After 20 years of school myself, you'd think I could buy school supplies for one first grader



As evidenced by my frantically throwing pencils, erasers, and glue into last year's backpack this morning for Penny's first day of first grade, I'm not sure I'm getting much better at this school-mom thing.

 

Last year I bought all of Penny's school supplies at an overpriced bookstore here in Brasilia, simply because I didn't really understand the list, and it was easier than translating and researching each item myself. I returned about half of it after I realized I could buy stuff like construction paper online for 1/7 the price. The store was awesome about my returns, and they gave me store credit without an expiration date.

 

So this year I did my research and bought as many of the school supplies online as I could. They should be arriving by next week or so. Oops.

 

But there were a few things I still needed to buy in Brazil, so I headed over to the bookstore to use up my credit. Timing worked out such that I was wrangling all three kids during our shopping visit. They were well-behaved and lovely, but it still adds more stress and distractions, as you can imagine.

 

I bought enough stuff that I filled up an entire box with supplies. In order to get everything and everyone out to the car, I put the box on the stroller, put William on the box, and held onto everything as we wobbled down the street. I packed the kids into their seats, buckled everyone up, and then headed to the tailor's for our next errand.

 

 

First day of first grade!

 

The next day I noticed that the back of the car was all cleaned out. I thought, "Well, that was nice of Kevin to bring the stroller and everything inside when he brought in his clothes."

 

And then it hit me.

I couldn't remember how I'd actually fit the stroller and box into the back of the car.

Because I didn't remember putting it into the car.

Because I left the stroller and the box of school supplies on the side of the road outside the bookstore.

 

Oh, how stupid can you get? Ugh! I don't do stuff like this more than every decade or so, and I felt so incompetent.

 

As soon as I could, I drove back across the city to the bookstore. Of course the stroller and box were gone. No one had returned it to the bookstore, the tire store I parked in front of hadn't seen it, and the lady working across the street didn't know anything about it either.

 

It's embarrassing to tell people just how dumb you are-- especially in terrible Portuguese, which really reinforces the stupidity:

 

Me: "Have you seen a stroller with a box? I leave it on the street over there when I am parking here yesterday."

Lady: "Oh, what was in it?"

Me: "School supplies."

Lady: "So someone broke into your car?"
Me: "No. I leaves it on the street."

Lady: "Where is your car now?"

Me: "Over there."

Lady: "Did they rob your car?"

Me: "No. No problem with the car. It's just about the stroller and the box. I leave it over there on the street."

Lady: "You just left it on the street."

 

It sounded stupider the more I talked about it, and crying didn't help my cause much, either. I had hoped someone had put away my stuff for safekeeping, and while I wasn't surprised it wasn't on the street 24 hours later, I was disappointed.

 

Lady: "Have faith in God. It will all be alright. Go with God."

Me: "Yes, I know. Thank you."

 

I knew it would be okay. I had prayed to find it, if it was there, and it was gone. I had to think that whoever took it would use it. I mean, the stroller was 6 years old, faded, and kind of gross, but it was in very useable condition-- which is why I still used it. The school supplies were all in a big box with a receipt. And so even if they didn't need the uniforms, they could go exchange them for something they did need.

Or whatever.

 

Someone took my stuff. It's lame, but it unfortunately didn't change the fact that I had to get my daughter school supplies before the first day of school.

 

So when I went to repurchase everything that had been in the box (the stroller is a lost cause-- the baby can already walk, and we have a better stroller anyway), I went to a cheaper place. I thought I could find most of the school supplies at the art store, but unfortunately, I really didn't find much beyond paint and glue. So back to the original (rather overpriced) bookstore.

 

I walked in and everyone recognized me. I felt kind of dumb coming back, but I had to buy uniforms again, so there weren't many other options!

 

Cashier: "Chelsea, right?"

Me: "Yeah. Hi!"

Cashier: "Are you back because you heard we found your stuff?"

Me: "What?!" (My verb tenses aren't very good. Did they find it? Or is it "if we found it"?)

Cashier: "Yes! A lady came by. She had tried to return it to the address on the receipt (we moved...), and said to come talk to her if you returned."

Me: "Awesome!!!!"

