Snippets of life

My walk to work - or at least one of them.
I head to a 2 hour evening class in an industrial area.

My lunchtime student, the psychologist, is off to Spain (which explains my presence in blogland today). Brazilians don't like the winter, especially this lady. We had a gorgeous week of what I'd love as summer though. Warm, sunny days with a light breeze. It's cooling rapidly now. Rain to come this afternoon.

I have enough chicken soup in the pot to feed an army. Got some pasta and mince cooking as well. We haven't had that for a while. Evenings are always a challenge. I don't have any evenings free right now. The weekend ran away with me, so I'm doing a bulk cook-up now.

The guys at Gameloft are trying to persuade me to buy a new mobile. I got to play with the latest Samsung Galaxy in class *drools*

Multiply used to send personal messages to my mailbox. I see I missed a couple : (  I wasn't ignoring anyone. Promise!

I have a new 'friend' on my walks. It's hard to keep her attention though. She's very focused...






This little cat can be found at any time sitting meditating or scheming (you decide which) on the birds. I stood there for about 10 minutes photographing her from all angles. She didn't even twitch a whisker! When I get her attention, though, she is the sweetest, most affectionate little thing. The owner seems to collect and sell all kinds of junk. Both cat and birds seem very well cared for.

I have learnt that a good keyboard is worth its weight in gold! I will not take my keyboard for granted. I will not take my keyboard for granted. I will not take..... The letters had worn off my keyboard in far too short a period of time. The shop told us to contact Microsoft (it's a MS keyboard), which we did. They told us to ship the keyboard to them. While we waited, I used one of those little silicone keyboards you can roll up. It was a Portuguese keyboard, as opposed to the Brazilian abnt2 that I was used to. The keys had No Logic at all! I finally got my keyboard back *hugs keyboard* alçfkjdsçlk r48twpagw Never hug your keyboard.

Winter = naartjie season!!

Fiddle faddle

A blog of random nothingness...

On Sunday, we considered calling Ghostbusters. The neighbour was sounding a bit like a banshee. She was clearly unhappy with the men in her life (two adult sons and a husband).

A colleague in Germany wrote a brilliant blog on the work I (ok, we) do: What is TEFL?

It looks like I'm losing my little girl (student) because of a time clash. It breaks my heart. I'm fond of her, just not fond of her father. At all. On many levels.

I suggested yesterday that Jurgis writes and publishes a book called "The World's Worst Puns". It's sure to be a best-seller. Gems like: "You're a plant. You stalk people on Facebook, then you leaf." I almost cried, except that crying, wailing and gnashing of teeth in a Metro is undignified. I restricted myself to groaning and rolling my eyes.

They apparently cut our water on Sunday. We were blissfully unaware of it thanks to the roof-top cistern, except... We turned our taps on yesterday morning to brown sludge. Thanks Water Dept. It made for a day of fun drinking, showering, etc. Our water today is down to a weak tea colour. Our filters are totally blocked. Not a happy camper here. If you want to see what our water system here involves, I've written about it before here.

Oh! Before I forget! I wanted to tell you about a new site I found called Quietube. You put the button on your bookmarks toolbar and when you're viewing a Youtube or Vimeo video, you can click on Quietube and watch the video without some of the rather awful comments or so-called 'related' videos that often aren't related at all. If you want to send a link to a video to someone, but don't want the ghastly comments to show, Quietube solves that problem. Nice! Here is an example I was watching this morning.

Girl in rain

I discovered this sweet image by Pentelka on Deviantart. It fits.

*shiver* I suppose getting changed would be a good thing. The heavens opened in a sheet of driving rain as I stepped off the bus. It was almost as though someone up there waited... "Oh look! She's getting off now. Quick! Get the buckets!" And guess who had no umbrella. Why should I? We haven't seen a drop of rain for weeks. Did I mention my wash lines were full of freshly laundered, almost-dry washing? And the cat litter was outside getting some sun?

