The Senses

Hello world of people who care about us!

Thanks for reading by the way, and thanks for your comments. It's extremely (overly?) exciting for us to find there is a new comment on our blog...it makes us feel loved.

So, one of my dear friends wrote me an email asking about what we are eating, what it smells like, what it sounds like, etc, etc...so here it is...THE SENSES Blog...

I am writing this from our apartment. It's 8 am and there is a sweet ocean breeze flowing through the room. Lane just returned home from his morning run dripping with sweat. I "slept in" till 7.
We can almost constantly hear cars zooming by in the distance on their way to the beach, and just in case we EVER forget we are Brazil, there is the occasional "stereo truck" to remind us where we are. Picture it... a truck covered in huge speakers which creeps slowly through neighborhoods sporting a guy on a microphone making live, um, "announcements" of sorts, yelling at us, really. It's ridiculously loud, and we often comment about how long that would fly in Portland (ha!), where even the silent IKEA display trucks seem slightly offensive to our advertising sensitive selves! Here...it's just part of life. And on Sundays, if we are lucky, we can catch a glimpse of the old man who, wearing a full suit, hat and sunglasses (it's like, 95 degrees mind you), walks slowly down the streets pushing a "stereo cart"....seems he is spreading the word of god REALLY loud through REALLY bad speakers. Never a dull moment.

On to food...we are consuming a year's worth of tropical fruit in our four months here, getting it while it's cheap, ripe and local. If we only had a compost pile! We are also getting our fill of "agua de cocos," hands down, the most perfect thirst quenching beverage around. And on our tiny burners in our tiny kitchen, Lane is quite good at cooking beans, eggs, and newly on the scene...grilled cheese. Unfortunately, I still burn most things... When we venture OUT to eat, it usually involves carefully choosing items off a "self service" buffet. At the end of the line, we weigh our plates of food and pay by the kilo. Before we knew any better, we had some shocking moments at the scale, wide eyed, with bowls full of REALLY expensive ice cream and sushi! Of course now we are savvy buffet diners...choosing "lightly." All in all, the most plentiful and easily available food items involve meat, bread and sugar. Yikes! The exact items I usually try and avoid.

Which leads me to tell you about my latest love of....AEROBICS! Yes, it's true, I came all the way to beautiful exotic Brazil, and what did I do? I joined the gym!! To be honest, it has been my saving grace on multiple levels. My nightly trips to the land of spandex and techno music are not only keeping me healthy, but they are giving me something to DO when Lane disappears to his teacher's house most evenings. Can you picture me? Yes, I'm the tall gringa in the back trying to keep up with the Brazilian ladies as the teacher shouts out commands in Portuguese, competing of course with the SUPER loud (it's a theme here) American music. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" set to techno beats?? What! I love it and the whole scene makes me laugh. I usually do about three classes every night, some combination of step aerobics, yoga, "super shape," "super mix" "aero fight," and possibly the most hilarious...the mini trampoline class. Happily, I've made a couple of "friends" there who graciously listen to me as I attempt to communicate in Portuguese. It's sweet.

Was that a detour from "the senses?" Maybe not.

On to the weather!!! I'm SENSING that the weather here in Brazil in shifting. Just like it is starting to feel like Spring in Portland (I hear), it is starting to feel like a Brazilian version of Fall. It can no longer be assumed that every day will be endlessly sunny and overly hot. In fact, it's quite cloudy at the moment, and feels like it just might rain. Yay! (I'm such a Portlander). But seriously, the shift to slightly cooler temperatures and the occasional tropical downpour is just fine with me and my perpetually sunburned skin.

To end, another slight detour from the senses theme, but a good story none the less. Yesterday we were invited to volunteer at a publicly funded (they are rare) language school. We were enthusiastically greeted by Fatima, the teacher, and led into a stark windowless classroom. There, we found about ten ladies, ages ranging from 20ish to 60ish, sitting nervously in their desks. We sat up front with the teacher and were prompted to...."speak English". OK, I can do this! Eventually, the slight awkwardness of it all wore off, and we got into a flow asking and answering questions about where we were from, our professions (they guessed Lane was a guitar player), our religions (!), and our musical tastes. It was really fun and also extremely rewarding to give something of ourselves back to people here. We are planning to return today and hopefully a few more times before we pack up and move to Salvador (11 days from now...very exciting).

That's all for now folks. Here are some of my latest creations...

rooftop video

Sinking In

Since I last wrote, I have found my groove. The culture shock is wearing off, we are settled in our own sweet space, and my back is almost completely healed. Yay!! My Portuguese is even improving with the help of a three hour group class and a couple of private sessions every week, in addition to my flash cards and constant inquiry of, "Come se diz....(How do you say...). Indeed, I am surrendering to the simplicity of my life here. I typically, wake up shockingly early (5am!) before it's blisteringly hot outside, go running/walking on the beach followed by a swim in the ocean. All this, in the presence of a beautiful sunrise. After our typical breakfast of coffee and papaya, I either go back to sleep (rough life, I know), or practice Portuguese, paint, write, do yoga, lounge around by our rooftop pool, or walk to the fruit market. It is truly a relaxing life we've got going on here. Interestingly, I realize it's my tendency to want to DO MORE, to make some huge difference in the world, to have some amazing journey filled with incredible life changing moments at every turn, so believe it or not, I struggle a little with "just livin' on the beach." However, Lane lovingly reminded me that during these times of worrying or wanting something more/different, I am quite simply, NOT being in the moment. SO true.

So, I'm getting it...slowly. I'm pausing to feel the temperature of the sun on my skin (thank you Cvita), to listen to the waves, and to be thankful for this luxurious chapter in my life. I'm getting over my fears of speaking this language even though I'm terrible (the Brazilians love you for trying, and, hey, I'm good entertainment for them). And again (see by last blog entry), I am finding joy in the details, like the plethora of tiny, perfectly groomed, white fluffy dogs who stroll along with their Brazilian owners on the "boardwalk," as I call it. Who knew?

Here's a bit about the boardwalk...The boardwalk is where I do much of my people watching and strolling. It is basically a wide sidewalk which runs parallel to the ocean, in between the lovely large white beach and the relatively busy road. It's a block from our home. There are restaurants and bars scattered along it serving fish, hamburgers (very popular here), beer and coconut water (personal favorite) to the throngs of bikini wearing Brazilians lounging in plastic chairs stuck in the sand. There are also the required hippies selling their handmade wears and the frequent rolly cart full of fried bread items or ice cream. It's touristy in a "Brazilians on weekend holiday" kind of way, but not very international. We definitely stand out a bit (not too many gringos with dreadlocks here:)) The boardwalk goes on for miles, is lined with palm trees and hotels, and is hands down the local "strip," the gathering place for droves of teenagers, families, beer drinking buddies, scantily clad joggers and the occasional samba band or soccer game. And, for now, it's our strip too.

A few days ago, we were invited to go on a day long drive with our new English friends who I met in my Portuguese class. They live here now and have invested in property up and down the coast. They were great tour guides as they really knew all the great secret spots, AND they were hilarious, AND they insistented upon giving us beer all day long. We had a blast seeing the A-MAAAZE-ING beaches (see pic below) which surround Joao Pessoa. We also discovered that land here is super cheap, like SUPER cheap...hmmm?