 

She was one of several women working at a churrasquinho (little BBQ kebab stand) down the street from where I'd left my box. I had to wait half an hour until it opened in the evening, but when I talked to the ladies there, they opened their car door, and there was my stuff!

 

I told them how I had been distracted with my three kids and just drove off without it, and they said, "Yeah, we figured it was something like that."

A couple of my favorite distractions

 

I'm very happy and grateful for all the good, honest people in the world. A lot of them live in Brazil.

Brasilia: Best and Worst

Our time in Brasilia is coming to an end pretty soon here. I feel like in our lifestyle, a few months is actually quite a long time, so I can't have one foot out the door yet. I'm getting excited about our next post (Wuhan, China! Woohoo!!), but I'm also realizing how much I have grown to love Brasilia.
Honestly, at the beginning, I liked Brasilia. There was nothing I DIDN'T like, but it was hard to feel excited about it. That's probably most of why I haven't been blogging much about it. After living in China, Brazil feels very much like living in America-- though with several differences.
Now that we're faced with the prospect of leaving, we're realizing that we can't take it for granted any more. Brazil is awesome, and we're going to enjoy it while we have it!

The best of Brasilia:

Weather:
This has been a really tough winter. There were a few days in a row that it didn't get above 65* Fahrenheit. Oh man!! And then in the summer, it rarely gets above 90. So basically, on a normal day it hovers right around 80 degrees. During the dry season (May to October), the skies are clear and cloudless. I was a little worried about rainy season, though, because the only thing I new about a rainy season came from "Forrest Gump." During the rainy season (October to May), we might have a week of drizzly, nonstop rain, but most of the season, it is just an afternoon rain shower or even a downpour, and then sunshine again.

Clean Air:
Sandwiched between two tours in China, we cannot appreciate enough the clean air that we enjoy here in Brazil. We have started eating all our meals on our front porch, and we usually exclaim at least once about just how clean it is!

Music:
Brazilian music is awesome. I can't get enough of the Samba stations on the radio.
My new favorite song ever:


Brazilians Love Kids:
When we moved here, people told us that Brazilians love kids. Having just left China, where we were mobbed like celebrities every time we left the house, with people pinching cheeks, taking pictures, and tsk-tsking us for not dressing our babies warmly enough, we were used to a country where people love babies. But the best part about Brazil is that people love babies AND know how to behave around them! I can't remember a single time where I've walked past someone who didn't stop to say hi or smile at my baby. They might squeeze his toes and cootchie-coo a little to try and make him smile, but then they move on. Brazilians love kids, and my kids love Brazilians. I can't say the same was true about China....
Brazilian kids are a little crazy. They are universally rambunctious and rowdy, and they don't believe in sitting down and being quiet. Penny would always come home from school and

Housing

Religious Freedom

Portuguese


Worst of Brasilia:

Lack of Communication

Food

Driving everywhere

Big embassy

Festa Junina

Festa Junina is a Brazilian festival that they have during June or July. They have bonfires and drink hot chocolate and dance the quadrilha to keep themselves from freezing to death when it goes down to like 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

They also wear really frilly dresses.

Here is Penny's class dancing the quadrilha. Talk about frilly dresses!

Last year I decided to make one for my girls. But since I had a newborn baby to take care of, I just didn't get around to it. They dressed up and had fun, but they certainly weren't dressed for the party.

Freckles and braids? Check! Frilly skirts? Almost...

So this year I had a little more time and decided to make Penny's dress. I have a lifetime's supply of fabric from China, and it is about time I started to use some of it. So I made the dress, added a bunch of lace and frills, and sent her to the kindergarten Festa Junina at her school. 

She had a great time with her class, but even with several yards of lace,
her dress was so plain compared to the others!

So when the Embassy announced it would have a Festa Junina celebration, I decided to bring the dresses up to snuff. I spent morning and afternoon for two days sewing whole rolls of ribbons and yards and yards of ruffles onto their little dresses. And they finally looked the part!

Hats and ribbons and frills, oh my!

I didn't make Naomi's dress, but I used the skirt from last year and paired it with a shirt she already had,
then sewed ruffles all over it for two days straight.

