Gifts for kids

When my wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year, I told her to have my guest bring a gift for a needy child. I had been to a birthday party earlier this year for my wife’s uncle and he did the same thing. It’s a great way to give back and make the children feel special this time of the year. There is a lot of poverty here and it’s not the child’s fault. They were born into poverty, so sad. It’s also a great way for our children to see how great their lives are and we should be very thankful. My mother in-law also did the same thing and added to my huge pile of gifts that we are going to donate.

So keep this in mind for your next birthday and give it a shot!    

A father of boys

Our boys are young and definitely not interested in girls yet. Which is a good thing, they will have plenty of time when they get older. I like to joke with them at times and will yell out "look at that pretty lady over there." I usually get the Dad, I don't like her, mommy is better, stop saying that, etc...

It's hilarious, but on one occasion it took a turn I did not see coming. This is the conversation that occurred while driving through our neighborhood.

Dad - Boys look at that pretty lady right there.
Son #2 - I don't like her.
Dad - Why?
Son #2 - She is too white for me, I like dark girls.
Dad - (I'm in shock) Uh uh, oh.
Son #2 - Yeah, dark is better.

This is from a 5 year old! Looking back now I'm still laughing at him saying this. It is true that kids will say the darnedest things. You never know what you will get when talking to them.

Son #1 ignored me and didn't say a word...my tricks are getting outdated for this 9 year old.

I guess I better step it up and start the embarrassing part of being his father. I think its time for a fanny pack.

Tires for the car

The roads here in Brazil can be a little rough during the rainy season and there are a few roads that just weren't built that well. At times you will see huge craters in the road that are big enough to swallow a small car. The road workers try their best to keep up with repairing the roads, but with this much rain it almost impossible. During the dry season the roads are usually better.

I've had a few problems with flat tires, a couple nails and another time I hit a huge pot hole that broke the bead on the tire. It was time to get a few new ones. So I contacted my Brazilian friend who works at the garage I get oil changes from and he is also the owners son. You will learn here, that loyalty is important and most businesses will reward a return customer with discounts. It's a general maintenance car shop that does engine repairs and other stuff. Not a tire shop, but my friend assured me that he could get me a great deal on tires. That's great, I figured he could or that he had another garage to refer me to.

It seemed everything was in place; date, time, prices for the different brands of tires and oil change. This was arranged a week in advance. I contacted my friend the day prior to confirm the appointment and to pick the brand of tire I would like. He reconfirmed that they were ready for me to be there the next day and that "Luciana" was expecting me. My friend unfortunately was out of town and wouldn't return until after New Years. Not a big problem, but I was hoping he would be there to make this a smooth process. Oh well, stuff happens and we all need to just roll with it.

I get up early that morning and drag the kids with me to this garage that is about a 30 minute drive away. Yes there is closer garages, but remember the loyalty thing. My in-laws also use this same garage and they were the ones who took me here in the past. Its our place to go for car needs and I think my mother in-law had done something to help these folks out in the past. There is also a huge shopping area close to this garage I like to walk around in. I usually don't buy anything there because it is the very cheap Chinese made stuff. It reminds me of any Chinatown you may have visited with the shops pretty much on top of each other and interesting things to see. A lot of knock off stuff!

We arrived and drove into the garage, my oldest son said "Wow Dad this is a beautiful garage." Indeed it is! Very well kept and maintained. A place I would recommend to anyone and I am glad I found this gem of a place. I parked and ushered the kids into the waiting room and proceeded to look for "Luciana" or someone else I may recognize. I ended up with a mechanic I never met before, but he seemed to know who I was and what I wanted. I explained to him in broken Portuguese what I needed done and showed him that I wanted the front right tire to go back as the spare tire. Told him that Hankook (Korean) was the brand I wanted and he agreed that was a good choice. All was good, went to the waiting room to wait.

As we sat there the kids got restless and I decided to walk them around the small shops. We left and walked around and returned in about 20 minutes. The mechanic saw us walk back in, but was busy on the phone. I knew something was wrong when my car was sitting in the middle of the garage ready to go...no new tires. He got off the phone and took me out into the garage to show me what he did. It was partly right, moved the front right tire back to being the spare tire and put my repaired tire back on. I had repaired this tire at another place a week ago to get me by until I could arrange tires at this place.

In my broken Portuguese I asked where was my new tires? He replied that they were not a tire shop and I was in need of new tires. I told him, that's why I'm here. He explained that they don't do tires and hey look at this tire...it's not good. He then proceeded to take a photo of it and my license plate just incase something happened. You know cover your ass type of stuff. I did the palm to the forehead and then kindly asked if the oil had got changed at least. Sadly, no and he didn't have time to do it right now.

What a mess, it wasn't that much of a language barrier but a huge screw up on my friends part. I am not sure why he thought that they could do this, but he wasn't there to fix the problem. I sent him a nice message telling him what happened and it went without a reply for awhile. Uh oh, he knows that he screwed up and is avoiding me. A few hours later he replied with "Oh my god, I am so sorry." He just woke up and is 3 hours behind us in Mexico on vacation. He will fix this when he returns. I told him no problem and that I will deal with it next week. He is on vacation and at that point I didn't want to bother him. Enjoy yourself man!

It's what I would like to call "Its Brazil" type of situation. Whenever something happens and someone is like "why isn't this working" or "What happened" I say this. He probably thought it was no big deal to do this type of work and is willing to do anything to please the family. Things happen here and there is not much you can do about it. I am disappointed to not get this done and will now need to find another place next week. It's hard to explain the culture here, but it is for the most part laid back and people want to make you happy. Yeah, I wasted my morning for nothing but what can I do about it.

Well thanks for reading and being part of my daily struggles here...to be continued!                

Found the culprits that are eating my fruit! Each morning we wake up and open all the doors and windows, let the breeze flow through the house. It's necessary to open the house and let nature do its job by cooling it down throughout the day. There is no central air system, only fans and the small air conditioning units you can put in each room. It gets hot at times, but nothing that we can't solve by taking shelter under a fan. 

It happens every once in awhile, usually if we have a lazy day and take a nap. Windows and some of the doors stay open. We live in a closed community that is very safe for Brazil. The front doors may get closed and locked while we nap, but not all the time. Well on a couple of these times I have came out to the fruit on the kitchen counter has been eaten a little. You can see where the birds peck at it with their beaks. They usually leave a couple droppings to say hey we were here and thank you! 

It's the price we pay to live in paradise and we love it! The 2 photos show them looking in and this time I had the window closed. Its wild here and its awesome to be so close to nature!     

Kids School

Since we moved to Brazil, I have taken on the role as Mr. Mom. It’s been challenging for a guy who spent the last 20 plus years working a hectic job of odd hours and long trips away from home. This caring and feeding of kids was never a full-time job for me. Now don’t get me wrong, I am loving it! The boys have done a total reverse and are more attached to me now. Before it was always the fall and get hurt yell for Mommy, now its Daddy. Sometimes I get busy and think “oh crap, did I feed the kids lately.” Usually I have or I ask if they are hungry and they already got a snack. They are at an age where they can help themselves, which is a good thing.

Currently I am Mr. Mom, full time student completing my MBA on-line (teach yourself), teach English to about 5 clients and complete most of the chores around the house. Yeah, I know most of my friends think I’m living the life of luxury and don’t do much, but I can say my days are jammed packed. Currently I have a load of laundry in…specifically the pants and other types of shorts. I’m positive there is probably another name for the classification of these types of cloths, but I don’t know what to call it. I break it down like this: Pants & shorts, shirts, underwear & sock, kids school uniforms, delicate stuff and towels. The only white stuff is usually kids uniforms which wash by themselves. Well anyways that’s some of the crap I’m doing today and I’m not very good at it. They smell good in the end and some of the stains come out.

Sometimes I miss a few things and I will tell a short story about what I missed this morning. Like every Monday – Friday morning I am up at 0630 to get kids to school by 0735. Yes, that early, but they get off at 1200 to come home. A little different then the full days like American kids do. Dressed, breakfast, the scramble to get to school at a decent time. As we are walking in I see the sign up for end of year parent teacher conferences. A highly valued get signed up now before it fills up and I can’t align the times so both kids will have their meetings close to the same time. I sent the kids on their way to the classrooms while I heroically jumped into the mix of crazy moms to get my coveted spots.