Tonight I have to prepare some grammar sheets. I am so not in the mood. But... we have a pot of chicken soup waiting to be heated, so all is well. I'm having some serious schedule conflicts. Everyone wants classes at their time, which is totally understandable and wouldn't be a problem if everyone's preference could be spread out. I need a clone. I have been introduced to another South African girl who's teaching and wants to branch out as a private teacher. I need to meet her still. I hope she's worth her salt as a teacher, so I can pass some work her way. Time will tell. The first problem there is finding time to meet her. Between her schedule and mine, a miracle is needed.

Off to get that soup now...

Voodoo

My apologies to the squeamish for this photo. It's a good thing we don't have scratch 'n sniff technology. Trust me, it smelt a lot worse than it looks!


For about a week, wherever I walked, there were macumba 'artefacts' lying around - candles in one place, random chickens in another, but none to rival my one walk. Every second block had an entire row of chickens. Is that desperate macumba?

No, it wasn't the prolific macumba that influenced my disappearance... though you never know, right? I got very busy. My weeks were taken up with teaching - with brief stops at home to change clothes or pick up materials, dinner at 9pm and falling into bed. Saturday afternoons were filled with laundry and housekeeping and Sunday found me under a pile of papers preparing for the next week. I think I lost myself somewhere in there.

I've been pretty under the weather, topped, this weekend, by a cold - kindly contributed by the sniffing cashier, I'm sure. I threatened to disinfect my bank card when I got home and forgot. I should sue them for Vit. C tablets... or her. Her... uh... nasal hygiene left a lot to be desired.

I really, really want to write again, but I tend to write 3 lines before my mind wanders and the pen lies idle. I have at least 6 draft posts here that will probably never see the light of day. Their impetus is quite gone.

So, in short, beyond tripping over chicken remains in the road, a very bad diet of snatched snacks at odd hours, blearily looking at my over-full mailbox in the evenings, I have nothing to report. Life, as it is, is continuing at a steady (and, today, noisy) pace. The sun is shining and the neighbours are vying with each other to see who can play the worst music the loudest. Their attempts at barbecues aren't very successful either. I strongly suspect that I'm going to work smelling of wood-smoke this week. I suppose I should take that laundry down before it's totally cured...

Whenever I turn around

... there is one more thing to do, one more call to make, one more lesson to prepare. Work. Live. Repeat.


Wonder who was the recipient of this particular 'magic'.
'Macumba' is still fairly widely practiced here.
Yes, I have been busy, probably no busier than some of you, but somehow, I just haven't managed to get on top of it. It's good though. Busy keeps me from thinking too much. I have a dozen blogs started in my little notebook. Wonder if I'll ever get them written up. Of course, they're all out of date now, except for those with their feet firmly planted in the distant past.


March Madness and April Foolishness spread to the classroom with one little girl being determined to drive me crazy. I was very proud of her, though, when she showed her dad up with a simple word like 'silly'. She was proud to demonstrate what it meant. Um... not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but still.


Her sister now sits in on all classes. It's either that or a wailing to end all wailing is started. It wouldn't be so bad if she weren't hell-bent on getting to the keyboard. She's a special kid with hydroencephalitis and major health issues, but she's made huge strides this year. She knows the word 'laptop' (go figure) and sit and she tries to say my name. Kudos to her. Most adults can't get it right.

I now teach from 7am (that's not the time I leave home, but the time I start) to 8pm every day except Friday. Saturday, I finish at lunch time, thankfully. Then I play catch up here at home. Sunday is just a heap of papers and lesson plans. I'm prepared for most of the classes. When I feel busy, I just think of my one 'new' student. She's not really new. She's a returning student. She's changing jobs, getting married and finishing her MBA all in the next couple of weeks. Insane! Oh and that's besides putting in many hours on an intensive English course.

It's our anniversary on Tuesday. 25 years. That's a long time, let me tell you. I need another medal. We won't be doing anything. I won't be home for that. I may treat us to a pizza for supper. It'll be nice not to have to cook for a change.


The scene that greets me (sometimes) at the metro station
on my way to my final student in the evening.
It rained today... rained quite hard with the usual flooding in some areas and widespread hail. We weren't really affected. I'm tired. Roll on the Easter long weekend. I think I'll vow not to budge out of my chair or bed for the entire weekend. Now there's a plan. Nah. I'll find something to do, like play catch up.

