Portuguese and Pilates in Piedade

OLA!!
Blogging as promised. It's midnight, segunda-feira (Monday) night and we have not long finished dinner, got showered and now I am so ready for bed. This evening I've been to my first ever pilates session with my Brazilian mom and dad, and it was pretty good. The instructor pointed out that my posture isn't great, which I already knew, but I'm now very conscious of it and have been walking like Julie Andrews does in every film she's in, all evening. Feeling 2 inches taller.


I haven't taken any photos yet so I can't show you my house, but I'm in a beautiful location, our house is on a kind of farm, up a hill with a view for miles, and I feel very lucky to be here. There is a swimming pool, big gardens, and six dogs (Bob is my favourite, don't tell the others), as well as lots of chickens, a couple of cockerels and adorable little chicks, and even some mice who have recently had babies.  And my family are absolutely lovely and so welcoming. There's ma and pa - Patrica and Mario, and the four kids, the boys Thiago and Bruno are 18 and 17. Thiago is applying to universities at the moment and both of them are waiting for exam results from 'the big test'. Boa Sorte to them!!
The girls are Luisa and Giulia, 12 and 14. They both love dancing, especially tap, maybe they can teach me some moves! All the family speak fantastic English and as my Portuguese is rather minimal at the moment, they are helping me by explaining things. Soon I'll be speaking perfect Brazinglish. I understand a fair bit of Portuguese now when I hear and see it and I'm really keen to try out all my new words! Patricia says my Portuguese pronunciation is very good so that gives me some confidence.

So, to backtrack, I arrived at the airport in Sao Paulo on Friday evening where I met Adonis and Cayla. Cayla is the other new foreign teacher, from Canada. Adonis is a Brazilian teacher and he's Carol's brother, she hired me at Easy Way school. We then made the long drive to Piedade, getting to know each other (for example, when he was little Adonis used to have 2 pet lion cubs, but they turned dangerous - who'd have thought it - and so they had to be put down) and stopping to meet a man with some books for the school, and then we stopped at a typical buffet type restaurant where your plate is weighed to determine how much you pay, as well as a few stops to ask directions because Adonis' GPS was broken. I was so tired at this point from the loooong journey which started at 3.30am in the holiday inn Heathrow... eughh... so I was feeling kind of delirious and but eventually we made it to Piedade, and dropped Cayla off with her host family. She is staying with a young family, a lovely couple with a baby boy, Murilo, who is just 4 months old. He's so sweet!!
I then arrived at my new house and met everyone, and had my much anticipated shower during which I screamed at a cockroach who I had only just noticed chilling in the shower with me, who then scuttled off somewhere under the wardrobe... I haven't seen him since and if he knows what's good for him he won't return.

This weekend I explored the town a little bit, went shopping with Patricia, and popped into the school, my workplace to be... and met some of the other teachers and had a little tour. I'm really excited to start work, everyone seems lovely and the school itself is very cute! Then in the evening we met up with Cayla, Carol and their families and went to a nearby city, Sorocaba, for dinner at Applebees, an American restaurant. We got home at 2am! Everything happens later here, except school which will start at 8.30am. First we'll have training on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and planning on Saturday before starting lessons for real on Monday.
Last night I made rosti potatoes with Patricia, we found the recipe in my veggie book that she asked me to bring, vegetarians here are a rare breed. But so far I have resisted the Brazilian barbecue! The rostis went down well, and I'm trying all the exciting new foods and learning the names! So far my favourite veg name is 'abobrinha' which is courgette or zucchini to my Italian and American friends.

So to sum up, tudo bem, muito bem! Slightly sunkissed and the insect bite count is currently at 1, back of thigh. I hope I won't get the polka dot bite look like I had in Italy, both summers. They just seem to love clarissimo skin... must be tasty.
OK, I believe it is now bedtime so I leave you with this song that has been in my family's heads for a few days and is now stuck in mine. NOSSA, NOSSAAAAA... "This way you're gonna kill me"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcm55lU9knw
Boa noite, my next blog will be more fun ok, now I am too tired!! xx

Getting ready to go!

Ola!
In three weeks time I will be off to Brazil to start my adventure teaching English!
I thought I would set a blog up now to make things easier, and hopefully I will update it regularly.
Before I go I've got a few things to do, from the boring (trips to optician, dentist, bureau de change etc, and packing), to the more fun (seeing friends and family), as well as learning some more Portuguese, finishing my TEFL course and finally attending the weekend class which has so far been cancelled twice.
Best get on it then!
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Tchau for now
Katie xx