Yes, I am the only everyday drop and pick up the kid’s dad. Some of the other dads do it a few times a week but not every day. I know, that I’m not that good at seeing upcoming events and planning for stuff that a mom would realize. After my victory of getting great times for the parent teacher conferences, I head over to the outdoor area where they do events at the school. I knew my youngest kid had been practicing singing each day for the past few weeks and this was the day to sing for us parents. He told me every day that his teacher was mean for making him sing and he hated it. Complained he would get thirsty and she always was making him sing louder. I thought it was funny!

Well as I am sitting front row seat, a victory! I get a call from my wife…not happy wife. She says, “teacher just called and is very mad that our son doesn’t have a monkey costume on.” Well the costume part was a complete surprise to me. “it was in his journal to have a costume for today.” I didn’t see a memo to have one, sorry. “well fix it or go explain to him why he can’t sing this morning.” As you can see from this conversation, I am in big trouble and it’s not a possibility to have a monkey costume in 10 minutes. I could make him into an army dude or burglar by getting some grease from the car engine and rubbing it on his face. Not an option though, its toxic and wouldn’t go with the animal theme the teacher was going for.

I get up from my prized seat and head to the classroom, as I walk in he is facing away from me. I’m not sure what to expect when I kneel beside him. I say “hey buddy I’m really sorry, I didn’t know about the monkey costume.” He is not upset at all but says “does this mean I don’t have to sing?’’ Right then and there I knew this was a good thing. I told him I missed it in the journal that I sometimes look at and then tell him he can come home for the day. He practically danced his way to the car and was so happy not to have to sing those horrible songs.

I feel bad that I missed this and he didn’t get the experience to sing in front of the school. I plan to pay more attention and not get caught up in the other stuff I got going on. In the end, I realized that it ended up good! He was happy to not sing, skip school, poop at home, play on his I-Pad, etc. I got the best times for parent teacher conference, had front row seat (which is rare) and got to spend time with the youngest while I did the laundry this morning and he talked to me while he pooped. It’s hard to hold an I-Pad at that time and he makes that the dad let’s talk time.

Thanks for reading,

A very happy and grateful Daddy

            

The birds of paradise!

Where I live in Brazil we have these odd birds named Ema's (Emu). I'm not sure how many there are in our neighborhood, but there is a bunch of them. They are scavengers, will eat just about anything from baby snakes to discarded leftover french fries. It must work, I have never seen a snake here. They normally don't bother anyone and usually only thing they damage is small shrubs. I am grateful to have something that wanders around and eats junk that would otherwise attract unwanted animals and bugs. One interesting fact I have learned about the Emu is that the dad's sit on the eggs and then raise the babies once they hatch. In three of the pictures attached you can see the little ones. Also, each male has three to five females...not sure if this is a good thing or not. They are not native of Brazil, but are a great thing to have around.

Not sure if you can eat them or not.
   

Hey everyone! Saw these bad ass cars the other day. Always wanted a VW bug (not pink) or a dune buggy looking thing. Thought they were both pretty cool and I hope the pink bug is a girls car. Maybe someday I will get the opportunity to get one of these to beat around. Until then I will enjoy my Mitsubishi Outlander!   

Love this time of the year

I guess it's technically spring time here in Brazil. You know, the total opposite of America where it is very cold. For me, I think Brazil only has two seasons, dry and wet for six months of each. The temperature is very similar throughout the year. It does get a little cold in June and extremely hot in August but the rest of the year is 22 - 32 celsius (71 - 90 fahrenheit). Perfect weather to open the windows and doors each day. Let the air flow through the house. Almost each day now it rains a little here and there. Where I live it tends to rain less than it does in the big city nearby. We can see parts of Goiania from the neighborhood and a lot of times it is a downpour there and nothing here. I guess the heat of the city makes the clouds explode. With all this rain the trees and grass are bright green. The total opposite of the brown and dead looking when it's the dry season. I will never complain about all the rain because we suffer during the dry season. The rainy season is extremely nice and I welcome the rain each day. So if anyone wants to know what season it is here in Goias state, I would say its wet or dry instead of the normal four seasons you would experience in America.  

Its awesome to live here and experience the wonderful weather and even the culture. Has it been a tough transition, yes it has and I am still trying to adjust. Sometimes the cultures clash with one another like a torrential downpour and it's to be expected. I am grateful for this wonderful opportunity! Can't wait to see what the New Year will bring for me and especially my family.

Thanks for reading!       

Bird...the one that got away!

On Monday I was outside with the kids and the construction workers next door flagged me down. They asked if I was missing a bird or knew someone who had a bird like this. It was time for them to leave work and taking a bird out the gate through security wasn't an option. I took the bird and went to my house with him. His right wing is clipped and he can not fly. He or she was very friendly and didn't mind being touched and carried around. I went next door with him to ask the neighbor if they had a cage to keep him in and to get some food. They didn't have one and the one time he tried to fly away he just crashed landed on the floor next to me. So I wasn't worried about him getting away.

Next I went into the house to show my wife that we now have a bird. At first she was not thrilled and said get him out of here. In the meantime I was growing attached. I had grabbed a handful of bird food from neighbor and also gave him peanuts and crackers. Little guy was very hungry and thirsty. I took him out to the garage to feed and find a perch for him to sit on. My wife came out and I asked her to go get a cage at a store. My intentions were to keep him until we found the owner or make him a forever home with us. He was actually a bird who liked to be held and didn't mind attention unlike the other birds I have seen here.

I decided to see if he minded a box for just one night and that got him all crazy. Not an option and the likelihood my wife would find a place to buy a bird cage this late in the day was zero to none. My next idea was a wine bottle holder with a few sticks secured through it. More comfortable than metal on his feet for the first night. He also climbed all round it like it was a playground for him and seemed to be very good at using his beak to climb. With the perfect cut of the wing and the fact he was touchable, I knew he was a pet of someone and he was loved for sure.

He ate a ton of food for such a small bird and drank a lot. I had finished putting a few sticks through the wine holder and securing them with wire. As he moved around the sticks would fall off and it scared him so they had to be secured. Next I was working on a food and drink container. My idea was to put him in the bathroom for the night so he would be safe. Pet store trip tomorrow to buy a proper bird house or go to my wife's grandmothers house to borrow an old cage she had. I was on the fence of spend money or don't because the real owner could show up to claim him

Now here comes the bad part, as I was doing all this work to secure him for the night. He was hanging out eating, drinking and climbing around the perch I made for him. A few times he crash landed onto the floor and walked around. No more than a 10 foot radius. Well, he did it one last time and must of caught the wind just right coming out of the patio into the backyard. He cleared a huge row of tall bushes separating my backyard and neighbors. I took off running and couldn't get through the thick bushes. Through the bushes I could see him crash land and take another leap and flapping his wings across the neighbor's yard. As I ran around the hedge row I lost sight of him.

I spent the next hour looking for him until the sun went down. Met a new neighbor and got to see their beautiful house in the process. They let us search their yard and look around for the little guy, but couldn't find him. With his color it's almost impossible to find him when he is in the grass or brushes. I wish him luck and looked for him yesterday and a little today. Hopefully he is a survivor and will make it. There is a lot of cats around here and I'm sure he will eventually be cat food if not found. I will keep an eye out and security is aware that a pet bird is on the loose. Maybe someone else will catch him.

My kids are now asking for a pet bird. I am opposed to buying one from a pet store, because I believe they all belong in the wild. Don't want to support this behavior of collecting birds and selling them as pets. It's a shame they do this and cut their wings so they can't fly. I am however, for rescuing injured birds and would accept one this way. Maybe we can find one this way, we will see.

The kids are always trying to convince me to get a pet. Can we have a dog...no fence, can we get a cat...there is a cat at your grandparents, can we get a bird...the neighbor has two, can he get a guinea pig...they stink. I have lots of excuses! The fact I just lost a bird who can not fly should tell you maybe I am not fit to take care of animals. I am a little heart broken I lost him...        