In latest news from the pond

The hazy look is rain
Actually, there's no news really. Even the persistent rain isn't news any more. I waded home from my lunch time student in my water wings. It's now practice for Jurgis to meet me at the door with towels. My little umbrella is finished. In the end, it wasn't worth keeping open. For a 4 buck cheapie, it's done quite well for itself. I'm going to miss the bright green. I have a black vulture ready to take over though.

Yesterday evening, I went out to my late student... got as far as the bus stop and waited.... and waited... and waited... I amused myself while waiting...


There's a manhole cover. The underground water forces them up into a fountain in the road
Let's just say it was wet!


It's usually dry under the huge rubber trees at my stop.
I was using my umbrella under the bus stop shelter.
I eventually waded back home. No go. I left a message with my student that there just are no buses. No wonder...


Photo taken from the news. This is the bus I was waiting for.
It was stuck far away from me.
These two photos were taken in our neighbourhood, though at the other end. We weren't as badly hit.





I'm intrigued. She's actually riding her bicycle through the water!

Feel free to browse more to get an idea of what it's been like here lately:
http://noticias.uol.com.br/album/110216chuva_album.jhtm?abrefoto=87
Some areas were very badly hit with cars completely submerged and a couple of landslides.

Not too long after I sent a message to my student, I got a text from him: "Don't come. It's flooded here." Uh... yes... I'd say!

My one student was saying that the rains of this year are the worst he has ever seen. I know that, for us, it's the worst we've had, though São Paulo is no stranger to rains and floods. It's a seasonal way of life here. This is constant though. We're well used to the 4pm sudden rain storm in summer, but this day in and day out rain and flood? Not nearly as much fun and very awkward, to say the least, for intrepid teachers like me to move heaven and earth to get to students - ok, not quite heaven and earth... make that 'wind and water'.

And speaking of students, I need to get back to preparing for young MF.

For those who're waiting, Tat won't be blogging in a hurry. I got a "My pc has a fatal error" message last night. She is less than impressed.

Empty halls

                            Waiting
                             Empty polished halls
                                    Serious people pass

                          ~ Perhaps someone should
                                      give them flowers



Why are people who work with money always so serious? I'm sure numbers are also fun in their own peculiar way. People who work with money will tell you they enjoy it. I think they miss the point of the word 'en-Joy'.

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 ;)
......

2011 in all its glory

The year has just started and I'm already behind! Goodness only knows how many blog posts behind I am. It looks like some of you have been on vacation and typing away madly.

The year has started with student pile-ups. Picture a street crossing where one car blocks the way, then another drives into that one and another and so on. Everyone is having a hassle of some sorts. I've taught exactly one class this week, but the whole week has been dedicated to student-related bureaucracy. Blah!

The weather is delightful. I'm enjoying it. Ok, only half enjoying it. It's hot, but it's raining and I love the rain. Not everyone loves the rain, though... and with good reason. I'm not embedding the video this time, but here's our weather for today. Where we are, we're just above the flood line, thank goodness.

http://terratv.terra.com.br/Noticias/Brasil/4194-340495/Chuva-forte-deixa-carros-debaixo-dagua-em-Sao-Paulo.htm

In between trying to sort out students, I have been trying to complete a now-long-overdue project. It's consuming my every waking minute. I can't talk about it though, because the recipient may read this blog. I hope the recipient in question will appreciate my lack of sleep, food, social life, etc to complete this - ok, that is aside from essential procrastination time (necessary for survival, I think). Recipient, if you don't, I'll go there personally and ring your scrawny neck.

I feel better now =Þ

I have made numerous resolutions for the year. A couple are doing well. Not bad for going onto day 8. Even I'm impressed. My biggest resolution involves a whole lot of dreaming, believing and just plain faith. Keeping my fingers crossed.

To anyone who may receive a Christmas card from me before June, please ignore the Christmas part and enjoy the new year's wishes. If the cards arrive after June, just ignore them completely. By then, the new ones will be in the making. I swear... I think I'll mail them in June this year. Or maybe I'll just live somewhere where the postal system is worth something?

