Wednesday, September 29, 2010
A weekend in Curitiba
First of all, I just wanted to share about my near nervous breakdown this weekend. I went into the office on Saturday morning to check my email and I didn't have an internet connection! ACK! My connection to the outside world was severed and 1) I had no idea who to ask about it, and 2) I couldn't ask about who to call, since I know no Portuguese, and 3) even if I did know who to call, there was that whole language issue again. I was very worried. Mac determined that, somehow, even though we couldn't get on the internet, skype was still working. I was talking to a friend Sunday afternoon and had her do some google searching and she turned up the answer to our problem. And (deep breath) I was back online. Crisis averted.
We decided to spend this weekend looking around the city of Curitiba a little bit more. On Saturday we went to the municipal market. This was our first trip on the much-discussed Curitiba city bus system. Seriously, try to find any sort of article about Curitiba that doesn't mention the buses. I dare you. It is pretty nice - instead of waiting at a bus stop and paying as you get one, the buses here have glass "tubes" that you pay to enter then wait inside until the bus pulls up. It means your out of the weather if it's crummy and the bus waits less than 10 seconds at each stop for people to get on and off. And plenty of people ride the buses here - the main city buses are bi-articulated, which means their kind of three buses in one, and, as far as I can tell, they are always full. The buses have dedicates lanes in the road, so the whole experience is pretty quick. I'll try to get pictures one of these days.
The market was only three stops down from our apartment, so it was an easy first trip. The municipal market is hard to describe - think of anything you might want to buy, and you can probably find it. It's indoors and probably has a few hundred stalls. Food (fresh produce, butchers, dry good), doo-dads, liquor - it's all there. And it was packed.
There are a couple of food courts and we had lunch there - at a Japanese restaurant. It was probably pretty funny to watch us try to order Japanese food in Portuguese. We ended up with some good stuff, though. Here we are waiting...
We walked around inside a little more, then around the bus station across the street. The most important thing we did there was pick up a map of the city. That's going to be pretty helpful.
In fact, the map led us to our Sunday adventure - to the handicraft fair held in the historical center of the city every Sunday. We took the bus once again. Yipee! After getting our bearings and walking for a while, we got to the fair, and met up with probably 75% of the population of Curitiba (currently around 1.8 million). Ok, maybe not that many people, but it was pretty crowded. There were lots of handicraft type things (Mac likened it to Gold Rush days, for those of you familiar), but we couldn't really stop much in the push of people. I don't think the girls saw anything but legs. It was nice to get out, though.
We needed lunch, once again (certain small people in the family get pretty grumpy once meal times come and go). We stopped at what we thought was a fast food place. It looked like a fast food joint anyway, and it had a picture menu on the wall, which was helpful. And it was close. Looked good.
Turns out it wasn't very fast at all. In fact, it was very very slow.
Two grumpy girls, trying to convince me that they are about to pass out from hunger. Don't worry - they made it through and recovered nicely after some food.
That's about it. Not a lot that was super exciting, but we learned a little more about our surroundings.
We also did movie night both nights this past weekend - we've been watching the BBC Planet Earth series. I highly recommend it - the girls are enthralled (although Maggie is starting to get weary of all of the predation) and there have been several times where Mac and I have thought or said "I had no idea!" It's very cool.
We decided to spend this weekend looking around the city of Curitiba a little bit more. On Saturday we went to the municipal market. This was our first trip on the much-discussed Curitiba city bus system. Seriously, try to find any sort of article about Curitiba that doesn't mention the buses. I dare you. It is pretty nice - instead of waiting at a bus stop and paying as you get one, the buses here have glass "tubes" that you pay to enter then wait inside until the bus pulls up. It means your out of the weather if it's crummy and the bus waits less than 10 seconds at each stop for people to get on and off. And plenty of people ride the buses here - the main city buses are bi-articulated, which means their kind of three buses in one, and, as far as I can tell, they are always full. The buses have dedicates lanes in the road, so the whole experience is pretty quick. I'll try to get pictures one of these days.
The market was only three stops down from our apartment, so it was an easy first trip. The municipal market is hard to describe - think of anything you might want to buy, and you can probably find it. It's indoors and probably has a few hundred stalls. Food (fresh produce, butchers, dry good), doo-dads, liquor - it's all there. And it was packed.
There are a couple of food courts and we had lunch there - at a Japanese restaurant. It was probably pretty funny to watch us try to order Japanese food in Portuguese. We ended up with some good stuff, though. Here we are waiting...