2016 Election From an American Living Abroad

I thought I would write about the election. A bit of violence back home with the dreaded liberals at the moment. It figures, that group of people generally pursue violence and they say us Republicans or Independents are horrible deplorable people. Nothing like destroying half a city to get your voice heard...which never works. You look like a bunch of thugs throwing a tantrum because you didn't get your way. This is what happens when everyone gets a participation trophy. Congratulations, you showed up to practice and played a few games and you suck but here is a trophy anyways. There will always be winners and losers but somehow we made a generation or two think there is not. What a shame, I don't remember this happening 8 years ago with Obama.

Now with Clinton, the Democratic Party made a huge mistake. She is a pathological liar, criminal and corruption is rampant all up in her daily life and the pay to play fake charity within the State Department. I easily think anybody else in the democratic party would of beat Trump. Hell, Bernie Sanders an admitted Socialist would of won the election if he wouldn't of been cheated out of the nomination and his ideas were pretty damn crazy. Free college for everyone, who was going to pay for this. Also if everyone goes to college does this mean a degree is necessary to become a janitor or custodial worker.

Yes, she will win the popular vote, but that's not how it works to get elected into the presidency. The electoral college was created by our founding fathers to even the playing field with large populated areas and the rural areas. Which if you look up a map of the actual counties (not states) she won, you will see it is very small spots of blue associated with large metropolis areas. Yes there was also very close counties that she almost won. This has been the system of electing a president for over 200 plus years now. You can't just change the rules now because it didn't go in your favor. This has happened before as recently as 2000 and we didn't change the rules after that. The rules were clearly laid out and the two major parties fighting to win knew the rules.

Ok, its Trump's turn, I'm biased and I admit it. I am not a journalist, news reporter, etc... I can be biased and I will tell you I did an absentee ballot and voted for Mr. Trump. Do I agree with everything he has said or the things about his past that are not too flattering, no. Hey, we all make mistakes and do some incredible dumb things. Is he perfect with getting his message out on policies he wants to change or make better, absolutely not. But it comes down to who I trust more and who I think will make America great again. I don't think we are that great of a country at the moment. The failed policies and the state of division in our country started way before Trump even started campaigning.

These are a few of my reason I voted for Trump: the constitution is important to me and over the past few years I have seen it eroding, a country also has borders and laws that need to be enforced and upheld, trade deals need to be fair and not lopsided, veterans need to be taken care of and our active duty troops need the manpower and resources to do their job, the Supreme Court needs to have conservatives on it and a few liberals to, the 2nd amendment is not to be messed with, the right to bear arms shall not be infringed and in all actuality it's to protect us from our government, etc... I'm sure I am missing a bunch of other highly important topics I can't think of at the moment.

Watching the election that night was epic. I only get Fox and CNN down here in Brazil and to see the news reporters transformation of we didn't hit the states yet where she is projected to do well, then it went to well the majority of the votes are not all in and then it went to oh my god we were so wrong. The American news media got caught with their pants down. The pollsters all had it wrong! That's because American media has been extremely biased the past 8-10 years. Follow the money and read some of the E-mails to the Clinton campaign from media sources. Hell, they were feeding her the questions and giving her heads up when they were about to release a biased poll in her favor.

Now let's talk about Brazil, very liberal down here. Everyone was extremely shocked about the results. The first comments I saw was American's that voted for Trump are racist, sexist, bigots and a whole bunch of other words. The majority of these people who said this never lived or worked in America. They only know what the biased media here and in America has told them. He is against immigration...which is a lie. Trump is for protecting our borders and supports legal immigration. He hates Muslims and is going to prevent them from coming to America...which is a lie. Trump wants to put a temporary hold on refugees until they can be fully vetted. Trump is against the LGBT community...which was a lie. I just saw him on November 2nd holding a LGBT flag on stage somewhere in Colorado. I even responded to an Irish lady who left a message on Facebook to explain that she was wrong and what did she do? She did the typical liberal response that I was a sexist. Hillary lost because she has more baggage than delta airlines has. She was damaged goods trying to get passed though a produce line at a factory.

I know in a few weeks most of this will blow over. Yes half of America is mad and it happens to be the side of the political spectrum that throws tantrums if they don't get their way. Hopefully they will stop damaging their own neighborhoods soon.

   

               

The shower has electricity going to it...Zap

Let's talk about the wiring here in Brazil. It's very similar to American wiring, just a little bit more juice involved and some caveman style application. The voltage here is 220 volts and I have experienced a jolt a few times with the well that doesn't work. A little more painful then the standard 110 volts like in America. The weird part here in Brazil, is the whole country is not 220 volts. There is parts of the country, mainly around São Paulo that are 110 volts. Plus, many Brazilians buy in America and bring the electronics here. Its standard to see a 220v-110v converters here and there. I have a bunch of them in random sizes depending on the appliance they are used for around my house.

There is also no water heater tanks in the houses here like you would find in an American house. The only type of water heaters I have seen here are for the pool and shower. Yes, there is wires going to the shower. At first it seems like you got to be kidding me and then its who the hell thought of this. That's 220 volts right above my head, when I am naked and wet. All I can think of is those warning pictures of a man standing in water messing with electrical wires. This is a very odd thing for an American.

Well, if you have read my earlier post on the rain in my office, you would of heard about my shower head debacle. So, these showers are very expensive and fancy with a digital temperature gauge. They are also not very good quality. The water here has some calcium build up and will clog very fine holes like the ones in these showers. So I have started a little graveyard of the ones that blew up and use what parts I can to keep the last one working. I am hoping to get another piece to fix the other shower in the master bedroom (the head). The only reason I like them is because I can see the temperature. The basic showers that I replaced the others with have 3 selections of temperature: warm, hot and extremely hot. Its nice to select an exact temperature!

I went out and bought 3 basic showers to put in the boys bedrooms and the guest bedroom. For a little while we shared the the master bathroom shower and it was getting crowded each night trying to get ready for bed. Time for them to move back to their rooms. The new showers were a great price at R$120 (USD $37.50). As you can see in the pictures they are huge and have two different ways for the water to spray out. A true rainfall shower and that is actually a true statement here. The water to the house is gravity fed from the two large tanks in the tower on the roof.

The problem with the new showers for me was the fact they were not pre-wired to just plug into the wall. A very weird concept of buying a supposedly ready to use shower but you need to wire it to plug into the wall. Or there is another way...shove the 3 wires into the receptacle. The shower adapter to the water line screwed in easy and the whole shower attached to that. So easy to install but now it was time for the wire part. It took me about a week to work up the courage to shove wires directly into the receptacle. Yes, I turned off the circuit breakers to the house...all of them. Just because a receptacle is in your kitchen doesn't mean the circuit breaker box next to the kitchen is responsible for it. Found that out when we hooked up the dishwasher...a few kitchen receptacles go to the garage downstairs for some strange reason.

First I made sure a responsible adult was in the house, in case I had an accident and shocked the piss out of myself. Then I just went and did it! Prayed I put the wires in the correct holes even though the Internet told me it could be backwards. This could definitely happen here! All wires are in and I started the process of turning all 3 circuit breaker boxes back on. No strange bangs or burning smell and everything seems fine. Next was to test them out and see what happens. Luckily they all worked and no problems at all.

Old Showers, one is currently inoperable 

New awesome simple shower with wires shoved in the receptacle 

For me this is a strange concept of no water heater for the whole house and the fact you can shove the wires into the receptacle. Well until next time, thanks for reading!  

       

Textbooks for school

I am in the process of going to school on-line for my MBA with a focus particularly in International Business. This is my second semester taking classes and it has been running pretty smoothly up until this point. Internet connection has had minimal times of not being connected, the electricity in the neighborhood has been really good lately and I was able to get all my books for the first semester on-line as E-Books. I rented two and bought a digital copy of the other. Really cheap, $110 for all 3 books and the VA pays me $250 each semester for books. A little extra in the pocket for myself!

Now, lets talk about this semester. I am in the first day of the 3rd week of both of these courses today. There was 3 required books that I had to find and only one was available digitally. This digital copy I got was off some Russian website and I probably have viruses now or Julian Assange is borrowing my e-mails to use later. Some funky things have been happening to my laptop too, not from the water problems either. I've tried to run antivirus stuff and delete some weird programs to no avail. I will mess with this at a later time.

Ok, the other two books had to be purchased on-line with international shipping. I actually paid more for taxes and shipping then I did for the books. Both books were purchased two weeks before this semester started and I just got the first one today.

