Time flies! What have we done since I last wrote? We went to see the 3rd High School Musical movie which the girls love! Good thing it is a musical, because we saw the Portuguese version. American movies are often in English and dubbed in Portuguese. It was an experience anyway! The crowd was very much into it! You’d thought we’d seen it live, by the interaction of the audience!
We also hooked up with some people from the French Embassy and went to visit a rehabilitation preserve for rescued cats in the area. A Brazilian family we had met on a previous weekend trip told us that this was a “must” to see! It was really fun and it is a one-of-a-kind thing in Brazil! We got to go right up to the cages that held the panthers and jaguars. We even got to go in the cage with the ocelots. It’s hard to believe such animals are right around here in the wild! The lady who started it felt sorry for the treatment of a panther she had seen at a zoo. The preserve is on her farm and she went through a lot of Brazilian bureaucracy to get it all set up, but it was really nice! She had some really neat parrots around too!
I survived Halloween at school! The students were very excited to say the least! Bill got to be a part of a school Halloween party for the first time since a child too! We were invited to the American Embassy to go trick-or-treating, so the girls ended up quite a bit of candy! Annie was so excited to get a Three Musketeers, and I was so excited to get a Snickers! The strangest simple little things you seem to miss!
We went to another huge market on the outskirts of Brasilia. I love going to the markets! This one had a lot of food, clothes, toys, and housing goods. Food there was definitely cheaper than here in the city, but you can only bring back so much! We went via Metro. We are getting a feel for the public transportation. The girls think it is so fun!
Some of us from the school have been a little disappointed that we are in a tropical climate and it is so difficult to find a place to swim. People do not swim in the lake here and apartment complexes do not have pools, nor are there hardly any public pools. There are private clubs around the lake, but memberships are very expensive. Most of the students I teach have pools, but I can’t invite my family over! Anyway, our headmaster talked to a club and was able to get a few cheaper memberships for those interested. I don’t know how many pursed the opportunity, but I jumped on it! We spent a day there last weekend. It was wonderful to be able to spend a hot afternoon, approximately 95 degrees, in the water. The club has about six pools, one with a huge slide. The other family that arrived when we did, and lives in the apartment next to us with a girl Annie’s age, also pursued it. So we spent the time there together! That was extra fun for the girls.
Yesterday was another Saturday school day for me. It was a professional development day, the first one. It was moved to a Saturday so that we can have a four day weekend the weekend before Thanksgiving. That Thursday is a Brazilian holiday and we get off Friday because we had this professional development day on a Saturday! Literally since the day we arrived, I have only had one school day off without kids! I am so ready for a break!
Today, my co-teacher, Annie’s teacher, invited us to go to a large national park/reserve on the border of the city. She had a Brazilian friend that drove us there. It has lots of walking trails and two huge mineral water pools. It was nice!
I think our rainy season is beginning! It is supposedly very late in arriving, but the past three or four days, we have had a daily shower, or should I say down-pour! The rains haven’t lasted long, but cool things down temporarily! It has been quite hot lately-in the mid to upper nineties with little to no Kansas breeze! The humidity is increasing also.
The girls are continuing to enjoy Brazil! Courtney thoroughly enjoys her ISS (International Social Studies) class. She tends to interact with the international kids more than the American kids. She just last night told us she wanted to spend her high school summers in Spain and France, be an exchange student, and then return to Brasilia as a teacher some day. That was the first I have ever heard her say she wanted to be a teacher, but I guess that is how she thinks she can make it back here! Annie continues to come out of her shell! Mom always said I was shy until I went to Brazil! Annie is the same way, I don’t know what it is about this country, but she is a new child! She is still best friends with the American girl that came at the same time we did and lives right across the parking lot. That has been a God send!
Both are doing well in school. Courtney has learned lots about computers and has had to do numerous projects on it as well as type quite a bit. Both seem to be learning a little more Portuguese. They had a presentation a couple weeks ago and had to sing several songs they learned in Portuguese. Their teacher teaches a lot with songs. They love it, and are constantly singing the songs! Courtney can hear the language quite well and is constantly asking me, “What’s that mean? What’s that mean?” I wish they could be immersed in a Brazilian school for about a month. Bill on the other hand is trying to learn. As they say, it is more difficult the older you are and he is experiencing the difficulty! I am thankful my Portuguese has come back to me as well as it has, and with the friendliness of the Brazilians, I get to practice it lots!
Ate proxima! Until next time! Connie 
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