Day 15: Foz Do Iguassu

Ugh! It's so late (1:30 A.M.), but I promised myself I wouldn't miss another day of writing.

Today, Marli made us a huge breakfast with fresh eggs from her family's ranch.  Yummo!(I hate Rachel Ray!)  Miled and Marli took us to a pet store where we bought a brazilian hoodie and hair bows, and a dress for Sophie Love.  

We still had to pick up the dress that Zeni and Dona Maria made for me, so we drove over there before going to the airport. Wow, we had no idea they had been working all morning on lunch for us.  Unfortunately, we had to be on a plane in an hour and could not stay to eat with them.  We felt so bad! (They didn't tell us though!)  Anyhow, we tried to apologize as much as possible, but we know they were dissapointed.  The dress is very cute; black and white floral print, cotton, t-length, wrap boddess.  Most of all it is the generosity that is so special.  They put a lot of time and love into this project and I feel very lucky to be the recipient of that.  

Miled and Marli went with us to see us off.  They are amazing people; hard working, generous, loving and fun.  We had such a great time at their home last night and spending time with their family.  We love them!

Our flight was fine.  Only a one hour flight, but we got a meal.  Better than a flight in the states!  We had luck getting an automatic car and traveling well to our hotel.  We havent' had much luck with our hotel rooms, unfortunately.  We can't seem to be able to find a room that isn't smoking, has only one bed, doesn't smell like urine, and has a working air conditioning.  We're in our third room for the night, and are hoping we will be moving back to our 2nd room tomorrow when the air conditioning is fixed. 

We went to a cultural dinner show tonight.  Lots of show girls with boobie tastles and glittery thongs!  The place was not as good as we had hoped, yet we still had a fun date night.  

We're obviously having a fantastic time, but we are both looking forward to being back home and with our family.  

Day 14: Curitiba

I'm all caught up.  So, today we drove back to Curitiba to have lunch with Miled, Marli, and Monica.  Another churrasco, which is no problem for us.  We were able to get to know Monica better today, and love her already.    She took us to a great mall, where we found some gifts for her parents and a few random stuff for ourselves.  

We stopped by Mauricio and Karin's house because they had called to tell us that they bought us a wedding gift.  It was a key hook that is the shape of a house.  Really sweet!

Marli made stroganoff, paul's favorite for dinner.  For dessert. it was a fruit salad with Avocado, papaya, and pineapple.  I am starting to get used to this sweet avocado stuff.  

We're staying at Miled's house over night and will leave for Foz do Iguassu tomorrow.  Boa Noite!

Day 13: Ponta Grossa

On Sunday, we packed up and drove to Ponta Grossa to meet with Anna Paula’s family.  They fed us lunch and we hung out.  They were really generous. 

They have a very large family, so when Paul told stories about their family, I always got people confused.  So meeting them all and putting faces to names was a relief.  It was great.  

Day 12: Curitiba

Paul and I walked to the bus stop a few blocks down from our hotel to catch a bus to the train station for our trip to Morretes.  Morretes is an old village that is known for barriado meat, which is cooked for 24 hours.  So, we barely missed the bus and did not have time to wait for the next one so we started walking and looking for a taxi.  None were open.  We ran back to the hotel to get our car.  When they brought out our car I noticed there was a scratch on our rental car.  We didn’t have time to deal with it because we were about to miss our train!  We ended up being the last people to board the train with two minutes before they left.  Even worse, Elisene’s whole family was waiting for us because we had everyone’s train tickets.  Phew!  We barely made it. 

The train ride was three hours and through the jungle.  Our view of the jungle was breath taking.  When we got there, we went straight to the restaurant where they taught us how to mix the ingredients for the meat.  Umm… I don’t like it but Paul does.  I enjoyed the view we had of the lake and the town, and the company of course! 

We all of a sudden saw Mauricio in the restaurant.  Paul had invited them, but they never said yes or no about coming.  It was a great surprise.  We shopped and walked to town together. 

Mauricio and Karin invited us all over for dinner, and of course we accepted.

We took a bus back to Curitiba and slept all the way home.  When we got back, Paul and I walked to the world market and bought the stuff to make guacamole for the dinner.  Mexican food is non-existent here.  Most everyone has never had any kind of Mexican food.  Ugh!  It’s actually the first thing we want to eat when we come home.  Also, avocado here is eaten sweet, like in smoothies.  They had never had avocado salty.  It was a hit! 

