Who says running isn't fun!?

Happy Easter!

I confess... I used to be one of these people.  Running (especially without especially without Christmas music or Justin Beiber blasting through my ears) can be a real bore.  All you do is run.  For no purpose. Usually with no destination.  You run just to run.  My mindset changed a little when I joined the Trinity International Women's Soccer team and running/ fitness was a "privilege."  But since then, its pretty much gone back to... why on earth do people enjoy running?  This past sunday however, my opinion changed... again.

As I've mentioned before, every Sunday, the Xiao (ee-shouw... a major highway right next to my house) is blocked off to all vehicles so that people can go running, biking, walking, long boarding, roller blading, rip-sticking, or basically whatever else they want to do.  Note: this is a prime people watching location.  I was out just doin one of my favorite Fartlek runs because I was missing my soccer team and these workouts always bring me back to the good old days.  Little did I know the surprises that I was in for:

My pops

1. About 3 minutes into my run, I saw a man running up ahead of me who looked almost exactly like my dad.  He ran the same way, he was about the same height, he had the same almost-mullet-looking-ducktail that my mom won't cut off.  I almost turned to look at his face, but he was an older guy and I passed him so quick that I didn't have the time. LOLZ. #SoFast

2. Over the span of this 35 minute run, I swallowed 5 bugs.  At first this might seem disgusting, but just think... Adam and Eve probably ate bugs all the time.  #SoHealthy

3. I found $1!!!  This is 100% true.  I found an US currency, one dollar bill on the ground.  (I'm aware that this is supposed to go at the end of a bad story, but this is actually a true event!!!) I look at it as a symbol of how much Americans throw their money away on dumb stuff. #SoUSA

4.  I had stopped between my run and my cool-down to do the classic "Core Stability Workout."  (this was also a summer favorite done by the trip guides on picnic tables at night during trips).  I walked over to a patch of grass on the side of the road and did my thing.  When I was done, I went to stand up and heard "RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP."  I'm not sure how I didn't feel it, but I guess I had sat on a piece of barbed wire looking wire.  Yep, I had a nice 2 inch tear right on my butt and about another kilometer to go until I was home.  #SoBreezy

So that's why people stare at me when I run...

  5. When I got home, the sweat stain on my shirt was perfect...
#SoStinks 

Needless to say, I've run everyday since then... nothing exciting has happened. #CouchToMarathon ??..... no thank you. 

Just snappin pics at church.

Nerd Alert

The high school youth group that I've been going to has their annual retreat this weekend.  One of the main events will be a "nerd prom."  No dates of course, just nerd attire and dance moves. :)  A few of the other teachers and I made this promo video to get the students excited!

Ch-ch-ch-check it out.
How to be a Nerd

Look at those stars!

I'm not sure why, but about 4 years ago, I really started to love stars.  Some think they're not quite as entertaining because "they're just stars" -cough cough- but there's something about just laying on the ground on a summer night and looking up at the stars that I LOVE.  Sometimes I look for constellations, or make up my own, or watch for shooting stars (not to be confused with lightning bugs... lolz), and other times I just like to lay on the ground, in silence.  I know, sounds glorious right? Laying in dirt getting eaten alive by mosquitoes... what's not to love!?

Anyway, last night the stars here were GLORIOUS! I couldn't stand it.  It was almost making me sick just looking at them because of how beautiful it was!  Last year whenever the stars were especially bright, I would try to take a picture of them.  I always imagined it looking something like this:


Unfortunately, my pictures always turned out like this:   

I even had a pal from good ol' TIU that would "take pictures of the stars" and send them to me..... they were all black screens. Sweet.

Anyway, its been an exciting couple of weeks!
I've been able to have "full responsibility" for teaching the 5th and 6th graders and its been great. I like to call it full "POWER" because it makes me feel like I'm real cool.

My cooperating teacher :)

Last weekend, after a little fender bender, a few other teachers and friends and I went out to Poco Azul (blue well).  After a B-E-A-UTIFUL hike/ walk/ stroll, we got to the waterfall.  We took turns jumping (only off the high cliff because the low cliff is for sissys), "grabbed" some lunch,  walked under the waterfall, practiced skipping rocks with human targets (yes, my friend Dawna actually hit the director of our school square in the forehead), and went exploring.  :)

Pose was my idea... lolz

The trail to the falls :)

Teacher friends after we chowed.