Hm... here's a nice project: Krochet Kids - I like what they're doing, except I do wonder about the making of very winter stuff in hot Uganda... unless you're up on the mountain.

Random riddle: What does a bubble and a bruise have in common?

A few weeks

Strange - I wanted to write the date today as 2011. That's a first. Usually, I struggle to adapt to writing the new year when it arrives.


Two buses went straight past this morning - too full. Squish room only in the third. I decided to take my chances and wait among the crowds for the new metro to open - it doesn't run at useful times - though it would be cutting it fine. The new station is surrounded by its own patch of grass, which makes for a nice start to the day. Burying my uncomfortable feet (I really don't like these sandals) in thick early-morning-cool grass is pure bliss.

Today's "Nossa Bairro" (Our Neighbourhood) newspaper's front page is news about Facebook's plan for email and such. The neighbourhood must be out of regular news. Later, glancing at the Metro News over someone's shoulder showed me an article about Wikileaks... apparently the USA is trying to take over Brazil. Whodathunkit? That should help with Brazil's neurosis over the USA.

Most students are cancelling the rest of December. That should make January 'interesting'. I have inherited at least one new, confirmed student and two others in the pipeline, which will help enormously. Fingers crossed that they confirm.

Our week was marked by overcast, muggy days and afternoons complete with thunderstorms and associated power failures. Night before last, we had a frantic hauling out of towels and sweeping vast quantities of water out the door. Brazilian housing = major leak incidents. In fairness, the rain has been heavy...


This is the river about 200m from our gate. Photo from our local news site.
This is the usual level... though the rains had already started when this photo was taken...


To get an idea of depth, take a look at the trucks and cars along the road on the left.
Thursday... end of my working week - well, kind of. There's still Saturday, but tomorrow is off and its probably a good thing. I have a zillion things to do. Today has, so far, been one of those weird can't-get-going starts. Then I got onto the bus, which felt strange... standing room?! Then I nearly fell out of my chair - oh wait... I was standing. The first clusters of seats are for the aged and infirm. A pretty girl stood and offered her seat to me! *hauls out mirror* Ok, there's grey, a few lines, but over 60??

It always amuses me when we're standing with our faces mashed up against the metro doors during peak hour and the standard recording comes on, "If you're not getting off at the next stop, keep clear of the doorways." I really, really like the new air-conditioned metros, especially in our current super-muggy weather.

My plants are loving the rain. So am I. It's a whole lot cooler with the rain, even if keeping dry is somewhat challenging.



My most recent students are far from me, quite literally on the opposite end of the city. Going to them takes me through Bras. This area is well known to all Paulistanos as being the best place to buy clothes.... literally street after street of clothing shops, both wholesale and retail. Some shops are vast warehouses and others are small. The area also has streets that specialise in outfitting clothing shops. I find the mannequin shops fascinating. This one, I caught in passing. It tickled me that the sales girl was sitting so companionably with her mannequin 'friend'.



Christmas décor is out now, but very sporadic. I was on Av. Paulista, standing waiting to cross to Conjuncto Nacional. They pride themselves on their recycled Christmas décor. Aside from the snowflakes (don't know what those are made of), the rest of the decorations are all recycled cold drink bottles, in this case, more than likely Guaraná bottles.


I snuck a peek down a passage and saw a lady decorating her 'tree'. The tree was more a bush of naked branches, but the effect was pretty. It doesn't show well in this photo though. Ah for a decent zoom...



Then again, if you don't have a garden to decorate, what's the next best thing?

Birds, freedom, secrets

I've well and truly been absent, haven't I? Thing is, a lot has been happening on this end, but nothing I could really blog about. I haven't been busy enough with work, yet I've been very busy. I'm trying to get a few things in order geared at some long-term plans we've had. Unfortunately, most of it I'm not in a position to talk about... yet :) Top secret! Shhh!! Trust me, when all is finalised, I'll be yelling from the rooftops.