Karin made a chicken wrapped in cheese and ham and covered in a creamy tomato sauce, rice, beef, and broccoli.  We sat around eating candy and talking until really late.

We took Elisene and her family home.  This was a very sad goodbye.  Paul developed a very strong friendship with their family while on his mission and they have kept in constant contact over the past four years.  This week, I was brought into that relationship and I love them.  I too built a strong bond with them and had a very difficult time saying goodbye because we don’t know when we’ll see them again.  We all stood in the front of their house hugging and crying and talking about how much we love each other.  Above all experiences while being here in Brazil, getting to know them was the most special. 

Paul and I went back to our hotel very heavy hearted, but grateful for the opportunity to have been reunited with them.

Day 11: Curitiba

Friday I had another interview, which went really well.  I was glad I went through with it.  After the one on Wednesday, I didn’t want to have another interview ever again.  This one seemed promising; its for a classroom just like the one I worked in last year. 

Later we visited friends, Luciano and Rubia after running into them at Elisene’s apartment.  Elisene fed us canjica, a homony and coconut milk dessert.  We stopped by Mauricio and Karin’s home.  They have three beautiful children, who we hope our kids look like.  Their kids gave us the traditional kisses on the cheek and refer to us as tio and tia.  We adore them!

We ordered pizza and stayed really late eating and talking.  

Day 10: Curitiba

On Thursday, we ran errands in the morning to pick up clothes and buy tickets for our train ride on Saturday. 

In the afternoon, we went to a ranch that Marli’s parents live on.  Paul and I immediately mentioned to eachother that the ranch reminded us of grandpa because of the beautiful garden.  They grow a wide variety of vegetables.  They have cows (two of which are baby twins) and chickens.  We toured the ranch.  The house is higher than the rest of the land.  From the house, it is trees as far as you can see.  We took lots of pictures.  We picked pinhao and roasted them.  We drank chimarrao, which is a tea that traditionally is passed around in the same cup.  The herbs are packed down into the cup and you drink through a straw that has a filter at the bottom.  Even Paul liked it!

This was another very late night, but very much enjoyed.

Day 9: Curitiba

On Wednesday, we met Miled and his wife, Marli at a church building to start a day of touring the city.  We visited a botanical garden, several parks, an opera house, and the best churrascaria ever. 

After a lot of running around, we went back to their house because I had a job interview.  I have been having a lot of problems with my calling card and it got even worse right when it was time to call for my phone interview.  It was a very detailed fiasco.  In the middle of the interview we got disconnected.  So, I started crying because the interview was going so badly and had to call back and continue the interview while I was still upset.  I was only glad when I got it over with.

We went out to dinner to a rodizio pizza place with Miled’s entire family and some American friends who are also visiting.  It was a blast!  They have sweet pizza; chocolate, white chocolate, banana, and different kinds of ice cream.  All on pizza! It was a late night, but lots of fun.

Missin' the Fam!

To my family:

I miss you all!!  I know you'll be together today and I wanted to say hi.  I am five days behind on my blogs.  Yikes!  the last few days have been so busy.  We've been getting back to our little apartment-hotel at midnight every night, so it's been hard to stay up and write.  Today, I will do them all.  Right now, Paul is finishing packing us up to drive to a city called Ponta Grossa.  We will be going to church there and visiting friends.  We had to say some very hard goodbyes last night and are geering up for some more :(.  I didn't understand what strong bonds Paul formed here until this week.  The culture is beautiful and so open.  Even after a week, its hard for me to say goodbye becuase there have been so many instant bonds, that really are made possible by the culture here.  It's amazing.  Despite all this, I still want to come home though.  I look forward to being back in California and being with all of you again (especially my Mama and my Sophie Love).  Anyhow. we're hitting the road now.  Love you all!!! xoxoxoxoxoxo! 

Day 7 & 8: Curitiba

            I realized another reason why this trip is so special.  I have had the opportunity to learn so much about what Paul’s life was like when he lived here.  The people he came to love, the streets he walked, the places he lived and the culture he admires.  Paul’s two years here in Brazil was the only period of time in the past ten years that we were not in constant contact.  I’m learning so much about the life he had when we were apart.  It’s great!