A few days later, all of the staff from school went out to a real-life Brazilian steak house. I don't think I've ever seen so much meat in my entire life.  About every 2 minutes (or less), a waiter would come by with a different type or cut of meat and you can take as much as your little heart desires! Speaking of hearts, yes, I ate chicken heart.  One other thing they had which I've learned to love since being here was sushi, sushi. sushi, out the wazoo! They even had sushi with fruit inside! Even KIWI! "Delicious and Nutritious!"  This was a highly controversial topic at the table because fruit sushi isn't "real sushi," but I still love it. 

Brazilians eat chicken hearts like popcorn... handfulls at a time. (Joking)

Since March is "Reading Month," we had a reading celebration on the last day of the month.  Top readers from each grade got prizes and there was a big celebration complete with water games.  After all the organized events were over, it turned into a mad dash to get every person who was anywhere on school property, drenched.  I lasted about 30 seconds.  This 2 hour water fight ended with an impromptu dance party complete with the electric slide, cupid shuffle and the classic YMCA!

dancing in action

This week we had parent-teacher conferences at school... our first three conferences consisted of four different languages!  

Also, this coming week the high school soccer team will be playing against parents and teachers.... can't wait to brush up on my street skillz. 

"oh yeaaaah!"

Today I was just sitting, grading my students' most recent assignment: how-to papers. Working with these students has been such a unique experience. They all have such different personalities, yet they are all such a joy to be around. Yes, they do test my patience, but I've found that it is hard to stay frustrated with any of them.

This past week I guess they had started to feel comfortable around me, because they started to point out things about my teaching style or personality that I do... "ALL THE TIME." One thing in particular that they like to laugh about is how much I say "oh yeaaa!" (Especially when they get a math problem correct). Anyway, I was reading one of the how-to papers written by one of our ESL students about how to play cricket (which is very popular in his home country). I was almost at the end of the paper and was starting to feel frustrated with the multiple grammar and mechanical writing mistakes. Then I read the next sentence where he described the feeling in cricket when you hit the ball, the "fieldsman" doesn't catch the ball and your teammates celebrate, "oh yesss!" (this was his version of my favorite celebration)

Times like this help me see how "a cheerful heart is good medicine..." (Prov. 17:22)

50/50?

This is the amount of days until I will be able to drive again, and eat peanut butter by the spoonful, and wear t-shirts without feeling like a hobo, and not be looked down upon if I forget to shower one morning, and send text messages.

It is also the amount of days until I will NOT be able to teach 11 awesome 5th and 6th graders, and talk about Jesus with them whenever I want, and eat delicious and nutritious fruit that doesn't even exist in the US, and wear skirts and heels to school without feeling overdressed, and show up 15 minutes late and not feel guilty because the event hasn't even started, and play soccer at recess, and learn new words in Portuguese from Raquel that help improve my street smarts, and have so many laughs with my new big sister Dawna, and go running in the middle of the highway every sunday afternoon, and go through red lights like it's my job(or whoever is driving's job), and be able to learn from the love, hospitality, and desire to be a servant that each and every Brazilian that I have met, has had.

Tchau gente!

"GENTE!"

WOWz So much has happened.

Two weeks ago was our "spring break." It was actually the week of Carnivale here in Brazil so we just had school off. Carnivale is a huge celebration in Brazil, (celebrated in Rio especially)

right up there with any big soccer game. People dress in all sorts of costumes and have a parade and dance and do whatever they want as it is right before Lent. When Lent comes around, they ask forgiveness for whatever they did during Carnivale.... interesting.

Because of this great holiday, lots of churches

here offer camps and retreats during this week as an alternative. That's what I did :) I went with two other teachers from BIS... Raquel, the Portuguese teacher, and Dawna, the 3rd and 4th grade teacher. The camp was about an hour away from my house in Brasilia. It was just like any camp in the US, but without the forest, seaweedy lake, log cabins, or endless permission slips.

One thing about Brazilians that I don't understand: their eating schedule. Here's

what a typical day of meals at camp looked like:

9:00am- Breakfast (lots of bread with ham and cheese, cakes, warm chocolate milk)

12ish- Lunch (always a big meal with lots of meat, rice and beans, fresh vegetables, some type of delishh fruit juice)

3:00ish- "Snack" (sandwiches, cake, bread and cheese...)

6:00ish- Dinner (spaghetti, rice and beans, fruit, more bread...)

11 to 12- "Snack" The first night we were there, it was easily after midnight. Raquel (who goes to the church that we were there with), went to talk to some

friends, so Dawna

and I (the two Americans) were just standing around. Out of nowhere, everyone starts appearing with these HUGE hamburgers. I'm talking bigger than I could eat for two meals... and it's after midnight... but EVERY single person is just chowing down. When I saw that burger,

my jaw just dropped. lolzzz

Dawna also brought her slack line to camp. Slack lining is what all the hipsters are into these days, so clearly I love it (sarcasm). It's pretty much a combination

of a trampoline and a tight rope. We set it up over the pool... it was so fun laughing at each other fal

ling off and trying (and failing) to walk across.