Lets start with the Amazon purchase, I bought it and provided the correct address and my Brazilian tax ID (CPF). Without this tax ID customs will hold it forever and send it back eventually, sometimes. I assumed Amazon has had experience with international shipping, so I wasn't too worried about this book actually making it. Five weeks later I have it after the first book got held up in customs and they eventually abandoned it. When I finally got a hold of UPS they told me Amazon told them to throw it away and here is the name of who authorized it from Amazon. I then talked to Amazon and they claimed customs was on strike a few days and that is what caused the book being tossed out. So they reimbursed me and I bought another book through them without any additional cost to ship it to me. I'm happy they resolved it and I finally have this book now.

The other book was purchased through the only website I found it on. Its called Biblio.com and the book shipped from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with DHL. This should of been a key indicator that this was going to be all messed up. It had a nice journey too, from Malaysia, United Kingdom, Netherlands and finally to São Paulo...where it sat for a few weeks. DHL was very slow to answer any of my E-mails or phone calls and kept saying it processing customs. Even though it was a messed up place to have a English textbook to come from, I had some faith in DHL. They are a well known international shipping company. I would think that they were better than UPS and could find a way to correct problems easily. Well I finally got notified after the book was returned and why. The description on the package of what was inside was a bunch of random letters and numbers that meant nothing. Customs said hell no and kicked it back. I am now in a back and forth where is my replacement book and have no idea when I will get it.

So, for 3 weeks I have been winging it and still getting A's. The one digital book I got from the beginning of the course hasn't been used once. I have been mainly looking for key words in the questions provided by the professors and google searching for some materials to write about. We are supposed to be taken quotes out of the readings from the textbooks to support our ideas and I have somehow used references from what my classmates have posted in the discussions without both professors realizing it. Either I am very good at BSing or just lucky.

I am now laughing at this but I have lost my mind a few times. Hopefully the other book will be here soon. The logistics of living abroad can be a hassle at times.

Trash can...its wild here!

I just lifted up the trash can in the bathroom and about 50 huge ants fell out the bottom of it! A little excitement to say the least. I redneck threw the trash can out the front door into the yard, which was a good idea, because there was more in there. I took the electric bug zapper and started giving the ones on the floor some juice and smashing them. Lots of zaps and the smell of hell yeah, die! These little bastards have large pinchers on the front of them and I have found similar ones on one of my sons soccer uniform after practice. They mean business and do pinch if they get to you. Its wild here folks and stuff like this happens on a normal basis.

Water Problems

The Shower Head Graveyard!

Friction on the concrete floor

Shut-Off valve that blew apart

So I had a little water problem here lately. Not from the rain as one might expect, but from the water pressure coming from the city connection. Yes, in a 3rd world country the pressure can be too much. I know I didn't believe it at first. When the water tank would signal to fill back up, the jolt of water pressure caused one pipe to wear through over a 8 month period and another fitting to destroy itself. With these two events happening it caused it to rain in our office twice in 1 week. Not once, but twice! We found the first problem and fixed it, didn't see the other problem until it was too late for another event.

First episode of rain in the house happened because of the friction on a pipe laying on the concrete floor upstairs wore through. It sprung a leak sometime in the night and slowly filled every crevice in the water tank area until it seeped through the ceiling into the office. Yes, the office with many important electronics, books, documents and other nice to have stuff is directly under two huge water tanks and all the associated pluming. I think I would of rethought this process when designing the house, but at the time I didn't think of it. So, like every week day I get up at 0630 to get the kids ready for school. As I am walking down the hallway I hear the sound of rain...I just walked by a window and noticed there was no rain outside. It was a beautiful sunny morning. I ran as fast as I could to see what was going on. As I rounded the corner I saw water rushing out of the office into the house. I started grabbing everything I could and yelling to the wife for help (big mistake, I will explain later). She comes running out to help. I get what I really thought was important and started to think of what to do. Got to stop this in the house rainfall. Once I feel she can rescue the rest I head out to grab a ladder from the garage and head up on the roof. The water tank area is an enclosed tower on the roof. I get in there and immediately find the tower on the bottom level is about 2 - 3 inches of water. I shut off the incoming water from the street and open the valve to dump both hot tub size water tanks. The tanks dump in a matter of minutes. I come off the roof and run to the street to turn that valve off too...wanted to make sure there was no water at all coming in.

Wow, that's a huge event for so early in the morning! Now, we started the process of cleaning up the water. Buckets, rags, towels and whatever else to sweep and mop the water out the front door. Mind you I'm doing this with my wife...and she is not happy with me. I'm clueless of why she may be mad at me and not the fact we just had a huge rain in our office. A hour later when she returns from dropping kids off at school, she tells me the next time something like this happens to come in the bedroom and wake her up nicely. I tried to explain the extreme circumstances of this event and realized this was a losing battle.

Well glad we were home when this happened and prevent everything from being destroyed. If we were away this would of continued for a long time until we came home to discover it. It was the main line to the house and there is no safety device to realize oh no I am sending a lot of water into this house. I fixed it with the help of the neighbors worker who is repairing her roof. I went and got a new pipe with two fittings and we fixed it. I took up some old rags to put around the pipes where I thought they might rub or chafe. What a mess! Cased closed and what the hell was that!

Nope, it happened again but in a different spot the very next day! This time, it was much more and the video is attached to show you. It was like a waterfall coming out of the ceiling light and splashing all over. We were gone most of the day and I decided to come home instead of staying longer at the in-laws house. My wife sent me a message saying she was coming back to work from home. We were in the house no more that ten minutes and I was preparing the kids a snack and my wife was just walking in the door. This time she heard it first and we both ran to see what was happening. Again rainfall in the office but this was a torrential rainfall. We did the same as last time and started to grab everything important and then I ran first to the street to shut off the water valve. Which was the best decision ever, because the only shutoff valve upstairs was the one the blew up. If I would of went up there first and found out there was no way to stop it. It was like a damn fire hose going off up there. We completed the same process of clean up and this time the wife wasn't mad at me. Maybe its because she found it first and yelled for me to help.

This time we contacted the plummer who did all this work to fix his mess. I am no licensed and certified professional plummer but the fact he had put pipes on the concrete floor and didn't realize the pressure was a bit much tells you he is not very good. Although he did fix his mistakes, it will be a cold day in hell before we call him again and we have also had other water problems before this. I will give a short paragraph at the end of the other problems that could be his fault or maybe just bad luck. After he completed the work I looked everything over and made sure it was all legit. We reduced the pressure by restricting the flow to the house by only opening the shutoff valve upstairs half way and the one on the street halfway. The filling of the tank is much slower but at a decent pressure. Ok, I am now satisfied nothing else will happen!

Two day later I come out of the house to find two garden hose connections spraying water up into the air. The water meter reading guy decided he didn't like the fact we only opened the valve halfway. He opened it all the way causing too much pressure to the outside connections. I can't win! So, I replaced the two outside spigots and hopefully they will hold. Please, I hope this is the end of it!

Now let me tell you briefly of the other water problems. First is the well that was drilled in our front yard. Hasn't worked since day one of moving in the house. I tried to look it over and found out if you touch the electrical box to the pump it will shock you with 220 volts. So, I turned off the power to it and haven't touched it since. Next is the laundry room area, the drain to the sinks was plugged and would cause it to leak into the garage through the ceiling and then next we found out the washing machine drain pipe was also plugged. This caused a hole to develop in the garage ceiling and for the same plummer to come fix it a few months before the rain in the office. Lastly, the bathroom showers in all 4 bathrooms plugged up and exploded except for one. I take a sewing needle and shove it through all the holes where the water comes out of the shower head roughly once a week. Its about 40 holes and takes sometime. The water here seems to be a little hard and develops crusty chunks in these shower heads. I have replaced 3 of them some far with simple showers, but I am trying to save the last one in the master bedroom. It's fancy and has a digital temperature gauge. Its a double shower in there and the other side is just the body of the fancy shower and I am in the process of trying to find where I can just buy the shower head part. Hopefully this week I will figure out the place!

So as you can see, we have had a few problems. Nothing that has questioned my move here, but has made me more aware of future potential problems. Its Brazil, things are more difficult here. Even with a brand new house you can expect some problems. I know, in America it would be very rare to experience anything like this within the first few years of a new build.