Penny warms herself at the bonfire.

Naomi and the other little girls enjoyed picking through the treasure trove of fallen confetti.

Even William got in on the action!

Maybe I should write about frilly dresses on my fashion blog. Ha ha ha!

The Niceness of Brazil

If I were going to Confession, I would have to tell you how long it had been since my last visit. But since this isn't Confession, I'm not Catholic, and this is my blog, you can just look at the last entry to see how long it has been.

It has been forever! 

Kevin and I talked about this a while back, about how I'm not very inspired to write about Brazil. Part of it is that I'm busy. I have three kids this tour, and that is more work (obviously) than two. We have our huge house and the entire outdoors to keep us busy and occupied, and that's part of it, I'm sure. But a big part is that we are simply very happy here. Life is lovely, and there's just not a lot to say when everything is nice. The skies are clean and blue. We are currently in the depths of winter, which means it gets down to like 65 degrees and I have to go find a sweater. There's not a lot to complain about.

Beautiful Pirenopolis

It's also not super challenging. My Portuguese isn't amazing, but I understand a lot and get by when I try to talk. I also just avoid talking to people, which isn't probably a habit I need to maintain. Sometimes I feel like Ben Gunn. My English is getting pretty bad. I don't talk a lot, and when I do it's usually to my young children. I stutter sometimes and say the wrong words all the time. I trail off the end of sentences when I can't remember a word-- just hoping that the other person can fill in the blank of what I'm hoping to say.

My poor kids are going to grow up and someday realize this isn't normal. Maybe I'll magically improve someday-- but with China as our next post, I have big hopes for my Chinese improving, but my English will probably continue to suffer. 

Isn't this what childhood is all about?!

But Brazil is lovely. We enjoy it here. There's a cat that lives in our roof, and right now I can hear him scritchy-scratching in the ceiling above me. It used to kind of freak me out before we knew what it was, but once we figured out it was a cat, it's no big deal.

I'm not sure I'll write very often on this blog. I have started a new one-- a fashion blog.

I know, I wouldn't believe me either. So you'll have to go check it out!

Pros and Cons of Brasilia

People are bidding on their upcoming posts, so many State Department bloggers are writing their lists of pros and cons of their posts. I wrote one for Shenyang, and I have found it helpful to remember how I truly felt about it, now that it's a few years in my past.

Pros:

Natureza: Brasilia is beautiful! It is about 80 degrees year round, though this week it has been dipping down to a frigid 65. Ha ha ha! If that's as bad as winter gets (which it is), sign me up! The air is clean, and the skies are blue. After living in China, that's something we'll never take for granted again. There are waterfalls to hike to, a lake to paddle-board in, bike lanes for cycling, and no reason not to get out and enjoy the weather.

Music: I love Brazilian music. It seems like many people here participate in music; our housekeeper sings like an angel and plays the organ at her church,

People

Great for our family


Cons:

Community
This is our second post, and the Embassy community here is so much bigger than the Consulate community in Shenyang!

Limited tourist options

Driving city

Pros and Cons, Fisher girl edition

Penny: I like this window. It makes rainbows.
Naomi: Roses, flowers, nothing.



Penny: Nothing. I like everything in Brazil.
Naomi: Trees and toys. I only like my birthday toys.

20 Questions

The other night in the car, I decided to teach my kids to play 20 Questions. I started. I'm the mom, I know the rules, and let's face it, I just like going first in games!
I was trying to get them to guess Kevin. As they kept guessing really specific things ("Is it a bush?" "Is it that car?") I realized I would have to teach them how to ask broader questions to narrow the field.
"Penny, you could ask me if it's something alive."
"Naomi, you could ask me if it's a person."
"Penny, you could ask me if it's someone we know."
(Not only do I like going first in games, but I apparently like playing all the parts of the game myself, too.)
"Naomi, you could ask me if it's someone in our family."
And then-- what do you know?-- they guessed it!

I let Penny go next. I didn't have much hope of a successful round, but we tried anyway. Turns out, she's really good! It was a person, But she clarified for us that it was a GROUP of people. Her Kindergarten class! I thought it was a clever idea.