In fact, the map led us to our Sunday adventure - to the handicraft fair held in the historical center of the city every Sunday. We took the bus once again. Yipee! After getting our bearings and walking for a while, we got to the fair, and met up with probably 75% of the population of Curitiba (currently around 1.8 million). Ok, maybe not that many people, but it was pretty crowded. There were lots of handicraft type things (Mac likened it to Gold Rush days, for those of you familiar), but we couldn't really stop much in the push of people. I don't think the girls saw anything but legs. It was nice to get out, though.
We needed lunch, once again (certain small people in the family get pretty grumpy once meal times come and go). We stopped at what we thought was a fast food place. It looked like a fast food joint anyway, and it had a picture menu on the wall, which was helpful. And it was close. Looked good.
Turns out it wasn't very fast at all. In fact, it was very very slow.
That's about it. Not a lot that was super exciting, but we learned a little more about our surroundings.
We also did movie night both nights this past weekend - we've been watching the BBC Planet Earth series. I highly recommend it - the girls are enthralled (although Maggie is starting to get weary of all of the predation) and there have been several times where Mac and I have thought or said "I had no idea!" It's very cool.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Trip to Morretes
This weekend we went toward the coast to the town of Morretes with Mac's friend (we'll call him G) and his family. They lent us one of their cars and Mac got to drive for the first time in about 2 months. I'm glad it was him and not me - I'll just say that we were told that stop signs were "optional."
We drove out of Curitiba and headed east, toward the coast. We had to go over a mountain range. At the top of one of the mountains (this is all vague, as I don't have a real good handle on what we were doing. We have yet to get our hands on a real paper map of Brazil or Curitiba...) we stopped to take in the view. G told us that, on a clear day we could see the highest peak in the range and all the way to the ocean. Unfortunately, it wasn't a clear day. Pretty cloudy, windy and cool, actually. But the view was still neat. I'm told that what we were in and looking at is Atlantic rain forest. Not tropical (we're too far south), but still rain forest. (We did stop again on the way back and could just see the ocean).
At this stop we also got a couple of cups of fresh sugar cane juice. Oh my gosh, can you say "sweet"? The man at the stand took two pieces of sugar cane and ran them through this gas powered smasher thing a few times, with an added lime wedge. It was pure sugary deliciousness.
We got back in the car and kept driving. The last part of the drive was on this old cobblestone road going down the mountain.
Oh yeah! We also made one more stop on our way over. We went over a river where we got out and the girls and Mac climbed down to jump around on the rocks. Where there are river rocks, you must jump around, you know. At least with my crew.
We drove out of Curitiba and headed east, toward the coast. We had to go over a mountain range. At the top of one of the mountains (this is all vague, as I don't have a real good handle on what we were doing. We have yet to get our hands on a real paper map of Brazil or Curitiba...) we stopped to take in the view. G told us that, on a clear day we could see the highest peak in the range and all the way to the ocean. Unfortunately, it wasn't a clear day. Pretty cloudy, windy and cool, actually. But the view was still neat. I'm told that what we were in and looking at is Atlantic rain forest. Not tropical (we're too far south), but still rain forest. (We did stop again on the way back and could just see the ocean).
Here's Lily pointing out a bromeliad. She was very excited to see one in real life. In fact, she was pretty excited about just about everything. Can you tell? And, for anyone who knows Lily and her insistence that she wear dresses at nearly all times - she is wearing pants because it is an adventure, and for adventures, you wear pants. One reason is because you have a pocket for your magnifying glass.
After this stop we headed to Morretes. I was going to insert a wikipedia link here, but it's only 2 sentences long, so I skipped it. What I read on another blog was that it was one of the original Portuguese settlement towns in Brazil. I have nothing to back that up, and I can't find any of my travel guides right now. Maybe I'll add to this later, if I can get any good info. In any case, it's a small, old town. Our main goal was to get a lunch of the local specialty, barreada. It's a meat (beef?) stew, originally cooked in a cast iron (or clay?) pot buried in a fire pit in the ground. You mix the stew with manioc flour until it reaches a paste-like consistency, then slice up some bananas over the top. At least, that's how we ate it, with instruction from G and his family. And we washed it down with fresh-squeezed pineapple and passion fruit juices. Yum!
After lunch we walked around town a bit. Not a ton to see - street vendors, some live music (Pan flute with canned electronic accompaniment!), another river that the girls had to go down to look at. This is what they look like when you tell them they must absolutely not smile for the picture.
Then back in the car for us. We stopped again to check out the view. And for G to buy some of the local bananas. We, unfortunately had just bought bananas at the store, so we didn't get any. We did buy some honey though.
That's Lily, asking G about 6000 questions about the forest. She attaches herself to anyone she thinks has information to impart.