Well I hope you enjoyed this and had a few laughs at my expense! Thanks...

I'm back!

Well folks, I got extremely busy lately but I am back! Not even sure where to begin. School...a few trips...new and old friends...the weather is beautiful...the Emu's are having babies, etc...

Lets start off with school, so I am currently taking two MBA classes on-line with an American university. Fun times, had to rent my books on-line from 3 different websites. It was cheap, unlike purchasing the actual text books. The problem is finding all the books. Hopefully next semester won't be such a run around. Taking on-line classes has started to consume my life. Teaching yourself is not fun and if I can get a job being an on-line instructor I would gladly do it...because they don't do much. The plan of instruction is already set. They just answer a few questions here and there...grade assignments from each week.

More school, I am currently taking a Portuguese class each week at the Federal University. Its free too, but the quality of instruction is questionable. The first classes were awesome with a seasoned instructor. Now its a young and not very good instructor. The seasoned guy could answer a question in English but this new guy can't. So if I have a question too bad! Oh well, its free and I think it will help me. Hopefully it will all make sense soon. I do however find it hard to focus on Portuguese when I have the other 2 classes I need to complete.

Trips, I went to Pirenopolis and Caldas Novas with friends. Best way to travel because they have a place there and know the area. Both very simple places that I enjoyed! Pirenopolis was a camping place / small farm looking place. We stayed in the house though, no camping this time. The host cooked on a wood burning fireplace and was so simple. The kids loved it and we enjoyed swimming the next day in a creek. Next was Caldas Novas with my wife's childhood friend. Small little house with a really nice patio. We enjoyed the community pools with the chose between hot or cold pools. The kids were like fish for the two days and we had a huge BBQ. It was simple and a wonderful time. Can't wait to go back to either of these places soon. Our next trip that is planned is to a friends lake house next month....and a friends farm next weekend. We are so busy here but love it!

The weather is turning around, it is raining a little bit! So happy to have some moisture. Soon the glass will be green and lazy days of watching movies watching the rain outside. Its amazing that this place is pretty much a desert for 6 months.

The Emu's finally had babies and we get to see them from time to time. They are tiny but very fast. Even though they are odd looking, they are great for where we live. They eat a lot of critters and bugs. I complain about them stepping on my plants and leaving piles of crap next to the house but the benefits they provide are well worth it.

Well thanks for stopping by!    

Brazil Olympics

What a huge success, the Olympics were completed in a magnificent way. I know, the closing ceremony is tonight so technically not finished yet. But I couldn't wait to write about how well Brazil pulled this off. The horrible publicity before the games, showing Olympic village not competed, water leaks, etc... to the condition on the water in the bay with floating garbage to talk of possible dead bodies in the water. I didn't see any of this and it seems they completed and cleaned up just in time to show the beauty of RIO! Well what I've seen on TV, still need to visit sometime in the near future.

I spent most of my spare time watching the games on TV. Haven't seen all of the events but did dedicate myself to most of the swimming events, track stuff and volleyball (indoor/beach). Although some of the events were not full on fan participation the professionalism the organizers put in to it was amazing. I'm an attention to detail type of guy, so I notice the behind the scenes stuff the majority of fans don't on TV. Like the lady that would usher the swimmers around the pool after winning events for photos and then get them to stand together to receive medals. Always on the fringe of the TV and very professional.

I'm sad to see it go, the pride Brazil got from not only holding the World Cup but now the Olympics was extremely well needed! Brazilians are very proud people, even with the current economical and political drama they get really excited about anything sports related. Especially the soccer match last night between Brazil and Germany. What an intense game that came down to a shoot out. After they won I heard fireworks throughout the town. It was spectacular that even though I am 14 hour drive away the celebration was here in the streets. Unbelievable! Today the indoor volleyball game between Brazil and Italy was extremely exciting. No fireworks but my house was really into it. Come on, we all know Futebol is more important to this country!

Now, I will end with the drama of the American Swim team. Claiming robbery but ended up they were intoxicated and broke a bathroom door which now turns out to be just a sign was ripped off the wall at a gas station. Then got in an argument with a security guard and caused a mess of a situation. Ended up paying some money and being left go to walk down the street to get another cab. I'm embarrassed that this covered the news and took away from the athletes who were still competing. I know the two left behind, paid their way out within the legal system but the other two need to do the same. Its a large fine but its the legal system here and its true they lied. So pay up and move on. I don't want Brazilians to think badly of Americans, because lately it seems it ok for famous people to break the law and not pay the consequences. Hell look at Hillary Clinton for a great example of this, she clearly broke the law.

Well now I wait another couple of hours for the closing ceremony! I hope its epic and ends the games on a great show of this spectacular nation. Although I am American, I am adapting and absolutely loving Brazil. Such a warm and friendly country! So social and outgoing that makes this such an enjoyable place to live. I'm proud to be an American and Brazilian at the same time!    

Brazil...CAKE

In America, generally cake is for special occasions. This includes birthdays, going away parties, retirements, weddings, etc... Here its for breakfast, lunch, after nap snack and that evening "why not" have a slice time. I am not talking about the type of cake where its more frosting than anything. This American kind of cake causes your sugar level to spike and you are afraid of inducing some form of diabetes. Here its just a normal cake that is lightly sugared, total awesomeness, tasty and I could continue on.

Its just a small slice here and there. Plain cake, a little chocolate drizzle over it or perhaps Nutella smeared across it before consumption. Nothing that will cause you to gain a ton of weight. I thought it was very weird to eat cake this much. At the moment if there is not a cake in the house, I am planning on where I will go to get one. It seems like a tradition here. Most friends and relatives have a cake sitting on the counter or in their fridge when I visit. I would consider it a very common thing.

As an American when I think of cake, it is always chocolate, vanilla, carrot or a mix of chocolate and vanilla. That's all I think of, maybe I just wasn't a very adventurous cake eater in the good ole USA. Here the kinds are amazing and plentiful. They range from a corn / cheese cake to mandioca (a root). If you told me in America, let's go eat some corn cake or mandioca cake...which I would of asked what the hell is mandioca shortly after. I think my response would of been no thank you...I'm not hungry.

I can tell you they are all amazing! Yes they have chocolate cake here too, but venture out and enjoy something different. I have tried many kinds and haven't had one cake that I didn't like. I don't think I ever will!          

Brazil Weather

For an American it is always hot here in Brazil. Maybe a week out of the year in June I would actually consider it cold enough to put a small jacket on. Now I'm talking about Goiania weather, in the heartland of the state of Goias. I am sure it does get colder in southern Brazil. Here in Goiania it is always warm, it seems to be 88 degrees F / 31 degrees C all the time. Lovely weather, for me its shorts and t-shirt 365 days a year. I'm not being totally accurate with 88 / 31 degrees...there is a fluctuation throughout the day which is normal. Cooler at night and hot afternoons.

Let's get to the one thing I don't like about the weather here. We are almost 3 months without rain and it should be longer. But it rained into May this year, which is odd I'm being told. The rainy season is Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb and Mar. And you probably already guessed it, the rest of the year is supposed to be very dry. I think its crazy, I even lived in Arizona and New Mexico where it rained more often. Everything is brown, I try to water the yard daily but some days I get busy. I absolutely miss the rain. It's actually depressing to deal with it being so damn dry.

Now, the other 6 months of the year is amazing! I love the rainy season, even with its crazy and explosive lighting storms. I like the days where it rains all day. We just look out the windows and enjoy the rainfall. The driving rain...to the drizzle. Yes it complicates life, driving in it and the fact that the roads start to strain under all the moisture. Some minor flooding in low lining areas, but its still the best part of the year.

I am counting down the weeks now. Hopefully it will come earlier in September. My grass would surely love it and I would also be very grateful to have it. Please rain soon!   

Brazil Olympics

Wow, what an amazing show last night! Unfortunately I didn't stay awake until the end. Fell asleep towards the end of the athletes entering the arena. But what I saw was amazing! They did a great job portraying the history of Brazil. From the beginning of life all the way through the different types of music.

