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.