Naomi went next. She also chose Penny's kindergarten class! It didn't take us quite so long to guess this time. But she was pretty proud of herself for answering all those questions we had for her!

Then it was my turn again. I helped them ask questions again, and it was... our car, Buttercup!

Then Penny went again. Her class at school has been learning about the states of matter, so I asked her, "Is it a solid? a liquid? a gas?"
No to all three.
Uh....
"It's a kind of energy!!"
I swear this girl is going to be smarter than her mom in just a few years. "Heat? Gravity? Radiation? Potential?" I know science stuff, too!
"It's light, Mom."
"Oh yeah, that's a kind of energy. Good job, Penny!"
"Yes, but what kind of light?"
And after a couple guesses, "It starts with a letter that starts with 'eh.'"
Flashlight. Because "F" starts with "eh."
I think it will soon be an even two-player game, Penny versus mom!

Feira dos Importados

Brasilia has a market called Feira dos Importados. It's a market with row after row of stalls and booths, selling everything from cell phone accessories, purses, and exercise clothes to toys, and office supplies. It's a market of imported goods, and since we live in the 21st Century, most of it is imported from China. Many of the shop owners have emigrated from China, too, so it was bizarre, walking from shop to shop of a market that could have been lifted directly from ANY Chinese city, with Chinese shop owners and even bundled up babies with their buzzed hair. But everyone was speaking Portuguese! Even the Chinese people! Even me!!
Actually, I finally found a wallet I wanted to buy, and I talked to the lady in Chinese after I heard her talking to someone else. It was so nice to actually communicate with someone for once, and feel competent doing so!
I got the wallet and also a couple of Brazilian exercise outfits.
Don't laugh. You know you want to work out in butterfly leggings, too.
Seriously, though, Brazilians dress very fashionably. When people go out to anything, they look amazing, with fancy clothes, perfect hair, and usually 6" high heels. I always feel like a frump. But when I take Penny to school in the mornings, I think half the moms are dropping their kids off on the way to the gym, and they're all dudded up and ready to work out. And man, there are some bright prints, tight spandex, and crazy-high socks. It's kind of hilarious, but it's just the kind of hilarious that I admire enough to join.
So Naomi helped me choose some butterfly-print leggings, and the lady in the store directed me to a blue shirt to match. I'm excited for my next Zumba class....

Musings from my inner linguist

It feels sudden, but I guess it's been a year in the making: we now have a talker.
I swear last week William didn't say any words, and then now he says a good handful.
It has been sudden.
More than the girls, William has been babbling lots of sounds with lots of inflections and intonations. He'll carry on full babbling conversations with his sisters in the back of the car, and sometimes he'll just jabber to himself. It's pretty much the cutest thing in the world.
Now he says a few words.
First word: "Bye"
He has been saying a general "ah" as both "hi" and "bye" for some time, but when it finally became a word it was definitely "bye" and used solely when he or someone else was leaving.
Other words: mama (yay!), uh-oh, zai jian (from the end of one of his sisters' Chinese songs), Dad, and something that sounded remarkably like "I love you," especially through my filter of wishful thinking.

I took a few linguistics classes in college (okay, so I took one twice...), and I would find myself getting caught up in reading the textbooks. I think languages are fascinating, especially language acquisition in children and foreign language acquisition.
I was always fascinated by the idea of learning a different language. I'd hear from missionaries returned from various lands, forgetting words in English or trying to explain a foreign phrase. I imagined that when you learned a second language, those words would sound in your head like your native language. Like if someone said ni hao ma to me, then after I learned Chinese, it would sound to me like someone said, how are you.
That's not quite how it works.
When someone asks you, "What's up?" you don't look at the ceiling and wonder what IS up. No, you've already learned and filed that phrase away in the category of Greetings, more specifically, Greetings from People Trying to Sound Casual and Hip.
So when I learn a foreign language, ni hao ma just gets added to the Greetings category in my mind, but it's in a separate category of Greetings from People Whom I Should Respond to in Chinese. The Chinese word doesn't "replace" an English greeting or even sound the same in my head, but it fits in the same category, in its own space.
Really, we're all learning a second language. That is, we're learning more and more language every day, and we have several layers of language building up all the time. People start hearing "I know, right?!" or "I. Just. Can't. Even." so often that they start using the phrases themselves. Even old people know what a "selfie" is. We're adding on to our own language, often adding words and phrases that we already have a name for (self portrait, picture of myself). Basically, we're padding our native language until it's a huge mountain of words. When we learn a second language, we start a new little anthill of language. We know where all the empty spaces are, and it's a little tedious and overwhelming to have to fill each one grain by grain, but it's fun once you have enough grains of sand to start.