Now for the confusion from an American. Not me, but what I saw from fellow American's this morning on Facebook. First was the statement that Brazil was 1st in airplane flight...did the Wright brothers do it? Or was it a Brazilian that was the first in flight. I have no idea! For me I don't really care and I'm sure there were a lot more at the time trying to figure this out. I think they roughly did it around the same time. I am pretty sure North Carolina will still keep their First in Flight car license plates. Well it will still remain a mystery who it was!

Next was the Alphabetic order of athletes entering the arena. It was the Portuguese alphabet! They spell the countries names a little different. For example the United States of America is Estados Unidos da America. When asked where I'm from, I say Estados Unidos...sometimes. Usually its obvious I am American and I say the state I am from. Another is Kyrgyzstan, which is Quirguistao. When they announced and walked in I had to take a second look. For my point of view. they should announce and enter in the language of the host country, like they did. And announce and show in English after that. So not a big deal!

Both of these issues are very funny too me! I think the most important thing for these games is the safety of athletes, people who work the events and the people who attend the games. Next is the image of how beautiful Brazil is to promote tourism. Yes its not perfect here, but I challenge you to visit Detroit...then you will realize every country has its problem areas. The media, especially from my home country has been brutal. For all the stories I have seen, its been very negative stories. But look at the times we are in. The American media is very biased...more towards the left at the moment.

I wish we could of attended the games but at the moment we are unable to. Watching it on TV is better because you get to see up close. We are just missing the experience and feeling of pride from all the people attending and cheering on their country of origin or newly adopted countries. Although I am American, I do find myself cheering on the Brazilian teams also.

Well thanks for reading!    

     

A Brazilian inviting you to their house and commitment issues

When you meet someone new here in Brazil, don't be surprised if they invite you to their house within the first conversation. This is very common and kind of confusing for an American. The conversation will be a straight up, hey come to my house. What they actually mean is we should hang out sometime and nice to meet you. Eventually they do want you to come to their house, but they don't know when. If you ask when, they will dance around and say maybe next week or they will let you know.  Its very funny to me! You just invited me over and now you are saying you don't know when.

I find that it is very hard for Brazilians to commit to really anything. Hey can you teach me English? Yes, when are you available? Ah, let me see and I will let you know! It sounds promising but don't get too excited. Most likely they will never commit but every time you see them they will say yeah I want to... I have even tried to trick them with here is when I am available to teach and when they say I am only able to see you another time. I return with, I can teach you then! They all of a sudden come up with an excuse that they just remembered.

Its a cultural thing, at first I thought they were real "shady". As in a shady person, but then I realized that everyone is this way. If I had to guess, in America 8 out of 10 people follow through with what they say they are going to do. Now this isn't based off any kind of data, just my own personal experiences. I generally knew who was shady and knew who I could count on. Maybe it was easier for me to pick up a good vibe because English is my first language and I could pick through the BS. Now here in Brazil that number is way lower and I don't want to actually put a number on it. Maybe I have just met the wrong people.

Brazilians are very warm and social people. So don't get me wrong that this is not a negative blog. It's not! They are for the most part very laid back and don't commit to much. I find they kind of cruise through life and let things just happen. I find myself starting to act this way. It took a few months! At times when I say I am going to do something...it may happen tomorrow or next week but I will get to it soon. I promise! Its reduced my stress significantly and I find that I am enjoying life more.

Thanks for reading! 

Brazil WhatsApp....

WhatsApp is really the most important way to message here and its now shutdown indefinitely. Supposedly it has to do with the surrender of data involving some legal cases and due to legal secrecy they can not tell us. This is the third time they have blocked it since I've been here. Maybe it does...maybe it doesn't have anything to do with some data.

I honestly think it has to do with no one using text messaging. No one here texts because it costs money or is expensive to have a text plan. In my whole time here, I have not had anyone text me...except for my wife earlier today to say WhatsApp is down. That's a lot of money the 5 wireless carriers here are missing out on. So I'm pretty sure they keep pushing to get this very useful and easy messaging App permanently blocked. Well we will see!

Right now this is having an impact on the economy. I actually order beer to be delivered to my house by WhatsApp. Doesn't cost extra and it keeps me returning to the same business. I know a lot of businesses use it to make deals and a lot of times you can see the little logo on advertisements for you to contact them that way. Hell, the pharmacy takes orders this way! They also deliver...if only we had this in America.

Well as the bureaucracy wheels slowly turn here and I'm without messaging for a few days. I'm actually glad it is during the week, so my social life doesn't take a hit this weekend...hopefully!



  

Driving in Goiania, Brazil

Imagine having a handful of marbles and dropping them into a rain gutter. All the marbles are going the same direction but all over the place. Where there should be two marbles rolling in the same direction, there is three and its very tight. Now in this description I made the marble a car or truck. I didn't even add the motorcycle element to the mix. They squeeze between the marbles and will even hit your side view mirrors without a care in the world. To say the least driving here is madness!

The only law you need to worry about is traffic cameras and they are clearly marked. Just look for the signs and obey the law at that time. They can be for speed or for running through an intersection. Other than that, do what you want. Its really a free for all here. Is it a two lane road but there is enough room on the shoulder to drive around a couple people stopped at a red light. Do it! You just passed a bunch of people and saved at least 30 seconds getting to your next destination. Do you need to turn around but don't feel like going all the way around the round about. Make that immediate left turn into on-coming traffic. Man you just saved another 10-15 seconds.

As an American I can say we are probably the best drivers in the world. I have traveled a lot and can't think of a better place. Yes we have people who drive slow in the fast lane and those people who wait until the last minute to go from two lanes into one at construction zones. I am hard pressed to really think of any time in America where I saw people just do what ever they wanted to do on the roads. Nope... Plus I have had many conversations with Brazilians about how drivers respect each other in America. They also speak at how nice our roads are. The 6 month rainy season destroys the roads here and makes huge holes. The ones you swerve to avoid because you may lose you car in them.

Now here I understand one of the biggest things I see is for safety. Late at night people will slow down and run red lights in bad neighborhoods. Don't want to get robbed or killed for sure. I've done this in the past and have no problem with it. Now imagine its day light and no traffic cameras are around. Which there is a bunch here in the city and you can definitely tell which intersections have it. You probably guessed it by now, people run red lights all the time during the day. Not for safety but because they feel entitled to. Even if you are stopped at a light they will drive around you and keep going.

Let's go back to the motorcycle issue. They split lanes like there is no tomorrow. You will be driving along and out of no where a motorcycle will pass you within inches at all speeds. Stopped at a red light...they will all squeeze through the cars to create a wave of motorcycles at the front. Then they will start running the red light at their leisure. Back to the squeezing through the mass of cars and trucks. They will bump into you, knock your mirrors, drive on sidewalks, etc. Anything to get to the front. I used to stop in a way to prevent them from getting by until I had them start damaging my car. Not worth it and getting out to confront one biker is not a great idea. They are like a small gang. One goes down they are stop and provide security. Its a brotherhood without knowing each other. I now stop with one side of the vehicle free for them to move by. Another reason not to confront them, they could be carrying a handgun.

Who out there has heard about the Waze app? Show of hands please...just kidding! Well the police here do roadblocks at night to look for drunk drivers. That's the only time you will see cops doing anything in regards to enforcing traffic laws. Let me say that again, the only time you will see the police doing anything on the roads here. Waze will help you avoid all roadblocks and even give you the quickest way to do it. Yes make sure you observe the route they give you and double check for roadblocks while using it. Not saying I drive drunk here but the roadblocks are a little annoying. I was a passenger one night and we got flagged in going through one of these. Its random and they check all the documentation. Plus they give the driver an alcohol breathalyzer. Not a big deal that night because our driver wasn't drinking. It took about 10-15 minutes to do this and wasn't too bad. I still try to avoid them and beware Waze could be driving you through a bad area...

Do I break the law like a Brazilian...yes. I do speed and at night I will run that red light (safety). But I don't push it any further than that. Maybe in a few years when I'm fully immersed into the culture I will push the boundaries a little out of my comfort zone. I hope not and now thinking about it. I need to create an environment where my children see me doing the right thing. They will grow up to be just like me. The roll model I must be saying in a Yoda voice.