At this stop we also saw a colorful local bird. I have no idea what it is, but it was pretty. Any ideas?
I just want to add that the wind is blowing about 5000 miles (I guess I should be thinking in kilometers?) and hour right now. And, our windows are not totally windproof, so it's loud. And annoying. Just thought I'd share some up-to-the minute info.
The Botanical Garden
From our window we can see the Jardim Botanico - the Botanical Garden of Curitiba.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_Garden_of_Curitiba
We headed over there the day after we got here. Thought I'd share a few pictures -
I expect we'll spend a lot of time here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanical_Garden_of_Curitiba
We headed over there the day after we got here. Thought I'd share a few pictures -
I expect we'll spend a lot of time here.
Getting here
I was pretty nervous about flying to Brazil on my own with two small kiddos, but, overall, the trip went pretty well.
We started out in Atlanta. Mac's wonderful parents took us to the airport and helped lug our ridiculous amount of baggage to the ticketing counter, then walked with us to security. I wish I had a picture of the girls as world travelers - they each had their own backpack and rolling carry-on bags (which they had each requested for their birthdays last year) and they looked ready for adventure. However, things were pretty hectic and I couldn't really spare a hand to find a camera, and this phase didn't last long. I think it was about 2.3 minutes into the trip where they started complaining about being tired, and their bags were too heavy, and they couldn't possibly walk anymore. After I made them soldier on for a little while longer, I either carried their backpacks for them or latched them on to the carry-ons, or some other configuration that wasn't so picture-worthy.
Anyway - security in Atlanta was probably the worst part of the whole trip. Good to get it out of the way early? They herded us through the line, even though the place was fairly quiet by Atlanta standards. Imagine me going through security - here's what went on the conveyor belt: one bin for all of our shoes, one bin or my backpack, one bin for my computer, one bin for Lily's backpack, one bin for Maggie's backpack, one bin for my jacket, 3 carry-on bags. Then Lily and Maggie go through the scanner, then me. OOPS! Cell-phone in pocket, back out, cell-phone into another bin, back through. On the other end - throw shoes at Lily, throw shoes at Maggie, send them to a bench to put on said shoes, try to wrestle laptop into backpack and fail so just jam laptop under arm, grab two more backpacks and three carryons and a jacket and OOPS! almost forgot the cellphone, all while trying to keep an eye on two small kiddos who aren't quite sure what bench they are supposed to be going to and are kind of wandering. I finally got us all settled and re-shoed and off. One helpful woman (the first helpful person of many on the trip) informed me that my kids were very smart - when she saw them wandering, she tried to give them to another woman, but they wouldn't go. Yeah kids!
We rode the train to the terminal, which was a hit, and got some Happy Meals (hey, McD;s had the shortest line in the food court) and took them to our gate to eat. At what I thought was about 45 minutes before our flight, I took all of us and all of our crap for a potty break before boarding. I got back just in time to board - turns out my watch was running behind all day. Good to know. So we get on the plane. Settle in. Take off. Finally! We're really on our way.
This was an overnight flight, so we didn't even take off until about 9:45 pm. They served dinner on the plane and finished that up some time around 11:30, or so. I was surprised that the kiddos got the children's meals I had requested, which was nice. Dino chicken nuggets, in case you were wondering (as I'm sure so many of you are).
After that they turned down the lights. Lily was fantastic - she wrapped up in her blanket, put her head on my lap and fell asleep. Not Maggie. Oh, sweet Maggie. Here's how the next 5 or so hours of the flight went-
"Mommy, can I have a snack?"
"Mommy, can I have a drink?"
"Mommy, is it time to get up yet?"
"Mommy, can I play a game?"
"Mommy, I love you" (she likes to throw this one in once in a while)
"Mommy, is Lily awake?"
"Mommy, can I have a snack"
Repeat.
She also didn't sit still for more than about 6 seconds at a time. She put her head on my lap, then her feet on my lap, then sat on my lap (pretty much on Lily's head, but she's a really sound sleeper), then tried to get up and walk around, then wanted to get my backpack, then her backpack. You get the idea. It was a long night. She finally fell fast asleep while we were descending into Rio. Figures. Then I had to wake her up.