Aside from that, I've been feeling fairly isolated, which is entirely my own fault. The only place I communicate in any way with a friend or friends is here, in blogosphere - and a little in Facebook. I haven't been a good friend. I haven't been commenting on blogs or posting any of my own. Heck, I haven't even been reading really... mostly just glancing through. My mail comes in and I flip through the emails, dealing with work emails and pretty much deleting the rest. I have no idea why I've been that way and I'm worried that it's becoming habitual. It's as though the world has been tipped on its side. Things look odd if you look at them tilted.

And no, I'm not miserable, far from it. Ok, I am miserable that I haven't spoken to my friends, but yeah... aside from that.

Why are there still those dumb video spam virus messages coming through? Eejits.

Ok, ok... I'll give you a clue... the secret involves a little patch of green far, far away from here... very far.

Tat is flying to Lithuania tonight to meet the fandamily. I hope she likes it there. She has a week to see all and do all and meet all. Should be fun. If she forgets her camera again, I will personally commit harikari on her. I missed seeing poppy day in London because her camera wasn't attached to her arm where it belonged.

Oh and that mournful chap up top? The video below reminded me of him. I even wrote a poem about him at the time. I'll be darned if I can find it. The video is stunning though. My birdie friends will like it. The lady is South African... for those curious about our accents. I don't sound like that though =Þ Or do I?

...
Do visit the YouTube page for more links related to the video.

Starting over

I decided to start my day over. That's the fun part about time. You can start over at any point in your day. This image is a copy of a greeting card I saw. I found the message to be good... and timely. "No one can go back to make a new beginning, but anyone can begin now to make a new future." So, so true!

My head was in a distinctly funky place when I wrote my earlier blog today. It was literally a knee-jerk reaction. Freak now and ask questions later. I did ask questions in the end, when the fluff was cleared from my brain. The agent had written to tell me about the cancellation. I just never got it and it was all good:

"...she's been having a lot of problems with her schedule and can't continue classes now. She said she expects to sort out her schedule within the next couple weeks and will then get in touch again to resume classes. She said she loved your classes."

Ah now... that's better! And you know, if she doesn't come back (though I'm sure she will), the space is just being cleared for something better.

Class with young MF went just fine. Her father was back from his travels - he's hardly ever home - so everyone was cheerful and distracted, though the little one crawled up to where we were, heard me telling MF to scroll up (laptop) and kept saying, "Up! Up!" and laughing. That was so nice to hear. She's making huge progress.

Life is good... when I let it be good ; )

Ups and downs of life

So… it’s Monday and the week definitely has to pick up from here. Poor Monday gets incredibly bad rap as it is.

I woke up in the early hours to a thud. Jurgis had gotten up, decided to check something on my pc and knocked my stand with the webcam over. I still don’t know if it’s damaged. I’ll check it out later once the day starts improving.

The sound of gentle rain woke me up later. That was worth a smile. I lay listening to it for a while, then was slapped by the sound of our UPS’ beeping. Gah… power failure! It lasted for 2 hours and now our internet won’t start up. Thing is, if our internet doesn’t work, we’re without a phone too, as our phone is through our net service. We could call them, but they make you hold for ages and we’d have to call with cell phones. On our regular phone, last time we called, it turned out to be less than cheap.

I texted my student for this morning to confirm her class - her times were due to change. Just got the reply. She had told the agent I get work through that she was stopping classes as something had changed with her work. Thanks for letting me know, folks! No one told me. It was thanks to a gut feeling that I texted her. I was dressed and ready to go to meet her.

Yes, she did say it was due to changes in her work, but it’s so, so hard not to take it personally. I’ll never know if it was me. One thing about Brazilians is that they’re polite to a fault (ok, polite in some ways, such as not being able to say ‘no’). Any excuse will do as long as they don’t have to tell you to your face that something is wrong. My head is telling me that it’s bull. My heart is asking far too many questions. Ah well.

As I said, the morning can only get better, right? On the bright side, losing a student means my schedule is clearing for better students or for the course to enter that school… the one with all the super benefits. Yeah! That’s it. Now to convince my self-esteem that all is well.

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.

