Well the police do not too much as we have seen just yet. They do not help people stopped on the side of the road, that is for sure! We have only seen them at major accidents on the TV. Who does control the traffic? The CET. Do not know what it stands for, but they are the traffic police. If you are driving on the day you are not allowed due to your license plate? They give you a ticket. If there is a car stopped on the highway here in town? They are holding up traffic. And if you want to have a rally outside the mall? They are the ones who will block the entrance to your condominium so you can't get in or out.
What is this you say? Well Sunday there was a rally at the mall outside our house. Great to have a mall so close for shopping, but not so much during a rally. We thought it was some political thing because elections are this weekend. No. It was a labor union rally because the mall has decided to open 2 hours earlier on Sundays. It sounded like a Hitler/Castro/Chavez speech outside. Well actually inside too. They had the microphone so loud it sounded like I had all of my electronics up as loud as possible. But it wasn't music. It was a guy screaming into a microphone!! It went on for 3 hours!!!! With fireworks of course.
But back to the traffic police. There are sections of the city that have the traffic cameras that the US is embracing. Well, these are not at traffic lights to catch light runners. No. These are in the middle of the streets and go for quarter mile stretches. At first we could not figure out why people would suddenly slow down to 10 km below the speed limit. Now we know. If you get five tickets you can get your license suspended. Luckily they do not have Ricardo's license. So far since we have been here, we have gotten 5 tickets. And we still have one more week to see if there are more because we just found out about these this last week. One ticket was for 8km over the limit. These guys are sticklers! So, if you happen to be driving in Sao Paulo and the other drivers suddenly slow down, follow their lead. It is to your benefit.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
The Ballpark Hotdog Vendor
Well good afternoon and happy Spring to us! Spring is finally here and with it came the rain. It is a mist that falls that is very annoying; the type where you need the wipers on but it smears everything so it is hard to look out the window. But we have needed the rain here. We have the world's largest supply of fresh water you know!
So we are heading down the highway one Friday night trying to reach the family happy hour. This has become our weekly ritual. It is nice because Ricardo and I can talk to adults and have a drink or three and the boys can go run off and play with the other kiddies. Only problem is it takes place in a condo complex southeast of us. I think that is the direction. Anyway, it takes a while to get there. Well Friday night is here and we are ready to go. It takes us about 30 minutes to get onto the highway which we can see from our house. Yes there is that much traffic.
So we are finally on the highway and the average speed is about 6-10 miles per hour depending if there is an exit/entrance ramp around you. Ricardo says it is not normally this way. I do not exactly believe him. He changes his mind later too when low and behold! In the middle of the highway! What is it we see? Food vendors! Yep. There are about a dozen guys standing in the middle of the highway on the white lines, kind of interspersed over a quarter mile area. The traffic is not moving very fast so they can make quite a profit. And they obviously know the traffic is like this every week, or why be there right? They are selling some kind of food or candy, wrapped up like a Dome Dog without the bun. So it was small, but we were not tempted to find out what is was. They even had towels they were waving in the air and calling out. I will attempt to translate for you 'Hotdog here, Beer here!'
So we are heading down the highway one Friday night trying to reach the family happy hour. This has become our weekly ritual. It is nice because Ricardo and I can talk to adults and have a drink or three and the boys can go run off and play with the other kiddies. Only problem is it takes place in a condo complex southeast of us. I think that is the direction. Anyway, it takes a while to get there. Well Friday night is here and we are ready to go. It takes us about 30 minutes to get onto the highway which we can see from our house. Yes there is that much traffic.
So we are finally on the highway and the average speed is about 6-10 miles per hour depending if there is an exit/entrance ramp around you. Ricardo says it is not normally this way. I do not exactly believe him. He changes his mind later too when low and behold! In the middle of the highway! What is it we see? Food vendors! Yep. There are about a dozen guys standing in the middle of the highway on the white lines, kind of interspersed over a quarter mile area. The traffic is not moving very fast so they can make quite a profit. And they obviously know the traffic is like this every week, or why be there right? They are selling some kind of food or candy, wrapped up like a Dome Dog without the bun. So it was small, but we were not tempted to find out what is was. They even had towels they were waving in the air and calling out. I will attempt to translate for you 'Hotdog here, Beer here!'