A day in the life of a one-year-old

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the single most exciting, terrifying, traumatic, and stressful 30 minutes of my life. That's right, it's William's birthday!

William woke up in jail this morning, right about 6:30. I'm never ready for it, but I'm always grateful it's not 5:45. Some people enjoy watching the sun rise. I begrudge every time I have to watch the sky turn from dark to light. I know it happens every day, so I'd rather not be up to make sure it happens.

He's sweet, though, isn't he?

William comes to join me in bed, usually followed shortly by his sister, Naomi. It's like being woken up by a barrel of puppies poured over you. Sure, it's the sweetest, softest, most lovable thing in the whole world, but they certainly don't mind where they jab their knees and elbows!
This is William sitting on the night stand playing with the cell phone charger.

This little boy has a penchant for pillows! Whenever he sees one, he crawls as fast as he can to go snuggle into it.

And now we're taking Penny to school.

Kevin bought William some birthday cake while we were out running errands this morning. Unfortunately, it was nap time by the time we got home to take the standard first-birthday-cupcake picture. 

I turn my back for one second....
Okay, maybe I turned my back for a few seconds.

This kid is definitely not getting a sunburn on that yogurt-covered nose! It was a mess, but nothing a little scrub in the sink (William), wipe with a washcloth (floor), and scrub-down with a hose (chair) couldn't remedy!

Today was playgroup, and William is helping Naomi with her puzzle. He didn't want her to finish it too quickly, so he took apart the pieces as she finished them. Naomi is very patient, and is also good at giving Baby some other toys as distractions.

While we'll officially celebrate William's birthday next week, we took up the offer of blowing out a candle in some cake. And since William has no idea what this stuff is all about, he let Naomi help him with the candle.

And here's the playgroup group. Hooray for William, and hooray for his birthday!

This morning I sang "Happy Birthday" to William. He enjoyed it and bopped a little to the tune. Then I sang it in Portuguese ("Parabens pra voce"), and he started clapping his hands, just like a native Brazilian. So cute!
If I were to summarize this year, I'd have to say it has been lovely, sweet, beautiful, and uplifting, just like William. I had a much harder time with the first two babies, spending most of the first year in sleep-deprived Zombie mode. William is significantly more satisfied and laid-back, and I also learned to make my sleep a higher priority than having a couple hours of "me time" in the evenings. I had plenty of "me time." It was called "sleeping," and it made all the difference in the world. I have really enjoyed this baby!
In the next few months, William should learn how to walk. He's very happy to crawl everywhere, and only recently has he let us walk him around, holding his hands while he steps. He'll figure it out eventually, but for now he'd rather crawl.
He should learn how to talk. He has said "bye bye," and "Dad." He also occasionally says, "Hi." We're still working on the "Mama." I would love it if he learned a bit of Portuguese, and I'm pretty sure it will be "Tchau."
This little boy loves playing with his sisters, especially since he has the whole day with Naomi. She loves him as a sweet baby brother, but also as the best toy ever made. She loves to pick him up, hug him until he falls over, and grab him away from whatever he is playing with. But she does it with so much love and affection that I'm sure it will turn into a good thing. They do play together really well, also, and Naomi always has a knack for making William laugh.

Candy oatmeal

Somehow we have started calling Cream of Wheat "candy oatmeal." I don't remember exactly when it happened, but it may have had something to do with someone's trying to convince Naomi to try some Cream of Wheat by telling her it tasted like candy. Hey-- I remember my parents telling me that Rice-a-Roni tasted like candy, and that made me taste it-- and it worked again in the next generation.
Naomi would eat candy oatmeal every morning if I would make it. And William likes it, too-- but that's not really saying much. This kid loves eating just about everything. My girls never let me spoon feed them, but William will gobble up everything I put in front of him.