Well now its time for a bad story about my driving. I feel really bad about it but it was a bad situation. Yes there is bad neighborhoods here but every country has that. I try to avoid them as much as possible. On this particular night I had to go through one coming home from a relatives home. It was dark and no street lights. I was in an area where if the car was able to continue on at any cost I was going to keep going. Like a Mad Max movie but without the weird people! So I was on this tight road that leads to the highway and it was extremely dark. Out of nowhere a huge dog ran in front of me. It was a spilt second and bang, it hit the front and went under...I slowed down and immediately I thought to myself I got to keep going. This is not a safe place to stop and check everything and provide assistance to an injured dog. I shook the car back and forth to make sure the steering was ok and left the area.

As I was driving on, all I could think of was the fact these dogs live in the streets and always get out of the way. I mean you will be driving through the city and dogs will be in traffic. Kind a hard to believe this dog would happen to just jump out in front of me. I was the only car on this road and it was a choke point...could it have been some people trying to get me to stop. I don't know and never will. But I think I did the safest thing to keep my family safe. Yes it did some body work damage and I am very happy it didn't do any structural damage. This happened about 2 months ago and still is very vivid in my memory. Sucks!

I hope you got a brief description of driving here. Its something to get used to and I actually feel I could write more. I didn't really talk about photo radar, look for signs and slow down, Speed bumps, that's an interesting one. Most small cities around Goiania have them. It makes everything in the back of the car go flying if you miss the warning sign. Roundabouts, which I absolutely love, slow down and keep going if you have the right away. Those can be challenging though! Perhaps in the future I will go more into detail!

Thanks for reading!                 

Moving into our house

February 2016

So we are here in wonderful Brazil! Back together as a full family! Kids are in school after a long vacation in America. My wife is back to work in a sluggish economy. I'm without a real job after 21 years of having one...without any lapses. My savings is plentiful and with my money being worth 4 times as much here, life is great. I wouldn't say I "made it rain" but we were enjoying ourselves as much as possible.

Now we were trying to move into a house that wasn't fully completed. Still workers in the house every day doing what they do. My wife works long hours, in-laws traveling internationally and me leaning on other family members trying to get the house completed enough to occupy. It was a mad house! I would tell the workers to complete something and an hour later they would be working on something else that could of waited to get completed later down the road. The workers showed up and left whenever they wanted. Not the typical set hours like American construction workers. There was a point in time I finally just said the hell with it and let them do what they wanted to do.

My job was to move our household goods from one room to another without any real direction. Looking back I should of left everything in one large pile and had the rest of the house finished. Then started unpacking once it was ready to put stuff away. As a family we have moved multiple times but always into a finished house. This time was complicated with moving stuff here and there...then realizing I just put a bunch of stuff where scaffolding needs to be built to finish painting or hanging a lamp.

Don't get me wrong I was absolutely beyond happy to move into our forever home! No more moving again, this is it! This is part of adapting to a new culture. I had to lower my expectations and not compare it to an American worker. So it took the Plummer all day to hang the bathroom fixtures...at least its done! The painters had painted but the other people still working in the house damaged the wall, oh well its a lived in house. It will have a few marks here and there. So its a huge adjustment to get used to. Don't compare the two countries at all!

This went on for a few weeks and finally the house was some what completed. We just needed curtains in the windows so we could start sleeping each night in the new house. All the bedrooms face the elevated street in front of our house. So having an audience watching us sleep each night wasn't an option my wife would entertain...me either! Lets get them installed and get moved out of the in-laws house...our welcome was running short after 8 months. They were returning any day now from traveling abroad and I was scrambling to figure out where to buy curtains. I wouldn't say we were getting kicked out but we needed to be gone immediately.   

Blacked out curtains is a must to keep some of the heat out during the day and street lights at night. I measured all the windows and headed downtown. There is no Lowe's or Home Depot here. To buy curtains you usually need to go to a curtain hardware place first and then onto a place that makes the actual curtains itself. It took me a few days to do the hardware part of it and a few more days to install them on the wall. Never drilled into concrete before to hang stuff on the wall. Always dealt with wood and drywall. I was nervous to say the least! But got the bedroom hardware up eventually.

After searching for a place to get curtains for a few days I had to ask for help. Luckily my brother in-law had a family member who made curtains. She came over, measured all the windows, picked out the material and was on her way. A few days later a guy returned and hung them on the hardware I installed. Finally we can start sleeping at the house! Now thinking back...I totally forgot about the window screens. That was also another show stopper on living in the house. Luckily this was also happening simultaneously to the curtain problem.

There is no AC in the house so cracking the windows each night is a must...plus having a fan in each bedroom to keep the air moving. Mosquitos are a problem here and with Zika everyone is bathing in repellent 24/7. I was referred to a guy who made screens and he also spoke English, thank god! Yep, you guessed it! You can't go to a Lowes or Home Depot here and buy screens to install yourself. So this guy came out to the house and measured all the widows I wanted to get done. This was my first experience with negotiating the price. Looking back I could of done better but you live and learn. He gave me a price and I countered to high back. Should of went lower!

Wow, now that is all complete and we are moved in! Time to organize everything! There was a few things still getting finished around the house. The cabinets were still being installed and I continued to move boxes from one room to another. The electrician was finishing up his part. Life was getting better, my stress levels had come down. My focus was on getting the kids lives back to normal with all their toys unpacked and a routine back in their life. I also was doing whatever I could to make my wife's life easier, she was working the grind. Gone early and home late! Didn't want her working each night after her long days.

As you can see, I had some challenges and I think I did the best I could of. The language barrier didn't help and I was very frustrated at times. The family was busy and couldn't help me that much. I now wish I would of hired a translator for the first one or two months. I could of got so much more done and saved a ton of money in the process. Those days I drove around aimlessly looking for stuff I needed would of been more pleasant. I went into places and wanted to buy stuff but couldn't communicate effectively enough to make a deal. Hell I know I got ripped of more than once on a few things. Buying sheets for our beds cost me a pretty penny. I could of gotten them a lot cheaper!

To be continued...          

Time here in Brazil

This is an important subject to have because it has everything to do with your social life here. Business time is a little different and everyone tries to keep a set schedule. Be prepared to wait around for everyone to show up for a meeting or that doctors appointment that will be a little behind. Now as I write this, business time is much like we conduct in America. Not much of a change.

Now Brazilian time as in your social life is very different. So you get invited to a BBQ or dinner party and the host says a time. You can add an hour to that time for sure. If you show up at the exact time the host told you...they will most likely be in the shower or even just waking up from a nap. If in doubt as an American it doesn't hurt to ask or do as I do now, go with the herd or flow. If everyone else is getting ready to go, you start getting ready too.

For example; many moons a go I was visiting Brazil with newly wed wife. I ask what were the plans and believe me there was plans for the whole time we were visiting. Trying to see and do as much as possible on our trips here. That night she told me dinner party at 2000. So that told me two things I need to eat a snack later in the afternoon because us American's normally eat earlier. And I need to prepare for a late evening by taking a nap.

So I started to get ready around 1830 because I was unsure of travel time. I wasn't too concerned about the rest of the family and thought maybe they got showers earlier and were relaxing before leaving. Well I ended up being completely ready to go all by myself. We didn't leave the house that night until 2030 and arrived shortly before 2100. From that point on I tried to not be American. No point in wasting time and aggravating myself with being impatient.

Since then depending on who the host is or what kind of party it is I may ask about the time. Sometimes if it is a BBQ, I want to show up as early as possible to see how they prepare the meat and some of the other tasty food. I have learned a lot. Especially in regards to using rock salt on the meat before grilling. So good and amazing!

To sum it up, don't show on the time given unless told specifically to do so. Which has never happened! My advice is 45 minutes to 1 hour after time given. You will still be one of the first people to arrive in most cases. There will be people who show up even later than that, believe me!

  

4th of July

Celebrating the 4th of July in Brazil!

As you know its not a holiday here but I set out to enjoy and share a little piece of America here.

Friday I prepared a wonderful macaroni salad, baked potato dish and big juicy burgers. The macaroni salad was epic and I found all the ingredients needed except for celery. It is very hard to find celery and I didn't feel like heading into town to search for it. I made about four pounds of macaroni salad to last the whole weekend. The baked potato dish is very simple and only needed parsley and butter. The burgers I went all out with getting a good high quality ground beef and mixing chopped up onions, eggs, salt, pepper and garlic powder in it. I then topped off the burgers with a yellow cheese.