Friday, September 17, 2010
Week 6
It is so hard to believe we are closing in on our sixth week here in Brazil. The time has flown. I guess that is a good thing. Before we know it, it will be Christmas and we will be in Houston and then Florida. Then we will be able to enjoy "fresh" air. But we have been enjoying ourselves and learning our new home. And I definitely like that I live right next door to a mall.
What has happened this week? Not too much.
Sunday, we played American football in the lovely courtyard we see from our balcony. But we got kicked off to play on the hard court in the play area. Didn't know grass was NOT for playing on. Football is not the same on a hard court. We will have to brave the park next time.
Ricardo went to Florida for a couple days for work. I think he was there a total of 36 hours and then 18 hours of flying time. Doesn't sound like fun. But he brought back stuff from Florida that Abuelo and Abuela have been collecting for us. Thank you! The boys got their Tebow Bronco jerseys. They have worn them everyday this week. We got mail and magazines and such. The boys got textbooks so they are not behind when we repatriate. Yes, I am a mean mom to have the boys read and do other work after school. But they get no homework so don't feel too sorry for them. And although Ricardo did not bring me Cheerios (I doubt he could have fit a box in anyway) he did bring me dryer sheets.
Dryer sheets? You ask. Why would I be excited about dryer sheets? Well they do not exist here. Not exist? How could that be? Well, it is because they hang dry everything. Which is not fun when you go to dry yourself with a hung-dry towel that is stiff. Yes, everything that is hung dry is a little stiff. And it kind of smells like the air that comes through the open vent that cannot be closed. And that air does not always smell the "freshest". So the need for dryer sheets. Why don't they use a dryer? You ask. Well, because they suck. Try drying a load of clothes for three hours and it not be dry. Yes I wrote 3 hours. That is the time on my dryer if I put it on the first setting. I don't think the heating element is really hot. I would love to see the faces of people when they encounter an American dryer. They would probably fall on their knees in awe at something besides slightly stinky air drying clothes. 'Oh my goodness! A dryer that dries! Who has thought of such a thing? This is truly a work of craftsmanship! A new technology! Where has such a thing come from?'
Alas, that is not going to happen. I did not have an American dryer to bring down here. So I am stuck hanging things to dry and then throwing them in the dryer with a dryer sheet to freshen them up. Or the reverse. Makes life more interesting though. Doesn't it?
We have an open weekend. Don't know what we are going to do. Next month we want to plan a trip to Rio. So maybe Ricardo and I will start that. I think this is Florida v. Tennessee weekend, so that is on the schedule. And of course, Sunday football. Dolphins and Broncos playing this week and everyone is happy. There are several shoe stores in the mall. I wonder if they will miss me while the games are going on.....?
What has happened this week? Not too much.
Sunday, we played American football in the lovely courtyard we see from our balcony. But we got kicked off to play on the hard court in the play area. Didn't know grass was NOT for playing on. Football is not the same on a hard court. We will have to brave the park next time.
Ricardo went to Florida for a couple days for work. I think he was there a total of 36 hours and then 18 hours of flying time. Doesn't sound like fun. But he brought back stuff from Florida that Abuelo and Abuela have been collecting for us. Thank you! The boys got their Tebow Bronco jerseys. They have worn them everyday this week. We got mail and magazines and such. The boys got textbooks so they are not behind when we repatriate. Yes, I am a mean mom to have the boys read and do other work after school. But they get no homework so don't feel too sorry for them. And although Ricardo did not bring me Cheerios (I doubt he could have fit a box in anyway) he did bring me dryer sheets.
