a 2 hour class. I'll barely have enough time to get to MF for her class, after which I get home, change and go out to my last 2 hour class. It's only 7 hours of teaching, but the travel time in-between makes it a rushed day. I get home at 8:30pm. Definitely a long day. It's nice though. The day is filled with actual work.

This past week, a cousin passed away. Not someone we're in any way close to for a number of reasons. Jurgis went to the 'velorio' (viewing). The day after his death was the cremation. They do it quickly here due to the heat. The mourners and onlookers gather from about 10am, but the actual funeral and cremation is at 5pm. No one thought to tell Jurgis that. In fact, we only knew about the death because a cousin from the US called to tell us. Anyway, the 10am gathering was primarily a family gossip session. We had to chuckle. One cousin had recently 'moved' to the UK. Turns out the UK kicked him out. He was there on a less than legal basis. He spoke not a word of English either. Now that he's back, he's the local go-to for information on life in England. We were highly amused by his tales. The thing that seemed to impress him the most was kettles. "You won't believe it! They have tall kettles that you just plug into the wall and it boils the water!" Uh yes... no one uses electric kettles here. You can get them, but the electricity is just too expensive to use one.... when you can find them to buy. The cousin in question has had all his English appliances shipped to Brazil. Good luck to him. No one told him that the power here is different and each one will need a transformer.

Ack! Sunday is nearly over. I've procrastinated more than enough. I still have lessons to finish for tomorrow..... off I go again...

PS. It just occurred to me that the primary topic of my posts is the weather. I'm so exciting! *grins*

Monday, Monday...

Whew! It's been a week and a half so far!

I figured Monday would be like any other day. I was sooo wrong! I'll take any Friday 13th over this past Monday.

The day didn't start badly, if I ignored the stalled metros. I got to my first set of students. They're meant to do their classes in 1 hour turns. It's a mother and son. She decided to opt out of class, leaving me with her more advanced son and one hour's worth of materials to stretch over two hours. Ok. I can do this. It didn't go badly.

I took the bus to my next student. It was one of those times when I have too much time between students, but not enough time to go home. I hung around in a coffee shop for an hour, but left when it got awkward. I moved down the road and sat on a step under the broiling sun - literally broiling. Wait... make that 'pressure cooking'. The tattered awning helped a little though... until the rain started. The heavens opened and in the time it took me to dash 200 yards, the water was over my shoes. I got to the student looking like a drowned rat (a rather overgrown drowned rat).

They were renovating and my usual class area was out of bounds and would I mind giving class in the child's bedroom? My heart sank. I'd forgotten my flash drive at home and her bedroom had a very poor wifi connection, so I had to wing it. She wanted her class under a tent created by her duvet. I swear the child is insane... didn't she know how hot it was? That was after she shut the door and the windows and turned the lights off.

I left her in the rain and headed off home. I was grateful for my long(ish) legs compared to the locals. I could jump the flooded sidewalks to relatively shallow water while they had to wade through. I felt like Mary Poppins sailing over the water with my umbrella that was threatening to disintegrate in the wind. We stood under the leaky bus shelter, each trying to crane past the others' umbrellas to see if the bus was coming. Needless to say, the buses were slow in coming. I had less than an hour to get home and get out to the next student. I waded home. The water at my last bus stop was almost at my knees. Yuck!

The storm grew worse. There was a major clap of thunder and lightning. It was right over us. Then the power went out. Our internet died at the same time, as I discovered when I got home.

At home, I dashed some food down my throat. The next student was a 2 hour long session and I'd be home really late. I had no time to change, but dried out while I ate. Heat has its advantages. I didn't want to dress up anyway, as the next student wasn't in a great end of town and I'd probably have to swim to him anyway.

I headed out. I took the wrong bus. I ended up having to walk a mile and some change. I was late - only by 10 minutes, but that just about killed me. I'm never late, especially for the first class with a new student. Then I arrived at the address. It was a major international corporation!! I was dressed in khakis and a t-shirt!! UGH! The student, who just happened to be the sales director of this company *cringe*, learned how to say sorry, profusely, many times over, within the first 5 minutes of the class. Once I'd regained my composure, the class went well. I even scored a ride home for which I was really grateful - in a luxury 4x4 with aircon. 'Home' was on his way.

Tuesday consisted of cancelled classes. My classes were online : (  Skype doesn't work without internet. Did you know that?


What's the height of boredom? Taking photos of the truly fascinating interior of your water bottle!
Today was back to normal. We got our internet back tonight - a brand, spanking new modem - after a day of yet more knee-deep rain. Ah fun! : )

Tuesdayisms

I'm itching from head to toe. Enough with the mosquitoes already. I look like I have measles : (

One of my newer students (started just before Christmas) gave me a belated Christmas gift - a hand embroidered face towel. It's beautiful. I only teach her and her son because of her cat though ; ) He's a huge, friendly, absolutely gorgeous ginger! I keep threatening to take him home with me. I think the towel was a trade-off.

I have two new students. Both seem very nice. One is close to home and the other a Skype student. Now if my old students would just come back. They all seem to be on extended vacations.

I feel as though I've been talking about religion all week. Weird that.