Usually every Friday night we do happy hour with the family which includes: mother & father in-law, my wife's sister & husband and the four of us. It's a wonderful tradition and I have really grown to love it. When we miss a Friday night together it seems weird now. Like we missed something and didn't start our weekend off right. Just like our Sunday lunches at the in-laws. Every Sunday we are there and we have even woken up early while away on vacation to make sure we drive back in time to eat together. Its great to have these traditions and for the grandchildren to spend a lot of quality time with family. Sometimes these meals are attended by friends and other family members too.

So Friday evening we set up our outdoor grilling area for guests. A table so we all sit together, placemats, plates, silverware, glasses, ice, etc. Fired up the charcoal grill, which I am now addicted to. That propane grill from America has been collecting dust every since it got here. I don't actually see myself using it because the taste of everything cooked on charcoal is amazing. Next blue tooth music, of course we started out playing American music but then we ended up listen to Spotify later in the evening. I'm not too picking on music and love a little variety. Usually everything is set up and nicely arranged before guest arrive. You must also specify American or Brazilian time for guests to show up. We choose American this evening. I plan on writing a separate blog on what this entails. It took me awhile to master this concept and I now find myself following the Brazilian time more often.

The guest started to arrive and immediately I can sense the "oh no" what are you making. Brazilians expect appetizers like olives, bread with butter spread, peanuts and other little things to snack on. Then a main course that comes out a little at a time. Definitely not American style where we eat it all at once. They like to take their time and eat a little here and there. Most of the time Brazilians don't even make it to the main dishes because they eat too much of the snacks set out. So on to my meal I was making. I had potato chips, macaroni salad, baked potato dish, chopped up lettuce / tomatoes / onions, hamburger buns and huge meat ball ground beef balls all set out ready to go. The burgers were made to order and I don't flatten them out until I place them on the grill. So they look like huge meat balls.

The first comment I got was "what is that"? I replied we are having cheese burgers tonight. The response after that was "like McDonald's"? No these are homemade burgers, not fast food! The concerned look was of bewilder. How dare you make us fast food burgers. I assured them it was going to be really good. Then in typical Brazilian fashion the search for the snacks. I found one of my family members digging out olives to eat. It was hilarious with all of them being concerned about the meal. I opened up the potato chips for them to snack on while the fresh burgers cooked over the very hot grill.

I timed it just right to have an almost well done juicy patty with melted cheese over it. Put them on a plate and had the family start the assembly line of building their burgers. Everyone loaded up their plates and started in on those huge burgers. They all loved it! I got the comments of "I never thought a burger could taste this good" and "In America I have never ordered a burger from a restaurant". Well they didn't know what they were missing. The burgers were a hit and seconds were asked for! Plus the amazing macaroni salad and baked potato dish added a little extra American to there experience.

Now a funny thing about Brazilians, they usually never touch the food with fingers. Tonight they all man handled these burgers and made me proud. Chances are if you see anyone eating a burger or pizza in America with a fork and knife, they are Brazilian. Case in point recently in January we saw a family of four at the Hard Rock Café in NYC eating like this and I knew they were Brazilian before I heard them speaking Portuguese with each other. French fries are usually eaten with tooth picks too.

Saturday we had two events to go to. That happens a lot here and sometimes that lunch party you went to will turn into an all day / night affair. The first one was a lunch time Brazilian BBQ which we showed up early too...like American time early. They were still setting up and not totally prepared but these are close family so not a big deal. I had set a time for departure which I knew we wouldn't make. But I added some fluff time to start the process of leaving. It usually takes about 30 minutes to leave a Brazilian's house and this includes saying good bye to each person. It can also take longer than this and sometimes you get talked into staying longer. I have also been offered and accepted a place to nap so we can stay for the evening party.

Finally we departed a little late and traveled an hour away to an American expats families farm for an internationals event. Its a website I found shortly after arriving here where expats from all around the world that live in your area meet up once a month to hang out and share experiences. I enjoy it a lot and have made some very good friends that are going through the same experiences I am. On the way there we stopped back by the house to get some of that macaroni salad to share with all of the expats. And headed that way stopping to get more beer, ice and gas on the way.

Of course my bank cards were cut off and I had to use all the cash left in my pocket on the way there. This is a common thing and if in a jam I can call through Skype and get turned back on immediately. I caution any expats on opening up bank accounts here. It cost a lot of money to maintain an account and you may open yourself up to double taxation. So I deal with the pain of my American bank continuously turning cards off because they think its fraud activity with me using them in Brazil.

Well anyways we headed across town, down a nice new highway and out a very rough dirt road to a wonderful oasis. Yes its a farm to a certain extent but its much more than that. I was thoroughly surprised at how awesome it was with a nice large house, pool and grilling area. It has a bunch of chickens and some crops that were growing. Plenty of room for the kids to run around. And the best part the majority of everyone there was speaking English. The kids were running around with other English speaking kids. It was awesome!

We showed up fashionably late and enjoyed another American meal of cheese burgers. Just like I made the night prior. Everyone enjoyed the macaroni salad we brought along and there was many other American style dishes. Unfortunately I filled up on that Brazilian BBQ early in the day and only had enough room for a burger and brownies. We enjoyed a great conversation with many diverse backgrounds from all around the world. I had also planned ahead and brought a tent, blankets and pillows in case we ended up staying. Which we did and it was amazing our friends had an extra room for us to sleep in. Its a little chilly this time of year and we were very grateful to have a room. There was a small fireworks show and the kids ran around outside late into the evening.

The next morning the rooster had us up at the crack of dawn. Well not all of us, just one of our children asking to go outside and play. We kept trying to get him to sleep longer but eventually sent him out to play. Not long after he came running back in saying an avocado fell out of the tree and hit our car. Huge dent in the hood. Arrived after dark and didn't realize I parked under a huge avocado tree. Its repairable and shouldn't cost too much I guess. In the day light the farm was even more amazing with a swing hanging from the tree, volley ball court, and many other cool things. We started to pack up and get ready to go. Remember its Sunday and we have lunch at the in-laws we must get back for. As usual it took us a little while to say good bye to every one and we definitely had to partake in freshly baked cheese bread and sweet strong coffee. We also had to get the children in the car. They were busy playing with some of the English speaking children.

We arrived fashionably late to the in-laws and enjoyed a wonderful lunch. It was fish and many other little things including that macaroni salad I made Friday night. It didn't last long and actually filled me up so I only had a little bit of the tasty fish. The kids are relaxing and we are enjoying a great conversation telling of our night away. How much fun the kids had and what we experienced. Today we chose to go home instead of napping there. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. Our house is a quarter of a mile away but its nice to stay and let the kids nap with their grandparents. It will be a great memory when they get older!

The rest of the evening we relaxed at home, had a small dinner and watched Netflix. It seems like we have been eating non-stop all weekend...yes. Also My wife needs to return to work the next day, Monday July 4th. Not a holiday here! We were in bed early and got caught up on much need rest. Remember the rooster woke us up so early.

Monday morning the wife was off to work and we were at home with no plans. I caught up on house cleaning and laundry. Took the kids for a bike / scooter ride to the grandparents house. We returned and played around the house. Watered the grass, the normal week day stuff. I reflected on the meaning of July 4th and talked to the kids about it. They are learning Brazilian history here and I try to tell them American history as much as possible. Being dual citizens they may return to America and live in the future.

We then got invited out to dinner this evening to wonderful Outback Steakhouse Restaurant. Its one of three American restaurants in this area. The other two are Subway and of course McDonalds but we hardly ever go to them. Its very expensive and you could get a better meal for far less at another place. Had a very good time and guess what? The children asked to not go and spent the evening with the grandparents. Getting that grandparents time in for sure!

So as you can see it was an awesome weekend of many events. This is the usual here and Brazilians are very social. Lots of get festivities that are planned or even last minute. Some weekends we have to make the tough choice of which ones to attend. Sometimes we will attempt to get to each one but the process of saying goodbye at one prevents us from going to another.

I hope this gives you a look at how a typical weekend goes here. This is definitely not typical of our American lives we just left not too long ago. My American weekends usually consisted of yard work, grocery shopping and catching up on cleaning the house. Not anymore!