Job hunting

I'm always keeping my eye out for jobs, both here and overseas. The local ones often provide me with entertainment... like this one...

The position is for an English teacher with a school:

"Total fluency and advanced level of knoledge. Preferenci is given to those finishing their B.A em Letras . Applicans will be trained and we offer good pay. To work in Vila Mariana near Santa Cruz Subway station."

I am also amused by the fact that a trade name here is called a 'nome fantasia' or 'fantasy name'. That about describes it, huh?

Living the week out

It's been a strange sort of week. I had a couple of student cancellations, which had me sleeping a little later in the morning, but still made me a little miffy. I can't afford the time off. No problem, I did enjoy my sleep-ins. 6am is a whole lot better than 4:30am.



This photo is of a painting on the wall of a school near the teens. Take away the masses of books and you have what is often my teaching setup, except not all the students look that sweet and I wouldn't be writing on my lap ; )

As Tuesday was International Peace Day, so I went through the Tsuru story with MF on Monday and folded some origami cranes. Nice lesson. She was really excited.

On Tuesday, going in to my paediatrician student, I encountered Barack Obama! Yep! 'Strue! It's something that's been amusing me for a while now, but I waited till I could take a photo. We're in a major election run here. This guy claims that people tell him he looks like the famous US president, so he decided to capitalise on that and changed his name to Rosamar Barack Obama. He has a site where you can see him clearer. He stands handing out his voting details in São Paulo's main financial district. He has designs on being a deputado federal (something like a state senator).


This photo was taken just before lunch. By 4pm, it was raining.... really raining. The day went from this...


to this...


in around 2 hours. Yes, that was taken from a moving bus. Guess who had no umbrella : ) The bus was leaking from the 'sun' roof, a 'lid' that gets opened to let air flow through on hot days. Needless to say, it no longer sealed. I was grateful to be home after my swim. Yes, we were rather water-logged. Apparently there was massive hail storms elsewhere and serious damage. We were, luckily, just plain wet. Welcome to São Paulo's summer rains!

I did manage this photo on my way home in honour of Peace day. It's a scrap yard. I'd like to believe they were promoting peace, but I suspect that they just used the graffiti'ed (how do you spell that anyway?) boards to make sides for their cart...


That's right. The photo is ugly, dark, blurry... but you can't expect more from a moving, dirty-windowed bus in the rain. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Wednesday found me as sick as a dog. Let's just say, ugly stomach bug/poison issues. I still don't know what caused it. I started getting sick on the Tuesday, but by mid-morning on Wednesday, I thought I was dying.... or was at least wishing death would come quickly. I don't 'do' stomach issues with a great deal of grace.

BUT... I did wish I was out clothes shopping! São Paulo discovered colour! Trust me, this is not the norm.


On my way to MF, though, I found myself draped over a wall, trying to keep my stomach in place and praying for a passing breeze. Over the wall was this scene. I kept my stomach in place long enough to appreciate the scene ; ) Perhaps because the lines had a somewhat steadying influence and over the wall was a lovely little breeze. I was in a proper sweat by that time. I called Jurgis and asked him to cancel MF. I dragged myself home, fell on the bed and slept for a few hours.


Thursday was one of those days where the world smiled back. I love days like that. I think it helped that I was feeling so much better. The teens weren't total monsters. We definitely did the right thing in splitting them. I caught a beautiful lilac sunset on the way home.

Before getting home, I stopped in at the bakery for today's bread. While waiting to order, myself and the elderly lady next to me were staring at a little girl, around five, who was drilling holes into the packets of Maria Mole (it's like a really, really soft and airy marshmallow). Her mother was standing over her, also looking down at the products. I went up to the little girl and, in my sweetest 'favourite aunt' voice said, "Linda, não faz isso." (Pretty girl, don't do that) and I super-gently pushed her hand away from the packages. The mother just about laid an egg and told me in a very uppity tone that she is the mother (no duh) and if I have a problem with her kid, I'm to talk to her, not the kid. The old ducky next to me rolled her eyes and smiled at me. It was that kind of situation. I said, well, next time, just stop your kid yourself and teach her well. Eh. The whole situation amused me. I chuckled all the way to the bus. I can't help wondering how she'd have reacted if I'd tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Scuse me ma'm, but your brat is drilling into the Maria Mole."