            Yesterday we slept in and then ran some errands.  We went to an atm and to take our clothes to be washed.  We ate lunch at a charrascaria, which was muito bom!  This place walks around with the meat on platters rather than skewers.  It was great.  The picture with us and the guarana bottles is at this restaurant. 

            We had some things we brought from the states to give to Paul’s friend Zeni.  Zeni lives with her sister and her mother.  They make a living as seamstresses, with their business on the top level of their house.  We visited and ate dessert.  We scheduled to come back early the next day so that I could learn to make Brazilian food and we could eat lunch. 

            We went to Super Wal-Mart to try to find the ingredients to make enchiladas.  Nada!  The only thing they have is flower tortillas; no sause, not the right cheese and no cilantro.  Paul wanted me to make green enchiladas with chicken and cilantro in the sauce the way I make it for him.  I’m not sure this is going to work.

            On our way home we went through a greek drive thru called Habib’s that everyone here is crazy for.  Eh! It was alright.  We had Kibes, which is falafel and these little pizza things.  Kinda greesy. 

            Today, we got to Zeni, Lourdes and Dona Maria’s home at 10:00 for a cooking lesson.  They taught me how to make lasagna, beans and rice (their way), farofa (a yucca root grain they put on top of beans), Mandioca (a fried yucca root), and three kinds of dessert.  The dessert was my favorite part of course.  They made maracuja (passion fruit) mousse, Pave (a cookie and custard trifle), and Maria Mole (a milky, flan-ish, Jello-ish thing) Holy freakin crap!  This was a feast!  

            After this, they put Paul on the couch and told him he was going to take a nap while they fit me for a dress.  A dress!!  This is such a generous and loving thing to do.  They said I needed to go home with a new Brazilian outfit.  I was completely comfortable hanging out with them without Paul and talking to them.  We had so much fun. 

            After lunch, it was so hard to get up the energy we needed to run the errands we had.  We were so full!!!  We ended up sleeping for two hours.  I’m getting pretty homesick, so when we woke up I knew I needed to do something to keep me busy.  We walked in the rain to the mall a few blocks away and bought some Brazilian perfume/cologne.  Mine smells like cotton candy and Paul’s smells like chocolaty, woodsy wine.  We started watching Batman in the movie theater, but left early because it was too long and intense for me and it was getting really late.  We’re both tired and ready for bed.  We’re excited for our plans with Miled tomorrow.  Love everyone at home, and missing ya’ll bad!

Day 6: Curitiba

We are tired!  Today we went to church in an area that Paul served his mission.  Although I couldn’t understand the speakers, I had a great time because we were welcomed so lovingly. 

            Elisene made lunch again, Shepard’s pie, potato salad, and rice. What a carb coma!  We then went to one of Paul’s companion’s homes.  He and his wife, Marcos and Tais Velasque are so sweet.  They fed us pinhao nuts that they cook in a pressure cooker, while still in their shells.  I thought it was going to be just like pine nuts at home but the flavor is much milder and they are much larger. 

            At their home, I was included much more in the conversation.  They wanted to know all about Paul and I; how we met, about our wedding, and what we do.  I had the opportunity tonight to speak Portuguese.  I am not good at it by any means, yet they still complimented me every time I tried. 

            I started getting a really bad sore throat tonight, so we came home and I ordered some chicken and rice soup.  Mama- it was the closest thing I could find to your sopita.  It was good, but not as good as my mama’s.  It hit the spot though. 

            We are in for the night and still trying to get settled in to our room.  We’ve been so busy since we’ve been here that we haven’t had time to unpack.  Our week is already filling up fast.  There are lots of people to see.  Should be fun!  Boa Noite!

Day 4 & 5: Curitiba

            Ok!  Holy Crap!  Yesterday was a nightmare.  We woke up and packed for our 3:00 to Curitiba.  We had our favorite taxi driver on the way to the airport. He looked like Nelson Mandella and he talked with his hands.  He was itty bitty and had the cutest laugh.  Our flight was fine; only forty-five minutes.  When we got there, we rented a brand new car that was a stick shift.  Paul practiced driving a stick shift before we left, so we thought we were good to go…NOT THE CASE!  Right in the middle of the city, in the middle lane, the car started smoking and would not go into first gear.  It was dark by then, and we were stuck.  We had to push the car around the corner, near a phone booth.  Paul called a friend for help, but only reached his wife who didn’t have a car.  He called Avis to get someone to come help him with the car and the hotel to send a taxi for me.  After about thirty minutes and many tears, the taxi driver came and drove us to the hotel to get our stuff put away and back to the hotel to exchange the car.  The taxi driver, also named Paul, saved us!  He left his taxi in the middle of a busy street to help us.  He made phone calls to avis to find an automatic car even after they told us there were none.  He talked to avis and told them it was not our fault, which saved us goodness knows how much money to fix the car.  All he asked for was American coins in return for his help (of course Paul gave him much more).  We finally got another car, a newish chevy.  It was 11:00 by the time we got back to our hotel.  We were so relieved that the awful day was almost over