Dryer sheets? You ask. Why would I be excited about dryer sheets? Well they do not exist here. Not exist? How could that be? Well, it is because they hang dry everything. Which is not fun when you go to dry yourself with a hung-dry towel that is stiff. Yes, everything that is hung dry is a little stiff. And it kind of smells like the air that comes through the open vent that cannot be closed. And that air does not always smell the "freshest". So the need for dryer sheets. Why don't they use a dryer? You ask. Well, because they suck. Try drying a load of clothes for three hours and it not be dry. Yes I wrote 3 hours. That is the time on my dryer if I put it on the first setting. I don't think the heating element is really hot. I would love to see the faces of people when they encounter an American dryer. They would probably fall on their knees in awe at something besides slightly stinky air drying clothes. 'Oh my goodness! A dryer that dries! Who has thought of such a thing? This is truly a work of craftsmanship! A new technology! Where has such a thing come from?'
Alas, that is not going to happen. I did not have an American dryer to bring down here. So I am stuck hanging things to dry and then throwing them in the dryer with a dryer sheet to freshen them up. Or the reverse. Makes life more interesting though. Doesn't it?
We have an open weekend. Don't know what we are going to do. Next month we want to plan a trip to Rio. So maybe Ricardo and I will start that. I think this is Florida v. Tennessee weekend, so that is on the schedule. And of course, Sunday football. Dolphins and Broncos playing this week and everyone is happy. There are several shoe stores in the mall. I wonder if they will miss me while the games are going on.....?
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Boys Camp Week!
Well we got our boys back safe and sound. They had a fun time at the Peraltas Camp in Brotas, SP - Brazil. Although they do not want to do it next year. Unfortunately we do not have any pictures of the place. But it looked a lot like a Y sleep away camp. It is 240 km outside of the City of Sao Paulo.
We had an interesting time getting there. The roadside looked like driving through Wisconsin on I-94. I say we had an interesting time because along the trip we found out we had a GPS alarm on the car. What is this you ask? I will tell you. The previous driver had a GPS alarm installed that if you take the car a certain distance outside the city limits an alarm will sound. Anti-theft kind of thing we guess. The car does not stop running. There is no interruption to the engine. There is just an alarm coming from the car like you are a police car. It is legal to drive a car that sounds like a police car? We do not know, nor did we want to take the chance. So we pulled over to the side of the road about 100 km northwest of Sao Paulo. We called the insurance company. They had no idea what it was so they were going to send out a tow truck and mechanic to see if he could stop the alarm. The gentleman was coming from about 15 km away. Did he get there? No. We were on the side of the road for about 1.5 hours total. After about an hour, Ricardo tried to remove the fuses to see if one controlled the alarm. However, the fuse remover tool was not in the compartment. So he left me on the side of a Brazilian highway to walk to a truck stop about 100 meters away. They did not have a tool. But he said I should be glad I did not step foot into that place. It was very yucky.
Well no such luck removing the fuses. So is there a way to pull the wires from this thing? Let's open the hood to find out. Well we see the wires, but there is no way to pull them so let's follow the wires. Where do they go? Ahh, here they are attached to the battery. And what is that at the connection? Hey, it is a little fuse. Let's pull it out to see what happens. Hey the alarm stops! You have got to be kidding me!! That is it? What kind of anti theft device is this? A sucky one to be sure.
So we get back in the car and head off down the Wisconsin-looking country side to pick up our boys. And low and behold what is 500 meters around the bend from where we were stopped? A regional mini Police station with policemen sitting on the side doing nothing.
Has the tow truck called to find out where we are? Nope and he still hasn't. I doubt he ever left the station.
But now with Ricardo heading off to Florida for two days, I have to laugh about the situation. It is actually funny once you think about it. But for now I get to double wash all of the boys clothes that went with them because the smell is horrendous!