Birthday party PLUS a few detours

Penny had a birthday party to attend after school today. The family arranged to have a few buses come pick the kids up from school and take them over to the party center, and I filled out Penny's permission slip and sent her on her way!

Naomi went to a friend's house this afternoon, and I figured I would pick her up and take her over to the birthday party. She wasn't technically invited (and neither were William and I), but I'd been to this birthday center before when Penny went to another party there, and I knew that one more kid wouldn't make a big difference. It was at Megamundo, which has rides, a dress-up and make-over corner, a ball pit, a giant climbing structure, and zip lines overhead. "The best place ever," according to Penny.

We showed up at the birthday party, and the mom comes over to William, Naomi, and me, and says, "Hi, Penny!" (We know each other REALLY well, as you can see.) 

"No, this is Naomi," I explained.

"Oh, so Penny's already in playing?"

"Yeah." I smiled and exchanged other niceties and then went in with my little ones.

Naomi kicked off her shoes and joined the other kids. I sat at a table and ate a few snacks, watching my kids play. I saw a bunch of Penny's classmates and other kids from school, but I didn't see Penny.

After a few minutes, I got up and looked around for Penny. She hadn't come out of the play structure, and I couldn't see her in it. I didn't see her on any of the rides, and I had been there long enough that she would have come out of the bathroom. I asked one of her friends if Penny was there, and it turns out, she wasn't!

Great.

By then it was 4:30. Penny had apparently gotten on the school bus and gone home. I called Kevin, waking him up from his nap. 

"Is Penny there? Did she come home on the bus?"
"No, I was sleeping. I didn't hear anyone come by. Isn't she supposed to be at the party?"

"That's what I thought, too. But I guess she went home on the bus."

Um.... where is our daughter?

Wonderful.

We made some phone calls, but before we got a hold of anyone, a friend called telling me that Penny was at the Embassy. The school bus company couldn't just leave her knocking at our gate, so procedure is to take her to the Embassy, which they did.

Procedure for when you're letting another person pick up your child from school is to... TELL the school bus company. Oops, that would have really helped.

So I left Naomi at the party, scooted over to the Embassy, picked up Penny and ran back to the party.

She had no idea we'd lost her. She just got to have an extra-long bus ride and then a bonus trip to the Embassy. Followed by a birthday party at MEGAMUNDO! Life was good for this 5-year-old.

As for us just slipping in unnoticed to the birthday party, well, that went by the wayside very quickly.

Caqui season

In Brasilia, at most of the busy intersections people sell stuff, which you just buy through your window when you feel so inclined. Most of the time they sell trash bags (sans trash, as I had to explain to Naomi) and mop rags (because Brazilian mops are actually giant squeegees on the end of a stick that you then wrap a rag around) (why not, right?). Sometimes they sell water bottles or snacks, especially during rush hour. And then there's one guy who sells those electric tennis racket mosquito swatter things. 

But then at this time of year, everyone starts selling little boxes stacked with pyramids of what I originally thought were orangish-tomatoes. I never bought any last year, because I couldn't see what was so special about the boxed tomatoes. Turns out they're not tomatoes (those are usually green, anyway). It's persimmon season!

I really like persimmons! My grandma lives in the California Bay Area, and one time she gave me a persimmon from her friend's tree. It was ripe to the point of near explosion, and every bite was like candy. I loved it, but I think that may be the only persimmon I'd ever eaten before moving to Brazil.

Here they are called caquis. They only grow at this time of year, so I've decided to enjoy the season this year and eat them to the point of near explosion. They're delicious and refreshing and incredibly sweet.

Plus, it's great to be able to eat candy and pretend it's actually something healthy!