            This whole time we had not eaten anything besides a bag of peanuts on the plane.  THE WHOLE DAY!  I was cranky!  When we got in, we ordered pizza.  This was even better pizza than the night before.  We had one that was half shredded chicken and catapury (soft cheese), greek olives, and the other was ham, eggs, onions and greek olives.  We also had two personal sweet pizzas.  One banana cinnamon and the other brigadeiro (condensed milk, chocolate and chocolate sprinkles).  After six hours of misery, we deserved a pizza overdose.

            So, today was a different story.  We went to visit Paul’s friends Elisene, Edivaldo, Mayara and Kimbery.  This family is amazing.  They cooked Paul’s favorite lunch for us: Stroganoff. It is made very different here; its made with crème de leite. Here, lunch is the main meal, so this was a great welcome.  We drove to the new temple here in Curitiba, which is so beautiful.  There is a tree called araucaria here that is mostly just in Curitiba.  The temple grounds have a gigantic araucaria tree.  We had a great time.  We went grocery shopping at BIG, a store owned by Wal-Mart.  We hope to pack a suitcase full of groceries to come home with.  There are so many things here we cannot get at American grocery stores.  This family is so loving.  We feel blessed to know them and blessed that they love us back. 

            Paul is doing really well with the language and with getting us around.  Every taxi driver complements his Portuguese.  The time he had in Sao Paulo to practice his Portuguese was a very good thing.  He blows my mind the way he speaks with such personality and ease here.  Today was the first day I really attempted to speak Portuguese.  I felt comfortable with this family.  I knew there would be no judgement, so I went for it.  It went well.  The little Spanish I know helps also. 

            Well, it is 12:30 a.m. here and we are getting up early for church. 

F.Y.I.  We have been having difficulty adding more pictures.  We’re new to this blogspot thing, so maybe we’re doing something wrong, but it is either taking forever to upload a picture or it is not uploading at all.  When we get home we’ll be able to make this a lot fancier.  (I hope!)  Forgive errors please, its really late and we’re exhausted.  We’ll update much more tomorrow.  Love you all!  Miss you Sophie Love!-Stop eating hot popcorn kernels off the floor!  Miss you more Mama!

TCHAU!

Today was a great day!  We saw Sao Paulo by taxi.  We slept in three hours late to meet a friend, but it worked out because she didn't make it either.  The bad part was we missed free breakfast.  

We ate lunch at a buffet.  The food was amazing!  The stew with meat and potatoes reminded me of something gramma would make.  Yummy.  We ate rolls stuffed with cheese and meat, this thing they call  pancake with cheese inside, rice and beans, and guarana.

We took a taxi to Embu, an artisan village that was actually empty.  We ended up walking the streets where people live.  Now I know why Paul came home so skinny.  There are so many hills.  I wasn't exactly wearing shoes made for walking cobble stone streets, but it still was a beautiful experience.  The weather is amazing; about 70 degrees all day.  When we got back, I took about an hour nap and then we went out to get mineral water.  

While we were out, some young boys were trying to sell us gum and realized we are American.  They were way interested and said, "kiss me".  Paul gave them two reis, and we had them wait while we went up to our room to get them some candy we brought from home.  They were amazed; I think we made their day.

After a trip to the grocery store, we met Carolina at the mall.  She had a bag full of Brazilian candy for us.  She is beautiful and sweet. We ate at a pizzaria.  We had pizza with eggs, onions, this weird cheese, white chocolate and coconut, and something they call romeo and juliet(I dont' even know how to describe what that is).  The best pizza was chocolate, sprinkles, and strawberries.  It's probably pretty obvious that our whole trip revolves around food!  

After walking around the mall for a while and talking, we sent her home in a taxi.  Now we are in for the night.  Tomorrow we fly to curitiba.  Yay!