New memory dump

I haven’t written a blog in a really long time. I tried, but after a while it became something daunting instead of something fun. But I’m here now starting because I’m trying to watch videos on my computer and my internet keeps shutting off. This has left me extremely frustrated. First world problems, I know.

 Anyways, Luciana is an English language cat now. She thinks her name is kitty. She’s in her hunting/playing stages of growth so she “attacks” everything that moves. And things that don’t move. Someone told me that she’s supposed to kill the “baratas” a.k.a. roaches, but she doesn’t. She just wants to play with them. Priscilla is teaching Michol and I Portuguese grammar. It’s really helpful because grammatically correct Portuguese (which I learned at school) sounds nothing like spoken language. Alessandra is also teaching Michol and I how to drive stick. We both bought international driver’s licenses (yes, we’re legal) and we’re doing pretty good as far as I’m concerned. As I mentioned before, Araguaina is a clay/sand-covered city of hills so reversing into a two-point turn up a sandy slope on my first day was victory in my eyes,lol.

 Another student of ours, Glau, mentioned that she was taking guitar lessons for free at the city’s cultural space (that’s literally what it translates to) and that she would talk to the guy about seeing if we could take some too. So, she invited us to her class and we start on Monday! It just so happened that yesterday was his students’ recital so he invited us back to hear everyone else play. I really enjoyed it and I’m excited. Maybe one day before we leave that could be us up there :) Doña Esmeralda has started teaching me how to embroider. She told me she’s been embroidering since she was 12 back in the days before they made fabric with the holes already in it. Naturally she can move up and down and left to right without thinking about it. I on the other hand have to put meticulous effort into figuring out which next move will not only complete my x but leave the thread in the position I need it to successfully change directions. The other day she told me that something is only hard when you don’t know how to do it. I mean it made sense to me,lol.

 “Com tempo” That’s my new catch phrase. I also successfully made a pot of rice yesterday. For some people this may seem like a trivial feat. I on the other hand am just now learning to cook and cooking a pot of non-sticky rice was step one of a long, creative process of survival skill acquisition. So there you have it. Progress update on some of my Araguaina life goals. Um beijo.

When the Rain Stops

Welp, I think its safe to say that Summer is officially starting. In Araguaina, there are two seasons. Rain season and sun season. Luckily, you have security guards at UFT whose only purposes in campus life seem to be to turn on the Air Conditioning and open the door to the supply closet at night. It could be expected that we as ETAs would have some similar experiences with big things but after reading fellow blogs I think its the little commonalities like Air Guards that make me smile the most.

Like it seems as though we're not the only people who ant watch. Yesterday, Michol and I and our program director spent a good deal of time looking at a group of ants carry a piece of cat food out of the house and back to their living space. It was really interesting. There were ants everywhere but no one else bothered to help or switch. They started with about 12 ants but by the time they finished only 5 were still carrying it. They carried it meters and up 100% vertical cracks and when they finally got there we saw that was the second piece of food they'd pilfered. Good and bad it kinda reminded us of of how people work. But this post isn't about ants.lol.

So... this week. Atlas Academia. Academia = gym. After a month of looking at all the different academias here we finally joined a gym last month. It's definitely been one of the more positive additions to my travel experience. Michol and I both have fitness goals. She'd like to lose thirty pounds. She's already lost ten this month so she's well on her way. I want to be able to run on the treadmill for an hour straight. I go three times a week and each time I go I run a minute more than the day before. Tomorrow will be 23 minutes. It's air-conditioned which was/is a necessity and the staff/personal trainers are super friendly and helpful.

 One day I was running and I saw by the pool what I thought was a raccoon due to its striped tail. Then I realized where I was and looked again,lol. It was an iguana!! My mom always tells me to keep my camera with me cause I never know what I'm gonna see and she's right but with it raining everyday I'd feel obliged to carry an umbrella and it's just easier and probably safer to not. Anyways, Atlas is super advanced. It uses fingerprint technology to get in so you don't have to bring a card and no one can pretend to be you. They also have treadmills that speed up and slow down when you hold your hand over the censor. Pretty cool. And they have these fitness classes. I didn't really realize how weak I was until I tried to do leg lifts with ankle weights on. All bad. But this is good. I'm gonna be Super fit when I get home!

(view from the tredmill) Also, new this week. Driving lessons. As with most of the world the cars here are stick. As with most of the U.S. I don't drive stick. Thus, after careful consideration of who would be the least likely to get mad at me for killing their clutch or a least the least likely to express it,lol, I decided to ask Elisa for driving lessons. She agreed before she realized that most people in the states don't know the first thing about manual cars but seemed to enjoy the experience/opportunity to laugh. Michol went first. She did really well considering Araguaina is a city of hills. I haven't had my lesson yet but I'm very excited.

This is one of the hills we ride up on the way home from university. There are two up and two down each way so it makes for a pretty even overall riding experience. Except the hill by the university. Everyday I ride my bike I sing in my head to myself "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming" (It's a reference to the film Finding Nemo in case you were lost). It convinces me to keep pedaling when at that point it's actually faster to walk the bike. I've been amused at times by people walking past me as I'm pedaling up the subtle inclines. I was talking to Elisa's mother and she's like "Araguaina isn't that hilly" I just looked at her and she's like But then again I've never gotten around by bike" Like the ride to the gym is downhill which means after a workout its uphill back home. Sometimes we make it, sometimes we don't. In any case it's all part of the experience and I'm happy to have it.

Speaking of university, the poster you see is an ad for our workshops. That one happens to have the date crossed out in pen because quarta-feira(Wednesday) was a nacional paralisacao for federal university teachers. It's not a strike but more like a we're not teaching today to show you that we're not scared to go on strike kinda thing. So we did our workshop on Friday(sexta-feira. Well, that's all for now folks.