We had an interesting time getting there. The roadside looked like driving through Wisconsin on I-94. I say we had an interesting time because along the trip we found out we had a GPS alarm on the car. What is this you ask? I will tell you. The previous driver had a GPS alarm installed that if you take the car a certain distance outside the city limits an alarm will sound. Anti-theft kind of thing we guess. The car does not stop running. There is no interruption to the engine. There is just an alarm coming from the car like you are a police car. It is legal to drive a car that sounds like a police car? We do not know, nor did we want to take the chance. So we pulled over to the side of the road about 100 km northwest of Sao Paulo. We called the insurance company. They had no idea what it was so they were going to send out a tow truck and mechanic to see if he could stop the alarm. The gentleman was coming from about 15 km away. Did he get there? No. We were on the side of the road for about 1.5 hours total. After about an hour, Ricardo tried to remove the fuses to see if one controlled the alarm. However, the fuse remover tool was not in the compartment. So he left me on the side of a Brazilian highway to walk to a truck stop about 100 meters away. They did not have a tool. But he said I should be glad I did not step foot into that place. It was very yucky.
Well no such luck removing the fuses. So is there a way to pull the wires from this thing? Let's open the hood to find out. Well we see the wires, but there is no way to pull them so let's follow the wires. Where do they go? Ahh, here they are attached to the battery. And what is that at the connection? Hey, it is a little fuse. Let's pull it out to see what happens. Hey the alarm stops! You have got to be kidding me!! That is it? What kind of anti theft device is this? A sucky one to be sure.
So we get back in the car and head off down the Wisconsin-looking country side to pick up our boys. And low and behold what is 500 meters around the bend from where we were stopped? A regional mini Police station with policemen sitting on the side doing nothing.
Has the tow truck called to find out where we are? Nope and he still hasn't. I doubt he ever left the station.
But now with Ricardo heading off to Florida for two days, I have to laugh about the situation. It is actually funny once you think about it. But for now I get to double wash all of the boys clothes that went with them because the smell is horrendous!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Fogo de Chao dinner
Okay, Happy Labor Day to the States. And tomorrow Happy Independence Day to Brazil! We celebrated by going to Fogo de Chao for dinner. Very expensive, but very delicious. Javier loves steak. Can't you tell?
And of course Ian got cold during dinner like always!
I don't particularly like this picture because my arm looks like a side of beef they were trimming from the swords. I guess I need to work out more. We had a great time though. The steaks were delicious and they even had lamb and sausages. One thing that was truly disgusting that Javier and Ricardo tried was chicken hearts. Blah, gross! They even look nasty!
This is a bunch of them on a plate. Ricardo made a bad face and Javier said they tasted like sausage. I offered both a piece of my beet to remove the taste. They both refused. Now tell me, why would someone eat a chicken heart but refuse a beet? Doesn't make any sense to me.
We did see Cats last night. Man that was creepy. I think the guy was on drugs when he wrote it. Just bizarre. But I did get chills when the cat sang Memories. That song always gets me, it is so beautiful, even in Portuguese. Javier gave it a C-.
We also got our air shipment today. We got most of our bathroom stuff and half of my shoes. But no extra clothes for the boys. I guess I pointed at the wrong boxes because we did get the comforter for the spare bedroom, but we have no bed for that room. I don't know what I was doing. Flaking obviously. Or I pointed to the right box and the guys added the wrong box to the shipment. I like that way better. Takes the blame off of me. But, hey I have a bigger shoe collection than before even if my boys have to run around naked!
And of course Ian got cold during dinner like always!
I don't particularly like this picture because my arm looks like a side of beef they were trimming from the swords. I guess I need to work out more. We had a great time though. The steaks were delicious and they even had lamb and sausages. One thing that was truly disgusting that Javier and Ricardo tried was chicken hearts. Blah, gross! They even look nasty!
We did see Cats last night. Man that was creepy. I think the guy was on drugs when he wrote it. Just bizarre. But I did get chills when the cat sang Memories. That song always gets me, it is so beautiful, even in Portuguese. Javier gave it a C-.