The road at my bus stop... The tar is washed away in many parts,
leaving the original cobble stones showing through.
I love the cobble stones, but they're treacherous in wet weather.
Yesterday, the roads were very wet with random ponds. The heat had evaporated the worst, plunging us into our daily sauna. You could see the mud-water flood mark had reached above the car tyres at the metro station. Shop owners were sweeping mud out of the shops. My student told me of friends whose homes were flooded out. We're so lucky where we are.

Today was a public holiday - São Paulo's birthday. I didn't achieve too much. Prepared for little miss for tomorrow, went through a couple of cases of stuff, read some blogs and generally pretended to be really busy.

The cat is lying sprawled on the dog's blankie. Dog is sulking at my feet, though, in fairness, he's using the cat's soft-foam box as a pillow. Good trade. She never uses it anyway.

And the daily quandaries start again

Really bad cell phone photo, but there was a security guy lurking
and they get twitchy when they see photos being taken.
I'm sitting here, doing nothing. I don't want to start on the mountain of work I have here at home and getting ready only to be told not to bother irks me.

It's like this... The student hasn't actually started for the new year. She's my student who notoriously cancels at the last minute, often as I'm walking in at her offices. I've been trying to contact her all morning. She's left home, hasn't arrived at work and her cell phone is on voicemail and, if I'm to go, I have to leave now.

Ok, the fact that I'm still here typing tells you what my decision was. There's been no word from my student. I love that I'm #1 priority in her life *laughing*

Yesterday, I got to my student's apartment and was about to go in when I got the text. She was sick and her son (the other student) was taking her to hospital. This student takes me 2 hours to get to her. So, I tootled off home and did some shopping on the way - bare pantry syndrome. The supermarket was empty. What is it about vacant parking lots that make them so creepy? The photo I took was in the well-lit part. I did well and got a week's groceries for very little output. There were flies around the potatoes though *shudder* This is inside a shopping centre, inside the supermarket. This does not bode well for my potato mania. No wonder they serve rice with everything.

There were massive roadblocks around the corner here. Apparently, our nearby favela has started selling drugs. Yay. The break-ins and assaults have escalated lately. The people directly across the road from us were assaulted twice in as many months. They've now moved.

14 people have died in our latest flood. São Paulo is again under water. No surprises there. I'm not even bothering with photos and videos this time. You've seen it all before. I feel for the Aussies though. They're not used to flooding and their waters look rough.

I chuckled at this video Jurgis sent me this morning. I have always avoided parallel parking at all costs. This makes it so easy! It seems my choice of mode of transport was the problem ;)
......

Whew!

One of *those* mornings! I did wake up at 4:30. I swear! Somehow, 4:30 morphed into 5:20. Did you know that panic acts as a spring? I vaulted from being horizontal in my bed to the kettle in the kitchen two rooms away in one fluid movement... far more fluid than I usually am before noon (or any other time, for that matter).

I made it to the bus stop 10 minutes late only to find the bus was late too. Thank goodness. The driver greeted me with a cheery smile, which was good, as the crowded bus forced me to stand close to him - or as close as the protective bars would allow anyway - for some distance.

At the end of the first run, I went to pay. I usually delay it to the end of that leg of the trip, so I can stretch my Bilhete Unico (a card that lets me take a certain number of buses and metros within a given time period). Panic ensued a second time, this time far worse. My bus card was missing! I paid cash, but that ends up more than doubling my transport costs. A frantic call to Jurgis had him searching at home. I had just charged the card on Friday with at least half a month's worth of transport value. If it was gone, I'd be in huge trouble. Bless the man - he found it at home. Huge "Whew!"

After that, the rest of the day had to be peachy, right? Ok, barring the metro-riders who collectively seemed to be out of sorts. Outside the bank where teach, I was delighted to find two boys playing with a spinning top.


Photo credit: Ratão Diniz in www.flickr.com
It's been years since I'd seen one of those. They were doing some pretty cool tricks with it too. I wonder if spinning tops are coming back into popularity again - life is full of surprises.

Speaking of surprises, I'm learning to give everything (and everyone) a chance - a slow lesson, mind you. You never know where you'll find a gem. I found some great music recently in a genre and artist type I usually wouldn't touch with a ten-foot barge pole. Even the bus driver this morning was one I usually avoid. He's the one who always goes at half the speed limit. Today, he went along at a decent pace and I got smiles. What more could I ask for? Hm... ok.... perhaps an air ticket or two? : )

I had more surprises in store for me today. My one constantly-cancelling student wanted to move her class to lunch time to see if she'd be more constant then. That left her very popular slot open in the early morning. My Friday morning student, a really nice guy, happily filled that slot. I got an email this afternoon from the parent of the teens. Apparently, the kids have decided they don't want English classes for now (guess who's the boss there) and they're going to give it a miss for a while and he's terribly sorry. Wheeeee! This meant that I could tell my other student that she could have the lunch times she was after. Ok, she's not as regular as I'd like and with her, I'll get 10 bucks less than I do with them, but, as I said to Jurgis, I'll put that 10 bucks down to spa/therapy time. The stress I'll be relieved of makes it so well worth it and I know that more will come in now.

Oops! Just saw the time. I'm nearly late for the next student. Seems today is not my most punctually-concious day *blush* I thought the photo I took in the bank offices to be appropriate. "Time" in Portuguese is actually 'team'. It fits though.