I was worried about Rio, but it turned out ok. We were the last ones off the plane and the last ones in the "non-citizen" line at immigration. But after all the Brazilians went through their line, we were ushered to that side and went through quickly and with no problems. Then the part I was most worried about - we had to pick up all of our baggage and go through customs, then recheck it. So, we headed to the baggage claim (a very helpful man helped the girls take their stuff down the escalator) and I grabbed a cart. All 4 of our suitcases arrived (yeah!) and I was able to pile them all up on the cart. With the girls hauling their own gear (insert complaining here), we made our way through customs and out into the terminal. We were immediately approached by an official airport porter who grabbed the cart, put our carryons on top, and asked if we needed help and where we were going (through another man that interpreted). I showed him our itinerary, and he was off. We followed him upstairs and through the airport to the ticket counter, where he waited for us to check in and then took us to security. He was a life-saver.
Security in Rio was nothing compared to Atlanta. Left the shoes on, left the laptop in the backpack, and there was no line and no herding. We headed to our gate and sat to wait for our next flight. I let the girls watch a movie, since we had a 3 hour wait. Here's the only picture I have from the trip down, it's our little corner of the Rio airport-
Please notice the creative use of elastic to strap a large stuffed sea turtle to a piece of luggage. Lily insisted that she would absolutely not make the trip without Sally, and she didn't fit anywhere else...
The flight to Curitiba was short and sweet. But by the time we got off the plane and to baggage claim, I was tired, and frazzled, and about to fall over. Then I picked up 3 suitcases, and waited, and waited, and waited. I was starting to worry about that fourth bag, and Maggie was spinning in circles around the baggage claim area in what I can only imagine was an attempt to stay awake, and Lily was...well, I'm not sure what she was doing. But, the last suitcase finally appeared, I loaded it up and headed out. There was Daddy! We were here!
Wow. That was long. Sorry.
We started out in Atlanta. Mac's wonderful parents took us to the airport and helped lug our ridiculous amount of baggage to the ticketing counter, then walked with us to security. I wish I had a picture of the girls as world travelers - they each had their own backpack and rolling carry-on bags (which they had each requested for their birthdays last year) and they looked ready for adventure. However, things were pretty hectic and I couldn't really spare a hand to find a camera, and this phase didn't last long. I think it was about 2.3 minutes into the trip where they started complaining about being tired, and their bags were too heavy, and they couldn't possibly walk anymore. After I made them soldier on for a little while longer, I either carried their backpacks for them or latched them on to the carry-ons, or some other configuration that wasn't so picture-worthy.
Anyway - security in Atlanta was probably the worst part of the whole trip. Good to get it out of the way early? They herded us through the line, even though the place was fairly quiet by Atlanta standards. Imagine me going through security - here's what went on the conveyor belt: one bin for all of our shoes, one bin or my backpack, one bin for my computer, one bin for Lily's backpack, one bin for Maggie's backpack, one bin for my jacket, 3 carry-on bags. Then Lily and Maggie go through the scanner, then me. OOPS! Cell-phone in pocket, back out, cell-phone into another bin, back through. On the other end - throw shoes at Lily, throw shoes at Maggie, send them to a bench to put on said shoes, try to wrestle laptop into backpack and fail so just jam laptop under arm, grab two more backpacks and three carryons and a jacket and OOPS! almost forgot the cellphone, all while trying to keep an eye on two small kiddos who aren't quite sure what bench they are supposed to be going to and are kind of wandering. I finally got us all settled and re-shoed and off. One helpful woman (the first helpful person of many on the trip) informed me that my kids were very smart - when she saw them wandering, she tried to give them to another woman, but they wouldn't go. Yeah kids!
We rode the train to the terminal, which was a hit, and got some Happy Meals (hey, McD;s had the shortest line in the food court) and took them to our gate to eat. At what I thought was about 45 minutes before our flight, I took all of us and all of our crap for a potty break before boarding. I got back just in time to board - turns out my watch was running behind all day. Good to know. So we get on the plane. Settle in. Take off. Finally! We're really on our way.
This was an overnight flight, so we didn't even take off until about 9:45 pm. They served dinner on the plane and finished that up some time around 11:30, or so. I was surprised that the kiddos got the children's meals I had requested, which was nice. Dino chicken nuggets, in case you were wondering (as I'm sure so many of you are).
After that they turned down the lights. Lily was fantastic - she wrapped up in her blanket, put her head on my lap and fell asleep. Not Maggie. Oh, sweet Maggie. Here's how the next 5 or so hours of the flight went-
"Mommy, can I have a snack?"
"Mommy, can I have a drink?"
"Mommy, is it time to get up yet?"
"Mommy, can I play a game?"
"Mommy, I love you" (she likes to throw this one in once in a while)
"Mommy, is Lily awake?"
"Mommy, can I have a snack"
Repeat.