We also got our air shipment today. We got most of our bathroom stuff and half of my shoes. But no extra clothes for the boys. I guess I pointed at the wrong boxes because we did get the comforter for the spare bedroom, but we have no bed for that room. I don't know what I was doing. Flaking obviously. Or I pointed to the right box and the guys added the wrong box to the shipment. I like that way better. Takes the blame off of me. But, hey I have a bigger shoe collection than before even if my boys have to run around naked!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
First Day of Independence Weekend
Independence Day is September 7, so we have a 4 day weekend. Then the boys go off to camp with school. We are not drinking over the weekend, we are waiting till we send our children off three hours into the farmlands of Brazil to do that.
First day was pretty busy. We go to breakfast every Saturday at this bakery/store/restaurant. Very delicious chocolate crossants. How do you spell that anyway? Don't know so I am going to leave it. Anyway, we found out they sell deli meats as well and got some great German ham. Very yummy! At the checkout we were making fun of Ricardo saying he was expensive because the bill was high. Well in Portuguese it is "Ele esta muito caro." Well, instead I said "Ele esta muito carro." First sentence caro the r is pronounced as an r. Second sentence the rr is pronounced as an h. So instead of saying he was expensive, I said he was a car. Then I said I was cheap. Well I didn't. That would have been "Eu estou barata." I said I am drunk "eu estou borracha."
The boys went to play at a friends house. They all go to school with each other. It felt and looked like a very nice summer day in MN. Ian got a home run in backyard baseball. The link is above.
While the boys played Ricardo and I went to Ibirapuera Park for a while. It is like a mini central park. We were walking around working off the chocolate crossant and really enjoying ourselves. With the day and the lakes in the middle you could almost think we were around Lake Harriet or another.
Until you looked and saw the really green water and palm trees.
Yes the water is that green!
Last night we went to a very delicious pizza restaurant. We got there at 7:10 and it was empty. Dinner usually doesn't start until 7:30 - 8:00 pm. And yes there are children at those dinners! We have to get used to the dinner thing for this culture. My boys are going to have to learn to stay up later. Don't know how well that will go. But I digress. The pizza restaurant was really cool; the architecture amazing. There was a candle stand that we had to take a picture of. The wax looks like wool! Check it out...
Today, we are thinking of going to see Cats, the musical, in Portuguese. Definitely an experience.
First day was pretty busy. We go to breakfast every Saturday at this bakery/store/restaurant. Very delicious chocolate crossants. How do you spell that anyway? Don't know so I am going to leave it. Anyway, we found out they sell deli meats as well and got some great German ham. Very yummy! At the checkout we were making fun of Ricardo saying he was expensive because the bill was high. Well in Portuguese it is "Ele esta muito caro." Well, instead I said "Ele esta muito carro." First sentence caro the r is pronounced as an r. Second sentence the rr is pronounced as an h. So instead of saying he was expensive, I said he was a car. Then I said I was cheap. Well I didn't. That would have been "Eu estou barata." I said I am drunk "eu estou borracha."
The boys went to play at a friends house. They all go to school with each other. It felt and looked like a very nice summer day in MN. Ian got a home run in backyard baseball. The link is above.
While the boys played Ricardo and I went to Ibirapuera Park for a while. It is like a mini central park. We were walking around working off the chocolate crossant and really enjoying ourselves. With the day and the lakes in the middle you could almost think we were around Lake Harriet or another.
Until you looked and saw the really green water and palm trees.
Yes the water is that green!
Last night we went to a very delicious pizza restaurant. We got there at 7:10 and it was empty. Dinner usually doesn't start until 7:30 - 8:00 pm. And yes there are children at those dinners! We have to get used to the dinner thing for this culture. My boys are going to have to learn to stay up later. Don't know how well that will go. But I digress. The pizza restaurant was really cool; the architecture amazing. There was a candle stand that we had to take a picture of. The wax looks like wool! Check it out...
Today, we are thinking of going to see Cats, the musical, in Portuguese. Definitely an experience.
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