Everyone else at the camp was Brazilian. All of the messages were in Portuguese. Some people knew a

little bit of English, but for the most part, I relied on someone translating. I starting feeling very

lost and dumb when people would try to say something to me and I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. I got really frustrated at times because not being able to communicate is such a foreign thing for me (punny... I know). We mostly go through our lives and strive towards independence. Growing up, we can't wait to do things on our own or to move away from home.

I was talking with my host mom the other day

and she said, "so besides your independence, what do you miss the most?" I hadn't really though about it before then, but living in Brazil, I rely on other people for everything. I need rides, I'm staying with a family, eating meals with them, following other people's schedules...
This reminded me how in our relationship with God, we are supposed to RELY on Him. It is so easy to go through life relying on ourselves. We have our jobs, cars, homes, routines and everything else so set that we don't need help from anyone!

I started to get frustrated by the fact that I don't have much freedom, but then I realized that

this is training me not to be dependent on my own strength.
"It is better to trust in the LORD than to trust in man." Psalm 118:8

* Gente... Brazilians use this word as we, in the US would say "guys" or "us." It has become my favorite word in portuguese because it is pronounced jjjench... (facial expressions encouraged to enhance pronunciation).

It's mango season!

The time has come for me to describe all of the delicious and nutritious cuisine, cookery, chow, and confection that I have been consuming. Let me start by saying that in general, the food here is d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s. The mom of the host family that I'm staying with is an excellent cook (don't worry mom, I still like your cooking best), and she's put together a few Brazilian food "experiences" for me to try.

The first day I got to Brazil, I had pao de queijo which literally

means "cheese bread." I have no idea how

they make these, but it's bread on the outside with cheese in the middle that's really soft and almost sticky. We have these about every week at each staff meeting at school :)

Pao de queijo

Looks: 8

Taste:8

In Brasilia, they have these places called feiras, (pronounced feta). They're open markets where people can set up booths (or rent out a booth) and sell pretty much anything.

Also, if they see you looking at

whatever they are selling, they can AND WILL come up to you and ask multiple times, in portuguese, if you

would like to try it on/ look at it closer/ taste it. They also have lots of different types of foods there :) The first time my host family and I went to just a small market in the middle of Brasilia and got "tapioca." It's made from the same root as tapioca pudding, but they grind it up and cook it like a pancake and then stuff it with cheese, coconut, and fruity goodness. (The one on the left is plain, the one on the right is cheese, coconut and mango)

Tapioca

Looks: 5

Taste: 8

Probably one of the strangest vegetables I've ever tried.....

It's called chuchu (shoe-shoe). I think it tastes like the "trunk" of broccoli, but it looks like a green brain on the outside before it's cut up! Chuchu is grown here, so it's really cheap and people who grow it in their yards like to give it away to Americans who are afraid of any green food.

(Pictures are before and after it's cooked)

Chuchu

Looks: 5

Taste: 6

I'm not going to get into all of the scrumptious fruits they have here that I've never even heard of because that could take all day and I still have lesson plans to prepare for tomorrow. After all of this, I might just teach them about all of the junk food we eat in the US... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2092071/Stacey-Irvine-17-collapses-eating-McDonalds-chicken-nuggets-age-2.html

Most importantly... here in Brazil, mangos (my fave fruit) are in season!!

Mango

LOOKS: 10

TASTE: 10

#morePLEASE

Palaces, Sky Decks, and "cayaque"

This past week, just about every person I’ve talked to has explained the city of Brasilia to me. They have all explained it

differently, but I think parts of this might be true: The city was founded in 1960 to draw people away from the coast (Rio) and to make the capital of Brazil a more popular place to be. They designed it like an airplane and once you know the numbers and patterns, its pretty simple to find your way around.

Since it is the capital, last weekend I got to see the “President’s Palace.” I was hoping for a building that looked like it came from a Disney movie, but this place was still impressive, I guess… (dream big… TIU). They also have these guards by all of the important buildings in the city. It’s apparently a high honor to be chosen as a guard, but if I were a young boy, I would definitely rather dream of being the next Pele(soccer star...duh), Andreas Pavel (Inventor of the walkman), or to follow in the footsteps of some other famous Brazilian!