Today was delightful! It's been drizzling on and off. The sky has been very grey all day, but the air outside is so fresh, I want to bottle it and save it for later!

Dusty Saturday - Drizzly Sunday

Our long (for São Paulo) drought has been broken. Fine rain is penetrating anything that can be penetrated today. The air is crisp and I can actually see the edges of buildings. This photo is what our sky looked like at 5pm. A powerful sun, still fairly high in the sky, reduced by pollution and dust. We'll breathe better now. The week was one of coughs and sore throats with the dust and pollution. Somewhere in all that, I got myself a cold. Blegh. I'm not sure if it was from the girlie who was liberally sneezing her germs onto every surface of the bus or from the guy in the one-square-meter lift who felt the need to call his maid on the lift's phone to tell her what to make for him for lunch, so that he could shake the flu he had. I mean, it was so much effort to pop back into his apartment to tell her in person. It's way more fun to distribute your germs on a phone that other residents use too.

This was in the building where I met my new student. She's a paediatrician - oh the stories she can tell! - and really sweet. She wants to improve her English, as she's studying  Kabbalah (made famous by Madonna) and their meetings are in English. Her eyes lit up and she excitedly pointed out my bookmark I have clipped to my folder: "You can if you Believe you can". "That's exactly what we believe!" It seems that my lessons with her will be very interesting.

My cell phone died on Thursday. It literally got crushed. The LCD screen had excessive pressure applied to it. Jurgis eventually opened it up. He wanted to know where I might have done that. I suggested he takes a bus with me one morning. Now I have a bit of a problem. My students seem to have no idea how to connect to a land-line. They either call or text me on my cell. The cell is also important for random things like calling to find out if I must get bread on the way home or calling the student to tell them I'm on the wrong side of a flooded marginal (highway) and may be somewhat late. Buying a new cell phone was one expense that I definitely do not need right now, but it's funny how one starts justifying a new purchase. I spent some time surfing through cell phone models online. Two things happened. One - I realised how out of date my little cell phone now is and two - I realised how many super-cool features the new ones have at less than what I paid for my old one. So I bit the bullet... I'll be paying for it for the next millennium, but in two weeks, I'll have my new cell phone, a fairly basic model, but some folk will be glad to know it comes with a teeny weeny little camera ; ) Sneak pics, folks!

Our national lottery was won last night - R$92 million. I got one number right. I think it's trying to tell me something.

Our neighbours were having a shindig that lasted most of the night. Jurgis said he was tempted to get up onto their roof and pelt them with eggs. Last week, they seemed so nice. They keep this up, war may just break out. Of course, they're sleeping the day away now.

I think the only way I can catch up here is by going to my contacts one by one and seeing what they've been up to. I must still prepare lessons for the week. On the bright side, kinda, Tuesday is a public holiday, so I only have the teens once this week *does the Snoopy dance*

Tarnished gilt

While I was looking for photos for this blog, I found another blog here. Below is a direct quote, which I found incredibly amusing. Tat will appreciate it. The photo is from that blog too.

~ : ~ : ~: ~ : ~

“Aqui é Santa Cecília?”
“Segundo os correios, é...”
“...”
“Na verdade, depende. Algumas quadras são na Consolação e outras são em Santa Cecília.”
“Mas se eu disser pra alguém que moro em Santa Cecília, essa pessoa irá até a Santa Cecília.”
“Pode ser que ela me encontre, afinal eu trabalho em Santa Cecília.”
“Por via das dúvidas, use 'moro na Angélica', aí não tem erro.”
“Oficialmente, não existe Higienópolis, nem Pacaembu. Só Consolação e Santa Cecília.”

~ : ~ : ~: ~ : ~
The one area I teach in is considered a 'bairro nobre' or 'noble neighbourhood'. Higienópolis. The quote above is a conversation about finding directions in Higienópolis. It's one of those peculiar neighbourhoods where everyone wants to have it as an address, but most around there live in the 'lesser' neighbourhoods of Consolação, Santa Cecilia and even further 'down', Marechal Deodoro.