She also didn't sit still for more than about 6 seconds at a time. She put her head on my lap, then her feet on my lap, then sat on my lap (pretty much on Lily's head, but she's a really sound sleeper), then tried to get up and walk around, then wanted to get my backpack, then her backpack. You get the idea. It was a long night. She finally fell fast asleep while we were descending into Rio. Figures. Then I had to wake her up.
I was worried about Rio, but it turned out ok. We were the last ones off the plane and the last ones in the "non-citizen" line at immigration. But after all the Brazilians went through their line, we were ushered to that side and went through quickly and with no problems. Then the part I was most worried about - we had to pick up all of our baggage and go through customs, then recheck it. So, we headed to the baggage claim (a very helpful man helped the girls take their stuff down the escalator) and I grabbed a cart. All 4 of our suitcases arrived (yeah!) and I was able to pile them all up on the cart. With the girls hauling their own gear (insert complaining here), we made our way through customs and out into the terminal. We were immediately approached by an official airport porter who grabbed the cart, put our carryons on top, and asked if we needed help and where we were going (through another man that interpreted). I showed him our itinerary, and he was off. We followed him upstairs and through the airport to the ticket counter, where he waited for us to check in and then took us to security. He was a life-saver.
Security in Rio was nothing compared to Atlanta. Left the shoes on, left the laptop in the backpack, and there was no line and no herding. We headed to our gate and sat to wait for our next flight. I let the girls watch a movie, since we had a 3 hour wait. Here's the only picture I have from the trip down, it's our little corner of the Rio airport-
Please notice the creative use of elastic to strap a large stuffed sea turtle to a piece of luggage. Lily insisted that she would absolutely not make the trip without Sally, and she didn't fit anywhere else...
The flight to Curitiba was short and sweet. But by the time we got off the plane and to baggage claim, I was tired, and frazzled, and about to fall over. Then I picked up 3 suitcases, and waited, and waited, and waited. I was starting to worry about that fourth bag, and Maggie was spinning in circles around the baggage claim area in what I can only imagine was an attempt to stay awake, and Lily was...well, I'm not sure what she was doing. But, the last suitcase finally appeared, I loaded it up and headed out. There was Daddy! We were here!
Wow. That was long. Sorry.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Background and the apartment
For those that don't know the whole story...
A while back (it may have even been at a meeting about 6 years back?) my nerderific husband and a friend of his in Brazil cooked up a plan where Mac would come down here to work with him for a little while. The main thing that had to happen was funding for the adventure. This past fall, Mac applied for and received a Fullbright fellowship (yeah!) to do research with his colleague here. That, plus some support from his job back home allowed the whole thing to happen. We found out about the Fullbright right before Christmas last year. Mac left for Brazil the first week of August, and the girls and I followed last week.
Where we are
We are now setting up our home for the next few months in Curitiba, Brazil-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curitiba
It's not a small city, but it's not Rio or Sao Paulo, so not many people have heard about it.
Mac found us a temporary apartment will all the furnishings. In addition to furniture, it's got linens and all the kitchen stuff we need, so we haven't had to buy a lot to get set up.
I'll give you a tour. Kinda like House Hunters International.
Kitchen
Dining area, complete with unicorn tapestry
The girls' bedroom. The tiger came with the apartment.
Below, the master bath.
The hall bath, which has an enormous bathtub.
Did I mention that we are on the 21st floor?
The view from the balcony, to the right...
...and the center...
...and the left.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Well, here we are
Oi!
We're here in Curitiba, Brazil. Mac's been here for 7 weeks now - the girls and I have been here for less than a week. Don't worry, I'll give you the blow-by-blow details about our trip here.
About the blog - don't expect too much, please. Just a place for us to update the friends and family that are interested in what we're up to down here in the Southern hemisphere. Those blogs you go to to laugh or be moved - this isn't it.
About the name - Bean and Moo are our nicknames for the girls. They are both growing out of them and have asked us to stop using them, but the pressure to come up with a name for this blog led me to use them anyway. Sorry girls!
Just wanted to get set up. Pictures and more information to follow!
Tchau-
A.
We're here in Curitiba, Brazil. Mac's been here for 7 weeks now - the girls and I have been here for less than a week. Don't worry, I'll give you the blow-by-blow details about our trip here.
About the blog - don't expect too much, please. Just a place for us to update the friends and family that are interested in what we're up to down here in the Southern hemisphere. Those blogs you go to to laugh or be moved - this isn't it.
About the name - Bean and Moo are our nicknames for the girls. They are both growing out of them and have asked us to stop using them, but the pressure to come up with a name for this blog led me to use them anyway. Sorry girls!
Just wanted to get set up. Pictures and more information to follow!
Tchau-
A.
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