Me and Janelle (daughter of my host family and student at BIS)

President's Palace... almost like the palace from Aladdin!

From there, we went to the TV tower. This is the tallest building in Brasilia, so they let people go up and get a great view of the entire city. It’s Brasilia’s version of the "sky

deck" at the Willis tower in Chicago with a few little

differences:

1. 1. It is barely enclosed

2. 2. There’s one elevator that fits 10 comfortably but 20 rather uncomfortably and sounds like it’s about to crash through the earth at any point

3. You can in fact spit over the edge (don't worry mom, I didn't do it)

From the tower, we could see one of the Stadiums for the 2014 World Cup (hosted by Brazil) being built.

Just yesterday, we went kayaking (or “cayaque”) on one of the major lakes, “Lago Sul” (the south lake). Because of all of the big boats going by, I got in a little surfing on my kayak also. One very famous landmark in Brazil is the JK bridge which was right next to where we were kayaking. It was probably 80 and very sunny, so I got to get my tan on. Oh yeaaa! J I was also VERY tempted to join one of the many pick up games of soccer going on, but decided against it so that I wouldn't shoot down any of the dreams of the many Brazilian natives who dream of one day being as famous as Pele or Ronaldinho.

The lay of the land

So far, the weather here has been just glorious. It rains off and on, but when it isn't raining I get my tan on! This past weekend, I was able to go and see some landmarks and interesting places in Brasilia (I'm still working on pictures). One VERY unique thing here in Brasilia... every Sunday they shut down the major road that goes all the way through brasilia (kind of like their express way from one end of the city to the other) and have it open for people to run, walk, ride their bike, rollerblade, long board, etc. I started thinking about what it would be like to shut down 294 every sunday for all us Americans to get in a workout. :)

Yesterday was my first official day at Brasilia International School (BIS). I was placed in a 5th and 6th grade classroom in which I am already enjoying oh so so much! BIS is a PreK-12 school and has about 80 total students, most of which are children of Ambassadors, Missionaries, and Teachers from around the world. This morning was quite an experience just watching all of these tiny kids being chauffeured around in government vehicles. #jealous?

I've also been able to try a very wide variety of fruits and vegetables (prepared in ways that I've never even heard of)... I have yet to be disappointed.

I'm in Brazilllllllll!

After 24 hours of traveling, one missed flight, 3 snoring traveling neighbors, one lost piece of luggage, and with the help of two very kind Brazilian women, I made it to Brasilia! Some great things about Brazil so far:

1. they don't make you take your shoes off when you go through security... this was extra exciting because I realized that I put on 2 different socks when I left Chicago on Thursday morning.

2. Homemade ice cream is a normal dessert to have daily after dinner.

3. Its 72 degrees right now, and it's 10pm.

Some no so great things about Brazil:

1. Apparently someone on the airport staff is a fan of ultra touristy- american flag- genuine leather- FANNY PACKS. One of my bags got lost going from new York to Rio. When it was dropped off this evening, it was clearly "searched" and a few things, including the fanny-pack,(which I got as a gift to make sure everyone here knew I was from the US) were missing. :(

2. For some reason, when I go on the internet here, my computer automatically thinks I speak portuguese, so every website I go to is a mini lesson in the portuguese language.

I think blogs are lame, but my mom convinced me to make one

As many of you know, I'm getting ready to venture to the great country of BRAZIL (or as the spanish soccer channels say, bre-seel) in just a few days! Quite a few people have been asking about how to contact me while I'm there or keep in touch about my experiences so I decided this would be the best way!

Also in preparation, I have been encouraged by many to look into this new country and do some research before I get there. Here are some of the most important things that I found. If you have any other tips, PLEASE feel free to send them my way!

-Brazil is home to the widest road in the world (160 cars can drive side by side all at once).

- Brazil has more species of monkeys than any other country.

-Their currency has both horizontal and vertical pictures.

- The popular superfood, acai berry is grown in Brazil. (Kelsey-yes I'll bring some home so we can make more diet pills)

- Brazil has won the World Cup 5 times (more than any other country).

-Brazil has the 9th largest population of millionaires.

All that being said, I am so so so excited to see how God will work everything out. With less than 3 days leading up to probably one of the scariest things I've done in my life, there are still countless things that are up in the air.... It's a good thing we have a God who knows a lot more than we do. One verse that has been especially meaningful to me over these last few months is Proverbs 16:9. There are so many things that are unknown in our lives that we will encounter, but sometimes we just have to try to figure it out as best we can, then give it up for God to work out the rest...
"In their hearts, humans plan their course,

but the Lord determines their steps." -Proverbs 16:9