Most of São Paulo is sectorised.... split into 'sectors'. Italians cluster together in their corner. Jews in another. Lithuanians claim a hilltop of their own. Business-minded Japanese prefer the heart of the city.

There's also sectorised shopping, whole neighbourhoods, streets or blocks, each specialising in one product or product range. A few blocks in town will give me countless shops selling sewing machines or sewing machine repair shops and spares, including a place to print out patterns. There's a road dedicated to jeans, another to hairdressing equipment. A whole few blocks lays claim to being a bride-to-be's Mecca. Just a little further will be the destination of restaurateurs and serious cooks. I wonder if there's any significance in the fact that the bridal sector is decidedly seedy.

For today, I was focussed on the 'bairro nobre'. The vast contrast between the one end and the other takes me by surprise every time. On the one end, you have your well-healed 'old money'. On the other end, you just have the 'old' part of that statement with money only scattered among those who've been there too long and are now too old to move.

In the front hall of the apartment block is an artists interpretation - you know they kind the designers toss out before a building goes up - of what was supposed to be a very nice complex. I walk in through the peeling gates, then some sliding glass doors into the entrance hall. To my left is an arrangement of plastic arum lilies that badly need dusting. There are two couches straight out of a 70's pawn shop. I doubt they've been moved since they were put there 3 or 4 decades ago. The picture on the wall is smallish, an obscure scenic painting, with an ornate gilt frame almost as thick as the picture is wide. The lift is small and very old, as is the rest of the building, creaking as it goes up. The equally creaking gate opens at my floor.

On the other end of the neighbourhood, I am allowed entry through double security gates by a security guard I doubt I'll ever see. I walk along the sweeping cobbled horseshoe drive to the entrance. The decor is simple and tasteful, one or two carefully chosen antiques. So different from the apartments on the other end of the 'hood'. Strangely, though, the buildings come from the same 'era'.

Little things

It seems that when life is at its darkest, we appreciate the little things that can change a day for the better. When stressing over covering the bills becomes an all-day thought that overrides good sense, even a small deposit gives relief... huge relief. In short, I'm relieved and so very grateful. Immediate bills will be covered and there's enough to get Jurgis a steak for his birthday. I read about this magic way of ensuring the perfect steak. We'll see if it works. Life's looking up.

*sigh* The old ducky next to me just had a fairly long conversation with me, but I didn't get a single word of it. Mumbling in one's own language is bad enough, but in another? I nod. I smile. I agree. Everyone likes to have someone agree with them, right?

So... I'm once again facing decisions. My day currently involves being out from 6am to 6 or 7pm, depending on traffic and transport. During this time, I will do an actual 3 or 4 hours teaching. I get home, spend a couple of hours preparing the next day's lessons, eat and go to bed. If all my students actually had all their classes, this wouldn't be a bad life, but reality is very different. We're past the first half of the month and my one student has had only one of her classes. Others have cancelled at least twice each. The days I don't teach, I simply don't get paid... regardless of the reason for the missed class. What was meant to be a really good month (it's long in business days, so more classes are scheduled) has turned into an economically 'stretched' month.

My decision now is whether to go back to advertising for students (in the hope of getting some decent 'regular' students), though in my area that only brings really basic students who end up needing a lot of Portuguese. On the other hand, there's the schools. I know I said I wouldn't teach at the schools again, but... never say 'never' and all that. Trouble is, pay isn't that good, though it comes with benefits and I can, if I work with a nearby school, cut out or at least cut down on my currently high transport costs. The schools also mean that I have less cancellations, though with the student body being as fickle as it is, that never quite gets ruled out.

Ah.... what to do?

But... today it's easy to be grateful. I'll just ignore the niggly prods of doubt that rear their vile little heads. I have options. That's a plus. I can cover the bills and stock the pantry. I should blog that 'pantry' sometime. The student I am currently waiting for seems to be a no-show, so I get to journal in the meantime. This job has it's advantages to be sure : ) I'm off to bed now. See you all on the flipside.