Ceramics

The thing about drawing and painting is that it gives me a lot of time to think and reflect. I'm in the middle of a big ceramic painting project, which I can't really explain now, but I will post before and after pictures once I'm finished. Actually, I'll post the pictures in November after we leave Brazil, and it will make sense then.
When I was a teenager, our young women group at church would often paint ceramics. There was a lady in our ward whose great passion in life was painting ceramics, so every year or so we would have a ceramics activity. I didn't look forward to it. The painting was fun enough, but when ceramics scrape together, the sound of it makes me want to crawl up a wall. And then when you're done painting, you're left with this little ceramic knickknack, and I had enough knickknacks to start my own knickknack shop. I always dreaded ceramics activities.
One time, I decided I didn't want to have another little ceramic box for my shelf, so I skipped our activity that week. This was pretty rash for me, since I went to young women's activities every week practically without fail. But I skipped it that time and spent the rest of the week happy that I had spared myself another dust catcher. On Sunday when we had our young women class, people asked about my absence on Wednesday, and then my teacher pulled out a little ceramic box from her things. "Here, we made one for everyone who didn't make it." Gaaah!
Despite my reluctance to paint little ceramic knickknacks as a teenager, I did learn how to do it, and I remember our teacher emphasizing the dry-brush technique as we made little rosy cheeks on our bunny rabbit ornaments or whatever. And now that I'm working on my mega-awesome ceramics project (stay tuned), I am grateful for the practice and techniques I learned in my youth-- even if it did mean a shelf full of knickknacks to dust.

Rainy season

Penny's kindergarten class did a unit about the four seasons, which must be some sort of international school curriculum requirement, because in Brazil, there are only two seasons: rainy and wet.
Before coming here, the only thing I knew about a wet season was from living in Seattle and watching Forrest Gump. Thankfully, the rainy season in Brazil is different from both of those!
We had a couple weeks of alternating downpours and drizzle, which filled our pool to the brim and almost made it feel like we were having cold weather for Christmas. It was wet enough that we found the spots where the roof leaks, and it made my piano go out of tune within about 5 days of having it tuned. (I had it tuned a week before my recital, and it was already a bit wonky by the time it came around!) Humidity is new for this New Mexico girl.
Usually, though, the rainy season just means that we get a nice afternoon rainstorm every day. We sometimes go a few days without any rain, although this year has been longer between rains-- sometimes even two weeks!
We have a great laundry courtyard, which is like a laundry room, but it is outdoors and brings lovely natural light into my life. There are several long laundry lines hung up, and I love being able to hang out my laundry to dry in the fresh air. It saves so much energy and hardly requires much from me. But (you can see where this is going) this morning there were about 3 loads of laundry hung out to dry when the drops started. Thankfully, this time I rushed enough to bring in the laundry while it was still dry. This is blogworthy. I'm not going to blog about each time I have hung out laundry (I can't honestly say "to dry") only to have it rewashed several times before I finally bring it in, spin it, and throw it in the dryer.

Chinese Embassy Shindig

Last night Kevin and I went to an event at the Chinese embassy, and I've never said this about any other cocktail party or shindig that we've ever gone to, but it was really fun!
Now, some diplomats have invitations to engagements several times a week. But Kevin's not in Public Affairs or anything like that, so he gets invitations a couple times a year. And he invites me, and we go as a really cool, fancy date. But usually we just stand around talking to a few people we know, drinking juice and eating fancy little foods they bring around on trays. It's kind of fun, but I'm not very good at small talk, and usually people from work tend to talk about work a lot, and I don't always have a lot to add to the conversation.
But last night was awesome.
It was a Chinese New Year celebration at the Chinese Embassy. Everyone they invited had some connection to China, whether they'd worked, studied, or just lived there. There was a group of us from the US Embassy, and there were also a few other people I'd met who I recognized at the party. They asked people to prepare something to perform at the party. Of course there was an enthusiastic karaoke rendition of a Chinese song-- and it was well done. Someone read a poem in Chinese, and one girl presented a Chinese tea ceremony. Our group recorded a video of our kids singing a Chinese children's song, and then afterwards we sang "Yueliang Daibiao Wo de Xin" (a favorite Chinese song of some of the Americans), and John Denver's "Country Roads" (a favorite "Popular American Song" of many of the Chinese). It was a hit. We sang. People sang along. Everyone enjoyed it.
Then between some of the performances, they drew for door prizes, including a new cell phone and a fancy cloisonne vase. There was a musical chairs competition which Kevin played, and a chopstick-using contest which I won. I just pretended I was super hungry, and I got 54 little beans into another bowl in 60 seconds!
So after the performances and the games, there was a fantastic dinner with Chinese food (including Kung Pao Chicken, which made my mouth water the second I saw it. It's the spiciest thing I've eaten in months!!) and Brazilian desserts. The best of both worlds!!
The Chinese embassy has their own Chinese chef, who cooks lunch in their cafeteria. The American embassy... doesn't. I'm pretty sure there is no US Embassy in the world that has a US chef. Why would you export an American chef? What would they cook anyway, hot dogs and hamburgers?
I had a blast speaking Chinese to several of the Chinese diplomats. I got to admire some beautiful paintings, show off my mad chopstick skills, and feel for an evening that we had gone back to China.

Party party!

Penny went to another birthday party today for one of her Brazilian classmates. This one was a bit tamer than some that we've gone to.
There were buses to take the kids directly from school to the party center, but it was just the kids that were invited, not the whole families.
This party was from after school until six-thirty, rather than starting at eight-thirty and going well into the night. (We left one party at almost eleven, and they hadn't even sung happy birthday yet!)
This party was at a party center where there were ball pits, slides, climbing playgrounds, and some carnival rides, but no one was using the carnival rides from what I could tell.
This party had cotton candy, french fries, and birthday cake, but the endless drinks were all water and the pizza, hot dogs, sandwiches, and piles and piles of brigadeiros were notably missing.
There were party favors with candy and modeling clay, but thankfully it wasn't a big old present bigger than what we had gotten the birthday child!
There was no photographer, and the parents were wearing rather casual clothes, meaning that I wasn't hopelessly under-dressed like I usually am in Brazil.
Penny had a blast, and I just went for a few minutes at the end to pick her up and chat for a while with the parents-- one Brazilian and one American. So it makes sense this party was only half-Brazilian.

On the way home, Penny asked if she could have her party at Mega-mundo, like this one. I told her, "No, we'll probably have your party at our house like we always do. But we can decorate with a bunch of balloons!"
"Okay!" She thought for a minute. "Your cakes are always just like brownies and stuff. I don't want to have that. Maybe we could have... cupcakes!"
Now it was my turn. "Okay!"
So Penny's party will be at our house with balloons and cupcakes. Penny will love it. Her friends will love it. And I hope their parents think it is cute, multicultural, or quaint-- not just cheap.

Aspiring

I watched one of those "I'm a Mormon" videos on youtube, and it really stuck with me. The lady is an artist. She talks about traveling around the world and how walking up and snapping a picture of someone can feel invasive and offensive to some people. But the experience is totally different when you sit and sketch people.

I love that image of sitting and drawing the world as you experience it. It seems like you'd experience the world much more intimately than simply walking around snapping a hundred pictures. I travel the world, and that would be such a valuable and cool experience to have!

Plus I'm a terrible photographer. Photographs shouldn't require as much explanation as mine always do.

But here's the next problem: I'm not a great artist either. I mean, I draw a mean stick figure, and I'm kind of famous for my stick-figure chickens. But beyond that, I don't really consider myself much of an artist.

Not yet.

Today we headed to the Parque da Cidade. I don't have the courage yet to go and sketch people I don't know, but I brought some of my own willing subjects. 

Penny is driving Cinderella, a.k.a. Naomi, to the ball in her very own pumpkin coach.

William took a nice long nap. When the girls came over to check out my drawing skills, they gave me a lot of helpful input. (He needs lightning! Draw the lightning, mom!) My brother, Alex, is visiting this week. He was concerned about the lack of restraining devices the child in the sketch is wearing. I figure it's interactive art where the audience is supposed to feel something when they see this work.

After watching me draw her brother, Penny requested I draw her over on the turtle they had been climbing on. 

Naomi also wanted some paper and pens, and this is part of her sketches.

I enjoy drawing, and I know I'll enjoy it more when I'm better at it. The girls are interested in art, and while I was looking up ideas to teach them, I also found some ideas I'd like to try myself. Maybe this year we'll all be aspiring artists.
And if not this whole year, then at least for the moment.